I think Pam Tillis has one of the best voices in country. What can you tell me about her and how she got started?
—Ruth T., Iowa
Music was in the family for the Grammy-award winning Pam Tillis, the daughter of country star Mel Tillis. In fact, her latest album, It's All Relative: Tillis Sings Tillis, is a tribute to her father's music. Pam says her father would take her along on writing sessions in Nashville, Tenn., when she was a baby, tucking her into a guitar case on the floor. Pam began her musical training at age 8, studying classical piano and teaching herself to play other instruments. She sang in nightclubs while in college in Knoxville, Tenn., then moved to California, where she was a successful jazz singer. She moved back to Nashville in 1979, working as a songwriter, session singer, and a back-up singer on the road for her father, as well as playing local nightclubs. In 1991, after her No. 1 hit Don't Tell Me What to Do, she won the Country Music Association's Horizon Award. In 1994, she was the CMA's Female Vocalist of the Year and was the first woman to join the Grand Old Opry in the new millennium. Tillis, also a successful record producer, has found time for acting, including appearances on Diagnosis Murder and Touched by An Angel.
