Pam Tillis

Pamela Yvonne Tillis (born July 24, 1957) is an American country music singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress.

She is a daughter of country music singer and songwriter Mel Tillis and ex-wife of songwriter Bob DiPiero.

Pamela Yvonne Tillis was born July 24, 1957, in Plant City, Florida.

She is the oldest of five children to country singer Mel Tillis and his wife, Doris.

Because of her father being a country musician, she spent most of her early life in Nashville, Tennessee.

When she was eight, her father invited her to sing "Tom Dooley" onstage at the Grand Ole Opry.

She also began taking piano lessons at this age, and taught herself how to play guitar by age 12.

At age 16, she was nearly killed in a car accident.

She underwent five years of surgery, including facial reconstruction.

Pam described her relationship with her father as "strict", and that she often felt "alienated" from him.

She also stated that her father disapproved of her musical interests at the time, which included Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles.

Tillis enrolled at the University of Tennessee, where she performed in two different groups - a jug band called the High Country Swing Band, and a folk duo with Ashley Cleveland.

She dropped out of college in 1976 and moved to San Francisco, California.

There, she founded a band called Freelight, which played jazz and rock.

Tillis also sold Avon products for additional income.

She briefly worked as a backing vocalist in her father's road band, but later quit this role over creative differences.

Mel also hired her to work at his publishing company, which led to her writing Barbara Fairchild's 1978 single "The Other Side of the Morning".

Tillis recorded unsuccessful pop material for Elektra and Warner Records in the 1980s before shifting to country music.

Despite this, she sang backup on his 1980 hit "Your Body Is an Outlaw".

In 1981, Tillis signed her first recording contract with Elektra Records.

The label released her debut single "Every Home Should Have One" that same year.

Unlike her later music, "Every Home Should Have One" was a disco song.

While this was her only release for Elektra, she remained with its parent company, Warner Records.

The latter label released her debut album in 1983 called Above and Beyond the Doll of Cutey.

The album was co-produced by Dixie Gamble, then-wife of record producer Jimmy Bowen.

Assisting her was the production team Jolly Hills Productions, which included session musicians Josh Leo and Craig Krampf.

Above and Beyond the Doll of Cutey featured the singles "Killer Comfort" and "Love Is Sneakin' Up on You".

While neither single charted, the former received a music video that aired on MTV.

Kevin John Coyne of Country Universe rated the album two stars out of five, stating that "Pam Tillis, even in her early days, is a smart songwriter with cutting insights on the human experience. To try and make her a carefree New Wave pop star is to undermine what makes her special in the first place."

In 1989, she signed with Arista Nashville, entering top-40 on Hot Country Songs for the first time with "Don't Tell Me What to Do" in 1990.

This was the first of five singles from her breakthrough album Put Yourself in My Place.

Her albums Homeward Looking Angel (1992), Sweetheart's Dance (1994), and Greatest Hits (1997) are all certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, while Put Yourself in My Place and 1995's All of This Love are certified gold.

She charted 12 top-10 hits on the Billboard country music charts while on Arista, including the number-one "Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life)" in 1995.

Her other top-10 hits include her signature song "Maybe It Was Memphis", and "Shake the Sugar Tree", "Spilled Perfume", a cover of Jackie DeShannon's "When You Walk in the Room", and "All the Good Ones Are Gone".

She has won two major awards: a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals in 1999 for the multiple-artist collaboration "Same Old Train", and the 1994 Country Music Association award for Female Vocalist of the Year.

In 2000, she was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry.

In addition to her own work, Tillis has written songs for Barbara Fairchild, Juice Newton, and Highway 101, among others.

Tillis's music style is defined by her singing voice, along with her influences of country, pop, and jazz.

Tillis recorded five more albums for Arista Nashville between then and 2001, plus a greatest hits album.

After exiting Arista, Tillis released It's All Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis for Lucky Dog Records in 2002, and RhineStoned and the Christmas album Just in Time for Christmas on her own Stellar Cat label in 2007.