Martina McBride: Killer Waitress!

9/27/2007 Stephen L. Betts   In a Reader’s Digest cover-story feature by acclaimed journalist Alanna Nash, Martina McBride says she’d do just fine if she ever had to go back to one of her former jobs - waitressing. “I’m a killer waitress because I see it as a challenge,” says Martina. “It’s a mental exercise. You go in order. If there are four people at a table, you start: One has the steak well, the baked potato, no sour cream; two has whatever. You memorize it. I’m very understanding about waitstaff, but it bugs me if they go, ‘OK, who had the steak?’” Martina also discusses her friendship with fellow country artist Faith Hill, and says she doesn’t understand women who don’t support other women. “We have to. If my girls start talking about somebody, I say, ‘Let’s think about why this person is acting this way; maybe they feel insecure or are having a hard time at home. Let’s don’t just be mean back.’” The singer also candidly reveals that although she’s never found herself in a situation that compares with most women who live with domestic violence (like the subject of her signature song, “Independence Day”), she has “felt helpless at the hands of someone else. I have been physically shoved or overpowered in a relationship. Abused is maybe too strong a word, and luckily I got out before it went too far. But when I’m singing songs like ‘Independence Day,’ I feel compassion for the women who live with that. And something about that song gives them courage to take action. The October issue of Reader’s Digest is on newsstands now.