Anita has learned how to fight like a girl
Interview conduct on August 25, 2019
by Dan Locke
Dan Locke: Why did you change your last name?
Anita Cochran: A lot of my family has Cochran as their last name. My father said it was because years ago when my family arrived in the US, they couldn’t read the writing of our family name so there became several spellings. As a performer I found this one to be the easiest to spell and say.
Can you tell me the story of how you were named after a member of the Carter Family?
My parents loved country music and had their own band before I was born. They loved Johnny Cash and the Carter family. All of my siblings are named after famous people. My oldest brother is named after country artist Faron Young. I was named after Anita Carter from the Carter family.
How did you begin to play the guitar?
Everyone in my family played guitar. All of my aunts and uncles on both sides of my family played. In our family, you learn to sleep, eat, walk, play guitar and sing haha. My father was the first to show me chords on the guitar so I learned from him and watching others play.
What other instruments do you play?
Bass guitar, banjo, piano, mandolin, drums, dobro…basically things with strings mostly.
Your dad was a local country performer. Do you remember the first time seeing him play?
I remember from a small girl watching my dad play and sing in our kitchen. I would turn the pages for his lyrics for him sometimes and watch how he played guitar. My dad played a lot like Chet Atkins and Merle Travis.
You made your debut on the US country charts back in 1997.
How has country music changed since then? Country music will never change, the radio stations change what they want to program. Over the last few years, the country music that reporting radio stations play is about beats, loops, a lot of words with no real melodies. More pop-driven. Real country music was always about beautiful melodies with meaningful or fun lyrics that allowed musical instruments to speak around the vocal.
What was it like to get the hit single “What if I Said”?
When I was making my first record, I was always a fan of duets so I wrote this song to be on my first record. Duets had not been popular for a while so I was happy my label loved the song. The label asked me who I wanted to sing it with. When Steve Wariner agreed to come sing on the song with me it was a dream come true. I was a longtime fan of Steve’s talent but never had met him before. He’s a great musician, vocalist, and writer. To get to share my first number one song with one of my hero’s was simply amazing and a dream come true!
Originally you are from South Lyon, MI. What was it like there music-wise?
I grew up in a time where Michigan sort of got lost musically. We had Motown, We had Motor City Rock n Roll but something happened and it seemed like the music scene there was just not happening on a national level. Very little recordings studio’s and really no record labels. I grew up singing country, gospel and bluegrass music. Though we had 3 big country radio stations there it was hard to find country musicians. That’s why I ended up playing all the musical instruments on my demos that were sent to Warner Bros. Records. I was the first female country artist signed out of Michigan.
South Lyon, MI has a few people in music who come from there. I am going to name a few. I would like you to say something about each artist if possible.
Barbara Lewis –
She was somewhat before my time and out of my genre of music when I was a kid but as I got a little older, I remember her having a very smooth vocal that seemed flawless.
Mitch Ryder
Again, Mitch was a bit before my time and a different style of music but he had a lot of influence on a lot of rockers in his time.
Can you tell me about the call you got to go to Nashville to sign your record deal?
I was a nervous wreck and in disbelief. I will never forget that call. It was from the president of Warner Bros. Records. I remember hanging up the phone saying…”did that just happen?”
You produced your first album. Why did you decide to do it yourself?
Jim Ed Norman who was the president of my label Warner Bros. Records wanted to produce my record. When we started the recording process Jim Ed was having to travel a lot so I was doing a lot of the recording on my own and would send him weekly updates of what I had been recording. He knew I produced all my demos and loved that I was a musician and thought I had a great ear for recording. He called me one day and said he loved all the recordings and overdubs I had been doing and said “I want you to join me as co-producer on this record. You are doing a great job on all of this work and you deserve producers’ credit”. That just simply made my day. Not many people were producing their records in Nashville at that time especially woman so I was thrilled to have this new title.
How was it to take a break from music and do some acting?
I always wanted to act. It was always something I thought would be fun and I was writing. I enjoy it! It was especially great that my songs were included!
In 2009 Gibson Guitar presented you with Best Female Guitar Player award. What did they actually give you? And I think it would have been nice for them to give you your own signature guitar series.
I received a trophy for the award and it still sits in on my piano. That award really meant a lot to me. A lot of woman played rhythm guitar but not lead guitar so it was nice to be recognized for sure. I would love to have a signature guitar but it takes a lot to get one of those. I’ve worked with Gibson over the years and they make a great product.
Do people still think that you as the artist Tammy Cochran is related to you?
Yes sometimes. Especially when I produced Tammy’s record “Where I Am” and we toured together for a short time. I love Tammy and always laugh a lot when we are together!
Now fast forward- Tell me the story behind how a cancer diagnosis leads you to create “Fight like a Girl”?
After my 5th chemo round, I got really sick and almost gave up my fight and was going to stop receiving my chemo. I was scheduled for a year of chemo every 3 weeks. I was so sick after that 5th chemo I really didn’t think I would make it. I was going to call my doctor and tell her I was going to stop. After a couple of days, I started to feel a little better but thought I didn’t want anyone to have to go through what I was going through. I decided I wanted to keep up the chemo appointments and that I was going to fight for my life and do whatever I had to live. This song came to me so I recorded and used it as my theme song to help me get through my journey. Recording it, shooting a video for it gave me something else to focus on while I was so sick. I wanted the song to help others through their journey and to inspire them to not give up their fight. I decided to donate proceeds sales of the download to breast cancer research and financial aid to patients in need during their treatment. I had been keeping a blog to inform people just exactly what I was going through so I thought I would add the song in my fight against breast cancer for all.
At that time ABC’s Good Morning America with Robin Roberts built a show around the song and you performed the song live on October 5, 2018. Tell me about that.
When I recorded the song and got the final mix, I told my friend I was going to go Good Morning America with Robin Roberts to perform my song. That I wanted it to reach as many people as possible hoping it would help as many as it could. We all need to encourage each other to stay in the fight no matter what. I set it out there to God and the world and it happened thank God. Robin Roberts is simply the best and such a great person. She saw my video and heard about my story and built that show around my song for their breast cancer day. I fell the night before I was supposed to be on the show and broke two ribs. I spend the night in two different hospitals and the show producer was concerned that I might not be able to perform that morning but I was determined to not lose this opportunity. GMA had gone to extremes to create an unbelievable show based around my song and performance so I was not about to let them down. After being up all night in hospitals getting X-rays to determine I wasn’t bleeding internally, we arrived at GMA around 4:30 am I believe to get ready for the show. The staff was just amazing to work with. Through the pain of broken ribs, I made it through the show thank God. I cried like a baby after it was over so thankful, I made it. I will always be so great full Robin to everyone that made that happen. It was so great to get to do that!!
And I bet you were more cheerful for the song once you performed it during the NFL’s Thursday Night Football Game between Arizona Cardinals and the Denver Broncos. Along for your video winning “The Creation International Film Festival” for Best Music Video?
Receiving the award for Best Music Video meant so much to me. We shot that video while I was doing chemo and was really sick. People were telling me to just hire an actor for the video but I wrote the video treatment. I wanted it to show a woman in training for the fight of her life and that woman was me at the time so I wanted the video to be authentic and real so that it would help maybe even a little more to keep other’s in their fight and encourage them to NOT give up their fight.
The NFL performance was another thing I wanted to do…perform the song during NFL breast cancer night. The producer of that event emailed me just after my GMA performance and asked me to do their halftime show and sing the National Anthem. That was just amazing.
For me, Fight Like A Girl is a song and video that has probably been the most powerful recording and video I have ever recorded. It really means something very special to me and I’m so proud and honored when someone tells me it’s their theme song. People have written to me with all kinds of stories about how the song has helped them. Not just cancer patients but people that have all kinds of obstacles and battles in their lives from cancer to being single mothers or people fighting to keep their job. As a songwriter, it’s the biggest accomplishment when someone tells you how your song has helped them in their life.
What is the year make and model of your favorite guitar?
I have every guitar I’ve ever owned and they all mean a lot to me. I guess my go-to electric guitar is my 1969 fender telecaster.
And do you have a name for the guitar?
Buddy
How do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
I see myself as a healthy cancer free cancer advocate/artist musician. I hope to always write, record and perform music and hope to be involved with making people feel good and being a part of making this world “breast cancer-free”.
Anything you would like to say to your fan?
I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone for always supporting my career through the years and most importantly all the positive thoughts, messages and prayers they have given along the way!
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