Faith Hill Photo by: Cliff Watts
A New Faith| Faith Hill
It was McBride who called Hill after the CMAs to warn her that she was the gossip of all the parties. Recalls Hill: "The blood just fell from my body and I just started bawling." The first thing she did was call Underwood to resolve the mix-up. The next day she called her manager. "I said, 'I'm done. This is unraveling me.' I'm such a happy, easygoing person," she explains. "To be under that type of scrutiny and to have it be so false, it's like depleting every ounce of respect and character I had. And there was no fighting it. It was so big." Indeed, all she could do was go on with the show. As she began the Soul2Soul tour in June, the routine of the road, hanging with family members and friends who came and went, was healing. But what drew out her strength, she says, was "my own realization that I was credible, that in the face of all this criticism, I have my fans out there and I can connect with them and they see me as I am."

Like it or not. In Lafayette, La., in July, Hill was underneath the stage while her husband was performing when, she recalls, "He comes down, furious, and says, 'Some lady just grabbed my crotch.' He was p-----; he gave her a piece of his mind. So I thought, 'Okay, it's taken care of.'" But when she got on stage, says Hill, "The woman gave me this look, like, 'I just grabbed your husband's privates, and there's nothing you can do about it.' My emotions took over. I was like, 'God, you better hold me on this stage because I'm about to jump off it and get her.' " Instead, she fired a verbal salvo, telling the fan in no uncertain terms to get some class. "I'm all for the girls going crazy and going goo-goo gaga over him," she says. "But when another woman grabs my husband's privates? Hello? I don't think so! Hands off! You know what I'm saying"?

Rita Wilson applauds her for showing her "strong moral core. Because she's famous she's supposed to be polite"? Says singer Lori McKenna, a friend who opened for some shows this summer: "I was like, 'You go, girl!' I was so proud of her." As was her husband, says Hill: "He was like, 'C'mon, bring out the Mississippi! Whooo!' He gets all excited when I get feisty."