Not everyone who has worked in show business for 30 years comes out the other side and while LeAnn Rimes has emerged triumphantly — that doesn’t mean it has always been easy.

Since careening into the country music industry as a kid — she won two Grammys at just 14 — Rimes has charted her own course to success through ups and downs. At 43, she’s happily thriving and still evolving as a trailblazer.

“Everybody wanted to keep me this little girl forever, and that was just not possible,” Rimes exclusively shared in her Us Weekly cover story ahead of the premiere of her new ABC series 9-1-1: Nashville, which is out on Thursday, October 9. “For so long, I was afraid of all of these different aspects of myself because we’re told not to allow that out. [Now] I’m not afraid of myself any longer.”

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