May 25, 2025 • 38 mins
Country music singer Brooke Eden shares how she went from never wanting to get married -- to ready to U-Haul with her now wife -- and how her career has grown since coming out.
Fun fact about Brooke: Trisha Yearwood officiated her wedding and Garth Brooks sang during the ceremony!
Click here to learn more about Brooke's music and tour info!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lesbian-chronicles-coming-out-later-in-life--5601514/support.
Fun fact about Brooke: Trisha Yearwood officiated her wedding and Garth Brooks sang during the ceremony!
Click here to learn more about Brooke's music and tour info!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lesbian-chronicles-coming-out-later-in-life--5601514/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I'm Ali. I came out after twenty years of marriage
and I have three kids.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm Melissa and I have two kids, and I came
out at thirty seven after an eleven year marriage.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
This podcast is about coming out later and the struggles
and victories that come with it.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
When coming out feels like the end of the world,
but it's really just the beginning.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
This is the Lesbian Chronicles. Welcome to the Lesbian Chronicles.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
How are you, my friend?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I've got a freshly shaved puppy dog. Right.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
You know what I thought you were about to tell me.
I thought you were about to show me your shirt
and be like, I'm kind of dressed for the occasion
of the guest.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Thing happened to dress too, I did. I didn't put
clothes on today, So that's you do.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Look you do? Look ready. Your eyebrows are in perfect form.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
See thank you, thank you for noticing.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, and you were listening. Doesn't know this. Melissa's kind
of known for her eyebrows.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I do get a lot of eyebrow compliments.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah you do. I must be doing something right. So
we went to the Moth last night.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yeah, well, I didn't go. You guys went, But how
was it?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
It was really really fun. It's no I've been probably
this will probably be my fourth time. I'm becoming like
a regular. I'm almost like, God, would I want to
like get up there and do it? But I know
I think about it sometimes. But then it's like this
weird thing where like you watch people get up there
that look like they wouldn't like they'd be totally cool
(01:38):
and fine, and I can tell they're nervous. It's nerve wracking.
So then I'm like, would I be, Like, I'm sure
I would be.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Do they memorize everything or is there a teleprompter situation?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
So teleprompter you're not allowed to have any notes, and
like you're you're not allowed to repeat the same story.
So it's like if you get up and if your
name gets called and you get up and you're going
down there, you're not like it's a brand new story.
And some stories do suck, like you're kind of like
a dumb story. Well I'm just like the story is dumb,
Like anyone could tell you you want to hook. I
(02:11):
want the book that like drags them off. But a
lot of the stories are really good, Like if people
get raw and like everybody has a story that's like
this really vulnerable thing that happened. When people go there
with it and I can I know they did. I'm like, oh,
I'm so invested in this thing. But when they don't,
I can also tell. So then I'm just like, all right,
(02:34):
how much how many more minutes do they have?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Man, I don't you know you every time you talk
about this, I'm tempted to do it.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, you could totally do it. You can't do comedy,
I know, but I can. You can tell this be
a little funny, you can mat everyone's yes, you could
totally be a little funny. But you'd be great out
of this. You'd be absolutely great at it. And yesterday
there was a lot of guys, like, not as many women,
and I'm like, where are the freaking women?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
That's surprising.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, and it was a pretty gay audience, so I
thought the gays want the women exactly. But it was
still good. It's like it's a very like me thing
to do because it lets me go home early. There's
not a lot of drinking. There's like a little drinking,
but not much. There's a solid intermission.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
You go to bed at like ten o'clock. I know.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Actually, I was like telling the group we were with,
I'm like, yeah, I gotta get out of here. It's
getting late. I'm not gonna be able to stay till
the end. And then I got out to the lobby
and it was still light out. Oh my god, I
thought it was later than it was. Anyway, But we
have a super exciting guest on that you somehow secured.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
She's been on our list for a while to have on.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Okay, so she's been on the radar and it finally
all came together. So, yes, we have Huntry music star
Brooke Eden joining us today.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Welcome to the show, Brooke. Oh hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey hey Brooke. Where are you based? Okay, of course
I was gonna guess so very appropriately.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Are y'all New York? We're Atlanta? Yeah, y'all. I was
just there.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Really, we could have done this live. We should have.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Done this live.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I was.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I was at the Eagle. Yes, they have a country
line dancing night there.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, while Heretic The Heretic has one too.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
But so did you perform or were you just there
for fun? Yeah? So I performed three songs and I
was on this little like pop up tour for my
new single Gidea Up and.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Which I love, by the way, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
We went to like eight different cities across the US,
and Atlanta was my second stop, and I loved the
Eagle because that entire plaza is so fucking gay. Yes,
it was so good and everyone there was so wonderful.
And actually there were two people who came to my
Nashville Pride set last summer who were like dead in
(04:56):
the middle of the crowd in the front row, like
fringe sparkly outfits on, and they were like, oh my gosh,
we came up here to Nashville from Atlanta. And then
they ended up being at the club.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Oh my god, super fans.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
It was so much fun. So yeah, they like top
the line dance for giddy Up and I sang a
few songs and people dance to all of them and
it was it was a party, y'all.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Oh that's so fun. I feel like line dancing is
very like a lot of the lesbians I know go
to this like regular line I've never done it, but you.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Have to do it.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
But then I have gone, well, you know though, I
got scared because I heard that like if you fuck
it up, like if you're not like yelled at yeah,
you get kind of yelled at what.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yes, I am not a good dancer. And this instructor
made sure that.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I knew it and that I had flashbacks from like.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
The middle school way. I don't like that. I don't
like to hear that I feel like and all the
like country bars that I have. First of all, I'm
always learning like three shots of jack in and I
jump out on the dance floor and I just figure
it out.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
So you probably can figure it out that it's a
bit more.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Have a little bit of a leg up just because
I've been doing it for so long. But I do
like to just go to a random city and every
like regional, each song, each line dance for the song
is like different, you know, And so I'll go out
there and I'll be like, oh, in in Nashville or
like in my hometown, we don't turn this many times
(06:40):
or whatever.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Really would you say, Atlanta? How were the Atlanta dancers?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I have to know they were Actually they were really good. Okay,
a lot of people turned out, which was awesome, but.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Women men like give me the like did more women?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I would say it was like a pretty pretty like
probably like sixty percent men for percent women. Okay, it
was so fun though. Yeah, I loved Atlanta. I was like,
I could absolutely live here.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
It's a super gay city. Brook Like, I think people
don't realize Atlanta. There's a ton of gay people here totally.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
You've you've performed a Nashville Pride, We've been to I've
been to National Pride now twice.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Is that like a regular thing that you do? Are
you gonna be doing it this this Pride? Unfortunately not.
I just like I think they try to like do
different performers each year or at least like skippy year
in between. Last year was my first year that I
did it. How was it? Did you have a blast?
Oh my gosh, I mean it was so fun. My
my in loss came, which wow, like clutching my pro
(07:43):
like my my first time that I wore chaps, so
like a little bit of booty cheek was showing.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Wow, it was a.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Little you know, they're classy Midwestern people. But no, they
had so much fun. And my wife was pregnant last summer,
so she was running around her little pregnant valley.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Oh my god, I bet that's such a like awesome
memory for you. It really really Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
So one of my best friends played that day as well.
His name is Adam Mac. He's also a queer.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Oh no, I've seen him.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
He's so fucking good. He really is. Yeah. You really
need to like dig into his music for anyone that's
listening if you haven't, because he's truly incredible. But we
it was. It was just the best day and I
got to pull him up. We have a song together.
It's not released yet, but I got to pull him
(08:35):
up and sing a song with him at Nashville Pride
and oh wow, my whole community there, you know, it
was super cool's.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Were you born and raised in Nashville or did you
move there for the music?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
No, so, I'm from West Palm Beach, Florida. Whoa yeah,
And I think it's funny because I don't think that
people really equate like West Palm Beach with country music.
There is literally more country culture in West Pomb Beach, Florida.
Then I would say there is a Nashville, Tennessee really
real authentic yes.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Like off the beaten path or like so like.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
My dad is our local line dancing band and has
well it's like fifteen, okay, So like the drummer in
like whatever band does like line dancing, So this is
like in your blood, it really is. And I started
singing with his band when I was five, so oh
that's so cute in bars, y'all. Like I played out
(09:31):
a place called Rhinestones, which very much feels like not
a country bar. It would be like Rhinestone Cowboys, so
right cute, but like Rhyinestone sounds like it like maybe
a whole other party.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Exactly as he's like got his child in there singing.
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah. But yeah, I like showed up at five years old.
I'm sure it's illegal, but like it's Florida, so like
no one really cares. Is anything illegal in Florida? Right
yeah I don't think so. I haven't found anything.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yet, anything yet.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yeah, but yeah, I like started singing with his band
when I was five, and then I kind of just
became like my hometown's you know, country music singer. And
so anytime someone was coming in town, like Brooks and
Dunn or Alan Jackson, they would call me and be like, hey,
do you want to open up for you know these
freaking icons.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
So I just think we're also adjacent. West brom Beach
is adjacent to Wellington, which is the equestrian capital of
the world. So there's so many horses everyone rides. And
also like we're really close to like the Everglades, the swamp.
Like it's just innately like very country and very like
(10:43):
centered around country culture.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
I guess you know what you're as you're saying that,
I'm thinking you're right, because there is like I mean,
fishing and like a lot of things that you think
of as more country. They all exist in Florida. That's
so true.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Not to mention like I knew like the alligator trapper
of our county where like straight up him and his
family's job was to go and get like alligators out
of like residential pools.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah. So there's a lot of you know, just like
country culture within my hometown. And then like even moving
to Nashville. This was the craziest thing. I moved to
Nashville like ten years ago, and when I got here,
I was like, cool, So, like, where are the line
dancing bars? None? Oh wow, I never thought about that.
But yeah, I mean you have the wild horse, but
it's very centered, which is now Category ten, which is
(11:32):
Luke Comb's Bar, But it's very centered around like tourism
and tourists, so it's very much like they'll teach the
same like dances every week because it's a new crowd
every single week. So it's not like that community feeling
that you get when you're like in a local place
where like the same people come every week and learn
(11:52):
new dances and all those things. So I will say
that since I've moved here there the Nashville Palace now
has line dancing. But for the longest time, I was like,
where the hell does a girl go?
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Where the hell does a girl go?
Speaker 3 (12:06):
You had to get her bootskooing on? Like what are
we doing?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah? I was just going to say, like, you're in Florida,
And then how does it the gay? Like start to
is it okay?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
There amost all these alligators?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah? Exactly, like that took your music?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
How's the gay come up?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It feels like that those wouldn't go together that easily.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I kind of always knew, like even when I was little,
like I would rather kiss a girl than kiss a boy, right,
But then I went to like a Baptist Christian school
and it's just really founded into your brain that like
girls stay boys period. Right wise you will you know,
burn in the s depths of hell for sure, the
rest of eternity. So you're just like, okay, like I
guess that has to be in my life. Like I
(12:44):
better like start trying to kiss boys. So I did
that for like twenty years, and then it was like
my early twenties. It was actually like my a country
concert in West Palm Beach where like I kissed like
my first like adult like my first like adult kiss,
oh man with the girl and we ended up like
going to my hometown like Honkey Tong's line dancing bar,
(13:05):
and nobody blinked Tony. I was like, oh yeah, there's
brook like whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yours brooke with this woman and no one said a word.
No one said and parents, your parents were fine.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Oh no, my parents did not know.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Okay, they did not know. Okay, no, just this first.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Night, yeah, first night. No, parents didn't know. And then
I didn't realize like that, I don't realize that I
would end up with a woman until I met my
now wife. Yeah oh really wow. Oh even before, Like
I had a girlfriend before I met my wife, and
I was very much like, I'm such a good ally,
(13:41):
Like I even like to kiss girls.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I'll even do it with you.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yeah, I would like get down with a girl. It's
just because I'm like, like so non homophobic and like
such a great ally.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Exactly that much denial, y'all. So what changed?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
What was it like clicked in your head that was like, no, way,
I'm just this strong ally.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
I'm I'm one of one of one of them, Yes, exactly. Well,
when I met my wife, I had never like really
wanted to get married. My parents were divorced, and I
had just never really seen like a happy marriage before.
So I was like, wow, would I Wow? Would I
do that to myself? You know? So I just never
like really thought of being married or being a wife
(14:23):
or having a wife until I met my now wife.
And I literally we were like six weeks into meeting
in dating we of course, like in a very u
haul lesbian way, we like met and two weeks later
we were dating, and then like four weeks after that,
I was like, so, how do you feel about the
word wife?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Like, oh my god, this is so typical. Yeah is
this in Nashville?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
This is in nice, Okay? And a cherry on top.
I met her at my record label, so she was
the person in charge of like taking me around to
country music radio stations and introducing me to the country
radio station. So she worked for my record label, and
we were very scandalous for quite some time.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
She's like, I'll take you around, all right.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I still remember like the first flight that we took together,
she like gave me her Wi Fi password because she
was like, you know, high status on Southwest and she
was like, hey, stick with me. That's got a Wi
Fi connection. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Play exactly had she been out? Like, was she no
problem known lesbian?
Speaker 3 (15:37):
She was out? She yes, she had been engaged to
a woman at one point, so she was out. So yeah,
I think that like up until I met her, I
was like, oh yeah, Like at what's the point of
like really getting serious here, Like I'm probably never gonna
get married and whatever. And then I met her and
I was like, I want marriage, I want babies, I
(15:59):
want to been all my days with you, Like I
don't want to be apart from you. You were at
what I want, damn. I think it was kind of
at that point that I had to like really come
to terms with the fact that like, oh, I'm very
much a lesbian and like this is going to be
my life and like I need to come out tell
everyone I need like some self realization and like learning
(16:22):
self love and like also learning like un learning so
much and like kind of like de brainwash myself.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
And at this point, would you say, because like I
listened to some of your music and like it does
infuse like you've infused your queerness into the music to
some extent, or maybe it's just my ears the way
I'm hearing it, but you have like it's open, it's
I would know you're gay probably if I listened.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah, so that was that always you're listening to like
probably twenty twenty one and on okay, before that, I
actually and like I need to just like re record
this song specif quickly. But I have a song that's
still out on streaming platforms where the bridge is. If
you want to know what turns me on, it's a
(17:08):
hot pot of coffee, which for the record, I don't
fucking drink coffee with a hot man beside me.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Oh god, okay, yeah, that's got a change change the song.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Never also never mean like never have I had a
hot pot of coffee? Actually, hilarious.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Well you really don't like the hot pot of coffee.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
No, I'm like I if I do drink coffee, it's
it's cold, of course, Okay, coffee girl. I just became
like I just I can have like one tablespoon of
coffee before people start asking me if I'm on cocaine.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well, I mean this is clearly needs to go to
ice coffee and a woman. Right, How fast can this
re record?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
How like my ice coffee and a woman?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
A lady?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
There we go.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
See, this is why you're the country music singer exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
And one of my songs I do talk about like cologne,
like I miss your cologne or whatever. I will say
that my ex girlfriend did wear cologne versus perfumes. So yeah,
yeah it work totally. But obviously was trying to like,
you know, steer your ear more toward cologne than perfume.
But yeah, now I'm so unapologetic about it. But it
(18:19):
really took me so long. Like when I met my wife,
my label at the time, which my label now is
like absolutely incredible and so so supportive in like every way,
but when I first came out, they really like owned
me and my wife in a way. Because she worked
at the Way.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Oh yeah, so they.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Told me if I wanted to keep my career in
country music that we had to you know, we could
be in a relationship, I quote, in our own fucking house.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Oh oh my god.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah whoa. And so we lived in the closet for
five years. And it was so crazy. I mean I
literally am out talking to radio doing interviews, living this
life as if I'm like this like single straight lady,
and then going home to like my very very like
wifed up life where I'm just like living in this
(19:07):
happy love bubble and like have never been more in
love and never been more happy. And I can't tell
anyone about it.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Damn that takes a toll, Brooke.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
It absolutely did. Yeah. It was just always like I
was so afraid in interviews or like when I was
out of my little you know, safe circle, that I
was going to say like the wrong pronoun or like
talk about my wife in more than a friendly way,
just going to like, you know, kind of ruin everything
that I've ever worked for and like my career and
(19:36):
her career, and like they owned us, you know. And
so it was really really hard on my mental health
and I ended up getting actually like physically very sick.
I got ulcers and was surprised. It caused me to
like stop touring, like I couldn't sing anymore. I was
like getting sick all the time.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Were you attaching that at that point, like this is
what's wrong with me? Or you probably had no idea.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I was pretty sure because it wasn't soon after like
I thought, like I really thought, you know, when I
came out, I have so many gay friends, Like I
grew up in theater and choir, and like so many
of my guy friends are gay, like have been since
I was like fifty, and my mom and dad were
always like, oh yeah, like you're besties, Like they're gay,
(20:24):
like God loves them. Whatever it was, it was never
a thing until it was me. So I came out
to my mom and it was like really really really bad,
and we used to be very close, and for like
three years we were not. I like couldn't talk for
a while because every time we got on the phone
it was like very negative. And then literally one day
(20:44):
it was like a flip switched for her and she
was like I just realized that I have to love you,
like I have to I just have to love you
and that's my only job as your mother is to
love you, like unconditionally, and I haven't done that, and
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Oh my gosh. What led to that for her? Like
what happened?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
I think it was this realization that she was not
going to be able to be in my life, like
I had set a very strong boundary. She knew about
my first girlfriend and like was super like, you know,
negative about it, and I kind of like agreed with
her in a way. But then when I met my wife,
I was like, if you don't like this person, like
(21:29):
that's on you. Yeah, you know, she's an incredible human being,
and like I hope that you can eventually see past
your homophobia and like love her, you know, and see
her for who she is, and eventually love me and
see me for who I am instead of you know,
the daughter that you thought you were going to have.
(21:49):
And and I mean, I can't even tell you how
much that has just been like the story of my family.
My mom wasn't the only one. She was probably like
the most impactful one because you're so close Mom. Yeah, yeah,
but like my nana, you know, she's ninety years old now,
and it took her a while and I had to
(22:11):
go and like have a real sit down conversation with her,
and she was like, honey, I'm just worried about where
are you gonna go when you die? And I was like,
you know what, Nana, Like, I have three options. One,
I can marry a man and not give him anything
that he needs for the rest of his life and
not receive anything that I need for the rest of
my life and live like a very unhappy, unfulfilled life.
(22:33):
Number Two, I can tell myself that I am not
deserving of love and you know, just be celibate, and
you know that seems like a really sad, lonely life.
Or number three, I can be with the person that
I've already found who loves me, who I love so much.
We can have a family, we can have like a
very loving and successful, successful life. Like which of these
(22:56):
would you choose for me? Yeah, And like I think
that when I broke it down like that, my Nana
was like, well, you should not be with a man
like that would be fair for him, is when she
said for me, But yeah, me too. Yeah, And she's like, well,
you're definitely deserving of love and kind of when you
put it like that, you know, I have some things
(23:17):
to think about. And she had actually written in my
birthday card she said, Rookie, even though I don't agree
with some of your life's choices, I just want you
to know that I will always love you. And that
was like the kind of indication like it was time
to sit down and have like a real girl to
(23:38):
girl talk with Nana.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
How is she now? Is she?
Speaker 3 (23:42):
More? Like?
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Is she in the life of your baby and your wife?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
So she's in a nursing home now unfortunately not in
the greatest like state of mind. But before she she
had a stroke, but before she had her stroke, she
very much loves me and my wife now and like
she actually she gave me a check for my birthday
and I gave the check back to her and said
that I really would like her to use the money
(24:06):
to go to therapy. Oh wow, she seeked out therapy
and she went and she called me after and she
was like, I just want to let you know that
I'm working on myself. This has nothing to do with you,
and like, I love you and I love Hillary very much,
and I'm working on myself. And like since then, everything
has been so wonderful and so to me, like if
(24:28):
you can be eighty five years old and figure that out,
kind of anybody can.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
One thousand percent and everybody I like redemption, Like I
think everyone deserves. She's eighty five, she's not gonna show
up where you are. You were born in this, like
you were already further along because of your age and
your generation. So Nana gets redemption, guys.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Nah, Nana gets redemption. Yeah, gets deemption. It's just been
really cool to see kind of like what love can
do and like what joy can do, and just watch
people go like, oh wait to second, You're like you're
still my girl, and like I need to love you
unconditionally because truly that's my only job here. And that's
so true.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Like I think once they see the example and like that,
probably seeing you and your wife together and like the
love that's like visible in front of your own eyeballs
is really telling.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah, it's hard to look away once you see that.
It's like it's proximity. It's hard to un't see it
when you're close to it. Like that, it's so true.
Would you say your music and like your writing has
shifted now, Like Melissa and I talk a lot about
how our lives, like professionally and socially, just like expand it.
The minute we started being exactly who we are, the
(25:40):
minute that toxic secret is no longer a secret, It's like,
oh wow, everything kind of opens up.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
When that toxicity becomes just like pure queer joy, it
totally changes everything. Oh my god, I'm so much more
of a confident person than I used to be. I
feel like I'm more like like accepting of others, yes,
being toward everyone. I like, have no judgment toward anyone.
I'm literally like live and let live and like like
(26:07):
you do you boo boo. And that's completely changed my music.
I mean, like I said, I was so nervous to
like say the wrong pronoun that there are a lot
of times that I was just like you, even nervous
to talk. And now I just don't have to worry
about any of that. And so it's just so much
more of a freeing experience and I get to be myself.
I get to be who I'm supposed to be as
(26:30):
an artist and as a human. And so yeah, I
think it's really really wild, Like when I have fans
that are like, oh, I've been there since twenty fourteen,
and I'm like, whoa you've rete?
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Do you write all your like do you write most
of your own music, like the songs I do? That's
so impressive to me.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I mean for me, I think that, like this journey
has been like such a story, and that is all
that songwriting is is just taking your experiences and your
story and turning into lyrics and melody, you know, And
so my writing music to me is like, you know,
half of it's it's so much of me being an
(27:14):
artist is me being able to like tell this story
and like tell the queer story through like a country
music lens. So yeah, it's it's really important to me
because growing up I always wanted to see myself in
country music but never could. And now to be that
like queer representation in country music is like such an
important I think, like role and like mission for me
(27:37):
in life.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah. Oh I love that. Who are some artists like
I'm curious who you like? Like, who do you listen to?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Country wise?
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Anything? Really?
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Well? I love that we have a lesbian pop star
right now. I'm obsessed with Chapel Okay. Yeah, I just
love that we finally have like an all out like
lesbian song on the radio like good luck babe. But
for me, I mean grown up. I like very much
grew up on like straight up country music, Leanne Rhymes,
The Chicks Night, Twayne, Patsy Kline, Tricia Yearwood, who's like
(28:10):
officiated our wedding.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Really, Oh that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Yeah, just wild. Yeah, it's like the craziest thing. So
my wife worked with Garth and Tricia, And when Trisha
found out that we got engaged, she calls me and
she's like, Hey, so you know my song She's in
Love with the Boy, And I'm like, yes, it's like
a country classic. She's like, what if we changed she's
(28:36):
in love with the boy. So she's in love with
the girl. She's like, it's Pride month. You guys just
got engaged. She's like, ever since I wrote this song
and started singing it out, I've had people come up
to me and be like, Hey, don't tell anyone, but
I sing He's in love with the boy, or like.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
God, that's so awesome. I have the chills.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yeah. Yeah, I always wanted to honor that in some
way that like I've never really had like the right
opportunity or like situation to do it and She's like,
would you want to sing that? And like maybe do
it at the ground. I'll opry. Oh wow, so cool. Yes,
that was super wild and then we got off the
stage and like no one threw tomatoes at it.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
People are coming around, like I think, like even Garth
did that documentary where he sort of like said without saying,
he's more open minded than I think people think. And
I even like having my mom and dad who are
huge Garth Brooks fans like watching that. I think it's
like they don't un the aisle really uh love him,
(29:34):
but like that to me is like he's showing up
for you guys. Is also helping millions of other people
because it's people like my parents who see that and
are huge fans of Garth Brooks who are like, oh wow, God,
maybe we are We need to like open our minds
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Being love is like not a bad thing. Like I
think it's it's really cool to have, you know, people
that I I as a child and like literally I
like still to this day, will tap my hip when
I'm singing because that's what Trisha Yearwood did and like
watch when I was a kid. So yeah, we got
done with our She's in love with the girl performance
(30:13):
at the Opry, and we were so excited that it
went over as well as it did, and she was like, okay,
so like what am I doing for this wedding? Like?
Am I flower girl? Myciating and Kyle and I kind
of looked at each other and were like, would you
officiate our wedding? And she was like proudly yes, Oh
my god. It ended up happening, and then we were
(30:34):
like talking about the wedding one day and we were
over at Trisha's house and Garth walked in and we
were like, you're a comment right, like you're coming to
the wedding and he was like, well, I wouldn't miss it.
And we're like, well, since you're going to be there,
would you want to sing us down the aisle?
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Oh my god, I know this is why country dreams
come true.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Yeah, totally. It's it's pretty wild. So yeah, he sang
to make you feel my love a beautiful song? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Wow. How long have you been married, Brooke?
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I've been married October will be three.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Years, okay, and then how old's the babe?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Six months?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Yeah, Tiny, the chunkiest monkey you've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Really talk to us about like two women and now
you've got the six month old baby, Like how does
that like your relationship? It becomes you two are everything
and then now he's everything. Likely, Like how has that
been with adding this little friend to the mix?
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Yeah, so much communication, which is so great yeah to women,
you know, but it's so it's so much to just
like re put together in your brain. You know. It's
like we wore each other's everything for nine years and
you know we had that going like right at our
nine year anniversary. Now he is our like world, and
(31:53):
it's so amazing to like watch her be a mom
and like get to parent with her. She's such a
great co parent and like to get to do this
together is just like super cool. But yeah, we have
to have we had to have you know, real conversations
about like okay, we got a sleep train, Like we
got to get this boy in bed by eight pm
(32:14):
so we can have a couple of hours like just
being a right and so yeah, it's it's like this
kind of you know, I'm not going to say double
edged sword, but it's kind of like you get to
see the person that you love so much, like be
so maternal and like be this like loving amazing parent,
but then you also like she is my tour manager,
(32:37):
so like we used to do everything together, as like
I just got off of this two week tour where
I'm touring the country and like didn't get to see
them for two weeks. That's so hard, especially when we're
not used to being a part, especially when like our
sun is like you know, only six months.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
And changing like daily change.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I forgot home from tour and I'm like, you're three
inches taller than you were, right, So yeah, that's been
hard too. Like I'm going and like still continuing to
do my career and I'm on the road and I'm
meeting people and like he'll you know, just gets a
FaceTime at the end of the night of like this
is what's happened, versus like being right next to me.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
It's such a good point. Her life has turned upside
down in a beautiful way. But it's even good stress to.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Stress exactly exactly. So it is a whole new dynamic,
and we've had to you know, communicate our way through
that over and over and over again and just make
sure that like we're on the same page and you know,
we're still feeling each other because he does take up
so much mental capacity and like almost just try to
keep them alive.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
And yeah, you know, and it's the only other person
that cares. Like we talk a lot about like blended
families when it's like you're the mom and somebody else isn't,
like you come together, but when it's your baby together,
it's like you both are obsessed. I'm sure, like I
am with my babies. So it's like then it's like,
what else is there? Beckham is the most interesting thing
(34:00):
to talk about, So what else is there?
Speaker 3 (34:02):
I mean, I know and I we have we have,
like you know, my music career, but we also own
airbnbs together. We do like own a lot of businesses
and like sometimes, you know, before we had Beckham, we'd
be at dinner and we'd just be like dreaming and
like talking about life and business and like all these things,
you know, And now we go to dinner and we're like, Oh,
(34:23):
wasn't it so cute when Beckham put his feet together
the other day?
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yes, it was so cute.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
That is hilarious, giggling like this. This is so funny. Yeah,
the dynamic. I mean I was out in la I
had just done like a queer line dancing bar with
all the lesbians. And then I'm at Revolver and Who
with all the gays and the area, and I my like,
(34:52):
you know, screen of my phone pops up and it's
like my fun while I'm like at the club with
the drag queens about to get on a balcony and
staying in my chat. I'm truly like leading a double
life right now. Yeah, there's so much happening. So yeah,
(35:12):
it is so wild, but I feel really really blessed
to be able to continue to follow my dreams and
have a supportive partner who is willing to like kind
of take the brunt of that we are bringing. I
am bringing my wife and my son to like countless
Prides this summer, So I'm really excited about that.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
When are you going to be back in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Yeah, we'll get a group together.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
We we'll get a big group together.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
I did get an inquiry this morning, and inquiry about
possibly doing Atlanta Pride this morning.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Okay, you gotta do it. Try to do it.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
Yeah, oh my god, it would be a blast.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Yeah we could. It'll be a total blast, and we'll
make sure to like do some events around it. It
would be so fun.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Oh my god, that would be so cool. Yeah, we
got to figure it out because I would love to
come back. I had so much fun. I did it
like last minute a couple of years ago, in twenty
twenty two, right before I got married actually, and like
just absolutely had the time of my life.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Our group we are big time dancers. Like we aren't good,
but we love to dance. Every even every dinner party
turns into a dance party. So we got to have
you here. I need to do this, Brooke, Thank you
so so much for taking so much time with us,
Like this is amazing.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Yeah, and before you go plug, what all you got
going on right now?
Speaker 2 (36:29):
I know you said you're about to do some cities
and stuff like that, so let's hear what you got
going on.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Yeah, So I'm gonna be at WEIHO Pride on June
first in LA. I'm going to be at World Pride
in DC on June eighth, Arlington Pride in Texas with
it's literally all drag queens and me, which I'm so
excited about heck yeah, and then Market Days in Chicago. Okay,
so really excited about that. I'm also doing it's not
(36:57):
a pride. It's just like a county fair, but the
Marin County baron San Rafael outside of San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Oh, that'll be beautiful in July.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Nice, Yeah, that is very cool. Well Brooke Eden check
her out. She's so your music is so fun, Like
I had it on today while I was working. I'm like,
you can't help but it's infectious. It's killer dance music,
great lyrics. I loved it.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Thank you so much. That was the whole point. So
I really.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Mission mission accomplish. Yeah, it's right up my alley.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Amazing. Thank you so much. This is super fun.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Thanks, thank you, see you soon, Bye bye bye. I
want to support the Lesbian Chronicles podcast.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Rate us and write a review on Apple podcast or Spotify.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
We'd love listener feedback. If you'd like to share your story,
email us at Melissa and Ali at gmail dot com.
That's Melissa M. E. L I s A and Ali A. L.
L I at gmail dot com. Or follow us on
Instagram at Lesbian Chronicles
I'm Ali. I came out after twenty years of marriage
and I have three kids.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I'm Melissa and I have two kids, and I came
out at thirty seven after an eleven year marriage.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
This podcast is about coming out later and the struggles
and victories that come with it.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
When coming out feels like the end of the world,
but it's really just the beginning.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
This is the Lesbian Chronicles. Welcome to the Lesbian Chronicles.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
How are you, my friend?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
I'm doing well.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I've got a freshly shaved puppy dog. Right.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
You know what I thought you were about to tell me.
I thought you were about to show me your shirt
and be like, I'm kind of dressed for the occasion
of the guest.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Thing happened to dress too, I did. I didn't put
clothes on today, So that's you do.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Look you do? Look ready. Your eyebrows are in perfect form.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
See thank you, thank you for noticing.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Yeah, and you were listening. Doesn't know this. Melissa's kind
of known for her eyebrows.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I do get a lot of eyebrow compliments.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah you do. I must be doing something right. So
we went to the Moth last night.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Yeah, well, I didn't go. You guys went, But how
was it?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
It was really really fun. It's no I've been probably
this will probably be my fourth time. I'm becoming like
a regular. I'm almost like, God, would I want to
like get up there and do it? But I know
I think about it sometimes. But then it's like this
weird thing where like you watch people get up there
that look like they wouldn't like they'd be totally cool
(01:38):
and fine, and I can tell they're nervous. It's nerve wracking.
So then I'm like, would I be, Like, I'm sure
I would be.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Do they memorize everything or is there a teleprompter situation?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
So teleprompter you're not allowed to have any notes, and
like you're you're not allowed to repeat the same story.
So it's like if you get up and if your
name gets called and you get up and you're going
down there, you're not like it's a brand new story.
And some stories do suck, like you're kind of like
a dumb story. Well I'm just like the story is dumb,
Like anyone could tell you you want to hook. I
(02:11):
want the book that like drags them off. But a
lot of the stories are really good, Like if people
get raw and like everybody has a story that's like
this really vulnerable thing that happened. When people go there
with it and I can I know they did. I'm like, oh,
I'm so invested in this thing. But when they don't,
I can also tell. So then I'm just like, all right,
(02:34):
how much how many more minutes do they have?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Man, I don't you know you every time you talk
about this, I'm tempted to do it.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yeah, you could totally do it. You can't do comedy,
I know, but I can. You can tell this be
a little funny, you can mat everyone's yes, you could
totally be a little funny. But you'd be great out
of this. You'd be absolutely great at it. And yesterday
there was a lot of guys, like, not as many women,
and I'm like, where are the freaking women?
Speaker 3 (02:56):
That's surprising.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah, and it was a pretty gay audience, so I
thought the gays want the women exactly. But it was
still good. It's like it's a very like me thing
to do because it lets me go home early. There's
not a lot of drinking. There's like a little drinking,
but not much. There's a solid intermission.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
You go to bed at like ten o'clock. I know.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Actually, I was like telling the group we were with,
I'm like, yeah, I gotta get out of here. It's
getting late. I'm not gonna be able to stay till
the end. And then I got out to the lobby
and it was still light out. Oh my god, I
thought it was later than it was. Anyway, But we
have a super exciting guest on that you somehow secured.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
She's been on our list for a while to have on.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Okay, so she's been on the radar and it finally
all came together. So, yes, we have Huntry music star
Brooke Eden joining us today.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Welcome to the show, Brooke. Oh hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey hey Brooke. Where are you based? Okay, of course
I was gonna guess so very appropriately.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Are y'all New York? We're Atlanta? Yeah, y'all. I was
just there.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Really, we could have done this live. We should have.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Done this live.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I was.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
I was at the Eagle. Yes, they have a country
line dancing night there.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, while Heretic The Heretic has one too.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
But so did you perform or were you just there
for fun? Yeah? So I performed three songs and I
was on this little like pop up tour for my
new single Gidea Up and.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Which I love, by the way, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
We went to like eight different cities across the US,
and Atlanta was my second stop, and I loved the
Eagle because that entire plaza is so fucking gay. Yes,
it was so good and everyone there was so wonderful.
And actually there were two people who came to my
Nashville Pride set last summer who were like dead in
(04:56):
the middle of the crowd in the front row, like
fringe sparkly outfits on, and they were like, oh my gosh,
we came up here to Nashville from Atlanta. And then
they ended up being at the club.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Oh my god, super fans.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
It was so much fun. So yeah, they like top
the line dance for giddy Up and I sang a
few songs and people dance to all of them and
it was it was a party, y'all.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Oh that's so fun. I feel like line dancing is
very like a lot of the lesbians I know go
to this like regular line I've never done it, but you.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Have to do it.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
But then I have gone, well, you know though, I
got scared because I heard that like if you fuck
it up, like if you're not like yelled at yeah,
you get kind of yelled at what.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yes, I am not a good dancer. And this instructor
made sure that.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
I knew it and that I had flashbacks from like.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
The middle school way. I don't like that. I don't
like to hear that I feel like and all the
like country bars that I have. First of all, I'm
always learning like three shots of jack in and I
jump out on the dance floor and I just figure
it out.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
So you probably can figure it out that it's a
bit more.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Have a little bit of a leg up just because
I've been doing it for so long. But I do
like to just go to a random city and every
like regional, each song, each line dance for the song
is like different, you know, And so I'll go out
there and I'll be like, oh, in in Nashville or
like in my hometown, we don't turn this many times
(06:40):
or whatever.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Really would you say, Atlanta? How were the Atlanta dancers?
Speaker 3 (06:44):
I have to know they were Actually they were really good. Okay,
a lot of people turned out, which was awesome, but.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Women men like give me the like did more women?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
I would say it was like a pretty pretty like
probably like sixty percent men for percent women. Okay, it
was so fun though. Yeah, I loved Atlanta. I was like,
I could absolutely live here.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
It's a super gay city. Brook Like, I think people
don't realize Atlanta. There's a ton of gay people here totally.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
You've you've performed a Nashville Pride, We've been to I've
been to National Pride now twice.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Is that like a regular thing that you do? Are
you gonna be doing it this this Pride? Unfortunately not.
I just like I think they try to like do
different performers each year or at least like skippy year
in between. Last year was my first year that I
did it. How was it? Did you have a blast?
Oh my gosh, I mean it was so fun. My
my in loss came, which wow, like clutching my pro
(07:43):
like my my first time that I wore chaps, so
like a little bit of booty cheek was showing.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Wow, it was a.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Little you know, they're classy Midwestern people. But no, they
had so much fun. And my wife was pregnant last summer,
so she was running around her little pregnant valley.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Oh my god, I bet that's such a like awesome
memory for you. It really really Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
So one of my best friends played that day as well.
His name is Adam Mac. He's also a queer.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Oh no, I've seen him.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
He's so fucking good. He really is. Yeah. You really
need to like dig into his music for anyone that's
listening if you haven't, because he's truly incredible. But we
it was. It was just the best day and I
got to pull him up. We have a song together.
It's not released yet, but I got to pull him
(08:35):
up and sing a song with him at Nashville Pride
and oh wow, my whole community there, you know, it
was super cool's.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Were you born and raised in Nashville or did you
move there for the music?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
No, so, I'm from West Palm Beach, Florida. Whoa yeah,
And I think it's funny because I don't think that
people really equate like West Palm Beach with country music.
There is literally more country culture in West Pomb Beach, Florida.
Then I would say there is a Nashville, Tennessee really
real authentic yes.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Like off the beaten path or like so like.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
My dad is our local line dancing band and has
well it's like fifteen, okay, So like the drummer in
like whatever band does like line dancing, So this is
like in your blood, it really is. And I started
singing with his band when I was five, so oh
that's so cute in bars, y'all. Like I played out
(09:31):
a place called Rhinestones, which very much feels like not
a country bar. It would be like Rhinestone Cowboys, so
right cute, but like Rhyinestone sounds like it like maybe
a whole other party.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Exactly as he's like got his child in there singing.
That's amazing.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah. But yeah, I like showed up at five years old.
I'm sure it's illegal, but like it's Florida, so like
no one really cares. Is anything illegal in Florida? Right
yeah I don't think so. I haven't found anything.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yet, anything yet.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Yeah, but yeah, I like started singing with his band
when I was five, and then I kind of just
became like my hometown's you know, country music singer. And
so anytime someone was coming in town, like Brooks and
Dunn or Alan Jackson, they would call me and be like, hey,
do you want to open up for you know these
freaking icons.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
So I just think we're also adjacent. West brom Beach
is adjacent to Wellington, which is the equestrian capital of
the world. So there's so many horses everyone rides. And
also like we're really close to like the Everglades, the swamp.
Like it's just innately like very country and very like
(10:43):
centered around country culture.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
I guess you know what you're as you're saying that,
I'm thinking you're right, because there is like I mean,
fishing and like a lot of things that you think
of as more country. They all exist in Florida. That's
so true.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Not to mention like I knew like the alligator trapper
of our county where like straight up him and his
family's job was to go and get like alligators out
of like residential pools.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah. So there's a lot of you know, just like
country culture within my hometown. And then like even moving
to Nashville. This was the craziest thing. I moved to
Nashville like ten years ago, and when I got here,
I was like, cool, So, like, where are the line
dancing bars? None? Oh wow, I never thought about that.
But yeah, I mean you have the wild horse, but
it's very centered, which is now Category ten, which is
(11:32):
Luke Comb's Bar, But it's very centered around like tourism
and tourists, so it's very much like they'll teach the
same like dances every week because it's a new crowd
every single week. So it's not like that community feeling
that you get when you're like in a local place
where like the same people come every week and learn
(11:52):
new dances and all those things. So I will say
that since I've moved here there the Nashville Palace now
has line dancing. But for the longest time, I was like,
where the hell does a girl go?
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Where the hell does a girl go?
Speaker 3 (12:06):
You had to get her bootskooing on? Like what are
we doing?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah? I was just going to say, like, you're in Florida,
And then how does it the gay? Like start to
is it okay?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
There amost all these alligators?
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yeah? Exactly, like that took your music?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
How's the gay come up?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It feels like that those wouldn't go together that easily.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I kind of always knew, like even when I was little,
like I would rather kiss a girl than kiss a boy, right,
But then I went to like a Baptist Christian school
and it's just really founded into your brain that like
girls stay boys period. Right wise you will you know,
burn in the s depths of hell for sure, the
rest of eternity. So you're just like, okay, like I
guess that has to be in my life. Like I
(12:44):
better like start trying to kiss boys. So I did
that for like twenty years, and then it was like
my early twenties. It was actually like my a country
concert in West Palm Beach where like I kissed like
my first like adult like my first like adult kiss,
oh man with the girl and we ended up like
going to my hometown like Honkey Tong's line dancing bar,
(13:05):
and nobody blinked Tony. I was like, oh yeah, there's
brook like whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yours brooke with this woman and no one said a word.
No one said and parents, your parents were fine.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Oh no, my parents did not know.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Okay, they did not know. Okay, no, just this first.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Night, yeah, first night. No, parents didn't know. And then
I didn't realize like that, I don't realize that I
would end up with a woman until I met my
now wife. Yeah oh really wow. Oh even before, Like
I had a girlfriend before I met my wife, and
I was very much like, I'm such a good ally,
(13:41):
Like I even like to kiss girls.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
I'll even do it with you.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yeah, I would like get down with a girl. It's
just because I'm like, like so non homophobic and like
such a great ally.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Exactly that much denial, y'all. So what changed?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
What was it like clicked in your head that was like, no, way,
I'm just this strong ally.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
I'm I'm one of one of one of them, Yes, exactly. Well,
when I met my wife, I had never like really
wanted to get married. My parents were divorced, and I
had just never really seen like a happy marriage before.
So I was like, wow, would I Wow? Would I
do that to myself? You know? So I just never
like really thought of being married or being a wife
(14:23):
or having a wife until I met my now wife.
And I literally we were like six weeks into meeting
in dating we of course, like in a very u
haul lesbian way, we like met and two weeks later
we were dating, and then like four weeks after that,
I was like, so, how do you feel about the
word wife?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
Like, oh my god, this is so typical. Yeah is
this in Nashville?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
This is in nice, Okay? And a cherry on top.
I met her at my record label, so she was
the person in charge of like taking me around to
country music radio stations and introducing me to the country
radio station. So she worked for my record label, and
we were very scandalous for quite some time.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
She's like, I'll take you around, all right.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I still remember like the first flight that we took together,
she like gave me her Wi Fi password because she
was like, you know, high status on Southwest and she
was like, hey, stick with me. That's got a Wi
Fi connection. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Play exactly had she been out? Like, was she no
problem known lesbian?
Speaker 3 (15:37):
She was out? She yes, she had been engaged to
a woman at one point, so she was out. So yeah,
I think that like up until I met her, I
was like, oh yeah, Like at what's the point of
like really getting serious here, Like I'm probably never gonna
get married and whatever. And then I met her and
I was like, I want marriage, I want babies, I
(15:59):
want to been all my days with you, Like I
don't want to be apart from you. You were at
what I want, damn. I think it was kind of
at that point that I had to like really come
to terms with the fact that like, oh, I'm very
much a lesbian and like this is going to be
my life and like I need to come out tell
everyone I need like some self realization and like learning
(16:22):
self love and like also learning like un learning so
much and like kind of like de brainwash myself.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
And at this point, would you say, because like I
listened to some of your music and like it does
infuse like you've infused your queerness into the music to
some extent, or maybe it's just my ears the way
I'm hearing it, but you have like it's open, it's
I would know you're gay probably if I listened.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah, so that was that always you're listening to like
probably twenty twenty one and on okay, before that, I
actually and like I need to just like re record
this song specif quickly. But I have a song that's
still out on streaming platforms where the bridge is. If
you want to know what turns me on, it's a
(17:08):
hot pot of coffee, which for the record, I don't
fucking drink coffee with a hot man beside me.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Oh god, okay, yeah, that's got a change change the song.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Never also never mean like never have I had a
hot pot of coffee? Actually, hilarious.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Well you really don't like the hot pot of coffee.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
No, I'm like I if I do drink coffee, it's
it's cold, of course, Okay, coffee girl. I just became
like I just I can have like one tablespoon of
coffee before people start asking me if I'm on cocaine.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well, I mean this is clearly needs to go to
ice coffee and a woman. Right, How fast can this
re record?
Speaker 2 (17:47):
How like my ice coffee and a woman?
Speaker 3 (17:51):
A lady?
Speaker 1 (17:52):
There we go.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
See, this is why you're the country music singer exactly.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
And one of my songs I do talk about like cologne,
like I miss your cologne or whatever. I will say
that my ex girlfriend did wear cologne versus perfumes. So yeah,
yeah it work totally. But obviously was trying to like,
you know, steer your ear more toward cologne than perfume.
But yeah, now I'm so unapologetic about it. But it
(18:19):
really took me so long. Like when I met my wife,
my label at the time, which my label now is
like absolutely incredible and so so supportive in like every way,
but when I first came out, they really like owned
me and my wife in a way. Because she worked
at the Way.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Oh yeah, so they.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
Told me if I wanted to keep my career in
country music that we had to you know, we could
be in a relationship, I quote, in our own fucking house.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Oh oh my god.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yeah whoa. And so we lived in the closet for
five years. And it was so crazy. I mean I
literally am out talking to radio doing interviews, living this
life as if I'm like this like single straight lady,
and then going home to like my very very like
wifed up life where I'm just like living in this
(19:07):
happy love bubble and like have never been more in
love and never been more happy. And I can't tell
anyone about it.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Damn that takes a toll, Brooke.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
It absolutely did. Yeah. It was just always like I
was so afraid in interviews or like when I was
out of my little you know, safe circle, that I
was going to say like the wrong pronoun or like
talk about my wife in more than a friendly way,
just going to like, you know, kind of ruin everything
that I've ever worked for and like my career and
(19:36):
her career, and like they owned us, you know. And
so it was really really hard on my mental health
and I ended up getting actually like physically very sick.
I got ulcers and was surprised. It caused me to
like stop touring, like I couldn't sing anymore. I was
like getting sick all the time.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Were you attaching that at that point, like this is
what's wrong with me? Or you probably had no idea.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I was pretty sure because it wasn't soon after like
I thought, like I really thought, you know, when I
came out, I have so many gay friends, Like I
grew up in theater and choir, and like so many
of my guy friends are gay, like have been since
I was like fifty, and my mom and dad were
always like, oh yeah, like you're besties, Like they're gay,
(20:24):
like God loves them. Whatever it was, it was never
a thing until it was me. So I came out
to my mom and it was like really really really bad,
and we used to be very close, and for like
three years we were not. I like couldn't talk for
a while because every time we got on the phone
it was like very negative. And then literally one day
(20:44):
it was like a flip switched for her and she
was like I just realized that I have to love you,
like I have to I just have to love you
and that's my only job as your mother is to
love you, like unconditionally, and I haven't done that, and
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Oh my gosh. What led to that for her? Like
what happened?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
I think it was this realization that she was not
going to be able to be in my life, like
I had set a very strong boundary. She knew about
my first girlfriend and like was super like, you know,
negative about it, and I kind of like agreed with
her in a way. But then when I met my wife,
I was like, if you don't like this person, like
(21:29):
that's on you. Yeah, you know, she's an incredible human being,
and like I hope that you can eventually see past
your homophobia and like love her, you know, and see
her for who she is, and eventually love me and
see me for who I am instead of you know,
the daughter that you thought you were going to have.
(21:49):
And and I mean, I can't even tell you how
much that has just been like the story of my family.
My mom wasn't the only one. She was probably like
the most impactful one because you're so close Mom. Yeah, yeah,
but like my nana, you know, she's ninety years old now,
and it took her a while and I had to
(22:11):
go and like have a real sit down conversation with her,
and she was like, honey, I'm just worried about where
are you gonna go when you die? And I was like,
you know what, Nana, Like, I have three options. One,
I can marry a man and not give him anything
that he needs for the rest of his life and
not receive anything that I need for the rest of
my life and live like a very unhappy, unfulfilled life.
(22:33):
Number Two, I can tell myself that I am not
deserving of love and you know, just be celibate, and
you know that seems like a really sad, lonely life.
Or number three, I can be with the person that
I've already found who loves me, who I love so much.
We can have a family, we can have like a
very loving and successful, successful life. Like which of these
(22:56):
would you choose for me? Yeah, And like I think
that when I broke it down like that, my Nana
was like, well, you should not be with a man
like that would be fair for him, is when she
said for me, But yeah, me too. Yeah, And she's like, well,
you're definitely deserving of love and kind of when you
put it like that, you know, I have some things
(23:17):
to think about. And she had actually written in my
birthday card she said, Rookie, even though I don't agree
with some of your life's choices, I just want you
to know that I will always love you. And that
was like the kind of indication like it was time
to sit down and have like a real girl to
(23:38):
girl talk with Nana.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
How is she now? Is she?
Speaker 3 (23:42):
More? Like?
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Is she in the life of your baby and your wife?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
So she's in a nursing home now unfortunately not in
the greatest like state of mind. But before she she
had a stroke, but before she had her stroke, she
very much loves me and my wife now and like
she actually she gave me a check for my birthday
and I gave the check back to her and said
that I really would like her to use the money
(24:06):
to go to therapy. Oh wow, she seeked out therapy
and she went and she called me after and she
was like, I just want to let you know that
I'm working on myself. This has nothing to do with you,
and like, I love you and I love Hillary very much,
and I'm working on myself. And like since then, everything
has been so wonderful and so to me, like if
(24:28):
you can be eighty five years old and figure that out,
kind of anybody can.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
One thousand percent and everybody I like redemption, Like I
think everyone deserves. She's eighty five, she's not gonna show
up where you are. You were born in this, like
you were already further along because of your age and
your generation. So Nana gets redemption, guys.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Nah, Nana gets redemption. Yeah, gets deemption. It's just been
really cool to see kind of like what love can
do and like what joy can do, and just watch
people go like, oh wait to second, You're like you're
still my girl, and like I need to love you
unconditionally because truly that's my only job here. And that's
so true.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Like I think once they see the example and like that,
probably seeing you and your wife together and like the
love that's like visible in front of your own eyeballs
is really telling.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah, it's hard to look away once you see that.
It's like it's proximity. It's hard to un't see it
when you're close to it. Like that, it's so true.
Would you say your music and like your writing has
shifted now, Like Melissa and I talk a lot about
how our lives, like professionally and socially, just like expand it.
The minute we started being exactly who we are, the
(25:40):
minute that toxic secret is no longer a secret, It's like,
oh wow, everything kind of opens up.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
When that toxicity becomes just like pure queer joy, it
totally changes everything. Oh my god, I'm so much more
of a confident person than I used to be. I
feel like I'm more like like accepting of others, yes,
being toward everyone. I like, have no judgment toward anyone.
I'm literally like live and let live and like like
(26:07):
you do you boo boo. And that's completely changed my music.
I mean, like I said, I was so nervous to
like say the wrong pronoun that there are a lot
of times that I was just like you, even nervous
to talk. And now I just don't have to worry
about any of that. And so it's just so much
more of a freeing experience and I get to be myself.
I get to be who I'm supposed to be as
(26:30):
an artist and as a human. And so yeah, I
think it's really really wild, Like when I have fans
that are like, oh, I've been there since twenty fourteen,
and I'm like, whoa you've rete?
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Do you write all your like do you write most
of your own music, like the songs I do? That's
so impressive to me.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I mean for me, I think that, like this journey
has been like such a story, and that is all
that songwriting is is just taking your experiences and your
story and turning into lyrics and melody, you know, And
so my writing music to me is like, you know,
half of it's it's so much of me being an
(27:14):
artist is me being able to like tell this story
and like tell the queer story through like a country
music lens. So yeah, it's it's really important to me
because growing up I always wanted to see myself in
country music but never could. And now to be that
like queer representation in country music is like such an
important I think, like role and like mission for me
(27:37):
in life.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah. Oh I love that. Who are some artists like
I'm curious who you like? Like, who do you listen to?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Country wise?
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Anything? Really?
Speaker 3 (27:46):
Well? I love that we have a lesbian pop star
right now. I'm obsessed with Chapel Okay. Yeah, I just
love that we finally have like an all out like
lesbian song on the radio like good luck babe. But
for me, I mean grown up. I like very much
grew up on like straight up country music, Leanne Rhymes,
The Chicks Night, Twayne, Patsy Kline, Tricia Yearwood, who's like
(28:10):
officiated our wedding.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Really, Oh that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Yeah, just wild. Yeah, it's like the craziest thing. So
my wife worked with Garth and Tricia, And when Trisha
found out that we got engaged, she calls me and
she's like, Hey, so you know my song She's in
Love with the Boy, And I'm like, yes, it's like
a country classic. She's like, what if we changed she's
(28:36):
in love with the boy. So she's in love with
the girl. She's like, it's Pride month. You guys just
got engaged. She's like, ever since I wrote this song
and started singing it out, I've had people come up
to me and be like, Hey, don't tell anyone, but
I sing He's in love with the boy, or like.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
God, that's so awesome. I have the chills.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Yeah. Yeah, I always wanted to honor that in some
way that like I've never really had like the right
opportunity or like situation to do it and She's like,
would you want to sing that? And like maybe do
it at the ground. I'll opry. Oh wow, so cool. Yes,
that was super wild and then we got off the
stage and like no one threw tomatoes at it.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
People are coming around, like I think, like even Garth
did that documentary where he sort of like said without saying,
he's more open minded than I think people think. And
I even like having my mom and dad who are
huge Garth Brooks fans like watching that. I think it's
like they don't un the aisle really uh love him,
(29:34):
but like that to me is like he's showing up
for you guys. Is also helping millions of other people
because it's people like my parents who see that and
are huge fans of Garth Brooks who are like, oh wow, God,
maybe we are We need to like open our minds
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
Being love is like not a bad thing. Like I
think it's it's really cool to have, you know, people
that I I as a child and like literally I
like still to this day, will tap my hip when
I'm singing because that's what Trisha Yearwood did and like
watch when I was a kid. So yeah, we got
done with our She's in love with the girl performance
(30:13):
at the Opry, and we were so excited that it
went over as well as it did, and she was like, okay,
so like what am I doing for this wedding? Like?
Am I flower girl? Myciating and Kyle and I kind
of looked at each other and were like, would you
officiate our wedding? And she was like proudly yes, Oh
my god. It ended up happening, and then we were
(30:34):
like talking about the wedding one day and we were
over at Trisha's house and Garth walked in and we
were like, you're a comment right, like you're coming to
the wedding and he was like, well, I wouldn't miss it.
And we're like, well, since you're going to be there,
would you want to sing us down the aisle?
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Oh my god, I know this is why country dreams
come true.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Yeah, totally. It's it's pretty wild. So yeah, he sang
to make you feel my love a beautiful song? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Wow. How long have you been married, Brooke?
Speaker 3 (31:04):
I've been married October will be three.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Years, okay, and then how old's the babe?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Six months?
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (31:12):
Yeah, Tiny, the chunkiest monkey you've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Really talk to us about like two women and now
you've got the six month old baby, Like how does
that like your relationship? It becomes you two are everything
and then now he's everything. Likely, Like how has that
been with adding this little friend to the mix?
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Yeah, so much communication, which is so great yeah to women,
you know, but it's so it's so much to just
like re put together in your brain. You know. It's
like we wore each other's everything for nine years and
you know we had that going like right at our
nine year anniversary. Now he is our like world, and
(31:53):
it's so amazing to like watch her be a mom
and like get to parent with her. She's such a
great co parent and like to get to do this
together is just like super cool. But yeah, we have
to have we had to have you know, real conversations
about like okay, we got a sleep train, Like we
got to get this boy in bed by eight pm
(32:14):
so we can have a couple of hours like just
being a right and so yeah, it's it's like this
kind of you know, I'm not going to say double
edged sword, but it's kind of like you get to
see the person that you love so much, like be
so maternal and like be this like loving amazing parent,
but then you also like she is my tour manager,
(32:37):
so like we used to do everything together, as like
I just got off of this two week tour where
I'm touring the country and like didn't get to see
them for two weeks. That's so hard, especially when we're
not used to being a part, especially when like our
sun is like you know, only six months.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
And changing like daily change.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
I forgot home from tour and I'm like, you're three
inches taller than you were, right, So yeah, that's been
hard too. Like I'm going and like still continuing to
do my career and I'm on the road and I'm
meeting people and like he'll you know, just gets a
FaceTime at the end of the night of like this
is what's happened, versus like being right next to me.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
It's such a good point. Her life has turned upside
down in a beautiful way. But it's even good stress to.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Stress exactly exactly. So it is a whole new dynamic,
and we've had to you know, communicate our way through
that over and over and over again and just make
sure that like we're on the same page and you know,
we're still feeling each other because he does take up
so much mental capacity and like almost just try to
keep them alive.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
And yeah, you know, and it's the only other person
that cares. Like we talk a lot about like blended
families when it's like you're the mom and somebody else isn't,
like you come together, but when it's your baby together,
it's like you both are obsessed. I'm sure, like I
am with my babies. So it's like then it's like,
what else is there? Beckham is the most interesting thing
(34:00):
to talk about, So what else is there?
Speaker 3 (34:02):
I mean, I know and I we have we have,
like you know, my music career, but we also own
airbnbs together. We do like own a lot of businesses
and like sometimes, you know, before we had Beckham, we'd
be at dinner and we'd just be like dreaming and
like talking about life and business and like all these things,
you know, And now we go to dinner and we're like, Oh,
(34:23):
wasn't it so cute when Beckham put his feet together
the other day?
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Yes, it was so cute.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
That is hilarious, giggling like this. This is so funny. Yeah,
the dynamic. I mean I was out in la I
had just done like a queer line dancing bar with
all the lesbians. And then I'm at Revolver and Who
with all the gays and the area, and I my like,
(34:52):
you know, screen of my phone pops up and it's
like my fun while I'm like at the club with
the drag queens about to get on a balcony and
staying in my chat. I'm truly like leading a double
life right now. Yeah, there's so much happening. So yeah,
(35:12):
it is so wild, but I feel really really blessed
to be able to continue to follow my dreams and
have a supportive partner who is willing to like kind
of take the brunt of that we are bringing. I
am bringing my wife and my son to like countless
Prides this summer, So I'm really excited about that.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
When are you going to be back in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Yeah, we'll get a group together.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
We we'll get a big group together.
Speaker 3 (35:37):
I did get an inquiry this morning, and inquiry about
possibly doing Atlanta Pride this morning.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Okay, you gotta do it. Try to do it.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
Yeah, oh my god, it would be a blast.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Yeah we could. It'll be a total blast, and we'll
make sure to like do some events around it. It
would be so fun.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Oh my god, that would be so cool. Yeah, we
got to figure it out because I would love to
come back. I had so much fun. I did it
like last minute a couple of years ago, in twenty
twenty two, right before I got married actually, and like
just absolutely had the time of my life.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Our group we are big time dancers. Like we aren't good,
but we love to dance. Every even every dinner party
turns into a dance party. So we got to have
you here. I need to do this, Brooke, Thank you
so so much for taking so much time with us,
Like this is amazing.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Yeah, and before you go plug, what all you got
going on right now?
Speaker 2 (36:29):
I know you said you're about to do some cities
and stuff like that, so let's hear what you got
going on.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Yeah, So I'm gonna be at WEIHO Pride on June
first in LA. I'm going to be at World Pride
in DC on June eighth, Arlington Pride in Texas with
it's literally all drag queens and me, which I'm so
excited about heck yeah, and then Market Days in Chicago. Okay,
so really excited about that. I'm also doing it's not
(36:57):
a pride. It's just like a county fair, but the
Marin County baron San Rafael outside of San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Oh, that'll be beautiful in July.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Nice, Yeah, that is very cool. Well Brooke Eden check
her out. She's so your music is so fun, Like
I had it on today while I was working. I'm like,
you can't help but it's infectious. It's killer dance music,
great lyrics. I loved it.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Thank you so much. That was the whole point. So
I really.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Mission mission accomplish. Yeah, it's right up my alley.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Amazing. Thank you so much. This is super fun.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Thanks, thank you, see you soon, Bye bye bye. I
want to support the Lesbian Chronicles podcast.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Rate us and write a review on Apple podcast or Spotify.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
We'd love listener feedback. If you'd like to share your story,
email us at Melissa and Ali at gmail dot com.
That's Melissa M. E. L I s A and Ali A. L.
L I at gmail dot com. Or follow us on
Instagram at Lesbian Chronicles
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