(CSC) 1. Thank you so much for your time. It's great to be with you and congratulations on the recent success of your new TV show “I Love Kellie Pickler”. Tell us how the opportunity to film the show presented itself!
(Kellie Pickler) Well, we first were approached by Ryan Seacrest a couple of years ago and he was interested in us shooting a pilot for our sizzle reel for a reality show. And we were all in agreeance that we wanted it to be fun and happy and a comedy and we wanted to have a good time and make people smile and just be a bright light on television. So, we were all on the same page and we shot the sizzle reel and it worked out and then went straight to series. We didn't even do a pilot come to think of it. Yeah, so we shot the sizzle reel, went straight to series, 13 episodes, and we just got picked up for Season 2 earlier this year. And we just wrapped up Season 2 production, yesterday actually.
(CSC) 2. You're always so much fun to watch on TV. Having been on American Idol and Dancing with The Stars, and various talk shows through the years, what are some that have been the most memorable for you?
(Kellie Pickler) Oh my gosh, out of everything I feel extremely blessed I think the most memorable moments, each thing that we've been a part of has been special in its own way. But definitely, and we've talked about this before, USO. Working with USO has probably been the most life changing and just most rewarding, I guess you could say, yeah!
(CSC) 3. It's no secret how much we love Dolly. Tell me about the first time you met her. Are you guys ever going to record a duet? That'd be pretty awesome!
(Kellie Pickler) We've talked about my love for Dolly many times, and I'm a big fan. I would love to go in the studio with her. That would be a dream come true. I've never had that opportunity, but if it ever comes up, I'm in. All in!! The first time I met her was back, I guess it was, I want to say 2007, like right after Idol, and Joe Galante, who was the president, or CEO of Sony Records in Nashville, back then, that originally signed me. He and her, are friends of course, and he signed her back in the day and he knew I was a big fan and he arranged it all and I got to meet her and she was just so wonderful! As you know, she's just the best. She really is.
(CSC) You’re kind of like her long-lost daughter! (Laughs)
(Kellie Pickler) Gosh knows. Wouldn't that be great? (Laughs) Lord knows. (Laughs)
(CSC) 4. So, in season 1 of “I Love Kellie Pickler” you did a lot of cool things, road trips, renewing your vows with your husband, dance offs… without giving too much away, what can people expect to see with Season 2 which premieres on the 25th of August (this month)!
(Kellie Pickler) It's definitely an adrenaline rushed, fun packed season, for sure. I mean, we, we get to mark off a lot on our bucket list. We go to Tokyo, we go to Japan for the first time, which was incredible. Big fish out of water experience. Which created, you know, a lot of laughs. We had a good time, for sure. We got to jump with the Golden Knights. So, finally got to go skydiving, which I've always dreamed of doing. And Kyle's parents, my in laws, just moved to Nashville from Minnesota. And so, they're in the new season. And it is so funny. They are hilarious. They're getting used to the Nashville weather, they get a kick out of our so-called winters. So, they think it's funny!
(CSC) 5. What, what would you say you found most challenging about allowing the camera crews into your home and the more private side of your life outside of being a star?
(Kellie Pickler) You know, I think that anytime you put yourself out there, you open the door to be picked apart from the world and everyone's going to have an opinion and everyone's entitled to that. So, I think developing a thick skin and being able to take whatever criticism, whether it's constructive or mean, you just have to learn how to deal with that in, you know, its own way.
(CSC) 6. Our readers want to know what are three things you always carry in your purse!
(Kellie Pickler) Three things I always carry in my pocketbook. Hmm. Well we gotta have, God knows if I have, I wish I had it on me right now so I could look and see. Definitely, I guess credit card, cash, some form of money. Life ain't free, nothing's free. So, let's see, that, my passport. You never know when you're gonna have to flee the country. No, (Laughs) you're like, yeah, you never know. Let's see and I like to carry those little Jack Daniel mini bottles, The Gentleman Jack bottles. I like that too, try not to leave home without my Jack.
(CSC) 7. So, your home decor collection Selma Drye, it's now in Opry stores and online. How did, have you always dreamt of doing that? I know that, you know, it's kind of elegant yet cozy, the collection!
(Kellie Pickler) Yeah. Well, I've always thought it would be, ever since my buddies Billy and Phillip and I wrote the song “Selma Drye” together, we thought, man wouldn't that be really neat if we were able to do like an interior line and call it Selma Drye and use like multi-purpose use items and things that she would have loved and things that we have in our home and kind of marry it all together. And I was just able to partner with the Opry and they loved the idea and so we're actually working on the second Christmas line right now. So, which is so crazy to think, like, you're doing all that in June, July, August, so.
(CSC) The line was inspired by?
(KP) My great grandma, yes. Selma Drye, and my grandma, which was her daughter, so Selma would be my great grandma and Faye's mom. So, just things that I think they would have all loved.
(CSC) 8. Thinking of everything you do with charity work and all your things that you do with your career; how do you find the time to balance all of that?
(Kellie Pickler) You know, I think you know, I'm so blessed to have such an amazing husband and great people around me to help advise me and direct me, point me in the right directions and mentor me. And just, I guess, prioritize everything. You know, my husband is my number one priority. He's my sanctuary, my safe place. And then work comes next. We have no other, you know outstanding responsibility. So, we're we've been able to put our work first too!
(CSC) 9. The last question is, is everyone's been dying to know what's in store next musically and what can fans expect in regards to the type of an album you're making?
(Kellie Pickler) Well, we haven't started working on an album yet. We just actually recorded last week a Christmas song for the new Selma line, because we do a snow globe every year for Christmas or I say every year, this would be the second year because this will be the second Christmas! We do a Christmas song now that we're trying to make a tradition in the Selma Drye to marry it in with the snow globe and marry the music and the Selma Drye line together. So that'll be the next thing musically that comes out as a Christmas song with the line, and then hopefully later this winter I'll be able to get in the studio again and start, start that whole process of record making over again!
(CSC) I know people miss hearing from you musically!
(KP) Thank you. Thank you baby!
