Any regular readers know that I like to highlight opening artists before concerts to showcase them and inform people of who they are. No introduction is needed for Rascal Flatts’ opener for tomorrow night, although I thought I would showcase her just like I do the rest. Jessica Simpson should be a name that nearly everyone should recognize. If it isn’t from her hit singles, then it would be from the reality show she used to be on, or perhaps her famous boyfriend, Cowboys Quarterback Tony Romo. That being said, Jessica is a new face to country fans.

Jessica Simpson latest record, Do You Know, is a change from her previous hits which we all pop singles. Do You Know, which release on September 9, 2008 was her first stab at a country album. Hailing from Texas, Jessica’s dad believes it is going back to her roots. She has a good start already. The album debuted #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart (which is Jessica’s first #1 album) and she is opening for one of Country Music’s biggest names, Rascal Flatts. Below is an excerpt from an interview conducted by Melinda Newman with for MSN Music.

MSN Music: What do you want people to learn about you from listening to this album?

Jessica Simpson: I think people just forgot that I sing (laughs). I have been quiet for the past two, almost three years. After the divorce I really just shut off and had to heal before I could be strong enough to take the world on again, so the world took me on and just ran with it and has completely given people a false perception of who I am. With this record I think that people will experience my heart again and experience my voice again.

You have been in several movies and have your name attached to several brands. Do you still consider yourself first and foremost a singer?

Oh gosh, yes. I think that the only way to do that to where I could understand myself was in country music. In pop music I kept delivering all these ballads and pop radio just wouldn’t play them. Pop music, just for me personally, was too beat-driven and it was too much about all the glitz and glamour and what I was wearing … Radio DJs would really try to dig in deep and get from me what they wanted and then just kick me out the door, so I started to feel a little bit used and abused. In country, it’s really different. People really care about the music and the lyrics and why you wrote it because they can relate to it.

After your last pop album, 2006’s “A Public Affair,” you said you didn’t want to perform again.

I just don’t think ["A Public Affair"] should have been released because I was going through such a hard time. That was right during the divorce. Nick had released his album and he was talking about us and I couldn’t believe it, I was so hurt. I felt like he was using our divorce as some kind of promotion. It really made me nervous to do interviews and to promote something. So I was like, if I’m going to put this record out, all the songs are going to be up-tempo and I’m just going to dance and tell everybody that I’m happy and that everything is great. And I’m a horrible liar.

This album takes you on an emotional journey. Could you have done this CD when you were 21?

No, absolutely not, because my heart had never been destroyed the way it has been since I was 21. I guess God allows certain things to happen but he never gives us more than we can handle. Now I look at it and I’m thankful for the pain because I think people can relate to me more and it makes me more human to people.

You’ve said that every song on “Do You Know” is a piece of your heart. “Remember That” is about an abusive relationship. What piece of your heart is that?

I think it’s important for women to find value and self worth in themselves in every relationship that they’re in. And abusive, controlling situations are extremely hard to break free from. No matter how much you love this person, they’ve hurt you, whether it’s emotionally, physically, mentally. They have left the mark. Whenever you do find that confidence to take your heart and run from the situation, it’s a burden lifted off of your shoulders.

Follow this link if you would like to read the rest of the interview. Doors open at 7:00pm tomorrow and the show begins at 8:00pm. Be sure to get there on time so you can see Jessica perform some of the songs off her newest album.