Michael Becker / FOXWith a little more than a week to go before she makes her live debut playing Mary, the mother of Jesus, Trisha Yearwood is comfortable admitting she’s had some major nerves about the undertaking.

“When I said yes to being part of The Passion, I honestly was just thinking, ‘Oh, it’ll be really cool! This will be something really different to do!’ And then, over the course of the next couple of days, it really hit me — ‘You just agreed to be Mary, the mother of Jesus.’ And then total anxiety set in,” she confesses. “And the only way that I have been able to wrap my head around it, is to try to take myself out of it.”

The two-time CMA Female Vocalist of the Year says she’s tried to focus more on expressing the messages in the songs, instead of trying to perform them like Trisha Yearwood. While she admits it’s been particularly challenging because she’s been remaking popular songs drawn from outside the country world — like her new single “Broken” and Whitney Houston‘s “Your Love Is My Love”– she feels like it really just continues her longstanding tradition of venturing outside her comfort zone just a little bit.   

“You know, after 25 years of making music, I think they go, ‘Oh — she’s the country artist,’” she reflects. “But I like that I do more than one thing. And it’s been really fun over the last 25 years to make a lot of country music records, and also to have people say, ‘Oh! You sang with [LucianoPavarotti! That was so cool!’ Or, ‘I heard you on the Broadway Meets Country [project]!’ and ‘I loved hearing you sing the [BarbraStreisand song!’ So for me, The Passion is another element. It’s another finger out of the country music field, just to go, ‘Hey — she does this, too.’”

Fox’s live re-telling of the final days of Jesus will be broadcast live from New Orleans on Palm Sunday. You can watch Trisha conquer her nerves starting at 8 p.m. ET on March 20.

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