Why Jessica Simpson Says She “Was Never Going to Win” Amid Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera’s Careers

Why Jessica Simpson Says She "Was Never Going to Win" Amid Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera's Careers

Jessica Simpson knows the other pop stars of her time were irresistible. 

And that's why the "Public Affair" singer, 44, believed she was "never gonna win" when it came to breaking into the industry in the early aughts as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera topped charts.

"I was never gonna win, because I had someone like Britney and Christina ahead of me, who were selling so many more records," Jessica told Rolling Stone in an interview published March 21. "I didn't want to dance, I didn't want to wear a head mic."

"But I agreed to do it, because I worked for Sony, and I didn't want to let them down," she continued," and "I felt like I was constantly letting people down. Even myself, probably because I wasn't singing words I wrote."

However, she found success when she began to do her own songwriting, earning her first number one single, "With You," in 2004. 

Now, over 20 years later, the "Irresistible" singer is writing her own music once again—this time, in Nashville. On March 21, Jessica released her new five-song EP, Nashville Canyon: Part 1—her first new tracks in nearly 15 years.

Instead of continuing in the vein of her fellow early aughts pop girls, she's finding inspiration from artists across many genres including Patty Griffin, Alabama Shakes, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and especially Brandi Carlile.

"I was so inspired when she performed at the Grammys," Jessica gushed of Brandi. "I was like, finally! That's how women should be!"

Instagram/Jessica Simpson

And putting out new music isn't the only recent life change for the singer. In January, Jessica and husband of 10 years Eric Johnson, who share daughters Maxwell Drew, 12, and Birdie Mae, 5 and son Ace Knute, 11, announced their separation. Though, in her statement to E! news, the Employee of the Month alum emphasized, "Our children come first, and we are focusing on what is best for them."

But amid this new chapter, Jessica is remaining strong through the difficult times and focusing on the bright side—including time with her three kids.

"I don't know why my heart gets tossed around but I'm one of the lucky ones," she explained to People in February. "At least I have my children and I still have Eric. He's still very much a part of my life and will always be."

Plus, she has her music to lean on.

"Discovering this music is something I did on my own," she added. "Thank God I had Nashville, it was just a way of me owning myself and declaring it."

For more of Jessica over the years, read on.

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Everything Happens for a Reason

"I'm happy I did the show. I'm happy I was married. I'm happy that he was in my life," Simpson confidently told Elle in 2007, a year after her divorce from her Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica co-star Nick Lachey was finalized. "I have no regrets. And I will look you in the eye and tell you that I have no regrets about that. Not one."

Even the massive divorce settlement she paid out: Worth it to close that chapter of her life for good, she divulged in Open Book.

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High Road

Simpson was blindsided when, several years after she rebounded with John Mayer following her split from Lachey, the singer sang her praises in intimate fashion in an interview with Playboy that soon became infamous for his explosive turns of phrase.

But Simpson was super cool about it, admitting that she was surprised but, hey, his loss.

"He did apologize, but I mean, at this point it doesn't really matter," she revealed on The View. "I mean, I only thought he was stupid for breaking up with me."

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Jessica Simpson Collection

Let's Make a Deal

Word got out Simpson wanted to lose weight, and Weight Watchers had her back, signing her to an endorsement deal in 2012 after she gave birth to her first child, daughter Maxwell. 

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Jessica Simpson Collection

Fashion Star

Simpson's weight has been the subject of countless headlines, some mean-spirited, many admiring, and plenty of them self-generated—but she knows that her own experiences going up and down in size (her journals from 1999 are littered with self-ridicule about "how fat I was," she wrote in Open Book) with her winning approach to selling women's clothing and accessories, which she does to the tune of $1 billion a year.

"I want to make every woman feel confident in what they're wearing," she said at the Forbes Power Women summit in 2014. "I do feel like we're very fashion-forward, but we also listen to the consumer."

Simpson continued, "I have been every size on the planet and I understand women. And I just know how to dress them. I know there's all different kinds. There's life in the whole world beyond L.A. and New York. I understand Middle America and their mindset." 

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The Real Deal

Her candor has been known to make people laugh, raise their eyebrows, gasp, etc. But her guilelessness is at the core of who Simpson is—and she knows that's helped her in business along the way, too.

"I'm always a Southern girl at heart," Simpson told WWD.com in 2015. "My friends and family are my everything. They influence all that I do. I feel like I'm a relatable person. I'm completely open and honest with everyone. Whether that's too much openness or honesty, it makes me nonjudgmental. I'm one of those girls you would hopefully want to hang out with. When you have a lot of judgment in the world of design, it keeps you from being as creative as you can be….I'm a risk-taker."

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Another Football Player?!

That may have been what some folks were thinking when Simpson, who logged time as Dallas Cowboy fans' favorite scapegoat when she dated Tony Romo, stepped out with retired NFL player Eric Johnson, but it was soon obvious that their relationship wasn't cursed in any way.

HarperCollins Publishers

Woman of Letters

Simpson had been journaling since she was a teenager for a variety of reasons—"a black one for the end of my first marriage, red for the hope of a love affair, blue for when I wanted to focus on my career and song lyrics"—and Johnson, a big reader, encouraged her to get back into it early in their relationship, a way to purge in the morning whatever thoughts might be preventing her from tackling each day with gusto.

All of those thoughts, feelings and anecdotes became fodder for her best-selling memoir.

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Life's Natural Curves

Simpson's journey to attain the fallacy that is the so-called perfect shape couldn't be more relatable. In 2019, she revealed that after Birdie was born she'd dropped 100 pounds the old-fashioned way: by working out, eating clean (though not so restrictively she drove herself mad) and not taking no (from herself) for an answer.

"It's been a lot of hard work," she shared on a Sept. 26, 2019, appearance on HSN. "I have to say that I have worked very hard. Everything that I've been eating is mostly made with cauliflower."

Instagram/Jessica Simpson

Clearing Away the Cobwebs

In her book, she pinpointed the day where she realized she needed to get clean to Halloween, 2017, when there was just too much activity taking place at her often-busy house on what felt like an overwhelmingly busy day, and—addled by her growing reliance on alcohol and Ambien to make it through most days—she collapsed into tears. 

The next day, her friends had an intervention for her and, thanks to therapy and the support of her devoted inner circle, Simpson has been sober ever since.

In February 2019, finding a moment to herself after yet another hectic day, Simpson—then pregnant with daughter Birdie—wrote in what became the prologue to her book that she was physically pretty uncomfortable, but, "Still, I was present. I kept a promise I made to myself a little over a year before to show up in my own life. To feel things, whether they were the result of bad memories, or good ones in the making...I had to strip away all the self-medicating to feel the pain and figure out what was wrong...Knowing what I had to face was a good sign for me."