Watch LeAnn Rimes’ ‘Today’ Performance Bring Hoda and Jenna to Tears
Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb were brought to tears by LeAnn Rimes’ recent performance on Today.
She sang “Innocent” from her new album God’s Work.
“I hope it reminds everyone of their innocence,” Rimes said.
Today hosts Jenna Bush Hager and Hoda Kotb often find themselves in emotional moments on-air—and they shared a pretty poignant one recently with LeAnn Rimes when she joined them to perform her new song “Innocent,” bringing both of them to tears.
The piano ballad, from her new album God’s Work, features moving lyrics like: “You’ve wandered so far, from who you truly are, and it’s time to stop getting drunk off the river of forgetfulness.” It continues: “I want you to be forever, innocent, I hope you know love, oh, and nothing less.”
At the end of the song, Kotb and Bush Hager rushed back onstage to join Rimes while wiping tears from their eyes. “Wow, wow, wow!” they exclaimed. “We were weeping!” Bush Hager said. “What a beautiful love letter to yourself,” Kotb added through sniffles. “I hope it reminds everyone of their innocence,” Rimes smiled. (You can watch the full performance here.)
Fans, too, found the moment to be a tear-jerker. “I was in tears along with Hoda!” one person commented on Instagram. “That song got me 😢,” another added.
In an interview with Kotb and Bush Hager, Rimes shared the inspiration behind the song, and her 17th album. “It just felt like it kind of poured in through me. It was three years in the making ... it is a very spirit-filled record,” she said. Bush Hager pointed out that now is the perfect time for such music, given the hurdles presented by the pandemic.
“I really did feel like, with this album, we really tapped into a collective experience, and wrote about all of the emotions we were going through,” Rimes said. “There’s grief on this record. There’s rage on this record. And there’s a lot of hope also. So I think we touched into the whole gamut of the human experience.”
Then it was Rimes’ turn to choke back tears, as Kotb asked her to reflect on her decades-long career, and how she’s changed since entering the music business at 14 years old. “You’re going to make me cry. Why are you gonna make me cry right now? I think the song I’m singing, ‘Innocent,’ is about her,” she said, pointing to a photo of her younger self. “When I look back I’m very proud of her.”
If there wasn’t a dry eye in the house over one song, the whole album is bound to be a good one. It released on September 16 and is available to stream now.
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