Some fans, depending on their age, know comic legend Vicki Lawrence as the ingenue from The Carol Burnett Show, or as Mama’s Family matriarch Thelma Harper, or maybe even as Hannah Montana’s Mamaw. But as it turns out, Lawrence stumbled into all of those iconic roles, and into show business in general, by accident. “It was totally serendipitous, honestly. I thought I was going to clean teeth, be a dental hygienist. Or I thought it would be fun to be a translator at the U.N.,” she tells Lyndsanity. And Lawrence’s short-lived music career was unexpected as well, after she recorded a song written by her “husband of 10 minutes,” Bobby Russell, that had been intended for either Liza Minnelli or Cher.

That Southern Gothic murder ballad, “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,” ended up going to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks and was the No. 11 song for entire year of 1973. Ultimately, Lawrence decided not to proactively pursue a music career, saying her battle with Russell over the song “was the ultimate demise of an already doomed marriage” and part of a “bittersweet chapter” in her life. But she notes that she “got a gold record, and I got the dog” in their divorce, and she did record enough music to warrant the release of her greatest-hits collection Singles, out this week.

Below, Lawrence opens up about her surprising career — how her “inherited” her hit song “by default”; how a random beauty pageant at Inglewood, Calif.’s Morningside High School put her on Carol Burnett’s radar; what it was like to sing with Dolly Parton on Hannah Montana; what it was like to be a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race; and more.

LYNDSANITY: I know you got your big break on The Carol Burnett Show because you looked a lot like Carol. There’s some story that’s the stuff of Hollywood legend, when you were mistaken for her and that put you on this amazing career path.

VICKI LAWRENCE: It did! I was told that I looked like Carol Burnett from the very first day that I entered high school, and when I was in my senior year, I entered a local contest called Miss Fireball, which was you’re going to be a spokesman for the fire department. I think what it was is the Fireman’s Ball was coming up and they wanted some girls to sing and dance, so they said, “We’ll have a contest.” And I entered that contest and our local newspaper gal mentioned in an article that I bore a striking resemblance to “a young Carol Burnett.” So, my mom said to me, “Why don’t you write her a fan letter?” So, I did — back in the day when people hand-wrote fan letters.

Carol and I at the Miss Fireball Contest pic.twitter.com/fkK8by2XLo

— Vicki Lawrence (@VickiLawrence_) March 10, 2014

And Carol received the letter? She read it? She got it! Actually, she says on the day of the contest it landed on her desk, and she says it was such an adorable letter that she took my dad’s name out of the newspaper article and looked us up in the phone book. None of this would ever happen nowadays. Do you remember phone books, Lyndsey? I do! Ha, OK! So, she got my dad’s name out of the newspaper article, looked us up in the phone book, and she called me. She said, “I want to come and see this contest tonight. I’m very pregnant, so I would prefer not to be seen. If you could get me two seats way in the back, I’m going to sneak in and sneak out, and then I’ll call you in a couple of weeks and we’ll have lunch and discuss your career, sweetie.” And I thought, “Whoa, OK, this woman is out of her flippin’ mind!” Come to find out, Carol is very prone to doing this kind of thing. I found out over the years that she just will act on her hunches. Anyway, she came to the contest, I won, and she crowned me! We took a picture. This was November of my senior year, so there was a picture of her and me and the mayor and fire chief in the newspaper. I didn’t hear from her until… well, I didn’t audition until the next summer. I graduated from high school, did an audition to be on The Carol Burnett Show, started at UCLA, and got on The Carol Burnett Show, all in the same fall.

The miss fireball contest pic.twitter.com/gB9wQnmnYI — Vicki Lawrence (@VickiLawrence_) March 9, 2014

Did you aspire before that to go into show business before all this, or was this a happy accident?

It was totally serendipitous, honestly. I thought I was going to clean teeth, be a dental hygienist. Or I thought it would be fun to be a translator at the U.N.

Both very noble professions, for sure.

But boring compared to being in showbiz, don’t you think?

Well, the U.N. job might’ve been interesting, but certainly not as interesting as the career you’ve had.

No, probably not early as funny.

Weren’t you a singer before you were famous?

I sang a lot in high school. I sang in every musical group there was. In my sophomore year I joined a group called the Young Americans, and they were sort of similar to Up With People or the Doodletown Pipers; there were a few groups like that at the time. We did a lot of variety shows, we toured a bit with Johnny Mathis, we played the Greek Theater with Henry Mancini. It was actually super-fun.

And then “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” was a massive hit for you in 1973. But apparently this was a happy accident too… because that song wasn’t initially supposed to go to you, right? I’ve heard that there were a couple other famous divas who were in talks to record it first. How did you come upon the song?

Well, this is a really good silly story. I was married to a guy that wrote that song [Bobby Russell] for about 10 minutes [Editor’s note: Technically, it was two years], and it was like one of the only good things that came out of the whole dysfunctional marriage. But he wrote this song. We were down in Nashville where he used to go in and demo all of his new material, and he was demoing away one night and he got done and started to pack up. And I said, “Well, wait a minute, what about ‘Georgia’?” And he said, “I hate that song!” I said, “That song is a smash! A stone cold smash!” So, he said, “Well, if you love it so much, why don’t you do the demo?” And he left and probably went and got stone cold smashed, actually.

But I stayed there in the studio with this one musician. We did this little demo, then brought it out to Hollywood to his producer at the time, Snuff Garrett. And Snuff listened to it and said, “This is a pretty good little song. I’m going to send it over to Liza. I’ve always wanted to work with her.” And I said, “This is not a Liza Minnelli song!” He said, “ Yeah, maybe you’re right. I’ll send it over to Cher” — he’d actually produced [Cher’s album] Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves. And Sonny [Bono] heard the song. Cher never heard it. Sonny heard it and said, “This will offend the entire Southern half of the country. Cher’s not going to do it unless it’s completely rewritten.”

And so, Bobby Russell — my husband of 10 minutes, who wrote “Little Green Apples” and  a few good hits — he said, “I never liked this song to begin with. Why the hell would I rewrite it?” So, Snuff threw his hands up and said, “Let’s just go in the studio and do it with Vicki.” So, I sort of inherited that thing by default. Nobody else really wanted it. It was the ultimate demise of an already doomed marriage, but I got a gold record. Things happen for a reason. I got a gold record, and I got the dog.

Is the song based on truth at all? Is it based on a true story of romantic intrigue and betrayal?

No, I’m not even sure the story makes sense. When they said they were going to do a movie of this, I said, “Well, I can’t wait to see how it ends!” … And it’s taken on some life, actually. It took on some life during the election [in 2020], I believe, when people were waiting for the Georgia results. I was seeing people tweeting the song that night.

So, if “Georgia” was such a hit, how come you didn’t really full-on pursue music after that?

Because it was sort of such a bittersweet chapter in my life. I just wanted to go back to The Carol Burnett Show and be funny and have a good time.

You were introduced to a new generation of music fans decades later on Hannah Montana. You played Miley Cyrus’s grandmother! What are your memories of working with her and her Billy Ray Cyrus on that show?

Well, she was the boss of that duo! Poor Billy Ray. Sometimes I felt very sorry for him. She is a pistol, and she is so incredibly talented. When they booked me on that show, it was really funny. I knew nothing about the show. I was road-tripping with my daughter, who was doing her PhD in Missoula and had come home to visit. We were road tripping back up to Missoula and my agent called and said, “It’s a brand-new show. This girl is incredibly talented. It’s going to be on the Disney Channel. They want you to play her grandma. It’s called Hannah Montana. What do you think?” And I said, “Well, the dog of my dreams, who I just left at home, her name was Hannah…” She was the black lab of my dreams, this dog. And I was on my way to Montana with my daughter, too. So, I said, “I think I have to do it.” It was meant to be, it seemed.

What it like working with Miley when she was so young and unknown?

The first day I was on the set, the producers pulled me aside and they said, “Miley is a little sponge. We’re trying to cast people that will teach her things. So, if you have anything to teach her, please, please, because she will learn.” And so, one of the first scenes we had together was in the kitchen, and we were trying to figure out all the props and where do the dishes go, and how do we do this at the sink and where do the lines go? And one of the first things I ever learned from Harvey Korman on The Carol Burnett Show was “make your props your friends.” It’s a great way to learn your lines by what you are doing now. Like, I’m putting the cup down, so that’s when I say a certain line, I think, “OK I’m washing this dish — that’s when I say that line.” So, I said to Miley, “Make your props your friends.” We sort of choreographed the scene and it was super-easy and fun.

Flash-forward to the end of Hannah Montana, I think it was one of the very last episodes, and Miley and Mamaw are all dressed up and we’re going to high tea at this very fancy restaurant. We start the scene, we walk in, we sit down at the table where we’re going to eat, and I set my purse down on the table. And I realized very quickly that that purse was going to be in every shot, which was going to be really bad. I said, “Wait a minute, you guys, I’m sorry, but cut! We need to move this purse.” And I said, “Miley, where’d you put your purse?” And she said, “I hung it on my chair, Vicki. Make your props your friends.” She learned, and now the student was teaching the teacher. It came full-circle.

Did you feel a certain kinship with Miley because you’d started off so young and green on The Carol Burnett Show?

She was a much different kind of a young girl than I was. But she was, and is, incredibly self-confident and knows what she wants. And she is a sponge. I was much greener than her, I would say. She’s always been smart. It’s so funny, after Hannah Montana ended and she went through that whole “wild child” period, every time I would do an interview, people would say, “What is going to happen to Miley?” And I’d say, “She’s going to come out the other side just fine.” It’s hard to be a Disney star and break out of that, because Disney monitors every word that comes out of your mouth, every single thing you do. And I feel like Miley has always known what she wanted from the get-go. That [TV show] was but a stepping stone. She’s just so incredibly talented and focused and self-assured.

Have you guys stayed in touch since Hannah Montana or crossed paths?

I feel like she kind of divorced Hannah Montana, so I’ve not had a chance to speak to her.

Would you ever do a Hannah Montana reunion if there was one?

I doubt that she would do that, but yes, of course!

On YouTube, there’s this amazing end-credits performance from Hannah Montana of you, Miley, Billy Ray, and Dolly Parton singing together, in character. That must have been an incredible experience.

Yes, I remember when they said Dolly was going to be on the episode, that we were going to be on the same episode, I stressing about, “What am I going to wear? How am I going to [compete]? Dolly is going to be Dolly.” I thought, “Oh, God, are my nails too long? Am I too…” Anyway, you walk in and there’s Dolly. How in the world she plays that guitar with those fingernails, it’s beyond me. But when you look at Dolly, you just want to stand there and take it all in. It’s just perfection. She is the most adorable lady in the whole world, and she is Miley’s godmother, so they are very tight and very close. She’s just a lovely, lovely lady. It was a pleasure to work with her, near her.

When you were on The Carol Burnett Show in the ‘60s and  ‘70s, which was a wonderful time for variety shows, were there any musical guests that stood out to you?

It’s funny because it was a comedy show, but coming from a musical background, for me it was the musical guests that always just made me go, “Oh my God!” I remember when Bobbie Gentry came on to do “Ode to Billie Joe,” we were waiting for her to show up, and she was late. They called downstairs to the guard, the guy with the gate that lets you in at the front, and they said, “Has Bobbie Gentry come through yet?” And the guard said, “I haven’t seen him.” Oh man, these people didn’t even know who she was! I was devastated. Definitely the Jackson Five [was a standout]. I got to dance with every one of those boys. If you Google it, it is absolutely hysterical. I am such a white woman in the middle of those darling guys. It’s just that’s funny. It’s pretty good. Carol never was into the new music so much —  the young music, I mean. Helen Reddy came on. But we had a lot of really classic people come on, like Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Charles and Bing Crosby.

How intimidated were you, not just to be in this stellar cast, but to be sharing the stage with all these legends, when you were barely out of high school?

I was kind of too stupid to even grasp the whole thing, really. It’s funny, somebody would pass away and my [second] husband [make-up artist Al Schultz, who died in June 2024] and I would read the news and look at each other and go, “Oh, yeah, we met them. We worked with them.” … It’s so weird that we knew all these people, all these people that we partied with. I mean, it’s just bizarre that we partied with Rock Hudson, or that we even crossed paths.

I feel The Carol Burnett Show was at the tail end of a golden age of television. Were you aware that you were making TV history? Especially the fact that it was a female-helmed show. Did you realize that that was a big deal, or only in hindsight?

I don’t think you know it at the time. Carol and I have talked about it, and she said at the time you’re just trying to get a paycheck, so you’re trying to stay on the air and do the best work you can. It’s only after the fact that you see the longevity, the way that show has held up and spanned the generations, and it’s just kind of incredible.

As I said, the ‘70s were a great time for variety shows, and there was a loving homage to someone by someone who I know is a huge fan of variety shows, RuPaul — RuPaul’s Drag Race did a Laugh-In-style parody, and you were a guest judge. That must’ve been so much fun.

Well, they wanted Mama! They wanted me to get into drag, so I think Mama was the one that really got me the job.

Mama is kind of like a gay icon now. Do you have any theory as to how Mama’s Family became that sort of cult show?

I think the gay guys love to dress up as a crazy old lady and say whatever they want and get away with it. I’ve gotten many, many, many pictures and videos of [drag queen] Mamas. … I’ll get pictures from parades or just people that dressed up at Halloween and got to say whatever the heck they want. I was doing a show in a casino one night and a 6-foot-3 Eunice in drag charged the stage, and me and the audience got so tickled by it.

What are your memories of guesting on Drag Race?

But I remember what a delightful guy Ru is. And when he gets into drag, it’s like Dolly Parton all over again: You just stand there and let me take it all in. It’s amazing. And I come up to his chest, maybe. It’s amazingly gorgeous, what he does to himself. It’s just amazing.

So, my last question is… would you ever do music again? Would you consider it?

Oh, I’m trying to think who would even pay me to do music! There are so many wonderful singers out there now. I think I missed a big opportunity. I was decorating the house the other day and my son was helping me, fetching and doing all the lifting, and I said, “I’m just so tired.” So, he turned on the Christmas music, and that perked me up right away. And I said, “I’ve missed a golden opportunity. Mama really should have done a Christmas album. A Very Mama Christmas.”

The above interview is taken from Vicki Lawrence’s appearance on the SiriusXM show “Volume West.” Archived audio of that conversation is available via the SiriusXM app.