Trisha Yearwood

I've patterned myself after my musical heroes.

You find what makes you happy, and it's usually being with the person you want to be with.

The first award I ever won was for Best New Artist from the ACMs, so they always will hold a special place in my heart.

I lost my mom to breast cancer about three years ago, and it has changed me forever.

The reality is that you think you're going to have all this time out here, to do all this stuff, and the truth of the matter is, you just don't. If we're on the road, and we stay in the city we're in, I'm going to try to get up in the morning and get a workout in.

I love Southern rock; it's because I grew up on it, and no matter where I am, I'll always be a Georgia girl.

I grew up in Georgia, so I grew up listening to the Allman Brothers.

What I've learned, traveling the country and doing book signings, Mama's biscuits - you know, somebody in Montana's got their version of Mama's biscuits, somebody in California's got their version - so it made me realize that we're not as regionalized as we think we are.

The most important thing I want to get across is that maintaining weight loss is just hard. It takes a dedication to exercise and eating right most of the time.

I'm not saying I don't enjoy the days that I'm not eating chocolate cake. But I do particularly like those days when I am eating chocolate cake.

We play everybody's Christmas records at our house, and sometimes you think, 'I'm not gonna play my own record; I'd be embarrassed.' But I'm gonna play our record this Christmas, because I love the songs!

After 'Real Live Woman,' I wasn't sure I'd ever want to make another record.

If you record a song that you love, then you're going to win.

I have adopted an 80/20 rule when it comes to my delicate relationship with food: 80 percent of the time, I make good choices; 20 percent of the time, I let myself splurge a little.

If you're a painter, you don't go, 'Abstract's really selling, so that's what I'm going to do.' If you're really truly an artist, you have to think what you're meant to paint.

You want to sell records, but if you want to call yourself an artist, your job is how you express yourself.

I don't think you can name one diet I haven't done.

I'd been doing circuit training and Pilates for years, but I was not consistent with food. I'm not a disciplined person. I was indulging all the time.

I get up in the morning. I usually do a radio interview early in the morning. I usually do a book signing, because I'm also a cookbook author, so I'm at some store, at a Walmart or a Williams Sonoma, for three hours, standing up, signing autographs, and taking pictures for three hours.

Before the show, there's about two or two and a half hours of meet and greets with radio stations, promoters, people who I need to see and thank and talk to to make sure they remember me. And then, I get - out of all that day of talking and smiling and shaking hands and getting photos, I get to sing for two hours.

If you're doing this because you feel like you have a burning desire to do it, then you'll find a way to do it, no matter what. If you're doing this because you're thinking, 'Hey, this will be really cool. I'll be famous. I'll be on YouTube,' then you'll probably quit, because it's not easy to do for the long haul.

When people say, 'You seem so grounded; you seem so normal,' I think it's the way I was raised and the way my sister and I were brought up by our parents.

I love cookbooks, and I have a ton. I have shelves of cookbooks.

Potato salad is very personal: everyone makes theirs differently.

You have to focus hard on recording songs that you believe in.

I gotta say, I'm a huge Chris Stapleton fan.

When we got married - almost 10 years ago now - we made a commitment to really be together, which means we hardly ever spend a night apart. And being madly in love is important, but I think it's equally important to be in deep like! I like this guy... we talk about everything, and we laugh a lot. Life is good!

Sometimes, life just gets in the way, and you have to forgive yourself for putting on a few pounds.

I was raised Southern, where every meal had meat on table, but I don't eat that way in life. I've been experimenting with a lot of vegetarian and vegan food.

One thing my mom taught me was that when you're making deviled eggs, flip the eggs over the night before. They've been sitting in the carton as they're transported, so the yolks settle on bottom. If you flip them, then the yolks aren't skewed to one side.

The thing that people have said over and over again, especially people who don't cook, is, 'I watch your show, the food makes me hungry, and I think I can make that.' That's exciting because we've heard that a lot of people watch cooking shows but don't make the food.

One that I know people really like is my Crock-Pot mac and cheese. It's comfort food that's good for Super Bowl parties and easy to make.

I think if I tried to be the stern parent, we would have slipped into Cinderella mode - with me as the evil stepmother!

The kitchen is the heart of our home.

Every health expert tells you to eat breakfast. I had the mentality, 'I'll save those calories!' But then you are starving, and you overeat.

I'm not really a runner. It does not bring me joy. The runner's high thing - I have no idea about that! I especially hate it on a treadmill.

I've been blessed to live a lot of dreams.

I did Scarsdale. I did Weight Watchers. I did Atkins.

I never want to record something that I'm not proud of just because I think it might be a big hit. There's no positive about that because if you record a song you hate and it's a big hit, then you're singing a song every night that you hate. And if you record a song that you hate and it isn't a hit, then you sold out for no reason.

When I was a little girl, I always dreamed of being a country music singer, but I never dreamed I'd be a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

I have to say, I've never been the girl that's had the five-year plan, the 10-year plan, and I'm still not.

I'm just trying to be the next Trisha Yearwood.

I keep in touch with these people who knew me long before I got a record deal.

I have not heard a Martha Stewart album yet. But, you know, it could happen.

You sign your life away, basically, when you sign a record deal, and if you have a platinum album, then you go back in and renegotiate.

Martha Stewart was the one who really did show everybody that you can do everything.

Of course, I want to sell records, and of course I want to get played on radio, but it has to be about making the record that I'm proud of.

If I start trying to make a record for what I think could possibly get played on radio, I'm dead.

I'm as surprised as anybody. I never would have thought I'd be here talking about having a cooking show on the Food Network. It wasn't on my list of things, but it's fun, and I'm having a good time.

I think about food all the time, so making peace with eating is a daily battle for me. I won't say I've completely figured it out, but I will say that right now, I win that battle more days than I lose it, and I believe that's the key.