Jessica Simpson photo courtesy of Sony BMG Nashville.

Far more hurtful was the unhappiness within the marriage that led to its disintegration and very public dissolution. It was during that period that the label was pressing her to make and release another record. Barely two months after her divorce was finalized on June 30, 2006, A Public Affair was released. "It was incredibly hard to promote that record. I wasn't in a place where I could be honest, and I wasn't able to be strong enough for the world."

Though it would be a year before Joe Simpson told People magazine that his daughter was thinking of "returning to her roots" and recording a country record, the journey back to Nashville had begun well before that.

"I took the long way around to get back to where I came from," she says. "Back where I belong. I think to be able to sing country music honestly, you have to experience life. There is so much honesty in the music, and if you are not honest, the fans will know it. Fans are the absolute lifeblood of country music, and they won't respond to you unless they believe you."

The first step was believing in herself and trusting her co-writers. She went to Nashville in 2007 to begin. "The process started with sitting down with these amazing songwriters and forcing myself to be vulnerable. I was so paranoid at the time, so overwhelmed by the tabloids. I wasn't even living my own life. The first time I sat down to write was with Brett James and Hillary Lindsey. I write things in my Blackberry, and I was telling them some of my thoughts and ideas and they were writing them down. They were respectful of what I was sharing. At that moment, it felt right. I knew that we were partners and I didn't have to be afraid that they would pick up the phone, call the tabloids and say, 'Guess what Jessica Jessica is going through?' I shared so much with my writers. They know me so well now; they know my sadness and my joy, my hurt and my happiness, my disappointments and my hopes. They are some of my closest friends.

"In order to do this record, I had to be vulnerable and I had to trust. After writing sessions, Cacee [Cobb, who did A&R for the album] and I would go back to the house we were renting and I would be so emotionally drained. Writing sessions were like therapy. It was hard to go through, but afterwards, you've let it go, and you feel so much lighter. The weight of denial is very hard to live with. Writing this record was so freeing to me."

If the writing—which resulted in her name on eight of 11 cuts—was freeing, the time spent in studios with producers Brett James and John Shanks recording those songs was exhilarating.

"The first day in the studio we cut three songs: 'Come On Over,' 'Might As Well Be Making Love' and 'Sipping On History.' I had been living with the demos for so long, it just happened. With music, when it's right, it happens so quickly and so easily. It felt so good! I felt like I was back to who I really am."

Perhaps the last song cut for the record was the most meaningful to Jessica, representing a remarkable gift of grace and redemption from one of her most humiliating public moments. In December 2006, while participating in a tribute to one of her all-time idols, Dolly Parton, at the Kennedy Center Awards, Jessica botched the lyrics to the song "9 to 5" in front of an audience that included President Bush, and of course Dolly herself.