This year will mark 25 years since Deana Carter released her famous single, “Strawberry Wine,” which topped the charts in 1996 and has been her signature song ever since. On episode #276 of his podcast, the BobbyCast, Bobby Bones chatted with Carter over the phone about the background of the song and its success.
The two began by going a bit into Carter’s background, including how she was a bartender in college while working towards a career as a rehabilitation therapist before pursuing music. Although she was pursuing a different career, she believed she had a future in entertainment, but she didn’t expect it to be music.
“I knew in my heart that I had some kind of calling in entertainment, and honestly, I thought it was going to be television or acting or something because I had done a lot of that in high school and in my college years,” she said.
Although she didn’t see herself in music at first, Carter soon started writing her own songs and working toward being a singer in Nashville. In her early days, she came into contact with many young artists who went on to be successful in the country industry, such as Kenny Chesney and producer Jay Joyce. Carter said she worked on her debut album, Did I Shave My Legs For This?, for about five years, and after its release in 1995, she saw a very positive response.
“When the lighters started going up at these arenas, that’s when I was like, ‘What?’” she said. “And they weren’t just singing ‘Strawberry Wine,’ they were singing the record, because we saved ‘Strawberry Wine’ for the end. When we’d come out, they would sing the whole thing.”
“Strawberry Wine” was clearly breakout hit of the album, and Carter is still amazed at its impact 25 years later.
“I still, to this day, never dreamed, and I’ll be honest, that it would have the longevity that it’s had,” she says. “It’s on recurrent radio and it’s like the ‘Stairway To Heaven’ or ‘Freebird,’ this anthem for country music that I’m still blown away that I got to participate in and be a part of because I know that that is a very hard thing to do, and it took a village to make it happen.”
In addition to talking about “Strawberry Wine,” Carter talked about some of the songs she’s written for other artists, like Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter’s “You And Tequila.” She also hinted at a new project coming this year to celebrate the anniversary of the hit. To hear more from Bones and Carter, listen to episode #276 of the BobbyCast.