When Gretchen Wilson debuted in 2004, she put the country world on blast. A year later, she’d get a taste of what that feels like.

Carrie Underwood dropped her debut country single “Jesus Take the Wheel” in October 2005, about 18 months after Wilson’s “Redneck Woman.” If you didn’t think it was competitive back then, think again.

• “Redneck Woman” turned 20 in 2024, and Wilson recently celebrated with a performance on the CMA Fest stage.
• The rocker soared to No. 1 on airplay charts at the time, breaking a months-long gap between country women at the top.
• Wilson talked to Taste of Country Nights host Evan Paul for a new episode of Taste of Country Nights: On Demand.

Related: Gretchen Wilson Says New Artists Make This One Big Mistake

The conversation started after Wilson listened to what ’90s hitmaker Terri Clark said about her debut.

“I went, oh, s–t,” Clark told ToC earlier this year. “That one kind of got me a little bit. I’m like, damn it … but, yeah, that was kind of a, ‘Woo, wow. I better strap on my seatbelt.'”

Wilson said what Clark said was sweet, “but I had those moments, you know, whenever Carrie Underwood came along. Oh, boy. You know.”

“I think every woman in country music probably had a little bit of fear when that voice came out,” Wilson continues, speaking of Underwood.

“I mean, she’s also a force to be reckoned with — powerhouse of a singer. But … I don’t know that I was very fearful, just ’cause we’re so different. I felt like, ‘Okay, she’s gonna own that slicker side of country music.’ And that just kind of made me want to get rougher.”

“Here for the Party,” “All Jacked Up,” and “Homewrecker” were among Wilson’s next singles. The latter is similar in tone and style, Wilson says, to her new song “Little Miss Runner Up.”

Underwood did notch a huge hit with “Before He Cheats” around this time, but other hit singles were ballads like “Don’t Forget to Remember Me,” “So Small” and “All-American Girl.”

As she recognized their differences and that there was room for everyone, Wilson says she truly supported and appreciated Underwood and her style. That was a culture that Clark helped curate back then.

“Terri brought my first time playing the Ryman. She brought me, like, four bottles of whiskey and a whole case of Skoal,” Wilson recalls. “So she must not have disliked me too much.”

Billy Dukes is a Senior Editor and Executive Producer of Video Content at Taste of Country. He specializes in country music interviews, trend analysis and the Secret History of Country Music. Additionally, Billy covers Yellowstone, 1923 and related television shows through the Dutton Rules podcast. To date, he’s written more than 13,000 articles for Taste of Country and produced over 3,000 videos for the Taste of Country YouTube channel.