Nickel Dreams: My Life

Born into poverty, the grandchild of sharecroppers, Tanya grew up poor in a family that had come out of the Oklahoma hills in the Great Depression. Her family imbued her early on with a love of country music - and of being Tucker tough. Also early on, Tanya decided she wanted to become a country music singer. Her father, Beau, was determined that she and her sister La Costa, also a budding singer, would succeed. On an impulsive trip to Nashville, he buttonholed anyone who would listen, often brushing past secretaries and into executive offices brandishing a demo tape. When this expedition came to nothing he moved the family to Las Vegas, where, he figured, someone had to listen to his girls. After singing in every honky-tonk and piano bar she could find, Tanya's first big break came when Billy Sherill signed her up at age 13 and gave her the song Delta Dawn, which became her anthem and a huge runaway hit, topping the country charts. Tanya talks candidly about the whirlwind of sudden celebrity, the Rolling Stone article that catapulted her to even higher fame, and having to quit school in ninth grade because the tough girls made her stand on a toilet in the bathroom and sing to them as a punishment for success. She talks about meeting The King, who once called her a female Elvis, as well as losing her virginity on her nineteenth birthday. When Tanya moved to L.A., where the partying and nightlife took over, she began hanging out with Don Johnson, Cher, Jan Michael Vincent, and many others. There was a party every night, and I figured I ought to hit every one of them. Those I wasn't invited to, I'd crash, Tanya says. Eventually the life in the fast lane became too much for her, and she moved back to Nashville. Then came the most disastrous relationship of her life. Tanya met Glen Campbell after one of his shows in Vegas, and began a horrendous spiral down into drug use and violence. There were also the wild parties, flying around on his private jet, going