JP: You are on tour with Trisha Yearwood, is that going to last a while?
CT: Ohh, no. I just have four dates with her. I am doing radio shows this summer. So it’s everywhere and anywhere I can be, I am there.

JP: So, not resting I hope.
CT: Sunday will be my last day with Trisha, then the Fall slows down and there will be some more stuff coming up that we are in talks about. So, I’ll be busy.

JP: And how did you get started in this crazy business?
CT: Dreaming. Gosh, that’s a hard question. You have to specify. How far do you want me to go back, because I could talk forever?

JP: I have all the time in the world.
CT: I’m from Georgia you know. We talk a lot. I’m a slow Southern talker, and I will probably tell you things you don’t care to know. But I think like anybody, you know? It’s a dream, it’s a wish, and it’s a want. It was a desire I had at 12 years old and I told my parents I was going to be a country singer. I heard Trisha Yearwood sing She’s In Love With A Boy and I thought that’s what I want to do. So I did anything and everything I could do growing up. Pageants, banquets, whatever I could do: chorus. I went to college and really wasn’t doing anything there so I decided to move to Nashville. So I have been here for four years. I came here after I applied to Belmont University, and I went there for a year and a half. And my parents sold a car so I could go to school and wanted to pay for the first year, so I didn’t have to go in debt. That way, if I didn’t like Nashville, I could come home without any baggage. I went to school and then dropped out after a year and a half, because I thought in order for me to do what I want to do, I didn’t need to go to school. I just got odd jobs, retail work, waitressing, nannied, I was a model for a little while. I really didn’t get any work, but one of the jobs I got was to shave my legs at Deena Carter’s platinum album party for Did I Shave My Legs For This. I was atmosphere for the party. So the other girl that got hired, she had her bathtub and I had mine. About a month later, I was coming out of my apartment and she was coming out at the end of the hallway from another door. So we lived in the same building and didn’t even know it. She was writing at the time for a publishing company and I was waitressing a lot, like obscene hours. One night I just got really down. Actually, there were a lot of nights I got down. I wanted to be doing this and I wasn’t. I wasn’t playing out like people do. I wasn’t in the scene. I didn’t go out and listen to people play all the time. I didn’t like that. And I didn’t think that’s how … I didn’t know how it was going to happen for me, but I didn’t think that was the way. So one night I went down and was talking to her about if I should do this and she encouraged me. She was talking to me and we were hanging out and she said, ‘You know, I need to introduce you to Tommy Lee James. He’s a writer at my publishing company and he has been looking for an act to write with and produce. I said, ‘Call him next week, because I am ready to go home.’ And she called him, and I have never written before and he never even heard me sing, but he agreed to work with me. And we started writing and Sony publishing got a hold of some of my stuff and wanted to sign me as a writer, immediately. And it just went from there. Capitol heard about me and I went in and sung two songs for them, and they offered me a deal on the spot. So it’s been a whirlwind.

JP: It came fast and furious.
CT: Exactly, it’s been crazy. Overwhelming.

JP: You mentioned Trisha was a main inspiration to you becoming an artist. What has it been like playing with her?
CT: That’s the most amazing thing. That’s the most precious experience for me so far, aside from meeting fans. I can’t describe it and nothing compares to what I have experienced with that. It’s almost too good to describe with words.

JP: Was living in Nashville like Samantha Mathis and Sandra Bullock in The Thing Called Love?
CT: I don’t think so. I think it’s different for everybody. It might be that for somebody else, but it wasn’t that for me. I didn’t go out and play all the time and do what a lot of people do. It was different for me. But it’s different for everybody. So for me it wasn’t like that, but if you ask another artist and they would say, ‘Yea.’

JP: Were you a country girl growing up?
CT: Growing up, I listend to a lot of different types of music. I have three older sisters so there was a lot going on in my house all the time. One sister listened to Manhattan Transfer, one listened to Janet Jackson and New Edition. My mom, she listened to oldies. My dad, when he drove us to school, listened to oldies. I had Hee-Haw album my dad got through his job. Yea, I loved Hee-Haw and I watched the Mandrel Sisters. But I don’t think I was a big country fan until I was 13, when I heard Trisha Yearwood sing. I knew what it was. And at that time, I think your tastes are just developing, especially when you have that much going on in your house. Because that was when Poison and Def Leppard was out, too. And my friends listened to that, so I had all this stuff going on and I was just trying to figure it out.

JP: Did you have crazy hair and rock out to Poison?
CT: Did I have crazy hair? I had big hair at one point. My favorite singer that I got a hold of was Karen Carpenter. I just loved her. So that was a definite in my life. But I was just trying to figure out my tastes.

JP: You said you were just about to pack it up and call it quits before it happened for you. Ever think about where you would have been if you left just a week earlier?
CT: I don’t want to go back there. I haven’t thought about it. It was just the way it happened was the way it was supposed to be. So I havn’t thought about it.

JP: How are you feeling about the CD My World being released? Only a few days away.
CT: I’m nervous. I haven’t been nervous yet until now about anything. When the song came on the radio or when the video came out, it was just different. This is … we’ll see, this is the true test, you know? Cause not only is it my voice on there, it’s my heart. I wrote these songs, so it’s like, you hope that people want it and need it. I don’t know, I’m nervous.

JP: Do you remember the feeling you had when you first heard your voice on the radio?
CT: It was amazing. It was May 2 of this year. I was driving down Weston Avenue in Nashville, but I heard it … I mean, radio stations will play it after I visit so they will turn it on when I get on the bus, but sometimes you can’t catch the signal because the bus has funky problems, but I was waiting on that one moment where I was driving to Kroger. Or wherever I was going when it caught me off guard. I pulled into, I was returning some videos, and they said, ‘This is Cyndi Thomson with her new song 'What I Really Meant To Say,' and I pulled into this parking lot and just wept. I couldn’t stop crying. It was amazing. I could barely breathe. I was like, wait a second. It was one of those moments like getting hit in the head with a big ol’ hammer, like ‘Ohhhhh my gosh.’ It was an amazing feeling.

JP: Do you ever think you could get used to hearing yourself on the airwaves or seeing yourself on CMT?
CT: I don’t know. I’m not a star. And who knows what tomorrow brings. I try to live my life like that all the time. I don’t think too far into the future. Because what matters is today, right now and I am living in this moment. Because if you look ahead you miss what happens right in front of your face.

JP: So, not thinking ahead to the success of My World?
CT: Yea. I would love for it to be successful, because I love what I do. I love to sing and I love to perform and I am in the arena where I have an opportunity here. I just, I’m sure people change but I hope that feeling doesn’t. I hope that it is always exciting to hear a song on the radio of mine. I hope that it’s always thrilling to see a new video. I love writing and I hope that it is always thrilling and exciting and that I always want to do it. So I don’t know, I am just not there yet. I am here.

JP: You went through a lot to get where you are today and it seems your parents are always backing you.
CT: I know what my parents tried to do was encourage us as individuals. They loved us and taught us our values based on who we are not what we do. Not our accomplishments. So when you have that type of upbringing, I knew my values. I knew I was loved and they encouraged each daughter to do the best at whatever it was they desired to do. So they were amazingly supportive, always, in anything I tried to do. Now, I think if I were real horrible at something, my mom would say, ‘Let’s try to do this.’ But it was always music, and I played tennis and I swam, those were always the things I was really strong in and when you have a child that does something well, you try to encourage them in that. So they have always been supportive. But also been the kind of parents that allowed us to make choices and be independent.

JP: Although you may not want to say, but is there a favorite song on My World?
CT: Yes, my favorite song is 'If You Were Mine.' Cause I love love. I’m the romantic. But I love that song. It’s a different way to talk about love, you know. It’s me. It’s what I would say about it. I just love it. I love the way it makes me feel. I love singing it.

JP: Does that make it your favorite to perform as well?
CT: That’s kind of hard. But I guess it’s my favorite to perform. But I love the other ones make me feel, too. There are a few that I just love to watch the faces on other people.

JP: I know My World isn't even out yet, but have you thought about songs for the next record? Or has touring and meeting people been influencing your writing?
CT: Well I have already written about 10 songs, and there are about five of them, six of them, for the album. So I don’t know. I don’t think they are influencing me. I draw from so many different things. I mean, I have never had fans before, I never done this before, so who’s to say that they are not an influence. I am a big watcher of life. I love living. And I watch movies and I love reading, and these are things I will always draw upon. So those things are influencing me now. And I don’t know, there are so many things influencing me. So I don’t know what I am experiencing now will do to me. If anything, it’s what I am doing now; it is hard to get the time to write. So, that is influencing the fact that I am not writing. But I blocked some time out to get busy.

JP: You said you never really 'played the scene' in Nashville, so you are really getting your first taste at performing on a consistent basis. Do you feel yourself improving each night?
CT: That’s a hard question to ask somebody. You should probably ask someone who has seen the show. Cause they could say, ‘She ain’t getting any better,’ or ‘She stinks.’ I don’t know. I feel pretty confident, it just depends on the day, too, and how many planes I have been on. There are some days I’m just really quiet. I have been on the stage for a long time; I’m still a little green. I have a lot to learn. I am still growing. I don’t know how it’s progressed. I think I am just becoming more comfortable. Especially when you got people out there singing your songs. It’s really easy. It’s comfortable. With a country audience, they want you to do really well. The people that are there to hear you want you to do well. So it’s not like walking out in front of industry people holding a clipboard. It’s a whole different experience. It’s just becoming more comfortable, you know?

JP: Do you catch yourself watching Trisha or any other of the artists to see how they handle the crowd, the performance or just the live aura?
CT: I watch Trisha for many reasons. I am just in awe of her voice, her performance. But there are times I watch her do certain things. Her relations to the crowd. There are a lot of things that I look at that you may not see or that another performer might see that I don’t see. I am just always ... she’s really the only person I got to see out there. When you are a new artist, they just take you everywhere, so you really don’t get to see each other’s shows. It’s different.

JP: So I will see you in Cleveland. Good luck!
CT: Thanks a lot. See you soon.