Reba’s Touching ‘Seven Minutes In Heaven’ For Her Mama

Reba McEntire released her new lifestyle book, Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off Your Boots, today (10/10). The book contains funny, poignant, and deeply personal stories, photos, lifestyle tips, and recipes.

Last week, Reba released a new song and video for the Not That Fancy album that accompanies the new book. The song is called "Seven Minutes In Heaven," and it is a moving tribute to Reba's mother, Jacqueline, who died at the age of 93 in March of 2020.

The lyrics to the new song include, "If I had seven minutes in Heaven / I know just what I'd do / Take a walk down those golden streets / And find a quiet corner booth / I wouldn't spend all my seconds asking God questions / 'Cause He knows I'd be back soon / If I had seven minutes in Heaven / I'd spend them all with you."

In 2015, Reba released a song and video to pay tribute to her father, Clark, who passed away in October 2014. That song was called "Just Like Them Horses" and featured Reba's mom, Jacqueline, in the video. I interviewed Reba at the time, and she told me of the video, "It is a tribute to Daddy, but Mamna's the star of the video in my opinion because she was the glue for the family in all our lives. Daddy was always gone rodeoing, and when he was home, he was up in the hills taking care of the cattle. Mama was the glue; she had four kids in five years. She was the one that I really wanted in that video, and so when I got this idea, it was so sweet that she was the one that was coming up to get me on the hill."

She added about the video at the time, "It was a very emotional time, and when something would happen, it was just so beautiful. This is my heritage; this is Reba. Right there, where the horses were running, we were gathering cattle one day, and I walked over a rattlesnake that I thought was a log. And I screamed so loud Daddy rode his horse over and said, 'What is it?' I said, 'It's a rattlesnake," and he said, 'Was he traveling?' I said, 'Yeah,' and he said, 'Well, he wasn't gonna bite ya, get those cattle.' That's where I grew up. I've just been there all my life."

Reba McEntire's songs have been the backbone of country music since the early 1980s. Reba has scored more than 20 number-one hits in her storied career and is considered one of the Queens of Country Music, alongside other Queens like Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn.

In 2024, Reba has outdone herself and now appears on national TV weekly as a coach for NBC's The Voice. In early February of this year (2024), she sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl flawlessly and gracefully. She showed everyone in the world that she still has it as she approaches her 70s, celebrating her 69th birthday today (3/28).

She recently chatted with CMT and shared one of her most embarrassing moments on stage with them. CMT posted the fun interview clip on their Instagram.

In the clip, Reba is asked what her most embarrassing moment was. She quipped, "Oh gosh, how much time do you have?" The country icon recalled, "It was the early '80s, and I was headlining. I was going to make my way to stage right, and blue lights were gonna come on."

She continued, "I was gonna walk back on stage and sing 'Sweet Dreams' acapella. I did not remember this monitor being there on the floor, so when I was shuffling my way off stage right, I shuffled my toes right underneath that monitor and fell over on top of it."

She continued, "I crawled off stage and ripped my britches, but the show must go on so I dusted myself off and put my hand over where I ripped my britches. I came back out and did the song, and nobody knew the difference."

I have interviewed and spent a lot of time with Reba during my career as a country music journalist. Since the 1990s, I have discovered that Reba is a positive and very nice person. When you are around her, you forget she is a music icon because of how genuine and really down-to-earth she is.

In one of my most recent interviews with Reba, I told her about this list and asked what her top five Reba songs were; her response as she used her fingers to count, "' Fancy,' 'Is There Life Out There,' 'I'm A Survivor,' 'Can't Even Get The Blues,' 'Take It Back,' and 'Why Haven't I Heard From You,' that's six and 'Georgia,' ('The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia') 'Georgia' has to be in there too, that's seven."

And yes, "Fancy" would be her number-one song. She offered, "I just love story songs."

To celebrate her 69th birthday today (3/28), we dove deep into Reba's catalog to rate what we think are her 40 best songs.