During an appearance on The Today Show on Friday (May 16), Trisha Yearwood shared a story about being discouraged from songwriting at the age of 19 by an offhand comment from a man. “Bless his heart. I’m sure he probably wouldn’t even remember ever saying it, but… I was 19 years old. And I gave him a bunch of poetry,” Yearwood recalls. “Everybody in Nashville’s writing. I was in college. He just said, ‘Yeah, you’re a good singer, but you’re not really a writer.’ And I just let it be the truth for 40 years.” The 60-year-old country star is now set to release her first album of co-written songs, The Mirror, in July, with Yearwood crediting a fresh, new perspective which led her to start writing for herself. “I had this kind of ‘a ha’ moment. I turned 60 last year, and I highly recommend it. Everything sort of opened up,” she said. “I just thought, ‘That doesn’t have to be the truth about me just because somebody says it.’ And I started writing for me.” (People)