Country newcomer Julie Roberts talks about the GAC Christmas tour

Julie Roberts made a splash on the country music scene when she debuted in 2004 with a self-titled album. The South Carolinian's blond hair, blue eyes and cute Southern drawl instantly won her many fans, as did her earnest songs about loss, heartache and relationships gone bad. But Roberts wasn't always the pretty country star. For years she toiled behind a desk at Mercury Records in Nashville, Tenn., waiting for her big break. One day, a producer she recorded a few songs with let Roberts' boss hear the tracks, and a rising star was made.

Roberts will be one part of the five-act lineup at Monday's GAC Country Christmas Tour stop at the Show Me Center in support of her second album, "Men and Mascara." This week she spoke to the Southeast Missourian's Matt Sanders about the tour, the road and her music.

As for actress Julia Roberts, there's no relation.

Q: So have you ever been on a tour like this five-performer GAC tour?

A: Not like this, no. I was on the Rascal Flatts tour a couple of years ago, in 2004, but it was different. I was on my own bus, they were on their own bus. With this one, we're all on the same bus. I'm excited about it. It's going to be different.

Q: So you guys will be in some pretty close quarters.

A: It's going to be great. We're going to get to know each other real well, 21 days on the same bus.

Q: Are you glad to be on a Christmas tour, singing holiday music?

A: I really love the traditional Christmas songs. One of my favorites, Blue County's doing it, is "Silent Night." The traditional Christmas songs are my favorite, they're the ones that I remember singing when I was little.

Q: What's it like touring around the holidays?

A: I'm excited. A lot of artists take off in December, too. And I love being on the road, I love playing shows and being gone and being on a bus and meeting people, just playing music every night. So I'm going to be happy, I'm going to be so happy, and playing Christmas music is going to make me be even happier.

Q: The tour ends before Christmas, so you'll get to spend the holiday at home. But from the sound of it, you'd be just as happy on the road.

A: It's home for me, I love it. But yeah, I'll go back to South Carolina at Christmas. I live in Nashville but my family's in South Carolina.

Q: Your music is often slow and reflective, about heartache and change, unlike a lot of today's popular country. Did you do that on purpose?

A: I don't think about it, honestly, I just do music that I love. I've always loved music like Patsy Cline recorded and Tammy Wynette, music that speaks to me, with real lyrics, that tell stories about life, and that's what speaks to me and what I've always tried to sing. And it's just real to me, and if I recorded anything that wasn't real to me then I would feel like I wasn't giving you me every night; it would be somebody else.

Q: You came out to a lot of critical acclaim. Where you ever surprised by that?

A: It was amazing. You know, you never know what to expect, honestly. It was just a blessing. I thank God every day when I read those things. Because I put my heart into it, it's what I love and I work really hard on giving you a part of me in every song, and I just want people to be touched by it.

Q: Do you ever find that people let your looks overshadow your value as an artist?

A: People talk to me about my music, they talk to me about my songs and how they've changed their life and how they like my lyrics and how they can relate to them, and that's what I think about and what my focus is. I never really thought about the other way and that overshadowing anything.

Q: A lot of your songs are about relationships gone bad and other sad moments in life. Do you draw that from your own personal experience?

A: I've seen that in my life a lot, with people close to me. I've seen people really close to me live those words, and when you've seen it you can sing about it and feel it. And every song on our record, whether it's about heartache or about a girl leaving home, I can relate to it in some way.

Q: One of your songs, "The Girl Next Door," takes the point of view of a girl who isn't the prom queen, isn't the popular, pretty girl. Are we hearing part of you in that song?

A: Four years ago I was working at the Mercury desk as a receptionist ... answering phones and wanting to be the singer. I wanted to be them, and I was that girl behind the desk with a bad hair job and 20 pounds overweight, and I couldn't get anybody looking at my music.

It's not the cheerleader and prom queen, it's the girl behind the desk and the singer, that's me. I meet girls on the road all the time who say "Hey Julie, I want to be a singer just like you. How do I get there?" And I feel like I'm this person and I've been there. That was me sitting behind the desk and I couldn't get over there and I felt like I wasn't as good as them, and I just kept working at it and working at it and working at it. So I feel like so many people can relate to that song, so I put it on my record.

Q: So what's life like now that you're playing music for a living and you've had success at it?

A: It's great. I don't ever want to go back to answering phones.

My prayer was answered -- I used to pray for this every day when I was little.