The sex symbol status of country music crossover star Faith Hill has taken on new heights with her fourth release, Breathe.
Look no further than the 1999 album's often steamy liner notes, featuring Hill in some outfits that wouldn't be out of place in a Victoria's Secret catalogue.
"I'm a woman and I celebrate my womanhood," Hill, 33, was saying down the line from Las Vegas this week, where she performed Breathe's title track at the Billboard Music Awards and picked up several trophies in the process. "And it's okay to try and look your best, and if people have a problem with that, then that's when I believe it comes from jealously. And that's fine. We all have a little bit of that in us."
Hill, who also has been signed to a Cover Girl cosmetics contract, has another motivation for looking so damn good.
"I have a husband that I still like to impress," she adds with a giggle.
That's right guys, so back off.
Hill and her hubby, fellow country superstar Tim McGraw, are in town tonight for a sold-out show at the Air Canada Centre as part of their Soul 2 Soul Tour. And if you doubt their status as the current queen and king of country music, consider the fact that the concert's 18,000 tickets sold out in a mere day.
The show sees Hill, then McGraw, each perform hour-long sets before they return to sing a series of duets together.
"The tour has been the most rewarding because it's something that, as an entertainer, I've worked for, that Tim has worked for, for many years," says the Mississippi native of her career highs, which include countless awards, sales of more than 13 million and performing at the 2000 Oscars. "And to see it all come together like it has for this tour and the fact that we get to share it night after night, it's really hard to beat that."
Helping Hill and McGraw survive the road -- they've been touring since July and will wrap up next Tuesday in Orlando, Fla. -- is the fact that they have their two young girls in tow, Gracie, 3, and Maggie, 2. In fact, the couple have made a pact never to spend more than three days apart.
"My family comes first," says Hill, whose stage parenting only extends to showing a video of her children during her concert. "We've always travelled together, that's not unusual or unique. It's just we're getting to do it on a daily basis."
Hill says that becoming a mother has made her think about some of her image choices, but not radically differently.
"I'm not going to go pose nude for Playboy or anything like that, but I wouldn't have done that to begin with," she says. "I think having children changes your perspective on everything. But I don't think that I would ever do anything to compromise what I believe in as an individual, even without the children."
If it seems like Hill's picked up her often eye-popping visual style from another country music vixen -- Canadian Shania Twain -- she likens it more to Twain clearing a path for her to succeed. Hill is the leader heading into the American Music Awards on Jan. 8, with four nominations.
"People compare us all the time," Hill says. "I guess I can see why the comparison would be, because we both came out of country music, we're both women, and people talk about the sex appeal and that sort of thing. But our music is radically different, our look is not even close to the same. But I certainly credit her for opening a lot of doors. Her music just kind of transcended every boundary that existed."
Which leads to the criticism from Nashville's more traditional corners that both Twain and Hill have way, way too much pop in their twang. For example, on Breathe, Hill covers Bruce Springsteen's If I Should Fall Behind.
"Sometimes that just is fuel to my fire," Hill says of her critics. "I have respect for my peers and for the industry in Nashville.
"But, at the same time, if I sat around and read and worried about what everybody else thought about me then I would never get anything done. I wouldn't have a career!"
