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Redneck Woman: Stories from My Life
A "New York Times" bestseller, this memoir recounts an all-American success story, as Gretchen Wilson shares her childhood memories, her exploits along the road to the top, inspirations, fashion preferences, and more, in an open, honest, and hilarious memoir that will enchant new and old fans alike.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
May 22, 2022
This is a hard one to review.
It is a good story of a country music singer's rise from rural Illinois to Nashville fame. Wilson does not pull any punches - this covers difficult topics like domestic abuse and alcoholism. She quit school after the 8th grade. She drank herself into blackouts. The author could have gone down the rabbit hole of so many others. But instead, through a combination of good friends and family members and her own integral grit, she overcame these handicaps to become a CMA award winning artist and songwriter. So there's that.
However, the book suffered from *so many* deficiencies. She had a co-writer / ghost writer to assist and the book was written on such a basic level that I'm left to wonder just exactly what parts he assisted with and/or how bad his *other* books (and he has several) are. Was he a friend getting a job from the author? How did this guy get this assignment? There are numerous grammar and spelling issues within the book. Where is the editor? And the proofreader? Were they off the day this passed through the publisher? I also objected to the terrible generalizations that the author makes. She concludes time after time that because *she* did something, everyone did. Perhaps everyone she knew did, but her experiences are by no means universal. For example, she states (about underage drinking):
The drinking age in Illinois was twenty-one, but back then no kids there, like no kids anywhere, waited until their twenty-first birthday to knock back a Bud, or a dozen Buds, in the same way they didn't wait until sixteen to learn to drive a truck."
It was a great story - as she states "a long, strange journey from a Patsy Cline song playing on my grandma's record player back in Greenville, Illinois, to a Patsy Cline song on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry". It's great to see someone succeed. As she summarizes, "she's doing the best she can with what life has given her" - true for all those from humble beginnings. But in the end, the deficiencies detracted from the great story.
It is a good story of a country music singer's rise from rural Illinois to Nashville fame. Wilson does not pull any punches - this covers difficult topics like domestic abuse and alcoholism. She quit school after the 8th grade. She drank herself into blackouts. The author could have gone down the rabbit hole of so many others. But instead, through a combination of good friends and family members and her own integral grit, she overcame these handicaps to become a CMA award winning artist and songwriter. So there's that.
However, the book suffered from *so many* deficiencies. She had a co-writer / ghost writer to assist and the book was written on such a basic level that I'm left to wonder just exactly what parts he assisted with and/or how bad his *other* books (and he has several) are. Was he a friend getting a job from the author? How did this guy get this assignment? There are numerous grammar and spelling issues within the book. Where is the editor? And the proofreader? Were they off the day this passed through the publisher? I also objected to the terrible generalizations that the author makes. She concludes time after time that because *she* did something, everyone did. Perhaps everyone she knew did, but her experiences are by no means universal. For example, she states (about underage drinking):
The drinking age in Illinois was twenty-one, but back then no kids there, like no kids anywhere, waited until their twenty-first birthday to knock back a Bud, or a dozen Buds, in the same way they didn't wait until sixteen to learn to drive a truck."
It was a great story - as she states "a long, strange journey from a Patsy Cline song playing on my grandma's record player back in Greenville, Illinois, to a Patsy Cline song on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry". It's great to see someone succeed. As she summarizes, "she's doing the best she can with what life has given her" - true for all those from humble beginnings. But in the end, the deficiencies detracted from the great story.
August 12, 2011
Very very good book. She had a horrible childhood and a rough life..... so glad I bought it... truly was a good book.
November 2, 2015
I like her, but what's happened? Is she even still singing or writing???
December 27, 2025
Such an incredible and inspiring story!!!
June 25, 2014
Wilson insists that she wrote this to inspire other redneck women and show how she admires them. She covers her family background, from her birth to a sixteen-year-old mother, to moving back and forth from Miami to Southern Illinois seemingly hundreds of times, to her move to Nashville. She throws in names of relatives who supposedly influenced her, but there are so many and so few are given memorable character traits that by the end of the book my head was just spinning with who was who. The only relatives Wilson truly lets her reader see are her grandparents and especially her grandmother, Frances.
Altogether the writing style is confused and repetitive. Wilson feels the need to explain everything, leaving no room for irony and expecting little intelligence from the reader. The cursing throughout adds nothing to the text. Though I did find Wilson's perspective of her grandmother and her reverence for the elderly woman touching - and her many fans will find much of interest in Redneck Woman - my main feeling after reading this autobiography is that its subject would do better to stick to singing.
Altogether the writing style is confused and repetitive. Wilson feels the need to explain everything, leaving no room for irony and expecting little intelligence from the reader. The cursing throughout adds nothing to the text. Though I did find Wilson's perspective of her grandmother and her reverence for the elderly woman touching - and her many fans will find much of interest in Redneck Woman - my main feeling after reading this autobiography is that its subject would do better to stick to singing.
April 7, 2021
An excellent book; Hillbilly bildungsroman of an earthy woman
Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2019
This is a brilliant book. In part: a Hillbilly Bildungsroman. In part: the chronicle of a person building a career. In part: a pop philosophical text.
It sat on my shelf for about 5 years before I decided to get it read so as to make some space for something new.
I think that this book is probably the only one of its kind (that combines the conveyance of the life of Appalachian people with a person's rise to stardom).
Of the Appalachian life there have been books written, such as "Hillbilly Elegy."
But, I think that this book does an even better job bringing the idea across even than the aforementioned JD Vance book.
Of the trip to fame: there have been SO many songs written about this topic
"On Broadway." George Benson. "Rhinestone Cowboy." Glen Campbell. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." Elton John. "The Entertainer / Piano Man." Billy Joel.
"Midnight Train To Georgia." Gladys Knight.
This story seems to be a book-length treatment of all of those songs, and more; Nothing that this entertainer writes is inconsistent with the experiences of those singers.
In the same way that the songs above on the topic ended up being hits/good songs, because people were singing about something that they knew to be real-- this book length treatment of the same is a good read, and it has mass because all of it is real.
About how the road to becoming a non-manufactured star is filled with lots of gigging, demo singing and pick up bands and many years of failure.
About how most people who start up in the business don't make any money or succeed.
About the fate of all of those unsuccessful people. (And if it weren't for her movie star looks, the author probably would have been just one more among many.)
Of the book:
The prose is extremely easy and pleasant to read.
The whole book could probably be finished in a couple of afternoons of reading time come and it's also extremely pithy. (I can't tell if that was the voice of the writer or the celebrity.)
Of the life of Appalachian people, I have worked with so many people who live in a trailer. And I have passed through so many hick towns where there is nothing there, (and no reason to stop).
But there are people there, and they livetheir own life--albeit much different to the life that we live.
The author comes across as an extremely earthy woman, and she makes it a point to say that she is not any different from any of these other hundreds of thousands of people who grew up in a trailer park. A Kim Kardashian or a Paris Hilton she is not. (Although, she is quite a nice looking girl.)
It has been said that the reason that a lot of black Americans are the way that they are is because they lived for hundreds of years around people like this. (And that case was made eloquently by Thomas Sowell in his book "Black Rednecks and White Liberals.")
I am a little bit more convinced of his thesis after reading this book. Massive cultural overlap.
Hot tempers.
Multiple baby daddies.
Low-skilled work.
General squalor.
Verdict: Recommended.
Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2019
This is a brilliant book. In part: a Hillbilly Bildungsroman. In part: the chronicle of a person building a career. In part: a pop philosophical text.
It sat on my shelf for about 5 years before I decided to get it read so as to make some space for something new.
I think that this book is probably the only one of its kind (that combines the conveyance of the life of Appalachian people with a person's rise to stardom).
Of the Appalachian life there have been books written, such as "Hillbilly Elegy."
But, I think that this book does an even better job bringing the idea across even than the aforementioned JD Vance book.
Of the trip to fame: there have been SO many songs written about this topic
"On Broadway." George Benson. "Rhinestone Cowboy." Glen Campbell. "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." Elton John. "The Entertainer / Piano Man." Billy Joel.
"Midnight Train To Georgia." Gladys Knight.
This story seems to be a book-length treatment of all of those songs, and more; Nothing that this entertainer writes is inconsistent with the experiences of those singers.
In the same way that the songs above on the topic ended up being hits/good songs, because people were singing about something that they knew to be real-- this book length treatment of the same is a good read, and it has mass because all of it is real.
About how the road to becoming a non-manufactured star is filled with lots of gigging, demo singing and pick up bands and many years of failure.
About how most people who start up in the business don't make any money or succeed.
About the fate of all of those unsuccessful people. (And if it weren't for her movie star looks, the author probably would have been just one more among many.)
Of the book:
The prose is extremely easy and pleasant to read.
The whole book could probably be finished in a couple of afternoons of reading time come and it's also extremely pithy. (I can't tell if that was the voice of the writer or the celebrity.)
Of the life of Appalachian people, I have worked with so many people who live in a trailer. And I have passed through so many hick towns where there is nothing there, (and no reason to stop).
But there are people there, and they livetheir own life--albeit much different to the life that we live.
The author comes across as an extremely earthy woman, and she makes it a point to say that she is not any different from any of these other hundreds of thousands of people who grew up in a trailer park. A Kim Kardashian or a Paris Hilton she is not. (Although, she is quite a nice looking girl.)
It has been said that the reason that a lot of black Americans are the way that they are is because they lived for hundreds of years around people like this. (And that case was made eloquently by Thomas Sowell in his book "Black Rednecks and White Liberals.")
I am a little bit more convinced of his thesis after reading this book. Massive cultural overlap.
Hot tempers.
Multiple baby daddies.
Low-skilled work.
General squalor.
Verdict: Recommended.
October 30, 2020
Okay, I didn't even know about this woman until I saw this book. Sadly, the CD that comes with my library copy is now unplayable, so I went to Youtube to here her, so I read this with no expectations.
I liked this--nothing brilliant, but interesting, and while she has struggled with alcohol there was no drug promoting talk (like a couple of memoirs I have read from older country stars) and when she wrote about her hard childhood it was interesting, sad, but not over the top.
One of the things I learned about is Muzik Mafia (mafia standing for Musically Artistic Friends in Alliance), which is one of the big things that helped her prior to her career suddenly taking off. I also learned of a rapping black country singer with the stage name Cowboy Troy, so I listened to a couple of his songs--who knew that rap could mix with country music like that? Not me, obviously.
The thing I respected most about her, based on her book for the most part, but also when I googled her I learned she took 3 years off from her tour to rest and spend more time with this person, is her love for her daughter, Grace, and how dedicated she was to trying to give her a stable home environment. What I wasn't impressed with didn't come up in the book, but was a news story from a couple of years ago.
I liked this--nothing brilliant, but interesting, and while she has struggled with alcohol there was no drug promoting talk (like a couple of memoirs I have read from older country stars) and when she wrote about her hard childhood it was interesting, sad, but not over the top.
One of the things I learned about is Muzik Mafia (mafia standing for Musically Artistic Friends in Alliance), which is one of the big things that helped her prior to her career suddenly taking off. I also learned of a rapping black country singer with the stage name Cowboy Troy, so I listened to a couple of his songs--who knew that rap could mix with country music like that? Not me, obviously.
The thing I respected most about her, based on her book for the most part, but also when I googled her I learned she took 3 years off from her tour to rest and spend more time with this person, is her love for her daughter, Grace, and how dedicated she was to trying to give her a stable home environment. What I wasn't impressed with didn't come up in the book, but was a news story from a couple of years ago.
October 22, 2023
My husband read her book first then had me read it. I was glad I did. Her story is one of hardship. What I like is she doesn't blame anyone. It's the way that it is (life) and one that I could relate to at times with being an author myself. That girl had many struggles growing up. Life wasn't easy, but she persevered and became a successful country singer. Kudos to her. I wish her the best.
January 13, 2025
My mom grew up in a town over from where Gretchen Wilson grew up which is about an hour from where I live now. It was really cool seeing her talk about places I have been. I wish it was longer and went more in depth about her adult life but other than that it was a fun quick read.
April 12, 2020
Really enjoyed, warts and all. It’s far from perfect or well written, but unforgettable and real as hell!
April 10, 2024
A great book if you like Gretchen Wilson.
June 18, 2024
Easy to read, no-nonsense version of Gretchen’s life. Gives me new-found respect for her, a simple country girl just doing what she loves. 💗
March 2, 2025
Enjoyable and relatable.
March 8, 2015
Let's start with the positive... this was an unexpected read for me. I picked it up at a "Friends of the Library" sale and it looked interesting. And it WAS a very fast read (less than a day to finish). The small parts about the Grandparents of Gretchen Wilson were interesting. Her poor, poor Grandmother. I just wanted to go back in time and save her! I also loved reading about some of the many bars and night clubs I've spent time at, like Pops in Sauget, IL. Being a St. Louis girl, myself, I identified with so many of the places she talks about as well as the attitudes and personalities of Midwestern women. I love that she's a true success story and that she mentions in the last chapter that if it all went away today, she could go back to where she came from... just maybe not being a bartender. I love that she (at least at the time this book was written in '06) was employing many extended family members to work on her farm... taking them out of what was almost a certain poverty level. I'm impressed with the woman... NOT the book.
The book... Ugh. First of all, WHO edited this Warner Brothers book? Because I'm pretty sure my 6 year old niece would have done a better job! I lost count of all the typos and misused words. Maybe it's just me but if you're going to publish a book and hardworking people are going to spend their $ on your book, shouldn't we expect a certain level of professionalism? But that's not her fault. She admits to dropping out of school when she was 15. She should have been able to trust her editor and publisher. I felt like I wrote a better paper in high school as compared to the writing in "Redneck Woman". I was annoyed. Another major issue of mine was that, other than Gretchen's neighbor Diane Jackson and her 2 trailers which were welded together and Gretchen's grandparents, I couldn't identify with any of the characters. I wish she would have spent more time talking about her colorful childhood and her hometown. THAT'S when I turned pages the quickest. The very drawn out and scattered description of her music career was too confusing. I feel like she didn't want to get too personal. However, she does admit that talking isn't her strong point. She also says that she was still struggling with (as a song writer) that people would really want to know about her "boring" life. Well Ms. Wilson, it's not a boring life. Your story could have been told in so much more a colorful way.
So yeah. I'll probably not be recommending this one. But I do love to hear her sing!
The book... Ugh. First of all, WHO edited this Warner Brothers book? Because I'm pretty sure my 6 year old niece would have done a better job! I lost count of all the typos and misused words. Maybe it's just me but if you're going to publish a book and hardworking people are going to spend their $ on your book, shouldn't we expect a certain level of professionalism? But that's not her fault. She admits to dropping out of school when she was 15. She should have been able to trust her editor and publisher. I felt like I wrote a better paper in high school as compared to the writing in "Redneck Woman". I was annoyed. Another major issue of mine was that, other than Gretchen's neighbor Diane Jackson and her 2 trailers which were welded together and Gretchen's grandparents, I couldn't identify with any of the characters. I wish she would have spent more time talking about her colorful childhood and her hometown. THAT'S when I turned pages the quickest. The very drawn out and scattered description of her music career was too confusing. I feel like she didn't want to get too personal. However, she does admit that talking isn't her strong point. She also says that she was still struggling with (as a song writer) that people would really want to know about her "boring" life. Well Ms. Wilson, it's not a boring life. Your story could have been told in so much more a colorful way.
So yeah. I'll probably not be recommending this one. But I do love to hear her sing!
January 7, 2011
Picked this up at a used book sale a few months ago and read it during my workouts at the gym, as I have with the autobiographies of Reba, Lorrie Morgan, and TV personalities Crook and Chase. The format lends itself well to reading in spurts. Unlike those others, Gretchen Wilson's rise to fame occurred while I was already a country fan, so the parts involving the making and releasing of her albums included a lot of information I already knew because it had come out in interviews she did while on media tours.
Wilson's story is literally a rags-to-riches tale, from a childhood spent moving between Illinois and Florida as her mom and stepdad sought drugs and moneymaking opportunities, to buying a large ranch in Nashville with royalty checks to give her family the stability they never had. Wilson's story could be that of any woman in blue-collar America, came from nothing, struggled to find enough work to pay the bills, participated in adult activities long before adulthood, and trode a thin line between seeing her dreams come true and being married with a trailerful of children and bouncing between minimum wage jobs. However, she admires those 'Redneck Women' and prides herself in being one because to her, it's normal life and deserves to be celebrated.
She is also brutally honest about 'making it' in Nashville, that what seems like overnight success is often a result of years and years of toiling in obscurity. For every singer like her who finds success, there are dozens more in Nashville who are just as talented but haven't been heard by the right executive and are working in some other industry while still holding onto their dreams.
What I enjoyed about this book was that honesty. While Reba and Lorrie both came from families who had some degree of fame and thus there was an audience there to discover them, Gretchen did everything pretty much on her own, and had many low points before her first high point. I could envision more people taking her path to fame than the paths of the others.
Wilson's story is literally a rags-to-riches tale, from a childhood spent moving between Illinois and Florida as her mom and stepdad sought drugs and moneymaking opportunities, to buying a large ranch in Nashville with royalty checks to give her family the stability they never had. Wilson's story could be that of any woman in blue-collar America, came from nothing, struggled to find enough work to pay the bills, participated in adult activities long before adulthood, and trode a thin line between seeing her dreams come true and being married with a trailerful of children and bouncing between minimum wage jobs. However, she admires those 'Redneck Women' and prides herself in being one because to her, it's normal life and deserves to be celebrated.
She is also brutally honest about 'making it' in Nashville, that what seems like overnight success is often a result of years and years of toiling in obscurity. For every singer like her who finds success, there are dozens more in Nashville who are just as talented but haven't been heard by the right executive and are working in some other industry while still holding onto their dreams.
What I enjoyed about this book was that honesty. While Reba and Lorrie both came from families who had some degree of fame and thus there was an audience there to discover them, Gretchen did everything pretty much on her own, and had many low points before her first high point. I could envision more people taking her path to fame than the paths of the others.
February 24, 2017
Loved This Book.
July 31, 2016
I don't like to read books about current famous people, but I've been meaning to read this one for a long time now.
Poor Gretchen. I guess I should have read it at the height of her two-year career, because now I'm just worried about her. What IS she doing? Singer, she is. Author, she AIN'T. She said it herself, "The more of yourself you put in the music-warts and all-the greater the chance that the audience will take that music into their own hearts." Well, the same goes for writing. She needed a better ghostwriter, or in the very least, a better editor. What could have been a blaze of glory with many more detailed accounts just fell flat as she tried to work in the names of every person who ever pushed her, & plugs for every song she's got out there. Redneck Woman the book is lacking depth, heart, & soul. Redneck Woman the person has a much more vibrant story to tell, I just know it. The only person I got a true picture of was her grandmother who worked like a mule & just wanted to give her dog a spa day. C'mon, GW, give the rednecks what they want---meat & taters!!!
Poor Gretchen. I guess I should have read it at the height of her two-year career, because now I'm just worried about her. What IS she doing? Singer, she is. Author, she AIN'T. She said it herself, "The more of yourself you put in the music-warts and all-the greater the chance that the audience will take that music into their own hearts." Well, the same goes for writing. She needed a better ghostwriter, or in the very least, a better editor. What could have been a blaze of glory with many more detailed accounts just fell flat as she tried to work in the names of every person who ever pushed her, & plugs for every song she's got out there. Redneck Woman the book is lacking depth, heart, & soul. Redneck Woman the person has a much more vibrant story to tell, I just know it. The only person I got a true picture of was her grandmother who worked like a mule & just wanted to give her dog a spa day. C'mon, GW, give the rednecks what they want---meat & taters!!!
April 20, 2008
My general impression was that this book is a shameless plug for her CD with the same title. The chapters were titled after tracks and time and time again she fills passages by inserting lines from her songs. If I wanted to read lyrics I would read the CD booklet. It was interesting to see where she came from but the book did read almost like a "who's most redneck" contest, and she constantly pointed out how hard done by he was, when yes, she moved around a lot, and yes, her father wasn't really in her life...but from reading the synopsis I expected it to be far worse. The woe-is-me tones soon got old and I found myself rolling my eyes every couple of pages. If you can get past the sob story, it is well written and Gretchen is clearly a smart girl, but I think only die-hard fans would get much out of it.
February 23, 2011
I bought this book for my Mother one Christmas who was a huge fan of country music. I picked it up at my Mom's home after she had finished it. It laid around my house for a year. Didn't have anything to read one day, picked it up thinking this is just not my subject. I could not put it down, couldn't stop reading it and loved every single word on every page. Not only is this a great read, it's a true story and Gretchen Wilson now has great respect from me. She may be a "red neck woman" but boy has she worked very hard within very difficult life's circumstances and just came out on top. If she came out with another book I'd be standing in line to buy it on the first day of release. If you like reading about people's lives you'll love this one even if you aren't a country music fan.
May 19, 2011
This was an amazing book. She goes into great detail about how hard her whole life was. Gretchen had very hard life. Then when she got to Nashville her singing career did not just happen over night. She played in a few different little bands. She tended a bar at a very early age at Big O's in Pocahontas Illinois. That is her hometown. She moved to Nashville and kept tending bar and singing with these little bands. She was an alcoholic. She attended AA meetings and overcame that. Later on she had a baby girl. Her name is Grace. It was just a great book. I am a TRUE COUNTRY fan. And I can relate to Gretchen in a lot of the things she talked about in her book. I strongly recommend this book. It is great.
Currently reading
December 9, 2010Right now I am reading this book. From what I have read already it seems like a really good book. What i have read so far I have read about how her mother was a single mom and how she was very poor.They lived in a one room shack. I have also read that when she went yo her first recording. She said she was so scared and as she was standing there singing watching the man she said she saw him write the letters "NO", at that piont she lost hope and when she walked out her boss showed her the papper and it said "NOW". She was so relieved that it said what it said instead of it saying "NO". So that is what I have read so far.
February 1, 2016
I bought this book on accident (my two year old tossed it in the cart), I love her music and I must say I liked her book quite a bit, it was a easy/good read, and it is definitely something I will be keeping. She really tells it like it is without any added frills. I would most definitely recommend this to anyone who likes bios and anyone who likes her music.
July 9, 2008
Horrible writing - I am trying to force myself to continue reading. She did have an awful life, but I did expect a better conveyed story since it was co-written with someone else. What was I expecting? A prize winning autobiography? Probably.
This book will be given away when I am finished with it. At least I only paid $4 for it at Building 19 3/4.
This book will be given away when I am finished with it. At least I only paid $4 for it at Building 19 3/4.
May 21, 2011
I learned a new definition for redneck in this book (didn't know rednecks could come from Illinois!) and enjoyed hearing about Gretchen Wilson's life. She brought a unique perspective and it was also interesting to learn about the country music business and how most country singers progress and do their "time" in order to get to the top. An easy read and worthwhile.
May 10, 2012
Started kind of slow, then picked up some. I don't know why I'm so interested in female singers biographies, but I've read quite a few. Maybe because I cannot sing myself & always thought it was an amazing talent to have.
Gretchen Wilson is a real character & stays true to herself.
Gretchen Wilson is a real character & stays true to herself.
October 2, 2014
Informative book chronicling the life of Gretchen Wilson, and how she got her start. Full of imagery that makes you smile and know exactly what you are reading even if you didn’t experience it yourself.
October 23, 2007
A good autobiography. It's interesting to hear where she came from and what she had to do to get where she is now. Definately makes her more real!
July 16, 2008
Good book. I like to read about rags to riches true stories.
October 2, 2008
This was a pretty good book. I enjoyed it. It makes you realize even though some people become famous, they are still just human beings like the rest of us.
January 9, 2009
Maybe I'm a bit biased but I loved it....read it a couple times!!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews