Nightline Playlist: Trisha Yearwood

Nov. 9, 2007— -- At the age of 5, Trisha Yearwood set a personal goal to have a music career.

Today Yearwood is a two-time winner of the Country Music Association's female vocalist award. She says that listening to her parent's records while growing up helped her understand music better. There were a variety of records in her home from the '50s, and once she heard Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" she was never the same.

"Even at 5 or 6 years old, when I heard that, I was mesmerized," Yearwood said. "I just thought that it was something magical."

Presley was not the only musician that caught Yearwood's attention at an impressionable age. A 13-year-old Yearwood was excited when she heard Linda Ronstadt's "When Will I Be Loved" for the first time.

"It was rock 'n' roll, but it sounded like country music to me, which is what I grew up listening to," Yearwood said. "When I heard her sing, that's when I said, that's what I want to do, that's who I want to be, that's the sound I want to have."

After discovering artists like Ronstadt, Yearwood says it was not long until she began listening to others from that era.

Different artists continued to inspire her as she moved toward her goal of becoming a musician, and her parents continued to assist by providing the records.

"My parents had a record that they had bought when I was a kid, and it was like 21 golden country hits," Yearwood said. "My standout memory of this album is that there were only two women on this album of 20-something artists."

Now looking back, Yearwood has gone beyond her childhood goal. She has won three Grammy Awards, the Academy of Country Music's top female vocalist honor, has been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, and the list continues.

"I've been making records for 16 years, and it feels great to make a record that you can be excited about as you were for the first one," said Yearwood. "There's just a real excitement around the whole thing, and when I hear the album, the word that comes to mind is energy."