Juice Newton performs tonight on Mighty Mo

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

•	July 4th Benefit Party for Battleship Missouri Memorial Celebrating the nation's 225th birthday with country music, dancing, barbecue and fireworks Tickets $25, at the USS Missouri or USS Bowfin ticket offices Information: 593-8333

But her position there is impressive not so much because she's had more Top 40 hits than Randy Newman and Wayne Newton put together, but because she's one of the few artists who has managed to avoid the rock/pop/country category pitfall that has dogged so many others.

If it doesn't come from the heart, she doesn't do it.

"I chose to ignore that desperate need to label," said Newton, who will perform tonight at the nation's 225th birthday party, barbecue and fireworks extravaganza aboard the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor. "I've been lucky. I've had this history of having an appeal to more than one type of audience."

Which could account for why the Grammy Award-winning singer's wide range of fans don't seem to care what category she's in. She's had major pop, country and adult contemporary hits.

Newton said she's looking forward to touching history tonight on the deck of the Mighty Mo, where she'll perform her hits, from "Angel of The Morning" to "Queen of Hearts" and "Break it To Me Gently," and new tunes from her upcoming CD.

But don't look for a segment about Newton any day soon on VH-1's "Behind the Music," which almost always contrasts an artist's dramatic rise to fame and glory with their tragic fall from grace because of drugs, booze or emotional meltdown.

"I'm too stable," said Newton, who, when she isn't performing 120 nights a year, is a wife and mother raising a 14-year-old daughter, an 11-year old son, eight horses and three goats.

Her biggest worry before coming to Honolulu was whether she'd be able to find an appropriate red, white and blue T-shirt to wear for the gig.