Nettles was born and raised in the small town of Douglas, Georgia, United States, graduating from Coffee High School and Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia.[3] Nettles married Todd Van Sickle in 1998; the couple divorced in 2007.[4] On November 26, 2011, Nettles married her boyfriend of two years, Justin Miller, in a sunset ceremony at Blackberry Farm in East Tennessee.[5] On June 18, 2012, Nettles and her husband announced they were expecting their first child in November 2012.[6] Their son was born in December 2012.[7]
Musical beginnings
Nettles began performing at school assemblies, her Southern Baptist church, and in community theater. She was also a member of Georgia 4-H's Clovers & Company performing arts group from 1986 to 1993.[8]
Nettles studied Spanish and Anthropology at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, and graduated in 1997.[9] While a student there, Nettles and Cory Jones (who at the time was studying classical guitar at the University of Georgia) formed the group Soul Miner's Daughter. Performing as both an acoustic duo and with a band, they released two albums: The Sacred and Profane in 1996 and Hallelujah in 1998, both of which were composed of songs written collaboratively by Jones and Nettles.[10] Soul Miner's Daughter was invited to perform at the Atlanta installment of Lilith Fair in 1999.[11]
In 1999, she formed the Jennifer Nettles Band, with which she released three studio albums and two live albums. The band, which in addition to Nettles included Brad Sikes (drums), Scott Nicholson (piano), Wesley Lupold (bass), and Mike Cebulski (percussion), was selected the grand prize winner from more than 2000 bands in "The Big Deal $100,000 Music Search" presented by Mars Music.[12]
Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush on stage, 2009Sugarland at Elkhart, Indiana County Fair, July 2006
In 2003, Nettles teamed up with Kristen Hall and Kristian Bush to form Sugarland. In 2006, Hall left the group[13] and Nettles and Bush continued on as a duo releasing Enjoy the Ride in November 2006. Their third album, titled Love on the Inside, was released on July 22, 2008. Regarding the trio's collaboration, she said:
We really wanted to get out of where we had all been as artists and move beyond that to something bigger. Consequently all the songs reflect that; 'Fly Away,' 'Baby Girl,' all of those songs - you speak to the human condition and write what you know in your life.[14]
In an interview on Fox News with Martha MacCallum, Nettles expressed interest in appearing in a Broadway play, stating in particular that she would like to play the role of Elphaba in Wicked.[18]
In early December 2008, Sugarland received three Grammy Award nominations and performed on the 51st Annual Grammy Awards show on February 8, 2009. They won awards for Best Country Song and Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group.[19]
Jennifer Nettles during a concert in March 2009, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.
On February 11, 2009, Sugarland received two nominations from the Academy of Country Music for Top Vocal Duo and Vocal Event of the Year for "Life in a Northern Town".[21] During the broadcast of the April 5, 2009 awards show, Sugarland was presented with the Vocal Duo of the Year award, ending Brooks & Dunn's nine-year run.[22] Nettles also received a Milestone award, presented to her by Reba McEntire.[23]
ABC broadcast the first CMA Country Christmas, hosted by Nettles, on November 29, 2010. Nettles and Sugarland partner Kristian Bush kicked off the evening with their rendition of "Winter Wonderland", backed by Little Big Town. The pair returned to the stage later in the program to perform the hymn "Come, O Come Emmanuel", just before the "Jingle Bell Rock" group grande finale of the 90-minute special.[24] Until 2016, Nettles was the sole host of Country Christmas but was replaced by Reba McEntire for the 2017 show.
After a five-year hiatus while Nettles and Bush recorded solo projects, Sugarland officially reunited in 2017 at the 51st Annual Country Music Association Awards and announced that they were working on new music together.[25] The lead single off their sixth studio album Bigger, “Still the Same" was released on December 21, 2017.[26]
In 2012, Nettles appeared as a judge on the ABC singing competition series Duets alongside Kelly Clarkson, John Legend and Robin Thicke. The show was cancelled after one season.
Nettles announced in May 2013 that she would begin working on a solo album.[29] Her first solo single, "That Girl", was released in August. Nettles co-wrote the song with Butch Walker, and Rick Rubin produced it. The album, also titled That Girl, was released on January 14, 2014.
In July 2015, Nettles parted ways with Mercury Nashville. Nettles then signed with Big Machine Label Group. Nettles announced that she would be going on the "Playing With Fire Tour" with Ryan Kindler and Brandy Clark as her opening acts. The tour was then extended by CMT and promoted as "CMT Presents Jennifer Nettles with 2016 Next Women of Country Tour" with Brandy Clark and special guest Lindsay Ell and Tara Thompson for over 30 dates across the country starting in January 2016. Nettles then released a music video for her song "Sugar", she would be performing this song, which is off her upcoming album, at the 89th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on the Domino Sugar float. Nettles then released the first official single, off her upcoming album with Big Machine, "Unlove You" which she debuted on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on November 24. In March 2017, Nettles made her international solo debut at the C2C: Country to Country festival.[30] For six years in a row she has hosted the CMA Country Christmas on ABC. In 2018[31] Jennifer Nettles duetted with Josh Groban on his "Bridges" and "Bridges Live" albums with the Groban-penned song "99 Years". In December 2019 Nettles ended her solo deal with Big Machine Records but her duo Sugarland signed an exclusive deal with Big Machine.
To coincide with the sixteenth anniversary of the 9/11 attack, Nettles released a song called "King of the City", which tells the story of an immigrant who lost his life during the tragedy. Of the track, Nettles said "it has been so long since I started writing this song, but I was only able to finish it in the last year. I was inspired by the political tensions in our country right now. I want to humanize the immigrant story as an American story, and allow people a different narrative from what they might, or might not, be seeing on the news or in their communities".[32]
In February 2015, Nettles joined the Broadway cast of Chicago, where she played the role of Roxie Hart for a limited engagement.[34] In April 2016, she had a role on the WGN America series Underground. Her role was as a wife and mother who became a mental patient.
Since 2019, Nettles has portrayed Aimee-Leigh Gemstone, the deceased matriarch (featured in flashbacks) of a fictional Southern evangelical family in HBO’s dark comedy series The Righteous Gemstones. She also co-starred in the drama Harriet, about abolitionist Harriet Tubman, playing Eliza Brodess. The film was directed by Kasi Lemmons.[35]
She played the lead role of Jenna in the musical Waitress on Broadway from October 19 to November 25, 2021.[36]
Nettles plays Miranda, the mother of a young woman named Katherine, possessed by a demon, in the 2023 film The Exorcist: Believer.[37]
Activism
Nettles has lent her time and talent to support various non-profit organizations. Nettles has been a longtime supporter of the Shalom foundation.[38] She raised more than $120,000 for the foundation in 2007.[39]
In 2008, she launched Common Thread, a series of musical events enabling artists to come together to share music and raise money for their favorite charities. The first three Common Thread concerts included performances by Nettles, Sugarland partner Kristian Bush, Emily Saliers, and Amos Lee and raised funds for the American Cancer Society, American Liver Foundation, Honor the Earth, and Intercultural Family Services.[40]
Following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Nettles and Sugarland partner Bush sang on the remake of We Are the World as part of Artists for Haiti.
In February 2012, Nettles was one of a group of celebrities who walked down a catwalk in red dresses for the 'Heart Truth Red Dress Collection' show, part of New York Fashion Week. She wore a David Meister dress.[41]
In November 2019, Nettles attended the CMA Awards wearing a Christian Siriano design with a hot-pink train. The train had a hand-painted graffiti painting by Alice Mizrahi and a message stating "play our [expletive] records; Please and Thank You", and the backside said "equal play". Nettles' outfit was in protest of country music radio stations not giving equal play time to female artists.[42]
At the 2020 CMT Music Awards, she was recognized for her activism in the fight for equal play with the first CMT Equal Play award.[43]
^Clovers and Company History, CAST MEMBERS AND SHOW PROGRAMS THROUGH THE YEARS!. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 18, 2013. Retrieved August 27, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Retrieved August 27, 2010.
