Heidi Newfield on the Orange Carpet at the 43rd Annual ACM Awards, Sunday, May 18, 2008 in Las Vegas, NV. Photo by David Vespie.
Oct. 20, 2008 — Heidi Newfield shocked fans two years ago when she announced she was leaving Trick Pony for a solo career.
The band, including bass player Ira Dean and guitarist Keith Burns, had earned a reputation as a high-energy live act and won an American Music Award in 2002. But after going gold with their debut album and generating several hits early on, they had trouble duplicating that success, and they went a lengthy period without releasing any new music. When Heidi finally quit the band, it came after resisting that move for quite some time.
"I left for some really good reasons," she told the national radio show GAC Nights: Live From Nashville. "I left for a lot of reasons that aren’t even necessary to get into, except that I think we deserve it, we deserve to make ourselves happy. And when you’re in a situation when you can’t fix it, and it’s not ever gonna get fixed, and you’re just gonna still be fighting that uphill battle, you need to go ahead and step up and make yourself happy. It’s not about being selfish or greedy or anything like that. I’m a very loyal person, but leaving the boys — when I finally made the decision — was a really solid decision. I sort of had felt like God had hit me over the head with an axe handle enough times and showed me enough signs that I finally said, ‘Okay! I’m listening here. I gotcha!’"
The decision proved to be a good one for Heidi. Her first solo album, What Am I Waiting For, debuted in the Top 5 on the Billboard country album chart, and her first single, "Johnny And June," went Top 10 on the singles list.
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