Reba McEntire Calls Being Considered a Country Legend ‘a Huge Responsibility’

Reba McEntire reflects on her legacy in a wide-ranging chat with Sunday TODAY set to air April 23.

The topic of McEntire’s pioneering path as the Queen of Country comes up when host Willie Geist asks in a teaser clip, “What do you think about the term ‘icon’? Or ‘legend’? Or ‘trailblazer’? When you hear those things? They’re all true. What do they mean to you when you hear those? Because those are terms people use when they talk about you.”

However, the Reba star took the compliments with a trademark dose of humility and passed the titles on to the women who came before her instead.

“Well, when I hear those words, I think Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Barbara Mandrell, Anne Murray, Minnie Pearl. All of those women are the pioneers, the icons, the legends that I got to learn from,” McEntire responds.

Not to be diverted, Geist rightly points out that generations of upcoming talent in Nashville look to the “Fancy” singer with the same reverence she gives to the likes of Parton and Wynette. “It’s a cool feeling,” McEntire admits with her signature Oklahoma drawl. “It’s a huge responsibility because I definitely want to — in my span that I get to do this — I want to find ways of doing it better so it will make it easier on them. Then it’s their responsibility to move forward, find a better way of doing something for the people coming up next behind them. So we’ve all got responsibilities. And it’s always to make it better.”

While the rest of McEntire’s interview won’t air until Sunday, she also recently revealed that she turned down the big red spinning chair on The Voice that ultimately went to OG coach Blake Shelton.

Check out a preview of McEntire’s forthcoming sit-down with Sunday TODAY.