Every star needs a hero — someone who makes them realize what they want to become. For newcomer Mickey Guyton, the Texas native behind "Better Than You Left Me," that hero is LeAnn Rimes circa 1992.

“My church drove to Arlington, Texas, from Waco to see a Texas Rangers baseball game,” Guyton explains to CMT.com. “We were all the way up in the nosebleed section, and the announcer says, ‘Please rise as 10-year-old LeAnn Rimes sings the national anthem.’”

Guyton says she was hooked instantly. After all, Rimes was only two years older than her. That day was the start of her obsession with singing and country music, but Guyton says you can't just go around talking about it all the time.

“It wasn’t until I was older when I finally admitted it,” she says about her country star dreams. “When you say something like that, it’s pretty crazy. What are we normally supposed to be? We’re supposed to be a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, go to school. And for me to even say that was just kind of crazy.”

So, little by little and without taking it too seriously, Guyton began exploring her gift.

“I started doing solos in the church choir or when the school had a talent show,” she says. “I’d bring my boom box, and I’d sing ‘I Will Always Love You.’ I was just mesmerized by big-voiced women. So from LeAnn, I started listening to Dolly Parton and Patsy Cline and Patty Loveless and Reba McEntire and Faith Hill and Martina McBride.”

Now she can be honest about her dreams, since quite a few have already come true. Guyton's debut single, "Better Than You Left Me," is currently rising through Billboard's country airplay chart, and she sings every night on Brad Paisley's Crushin' It World Tour.

As for those big voices she fell in love with, check out her pipes on this "Whiskey Lullaby" duet with Paisley.

The Stories Behind Mickey Guyton's Songs

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