Jo Dee Messina, coming to Fort Worth, has some advice: ‘Do not sell out who you are.’

The phone rings, and the caller ID reads, “JOE DEE MESSINA,” but there isn’t a “Hello.” The voice on the other end is screaming, “Mooooooooooooooooooooom!”

This sure doesn’t sound like Joe Dee Messina. It sounds like a young man.

Because that’s whose voice is on the other end. It’s her teenage son; there is some confusion between her cell phone, a blue tooth and her son’s earbuds.

“Could you hear that?!” she asks, followed by a loud, genuine laugh.

This is not some act. The veteran country performer is just at home, before she returns to the road performing.

A career that was launched with the hit “Heads Carolina, Tails California,” in 1996 is still going. Messina is 52 and back touring with with the appropriately named tour “Heads Carolina, Tails California.”

The native of Massachusetts is scheduled to play Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall in Fort Worth’s Stockyards on April 14.

After figuring out the cell phone issue, she spoke with the Star-Telegram about her career and longevity in the business.

Star-Telegram: What is harder in the music business, getting established or staying relevant?

Jo Dee Messina: When we were getting ready for this tour, we were talking about just that, because we are releasing a greatest hits. So you see all that we had done. In the midst of things, things are moving so fast you don’t see it.

We are a hockey family, and once you win one Stanley Cup you are constantly chasing the playoffs. Because if you don’t make them again, it’s done. It’s hard to say which is more difficult. You had a successful single, and it’s ring the bell, and then it’s do it again, and do it again, and do it again.

S-T: How does a young woman growing up in Massachusetts fall in love with country music?

JDM: Where I grew up, there was a guy in school who was from Florida, and he listened to country music. And I loved it. It told the story of my life. I loved that someone got how I felt.

S-T: When you look back on your career, what would you say that you did unintentionally well?

JDM: None of it. I had a great team of people around me. The producers, they helped with the decision making and the recording. I just loved to sing. Maybe that’s it. I was much better at live performances than studio. Since I was 13, I have been singing in public. The first place was this restaurant/bar outside of Boston. As far I know, I got that right.

S-T: On those same lines, what would you say about, ‘Oh, God, I really screwed that one up.’

JDM: Everything? I always think things can be better. When I was younger I was always in comparison mode. I would look at someone else’s music video and think, “That’s great.” Or their song was awesome. I’d always compare. I think I just admired people in the industry around me more than I recognized myself and what I was doing.

Comparison steals joy. Do not sell out who you are to be successful. You are in a room with a total stranger, performing, and it’s not worth (comparing), but I had to go through it. Until I knew Jesus Christ, and who I am outside of the music industry, I was constantly chasing and comparing.

S-T: If someone had told you in 2005 that vinyl records would come back and be a big seller, what would you have told that person?

JDM: I wouldn’t even know because when I was starting out it was CDs, and vinyl was nothing. Now, it’s the air. I grew up with albums and we would read the liner notes. To be able to say we want to “press it on vinyl” is so exciting.

S-T: Guessing you have recorded songs written by professional song writers; is it harder to perform a song when the words aren’t yours?

JDM: That is the trick, or it’s not a trick but I tell people I wouldn’t record (a song) that I couldn’t relate to. I had to find something I could relate to. There were a few songs the label asked me to record that it didn’t work out for that reason. I had to feel it.

Songwriting is therapeutic, and fun. Be who you are. It gives you an outlet and a way to process something.

S-T: You have a greatest hits, you are touring, what else is on the to-do list?

JDM: To share the gospel. That’s the most important thing. And we are coming to see you guys (in Fort Worth), which is a hoot.