When Cindy Nixon Psanos, Diane Williams Austin, Doris King Merritt and Tammy Stephens Smith first started singing together in the 1980s, they never dreamed that they would become a touring sensation. Nor did they dream they would ever meet the likes of George Jones, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Statler Brothers, Lee Greenwood, The Judds, Randy Travis, Exile, Loretta Lynn and Sawyer Brown.

Not only did they meet these iconic greats, but they also toured and collaborated with many of them. The Girls Next Door have sung, quite literally, next door, on the Grand Ole Opry stage, and about as far from “next door” as you can get, performing at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

Right out of the gate, the group scored a #14 hit on the Billboard charts with their first single, “Love Will Get You Through Times of No Money.” They followed that single with the Top 10-charting “Slow Boat to China” which went to #8 on the Billboard charts. All in all, Girls Next Door charted nine songs in their nearly 10 years together.

Aside from their Opry performances, the Girls Next Door’s television appearances include The Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, Nashville Now, Crook and Chase, On Stage, Hee Haw and Video Country.

In 1991, Girls Next Door performed for the last time on Nashville Now With Ralph Emery. They were building families and wanted to move forward with God and family first. Life happened. Their children turned into teenagers; they became caretakers for their aging parents. Diane and Doris both fought cancer and survived. All the while, these devoted ladies relied on God to see them through and trusted that there was a season to everything.

When the group sang together for the wedding of one of their children they said “it was like riding a bike,” according to group member Diane Austin. Their vocal harmonies interwove like they had never been apart.

“Everything just came back together,” Austin said.

Now, as they enter their golden years, the Girls Next Door have reunited. They are not in it for the money or the fame—the main goal in this facet of their careers is to have fun! Their album Girls Next Door 2.0 was just released earlier this year. Tracks include recent singles “Livin’ in the Rain,” “When the Water’s Down” and “What’s This Thing (You’ve Got About Leaving).”

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Diane Austin, a 25-year resident of Murfreesboro, recently spoke with the Murfreesboro Pulse about the Girls Next Door relaunch.

Murfreesboro Pulse: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Diane Austin: Well, I have lived in Murfreesboro 25 years. I moved here from Nashville, and my husband is a professor at MTSU; Ben Austin is his name, and he’s a sociology professor. I did not grow up in Nashville. Actually, I grew up in Belgium. Dad was in the Air Force and we spent a lot of years there, and spent a little bit time in Colorado. I did end up in Nashville and I graduated from Overton High School. I’ve been singing as long as I can remember. My professional music career started when I tried out for Opryland. All four of us girls that are in the group were in the live shows that operated there and that was when I got my first paycheck. It was so much fun . . . we did that for several years.

Once we formed the group, you know, it was a process. But we toured for about 10 years and disbanded in ’91 because we were all having kids. We took a little hiatus . . . maybe a 30-something-year hiatus.

In the last couple of years, we’ve been able to regroup and start recording. We actually started this with a Kickstarter. I mean, we did not have the money to do this. Although we had Top 10 records in the ’80s, and lots of Top 20 records, we just didn’t have the money people seemed to think we did, especially using the musicians that we wanted to use [for the EP]. We raised, I think $24,000 to pay for the EP.

Plus, we don’t have a record deal this time. We had Atlantic Records when we folded; we started on MTM Records and then we moved to Atlantic. We had a label doing all the stuff that we’re doing now.

Who is your greatest inspiration?
The group . . . we all met at Opryland. But Doris was also a studio singer and her husband was an engineer. She and he were working with Tommy West. Tommy West produced Jim Croce and Ed Bruce and he was a pretty well-known producer at the time. And he told Doris, “You know what I would love to do? I’d love to work with a great group—you know, a country girl group.” And Doris said, “Well, I’ve got one.” She didn’t have one, she just told him she had one. But, she had one the next day.

So, you know, we all went out, sang for him, and it was magical. He was using us in some studio things; we were doing some background stuff, and I’ll never forget—he pushed the talkback button in the studio and he said: “Girls, how would you like to do this for real?” And we’re like. “Well, aren’t we doing that for real?” He goes, “No, I mean, how would you like to do this on a record label?” And what had happened is Mary Tyler Moore had started a label and they were sending people from California out to start the label. And Tommy West was made the head of A&R so he took us with him when he went to that label. Wow! So that’s how the group formed.

Now, to segue into that question, Tommy West is probably the second most influential person in my life career-wise, music-wise. We called him the “5th Girl Next Door.” He passed away last year, but he was a wonderful, wonderful man, and so talented and gifted at arranging. My number one person is probably my high school voice teacher. Her name was Phoebe Binkley. And she was just incredible. She was not only a gifted voice teacher, but she was also a gifted encourager. She was the one who would pack kids in her car and take them out to try out, audition for Opryland and college scholarships and all kinds of stuff. And my father was a big influence. My father was an incredible singer. He never did it professionally; he was military, but he’s the one that started me singing.

If you could pick one song to leave as your legacy, which would it be and why? What’s the song that really impacted you not just in your career, but just in your life?
Oh wow, that’s a hard question. Let me think. Now the biggest hit we had was “Slow Boat to China.” But, no, that would not be my legacy song. I liked it. It was fun, but it wasn’t something that was a “great song.”

I would say the first one we did. The very first song we did was “Love Will Get You Through Times of No Money.” It charted and it went to 14 on the Billboard charts, which was really good for your first shoot at the rodeo. But the song is beautiful and it has lots of meaning to me . . . it represents our harmonies. It’s like a signature of our harmonies, cause when you get to the very end of the song, there’s like this beautiful waterfall of vocals at the end of it—that’s us.

What brings you together as a group of strong Christian women?
We just released “Livin’ in the Rain,” which is a gospel release. But I’m telling you what . . . it’s just always been there with us. So you have to say that the whole thing is really a God thing. You know, we’ve all been Christians since we were little girls, and I’ll tell you when you get into a business like this, it can be very difficult. I don’t know how [we did it]. The first year we were gone over 300 days. There were four of us, and so we had strength in numbers, but we had strength in God, in Jesus Christ as well.

What have you been up to in your time away from the music industry?
When we got together, I had a scholarship to Belmont University and I was going to go into music therapy. Well, I thought, “I’m not going to college right now. I’ve got a career ahead of me.” I didn’t need it at the time. So when we broke up the first thing I did was I went to college. I was in my 30s. I went to MTSU and got a degree in music.

It was vocal performance; I got a scholarship to get an education degree. It was so hard, but it was fun. I did it as basically a single parent at that time. My son—his father and I had divorced, and his dad was good to him; I don’t want to insinuate that he wasn’t a good father. He was there and he was present, but it was tough.

While I was there, I directed a program called the preparatory program, where they would have graduate students or advanced students teach kids in the community. They would come in to the university. I had maybe 10 teachers, and I don’t know how many students I had, but it got really big. We were fighting for space. I finally went to the department chair and I said, “Can I just take this out of here because it’s too big for this department now?” And he said yes. And, so, I opened up a music academy over on Clark down the street from the university. I bought a building, opened an academy. We taught boys and girls music, preschool music, and about 10 instruments. I had a bunch of employees. I did that for a while.

I also taught at Providence Christian Academy. I did that for a long time.

I later went into public schools. And I got hired at Rockvale—went out there and taught out there for probably 10 years and I retired. The month after I retired, I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. And so my “cancer crisis,” which I call it that laughing right now, was I opened up a boutique called the Blue Eyed Daisy. I had the best time because my one of my hobbies is silversmithing and making jewelry. And I do a lot of baking too and stuff like that. But I love the silversmith part.

What are some landmark moments that really stand out to you in your career?
Well, one thing that stands out to me is we did Jamboree in the Hills in Wheeling, West Virginia, and it’s a huge festival. I think they’re still there. Our single had just peaked. Once it came out, it happened pretty fast for us. We hadn’t played any really big venues. We got out, I don’t know, I think there were like 20, 30 thousand. It was crazy! Like a huge field. And we walk out and they’re just screaming for us. It was like 104 degrees. . . . That was wonderful.

As we got into it, we did a lot with the Oak Ridge Boys. We toured with them a lot and we love them. We did a gig with them at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas for two weeks. The Oaks were always so much fun, and they were pranksters as well. But that gig was fun.

And then we did the Kennedy Center with George Jones.

Is there anything else that you would like to add?
The next single that will come out—we’re gonna wait until after Christmas for the next single—the next single is called “Shades of Gray.” The reason it is so special to all of us (but especially me) is that it is a song that we commissioned my son to write. His name is Christopher Foust. He called two friends, Shane Grove and David Wade, and we told them we want this song that is relatable to people our age. And I cannot believe what these men came up with! It is a song about how life is full of shades of gray. It starts with the little girl in your lap as she looks up at your gray hair and says “what happened to all the color in your hair?” The grandmother says “if you look close enough, you’ll see it’s always there, because life is full of shades of gray.” It’s just perfect. I am so excited about that song for many, many reasons, but mainly because my child wrote it.

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Keep up with Girls Next Door on girlsnextdoormusic.com and watch and subscribe to their soul-touching music videos on the group’s official YouTube channel.