REBA'S TEARFUL HONOUR

Flame-haired REBA McENTIRE treasures her 2003 honour from Nashville, Tennessee's COUNTRY DJ HALL OF FAME - because it marked a special night for one of her closest friends.

The singer received a Lifetime Career Achievement prize at an award ceremony in June (03), but had no idea veteran producer TONY BROWN would make his first public appearance there - after brain surgery - to honour her.

She says, "Tony was my producer for several years in the 1990s and he had taken a fall and hit his head on the marble floor and had to have brain surgery.

"We almost lost him a couple of times and that was his first public appearance four months after his surgery and he came up and introduced me and I cried through my whole acceptance speech.

"Awards are nice and doing what we do is really nice, but getting that close to losing a friend is really really tough."