The wait between albums was, in commercial terms, enormous: five years. For your everyday contemporary country star, such a spell is an eternity. Entire careers skyrocket and fizzle in less time.

One might see Jo Dee Messina’s comeback hit, “My Give a Damn’s Busted” – a blunt but obviously tongue-in-cheek country admission of being fed up with the whiney world around her – as an explanation for her creative hiatus.

But the facts are these: There was a break, although it wasn’t nearly as long as many people thought it was. Also, Messina’s dam did crack a little. But it hardly broke. And for anyone thinking the New England-bred singer from a big Italian family doesn’t give a you-know-what about her career anymore, she has these words of comfort.

“Hey, I’m grateful for what I do,” said the singer. “That’s pretty much how I spend my days – just appreciating life and having a blast.”

Her fans’ response has been equally jubilant. “My Give a Damn’s Busted” became Messina’s ninth No. 1 country hit, and her new album, “Delicious Surprise,” entered the Billboard country album chart in early May at No. 1.

Not bad for a singer who had not released a full recording of new material (save for a 2003 holiday album) since 2000’s “Burn.” Work on “Delicious Surprise” began after “Burn’s” release. But given the then-volatile state of country music – marked by sluggish record sales and labels either dying or consolidating with larger conglomerates – the new music was shelved in favor of a 2002 greatest-hits collection. In effect, the creative momentum of Messina’s career had stalled.

“I was pretty excited about finally releasing a new album,” Messina said of issuing “Delicious Surprise.” “But expectations? I didn’t have any. I didn’t have any at all. It had been two years since I had new material of any kind on country radio. So I had nothing to lose. So when ‘My Give a Damn’s Busted’ came out and just started flying, I couldn’t have been more grateful.”

Offstage, though, rumors flew about other reasons why Messina had been off the charts in recent years. There were reports of time in alcohol rehabilitation as well as the disintegration of a nearly decade-long romance with her tour manager-turned-fiance.

Messina declined to discuss the turmoil, mostly because of how it already has been portrayed in the press.

“The truth of the matter is, I don’t like to talk about it because it’s been so messed up that the person I wind up reading about isn’t me,” she said. “I did about 12 interviews the other day, and everyone kept saying, ‘You took a break, you took a break.’ Well, I did. For about six weeks. No cell phone. No e-mail. No telephone. No newspaper. No television. No music business. Nothing. But aside from that, I was still touring. I was still writing music.

Messina said one of her biggest fears in recent years was simply forgetting her roots. She referred to a quote by film and television writer-director Garry Marshall: “Fame has a funny way of keeping you from what made you who you are.”