Songfacts®:

• LeAnn Rimes' 12th studio album, Family, is all about relationships - including the complicated ones. The title track is a semi-autobiographical story about problematic kin, an issue Rimes had to deal with in real life in the public eye. The country singer made headlines in 2000 when she not only sued her record label but also filed a lawsuit against her former manager, Lyle Walker, and her father, Wilbur Rimes, who had acted as her producer since she started her career as a preteen. She claimed the men took over 7 million dollars from her over a five-year period. Obviously, the legal proceedings put a strain on her relationship with her father, but they made amends before she married her first husband, Dean Sheremet, in 2002 (the same year the lawsuit with her dad was settled on undisclosed terms).
• Rimes wrote this with her husband Dean and country songwriter Blair Daly ("Good Friend And A Glass Of Wine"), which set the tone for the rest of the album. She told American Songwriter:
  
  "Blair, Dean and I wrote the song 'Family' on Valentine's Day last year, and that was really the first song we wrote... so that kind of spun the whole idea of what we wanted to write about. It really become a thematic record, where we wanted to tell a whole story from front to back about all these different relationships - from different sides of the family - whether it's between a husband and wife or... for me, it's my extended family and friends. I feel like everybody has grown up with me and I've grown up with them, so the world feels like my family. And there's a lot that I've been through... legal battles with my family... and all of it has been very public. So this is kind of my album to clarify for myself and also the world... where I am, who I am…just where I'm at."
• Rimes sings about her Uncle William, who died of a "weird disease." When the singer was 11 years old, her dad's younger brother died of AIDS, a loss that inspired her to support LGBTQ causes when she was older. When she was honored with a Human Rights Campaign's Ally for Equality Award in 2011 for her advocacy, Rimes spoke of her uncle in her acceptance speech. "Even at that age, I was aware of the judgment that was being thrown his way. I witnessed those who loved him treat his being gay as if it was a disease. What I remember of him was his bright spirit that lit up the world wherever he went. He was amazing. He was a beautiful soul."
• The album debuted at #4 in the US, where it sold around 400,000 copies. It was her last Top 10 studio release.
• The album earned Rimes two Grammy nominations in the Best Female Country Vocal Performance category (in 2008 and 2009) for the singles "Nothin' Better To Do" and "What I Cannot Change."