Gretchen Wilson said the money trouble came while the success was already obvious. In 2004, her debut single, “Redneck Woman,” spent six weeks at No. 1 and made her the breakout new voice in country music, but she later wrote that she was more broke than ever even as the hit climbed the charts.

That is why Wilson’s story still gets attention today: the song that made her famous did not immediately make her rich. “Redneck Woman” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart on May 29, 2004, won her a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, and helped put her on a fast track that also brought the CMA Horizon Award in 2004 and Female Vocalist of the Year in 2005. But in her 2007 autobiography, she said she had already stopped bartending and singing demos, and was supporting herself and her daughter on modest advances against royalties while the money owed to her had not yet paid out.

Wilson said the song began with a simple reaction to the polished image of country stardom. She said she and John Rich were watching country music videos when Faith Hill’s “Breathe” came on, and she looked at him and said that she would never look or feel like that. Rich asked what kind of woman she was, and Wilson answered, “I’m a redneck woman.” That exchange shaped the song’s blunt attitude and gave her, in her words, a responsibility to speak for girls who felt like her.

The friction in Wilson’s account is what makes it linger. She was a chart-topping, award-winning new artist in 2004, yet she said her finances were worse than at any other point in her life. The hit was real. The cash had not caught up. Her story leaves one unanswered question at the center of country’s breakout moment: how long did it take for “Redneck Woman” to finally pay her.