Jessica Simpson is opening up about her hiatus from music.
The singer has revealed that she became disillusioned with the industry when her record label dropped her after the release of her successful debut country album.
“I took a long break,” Simpson told singer Fancy Hagood in an interview for an upcoming episode of Trailblazers Radio, per a PEOPLE exclusive first listen. “I was mad at music a bit. After being dropped with a number-one country album — I was dropped, and I just never understood it. They just said I would never recoup if I didn’t give them part of the brand, but my brand was already successful.”
Simpson, a Texas native who began her music career in pop with such early hits as “With You” and “Irresistible,” released her first country and sixth overall album, Do You Know, in 2008 through Sony’s country division, Sony Nashville. The singer’s crossover to the genre fared well, with the record debuting at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart and peaking at No. 4 in Top Album Sales.
She followed up her country album with a holiday album, 2010’s Happy Christmas, before taking a decades-long pause from music. She returned to the stage for the first time in 15 years last month with the release of a country EP, Nashville Canyon, Pt. 1, through the record label Nashville Canyon.
Simpson also recalled being warned against pursuing a music career during her conversation on Trailblazers Radio. “They told me not to do it,” she said. “They thought it would ruin my career just like they thought reality TV would ruin my career, and it didn’t.”
She said she’d been considering a musical comeback for quite a while but it “just never felt like the right time,” adding, “and I’m an intuition gut follower.”
Simpson was ultimately inspired to return to performing after her eldest daughter’s birthday celebration in Nashville. “Instead of singing ‘Happy Birthday’ she wanted us to sing ‘I Saw the Light’ and play Hank Williams that morning we were in Nashville,” she recalled on the show. “And I woke her up with that song and it just hit me. The light. It was like, ‘The light’s here.'”
“This is where I’m born free,” she said of Nashville. “I did a gospel record at 14 here. I got to write my first songs here. I wrote my whole country record here. And I was always so safe.”
You can listen to Simpson’s full Trailblazers Radio interview when it drops on Saturday, April 26.
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