Shame on us.
We’re quietly hoping LeAnn Rimes’ Gay Days Weekend performance doesn’t go completely well, if only because her back-up plans sound so entertaining. While Saturday’s show at Orlando’s Parliament House won’t be Rimes’ first appearance at a gay nightclub, it will be the first time the 31-year-old singer performs an entire concert of her numerous dance hits.
“I won’t have a live band around to be able to switch things up as I normally would,” Rimes says. “It’s going to be such a cool experience; there’s very few ‘firsts’ for me. To do something like this is a little nerve-racking. If I screw up I’ll just, like, jump in the audience and crowd-surf or something!”
While Rimes also liked our suggested distraction—bringing hunky husband Eddie Cibrian up on stage and making him take his shirt off—we’re sure nothing will go wrong for the country-crossover artist who was already an experienced singer by the age of nine.
Since then, Rimes has been called many things. In 1997 Grammy voters called her that year’s best new artist, the first country singer and, at only 14, the youngest person ever to win the award. Billboard magazine called her a record-breaker when her hit “How Do I Live” became the longest-running single in Billboard Hot 100 history, spending 69 weeks on the chart. And Rimes has been called…well, any number of things by her husband’s ex-wife Brandi Granville.
But Rimes has never been called a Dance Diva, at least until now. On Friday, June 6, when she appears at Tampa’s Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, she’ll perform a traditional concert with a live band. But on the following day, Saturday—ok, technically Sunday, since the show is slated to start after midnight—she’ll sing live to pre-recorded dance tracks, quite possibly with some muscled male dancers behind her. Rimes admitts that on the very rare occasion she is singing at one in the morning it’s not in concert, and typically comes from having had a little too much to drink with friends.
“Honestly, it’s the first time I’ve ever done a show like this, so you guys are breaking me in!” Rimes says during a recent phone interview, held while the singer was navigating L.A.’s infamous 405. “I’ve never really performed dance tracks live, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to do. It’s basically going to be one big fun show. And I have no idea how it’s going to turn out! I just plan on having a good time!”
Rimes singing career has, in recent years, been overshadowed by seemingly near-constant coverage in the tabloids, which, if they’re to be believed, put Rimes en route to a dentist appointment during her recent Watermark interview. But while Rimes’ success has come primarily from her country hits, she’s also seen remixes of her songs make an impact on the dance club charts as well. An album tracing Rimes’ history of dance remixes hits stores in July. She’s even titled the album Dance Like You Don’t Give A …
“That’s a phrase I like to use,” Rimes says, laughing. “It goes all the way back to ‘How Do I Live’ and ‘Can’t Fight the Moonlight.’ I’m always being asked by, especially my gay fans, to please do a dance record, or put everything on one record. I’ve had several dance hits, but it’s a totally different world for me, and it’s one that I love. One of the reasons we’re doing this show is that eventually I would like to dabble in that more and actually do a dance record. This is me testing the waters a little bit.”
The album will also include remixed material from Rimes’ last album Spitfire, and a new take on “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” from Lady & Gentlemen, her 2011 album of country classics covers.
Speaking of covers, Rimes will be featured on the upcoming album Nashville Outlaws: A Tribute To Mötley Crüe, also slated for release in July.
“I re-did ‘Smoking in the Boys Room,’ and it’s totally my take on it. It’s so bad ass!” Rimes says. Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx apparently agrees. Last month he Tweeted that her version of the song was “fucking killer.”
Also debuting this summer is LeAnn & Eddie, a VH1 reality show depicting Rimes’ life with her husband. The couple’s relationship started while Rimes and Cibrian were working together on a Lifetime movie…and were each married to other people. Rimes said doing the reality show allowed her to work with her husband again while staying close to home, since Cibrian shares custody of his two sons with Granville.
“People have written all of these crazy things about us the last five years,” Rimes says. “It’s time, in a way, to reclaim ‘us.’ It’s very lighthearted. People think we take ourselves so seriously sometimes. Eddie and I always give each other crap, so there’s a lot of humor in the show, which I think is missing in some reality shows. And that’s just our relationship. We’re calling it a docu-com.”
Filming for the show’s first season has wrapped, so, sadly, her Parliament House performance won’t be featured on a very special episode called “LeAnn & Eddie & The Gays.”
“That would be awesome!” Rimes says, laughing, when presented with the idea. “And then we can put Eddie right in the middle of the crowd and see how long it takes for him to get eaten up! He’s already telling me, ‘You’re not bringing me up on stage.’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, I am!’”
If that episode were to be filmed it would no doubt include a discussion of Rimes’ long-support of the LGBT community and for marriage equality. In 2010 Rimes performed with The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, and she’s posed twice for the NOH8 Campaign.
“For me, it’s something I’ve never quite understood; I’ve never understood why people couldn’t love who they wanted to love,” Rimes says. “We live in a country that talks about how we’re all equal, but we don’t live by that. It’s always been very confusing to me. People are people. We all breathe the same, we have the same feelings, hopes, dreams and wishes. It just comes down to being a human being and being able to have the same rights.”
It’s a somewhat unique stance for a country artist to take, so has she received any backlash from the often-conservative county music fan base?
“I really haven’t,” Rimes says. “Maybe sometimes when I’ve posted things on Twitter somebody’s said something really ignorant, and it’s really sad for them. I have a very diverse group of fans, I think, because I’ve been around so long and I’ve dabbled in so many different things, as far as music. I’ve never gotten backlash for that sort of thing, but I’ve never been fearful of it, either.”
MORE INFO
WHO: LeAnn Rimes
WHERE: 9 p.m., Friday, June 6: Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Tampa; 1 a.m. Sunday, June 7, Parliament House Resort
TICKETS: $55 at SeminoleHardRockTampa.com and $30 at ParliamentHouse.com
