Anne Wilson - From Christian to Country Music, Her Faith Journey and More

Join Brooke Taylor (@Brookeradio) and Anne Wilson (@AnneWilsonMusic) as they talk about her new song Seventh of June.. and the story of losing her brother Jacob and how that actually has helped shape her career. They also talk about transitioning from Christian to Country music and what that looks like.. her favorite country artist and more. Grab a drink! Let's go Backstage.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good a backstage. Welcome to backstagewith Brook. You're all access past to
music city where nothing is off limits. Grab a drink, let's go backstage.
Yeah, I'm so excited about ourguests today. An Wilson is here.
Let me play your little clip first. I think this might be I

(00:24):
know that you're sitting in front ofme, but I think it might be
one of my favorite songs like ever. Definitely, I feel like top five
of something that I have on repeat. You know how every year on different
like listening and streaming platforms, youhave those songs that they're like, you
had this mini streams it's your topso and so song. That's definitely going
to be one of them this yearfor sure. I love that. That's
so sweet And thank you for doingthis today. Thanks for having me of

(00:47):
course. How are you? I'mgood? How are you? I'm good?
Are you recovered from CMA fust Firstand foremost I am. It was
so much fun. I had ablast. This was wasn't your first CMA
fst Yes, very first time.It was so different than what I expected,
but just so amazing, like gettingto meet so many fans and getting
to branch out in this country spacehas been really cool for me. I

(01:07):
think it's really awesome that you're kindof taking like dipping your toe into the
country music space because I feel likecountry music fans are just such a cool
group of people that they're they justwill wrap their arms around pretty much anybody.
And I know that you being inthis space is going to be really
really fun and I'm excited to seewhat you do in it. Yes,
thank you, I am too.Did you have a specific part of CMAFUS

(01:30):
that was your favorite. Probably wegot to perform on the skydeck Okay,
Broadway one night, which was superfun. Just being in that environment and
getting to share like my heart andlike my songs was just so amazing.
Like I felt like something that isnot really done much, sharing your faith
in the country space, but itwas really really cool. So and I

(01:52):
love that about specifically, like thispodcast, like we go everywhere, like
backstage, we kind of like takethose moments of where you had to on
your faith in those hard moments orjust spots in your life that maybe we're
ugly that people don't get to heara lot about. And Yeah, I
think one of my favorite parts aboutyour story is I actually saw you.
You performed at the CRS Believer's BreakfastYes earlier this year, and I was

(02:15):
there and you performed a couple ofsongs. You shared a little bit of
your testimony, and it's just likethose moments in life where you don't necessarily
always get to hear how you gotyour start in music, and I feel
like, here's this such a uniquebut like God's story, and I'd love
it if you could share kind oflike where that went, like how that
happened for you. Yeah, it'sit's really crazy to look back on it.

(02:37):
So growing up, I grew upin Kentucky and I always dreamed of
being an astronaut. I'm working forNASA. I love that. It's like
my dream and I just had likea passion for space. I guess just
like what it would be like looklike to go in to space. And
so my parents took me when Iwas in eighth grade to NASA to like

(02:58):
literally like sit down with them talkabout what it would look like to go
in that direction. And then throughhigh school, well, I took a
ton of extra classes and I triedto be a good student so that I
could get into a good college.And then the only music stuff I did
grown up was I played piano.My parents like forced us to take piano
lessons as a kid. I feellike we all were there at one part
in our lives. I was reallyin the dark days, like I remember,

(03:21):
just like hating piano lessons and notbeing like so miserable for me.
So took piano my whole life,from the ages of six to up until
like eighteen nineteen, and so didmy brother and my sister, and then
that was pretty much it. Igrew up in church my whole life.
I grew up as a Christian froma little like a little girl, you
know, grew up knowing about God, but then became a follower of Jesus

(03:45):
when I was in seventh grade andit became real for me, and my
faith became my own, not justmy parents. And then in twenty seventeen,
leading into my sophomore year of highschool, my brother passed away tragically
in a car accident. His namewas Jacob. He was twenty three,
and he died on impact in acar accident, and it was pretty traumatic.

(04:05):
He didn't even make it to thehospital. He just like died on
the scene, and we had noidea because he wasn't living with us at
the time, and so we werewoken up in the middle of the night
by police telling us that he haddied and that he was gone, and
it was super traumatic. I justremember being fifteen and my parents were so
devastated, and that was really terrifyingto watch your parents like being that much

(04:27):
pain. And I saw my dadcried for the first time in my whole
life, and it was just reallyhard, and it was kind of one
of those moments where like your faithbecomes real to you in a really powerful
way and you realize, like,Okay, I can go do this whole
thing on my own, and Ican turn to whatever substance is going to
fulfill me, or I can turnto God and allow him to be the
one that gets me through it.And I did that and that's when I

(04:49):
really felt like so much comfort andpeace in that, And so that's what
started the journey for me in music. I sang publicly for the first time
ever at my brother's funeral, andfrom that point on, just door started
flying open and Christian Music to signa record deal, and I moved to
Nashville. I graduated high school intwenty twenty, and I moved to Nashville

(05:12):
then and so since then it's justbeen like a while two to three years
now of a short career so far, but it's been like so many success
moments, which has been really cool, totally. Do you remember that moment
of performing at your brother's funeral,Like I can imagine that that was really
hard to get through? Yeah,it was. I remember it like it
was yesterday, simply because like,as I was on the stage, I

(05:33):
had like a moment of realizing thatmusic was what I was supposed to do,
and that was kind of what likemaybe like it sticks out in my
mind at that moment of like,oh, this is what I'm supposed to
do is music, And but yeah, it was really hard to get through.
My sister played the piano on anotherpart of the funeral, and she
wasn't even able to get like halfwaythrough her song. And I was really

(05:54):
the only person throughout the whole funeralthat was able to push through the song
on stage, which I don't reallyknow how I did that, but it
was definitely hard. And this isI don't think that I've ever shared this
story to really anybody but my family, but my dad and I would sing
in church every randomly, like oncein a while. And I remember when
my grandma passed away. My momwas like, you guys have to sing,

(06:15):
and I was like no, like, yeah, I don't want to
sing in front of people. AndI remember my sister in law, she
has like vocally trained, like sheloves music, and she and my brother
and my dad and myself, like, we sang a song at my grandma's
funeral. And it was the craziestfeeling of like trying to hold yourself together
but also like allow yourself to feelthose feelings because they're such real feelings to

(06:39):
feel. Absolutely, it's so true. Yeah, it's it's like you want
to feel those like feelings in themoment, but you also know that you
have to get through the whole thing. Yeah, and try not to cry.
And well, I want to talkabout your song the seventh of June
here in just a minute, butI want to go back to something that
you said of how you grew upin church and you grew up, you
know, believing in God, butthen there was a moment in your life

(07:00):
for you kind of took over thereins. It wasn't just something that your
parents made you do, it wassomething that you wanted to do. What
was that like for you? Wasthat a hard transition? Did you go
through a little of like I feellike there's always like a little bit of
turmoil of like, yeah, whatdo I want? Does you know what
I mean, like trying to makethose decisions for yourself. Yeah. I
think like for so many people thatgrow up in the church, it can

(07:20):
feel very religious, like your parentstell you to go to church, and
I I hate to go into church. I literally would just sit like during
you know, the sermons and justget on my phone or whatever, like
just passing the time like everybody doeswhen they were kids. And I had
no real, like I guess,desire to have a relationship with God.
I didn't know what it really was. I guess I felt like it was

(07:41):
just We'll go to you know,Sunday school and go to church and then
go to church on Wednesdays and thenlike talk bad about people behind your back
like it was that kind of thingof like hypocritical. Just grew up kind
of in a culture of that alot of the times, and it felt
very fake to me, is howI'm trying to say it, Like it
felt like it was not a realthing. It was just something that you
do to obey your parents or whatever. And I've always been like a role

(08:05):
follower in general, so like thatwasn't the issue. It was just the
fact that I felt like it wasvery fake. And so I had a
moment when I was twelve. Iwas in seventh grade, and I was
kind of in this you know,seventh grade and eighth grade of like big
moments in your life are seventh gradewas one of my favorite ears. Yeah,
mine too, And it was alsosuper hard, and like you're dealing
with a lot and you're changing andyou're growing up, and and I had

(08:26):
a moment of realizing that like itwas real, like Jesus really did die
for me, Like this wasn't justreligion, this was actually the opposite of
religion. And then when I startedto really like read the Bible, I
realized that it's not about religion,but it's actually about like a personal relationship.
And when you take religion out ofthe picture, it's so much more

(08:48):
freedom and like beauty in it andknowing that like you can have in a
relationship with God, that's it's likeso not about just checking off the box
and going to church. And youknow what I'm saying, it's like a
like a living, active thing,right. That relationship is such a it's
so important because I feel like everybody'srelationship is different, you know, and
it's I think it's the same kindof I guess qualities of like having a

(09:11):
relationship with like a parent at home, about your siblings are going to have
a different relationship with your mom anddad than you would have, right,
And I feel like when you startto grasp sort of that like understanding,
it's like, no, your relationshipwith God can be the same relationship.
It's just going to be different.Yeah. Absolutely. And I also think
that like when you have that relationship, there's so much like freedom in it.

(09:33):
And for me, like growing upin the church, always felt very
like ashamed of things. But thenonce I realized that, like that's not
who God is, it's just somuch more beautiful now. Like if you
go through hard things and you messup and whatever, like there's so much
grace for it. And I thinkthat if people could realize that and like
detach this idea of like religion andget it out of their minds and think
of it as a real relationship.There's a lot of freedom in it.

(09:56):
Well, and I know for mespecifically, before I I became a mom,
I really never knew. They alwayssay, like the love of a
parent, there's nothing like it,right, and how you know Jesus loves
you even more than that, Andlike now knowing how much I love my
daughter, Emma, I'm like,I can't even imagine how God feels,
yeah, looking down and like beingin love with me. It's just like

(10:18):
that relationship. It's so hard tograsp YEA, having kids. Honestly,
I know from I guess experience,it's the hardest, most amazing thing that
you love to do. That's whatI've heard. Yes, Yeah, I
can't imagine how difficult it would be, but also so rewarding at the same
time, so rewarding and just knowingtoo. I know a lot of people
are like, well, I don'tknow if I want to have kids right

(10:39):
now in this moment because of theclimate of the world. Right, And
I'm like, there's no like theywere raised for a time as this,
right, Like they're born on purpose. Yeah, And I love knowing and
like confidently talking to my daughter aboutlike the things that we believe in and
then like taking it to church andlike hearing. So every night before we
go to bed, we say prayersand then we sing Jesus Loves Me,

(11:00):
and then we put her down andshe started she started to like hum back
to us. And my husband travelsa lot for work, so when he's
home, we'll like do bedtime together. And the other night we're like singing
Jesus Loves Me and she starts hummingback and my husband, I like this
big big tear just rolled down hisface and I was like, Okay,
see, this is the this isthe sweet stuff that's so sweet that you

(11:22):
just like live for. Yeah,those are precious moments in time, one
hundred percent precious moments. Okay,we got to talk about this new song
of yours the seventh of June.I have a little clip for those who
have not heard it yet. Sowe obviously have talked about your brother and

(11:46):
what happened to him and the youknow, basically redemption story that God has
given you through his story, butalso now giving you a story writing this
song and performing it and putting outout to the world. I remember watching
the music video and just like,I mean, you can't help, but
listen to the song and just feelwhat you're feeling. And it's just such
an emotional experience. I know fromthis side, as I'm like tearing up

(12:09):
right now talking to you about this, but I can imagine that doing something
like this not only emotionally it's gotto be, you know, difficult,
but it's probably such a really coolexperience to give your brother this like gift
and almost kind of like sing itfor the world to, you know,
in his honor. It is.It's really special. I mean, this
is my favorite song I've ever written, favorite music video ever put together.

(12:31):
It was one of the most involvedvideos I've ever been a part of,
and like every music video I've doneso far, which is not many in
my career, like my team isn'tvery involved and creatively, you know,
we're coming up with all the idea, all these ideas, but this was
like the first video where I hadlike a big passion to kind of like
go like go, you know,do it and see it come to life.

(12:52):
And the whole experience of writing thesong was really healing for me too.
I wrote it back in October oftwenty twenty two, and I was
a really rough time in my lifewhere you know, all the things that
God's end in my life is likeamazing and it's so cool to see what
He's done. But it doesn't takeaway from the pain of losing Jacob.
And I think that some people maybecan think that like it would help,

(13:13):
but it doesn't because I'm still walkingthrough life day to day, like getting
nominated for a Grammy and all thesethings happening, but still missing like the
one person that I would long tohave with me and so um for for
like the first time ever, Iwrote a song that kind of sits in
that grief, Like it doesn't resolveto the hope of heaven. It doesn't

(13:33):
resolve to like you know, thishope message. It kind of sits there
and like faces what it's like,like what life is like without the person
that you love. And I thinkthat it was like time for a reality
song like that. I'm a realistand so like for me, what helps
me process grief and like heal fromit is actually facing it and being like,
you know what, this is reallyhard and this sucks without Jacob,

(13:54):
but it is what it is andI have to kind of move on from
it. So it was a reallyhealing journey for me to write the song,
to release it, and then alsojust to like allow the world to
come into like the most intimate place, like especially like the scene at the
grave. Yeah, that's a that'sa thing I've never shared before and that's
a really intimate part of my life, but I kind of like opened it
up for the world to see,and so in a way it was hard

(14:16):
but also kind of healing. Tohear the stories that have come out of
it so far well, and Ihear on the podcast obviously it's called Backstage,
so we like to talk about notjust you know, the surface level
of like oh, we put outa new song, we put out of
this or whatever, but it's it'sthose real moments where you're sitting in a
real feeling that other people I'm surecan relate to in some way, shape

(14:39):
or form. Yeah, and havingthat connection with fans, I know that
it's got to be really special foryou to be able to, you know,
have those moments with each other.It really is. It's been so
sweet to see the story so far. Yeah, was there ever a moment
where you're like this is too hard, I can't and I don't know if
I can. Yeah. I thinklike for me, the music video was

(15:03):
really hard. We were at myfarm in Kentucky and we were like at
the like the actual grave site.While there's like twenty cameras at me.
That kind of stuff is really hardfor me because when I go into the
grave, like you know, wheneverI go to the farm, I cry.
Every single time I cannot walk intothe grave site and I'll cry and
it's like the it's like the onetime that's just I mean, it's just

(15:24):
real, like he's under that youknow, he's in the dirt, like
he's under that gravestone. And andso I think that was really hard and
I didn't know if I could pushthrough those moments. But honestly, I
think there's things in my career that'sbeen harder than this in the sense that
like it was like it felt likesuch a gift to be able to share
this with the world versus like someother things in you know, in my

(15:45):
career so far have been like harderin a sence, if that makes sense.
Like, yeah, and I feellike too, looking into the situation,
it's just like you know, youwant your brother to be here,
but it's like you really did getto like do something with your brother like
in your career, and I lovethat that's such a special moment for you
guys. It really was. Yeah, especially like the scene of the guy
touching my shoulder and stuff like thosemoments when we were filming that literally felt

(16:08):
like Jacob was there with us.And so that's what also just made it
special. It did. It feltlike me and Jacob were like back together
again on the farm like little kidswhen he passed away. Were you ever
mad at God? Did those Didthose feelings ever creep into where you're just
like why? Yeah? I meanI was not mad, And I like
hate saying that essence because I don'twant to seem like I'm this perfect like

(16:30):
girl. But I wasn't mad,And I don't know why, because that's
the very like average response to someonedying. I mean, even if you're
a strong Christian or whatever. ButI wasn't. I think I was confused,
and I asked a lot of questionslike why. But I also knew
that like, we don't even deserveto have anything good in this life,

(16:51):
you know, and we don't deserveanything, And so I honestly the first
thing that came out of my mouthwas like, thank you God that we
had Jacob for twenty three years,because he's on He was like on loan
to us from God, like hebelongs to God. We all do.
And so that was my perspective,and I think my parents too of like
Jacob was kind of a gift tothem from God versus like he wasn't really
there, you know, And sothat helped a lot. But there were

(17:15):
a lot of questions. There wasa lot of wrestling with God, but
I wouldn't say it was ever necessarilymad well. And I love talking about
these types of things because I feellike those who maybe don't have a relationship
with God don't understand that, Likeyou're not always homies, you know what
I mean, Like you are,but yeah, there's those moments where you
do you ask questions and yeah,you go through those, you know,
seasons in your life where you're likeGod, but like you know, you

(17:37):
said, this what's going on andit's it's it's wild to live out those
moments and then go back to them, you know, years later, to
be like, Okay, this iswhy. Yes, absolutely, And there
was a after Jacob died, therewas six months of pretty much living hell
in our life. Yeah, itwas a lot of things. My dad
lost his job he had been wehad you know, no income as our

(18:00):
family. We I fell out ofbed and broke my wrists out of all
the things and how to have likea massive surgery, and my mom got
shingles, our house flooded. Itmean, like crazy things happen like where
it was like we were being hitfrom every angle of financially and mentally and
physically, and like we were fallingto pieces. And it was like out
of all the things, it's rightafter Jacob die and it was six months

(18:21):
of just like misery, and thenwe finally got to the point of like,
okay, now we see what God'sdoing. And then that's when all
the doors started to fly open andall these incredible blessings started to hit our
family. And it's been that wayever since. Well, and I forget
the actual quote that somebody says,but it's just like if you're a Christian
or you have purpose in this world, there's always you're like a walking target.
So like the enemy is always goingto try and get you wherever.

(18:44):
And it's just like you know,you were down at a low place in
your guys's life and then it wasjust like thing after thing after thing.
But then to see like God's redemptionin all of this and your music and
I mean people hearing about Jesus forthe first time through your music and getting
closer to God through your music,it's just like no wonder Yeah that you
guys had to go through all ofthat. Oh, it's crazy, it

(19:06):
really is thinking back on it.But it was also so like it brought
us so much closer as a family, and I think that was really what
was needed in that moment of likeyou know what's next, Like what else
is going to happen? You know, It's like that kind of mentality.
And then it got to the pointwhere we were just like, Okay,
God's has to be doing something throughall this, and then sure enough he
did. And then fast forward,like you said, you're winning awards,

(19:27):
you're nominated for awards, you're makingyour opry debut, you're releasing a book.
Yeah, it's crazy. If there'ssomething that you could go back and
tell Jacob back and you know,before he passed, after knowing all of
this, do you have something thatyou would say to him? I don't
know. I mean I would probablythank him for being the brother that he

(19:48):
was. You know. I thinkthat what I remember feeling the most,
and I still feel it to today, like to this day, is you
don't tell people you love them enoughuntil they're gone, you know, especially
as kids, Like when I wasfifteen, like I was so selfish and
like in my head and like Iwould be, you know, being on
my phone instead of hanging out withhim and you know, all those things
that we do, and but thenit's like something like that happens and you're

(20:11):
like, oh my gosh, likeI wish I could have said this to
them and spent more time with him. And I probably just wish I could
have like gotten closer to him andgotten to know him better because I was
so young at the time that Ifelt like we didn't get a lot of
those formative years together. But Ithink that, like it's part of the
whole thing of like being a Christianand knowing that they're kind of with you
wherever you go is what I alwaysthink about, and I always remind myself

(20:33):
that, like he's experiencing life withme, and so he's seeing all these
things that I'm getting to do forhim and honor him, right, I
love that well Christian music. Obviouslyyou're here, you're making a mark country
music. I know that this issomething that you're kind of like taking a
little transition into what does that littlejourney like for you? Have you always
loved country music? I have.I grew up on country well, so
it's interesting. My parents raised meon Christian my brother raised me on country,

(20:57):
and so it's like a good healthydose of both. And I've always
loved country music growing up. Iremember I never had the desire to be
a singer, but like me andmy sister had like a little band when
we were kids, and like littlethings that obviously I guess was leading up
to this, but I didn't knowthe time. But we always loved like
singing, you know, country songstogether and that kind of thing. And

(21:18):
so I released a record last yearcalled My Jesus. Honestly, would not
even imagined I'd be sitting here todaysix months ago, Like this has been
a quick thing. And so whatwas interesting about my music that I released
is that people would message me andbe like, we're not Christians, we
don't listen to Christian music, butwe love your songs because they sound country,
and that was just me being authenticallywho I you know, who I

(21:41):
am. And then I realized,like there's a bigger picture here of impacting
the audience of country music with myfaith message. And so it's been a
really interesting time of it's like justGod things of timing line, you know,
all this stuff like lining up perfectly, but right when I bet,
I guess, like back in January, I was going through kind of a

(22:02):
hard time of feeling like I didn'treally fit in Christian anymore because I was
too country. People were like,you, you know, we're not going
to play the song because it soundstoo country, and I'm like, well,
it's still about God. It's stilllike what you're wanting to serve to
your audience. But that was superfrustrating for me. And then rite about
that time, God starts opening doorsin country music, and I met the

(22:22):
head of Universal Nashville, and westarted sitting down together and talking about what
it would look like to kind oftransition into this space but not changing who
I am and not changing my message. And so ever since then, the
songs I've written have been like myfavorite ever. I have the freedom to
write songs, they don't have tofit into a box of you know,
Christian music and sound a certain way, but they're all still about God and

(22:45):
still about you know, my lifeand faith and all of that. So
it's honestly been like so life givingfor me getting to write these songs the
past six months and getting to havethe freedom to step into this space and
be who I've always been but keepmy message of faith. And I love
country music too because I was intop forty radio when I first started.
I started my radio career in twentyeleven, and I remember playing you know,

(23:06):
like just pop music and like themessages behind all of it, like
pop music is just like really coolor it's just kind of like tows the
line of like, well, Idon't know if I want to listen to
that kind of stuff, right,And I remember this like this moment in
my career where I was just likeI grew up on country music. I
want to be in country music andnot feeling ashamed to talk about my faith

(23:29):
because I feel like in the topforty world, you can't say that you're
a Christian because so many people don'tbelieve that way. But in country music,
I love it so much because it'sjust like, yes, talk about
God. Like my boss is like, if you want to talk about Jesus
on the air on your radio show, go for it. Like if you
want to talk about you know,something that happened at church, or you
want to pray on the air.I remember when the Covenant shooting happened,

(23:51):
I had this moment where I calledmy boss and I was like, I
want to like hold like a publicprayer for everybody, Like is that okay?
And he was like do it.That's so sweet. And I still
to this day have people coming upyou're the girl who played on the radio,
And it's just like those moments thatcountry country music is just it's the
best it is. And I thinkthat people are longing for hope. Yeah,
I mean whether or not you believein God or ever will, Like,

(24:14):
this world is dark and I thinkeverybody feels that, and I think
there's a need for something like thatpeople can latch onto and they need hope
and need to know that like everything'sgoing to work out in the end.
They need to know that they're notalone in their pain and suffering. And
so I think regardless of whether ornot you know my songs, ever like
lead people to Jesus. I justhope that they bring them some hope and
comfort and joy totally the long run. Did you ever think that you would

(24:37):
be playing at the Grandel Opry.That's got to be the coolest things.
It is. I never would havedreamed, And out of all the venues
I've played, it's still my favoriteto play. Like it's the most surreal,
even more than the rhyme, andlike it is the most surreal moment
for me when I step up onthat stage, Like I love the Opery
so much in that circle and you'relike history, that's crazy, very easy.

(25:00):
And I just remember, like mygrandma always loved the Opry and we
never really went when I was akid, but like it was always talked
about around me, and so tosee like those little things like remembering those
memories as a kid and then nowlike you're actually doing it, it's just
really cool for me. Do youever have those moments we were like Okay,
God, this is cool. Yeah, like all the time. All
the time, I feel like myteam's calling me like once a month telling

(25:22):
me something like so big. Imean, it's like it's like a joke
now, Like at this point oflike, Okay, what's gonna happen?
Like it's just it's just so cool, like what God's doing in my life
right now. I seriously can't waittell us more about this country music journey?
What what are we getting? Whenare we getting it soon? It
is I've been I just cut acouple of songs yesterday that I'm super excited

(25:45):
about. It's we're kind of stillin the process of like compiling all these
songs for the record, so it'sgoing to be a while before the record
comes out, but we're working onit and in figuring out what this looks
like. And I think what's beenreally amazing about it. I said something
like this earlier, but just gettingto write songs and not have like the

(26:06):
I guess, like the thought oflike, oh, you have to fit
in this box, so you haveto make the production sound less country because
it won't work on you know,in Christian music, or just getting to
write a country song like about life, Like that's been awesome too, and
similar to like Seventh of June whereit's not necessarily a Christian song, but
it's it's real life moments. AndI think that the record is going to
be filled with you know, Christiansongs and country songs and life songs and

(26:30):
all sorts of those things. Andand so I'm really excited about this process,
just getting to write new songs andgetting to kind of like explore who
I am. Is there an artistin country music that you just like look
up to and you're like, man, if I could work with that person,
that would just be the best thingever. Morgan wallin O. Yes,
I love him so much. Ilove his songs. I literally have

(26:51):
listened to his new record, likeI can't even tell you how many times.
Right, it's so good to basicsongs. It's so good, Morgan,
if you're watching this, yes,let's make this happen. Okay.
I love the way that like he'sjust true to himself, and even though
we're very different types of artists,Like, it's just inspirational for me to
be, like, I'm going tobe true to myself too and talk about

(27:11):
things that that I'm going through inmy life, you know, And I
think that. I mean literally,his last two records have helped shape the
kind of music that I put outtoday. So he's the most influential person
in me writing songs. It's sofunny because I remember this past week talking
to an artist specifically about their musicand what they're doing, and he was
like, you know, I movedto Nashville, and I feel like I

(27:34):
lost myself in Nashville. Like Icame with a vision of who I wanted
to be and who I wanted tobe as an artist. And he said
I got lost in that. Hewas just like, and I took a
moment in my career where I hadto like step up and say like,
no, this is this is notme. I want to be authentically true
to who I am. Have youhad a moment yet where you're just like,
no, that's not me. I'mtrying to like, let's go back

(27:56):
this way, guys. No,I feel like I'm very stubborn and like
I stand my ground, Like Ican be pretty like intense if I want
something, you know. And eventhough I've always been really young. I
started when I was seventeen, Isigned a record deal when I was seventeen,
I've always just been like I've justlike made sure that I have a
voice in the room, which Ithink is hard for a lot of women
specifically to do. But I've hadto push for that and Also, I've

(28:18):
always had a team that has likechampioned me in my opinions and like what
do you want? And this isall about I mean, just as we've
made this transition, like they've askedme a million times like are you sure
you want to do this? Likeis this your vision? And every time
it's like, yeah, this iswhat I know that I'm supposed to do.
And so for me, I've neverhad those moments. I think that
you can easily be like influenced andpeople can tell you, you know,

(28:40):
you should do this and that,and those are honestly the voices that I
don't listen to most of the time. And when I'm like, you know
what this is, If I didthat, that would be changing who I
am, and so I need toremove that person from the picture. And
it's always I've always done that.I've just kind of always like done my
own thing, and like I've alwaysbeen like super sassy and I have like
my attitude and I'm like, Ijust don't let people tell me what to
do. Yeah, shout out toGod for discernment too, you know what

(29:03):
I mean, Like thanks for keepingme on the right path. Yeah,
I know, I'm super grateful.I've I've always like I always try to
stay in tune with God, likethat's my number one thing, is like
staying in tune with him and listeningto like what he wants me to do,
and like following his leading um butthen also standing my ground and like
those gut feelings of like if Idon't feel comfortable doing this, and just
totally do it. You know really, I love that. Well, Anne,
it is seriously such a pleasure toget to know more of your story

(29:27):
and I can't wait for more ofthis next when this country record drops,
You're coming back. We're gonna talkall about it. I'm so excited.
Thank you so much for having me. We have one last thing. There's
a gumball machine right next to you. These are our little last questions of
the interview, So right there onthe bottom there's a little These are just
like kind of like random. Thisis random questions that we do at the

(29:48):
very end to I know, they'rehard to get over it. There you
go, Oh, this is socute, our little gumball machine. Oh
what's your guilty pleasure? TV showThe Walking Dead? Really, yeah,
there's something about like the zombies likein the DUTs in the Blood. I
love it. You know what's sofunny? I have made it through maybe
like four episodes of The Walking Dead. Yes, I don't know what it

(30:08):
is, but like guts and stuff. For me, I'm just like I
want to laugh. I know it. Well, I think for me it's
so fake looking, you know that. But like I haven't watched it recently,
but the first seven seasons, likeI was locked in, like okay
with every character. I mean Iwould cry when someone would die. Like
I was like dedicated to this show. So it's like my favorite. All
Right, I'm gonna give it achance for you, and I'll check back

(30:30):
in next time we hang out,and I'll like, you know, hang
goes. That's awesome. Well,and thank you for being here today.
It's seriously still good. Thank you. Thanks for having me. You're welcome.