July 31, 2025 • 48 mins
She’s a powerhouse voice in gospel music, but behind the mic, Tasha Cobbs Leonard is a woman of deep purpose, healing, and unwavering faith. In this soul-stirring conversation with Brandi Harvey, Tasha opens up about her personal battles, the weight of worship, and the anointing that comes with obedience.If you've ever struggled to balance calling with vulnerability—this episode will remind you that your pain still has purpose and your voice still carries power.
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You can watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/K7aODBqBF_k
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I mean break every chain.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You said you didn't see that this was a Grammy
Award winning hit.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Everybody's like, how you feel about the Grammy. I don't
know because my heart is broken. I said that if
I ever win any awards, I promise you I'll give
them to you. Oh that night when I won those
three awards, I gave them to him. He had these
three boxes in his hands and I was like, take
out one. I'm gonna take a picture. And I snapped
a picture of my dad. He just had so much
pride on his face. And he got on the elevator
and that would be the last time I would see
(00:28):
him here on her.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
This Royalty album was a set up for really what
was to take place afterwards.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
My husband, he comes in the room where I am
and he says, Babe, what do you think about adoption?
It was necessary for me to see those broken places
within my spiritual.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Walk with Christ. Welcome to Valdenpower's Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So we don't just scratch the surface, we dive deep
into the lives of some of the world's most influential
change makers. Her host Brandy Harvey, y'all, she's here. The
Powerhouse of Gospel music. Tasha Cobbs Leonard is a gospel
music powerhouse. Tasha is a Grammy, Dove, Billboard and Stellar
Award winner whose anthem Break Every Chain has touched millions.
(01:16):
Beyond her musical triumphs, She's an entrepreneur and ministry leader
and the co founder of the Purpose Place Church. In
May twenty twenty four, she released her debut book, Do
It Anyway Don't Give Up Before It Gets Good, a
raw faith field guide on perseverance, now followed by the
sixty Day Devotional Companion, inviting readers to embrace resilience in
(01:38):
every season. Adding to her business story, Tasha recently opened
the Athlete's Foot Sneaker Boutique in Greenville under the Start Program,
becoming one of the few black female franchise owners bought
in Power's Talk's Welcome wife, mother, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and
pastor Tasha Cobb's Leonards to the show.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Hey, Hey, how are you doing good? I'm so excited
to listen. Listen.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
She drove me in this morning, so we thank God
for her traveling mercies because she got here. Amen, I
am so excited to talk to you. I was like,
I mean, I gotta tell you, Break every Chain. I mean,
I mean more than able. I mean, these are just
songs that be on the daily playlist for me, you
know you, I mean you have just been a part
(02:26):
of so many of our spiritual journey. You've gotten us through,
You've been a huge comfort. I mean, that's some power
you got over there in that voice.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Ah, thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
That's a blessing to hear, because because sometimes you don't
see the back end or the back end of the story,
you know. And so while I am helping to usher
people through their seasons in life, you know, you have
to go through them yourself. And we were just talking
about the book, and I know we'll get back into it,
but that gave me an opportunity to share some of
those stories behind the scenes, the story behind the song,
(03:01):
you know, so to hear how those songs have been
a blessing to others, just always encouraging to me always.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I mean, break every Chain.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
You said you didn't see that this was this was
a Grammy Award winning hit.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
You didn't see it? Yeah, I did.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I knew that that song would impact people's lives, probably
and I'm thinking probably just within the walls of the church,
you know, like, hey, they're.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Gonna sing this at their churches, people going she out
a little bit. Yeah, but it was so much bigger
than that.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
There were people who needed chains broken in every culture,
in every across every bridge. You know. My mentor used
to say, you know, this is my this is my
spiritual daughter, Tasha, She's a bridge to the nations. That
was like twenty eleven, twenty ten, and I didn't understand
it then. But after releasing break every chain, there was
like this revelation behind what he was saying that Hey, Tasha,
(03:52):
this is bigger than the four walls of the church.
There's a calling on your life to bridge the gap,
you know, bridge the gap and bring people into the
awareness of the presence of God.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And I have embraced that calling.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, yeah, I mean you were growing up and you
said church. If they told you you couldn't go to church,
that was your punishment, like you. For us, it was
like you can't go to the mall. And I grew
up in the church. But maybe if you said, I.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Got we got a day off, lie you celebrate? Right?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah? That was my story and I don't I don't know,
you know, I.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Didn't understand it then as a kid, but I just
had this hunger, like I just want, I want more
of the experience I want. I just had this hunger
to be in the presence of God, and I didn't
have language for it back then.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
And except I just want to go to church.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I want to go to choir rehearsal, I want to
go to Bible study, I want to go to vacation
Bible school, whatever, Saturday school.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You know, I just wanted to be there.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
And now I have a greater understanding that there was
this hunger being birthed in me because of my calling.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
You know, I had to have an anchor.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Back then that I was digging deep just for the
weight of the assignment that I have now.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I mean, your father, everybody in your family's.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Pastors, and it's got churches. Your father breaks away to
go start his own church. You started your own church.
I mean, this is like the bedrock of your life.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yes, church, church, and then I married a church boy.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Man, but I think it's so much bigger than that.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Kenny and I have this thing where we, you know,
were like, hey, we understand our purpose now. It's to
bring God everywhere we go, and it may be desolate places.
A few years ago, I remember this story. I don't
know if I've ever told this before. I remember I
released an eyewear company and I named it after my dad.
It's called Fritz Iwear. And that first year I went
(05:42):
to an expo. It was my first time there. We
were in Vegas, and I walked into this arena and
you know, it could be me sensationalizes and being dramatic,
but I felt like the wind was.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Just blowing in my hair. But then I had all
that hair hair blowing in the wind. And I walk
in and I really.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Really since the presence of God, like, hey, Tasha, you're
walking into another door or another dimension of what I've
called you to do.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
And I remember just kind of feeling.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
That I was felt fulfilled, like okay, this is outside
of the walls of the four walls of the church.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
And I walked past this booth.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
There was a guy there who was working for a
company that was I guess just launching there.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I wear a company. And he said to me, oh
my god, oh my god, oh my god, it's Tasha.
I never thought I would meet you.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
And he said, I listened to your music every single
day tears start running down his face, and he said,
but I never thought i'd meet you, because.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
You know, who knew that you would walk into an
expo like this? Who knew?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
And immediately I thought, there are some people who may
never come to my church, But do I accept the
assignment to go to where they are? And I really
really felt at that moment, like, hey, I embraced this fully,
that there are some people who are called to to
who I'm called to, you know, called to us, maybe
(07:00):
it's through worship or just the Word of God, is
just my presence, and I have to go to where
they are, you know, so I accept that assignment.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I mean, this assignment from the very beginning has just
I mean, you spend so much time with doctor William
Murphy vision William Murphy over at the Dream Center. Yeah,
and so you cultivated your craft a little more up
under somebody like him who was also a singing past.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Imagine that, I mean, having to come behind that.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I was like, yeah, yeah, I mean masterful, but I
want you to go back because when break, every chain
comes out and it just skyrockets and it takes you
to the top of the charts. Millions and millions of
sales on this album and then it takes you to
the Cellar Awards. First takes you to the Grammys. But
(07:54):
I want you to tell the story because I was
watching one of your interviews and I was like, oh
my god. I was like, I had to. I had
you own him on my speaker while I was cooking.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Then I had to go look at the screen. I said, what,
let me stop it. Look at that.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Wow, the story of your father because you are so close.
Your father and your mother met at thirteen years old,
and so your father suddenly passes away as soon as
you get the Solar Award, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
You know what? And it was My dad was the guy.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
He was like, always super excited anytime I said, hey, Dad,
I gotta go speak. I don't care if it was
somewhere twenty people gonna be there. He just thought that
was the most amazing thing because he cultivated the communicator
in me, so before there was ever the worship leader
Tasha to him, you know, I preach what they called
my trial sermon when I was ten years old.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
So Daddy put me up and was like, hey, you're
gonna preach this, you know, And I felt like it
was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
You know, a ten year old.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
But I remember him just being so proud that, hey,
I put this in her and I'm watching God do
this all over the world. And once this worship thing
just started blowing up, you know, I would call him
and be like, Daddy, I gotta go sing here, and
he'd be like, oh, baby, do a good job. You know, Daddy,
I gotta preach this Sunday. I knew it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
He'd just say, you know what you gonna preach you about.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
So he was just always I was a daddy's girl,
like to the core. I would often sit like at
my dad's feed, sit in his lap whenever he showed up.
I was like just and he wasn't a man of
very many words, Like he didn't talk a lot. Now,
sometimes he would get into this little comedy thing and
have all of us laughing, but for the most part,
(09:34):
when he spoke, we all like leaned in because it
was gonna be profound, it was gonna be wise. He
would always tell me, baby, stay at the feet of Jesus.
I mean, ever since I could remember, that would be
the thing that he would say to me. And now
I have this understanding that while he was telling me
life's gonna get tough. Even in his passing, I had
to like hinge on his word that stay at the
(09:54):
feet of Jesus because it's gonna get tough, and you
gotta have a strong anchor because life goes start lifing
and it may not be that way right now at
three five and six years old, but it's coming.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
And I think that was.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Him preparing me even for him passing. And I was
I was fairly young, you know, I was in my thirties,
and it's like, hey, I felt like I had so
much more time with Daddy, you know, And so here
we are. Break Every Chain has just kind of taken off.
I had sixty seconds to sing Break Every Chain at
the Stellar Awards and they were.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Just him and my mom.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
They were beaming from ear to ear, just smiling. They
were so super proud. And Daddy kept saying, Okay, Daddy's
gonna come to Nashville, which was already mind blowing because
Daddy was a down home country pastor. He was the
first one to get there, last one to leave. He's
checking the thermostatic, was all of that. All of that,
he babied, all of the all of the partners at
(10:46):
the church.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
You know, Daddy was Daddy to everybody.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
So for him to say I'm gonna miss church this
Sunday and come to Nashville, that alone was that was
an award for me, Like Daddy, Daddy chose me today,
you know, and he always did. It might have took
a little coerce and to get him out of there,
but he always did. And so for him and Mama
to be there, and it just so happened that year,
they had like a they did a center stage, so
(11:10):
a satellite stage, and I was in the center of
the room, which placed me literally I could almost touch
them from the stage.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
So for me to look out and see them sitting there,
they were so so proud that year. I won three
Stellar Awards that night. And so that night we're up,
We're hanging out at Bishop Murphy's room. We're having you know,
just excited celebrating, and Bishop Murphy says, call Daddy and
see if they're gonna come down here. I was like,
Daddy is not coming down here two o'clock in the morning,
(11:40):
three o'clock in the morning, and so I just text
him and saying, hey, Dad, we're hanging out. And I
passed to Murphy's room. Would you like to come? And
he immediately responded, me and your mama on the way.
First of all, while.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Y'all up to talk about that.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
So we're hanging out and Daddy was just up and
he pulled out his comedy set that night.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I mean we were on the floor laughing.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Just crying, and about four o'clock that morn and then
they decided that hey, hey, we're going to go back.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
To our room.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
We got a long drive tomorrow, and so I walked
them to the elevator and I was like, hold on, Dad,
hold on, I want you to take a picture with
my stellars and he had eight, I gotta go back.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
So my dad I did an independent project. So this
is when he was the executive producer, right, So this
is the.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
One after the okay, this is where he's asking, okay,
when does Daddy get paid back?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
When does the executive producer get his money bag?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
And he just kept asking me that and I would
just laugh las last so I promised him, I said, Dad,
if I ever win any awards, I promise you I'll
give them to you.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
And he literally took that to heart.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
So my dad was a carpenter He had built this
beautiful Caryo for all of the awards that he knew
that his daughter was gonna win. I not want anything yet,
but he built it in faith. And so that night
when I won those three awards, I gave them to him.
He had these three boxes in his hands, and I
was like, take out one. I'm gonna take a picture,
and I snapped a picture of my dad. He just
had so much pride on his face and got on
(13:00):
the elevator and that will be the last time I
would see him here on earth. The next morning, he
had a heart attack in the car on the way home.
They actually made it about thirty minutes outside of home,
and he had a heart attack and went to be
with God. And that was just it was a lot
to digest because you're here on a mountain. That was
(13:21):
one of the highest seasons of my life, you know,
but also one of the heaviest seasons of my life.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
And I think, you know, that's how life works.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Their ebbs and flows, ups and downs, seasons where you're up,
seasons where you're low, you know. And I feel like
I was experiencing highs and lows all at the same time.
It's hard to explain, you know, where everybody's like, how
you feel about the Grammy.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I don't know, because my heart is broken. I mean
because the Grammys were the next week later.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yeah, and Daddy kept saying, Daddy's not gonna be with
you in LA, but I want you to go anyway.
That's that's where the title of my book came from.
I feel like that was a last lesson. He was
teaching me that life is gonna be hard, but Daddy
wants you to do it anyway, dig deep, and go anyway.
There are so many things about that trip to La
I do not remember, and people were so gentle with me.
(14:12):
Jay Bowling styled me, Melissa did my makeup, and I
just remember how gentle they were with me. And I
was very fragile at the time, you know, taking moments
to just they would let me just go cry, you know,
just give me a moment.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
And I feel like, you know, I don't get to
say this often.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
But I appreciate people being just aware of where I.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Was emotionally at the time.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
But I knew that I had to be there because
Daddy kept saying, I want you to go anyway.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
And who would have known. Yeah, Yeah, because that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
When when I heard you say that, he kept saying,
I'm gonna be with you in nash Yeah, I'm not
gonna be with you in LA. I'm gonna be with
you in Nashville. I'm not gonna be with you in LA.
But I want you to go anywhere. But I want
you to go anyway. And for you to stand up
on that stage. And I even get that grand because
you said when they called your name, I sat there.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
You didn't even hear it. Yeah, And my cousin was.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Like, nudge me because you know they'll start playing.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
The music had started playing, and everybody was like, you
need to get up. So I got up, and of
course people started cheering.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
The first thing I said, It's the only thing I
could think to say, is seven days ago, the greatest
man that I know to ever walk the face of
the earth went to be with Jesus, and I would
love to honor his legacy today. And I actually entire
academy to stand and give my father a round of applause,
and everybody in the academy stood up, yeah and applauded
my dad.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, I was tearing up. I think I'm tearing up
now even yeah, when I heard you tell that, because
that for him to be honored like that in that moment, yeah,
you know, yeah, you know that was for his sacrifice
all those years, for your own sacrifice to even be there, right,
you know, and he was with.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
You, He was there, yeah, yeah, every little thing about
that moment. So weekspak for probably about three weeks before,
my dad had met Ti Trivia at a conference.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
They had gone to a leadership conference and he.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Came back just boasted about tis my best friend. We
just hung out, you know, I mean, he was just
and it's I called Tyler.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Like, what did you do to my dad?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Like he's been talking about you since he came back,
and he just fell in love with tie Well. At
the Grammys, ty was the one who presented me my award. Wow,
Like everything was so divinely orchestrated for it was like
God was saying, He's there with you.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
He's there with you, anchored all along.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I mean all these moments, I mean the high highs,
the lo lows. You know, how have you managed to
remain grounded because you go through these high highs and
low lows and yet you were still using your gift
to bring people out of they low lows, right, Yeah, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Had to realize. And this was a few weeks after
Daddy passed. I was standing on a stage and I
was just, you know, trying to go through the motions
and it wasn't working. You know, everything that I would
try that would normally work in you know, you know
the notes to hit, you know what to say, and
it's gonna get the crowd. But I stood on that
stage and I realized, Tasha, you need your gift for
(17:15):
yourself right now. So are you gonna worship in hopes
that someone else gets set free in the room? Or
are you gonna worship, you know, hoping that your heart
is covered you know that you feel the comforting presence
of God right now. And I stood on that stage
and there was an old song we used to sing
back in the day that came back to me. I'll
say yes, Lord, Yes to your will and to your way.
(17:38):
I'll say yes Lord, yes, I will trust.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
You and the obey.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
And I got to the part that says, when your
spirit speaks to me, and I just changed the lyrics.
I said, with my broken heart, I'll still agree and
my ansu will be Yes, Lord, Yes. My whole mindset
about how I ministered changed in that moment.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Natasha, No, I just gotta say I wanted to jump
in so bad. I wanted to jump come on here,
I wanted to jump in in my spirit. You're not
gonna come in on kid, He's not come I just
had it.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I was like, I noticed, yes, But you know what,
it's sometimes we sing these lyrics to these songs and
we don't really think about what we're saying. I thought
about the lyrics to that song that when your spirit
speaks to me, and no matter what season I'm in
in life, I'll still give you a yes. And that's
where my heart was in that moment, and I just
(18:40):
kind of changed everything about how I presented the gospel
through song that I know you're being blessed whoever's in
the audience, and I pray that you get your breakthrough,
but I'm not gonna leave myself out. I needed to,
you know, and so I've taken that with me down
through the years, that you're not just singing for other
people to get a breakthrough, this is for you too.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, what's been the song of yours? That was like
that gave you a breakthrough moment.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
You know it's different in every season. Yeah, you know,
because you got you know my name? And I needed
that when I was going through depression, you know, when
I was even now when I feel heavy, when I
feel the way the hey he knows me, and I
know he knows everybody else.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
But that song is just so personal. You know my name?
But then Break Every Chain.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
The story behind Break Every Chain is that it was
released prior. So there's a guy, his name is William Reagan.
He wrote that song and they released it from another
group and I was really really dealing with depression and
anxiety and.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Fear heavy in those here.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
So it was about twenty eleven, twenty twelve, and I
remember being in a car I like to drive, so
my team.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
They were all back in the back sleep.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
We had done a concert somewhere and I just let
just let my playlist just roll just and it was
playing and this song Break Every Chain.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Came on and immediately tears to fill my eyes.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
I was welling up with this sense of, oh my goodness,
these walls that I've had all of these years. I
feel like this song is breaking something in me, you know,
And so I listened to that song on repeat, literally
for about two weeks. I played it in my house
and I experienced breakthrough from this depression and this weight
and this fear that I have been feeling.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
And of course you got to do the practical thing.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
So I went to therapy and you know, talk to
somebody about it and was very honest about.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Where I was.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
But there was something about Break Every Chain that no
other ministry. I don't care if I was listening to
somebody preach or whatever it was. It was something about
that song that reached me where nothing else could reach me.
And so now people ask me all the time, do
you ever get tired of singing Break Every Chain? And
my answer is no, because every single time I know
it's going to reach people where they are.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
It's something special about it. It is.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I mean, it is on every gospel playlist that I have.
It is going to make that one.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, it reaches.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
It is one of those songs that no matter where
you are, it doesn't matter in age. It's so in
a generational because my mama loved a song, We love
the song. You know, it's like my little cousin loved
a song. So it's like it's so it has no
it has no bounds. Right, it's a boundless record, you know,
And it's one of those records.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
That it is. It is a chain breaker. Yeah, it's
a chain breaker. I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
But then most recently you did because you sing it
on Chandler. It's like with more than a yeah. Yeah,
that song that had me in a choke hold for
about literally a mustrae. That was literally the only song
that I had on repeat more than Abelah when it
(21:46):
came Am I to deny what the Lord can do?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Sometimes we just get out of place, like Okay, you
know what God, you do you and I'm gonna stay
in my place. That's what that song is about, Like
it helps to increase your faith that at the end
of the day, he is all powerful.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Who am I to deny what the Lord can do?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
He's more than able. Yeah, that song is they wrote
that one. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
It's so powerful talk about who can deny what the
Lord can do? Twenty seventeen You Mary Kenneth, Yes, you're
married Kenneth in twenty seventeen. And then you all go
on this journey to build a family of your own
because you're a blended family. So Kenneth already had children
from his previous relationship, and so you all are working
(22:33):
to build this family and it wasn't going as planned.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Yeah, yeah, you know, here's this is the plan that
we're all given. You know, you get married, you spend
a year together, and then you try to have kids.
You know, you that's the plan that it's the American dream.
You know, you want to do.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
It that way, and we tried it that way.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
You know, I have people come to me prophesygned, oh,
you're going to have a baby, and.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
We will receive it. You know, you cry, you receive it, and.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
You wait on God to do it, you know, and
you're thinking it's gonna happen a certain way because that's
the American dream. That's what we're handed, that's what we're given.
And it just wasn't working that way for us. And
of course I felt like for years, I felt like
there was something happening with me and my body, and
you know I would because I always had like.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Very very painful cycles, you know, very painful. You know,
in the black community. We kind of chopped that up as.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
That you know, this is normal, you know, it was
normal in my family, and I never really dug deep
into it. I just thought, Hey, this is just my lot,
this is what I have to deal with. But after
we tried for a while, I thought, you know, maybe
I need to go get checked and if I have endometriosis.
You know, it came back that I have endometriosis, a
(23:51):
very severe case of endometriosis. And so of course that's heartbreaking,
because now what do we do. So for a year,
my husband and I we would fly to Texas once
a month, every single month to clear up the endometriosis
in my body.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
So here I am.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
You know, we're doing We're putting in the work because
there's this promise, this prophecy that we have, you know,
and we we use scripture all the time. You know,
faith without works is dead. So we're doing yeah, you know,
so we're flying the textus every single month, getting these shots,
getting these injections to clear up the endometriosis in my body.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
And now it's time, you know, everything is clear.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
I get the clearance from the doctors and we go
and we start IVF, the process of IVF, and I'm thinking,
my husband tells this story a little different. He's thinking,
there's no you know, there's nothing in me that thought
this was gonna fail.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
I thought it was guaranteed.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
So his history is even different because you know, everybody
focuses on the female. You know, she had the she
had the loss, she had the disappointment, and men have
this pressure to be you know, strong, to be the
strong one. And I remember one day I'm veering off,
but I want to share this. I really feel this
right now. I remember one day we were sitting talking
to some of our friends after the miscarriage, and our
(25:05):
friend Tim looked at Kenny and said, but how are you?
And I was so hurt as a wife that I
had not stopped to ax my husband. Wow, you know,
how is your heart through this? Because he had been
there from me. I'm about to cry just thinking about this,
and I just not it was and it's not. You know,
you're not thinking this is selfish, but in a way,
(25:27):
it is.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
You know.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
I just I just never thought to stop and ask,
you know, you had a loss too, how's your heart?
You know?
Speaker 1 (25:33):
So we went through all of that.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
We went through the IVF, and we had the implant,
and we had three embryos, we implanted one and.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
You know, we did all of the due diligence.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
You know, we made sure that this embryo was healthy,
that there were no no defects.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
You know, we chose the right one.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
The doctor was like, the perfect embryo, It was the
perfect setup.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
You know. We waited.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
It takes two weeks, you know, for you to get
the answer. And the doctor called back and one was like, Tasha,
it didn't.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
It didn't work.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
I literally sat probably for an hour before I could
even process that all of this work that we had
put into making.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
This dream happened could have failed. There's no way this
could have failed, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
And I remember after that hour, it was like a
I can't even explain it. I just broke My faith
was shattered. Everything happened in a moment. I started to
question what I believed, if I believed what I had
been preaching. I mean I went there immediately, you know,
(26:48):
and I talk about this. We could We questioned the
children of Israel and like, you know, how their faith
was shattered. Anything could happen, and they're questioning God. But
the truth is, you know, we're the human part of us.
When something that shattering happens, the first thing we do
is we go to a place of brokenness with our faith,
(27:09):
Like like God, you know you said, you know, you said,
this is gonna happen. This was your promise to me.
And I remember three days later, we were supposed to
be in Nashville after losing the baby to record an
album that I was calling.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Royalty whoa, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
So in my mind, I'm thinking I did this, this
this photo shoot, I got crowns on, We're wearing gold
and all this sequence, and I'm thinking, we're God's We're
a royal priestthood a holy nation, and I'm thinking this
album is just gonna encourage people and people, you know,
to walk out there being fully adopted into the family
of Christ, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
And here I am.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Everything that I had in mind about that album was
totally different, and I could not hear God clearly to
save my life in that season, but I heard him say, Tasha.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Go to Nashville.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
I'm just at war because I'm thinking there's no way
I can encourage people like this is to.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Do it anyway coming up, this is do it anyway again,
you know. And it's the middle of a pandemic. People
can't be in the room.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Just weeks prior we found out we can only have
twenty five people in the building altogether.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
So now I'm heartbroken.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
My body is in pain, I am swollen from all
of these injections. I am just toiling in my spirit
about what I believe. My faith is shattered, and you're
gonna tell me to go sing songs about royalty and anyway, and.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Twenty five people in the building. Twenty five people in
the building.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
So I can't even hide behind the applause of an audience.
There's nobody there. So how do you worship with all
of this, you know, going on? And I wasn't even
I made up my mind. I told my husband, I'm
not coming to rehearsal. It is what it is, you know.
I'll learn the songs in the room. I'll study in
the room, but I'm not coming. I don't want to
(28:58):
face anybody. And here I was there. Wow, yeah, I
was there at the hotel, and I remember it was
like the third day of rehearsal, and I said, I'll
just go. You know, it's kind of rude not to speak,
so I'll go speak to the singers.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Because you have been there three days. They have not
even seen you.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
No, Wow, Okay, I just say probably she acting funny.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
What's wrong with her? Do they know that? You know
their spirit?
Speaker 3 (29:21):
They are spirit led, so I think they know this
is totally out of character for me.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Got it.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
We didn't share that we had been going through that
with the team, so they had no idea. Now, which
is what makes this next part so amazing because many
of them knew me for years. Me and Kenny both
and I walked in the room and they were singing
this song that's on that album, You're Gonna Get the
Glory out of This. And I sat down and they're
(29:48):
singing that song and I just begin to well, like tears.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Everybody stops. They don't know what's happening.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Half of them, like the guys, they go over and
they start laying on Kenny, like we don't know what's happening,
but we feeling on y'all. The girls that came over
to me, they started to pray over us, and I
felt like this, I felt covered, even though my heart
was still broken.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I felt like, I still feel your presence.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
And this is weird because you know I'm questioning you
right now, but I felt God, you know, I felt
it is key to be surrounded by people who even
when you don't know how to pray, they have They
are intercessors for you. Yeah, and that moment we needed intercessors,
(30:36):
and they, without hesitation, jumped into I don't know, they
just took over the moment, like, we don't know what
this heaviness is on you guys. And after that moment,
I told them and we just went into a worship
of like God, we don't understand why this is happening
right now, but we love you and we honor you anyway.
(30:56):
Like that was a moment, and that moment gave me
strength to record that album. And though it was not
the most streamed or sold album, when people come to
me who are dealing with depression, they're dealing with grief,
they always reference Royalty All. It never fails that I
was listening to a song on your album Royalty in
(31:19):
a season where it was a dark season for me
and I know people My friend Travis Green said something
to me. He's like, you know, people don't know the
stories behind the weight that they experience on these songs,
you know, And that was one that was very very heavy.
So I'm not surprised when people come to me and
say I was listening to Royalty when I was going
(31:40):
through depression.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Wow. Yeah, because that album was birth for that, for
that person. Yep.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
I mean I really want to go into this for
you to dive into this moment, right because this Royalty
album was a set up for really what was to
take place afterwards, because you got this story of Asher,
because Asher chose you, Yes he did, he chose you.
(32:09):
But I need you to tell our audience because this
blew me away this three days baby, yes, just this,
this took me over.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
So we get back, we get back to South Carolina
after recording that album, and I'm just going through I'm
going through emotionally and I'm really trying to find my way.
I'm trying to find my way back to God. And
I think it was it was necessary for me. It
was necessary for me to rebuild the relationship, my relationship
with Christ because I realized that I had been preaching
(32:39):
and teaching faith all of these years, and somewhere along
the way, you know, I had just lost it. I
wasn't as strong as I thought I was. You know,
I wasn't as faith driven as I thought I was.
Because this moment came and immediately I questioned the God
that I've been preaching about, you know. So I was
looking for and I'm gonna take pause right here, because
(33:01):
during that season, I was trying to find my way
back to.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Relationship with him. But I was looking for worship.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Are songs that spoke directly to my season, and I
just could not find it. You know, you find songs
that are about you know it's gonna get better, and
I know that, but right now it's not better. And tomorrow,
I guess what, I'm still gonna be crying.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Tomorrow. My heart is still gonna be broken.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
And my new album it's called Tasha, and I intentionally
went in writing songs for people who were in seasons
that they could not explain, where they may have been
questioning God, where their faith may be broken. And so
my husband, when we went in to write songs for
this album, he said, we're gonna say the quiet things
out loud. And this album says the quiet things out.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Loud because this is the first studio album that you're
still done. Yeah, everything else is live and then love
ag Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
And so I called some of the greatest songwriters. I
called Chandler, I called Dante Bo, called Naomi Rain, called
Travis Green. I had all of these writers together and
I said, hey, guys, y'all remember that season I went
through where I was broken trying to find my way
back to God. I want to write songs for people
who are in seasons where they're questioning their relationship.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yeah, And I mean that's what we did.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
It is It is beautiful worship because the Bible says
for us to worship in spirit and in truth, and
sometimes we skip that moment of honesty.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Yeah, and you have to get really honest with yourself. Yeah. Again.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
So we uh, six months, It's about six months later
and I have this new found I can hear God again.
You know, I'm I'm coming back out of of course
you're gonna experience that grief, you know you still. Yeah,
And my husband, he comes in the room where I am,
and he says, Babe, what do you think about adoption?
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
I have one of my friends, Jackie. She says, we
have to trust God's will and his way. Sometimes we
hear his will and we don't wait on his way.
We try to do it our way. And me and
Kenny had to be honest that we heard God's will,
that you got to have a baby. You know, it's
going to be a beautiful boy. But we try to
do it our way. Yeah, you know, we went through
(35:14):
all this process and the name of you know, faith
without works is.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Dead and we never stopt and God is like, okay,
well when you finished trying to your way.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Yeah, And so we went through the process of adoption
and I didn't have natural birth pains, but it's it
is pains you have.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
It is grueling. The process is grueling, and we don't experience.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
It a lot a lot in our in our community
where people go through like legal adoption, you know. You know,
we have aunts and uncles who have adopted nieces and nephews,
and God, we are so grateful for that because there
are so many babies around the world who may not
have had a stable home, but family members have taken
them in. It is a little different to to do
that process and you don't know what you're going into,
(35:58):
you know.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
And so we had our adoption.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
We used an agent who was just amazing. She was
just a prayer warrior. Sometimes in the middle of the
night she would text us and say, you know, I'm
praying for you guys, I'm covering you. Through this process,
you know, and that mattered because you have so many
emotions like we don't know what we're going into, we
don't know where the baby is, we don't know if
this mom is gonna choose us, you know.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
And so we went through the process.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
It was about seven months to get everything together to
create our profile, and we did a semi closed adoption
of course, you know, you know, you have.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
To do it that way.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
And we we applied to four agencies, four of the
top agencies.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
It was like California.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
It was just different different states and about it was
about three days after we submitted everything where she called
it and she was like, okay, this is weird. And in
my twenty years of doing this, I'm never experienced anything
like this.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
She said.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
A mother walked into an agency in Louisiana and everything
about what she's asking your profile fits and we're on
the other end like, okay.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
We don't want to get too excited.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
You know, you have all of these emotions like you
don't want to get too excited. These things, you know,
may happen and it may not. And she said, what
I want you to do is we're gonna apply. There
are seven other families. I don't know if I told
that before. There's seven other families who she's looking at
as well, she said, But I really really feel this
for you, Kenneth. She said, I feel like you need
to sit down and write a handwritten letter about your
(37:36):
story and how you feel like this baby fits your family,
talk about your blended family and your kids, your older children.
And so Kenny went upstairs to his office and he
wrote out a handwritten letter. They screenshot it and sent
it to the mom and three days later, our agent
called and she said.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
You're not gonna believe this. So I'm a me. My
heart just drops to my feet, like, don't play with
me because you're thinking, what are you thinking in that moment?
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
I don't know what to think. I don't know what
to think. Because one of the things that she said,
she was very honest with us. She said, I've had
families where it's taken two years, you know, I've had
families who never got a child.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
I want to be very honest with you.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
So we're gonna we're gonna put your profile in and
we're gonna believe God, who would have.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Ever thought that.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Three days later, three days that this would happen. The mother,
she said, we had a chance to talk. We had
two conversations with the birth mom, and in one of
those conversations, Kenny asked her, what made you choose us
out of the seven families. She said, honestly, I was
sitting down reading the letter that you wrote, and she said,
(38:45):
the baby started kicking.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Yea, she said, he chose you. I didn't.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
I mean, talk about a resurgence of your faith, talk
about to come on such a dark place and for
God to read assure you with that magnitude, preach it,
listen with that amount of power in that moment, like
you needed just as much as Asher needed you.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Are you need an Asher? Right?
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Because that was the reassurance of your faith. That was
like resurgence.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Oh my goodness. Yeah. And I mean when I say
we had four weeks.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Asher was on the way, Oh my goodness, like four
weeks after that we had we had to get a baby.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
We had to do everything.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
We didn't know anything, you know, we had to figure
out how do you put car seats in the car?
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Yeah, because she was due in four weeks. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
For God, So here we are we have seven months.
The number seven is just already prophetic. Seven months. Where
it took us to build our profile. We had three
days between when the mom chose us, and of course
we already know about resurrection and how these things. I
was the one being resurrected. I was in a dead place,
(39:58):
and God is like, well here it is. Let me
drop this on you, babe. I'm I'm still God. Still,
I still have a plan for your life. My word
is still true. And every word that I've spoken over
your life is yes and amen. And I know you've
been in this weird space, but let me just reassure
you I know what I'm doing. Yeah. Oh, like all
of these things, and then we look at this baby.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
He is everything that God probably.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
It's like he has your face, It's like my face,
my personality's personality, oh my God. And all of the babies,
all of our babies, from Alana to Ni and Maya
to Symphony.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
He just fits right in perfectly.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, because you all have a blended family. Yes, And
I want you before you leave, because I want you
to give our audience just a few lessons, right, because
I want you to give them the lessons of what
that resurgence in your faith taught you. But then what
you've learned about yourself on this journey of motherhood and
evolution as an artist as well, you know what, going
(41:00):
through that, I think it was necessary. It was necessary
for me to see those broken places within my spiritual
walk with Christ because I know everybody we want to
live on the mountain. We just you know, everything is
good on the mountain. But it's what's what's true is
that we don't pray as much on the mountain. We
don't seek the face of God as much on the
mountains in the valley. And God is like, I need
(41:25):
you to go through these valley seasons so that it'll
sharpen your walk with me.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
I realized in that season, these are the areas where
Tasha needs to work on Tasha.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
And then don't even mention having the kids, because really
kids are like mirrors. They you are looking at yourself
from Astra toualana. There is something about me that I
had to sharpen in me looking in the face of
every one of my children, you know.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
And so you talk about having kids and all parents will.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Tell you, you know, any most of the things that
you're gonna fuss at them about and hammer down it's
something within you.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Look at my sister, I be like, you can't even
argue a be you can't even say nothing because he's
your child, Like he yea.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
So for me, you know, I think that the Bible
talks about out of the mouth of babes.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
We listen to our children.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
We listened to them, you know, we had I love
to share this about blended families because though our family
we get along very well, we have a well oiled
unit going on here, you know. So a few months ago, though,
our children called a family meeting and they had an
opportunity to share, like, here's some things that y'all are doing.
(42:37):
It doesn't feel good, you know, Here's some things that
we would like to see, some changes that we would
like to see. And one thing I love about my
husband that he's even taught me about parenting is that
he doesn't immediately get on the defense to try to
defend us. And those some things that they're seeing maybe
through the lens of an eighteen year old or through
(42:58):
the lens of a thirteen year old, we go to
God first on how to address it, and we are
honest with ourselves, like how much of this is true,
and how much of this can we tweak to make
it better. I don't ever want to want it to
be like even when I do podcasts, when I write
the book, and I even promised our children children this,
I won't.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
You know, I'm not gonna gaslight.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
There are some moments where our family we have to
go back to the drawing board and say, Okay, here's
some things that may have worked five years ago from
you guys, but you guys are older now and there
are some tweaks that we have to make. You know,
I feel like for anybody that's listening, be honest with
yourself and hear your children out.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Yeah, hear the truth. And there may be there may
be a little fluff there.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
It might be a little bit of selfishness that where
they're like, hey, I want more time, and we be
honest with yourself and be honest with them. I might
not have more time to give right now, but this
is what I can do.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
I mean, you talk about the five years of things
that you might have to change, even with the children
as we begin to close out though, what's been the
thing that you've had to change as an artist, as
a worship leader, as a pastor.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
How have you evolved in that way? You know what?
And I have to go back.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
It's it's personal, Like there are some I noticed that
when I change, things around me start to change. Yeah,
so there were some things about Okay, let's talk about pastoring.
Pastoring requires it requires you personally giving a lot of yourself,
being intimate and close with people. Well, let's contrast that
(44:29):
up against Tasha the artist. Because artistry and platform and influence,
it costs for you to pull away from people. So
I was used to going out doing concerts, traveling, doing tours,
going back to my house and you live this private life.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
But pastoring now yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, now
you got to pull people in.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
That's hard shepherding, yes, because for so many years it
was like I let you in worship. Now y'all go
back to your houses and I'm gonna go back to mind.
You don't get to do that. You have to love people,
and you have to love them close, you know, and
some of them may leave and you still have to
love them close. That's a new place for me, you know,
that's a new place for me. And I'm sharpening myself
(45:11):
as an individual now that Tasha, you gotta find a
way to pull these walls down and let people in
because your career has allowed you to build walls. But
now you're in an intimate space with people where you
represent Christ in their lives and you don't need that distance.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
Yeah, you don't need the distance. Yeah, that's tough.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Is there something that you realize that you have to
distance yourself from in this season of your life?
Speaker 3 (45:36):
Oh, in this season of my life, I have.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
I won't say distance.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
I've had to draw closer to Tasha the mom, Tasha
the wife, and that means sometimes I have to say
no to Tasha the artist. Where it's calling, I can
get calls everywhere, go here and there and everywhere. I
was at an event and Oprah was the speaker, and
(46:05):
she got up and said something that changed my life,
especially now that I'm forty three going on forty four.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
She said.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
She sat down and she said, I'm here because I
want to be She said, at this stage in life,
I go places because I want to be there. There
was a season where I felt like I had to
be there and I.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Have to go, and I gotta travel.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
And now I'm in this place where it's you know,
I go where God is calling me and the places
where I want to be.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
Yeah, where you want to be and I want to
be home. I want to be with Asher.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
I want to be with my kids, you know, you know,
and I feel like they they deserve that right now
and I can tell that they're enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
Yeah, as we close out one word, you're committed to
in this season.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Of your life? Ah? Peace?
Speaker 3 (46:55):
What? Because there were so many years that I didn't
have it, and it was because of my actions. I
lived in a place where it was go, go, go
go go work, work, work, work, work, don't live in
the moment, you know.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
I was always the next sending out an email.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
I could be you know, people will have to My
therapist told me this, and I know we gotta go.
She told me, she said, make your family, make you
be present, And to this day they do that.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Like make my Husbandmily, make you be present. He will
stop me and say, do you do you have a headache?
Right now?
Speaker 3 (47:27):
I have authorated writers in my feet. He'll say, are
your feet hurting? It makes me? It grounds me because
I was I never celebrated awards, I never celebrated you know,
an album. Doing this I never celebrated mountains. I never
even stopped to, you know, to embrace a valley moment.
I was just always going, going, going going, and that
in that lifestyle, you forfeit peace because you're always so busy.
(47:52):
Now I prioritize peace.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Tasha Cobbs Lenner, it was a pleasure for you to
sit down with me today. Vaugham Power Talks another good
one for the books. Be sure to share this with
someone who needs a little more peace and clarity in
their lives.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
We could all use it.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Until next time you guys, I'm your girl, Brandy Harvey E, Well,
give a damn move your body every single day.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Peace.
I mean break every chain.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You said you didn't see that this was a Grammy
Award winning hit.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Everybody's like, how you feel about the Grammy. I don't
know because my heart is broken. I said that if
I ever win any awards, I promise you I'll give
them to you. Oh that night when I won those
three awards, I gave them to him. He had these
three boxes in his hands and I was like, take
out one. I'm gonna take a picture. And I snapped
a picture of my dad. He just had so much
pride on his face. And he got on the elevator
and that would be the last time I would see
(00:28):
him here on her.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
This Royalty album was a set up for really what
was to take place afterwards.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
My husband, he comes in the room where I am
and he says, Babe, what do you think about adoption?
It was necessary for me to see those broken places
within my spiritual.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Walk with Christ. Welcome to Valdenpower's Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So we don't just scratch the surface, we dive deep
into the lives of some of the world's most influential
change makers. Her host Brandy Harvey, y'all, she's here. The
Powerhouse of Gospel music. Tasha Cobbs Leonard is a gospel
music powerhouse. Tasha is a Grammy, Dove, Billboard and Stellar
Award winner whose anthem Break Every Chain has touched millions.
(01:16):
Beyond her musical triumphs, She's an entrepreneur and ministry leader
and the co founder of the Purpose Place Church. In
May twenty twenty four, she released her debut book, Do
It Anyway Don't Give Up Before It Gets Good, a
raw faith field guide on perseverance, now followed by the
sixty Day Devotional Companion, inviting readers to embrace resilience in
(01:38):
every season. Adding to her business story, Tasha recently opened
the Athlete's Foot Sneaker Boutique in Greenville under the Start Program,
becoming one of the few black female franchise owners bought
in Power's Talk's Welcome wife, mother, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and
pastor Tasha Cobb's Leonards to the show.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Hey, Hey, how are you doing good? I'm so excited
to listen. Listen.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
She drove me in this morning, so we thank God
for her traveling mercies because she got here. Amen, I
am so excited to talk to you. I was like,
I mean, I gotta tell you, Break every Chain. I mean,
I mean more than able. I mean, these are just
songs that be on the daily playlist for me, you
know you, I mean you have just been a part
(02:26):
of so many of our spiritual journey. You've gotten us through,
You've been a huge comfort. I mean, that's some power
you got over there in that voice.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Ah, thank you.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
That's a blessing to hear, because because sometimes you don't
see the back end or the back end of the story,
you know. And so while I am helping to usher
people through their seasons in life, you know, you have
to go through them yourself. And we were just talking
about the book, and I know we'll get back into it,
but that gave me an opportunity to share some of
those stories behind the scenes, the story behind the song,
(03:01):
you know, so to hear how those songs have been
a blessing to others, just always encouraging to me always.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I mean, break every Chain.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
You said you didn't see that this was this was
a Grammy Award winning hit.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
You didn't see it? Yeah, I did.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I knew that that song would impact people's lives, probably
and I'm thinking probably just within the walls of the church,
you know, like, hey, they're.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Gonna sing this at their churches, people going she out
a little bit. Yeah, but it was so much bigger
than that.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
There were people who needed chains broken in every culture,
in every across every bridge. You know. My mentor used
to say, you know, this is my this is my
spiritual daughter, Tasha, She's a bridge to the nations. That
was like twenty eleven, twenty ten, and I didn't understand
it then. But after releasing break every chain, there was
like this revelation behind what he was saying that Hey, Tasha,
(03:52):
this is bigger than the four walls of the church.
There's a calling on your life to bridge the gap,
you know, bridge the gap and bring people into the
awareness of the presence of God.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And I have embraced that calling.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, yeah, I mean you were growing up and you
said church. If they told you you couldn't go to church,
that was your punishment, like you. For us, it was
like you can't go to the mall. And I grew
up in the church. But maybe if you said, I.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Got we got a day off, lie you celebrate? Right?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah? That was my story and I don't I don't know,
you know, I.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Didn't understand it then as a kid, but I just
had this hunger, like I just want, I want more
of the experience I want. I just had this hunger
to be in the presence of God, and I didn't
have language for it back then.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
And except I just want to go to church.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
I want to go to choir rehearsal, I want to
go to Bible study, I want to go to vacation
Bible school, whatever, Saturday school.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You know, I just wanted to be there.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
And now I have a greater understanding that there was
this hunger being birthed in me because of my calling.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
You know, I had to have an anchor.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Back then that I was digging deep just for the
weight of the assignment that I have now.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I mean, your father, everybody in your family's.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Pastors, and it's got churches. Your father breaks away to
go start his own church. You started your own church.
I mean, this is like the bedrock of your life.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yes, church, church, and then I married a church boy.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Man, but I think it's so much bigger than that.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Kenny and I have this thing where we, you know,
were like, hey, we understand our purpose now. It's to
bring God everywhere we go, and it may be desolate places.
A few years ago, I remember this story. I don't
know if I've ever told this before. I remember I
released an eyewear company and I named it after my dad.
It's called Fritz Iwear. And that first year I went
(05:42):
to an expo. It was my first time there. We
were in Vegas, and I walked into this arena and
you know, it could be me sensationalizes and being dramatic,
but I felt like the wind was.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Just blowing in my hair. But then I had all
that hair hair blowing in the wind. And I walk
in and I really.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Really since the presence of God, like, hey, Tasha, you're
walking into another door or another dimension of what I've
called you to do.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
And I remember just kind of feeling.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
That I was felt fulfilled, like okay, this is outside
of the walls of the four walls of the church.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
And I walked past this booth.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
There was a guy there who was working for a
company that was I guess just launching there.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I wear a company. And he said to me, oh
my god, oh my god, oh my god, it's Tasha.
I never thought I would meet you.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
And he said, I listened to your music every single
day tears start running down his face, and he said,
but I never thought i'd meet you, because.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
You know, who knew that you would walk into an
expo like this? Who knew?
Speaker 3 (06:39):
And immediately I thought, there are some people who may
never come to my church, But do I accept the
assignment to go to where they are? And I really
really felt at that moment, like, hey, I embraced this fully,
that there are some people who are called to to
who I'm called to, you know, called to us, maybe
(07:00):
it's through worship or just the Word of God, is
just my presence, and I have to go to where
they are, you know, so I accept that assignment.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I mean, this assignment from the very beginning has just
I mean, you spend so much time with doctor William
Murphy vision William Murphy over at the Dream Center. Yeah,
and so you cultivated your craft a little more up
under somebody like him who was also a singing past.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Imagine that, I mean, having to come behind that.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I was like, yeah, yeah, I mean masterful, but I
want you to go back because when break, every chain
comes out and it just skyrockets and it takes you
to the top of the charts. Millions and millions of
sales on this album and then it takes you to
the Cellar Awards. First takes you to the Grammys. But
(07:54):
I want you to tell the story because I was
watching one of your interviews and I was like, oh
my god. I was like, I had to. I had
you own him on my speaker while I was cooking.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Then I had to go look at the screen. I said, what,
let me stop it. Look at that.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Wow, the story of your father because you are so close.
Your father and your mother met at thirteen years old,
and so your father suddenly passes away as soon as
you get the Solar Award, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
You know what? And it was My dad was the guy.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
He was like, always super excited anytime I said, hey, Dad,
I gotta go speak. I don't care if it was
somewhere twenty people gonna be there. He just thought that
was the most amazing thing because he cultivated the communicator
in me, so before there was ever the worship leader
Tasha to him, you know, I preach what they called
my trial sermon when I was ten years old.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
So Daddy put me up and was like, hey, you're
gonna preach this, you know, And I felt like it
was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
You know, a ten year old.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
But I remember him just being so proud that, hey,
I put this in her and I'm watching God do
this all over the world. And once this worship thing
just started blowing up, you know, I would call him
and be like, Daddy, I gotta go sing here, and
he'd be like, oh, baby, do a good job. You know, Daddy,
I gotta preach this Sunday. I knew it.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
He'd just say, you know what you gonna preach you about.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
So he was just always I was a daddy's girl,
like to the core. I would often sit like at
my dad's feed, sit in his lap whenever he showed up.
I was like just and he wasn't a man of
very many words, Like he didn't talk a lot. Now,
sometimes he would get into this little comedy thing and
have all of us laughing, but for the most part,
(09:34):
when he spoke, we all like leaned in because it
was gonna be profound, it was gonna be wise. He
would always tell me, baby, stay at the feet of Jesus.
I mean, ever since I could remember, that would be
the thing that he would say to me. And now
I have this understanding that while he was telling me
life's gonna get tough. Even in his passing, I had
to like hinge on his word that stay at the
(09:54):
feet of Jesus because it's gonna get tough, and you
gotta have a strong anchor because life goes start lifing
and it may not be that way right now at
three five and six years old, but it's coming.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
And I think that was.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Him preparing me even for him passing. And I was
I was fairly young, you know, I was in my thirties,
and it's like, hey, I felt like I had so
much more time with Daddy, you know, And so here
we are. Break Every Chain has just kind of taken off.
I had sixty seconds to sing Break Every Chain at
the Stellar Awards and they were.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Just him and my mom.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
They were beaming from ear to ear, just smiling. They
were so super proud. And Daddy kept saying, Okay, Daddy's
gonna come to Nashville, which was already mind blowing because
Daddy was a down home country pastor. He was the
first one to get there, last one to leave. He's
checking the thermostatic, was all of that. All of that,
he babied, all of the all of the partners at
(10:46):
the church.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
You know, Daddy was Daddy to everybody.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
So for him to say I'm gonna miss church this
Sunday and come to Nashville, that alone was that was
an award for me, Like Daddy, Daddy chose me today,
you know, and he always did. It might have took
a little coerce and to get him out of there,
but he always did. And so for him and Mama
to be there, and it just so happened that year,
they had like a they did a center stage, so
(11:10):
a satellite stage, and I was in the center of
the room, which placed me literally I could almost touch
them from the stage.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
So for me to look out and see them sitting there,
they were so so proud that year. I won three
Stellar Awards that night. And so that night we're up,
We're hanging out at Bishop Murphy's room. We're having you know,
just excited celebrating, and Bishop Murphy says, call Daddy and
see if they're gonna come down here. I was like,
Daddy is not coming down here two o'clock in the morning,
(11:40):
three o'clock in the morning, and so I just text
him and saying, hey, Dad, we're hanging out. And I
passed to Murphy's room. Would you like to come? And
he immediately responded, me and your mama on the way.
First of all, while.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Y'all up to talk about that.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
So we're hanging out and Daddy was just up and
he pulled out his comedy set that night.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
I mean we were on the floor laughing.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
Just crying, and about four o'clock that morn and then
they decided that hey, hey, we're going to go back.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
To our room.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
We got a long drive tomorrow, and so I walked
them to the elevator and I was like, hold on, Dad,
hold on, I want you to take a picture with
my stellars and he had eight, I gotta go back.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
So my dad I did an independent project. So this
is when he was the executive producer, right, So this
is the.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
One after the okay, this is where he's asking, okay,
when does Daddy get paid back?
Speaker 1 (12:26):
When does the executive producer get his money bag?
Speaker 3 (12:28):
And he just kept asking me that and I would
just laugh las last so I promised him, I said, Dad,
if I ever win any awards, I promise you I'll
give them to you.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
And he literally took that to heart.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
So my dad was a carpenter He had built this
beautiful Caryo for all of the awards that he knew
that his daughter was gonna win. I not want anything yet,
but he built it in faith. And so that night
when I won those three awards, I gave them to him.
He had these three boxes in his hands, and I
was like, take out one. I'm gonna take a picture,
and I snapped a picture of my dad. He just
had so much pride on his face and got on
(13:00):
the elevator and that will be the last time I
would see him here on earth. The next morning, he
had a heart attack in the car on the way home.
They actually made it about thirty minutes outside of home,
and he had a heart attack and went to be
with God. And that was just it was a lot
to digest because you're here on a mountain. That was
(13:21):
one of the highest seasons of my life, you know,
but also one of the heaviest seasons of my life.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
And I think, you know, that's how life works.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Their ebbs and flows, ups and downs, seasons where you're up,
seasons where you're low, you know. And I feel like
I was experiencing highs and lows all at the same time.
It's hard to explain, you know, where everybody's like, how
you feel about the Grammy.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
I don't know, because my heart is broken. I mean
because the Grammys were the next week later.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Yeah, and Daddy kept saying, Daddy's not gonna be with
you in LA, but I want you to go anyway.
That's that's where the title of my book came from.
I feel like that was a last lesson. He was
teaching me that life is gonna be hard, but Daddy
wants you to do it anyway, dig deep, and go anyway.
There are so many things about that trip to La
I do not remember, and people were so gentle with me.
(14:12):
Jay Bowling styled me, Melissa did my makeup, and I
just remember how gentle they were with me. And I
was very fragile at the time, you know, taking moments
to just they would let me just go cry, you know,
just give me a moment.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
And I feel like, you know, I don't get to
say this often.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
But I appreciate people being just aware of where I.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Was emotionally at the time.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
But I knew that I had to be there because
Daddy kept saying, I want you to go anyway.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
And who would have known. Yeah, Yeah, because that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
When when I heard you say that, he kept saying,
I'm gonna be with you in nash Yeah, I'm not
gonna be with you in LA. I'm gonna be with
you in Nashville. I'm not gonna be with you in LA.
But I want you to go anywhere. But I want
you to go anyway. And for you to stand up
on that stage. And I even get that grand because
you said when they called your name, I sat there.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
You didn't even hear it. Yeah, And my cousin was.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Like, nudge me because you know they'll start playing.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
The music had started playing, and everybody was like, you
need to get up. So I got up, and of
course people started cheering.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
The first thing I said, It's the only thing I
could think to say, is seven days ago, the greatest
man that I know to ever walk the face of
the earth went to be with Jesus, and I would
love to honor his legacy today. And I actually entire
academy to stand and give my father a round of applause,
and everybody in the academy stood up, yeah and applauded
my dad.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, I was tearing up. I think I'm tearing up
now even yeah, when I heard you tell that, because
that for him to be honored like that in that moment, yeah,
you know, yeah, you know that was for his sacrifice
all those years, for your own sacrifice to even be there, right,
you know, and he was with.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
You, He was there, yeah, yeah, every little thing about
that moment. So weekspak for probably about three weeks before,
my dad had met Ti Trivia at a conference.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
They had gone to a leadership conference and he.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Came back just boasted about tis my best friend. We
just hung out, you know, I mean, he was just
and it's I called Tyler.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Like, what did you do to my dad?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Like he's been talking about you since he came back,
and he just fell in love with tie Well. At
the Grammys, ty was the one who presented me my award. Wow,
Like everything was so divinely orchestrated for it was like
God was saying, He's there with you.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
He's there with you, anchored all along.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I mean all these moments, I mean the high highs,
the lo lows. You know, how have you managed to
remain grounded because you go through these high highs and
low lows and yet you were still using your gift
to bring people out of they low lows, right, Yeah, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Had to realize. And this was a few weeks after
Daddy passed. I was standing on a stage and I
was just, you know, trying to go through the motions
and it wasn't working. You know, everything that I would
try that would normally work in you know, you know
the notes to hit, you know what to say, and
it's gonna get the crowd. But I stood on that
stage and I realized, Tasha, you need your gift for
(17:15):
yourself right now. So are you gonna worship in hopes
that someone else gets set free in the room? Or
are you gonna worship, you know, hoping that your heart
is covered you know that you feel the comforting presence
of God right now. And I stood on that stage
and there was an old song we used to sing
back in the day that came back to me. I'll
say yes, Lord, Yes to your will and to your way.
(17:38):
I'll say yes Lord, yes, I will trust.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
You and the obey.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
And I got to the part that says, when your
spirit speaks to me, and I just changed the lyrics.
I said, with my broken heart, I'll still agree and
my ansu will be Yes, Lord, Yes. My whole mindset
about how I ministered changed in that moment.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
Natasha, No, I just gotta say I wanted to jump
in so bad. I wanted to jump come on here,
I wanted to jump in in my spirit. You're not
gonna come in on kid, He's not come I just
had it.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
I was like, I noticed, yes, But you know what,
it's sometimes we sing these lyrics to these songs and
we don't really think about what we're saying. I thought
about the lyrics to that song that when your spirit
speaks to me, and no matter what season I'm in
in life, I'll still give you a yes. And that's
where my heart was in that moment, and I just
(18:40):
kind of changed everything about how I presented the gospel
through song that I know you're being blessed whoever's in
the audience, and I pray that you get your breakthrough,
but I'm not gonna leave myself out. I needed to,
you know, and so I've taken that with me down
through the years, that you're not just singing for other
people to get a breakthrough, this is for you too.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yeah, what's been the song of yours? That was like
that gave you a breakthrough moment.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Ah.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
You know it's different in every season. Yeah, you know,
because you got you know my name? And I needed
that when I was going through depression, you know, when
I was even now when I feel heavy, when I
feel the way the hey he knows me, and I
know he knows everybody else.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
But that song is just so personal. You know my name?
But then Break Every Chain.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
The story behind Break Every Chain is that it was
released prior. So there's a guy, his name is William Reagan.
He wrote that song and they released it from another
group and I was really really dealing with depression and
anxiety and.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Fear heavy in those here.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
So it was about twenty eleven, twenty twelve, and I
remember being in a car I like to drive, so
my team.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
They were all back in the back sleep.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
We had done a concert somewhere and I just let
just let my playlist just roll just and it was
playing and this song Break Every Chain.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Came on and immediately tears to fill my eyes.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
I was welling up with this sense of, oh my goodness,
these walls that I've had all of these years. I
feel like this song is breaking something in me, you know,
And so I listened to that song on repeat, literally
for about two weeks. I played it in my house
and I experienced breakthrough from this depression and this weight
and this fear that I have been feeling.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
And of course you got to do the practical thing.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
So I went to therapy and you know, talk to
somebody about it and was very honest about.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Where I was.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
But there was something about Break Every Chain that no
other ministry. I don't care if I was listening to
somebody preach or whatever it was. It was something about
that song that reached me where nothing else could reach me.
And so now people ask me all the time, do
you ever get tired of singing Break Every Chain? And
my answer is no, because every single time I know
it's going to reach people where they are.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
It's something special about it. It is.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I mean, it is on every gospel playlist that I have.
It is going to make that one.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, it reaches.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
It is one of those songs that no matter where
you are, it doesn't matter in age. It's so in
a generational because my mama loved a song, We love
the song. You know, it's like my little cousin loved
a song. So it's like it's so it has no
it has no bounds. Right, it's a boundless record, you know,
And it's one of those records.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
That it is. It is a chain breaker. Yeah, it's
a chain breaker. I mean.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
But then most recently you did because you sing it
on Chandler. It's like with more than a yeah. Yeah,
that song that had me in a choke hold for
about literally a mustrae. That was literally the only song
that I had on repeat more than Abelah when it
(21:46):
came Am I to deny what the Lord can do?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Sometimes we just get out of place, like Okay, you
know what God, you do you and I'm gonna stay
in my place. That's what that song is about, Like
it helps to increase your faith that at the end
of the day, he is all powerful.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Who am I to deny what the Lord can do?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
He's more than able. Yeah, that song is they wrote
that one. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
It's so powerful talk about who can deny what the
Lord can do? Twenty seventeen You Mary Kenneth, Yes, you're
married Kenneth in twenty seventeen. And then you all go
on this journey to build a family of your own
because you're a blended family. So Kenneth already had children
from his previous relationship, and so you all are working
(22:33):
to build this family and it wasn't going as planned.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Yeah, yeah, you know, here's this is the plan that
we're all given. You know, you get married, you spend
a year together, and then you try to have kids.
You know, you that's the plan that it's the American dream.
You know, you want to do.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
It that way, and we tried it that way.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
You know, I have people come to me prophesygned, oh,
you're going to have a baby, and.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
We will receive it. You know, you cry, you receive it, and.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
You wait on God to do it, you know, and
you're thinking it's gonna happen a certain way because that's
the American dream. That's what we're handed, that's what we're given.
And it just wasn't working that way for us. And
of course I felt like for years, I felt like
there was something happening with me and my body, and
you know I would because I always had like.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Very very painful cycles, you know, very painful. You know,
in the black community. We kind of chopped that up as.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
That you know, this is normal, you know, it was
normal in my family, and I never really dug deep
into it. I just thought, Hey, this is just my lot,
this is what I have to deal with. But after
we tried for a while, I thought, you know, maybe
I need to go get checked and if I have endometriosis.
You know, it came back that I have endometriosis, a
(23:51):
very severe case of endometriosis. And so of course that's heartbreaking,
because now what do we do. So for a year,
my husband and I we would fly to Texas once
a month, every single month to clear up the endometriosis
in my body.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
So here I am.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
You know, we're doing We're putting in the work because
there's this promise, this prophecy that we have, you know,
and we we use scripture all the time. You know,
faith without works is dead. So we're doing yeah, you know,
so we're flying the textus every single month, getting these shots,
getting these injections to clear up the endometriosis in my body.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
And now it's time, you know, everything is clear.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
I get the clearance from the doctors and we go
and we start IVF, the process of IVF, and I'm thinking,
my husband tells this story a little different. He's thinking,
there's no you know, there's nothing in me that thought
this was gonna fail.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
I thought it was guaranteed.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
So his history is even different because you know, everybody
focuses on the female. You know, she had the she
had the loss, she had the disappointment, and men have
this pressure to be you know, strong, to be the
strong one. And I remember one day I'm veering off,
but I want to share this. I really feel this
right now. I remember one day we were sitting talking
to some of our friends after the miscarriage, and our
(25:05):
friend Tim looked at Kenny and said, but how are you?
And I was so hurt as a wife that I
had not stopped to ax my husband. Wow, you know,
how is your heart through this? Because he had been
there from me. I'm about to cry just thinking about this,
and I just not it was and it's not. You know,
you're not thinking this is selfish, but in a way,
(25:27):
it is.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
You know.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
I just I just never thought to stop and ask,
you know, you had a loss too, how's your heart?
You know?
Speaker 1 (25:33):
So we went through all of that.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
We went through the IVF, and we had the implant,
and we had three embryos, we implanted one and.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
You know, we did all of the due diligence.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
You know, we made sure that this embryo was healthy,
that there were no no defects.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
You know, we chose the right one.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
The doctor was like, the perfect embryo, It was the
perfect setup.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
You know. We waited.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
It takes two weeks, you know, for you to get
the answer. And the doctor called back and one was like, Tasha,
it didn't.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
It didn't work.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
I literally sat probably for an hour before I could
even process that all of this work that we had
put into making.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
This dream happened could have failed. There's no way this
could have failed, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
And I remember after that hour, it was like a
I can't even explain it. I just broke My faith
was shattered. Everything happened in a moment. I started to
question what I believed, if I believed what I had
been preaching. I mean I went there immediately, you know,
(26:48):
and I talk about this. We could We questioned the
children of Israel and like, you know, how their faith
was shattered. Anything could happen, and they're questioning God. But
the truth is, you know, we're the human part of us.
When something that shattering happens, the first thing we do
is we go to a place of brokenness with our faith,
(27:09):
Like like God, you know you said, you know, you said,
this is gonna happen. This was your promise to me.
And I remember three days later, we were supposed to
be in Nashville after losing the baby to record an
album that I was calling.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Royalty whoa, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
So in my mind, I'm thinking I did this, this
this photo shoot, I got crowns on, We're wearing gold
and all this sequence, and I'm thinking, we're God's We're
a royal priestthood a holy nation, and I'm thinking this
album is just gonna encourage people and people, you know,
to walk out there being fully adopted into the family
of Christ, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
And here I am.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Everything that I had in mind about that album was
totally different, and I could not hear God clearly to
save my life in that season, but I heard him say, Tasha.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Go to Nashville.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
I'm just at war because I'm thinking there's no way
I can encourage people like this is to.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Do it anyway coming up, this is do it anyway again,
you know. And it's the middle of a pandemic. People
can't be in the room.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Just weeks prior we found out we can only have
twenty five people in the building altogether.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
So now I'm heartbroken.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
My body is in pain, I am swollen from all
of these injections. I am just toiling in my spirit
about what I believe. My faith is shattered, and you're
gonna tell me to go sing songs about royalty and anyway, and.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Twenty five people in the building. Twenty five people in
the building.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
So I can't even hide behind the applause of an audience.
There's nobody there. So how do you worship with all
of this, you know, going on? And I wasn't even
I made up my mind. I told my husband, I'm
not coming to rehearsal. It is what it is, you know.
I'll learn the songs in the room. I'll study in
the room, but I'm not coming. I don't want to
(28:58):
face anybody. And here I was there. Wow, yeah, I
was there at the hotel, and I remember it was
like the third day of rehearsal, and I said, I'll
just go. You know, it's kind of rude not to speak,
so I'll go speak to the singers.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Because you have been there three days. They have not
even seen you.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
No, Wow, Okay, I just say probably she acting funny.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
What's wrong with her? Do they know that? You know
their spirit?
Speaker 3 (29:21):
They are spirit led, so I think they know this
is totally out of character for me.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Got it.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
We didn't share that we had been going through that
with the team, so they had no idea. Now, which
is what makes this next part so amazing because many
of them knew me for years. Me and Kenny both
and I walked in the room and they were singing
this song that's on that album, You're Gonna Get the
Glory out of This. And I sat down and they're
(29:48):
singing that song and I just begin to well, like tears.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Everybody stops. They don't know what's happening.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
Half of them, like the guys, they go over and
they start laying on Kenny, like we don't know what's happening,
but we feeling on y'all. The girls that came over
to me, they started to pray over us, and I
felt like this, I felt covered, even though my heart
was still broken.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I felt like, I still feel your presence.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
And this is weird because you know I'm questioning you
right now, but I felt God, you know, I felt
it is key to be surrounded by people who even
when you don't know how to pray, they have They
are intercessors for you. Yeah, and that moment we needed intercessors,
(30:36):
and they, without hesitation, jumped into I don't know, they
just took over the moment, like, we don't know what
this heaviness is on you guys. And after that moment,
I told them and we just went into a worship
of like God, we don't understand why this is happening
right now, but we love you and we honor you anyway.
(30:56):
Like that was a moment, and that moment gave me
strength to record that album. And though it was not
the most streamed or sold album, when people come to
me who are dealing with depression, they're dealing with grief,
they always reference Royalty All. It never fails that I
was listening to a song on your album Royalty in
(31:19):
a season where it was a dark season for me
and I know people My friend Travis Green said something
to me. He's like, you know, people don't know the
stories behind the weight that they experience on these songs,
you know, And that was one that was very very heavy.
So I'm not surprised when people come to me and
say I was listening to Royalty when I was going
(31:40):
through depression.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Wow. Yeah, because that album was birth for that, for
that person. Yep.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
I mean I really want to go into this for
you to dive into this moment, right because this Royalty
album was a set up for really what was to
take place afterwards, because you got this story of Asher,
because Asher chose you, Yes he did, he chose you.
(32:09):
But I need you to tell our audience because this
blew me away this three days baby, yes, just this,
this took me over.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
So we get back, we get back to South Carolina
after recording that album, and I'm just going through I'm
going through emotionally and I'm really trying to find my way.
I'm trying to find my way back to God. And
I think it was it was necessary for me. It
was necessary for me to rebuild the relationship, my relationship
with Christ because I realized that I had been preaching
(32:39):
and teaching faith all of these years, and somewhere along
the way, you know, I had just lost it. I
wasn't as strong as I thought I was. You know,
I wasn't as faith driven as I thought I was.
Because this moment came and immediately I questioned the God
that I've been preaching about, you know. So I was
looking for and I'm gonna take pause right here, because
(33:01):
during that season, I was trying to find my way
back to.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Relationship with him. But I was looking for worship.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
Are songs that spoke directly to my season, and I
just could not find it. You know, you find songs
that are about you know it's gonna get better, and
I know that, but right now it's not better. And tomorrow,
I guess what, I'm still gonna be crying.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Tomorrow. My heart is still gonna be broken.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
And my new album it's called Tasha, and I intentionally
went in writing songs for people who were in seasons
that they could not explain, where they may have been
questioning God, where their faith may be broken. And so
my husband, when we went in to write songs for
this album, he said, we're gonna say the quiet things
out loud. And this album says the quiet things out.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Loud because this is the first studio album that you're
still done. Yeah, everything else is live and then love
ag Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
And so I called some of the greatest songwriters. I
called Chandler, I called Dante Bo, called Naomi Rain, called
Travis Green. I had all of these writers together and
I said, hey, guys, y'all remember that season I went
through where I was broken trying to find my way
back to God. I want to write songs for people
who are in seasons where they're questioning their relationship.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yeah, And I mean that's what we did.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
It is It is beautiful worship because the Bible says
for us to worship in spirit and in truth, and
sometimes we skip that moment of honesty.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Yeah, and you have to get really honest with yourself. Yeah. Again.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
So we uh, six months, It's about six months later
and I have this new found I can hear God again.
You know, I'm I'm coming back out of of course
you're gonna experience that grief, you know you still. Yeah,
And my husband, he comes in the room where I am,
and he says, Babe, what do you think about adoption?
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
I have one of my friends, Jackie. She says, we
have to trust God's will and his way. Sometimes we
hear his will and we don't wait on his way.
We try to do it our way. And me and
Kenny had to be honest that we heard God's will,
that you got to have a baby. You know, it's
going to be a beautiful boy. But we try to
do it our way. Yeah, you know, we went through
(35:14):
all this process and the name of you know, faith
without works is.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Dead and we never stopt and God is like, okay,
well when you finished trying to your way.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Yeah, And so we went through the process of adoption
and I didn't have natural birth pains, but it's it
is pains you have.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
It is grueling. The process is grueling, and we don't experience.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
It a lot a lot in our in our community
where people go through like legal adoption, you know. You know,
we have aunts and uncles who have adopted nieces and nephews,
and God, we are so grateful for that because there
are so many babies around the world who may not
have had a stable home, but family members have taken
them in. It is a little different to to do
that process and you don't know what you're going into,
(35:58):
you know.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
And so we had our adoption.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
We used an agent who was just amazing. She was
just a prayer warrior. Sometimes in the middle of the
night she would text us and say, you know, I'm
praying for you guys, I'm covering you. Through this process,
you know, and that mattered because you have so many
emotions like we don't know what we're going into, we
don't know where the baby is, we don't know if
this mom is gonna choose us, you know.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
And so we went through the process.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
It was about seven months to get everything together to
create our profile, and we did a semi closed adoption
of course, you know, you know, you have.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
To do it that way.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
And we we applied to four agencies, four of the
top agencies.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
It was like California.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
It was just different different states and about it was
about three days after we submitted everything where she called
it and she was like, okay, this is weird. And in
my twenty years of doing this, I'm never experienced anything
like this.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
She said.
Speaker 3 (37:02):
A mother walked into an agency in Louisiana and everything
about what she's asking your profile fits and we're on
the other end like, okay.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
We don't want to get too excited.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
You know, you have all of these emotions like you
don't want to get too excited. These things, you know,
may happen and it may not. And she said, what
I want you to do is we're gonna apply. There
are seven other families. I don't know if I told
that before. There's seven other families who she's looking at
as well, she said, But I really really feel this
for you, Kenneth. She said, I feel like you need
to sit down and write a handwritten letter about your
(37:36):
story and how you feel like this baby fits your family,
talk about your blended family and your kids, your older children.
And so Kenny went upstairs to his office and he
wrote out a handwritten letter. They screenshot it and sent
it to the mom and three days later, our agent
called and she said.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
You're not gonna believe this. So I'm a me. My
heart just drops to my feet, like, don't play with
me because you're thinking, what are you thinking in that moment?
Speaker 3 (38:05):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
I don't know what to think. I don't know what
to think. Because one of the things that she said,
she was very honest with us. She said, I've had
families where it's taken two years, you know, I've had
families who never got a child.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
I want to be very honest with you.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
So we're gonna we're gonna put your profile in and
we're gonna believe God, who would have.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Ever thought that.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Three days later, three days that this would happen. The mother,
she said, we had a chance to talk. We had
two conversations with the birth mom, and in one of
those conversations, Kenny asked her, what made you choose us
out of the seven families. She said, honestly, I was
sitting down reading the letter that you wrote, and she said,
(38:45):
the baby started kicking.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Yea, she said, he chose you. I didn't.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
I mean, talk about a resurgence of your faith, talk
about to come on such a dark place and for
God to read assure you with that magnitude, preach it,
listen with that amount of power in that moment, like
you needed just as much as Asher needed you.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Are you need an Asher? Right?
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Because that was the reassurance of your faith. That was
like resurgence.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Oh my goodness. Yeah. And I mean when I say
we had four weeks.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Asher was on the way, Oh my goodness, like four
weeks after that we had we had to get a baby.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
We had to do everything.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
We didn't know anything, you know, we had to figure
out how do you put car seats in the car?
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Yeah, because she was due in four weeks. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
For God, So here we are we have seven months.
The number seven is just already prophetic. Seven months. Where
it took us to build our profile. We had three
days between when the mom chose us, and of course
we already know about resurrection and how these things. I
was the one being resurrected. I was in a dead place,
(39:58):
and God is like, well here it is. Let me
drop this on you, babe. I'm I'm still God. Still,
I still have a plan for your life. My word
is still true. And every word that I've spoken over
your life is yes and amen. And I know you've
been in this weird space, but let me just reassure
you I know what I'm doing. Yeah. Oh, like all
of these things, and then we look at this baby.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
He is everything that God probably.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
It's like he has your face, It's like my face,
my personality's personality, oh my God. And all of the babies,
all of our babies, from Alana to Ni and Maya
to Symphony.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
He just fits right in perfectly.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, because you all have a blended family. Yes, And
I want you before you leave, because I want you
to give our audience just a few lessons, right, because
I want you to give them the lessons of what
that resurgence in your faith taught you. But then what
you've learned about yourself on this journey of motherhood and
evolution as an artist as well, you know what, going
(41:00):
through that, I think it was necessary. It was necessary
for me to see those broken places within my spiritual
walk with Christ because I know everybody we want to
live on the mountain. We just you know, everything is
good on the mountain. But it's what's what's true is
that we don't pray as much on the mountain. We
don't seek the face of God as much on the
mountains in the valley. And God is like, I need
(41:25):
you to go through these valley seasons so that it'll
sharpen your walk with me.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
I realized in that season, these are the areas where
Tasha needs to work on Tasha.
Speaker 1 (41:35):
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
And then don't even mention having the kids, because really
kids are like mirrors. They you are looking at yourself
from Astra toualana. There is something about me that I
had to sharpen in me looking in the face of
every one of my children, you know.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
And so you talk about having kids and all parents will.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Tell you, you know, any most of the things that
you're gonna fuss at them about and hammer down it's
something within you.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Look at my sister, I be like, you can't even
argue a be you can't even say nothing because he's
your child, Like he yea.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
So for me, you know, I think that the Bible
talks about out of the mouth of babes.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
We listen to our children.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
We listened to them, you know, we had I love
to share this about blended families because though our family
we get along very well, we have a well oiled
unit going on here, you know. So a few months ago, though,
our children called a family meeting and they had an
opportunity to share, like, here's some things that y'all are doing.
(42:37):
It doesn't feel good, you know, Here's some things that
we would like to see, some changes that we would
like to see. And one thing I love about my
husband that he's even taught me about parenting is that
he doesn't immediately get on the defense to try to
defend us. And those some things that they're seeing maybe
through the lens of an eighteen year old or through
(42:58):
the lens of a thirteen year old, we go to
God first on how to address it, and we are
honest with ourselves, like how much of this is true,
and how much of this can we tweak to make
it better. I don't ever want to want it to
be like even when I do podcasts, when I write
the book, and I even promised our children children this,
I won't.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
You know, I'm not gonna gaslight.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
There are some moments where our family we have to
go back to the drawing board and say, Okay, here's
some things that may have worked five years ago from
you guys, but you guys are older now and there
are some tweaks that we have to make. You know,
I feel like for anybody that's listening, be honest with
yourself and hear your children out.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Yeah, hear the truth. And there may be there may
be a little fluff there.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
It might be a little bit of selfishness that where
they're like, hey, I want more time, and we be
honest with yourself and be honest with them. I might
not have more time to give right now, but this
is what I can do.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
I mean, you talk about the five years of things
that you might have to change, even with the children
as we begin to close out though, what's been the
thing that you've had to change as an artist, as
a worship leader, as a pastor.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
How have you evolved in that way? You know what?
And I have to go back.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
It's it's personal, Like there are some I noticed that
when I change, things around me start to change. Yeah,
so there were some things about Okay, let's talk about pastoring.
Pastoring requires it requires you personally giving a lot of yourself,
being intimate and close with people. Well, let's contrast that
(44:29):
up against Tasha the artist. Because artistry and platform and influence,
it costs for you to pull away from people. So
I was used to going out doing concerts, traveling, doing tours,
going back to my house and you live this private life.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
But pastoring now yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, now
you got to pull people in.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
That's hard shepherding, yes, because for so many years it
was like I let you in worship. Now y'all go
back to your houses and I'm gonna go back to mind.
You don't get to do that. You have to love people,
and you have to love them close, you know, and
some of them may leave and you still have to
love them close. That's a new place for me, you know,
that's a new place for me. And I'm sharpening myself
(45:11):
as an individual now that Tasha, you gotta find a
way to pull these walls down and let people in
because your career has allowed you to build walls. But
now you're in an intimate space with people where you
represent Christ in their lives and you don't need that distance.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
Yeah, you don't need the distance. Yeah, that's tough.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Is there something that you realize that you have to
distance yourself from in this season of your life?
Speaker 3 (45:36):
Oh, in this season of my life, I have.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
I won't say distance.
Speaker 3 (45:45):
I've had to draw closer to Tasha the mom, Tasha
the wife, and that means sometimes I have to say
no to Tasha the artist. Where it's calling, I can
get calls everywhere, go here and there and everywhere. I
was at an event and Oprah was the speaker, and
(46:05):
she got up and said something that changed my life,
especially now that I'm forty three going on forty four.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
She said.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
She sat down and she said, I'm here because I
want to be She said, at this stage in life,
I go places because I want to be there. There
was a season where I felt like I had to
be there and I.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
Have to go, and I gotta travel.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
And now I'm in this place where it's you know,
I go where God is calling me and the places
where I want to be.
Speaker 1 (46:35):
Yeah, where you want to be and I want to
be home. I want to be with Asher.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
I want to be with my kids, you know, you know,
and I feel like they they deserve that right now
and I can tell that they're enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
Yeah, as we close out one word, you're committed to
in this season.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Of your life? Ah? Peace?
Speaker 3 (46:55):
What? Because there were so many years that I didn't
have it, and it was because of my actions. I
lived in a place where it was go, go, go
go go work, work, work, work, work, don't live in
the moment, you know.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
I was always the next sending out an email.
Speaker 3 (47:12):
I could be you know, people will have to My
therapist told me this, and I know we gotta go.
She told me, she said, make your family, make you
be present, And to this day they do that.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Like make my Husbandmily, make you be present. He will
stop me and say, do you do you have a headache?
Right now?
Speaker 3 (47:27):
I have authorated writers in my feet. He'll say, are
your feet hurting? It makes me? It grounds me because
I was I never celebrated awards, I never celebrated you know,
an album. Doing this I never celebrated mountains. I never
even stopped to, you know, to embrace a valley moment.
I was just always going, going, going going, and that
in that lifestyle, you forfeit peace because you're always so busy.
(47:52):
Now I prioritize peace.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Tasha Cobbs Lenner, it was a pleasure for you to
sit down with me today. Vaugham Power Talks another good
one for the books. Be sure to share this with
someone who needs a little more peace and clarity in
their lives.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
We could all use it.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Until next time you guys, I'm your girl, Brandy Harvey E, Well,
give a damn move your body every single day.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Peace.
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