Jessica Simpson's 2008 CD, Do You Know. Photo courtesy of Sony BMG Nashville.
July 29, 2008 — Jessica Simpson’s first country album is due Sept. 9, and it took yet another step toward reality when she debuted the cover art last week on her website.
Jessica’s featured in a white dress with brown western boots, sitting on a park bench. Scrolled across the middle of the picture is Do You Know, the title of the project.
The album has been a challenge for Jessica, who had her confidence shattered by her divorce from husband Nick Lachey and had been derided when she was unable to get through a Dolly Parton tribute at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006. But Do You Know was just what Jessica needed to feel like she’d found her place once again.
"The first day of recording vocals, I didn't want to go to the studio," she confessed to The Tennessean. "Fear can ruin people's lives. It handicaps you. But that day, I sang two songs, and it was like I stepped outside of myself, watched and listened and thought, 'Hey, that is you, Jess!' I called my dad and said, 'I'm back.' "
Jessica had asked her label on previous occasions to let her do a country album, and the company had always turned down the idea. Now that she has a chance to show her stuff, she’s convinced that she’ll never truly be a pop artist again.
"It's a spiritual thing for me, like 'I know God has a plan and a purpose,'" she said. "For the first time in my life, I take a lot of pride in my talent and in the record I was able to put together. With the writers, I felt comfortable opening up, because the only way this opportunity was going to be a great one was to be honest with myself and with them. If I want to be singing it for the rest of my life onstage, I want it to be honest."