Reba McEntire is looking back on one of the darkest seasons of her life and the remarkable friends who made sure she didn’t walk through it alone in a recent interview with Garden & Gun, the 70-year-old country star reflected on the tragic 1991 plane crash that killed eight of her band and crew members — and the famous musical friends who stepped in to help her heal.

“It was really hard for me to get back onstage, but Vince Gill called and said, ‘Buddy, I’ll be there for you,'” McEntire recalled. “Dolly Parton said, ‘Here, take my band.’ It was such a gift to see how many people stepped forward to help, and to reassure, because so many of us had hearts that were broken.” For McEntire, the crash was more than a headline — it was personal, disorienting, and deeply painful.

The devastating accident happened after a concert in San Diego when members of her touring band boarded a charter jet to fly ahead to their next stop. McEntire, who was scheduled to leave the next morning, was not on the plane. The crash killed her tour manager Jim Hammon, bandleader Kirk Cappello, keyboardist Joey Cigainero, drummer Tony Saputo, guitarists Michael Thomas and Chris Austin, bassist Terry Jackson, vocalist Paula Kaye Evans, and pilots Donald Holmes and Christopher Hollinger.

“I didn’t know if I was going to be able to continue,” McEntire told People in 2022, admitting that grief nearly convinced her to walk away from music altogether. But she said the tragedy also made her confront how fragile life is. “It showed me how precious life is, and by the grace of God and my faith, I realized that they went on to a better place.” In the end, music became part of her healing process.

Just eight months after the crash, McEntire released For My Broken Heart, an album she wrote to honor those she lost. The project became one of her most enduring, featuring hits such as “Is There Life Out There,” “The Lights Went Out in Georgia,” and “The Greatest Man I Never Knew.” For many fans, the album remains a testament to how grief can become meaningful when filtered through faith and perseverance.

That same year — though no one knew it then — McEntire met the man who would later become her fiancé, actor Rex Linn. The two didn’t pursue a relationship until 2020 and, due to pandemic shutdowns, fell in love over phone calls and text messages. “We created an intimacy by texting and talking over the telephone… It was very special,” she told E! News in 2024. The couple went public with their engagement at the 2025 Golden Globes and have remained open about how well they fit. “It’s just the perfect union, absolutely,” McEntire told Fox News Digital. “We do argue now. We argue a lot, but we have fun doing that, too.”

For McEntire, the story has come full circle — from heartbreak and unthinkable loss to companionship, joy, and a faith sturdy enough to carry the weight of both.