The "On My Way to Heaven" music video finally premiered June 20 during an event at the Grand Ole Opry, where she and Dennis Quaid joined fans to watch
NEED TO KNOW
- Tanya Tucker reflects on her health struggles and how they’ve impacted her ability to perform live
- She recalls an emotional moment with Kris Kristofferson during the filming of their music video in 2019
- Tucker is considering new creative projects beyond touring, including a travel show and a coffee-table book
Tanya Tucker spends much of her time in a condo overlooking Nashville's famed Lower Broadway, mere steps from Bridgestone Arena, where earlier this year, she had hoped to catch one of her favorite performers, Andrea Bocelli.
"I was too sick to go over," Tucker, 67, tells PEOPLE from the RFD-TV Studios in Nashville after battling both Lyme disease and Epstein-Barr virus in recent years. "But if it had been 20 years ago, nobody could stop me."
Granted, while the years continue to sneak up on the Country Music Hall of Fame member who burst onto the country music scene as a teenager, thanks to her first country hit "Delta Dawn" back in 1972, her undeniable spunk remains.
And so does her faith.
"God has given me so much, you know?" says the hitmaker of legendary songs such as "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane," "It's a Little Too Late," and "Texas (When I Die)." "I recognize Him. It's the only thing that could've been. Us humans couldn't do what He has done for me."
Credit: Caleb Herring
Looking back, Tucker believes destiny had a hand in it all. And it was this sort of destiny she felt back in 2019 — the day Kris Kristofferson walked onto the set of the newly released music video for the song "On My Way to Heaven."
"I had a window so I could see when he got there," Tucker remembers of the legendary artist who died in 2024 at age 88. "I had my Marshall [speaker] set up, and I wanted to start playing a song that I recorded of his called ‘Moment of Forever,' As soon as he sat down outside on the bench, I pushed play."
And she watched as Kristofferson began to cry.
"It was my gift to him for just doing all that he and his wife were doing — flying 10 hours to come to be in that video," says Tucker of the couple, who were living in Hawaii at the time. "It's a long way to go, you know?"
Credit: Caleb Herring
The long-awaited video finally premiered June 20 during a first-of-its-kind event at the Grand Ole Opry, where Tucker and actor and musician Dennis Quaid joined fans to watch "On My Way to Heaven." The video would serve as one of Kristofferson's final filmed performances.
"[The song] just connected deeply with me," Tucker says of the song written and first recorded by Quaid in 2018 and whose new version — released by the Gaither Music Group — includes the voices of Tucker, Quaid and the late Kristofferson. "I was at the back of my bus and Quaid had just sent me his whole album to me on my phone and this song was the only one of its kind. And I don't know what hit me, but I knew immediately that I could hear Kristofferson singing this song."
Just a few years after the filming of the video, Kristofferson found himself approaching the end of his life.
"I still remember the last time I saw him," recalls Tucker. "I have it on video. You can hear [Kristofferson's wife] Lisa saying, 'Now that's the eyes he's been looking for and hadn't seen in a while.' He just had a different look when he looked at you. It was just pure emotion and love. I remember him walking away, and he had those old black jeans on and a black t-shirt and those old boots on that he always wore. Without him, it'd be a terrible life — not to have him and his music in it. But I got to have him in it."
To see the video now is an emotional moment for Tucker, who wishes she could have released it sooner. "I wasn't holding onto it," she says. "I wanted to get it out as soon as possible." She pauses. "I'm really coming to a crossroads, I think, with me trying to decide about what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. I don't think it's banging the road 200 days a year. I've got a lot of other talents that we need to investigate and see what we can do."
Credit: Caleb Herring
Her future still includes music — possibly including a pair of tribute albums and a duets record — but she's also envisioning projects beyond the stage, including a travel television series and a coffee-table book honoring her father and "the things he used to say."
But Tucker admits it gets tougher as one gets older.
"I've been [on the road] for 50 years. I love an audience and I just want to go out when I'm feeling good," she concludes. "Because I've had to do it so much when I didn't, I feel like I'm cheating them somehow. And they're not getting to see the best of me — and that hurts. And if I can't do it like I should do it, then I need to do something else."
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