Jessica Simpson, the pop singer turned fashion mogul, reality TV star and bestselling author, is returning to her musical roots.
Simpson released “Use My Heart Against Me,” a single off her upcoming EP, “Nashville Canyon, Part 1,” on Friday. It marks Simpson’s first single in almost 17 years — her last project was the 2008 album “Do You Know.”
In an interview for the Cut with her sister, Ashlee Simpson Ross, the 44-year-old musician said she’s exploring a new chapter in her life through music. “Through the deepest heartbreak of my life, it was the most intense yet enlightening therapy I’ve ever been through.”
In January, Simpson and former NFL player Eric Johnson announced their separation after a decade-long marriage. Together, they have three children: Maxwell “Maxi” Drew, 12; Ace Knute, 11; and Birdie Mae, 5. Their $18-million Hidden Hills mansion was listed for sale days before the news broke.
Simpson said she first came up with the idea for the rockabilly EP when she was in Nashville celebrating her daughter Maxwell’s birthday. Instead of requesting the Happy Birthday song, the 11-year-old asked her mother to sing Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light.” Simpson said it led to “all these flashbacks of making [her] first record at 14.”
“I saw the light: I had to be in Nashville,” she told Simpson Ross. “I started looking at real estate that day.”
After returning to Nashville and chasing her passion, Simpson said she was able to branch out musically without the pressures of a controlling record label. From her beginnings in gospel music, the singer got her big break when she signed to Columbia Records in 1997. She went on to release major pop hits “I Wanna Love You Forever” and “With You.”
“The music releases from my younger years were all over the place in terms of actual direction. It was always about following pop-music trends no matter the cost,” Simpson said in the same interview. “Even if I didn’t love what I was singing, it was what the label needed of me. I was always going to abide by the rules because I was taught to be a rule-abider.”
She says the vulnerability heard in her new music comes from how her audience received her 2020 memoir, “Open Book.” In the bestselling book, she recounts struggles with addiction, body image and toxic relationships. It sold more than half a million copies in 14 weeks and was adapted by Amazon FreeVee into a scripted TV series.
To Simpson, “Nashville Canyon, Part 1” isn’t about making a hit record.
“It was just about having a vibe. There’s really not a lot of that in L.A. right now. It’s formulaic. I wanted to break that mold for myself personally,” Simpson said in the Cut cover story. “I don’t care if anything’s a hit. I’m not with a record label. I don’t expect it to even be on the radio.”
The EP will be released March 21.
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