Jessica Simpson Says She ‘Was Never Going to Win’ Against Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera

Jessica Simpson feels like she’s finally found her voice — and now nothing can hold her back.

In a lengthy interview with Rolling Stone published on Friday, March 21, Simpson looked back on the early 2000s and the state of pop culture at the time, when she was first breaking out as an artist.

“I was never gonna win, because I had someone like Britney [Spears] and Christina [Aguilera] ahead of me, who were selling so many more records,” she told he outlet. “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, and I felt like I was constantly letting people down. Even myself, probably because I wasn’t singing words I wrote.”

Her manager told her she should start writing her own songs, which resulted in her first-ever number-one single.

In 2020, Simpson made a 12+ hour playlist of her favorite music on Spotify. It included songs from Brandi Carlile and Patty Griffin, as well as the Alabama Shakes and Rosetta Stone. She realized she could make music that sounded like what she actually likes to listen to instead of what she was being told to produce. Simpson then moved to Nashville and began writing and recording.

Simpson started working with JD McPherson, who was fresh off touring with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. The duo are close now, but McPherson told Rolling Stone he was skeptical when Simpson first reached out.

“It wasn’t judgment,” he said. “Because if you put me in a studio with everything available and said, ‘Make music that sounds like what she’d done up to that point,’ I would have no idea how to do it. I wouldn’t know what plug-in to use, what microphone to use, who to hire. And then she sent me her inspiration playlist. I was like, ‘Now we’re talking.’”

The result is Nashville Canyon, which was recorded at home in the city with live musicians — a first for Simpson. “I’d only worn headphones and had a track in my ear,” she told the outlet. “I’d never got to feel the unearthing of a song and breaking it down.”

At the same time, her marriage with Eric Johnson was struggling. The pair were separated, and in January 2025 Simpson announced the decision to end their marriage was permanent. “Eric and I have been living separately navigating a painful situation in our marriage,” she said in a statement on January 13.

Simpson sparked split rumors in November 2024 while teasing new music. “Interviews in my Nashville music room where I unearthed my singular magic,” she wrote via Instagram at the time. “This comeback is personal, it’s an apology to myself for putting up with everything I did not deserve 🎶 🎼 🤍🖤.”