In 1997 Diane Warren wrote the record-breaking song “How Do I Love” for the Nicolas Cage film Con Air, recorded by both Trisha Yearwood and LeAnn Rimes – and what came next is the forgotten story of one of the most uncomfortable nights in music industry history.
Diane wrote the song for the Walt Disney Pictures movie, who then asked the then-14-year-old LeAnn to record the song. LeAnn’s version was in the vein of the adult contemporary songs of the time and in a high register, but due to her age, executives realized that the song’s vocals needed to sound less like a pop record and more mature. Trisha was asked to record a version which featured acoustic guitars and a richer, lower-register vocal, with reports at the time claiming the film’s director felt Trisha’s recording brought a deeper emotional weight.
LeAnn’s record label did not feel comfortable releasing her version after Trisha’s was chosen for the film, but it was Diane who changed their mind. “I called [founder] Mike Curb and said, “You have to put it out. It’s a hit record for her,'” Diane told Rolling Stone in 2019.
So on May 23, 1997, both Trisha and LeAnn released their versions of the song, with LeAnn’s sent to mainstream pop radio and Trisha’s to country radio.
LeAnn’s version peaked at number two for five non-consecutive weeks in late 1997 and early 1998, and it spent 34 weeks on the UK chart. But it didn’t just set records – the song also held the record for the longest-running song in Billboard Hot 100 history (69 weeks) for over a decade.
Trisha’s version also peaked at number two on country radio – and in 1998, for the first time in history, the Grammy Awards nominated both LeAnn and Trisha for the same song in the same category: Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
LeAnn, then 15, was asked to perform the song during the ceremony leading to cheers from the likes of Celine Dion and Patti LaBelle, but it was Trisha who won the statue – immediately after LeAnn’s performance.
It became a watercooler moment with the public, and many critics at the time noted it was cruel to ask a teenager to perform and then immediately lose to the person who “replaced” her on the movie.
© AFP via Getty Images“I wasn’t a happy person,” LeAnn told the Associated Press later in 1998 of the decision by Grammys producers to order the show in that way. “I felt betrayed. Not by fans but by people in the business. It’s disheartening to see what the fans like and (have) politics take it from me.”
As Trisha took to the stage to accept the award, she began by simply saying the word “flabbergasted,” before joking: “I know how strange it must be to have 50 million versions of this song out there.”
Trisha has always said she had no idea that LeAnn’s version was being considered for radio play, telling the Chicago Tribune in 1997 that “the Nashville rule is, if somebody has a song on hold, you don’t record it”.
“There’s this kind of gentlemen’s agreement that if somebody has it, you don’t mess with it,” she said. “But in this case I didn’t think she had any kind of permission do that, so I wasn’t worried about it. Then I’m in Europe and I start to hear that (the Rimes version) has been released to radio. Then our version comes out, and it’s like it becomes this big battle between record labels.”
© WireImageTrisha said she was “horrified” to hear that radio stations would play both back-to-back and ask listeners to vote on their favorite version. “I would not have chosen to go up against LeAnn Rimes,” she told the publication.
LeAnn and Trisha have never spoken publicly badly about each other, and have chosen to never perform the song together. However, they both performed at the 2023 CMT “Smashing Glass” event, with their careers continuing to crossover in the Nashville space.
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