Country music legend Terri Clark knows a thing or two about making it in Nashville. But even after more than three decades in the business, she’s not sure she’d want to trade places with Ella Langley right now.
Langley has spent much of 2026 rewriting the record books, with her smash hit “Choosin’ Texas” making Billboard Hot 100 history. And while Clark couldn’t be happier to see another woman dominating country music, she also knows that kind of success comes with a price.
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“I would not want to trade places with her at all,” Clark told OutKick OutDoors in an exclusive interview.
Terri Clark helped pave the way for many female artists in country music, like Ella Langley. (Taylor Hill/FilmMagic & USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
In September, “Choosin’ Texas” surpassed Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” to become the longest-running No. 1 song in Billboard Hot 100 history, logging its 23rd cumulative week atop the chart.
Clark, who helped define country music’s female-driven era in the 1990s with hits like “Better Things to Do” and “You’re Easy on the Eyes,” is thrilled to see Langley breaking barriers. But she wishes more women were enjoying that same level of success.
“It’s like women went from famine to feast all of a sudden, but it’s not across the board,” Clark said. “I wish there was more of that with other females as well. I wish it was spread out a little bit more as well.”
Watch Terri Clark’s whole interview with OutKick OutDoors here:
And although Clark believes women still have a long way to go when it comes to equal representation in country music, she’s happy to see Langley leading the charge.
“I’m just glad the person breaking all the records and shattering the glass ceiling is a female,” Clark said. “I’m glad it’s her, you know, and she’s so good and she’s so deserving.”
Clark also praised Langley’s album, “Dandelion,” and said the young star seems like a genuinely good person.
“I often when I see her on Instagram and things, I often just want to give her a hug and ask her if she needs to go have coffee and talk because I can’t imagine how she’s navigating this,” Clark said.
“It’s a lot emotionally and psychologically.”
Ella Langley performs onstage at the Billboard Women in Music 2026 held at the Hollywood Palladium on April 29, 2026, in Los Angeles, Calif. (Rich Polk/Billboard via Getty Images)
Indeed, Langley’s meteoric rise has come with plenty of unwanted attention. She’s faced online backlash over resurfaced photos of her hunting deer in Alabama, while social media users have also scrutinized her perceived political affiliations and accused her of being an “industry plant” whose success was manufactured by the music industry.
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None of those controversies was raised by Clark specifically, but they illustrate the kind of public scrutiny that can accompany sudden superstardom. The internet is always looking for ways to take you down.
“That level of success is a blessing and a curse at the same time, and you gotta be able to manage both sides of that,” Clark said. “And it takes a pretty special person to be able to do that. And I think she can.”
The freedom to be ‘boring and normal’
Clark has sold more than five million albums, earned 13 Top 10 singles and secured membership in the Grand Ole Opry. But despite her accomplishments, she’s managed to hang on to something many superstars lose along the way: her anonymity.
“I’ve always been able to go to the grocery store in a ball cap,” Clark said.
She pointed to country stars like Reba McEntire and the late Dolly Parton, whose fame makes ordinary outings considerably more difficult, and suggested Langley may now be experiencing something similar.
“There are some people that, you know, their anonymity has been completely stripped from them, and they either have to embrace it, like I’ve seen some of them do so well, or it can destroy them.”
Clark isn’t sure how she would have handled that degree of attention herself, especially in an era when social media puts celebrities under a microscope.
“I’m not sure what would have happened to me if it had ever gotten to that level,” she admitted.
Terri Clark performs at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
But at 58, Clark has found a pretty comfortable balance. She can still tour, make music and enjoy a successful career without sacrificing the simple pleasures of everyday life.
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“I’m very grateful to be able to go and make a living doing what I do, and still go to the grocery store, to still go to Bass Pro Shops, and then once in a while somebody will recognize me,” she said. “But it’s not anything at that level, which I’m grateful for.”
“I’m too boring and normal to be able to be that interesting to that many people.”