For Emily Ann Roberts, the stage has never simply been a place to sing songs. It’s a place to connect, tell stories and, perhaps most importantly, give people a chance to forget about whatever is happening in the world for a little while. The East Tennessee native will bring that philosophy to Blossom Music Center on Saturday, September 12, when she joins Thomas Rhett’s The Soundtrack to Life Tour as a supporting act. The concert, which also features Vincent Mason, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Roberts’ ability to command a stage has been evident since she first stepped into the national spotlight as a teenager. At just 16, the Knoxville native became a finalist and runner-up on Season 9 of NBC’s The Voice as a member of Blake Shelton’s team. She returned home after the show to finish high school before continuing to build a career rooted in traditional country, bluegrass and Appalachian influences. Her 2023 debut album, Can’t Hide Country, introduced that sound to a wider audience, while her subsequent Memory Lane EP further established her as a songwriter and performer. Along the way, she has accumulated more than 100 million global streams, performed numerous times at the Grand Ole Opry and toured alongside artists including Shelton, Cody Johnson, Megan Moroney and Jamey Johnson. She has also been recognized as a CMT Next Woman of Country, an Opry NextStage artist and an ACM New Female Artist of the Year nominee.
In a recent phone interview with CleveRock, Roberts discusses what she loves most about performing live and the responsibility she feels to provide audiences with an escape from the problems of everyday life. She also reflects on the influence of Dolly Parton, an artist whose music and example have helped shape Roberts’ own approach to country music and storytelling. And in a particularly heartwarming moment, she recalls a recent night at the Grand Ole Opry when a young fan named Della joined her onstage after Roberts performed “Pretty in Pink” and shared the news that she was cancer-free, prompting a spontaneous standing ovation from the Opry audience. It’s the kind of moment that illustrates why, for Roberts, the stage can be about much more than the music itself.
Country music fans are a different breed. They play harder and come earlier than fans of any other genre. As as support on a large-scale tour, it means everything to have a filled pavilion and packed lawn when it’s time to take the stage!
“Oh gosh, it means the world to me,” Roberts said. “As an opener, you never know who’s going to get there before the headliner goes on. You’re really hoping that folks will show up early and you’ll get to play your music for them, but you never know. Country music fans, in general, always show up early, ready to have a good time, ready to have fun. And that makes my job a lot more enjoyable and just so much fun. And so we have had a ball on the road with Thomas [Rhett].”
While Roberts’ first love may be the more intimate venues where she can get up close and personal with her fans, there is something to be said for the larger venues, too!
“The Grand Ole Opry or theaters or rooms where it’s not so big that you feel like you can look at everybody. I love that feeling, but there is an absolutely insane energy that comes from a massive crowd,” she said. “There’s nothing like looking out at a sea of people and not being able to see the end of them or feel like the audience just goes on and on. You can’t beat performing for me. That’s what my heart is all about is being an entertainer. Anytime I get to get on stage and sing, I’m a happy girl.“
As the theme song from the TGIF hit show Family Matters goes, “”It’s a rare condition, this day and age / To read any good news on the newspaper page…” — more true today than it was during the show’s run in the 90s. The world is a crazy place. It can be dark. It can be scary. It can be lonely. Performing artists have a funny way of making folks forget about all of the BS and problems happening outside the venue gates, even if only for a short while.
“I think it’s one of the greatest callings and also a really great responsibility. I always keep that at the forefront of my mind before I go on stage. I try to let go of everything going on in my life, too, and get lost in the music,” Roberts said. “That’s when other people feel like they can let go as well. But I always keep that in mind and I think about the fact that people may be here and they may be smiling and dancing and having fun, but earlier that day they could have been crying. You never know what’s going on in somebody’s life. I just look at it like an opportunity to give people a little bit of hope, a little bit of joy and hopefully some fun. The world is heavy and I don’t get into crazy heavy stuff on stage. I don’t think that that’s the place for it. I think that that’s the time where we all get to just enjoy the moment. That’s another really special thing about being an entertainer, is everything is live and real, right there in the moment. It’s really easy to live in the past or live in the future and borrow trouble from stuff that ain’t even happened yet in our lives.”
Days prior to this interview, the legendary Dolly Parton embarked on her journey to Heaven. The loss not only for the country music realm, but the world as a whole, is insurmountable. Growing up in East Tennessee, Roberts saw in Parton a blueprint for the kind of artist—and person—she wanted to become: a songwriter, performer, entertainer and entrepreneur who could bring joy to people while never being confined to a single lane. That admiration has only grown with Roberts’ own career, and it has reached the point where fans have even suggested she could portray her hero in a future Dolly Parton biopic. Roberts may be quick to joke about the challenge of looking the part, but when it comes to filling Parton’s shoes, the idea is one she would embrace wholeheartedly.
“I love Dolly Parton so, so much,” Roberts beamed. “Dolly has been pretty much the biggest influence on me as an artist and an entertainer. All the little girls probably looked up to Dolly growing up back home in East Tennessee, but I looked up to her in such a big way because I wanted to follow in her footsteps and I wanted to write my songs and sing my songs and entertain folks and spread joy and light. I think if you’re going to look up to anybody, you might as well look up to the best. She absolutely was the best. She opened up so many doors for women like me in country music, but also showed us that you don’t have to just do one thing. And that’s something that I’m so thankful that she showed us because I love all kinds of stuff in life. Dolly was a songwriter and an artist and entertainer, but she was an actress. She was an author. She was a philanthropist. She gave back in such a big way to the place where she was from, the people who raised her and made her who she was. She was a very smart business woman and she had a theme park and she had attractions back home in Sevierville. I think we can all learn from that because I don’t think we ought to pigeonhole ourselves into any one thing.”
Would Roberts be up for the challenge if given a call to play the role of Dolly in a film?
“I tell you, the biggest challenge would be getting to look like her. I think I’d have to get me some plastic surgery, but I would be honored to try to do something like that,” she said. “I have always wanted to act and gosh, playing Dolly would be some big old shoes to fill. But gosh, I would be thrilled to do it. And anytime anybody compares me to Dolly, I take it as one of the biggest, highest compliments. I know that I’m my own person and nobody will ever be like Dolly. She was one of a kind and I’m one of a kind, too. All of us are. But it’s really special to get, compared to one of your heroes; somebody you look up to. I appreciate that every time somebody says that.”
If providing an outlet to forget about their troubles for an evening isn’t what it’s all about for Roberts, perhaps helping a young fan share a miraculous life update is! She excitedly shared a story from a few nights prior:
“Two nights ago I got to sing at the Grand Ole Opry and I had my sweet friend Della from East Tennessee. I grew up with her mom and daddy. Della is five years old and she has been battling leukemia for the past year. It really devastated all of us when we got the news that she had leukemia. We have followed her journey and been praying for her for a year. And I’m so thankful to share that she is in remission, that there is no more cancer in her body,” she celebrated. “We got her backstage and I love to sing one of my songs. I asked Della if she would get up and sing it with me and she said she would. So she wore a pretty pink dress and after the song ended, I got to ask her if she would share her good news with all the folks at the Grand Ole Opry. Sweet little Della got to say, ‘My cancer’s gone!’ She got a big old standing ovation from everybody at the Opry that night. They just cheered and cheered for her and celebrated her. It was so special to get to be a part of that moment.”
For Roberts, the stage remains more than simply a place to perform. It is an opportunity to connect with people, give them a reason to sing along and, even if only for a few hours, provide an escape from whatever else might be happening in their lives. That passion is evident in the way she talks about performing, as well as in the reverence she has for artists like Dolly Parton who showed her what a career built around both music and entertainment could look like. As she continues carving out her own place in country music, Roberts is carrying those lessons with her while creating memories of her own with audiences across the country.
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