Early Life
Messina was born Jo Dee Marie Messina on August 25, 1970, in Framingham, Massachusetts to Vincent and Mary Messina. Her father was of Italian descent and her mother was of Irish descent. She was raised in Holliston, Massachusetts, with two sisters, Terese and Marianne, and a brother, Vincent. Messina had a variety of country music influences, including Patsy Cline, Reba McEntire, and The Judds. She soon started performing live, and by age 16 she was playing local clubs, singing while her brother and one sister provided backup on drums and guitar. The group continued performing until she graduated from high school.
Realizing that living in the Northeast would limit her chances of achieving country music stardom, Messina moved to Nashville, Tennessee at age 19. She worked various temp jobs, including computer programming and accounting, while entering talent contests around Nashville.
One win led to a regular gig on the radio show Live at Libby's, which caught the interest of producer Byron Gallimore, who helped her assemble a demonstration tape. Gallimore was also working with the young Tim McGraw around the same time, and Messina befriended him. Backstage at one of his concerts, Messina met an executive from his label, Curb, and jokingly suggested that they needed a redhead. With the help of fellow Curb producer James Stroud, Messina was soon signed to the record label. Gallimore and McGraw would later become co-producers of Messina's studio albums under Curb.
Read more about this topic: Jo Dee Messina
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed
And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night,
I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“San Francisco is where gay fantasies come true, and the problem the city presents is whether, after all, we wanted these particular dreams to be fulfilled—or would we have preferred others? Did we know what price these dreams would exact? Did we anticipate the ways in which, vivid and continuous, they would unsuit us for the business of daily life? Or should our notion of daily life itself be transformed?”
—Edmund White (b. 1940)