Tanya Tucker has Grammys and a new movie, but the country icon has a lot more to say

Tanya Tucker’s new movie is a lifetime in the making. But the country music icon doesn’t need to see “The Return of Tanya Tucker – Featuring Brandi Carlile.”

“I haven’t watched all of it,” Tucker said. “There are parts of it that are kind of hard for me to watch in a group, in the company of others. But I’m in awe, really. I can’t believe that someone would want to watch a movie about me.”

Directed by Kathlyn Horan, “The Return of Tanya Tucker” charts a few pivotal years in the storied singer’s half-century career, as she collaborates with modern country and Americana stars Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings on the acclaimed 2019 LP “While I’m Livin.’”

Horan and her crew document the process behind Tucker's first album of original material in nearly 20 years, from Tucker’s first meeting with Carlile and Jennings through the work earning Tucker her first two Grammys, including Best Country Album.

There’s a disarming honesty on display, as Tucker is shown powering through doubts and insecurities with Carlile by her side — sometimes literally in the recording booth as Tucker is laying down vocal tracks — as they’re documented creating a modern country masterpiece in real time.

Horan captures the process with unvarnished candor as Tucker, sometimes with a glass of tequila and grapefruit juice in hand and with plenty of initial apprehension, writes the next chapter in a career that began 50 years ago with the smash success of the 1972 single “Delta Dawn” at the age of 13.

“As far as the film goes, I was there, they were filming me. That’s all I really (did), I didn’t do anything intentionally,” said Tucker. After spending most of her life in the spotlight, Tucker said, “I’m pretty used to cameras being around. I don’t even think about them being there – sometimes I probably should.”

“She’s been a star since she was 13,” said Tom Bernard, co-president of the studio releasing the film, Sony Pictures Classics. “That’s what I say to people: she’s been around a long time, so this is how she is, she’s a star. She doesn’t know anything else.”

'You learn how to appreciate the talent.'

“The Return of Tanya Tucker” is now playing in select cinemas, and is set to arrive at New Jersey movie theaters starting Nov. 4. The film utilizes a blend of fly-on-the-wall modern footage, archival footage from across Tucker’s career and Tucker family photos and home movies to tell a story but impressive in its scope and disarming in its intimacy.

It’s the latest in a prestigious series of acclaimed music documentaries from Bernard, of Middletown, and Sony Pictures Classics.

Previous releases from the studio have included the revelatory, Oscar-winning Rodriguez saga “Searching for Sugar Man” (2012), Jonathan Demme’s captivating “Neil Young Journeys” (2011), the acclaimed “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song” from earlier this year and “Grateful Dawg” (2000), which chronicled the partnership between Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and mandolin player David Grisman, who grew up in Passaic.

“A lot of these films are stories about people that certainly had an impact in the music world, and they’re not concert movies,” said Bernard. “When you watch one of our documentaries, our music docs, you become engaged with the talent, you learn about the talent, you learn how to appreciate the talent.”

“Tanya’s voice is in all of us that sing country music,” Carlile says in the film. “And it’s time for us to do an about-face and recognize that.”

Following the success of "While I'm Livin'," Tucker isn’t content to simply collect her hard-earned laurels.

She’s launched her own spirit, Tanya Tucker’s Cosa Salvaje Tequila, collaborated with RuPaul on the 2021 single “This is Our Country” and on Friday released “Ready As I’ll Never Be,” a ballad co-written with Carlile that serves as her documentary’s ending credits song. She tells us she has three other albums in the can.

“Before I die, I’d like to be the best that I think I can be, and when I think I’m at my best — which I don’t feel like I’ve done yet,” she said. “And I feel like in some way the public, fans, or new fans, whoever they may be, hasn’t gotten the best of what I can do. And unfortunately I’m 64, so I’m not like a spring chicken, so I’ve got to get it done before I can’t do it.”

Bernard believes Tucker may still have her best work ahead of her.

“It very well could be,” he said. “Because she’s been re-awoken and she’s got a lot to say. … Somebody who makes it through, and she certainly had her ups and downs, there’s still a lot more to say, a lot more to write about and sing about.”

Go: "The Return of Tanya Tucker - Featuring Brandi Carlile" is now playing in select cinemas. For tickets, more information and a list of theaters, visit tickets.thereturnoftanyatucker.com.

Alex Biese has been writing about art, entertainment, culture and news on a local and national level for more than 15 years. Alex can be reached at abiese@gannett.com and on Twitter at@ABieseAPP.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Tanya Tucker movie gives fans story behind 'While I'm Livin'