Speaker 1: 0:46

I am excited to welcome a recording artist and award-winning singer-songwriter to the show today. Hailing from the Carolinas, her musical journey has taken her from local performances to sharing the stage with legends like Randy Travis and Ronnie Millsap. Hey, everyone, it's Randy Holsey with Backstage Pass Radio. With the more recent Carolina rain gaining more and more momentum, her star continues to rise. Stay tuned and we'll catch up with my friend Lee Newton right after this.

Speaker 2: 1:15

This is Backstage Pass Radio. Backstage Pass Radio A podcast by an artist for the artist. Each week, we take you behind the scenes of some of your favorite musicians and the music they created From chart-topping hits to underground gems. We explore the sounds that move us and the people who make it all happen. Remember to please subscribe, rate and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. So, whether you're a casual listener or a die-hard music fan, tune in and discover the magic behind the melodies. Here is your host of Backstage Pass Radio, Randy Hulsey.

Speaker 1: 1:56

Lee, hello from Texas. How are you?

Speaker 3: 1:59

I'm doing great, randy from North Carolina. How?

Speaker 1: 2:02

about that? How about that? Well, we finally connect. We had a time scheduled and then we canceled, and then you went on a journey out to the sea and all of the good things, and now you're back home and we get to talk. How about that?

Speaker 3: 2:16

I'm super excited. I have been looking forward to this for a while now that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 2:20

Well, tell me, I guess, first and foremost, how was the cruise? You, you guys, just got back from a cruise. Talk to me a little bit about the the journey, and did you have a good time?

Speaker 3: 2:30

Oh my gosh, it was well where we went. It was 5 o'clock somewhere. So, with saying that, we went on the Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville at Sea Cruise, which I highly recommend to anyone, especially music lovers, because everywhere you looked it was jimmy buffett themed um just back. I mean a lot of music. Um, they also did the it's called the conky tonkin, where you got to bring your your your cowboy hat and your boots, and you know it was. It was just really awesome. Went to key west, which was super hot. Um, I thought I was going to die. It was like 150 degrees with a ton of humidity.

Speaker 1: 3:15

So it was a bad hair day there, right?

Speaker 3: 3:18

My hair was soaked. I'm shocked it even looked halfway decent in the pictures, but it was really a cool little town. I went by this place called Sloppy Joe's that apparently is like a big staple in Key West and it was like I think it was done like in 1930s maybe and it's still by a guy named Joe, and I think Ernest Hemingway is the one that had told him he needed to change the name to Sloppy Joe's. So it was super awesome. I ate a Sloppy Joe. So it was super awesome. I ate a Sloppy Joe. And then went to Cozumel, mexico, and went to a place called Paradise. So it was Paradise. It was super amazing. Just did everything. I got to canoe for the first time.

Speaker 1: 4:06

How cool is that.

Speaker 3: 4:08

Yeah, that was pretty cool and got my little, you know, the braids in the hair, which of course didn't last until that. That not cause I had pulled it, I had like instant facelift. I had like Bo Derek going on on one side, you know, but that's funny.

Speaker 1: 4:24

You know, we went on a cruise like that some years back and my wife Terry I think we were in Cozumel and it could have been the same girl that braided her hair, that braided yours, for all I know. Right, but she said that girl braided my hair so tight she had a headache for three days. I like the tightness, like she's, like I've never had my hair braided so tight in my life.

Speaker 3: 4:48

I thought I was going to die when she was pulling it so tight and I kept on moving, thinking okay, maybe she'll get the drift that you know it's hurting, sure. So I did okay throughout the rest of the trip that day and getting back onto the boat. And then we went to eat dinner. But time we got back to our room and I was laying there eat dinner. But time we got back to our room and I was laying there, I could feel my head, the robin and, and they had put these little beads in there too. That was wound up with this metal wire, and so I told my husband I'm like honey, if I go to bed with this on, I'm already going to have a headache out of this world. I'm gonna have to get you to get it out. And he got every bit of it out. Wow, it took about 40 minutes to unwind all that. So, yeah, I'll never do that again. I've been there, done that.

Speaker 1: 5:38

Without a doubt, you guys got your money's worth out of the hair braiding. It sounds like right, got the T-shirt. You don't ever have to do it again.

Speaker 3: 5:45

You don't have to do it again. You know, the massages were amazing, the kayak was amazing, the food was awesome, but, yeah, no hair. Oh, I did get my henna tattooed, very cool.

Speaker 3: 5:59

Which they put the treble clef right there to represent the music. So it was cool. But no, we just had a great time. I've been just on the road and working so hard for the past years. That's great, really not really had a chance to. He's on the road a lot, so it was a great time to get to to celebrate our anniversary and we drove back and went by Daytona beach and the light houses and we just made it. We're we it, we're an adventure waiting to happen.

Speaker 1: 6:30

That's great, that's great. It sounds like you guys had a good time. Well, so I'm catching you at home in North Carolina. How long have you been in North Carolina? Is this where you grew up in North Carolina?

Speaker 3: 6:43

Yeah, North Carolina is home. I grew up about an hour and a half from here, in a little small town, Canton, North Carolina. It had the paper mill. Well, it did until they just sold it out, but it was Paper Town, USA, and my dad was a cab driver. He passed away when I was 11. And he's the one that taught me how to play the guitar and I would ride around with him. And just a very small town. I mean just a few red lights, maybe a couple of restaurants, and that's about it.

Speaker 1: 7:15

What was the childhood like growing up for you? Do you come from a musical family? Is it a working-class family? Were there, brothers and sisters? Talk to us a little bit about Lee Newton, the little girl like coming up.

Speaker 3: 7:30

You know, I grew up with, like I said, my mom and dad. My mom was a recovering alcoholic. She, she battled depression a lot when I was little and so she would have her highs and her lows and you know. So on her days where she was feeling really great, it would be really awesome and she was a dreamer. You know, she always kind of encouraged that. She took me to church all the time so I was around music there.

Speaker 3: 7:57

But my dad, I started riding around with him and that's when I was probably the only time I ever got to be around.

Speaker 3: 8:03

My dad was in the taxi cab because he worked seven days a week, 14, 15 hours a day just to try to put food on the table and it was rough.

Speaker 3: 8:14

I mean, I grew up very I wouldn't even say middle class, I was very below middle class, and there was a lot of times, you know, we didn't have nothing in the refrigerator to eat.

Speaker 3: 8:25

But my memories were from riding around with him in that taxi cab and music and him taking the guitar to work, and he would sit out there with me and my first name's Brenda, so I was named after Brenda Lee, and so he would always just say you know, brenda Lee, you're going to be on the stage of the Opry one day, you know, and I'm going to be in the front row, and he always just encouraged the music. Know, and I want to be in the front row, and he always just encouraged the music, and so that's, you know, basically the memories of my childhood wrap around church and being around my dad at the cab stand and both of them, you know, in their own right, really encouraging me to feel like I could just go after my dreams and do whatever. You know, I wanted you know. So you know my dreams and do whatever I you know, I wanted you know.

Speaker 3: 9:13

So you know, like I said, I grew up hard, but I'm glad I did Sure as their own story, you know, and who makes them? That's what makes people who they are.

Speaker 1: 9:19

Yeah, it's a very integral piece of your who you are and your upbringing, right, and I don't, I don't really want to, I don't like to get into personal things too much on my show. I mean, I'm I'm always open to talk about whatever, but and I don't want to go down a rabbit hole but talk to me a little bit about mom, if you will. Did she succumb to alcoholism? Did she get help? Like, what was the what? What was her journey like?

Speaker 3: 9:45

Well, you know, when she got pregnant with me, I have older sister uh, older sister but she already was out of the house when I was kind of little, so I didn't really know them. They dealt with my mom, my older brothers and my sister dealt with her during the alcoholism. When she got pregnant with me. She got saved and she quit. But, with that being said, back then I think that the doctors just really didn't know what to do with her and they just really gave her a lot of medicines and just had her so messed up that, like I mean, there would be four or five days at a time and I'd be a little girl, my dad be gone and I would be having to fend for myself. You know, in first, second, third grade and you know, like I said, I might go to the refrigerator and just pour ketchup in my mouth because that was all there was. And you know, I didn't have that mom that did homework with me when I came home or made sure that my clothes were clean, or you know it was hard.

Speaker 1: 10:50

Is she still with you today or she's?

Speaker 3: 10:52

not, she passed away and actually yesterday was the 10th anniversary of her passing. But you know, as I grew older, you know, and had kids of my own, I started really realizing and there's a song I wrote. It's called Mama Said. It's on my homesick album, but it's about just thinking about my mom and what she might have been going through at that time that I didn't understand. But being an adult now I understand. She just didn't have stuff that she needed to be what she wanted to be stuff that she needed to to be what she wanted to be.

Speaker 1: 11:35

You know and I only ask that question not to not to pry into the alcoholism part of it, but there's been so many wonderful artists that that I've had on my show.

Speaker 1: 11:42

And it's funny when you get to talking to people and you, uh, I, I don't know, I'm not really patting myself on the back, but let's say I have an uncanny way of maybe getting people to open up.

Speaker 1: 11:57

I'm really a good listener and I connect with people, but you would be surprised the amount of people that I've had on my show that have fought those same demons the alcoholism, the depression, the anxiety and I'm I'm one of those not the alcohol part, but I've been through depression and anxiety in my life and you get to a very it can take you to a very dark place and for people that say you know we lose people to suicide because of those things, to be mad at those people. You don't understand how dark of a hole they're in and they feel like there's nothing. You know what I'm saying, like, and again, I'm not trying to be morbid, but it's good to educate yourself on anxiety and depression and to reach out and talk to people Like there's there's healing and talk therapy right To just bundle that in and say I'll just fight it on my own. That's not really the way to do it.

Speaker 1: 12:56

And turning to the bottle or drugs is not the way to handle that either Go seek professional help. So this is my PSA right and your PSA that if there's listeners out there and my podcast is now heard globally, that if there's listeners out there and my podcast is now heard globally, right, it's good to reach out to people that share the same hurt, right, and to talk about those things, because there is help out there for people.

Speaker 3: 13:20

Most definitely and you know just you saying that, when Naomi Judd passed away, you know it really kind of when I found out about her depression and what she went through I never realized that, and they were like my.

Speaker 3: 13:33

I was like they were my idols. I grew up, you know, uh, listening to them and um, and when I found out about naomi it broke my heart. But it also really took me back to my childhood, growing up with my mom going through all the mental depression and all that because, like I said, she would go in there for days at a time and she was a hoarder and I mean I never could have anybody over to spend the night with me.

Speaker 1: 13:57

You know, because the house looked like an episode of hoarders so, growing up in North Carolina, who influenced you at an early age, who were you listening to, who were you vibing with back then and who kind of set the tone for you as a musician later in your life?

Speaker 3: 14:16

Okay, yeah, well, you know, like I said, I would ride around with my dad and he was the music one of the family. He loved music and he loved Hank Williams and he loved Patsy and loved Bill Monroe. I mean, you know we had Raymond Fairchild who would come down to the cab stand. He had the Maggie Valley Opry. He came down there and played. But you know, I grew up listening to them and then, of course, loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, which are just huge influences in my life. But until I grew up just a little bit and started listening to the Judds and Lori Morgan and seeing them on stage, like that's, when it clicked with me, I was like, oh my gosh, this is what my dad was talking about. I want to be like them, I want to be an entertainer, I want to be on stage.

Speaker 3: 15:07

And then, you know, I was bullied all through school. You know, because the way I grew up I didn't really have any friends. And so when I got to high school, my chorus teacher you know I had. We didn't have enough money for me to play sports and I wasn't like book smart, so I wasn't in that group. So I loved music, so I joined chorus and so the second year that I was in chorus, my chorus teacher, mrs Medford, had me do a part and it was a song by Lori Morgan. It was Except for Monday, and that was the first time, other than church, that I had performed live on stage.

Speaker 3: 15:52

So from that moment on, like and I still got the video to it after all these years they ended up getting me the video of me performing Except for Monday, by Lori Morgan on stage and I knew right then there was nothing else I wanted to do in my lifetime. I was hooked. I love to perform, I love being on stage and you know there's a huge full circle moment that came back to. That is like two years ago. It was the first time I ever got to perform in my hometown. I performed everywhere else but except for my hometown and I got to do a concert and Lori Morgan was the headliner and I had already met her in Panama City a few years before that. But I actually got to be on the same show and got to go on the bus with her and actually tell her you know, hey, I got to sing your song. You know, the first time I ever got to sing live and now getting to be on the same show lineup as you. It was in my own hometown.

Speaker 3: 16:55

It was kind of cool it was a cool little moment, yeah, and just getting to sit and talk to her and stuff. But yeah, I mean it was most definitely. I love the Judds and I think both of them is because they were in my singing wheelhouse, you know, and I love their songs, especially the Judds. I mean their songs were just about family and morals and it was just I don't know, I fell in love with them.

Speaker 1: 17:21

Well, it's very much a South thing, right.

Speaker 3: 17:24

It is yeah, but what's crazy though is, you know, then I was in cover bands, you know, in my early 20s, and I did everything there. You know I was exposed to so many different types of music. You know, between 70s rock, and then I had like the Beatles, and then, one minute you know we're doing, you know, play that funky music and Purple Rain, and I mean just all kinds of different musical influences. And then in my late 20s I actually got to go and sing with three original members of Skinner in New York City, which was super amazing to get to stand in between the original honkettes.

Speaker 3: 18:07

You know so that that was really, really awesome. And of course, when I came back to my cover band I just thought I was something else. You know, this little cab driver's daughter, you know, getting to go to New York City for the first time, but you know. But yeah, that was pretty cool and, like I said, I've kind of carried that over until my albums now, because I love traditional country and I love storytelling, I love to write my songs, but I do love that blues and a little bit of southern rock mixed with it. I do have that kind of mixture in my music.

Speaker 1: 18:44

Yeah, and you know what? I don't really know much about Lori Morgan's music per se, but I I was always in love with her husband's music.

Speaker 3: 18:59

Uh, Keith Whitley right, you know Lori, you know I. That was at the very beginning, where, when I saw her, uh, by the singing, you know something in red and what part and no, and you know when you're going through your first breakup and all those songs are just like yeah, you know my and of course I've always continued to, to, to love her and throughout, throughout the time, but my taste I have brought into different people and different influences that have really stuck with me throughout this journey of mine. She was one of the first ones where I just saw her I think she was in a secret dress on stage. I was like, oh man, I think every guy did back then probably.

Speaker 1: 19:53

She's a beautiful woman. There's no there's no doubt. Well, you know you spoke of your dad playing the guitar. Was he the only musical one in the family, or were there other members of the family that were musically inclined as well, or did you just get that from dad, you think.

Speaker 3: 20:09

I think I got it from my dad. But my, it's a really cool story and you'll you'll appreciate this. So you know he, he came from a family of 10 brothers and sisters and a lot of them played all kinds of different instruments. You know the banjo, the, you know guitar, my uncle, he actually went and recorded a couple songs. But what's really cool is in in my ancestor, going way back to, I think, the early. I'm wanting to say I can't remember off the top of my head, but it was 1920s or 1930s but one of my ancestors played and was best friends and done a radio show where they played live together with Jimmy Rogers, the father of country music. So it was right before that that he went to Bristol to do the Bristol sessions and then, of course, later on became the father of country music. But you know his name was Otis Kirkendall, so Kirkendall is my maiden name. So it was pretty cool having that little bit of tie. So apparently there's a lot of music that went way back.

Speaker 3: 21:23

But I don't know of anybody else other than my dad. And I do have him on two of my albums, one of my albums, at the very beginning it has a clip. It's the only thing I have of my dad is a few clips of music where we had sat there and sang when I was little. But I have one little clip of him and I do on Rolling in your Sweet Baby's Arms, which is at the beginning of my Unleashed album, to bring it in. And then on my gospel album I have one of him singing I Saw the Light, just a clip of it and then that kind of brings it into me and Rhonda Vincent doing I Saw the Light together on my gospel album. So it was pretty cool to get to include my dad, you know, on both of my albums.

Speaker 1: 22:05

Well, that's something that you can listen to for the rest of your days and then pass that on down the generations, right?

Speaker 3: 22:12

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:13

That's super cool. I think you mentioned a little something about it earlier. But talking about your dad, real quick, I can't remember if you mentioned the song. I know there is a song that you wrote to honor him.

Speaker 3: 22:31

Is that correct?

Speaker 1: 22:32

Talk to the listeners a little bit. What is the song called and, kind of, where did the thought process come from around the song?

Speaker 3: 22:39

I was actually in Maggie Valley, north Carolina, and I was sitting next to I was at this little cabin that was next to this creek and I'm sitting there and I have my guitar out and I'm playing and I'm just thinking, you know, about my dad and how I grew up and how I wouldn't have changed anything of the way that they, how they taught me and there's stuff that money can't buy, you know, and you know he taught me so many lessons that I don't think he even realized that he did realize that he did. But I was sitting there and I started, you know, writing the, you know, born in a small town, two bedroom run down house and you know, back in the woods of Carolina and the song Carolina came about. Later on I was opening up for Ronnie McDowell and my husband was there and I hadn't got. I was trying to go a different vision with the chorus and my husband was like honey, that's your Carolina song, you know you need that. So he started helping me on the chorus and we finished it and actually the last line of Carolina, him and I both said together and I'll tell you because it's a super amazing moment, because I told you that my dad always said you're going to be on the stage at the Opry one day and I'm going to be in the front row.

Speaker 3: 23:55

Well, fast forward to two years ago. Fast forward to me getting older and, of course, two years back I had the opportunity to sing and perform this song and close out the JMA Awards, which was held at the Grand Ole Opry House. I had just won traditional country artist of the year, and then I performed my song, carolina, and what they ended up doing is they took a replica of my dad's cab driver's hat that had the cab driver badge on it and put it on the mic. Stand right next to me as I'm singing Carolina, and in the front row. My husband and I had tickets to sit in the front row. Of course I wasn't there, so there was an empty. There's an empty seat sitting there, and I might not have performed on the grand ol' law free show, which one day I will.

Speaker 3: 24:50

I know it's going to happen. I'm all speaking into existence, but I did get to perform on the stage of the Opry and the last line of that song when I had opened for everybody I mean Diamond Rio, randy Travis, ronnie Millsap, all of them I would always change the words to it, but I actually got to sing it that night and it goes Tonight. I'm on this off-free stage I can almost see my daddy's face proud of his girl from Carolina and everybody that knew me. They knew that I had fulfilled something with me. I know my dad was always proud, but I know that I made him so proud, me getting to that point of not giving up and and making that happen and being on that stage singing a song for him. Uh, but it's called Carolina and that's, you know, um, a very special song to me.

Speaker 1: 25:47

It's a wonderful song and I encourage the listeners to go out to their favorite streaming platform, and we'll talk about merch or whatever later on. Maybe there's a way that we can educate them on how to purchase merch from you. But what's it like to stand in the circle for the first time, right?

Speaker 3: 26:05

I've actually got chills when you even said it. Um, I've wanted it since I was a little girl. I mean, I I remember watching, you know, and I still do. I watch, uh, coal miner's daughter, you know, and I always change the words to cab driver's daughter, because you grew up kind of not as as poor as loretta, but it was pretty, you know backwards and you know, um, fending for yourself, but same thing. I mean, she wanted that dream and it came true. And that moment of getting to walk up and stand in that circle and sing and there's no other feeling like it I felt like I was floating on cloud. Zillion is what I call it. I mean, I took forever to come back down from that. It was truly amazing. And I actually got to play this guitar right here. That's the guitar that I play. That's why it's hanging there, because it hasn't been played anywhere else.

Speaker 1: 27:06

It's a special guitar and I don't know if the the listeners know the backstory about the circle and and maybe you do and maybe you don't, but um, and I and I may not hit it right on the head, but you know, people can go google or chat, gpt this, but the cool story I think it goes something like the circle is the old stage from the old Opry house and it was under what? 20, 30 foot of water, and scuba divers had to go down and actually pull that piece of the stage out, and that is what is in the Grand Ole Opry house today. That's why it looks like it's buckled. Right, if you, you stood in it, right? So that came from, I believe, the old opry house. So there's a, there's a whole story behind the circle and what that even means. So it's there you go, there's your trivia for the for the night people. So, yeah, go read the story. It's pretty cool. It's intriguing to know that the story's behind the, the stage, so to speak. Right, right.

Speaker 3: 28:07

It most definitely is. And just you know, it would be cool to be able to play the Ryman too. I would love to do that. I haven't got to do that yet and I'm still, you know, holding out for the Opry. As far as getting to do that, I have been on WSM a couple times, so that's probably the closest I've made it to like Offrey to get to be on there. But it'll happen in God's timing.

Speaker 1: 28:36

Well, think about that, lee, let's put that into perspective, like and I'll add this piece to it just as context right? So my oldest son is I've I've said this at nauseam but my oldest son is 20 times the guitar player that I am a phenomenal player, and he just doesn't want to get out on stage and play. He's, he's happy just playing in his home doing his thing, right? He doesn't need the spotlight, he doesn't need the stage and and that's fine. But I always told Brandon, if you're in a room of 200 people and they're listening to you, there might be, might be one other that can even play the guitar one, but play as well as you. There's probably nobody else in here that can play as good as you and I would. I would say that about you.

Speaker 1: 29:34

Know your where you've been with the opry? Did you? Did you start? Were you like the headline artists at the opry? No, have you played the rhyme? And have you like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah? But think you've been on WSM. You, you've done things that even artists that have been in the game for 20, 30, 40, 50 years have never graced that stage. It doesn't matter for what reason, right, they haven't. I haven't played it, and now I don't profess. I'm a professional musician here, but I don't make a living playing music. So there's a difference, I believe. But for the songwriters out there that spend their whole life crafting and perfecting their art, they'll never see that Opry stage right. That's just a known and you've seen it, so there's some accolade there. I guess. What I'm saying is don't discount what you've done right.

Speaker 3: 30:32

Even if you never get the headline opera, you've done a lot more than a lot of artists have right you know, and I and that's been, I mean like because I was out of it, like I said, I mean I was in cover bands. I've played my whole life. I've loved music. I've dreamt of it since I was little, you know, then I had, you know, certain opera or things that happened where you know I had to get out of it. And then, of course, you know, I raised the kids and you know just life, and then I've done all of this, that I've done within four and a half years.

Speaker 1: 31:02

That's crazy.

Speaker 3: 31:03

And that's insane. The people that I've opened up for and the people that I've had on my album. I mean my album had Pam Tillis and Leona Williams and you know my gospel I've turned into like a who's who of country that you know God made that happen. You know Joe Bonzo from the Oak Ridge Boys sing with me and you know T Graham Brown and Rhonda Vincent and you know those amazing people that that really looked at me and just gave me a hug and said, hey, you know you don't owe me anything. I want you to, I want this for you. You know Joe Bonzel and T Graham, they were just, they never treated me none of them have but like they were very special. They never treated me like I was a little nobody, you know. No know, never treated me like, oh, I'm 50 years in with the Oak Ridge boys and you're down here, I mean he came in and you know, little cash man, my little boy, was laying on the couch, you know, and he comes in. He's like, oh, he's talking to cash and you know, hugging me and telling me okay, we're going to do this, we're going to fix it to where you shine. I mean just super nice people that I had the opportunity to work with or open for, and I can't thank them enough. Gene Watson, oh my gosh, he's like super amazing. I got to open for him. Are you talking about somebody? That was just like all the way around rounded Like he is a professional, you know. Just that made me feel like he was so happy that I was there. He stood side stage and watched, you know, some of my show and was just very, very kind. That means a lot, you know.

Speaker 3: 32:48

I'll tell you a funny story. I got to sing with T Graham for a Christmas show one year. That was the first time I ever met him. And then we later on oh, he had sent me a video congratulating me on the Unleashed album. So he was like next album, I want to sing with you, buddy. So of course I was like okay, t, are you ready to make that rise? He said do you want to sing with me?

Speaker 3: 33:14

So anyway, we recorded precious lord, take my hand. He come down, him and sheila, which are super nice couple. Um, and after we got it done, he was like okay. I was like well, I need to get a picture. We got to get a picture done. So we are running around nashville trying to find the perfect place to do our picture and we end up at this church um, I don't even remember if somewhere in Nashville, but it's really cool. You'll have to look at it. But there is this like statue type thing outside of this church where there's a hand like this and a hand like this, like the hands coming down from sure yeah, and.

Speaker 3: 33:52

I'm like, oh my gosh, like that is, we got our picture made in front of it. But I was like that, like the hands coming down from the hand. And I'm like, oh my gosh, like that is, we got our picture made in front of it. But I was like that was like a God wink. I mean, precious Lord, a hand. And we pull up this church. There's a hand coming out from heaven, you know, holding another hand.

Speaker 1: 34:06

I'm like, okay, Like it was, like it was meant to be there, right.

Speaker 3: 34:10

But everybody though, that I have met and worked with, I just thank them so much, just because you know they don't have to do anything with me. You know I consider myself like a little nobody. You know I'm like I don't have no manager, I don't have nobody, no promotion people I do all of it myself. Sure motion people I do all of it myself. The help of everybody sharing stuff, people like you that take your time and you invite me to come on your shows to share my music and my story I just I thank you so much.

Speaker 1: 34:41

Well, and you're certainly welcome. No thanks needed on my part. It's always a treat to get to talk to artists like you and find out where you came from and the stories behind the song. I'm the music junkie, just like my intro says. Like I'm the liner notes guy, I want to know all of the stuff that nobody cares about and I just always love that. And you know, you mentioned Joe Bonsall earlier, and for the listeners that are listening and don't maybe not familiar with who he is by name, the Oak Ridge Boys, one of the singers of the Oak Ridge Boys fame, right, and this is a group that sold in excess of probably 7 million records, right? And you know, lee, I was going to tell you when you said his name, I stumbled across a song about probably eight months ago and I can't say I was ever familiar with it before, but they, the Oak Ridge boys. This was before he passed, of course, but I think it was what last year, like this time last year that he passed right.

Speaker 3: 35:47

A year ago on the just a few days ago.

Speaker 1: 35:50

Yeah, yeah, I thought so. I thought it had been just about a year, but they did a song called Before I Die and if you've never heard that song you need to go YouTube Before I Die by the Oak Ridge Boys, and it's like all of the things you need to do before you die and I think his passing maybe that was the catching part like knowing that he had passed and then hearing that song, and it puts a lot of things in perspective the older we get and that clock starts speeding up on life, you have to take the time to do the things that you want to do. Much like you said, you and your husband went and enjoyed a cruise and drove back home and stopped along the way.

Speaker 1: 36:33

You have to take the time to do the things that you want to do. Much like you said, you and your husband went and enjoyed a cruise and drove back home and stopped along the way. You have to take the time to do those things before I die, right? So yeah for the listeners, if you get out there and listen to that song, it makes you think about life in a little bit different of a perspective, right?

Speaker 3: 36:49

And you know, joe, I didn't realize that he even had, als I knew he had.

Speaker 3: 36:55

He told me you know, neuropathy and stuff, and he was still driving at that moment.

Speaker 3: 36:59

It was not long after that is when he went to the wheelchair and then, of course, retired from the oaks, but he had drove down to the studio there in nashville at omni studios, which they were down since then. Um, but he, he drove down there but I remember reaching out to him, uh, thinking, oh gosh, he's not even going to respond, you know, and I, I reached out and I'm like, joe, would you like to be on my album? Of course, I told him a little backstory about my dad and blah, blah, blah and, and he wrote back and he said, surely I would be honored to sing with you on there. And I was like, wow. And then he gets down to the studio and he tells me he's like you know, lee, he said nobody's ever asked me to do a duet with them without the Oaks. So as far as and I don't know, maybe you can search and research, but as far as I know I'm the only one that has a duet with just Joe.

Speaker 1: 37:55

Well, you know what's interesting about saying that that's a really cool story. It doesn't surprise me, because how many times have we heard the boy in school doesn't ask the most beautiful girl because he just assumes that she already has 48 dates to the homecoming dance?

Speaker 1: 38:13

right so she sits at home that night with no date because nobody wants to ask her, and I and I can't think it would be any different, like everybody has probably thought, lee, like there's no way, number one, that guy would ever sing with me. Number two, without the Oak Ridge boys that'll, like hell will freeze over before that happens, right? So I've got all these things going against me before I even pick up the phone or send the email or whatever. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith, right?

Speaker 3: 38:43

you know and that's what I told him. I'm like you know and I put it in there. I was like you know. I said my daddy always told me. He said you either ask, you go after what you want, 100, one hundred percent. The one thing is no.

Speaker 2: 38:54

One hundred percent.

Speaker 3: 38:56

It's been like that with everything that I've went and done and I feel like if you do it and if it's in God's will, then it's going to happen. He's going to make it happen and I am the perfect testimony to that because, you know, four and a half years ago I didn't even know where I was going to lay my head at one part of the night and I thought my world was being torn apart. Next thing, I know God put everything back together and you know that's where. When I wrote Strength of a Woman and that song, right as of now, god's made it to where. On TikTok of all places. Now God's made it to where.

Speaker 3: 39:31

On TikTok of all places, there's been almost 60,000 videos made using my song People telling stories with my music, because it's written in such a way that it can go to anybody that's going through any kind of adversities in their life and that's huge. I mean just to know that your song's doing that and I've met some amazing people because of that In particular. I was opening for Sarah Evans last year in Georgia and one of the ladies that I've become very close friends with, but she was. She had used my song in her story that she was. It was like a an anniversary of what she had went through.

Speaker 3: 40:18

But it shows that she had um, sepsis, um, and she lost both of her hands and both of her legs. So she, she, she had to get fitted for prosthetics Her, her husband, who, her high school sweetheart, left her to die, basically. And it shows her going through the surgery, then it shows her getting fitted for her prosthetics, then it shows her learning how to cook, learning how to walk. The next thing, you know, honey, she is jumping out of an airplane, she's scuba diving, she's a runway model, she's wrote a book, she's an advocate, she's you know, and. And then I got to meet her and do that song and meet her and it was just so fulfilling I mean, I'm like that's what my mission is, that's what you give me, this gift of being able to sing and write, and and you know, it's up to me to, to, to, to reach out to these people, to do this, to do that, to get this stuff on bigger platforms, for it to be heard.

Speaker 1: 41:21

Sure, well, I think you would agree with me that if you, if you in your life, with your music that you've written, touch one person and and change one person's point of view or one person's life, your work as a musician is complete at that point in time. Because I've asked the question at nauseam of musicians what does success mean to you, the artist? And 10 times out of 10, it's never about money. Money is a by-product of what we do, or what you do as a songwriter, but it never is the most fulfilling thing. It's about touching people, because some of the the most wonderful shows that I've ever played is not for the money or the venue, but I've gone to assisted living places that didn't pay me a dime and that by far was far far more worth my time than any live show that I've ever played as a professional musician, right.

Speaker 3: 42:22

Most definitely, most definitely. We um, I played in Illinois Well, three times now this one place, but in the early morning time before the show we always go to this assisted living home and put on a show for them. And I'm telling you that is one thing that I look forward to every time I go there and I love giving back. I mean, my husband, he's like honey. He said you just can't say no and I'm like, but I don't want to say no If it's something in my thing. I love doing stuff for the veterans and I love doing stuff for the kids.

Speaker 3: 42:58

I'm in, you know, do the thing with Marine Corps and the Toys for Tots and I love, you know, especially during the North Carolina. You know, with the Hurricane Helene, you know, we ended up doing three concerts. You know, I just got back from Kentucky going and doing a concert up there to help the tornado victims. If it's in my power and I can do it, god blesses me with other things and keeps me going, because it does take a lot to be able to keep singing and keep performing and keep recording, but God always seems to make a way.

Speaker 1: 43:36

Well, that's how you're paying it forward, right, like I mean you're. That's simply in its simplest form. That's exactly what you're doing and that's what you're supposed to do. And I don't have to tell you that, but this is just conversation between two people on a podcast. But I mean how you can't get any higher than that to touch somebody's life, like there's no money that will ever do that. And if it is about the money, then wow, there's something wrong with you as a human right.

Speaker 3: 44:03

But at the end of the day, exactly God makes a way for just just to do it as a lift to be able to do it, able to do it. There's always something that comes up to where, okay, well, I'm good, I can keep going and you just keep on leading me where I need to go, and it always lays on my heart, so I know what I'm supposed to do.

Speaker 1: 44:26

Well, you're a good person for doing that. You mentioned something a little earlier about a few awards. I did want to touch briefly on some of the accolades. Right, Josie Awards. What can you tell us about the Josies?

Speaker 3: 44:41

Oh, wow. Well, this is going to be their 11th year. Now it's at the Opry House. Once again I have been. This will be my sixth year being nominated. I'm nominated for eight different categories this year. I've won.

Speaker 3: 44:57

The past six years I've won, you know, the Artist of the Year for Traditional Country. I've won for the Album of the Year, ep Album of the Year. So I've been very blessed and so humbled to even win those awards there. And, like I said, that one's in November. And I'm also up for the second year of the row for the ISSA Awards, which is in Atlanta. That's the International Singer-Songwriting Association Awards, and so I won Entertainer of the Year last year for that and I'm up for eight awards on that for this year. That's in August, which will be in Atlanta. And I just found out that I'm up for 12 nominations with the Infinity Awards that will be held in Nashville. So it's been crazy.

Speaker 3: 45:53

I did win, which was super, super awesome to me. But I won a Lifetime Recognition Achievement Award from Bakersfield, california, which was really cool because that was at the Bakersfield Country Music Awards and that one meant so much to me just because I had redone um merle haggard's working girl blues, and um, I had done that with leona williams, who was married to merle haggard, and of course pantelis was on there. Leroy parnell played the slide, um, and then I had eugene moles and joe reed, who both played for Merle, so they really put the Bakersfield sound to it. So it was just really awesome. My husband has family there too, so we spend a lot of time in Bakersfield. So, just to be, I was not expecting to get that award. I was like, wow, that was super amazing.

Speaker 1: 46:51

But yeah, that was pretty cool, because every now and then it feels good to get an attagirl, for sure. It's what fuels us to keep going. You know, it's one of the things that fuels us to keep going. And you know I knew there were some accolades, but I had no idea how many nominations. And then I started, as you were starting to talk about all of these things, I was thinking wait a minute, how did I get her on my show? Like, how did? How did how did that even happen?

Speaker 3: 47:23

oh man. No, it was awesome though, especially, like I said, the one where I got to the one year that I got to perform. That was really cool because I was back in Minnie Pearl's dressing room and I was back there with the band that was playing with me for that night, which was Wendell Cox, who plays with Travis Tritt. He came to play with me on my song, which was amazing. I had Michael Rogers who plays with Ricky Skaggs. He played the drums for me that night. It was just a super amazing night Then to get to go out there and accept the award for the country female traditional country artist. That means a lot to the traditional. I love adding my extra flavors in, but I do love the storytelling and, like I said, I love to write my songs and I love for them to mean stuff. So to get that award, that meant so much.

Speaker 1: 48:25

You're a true success story in and of yourself because there are so many players out there that again I kind of said it before like they've played their whole life and nowhere near collaborated with the same people and had the nominations, like you should be proud of yourself, like literally. And I don't know how old you are and it doesn't matter. I know you're not 20, right, I do know that. But but you know, what's cool is that I have a a beautiful friend here, um, in town, in fact she, she, I've played several song swaps with her and she just had a song go to number one on the Texas charts uh, she redid Hurricane by the band of heathens. And, yeah, her name's Sandy June.

Speaker 1: 49:19

I love to plug Sandy when I can, but Sandy will tell you in an interview or just talking to her. She's like I'm a 50, however old, 58 year old I don't know how old she is, she's in her late fifties and she would not be pissed if I said this but she's like I'm a grandma, like I have like 12 grand kids and I didn't start playing guitar until like literally five years ago. Like she's the same success story until later in life and she goes into the attic and learns to play the guitar, so nobody can even hear her playing. She doesn't want to tell anybody. And then fast forward five years later she has a number one hit song on the radio, right? So see, it's never too. It's never too late to start.

Speaker 3: 50:08

Never too late and I don't mind at all. I'm getting ready to be 49. And so coming into this industry, you know how it is, it's hard, um, and especially like doing what I've done. I'm shocked that I've got to do all that because you know, coming in people, you know it's not that I've already had like this big career and then still going and stuff. You know I came into it and people I'll never. I'll tell you a story.

Speaker 3: 50:32

When I first started, started four and a half years ago, as far as trying to get back into writing and going and recording, because that was the first time I ever got to do that, I'd always just played and sang in the cover bands. So when I went to record my music, I had went and had a meeting with a person who had worked with Sony, so they were all into the songs that I had went and had a meeting with a person who had worked with Sony, so they were all into the songs that I had. I mean like loving them and eating them up, and so we're sitting down at breakfast that morning and we're getting ready to talk, and so they were like, oh well, so you're, how old are you, lee? Are you around like early 30s. Well, so you're. Well. How old are you, lee? Are you around like early thirties? And so when I told them how old I was, crickets, no more conversation, nothing.

Speaker 3: 51:21

And I think that from that moment on it fueled my fire even more and I'm like it's go get her anyway. I've got that. I'm just so full of life and I'm just like you know. Hey, I'm not going to please everybody, but I'm going to go out there and do whatever I can do. Like I said, god has led me and had me with some amazing people in a great circle around me, even with my little boy, who's nine years old now.

Speaker 3: 51:50

When I first started he was seven. He was right there with me, with Randy Travis and Diamond Rio and you know Shannon Doe and Marty. You know all of them and they just love him so much and they just, you know, I told Cash I'm like you just don't realize all the people you're getting to be around and meet one day, you will. You know when you have Marty Raven sending will, sure, of course, you know. When you have marty raven sending you a video, you know, telling you to do great for your talent show in third grade, you know that's super cool yeah, so well going back real quick just to the, the josie awards, because there's going to be non-musical listeners.

Speaker 1: 52:27

I mean, there they'll be intakers of music and people that love music but not artists themselves. But the, the Josie awards, this is like the most prestigious award for independent artists, right and and? When we talk about independent artists, these are artists and you could speak to it better than I can. But independent artists is. There's no backing, there's no financial backing, there's no recording contract. There's none of that. It's you putting in your blood, sweat and tears doing your socials, doing your recordings, paying for your studio time, tour and selling merch, like all of those things. Correct me where I'm wrong. Am I wrong?

Speaker 3: 53:06

No, you said every bit of it, and that's the thing, josie and Tina. They started this 11 years ago and, like I said, this will be my sixth year being a part of it and I know within six years they have grown by leaps and bounds. I mean like it's been amazing at what they have built and to try to help just give recognition to all the independent artists and independent artists Nowadays it's not just like people like me, it's people that have had major record deal, that are like they are independent now, you know, and so they recognize them. I mean there's I mean last year there was Neil McCoy, you know there, and William Lee Golden from the Oak Ridge Boys, william Lee Golden and the Goldens, and you know people, the promoters, the radio, the podcasters, just everything you know they have really every year it's just gotten better and better and, with that being said, a lot more competition.

Speaker 3: 54:30

I mean you're up against a lot of amazing people. So when you win, you're just like, wow, I can's a lot. You know a lot of amazing people. So when you win, you're just like, wow, I can't even believe. You know, cause it's such a huge even being nominated I I get tickled to death just even to get nominated.

Speaker 1: 54:44

But when I won, yeah, it's been amazing, that's awesome and you know I traveled to Nashville and taken my show on the road there and and had some wonderful artists from Nashville on the show and I've often thought about that. I need to go when the Josies are in town and try to just set up shop and do some good interviews there, and it's just something that I've never done, but I think that's going to be on my bucket list.

Speaker 3: 55:08

You need to do that. You really need to do that. They have a lot of people there that does the red carpet. They do the interviews there on the red carpet. Of course, you mingle and you talk and you get to meet people and network. I've just made so many amazing friends, too, with that, but most definitely we need to get you on there there you go.

Speaker 1: 55:32

Well, I think it was last year sometime. You correct me if I'm wrong on the dates, but you released a full-length album called homesick and I was curious where did you record homesick? Was that in nashville?

Speaker 3: 55:45

it was in nashville and it was by kent wells was my producer. He actually uh is dolly parton's producer, so uh it was, uh I got, we say here in the south, jam up and jelly tide. It was amazing like um, just the whole experience of getting to record, homesick because I had, you know, I did undamaged, which just that was my first one. That was the little baby that I had my four songs on it. They call them an EP. Then I went and done Unleashed, which had 13 songs on it. It was a full length and I had done it with the same producer, bill McDermott. And then I did my gospel album, which was a full length gospel album as well. Gospel album, which was a full length gospel album as well. Bill McDermott and Larry Strickland, who was Naomi Judd's husband, was the producer on that album. So I wanted to change a little bit and mix it up. It wasn't nothing wrong with my past producers. I just wanted to be challenged and and and keep my traditional roots but bring a little bit of more of that Southern rock kind of flair into it. So Kent really nailed it. I mean he just did so amazing and just getting to stand in the same place that Dolly records like and use her microphone. It was super amazing.

Speaker 3: 57:12

And the title track that is the only cover on the album and it's Homesick it was an old Atlanta Rhythm Section song, and so they really jammed it up and we kind of went more. I think there was only one other person who had recorded and released it, and that was Travis Tripp, which was almost 30 years ago. So when I first mentioned that I wanted to do it and that was Travis Tripp, which was almost 30 years ago. So when I first mentioned that I wanted to do it, I kind of got the look like, you know, because they're not used to it, they're like, okay.

Speaker 3: 57:42

And so when we recorded it, though, and he's like, wow, you brought it. That's awesome. And it's really cool because on the cover of the album I don't know if you've noticed or not, but I'm sitting on a white car. Well, that car, the picture, was taken in Bakersfield, california, okay, and the car belonged to Merle Haggard, okay, yeah, I don't know if you know this or not, but we have Merle's, me and my husband. We have Merle's Super Chief bus, we have the Super Chief tour bus.

Speaker 1: 58:14

Oh, do you? Yeah, I didn't know that, no.

Speaker 3: 58:16

Yeah, he of course is his. Of course we're married now, so I claim half, but anyway, but yeah, so he's had it for about five and a half years though, and it's actually in California finished up getting painted and stuff and it's actually in California finished up getting painted and stuff. But we were there last year and I was staying with our friends out there and got up on that car and next thing, I know the dog, their family dog, walks up and just puts her head her name was Ricky puts her head right up in there, like Eric Dahl from Fox Review, rockin' Review. He was like it's almost like you staged it and the dog okay, come on, dog, come out here and pose. It was so perfect, but that ended up being the album cover and I ended up just calling it Homesick. It was just perfect for the vibe and all the songs that were on there, because Carolina Rain is about home and that feeling of home.

Speaker 3: 59:18

And you know and after I recorded it, it was a few months after that when Hurricane Helene hit and I'll never forget because that song meant so much to me. And so when we, uh, when I had to do the um, the benefit concert, you know, I told my husband I'm like I don't know if I can do Carolina rain. You know it's talking about. You know the rain and all that he's like. He's like honey, this is not the same kind of rain that come through here. You know, it's not what it's talking about, like what it's in that song and you know, and he kind of put it in perspective because I was like you know, what came through here was not Carolina rain, you know. You know cause it's, but that's one of my favorites on the album.

Speaker 1: 1:00:03

That is a great. It is a great song for sure, and I also love the song called if I was a man.

Speaker 3: 1:00:07

Yes.

Speaker 1: 1:00:08

Tell me, tell me, how that song came about.

Speaker 3: 1:00:16

Well, that song right there dedicated to my ex-husband, because I did it four and a half years ago. Like I told you, I think, earlier in this interview, I had come from a domestic violence marriage where I had to run from everything and I had my little boy on my hip and I had barefoot and nothing. All the money in the bank was wiped, run from everything, and I had my little boy on my hip and I had barefoot and nothing. All the money in the bank was wiped out, everything but this song, and I would love to take credit for writing it. But this is one on there that I did not get to write but I could have they did. Let me change a couple words to it.

Speaker 3: 1:00:49

But there was actually two guys that wrote that song. It was two guys that wrote it. It was tommy barnes, uh, which is a huge songwriter in nashville. He wrote, uh, indian outlaw for tim mcgraw, several other some. He is amazing songwriter. And ricky randolph, uh, which is another incredible writer. But they, uh, I told, told him, I heard it and I'm like, oh my gosh, guys, you've got to let me record this song, like I've got to be the one to record this, you know, and um, so yeah, uh it it is. It's just an amazing song about not putting up with somebody being mean to you anymore that's, that's the biggest accolade that you can give.

Speaker 1: 1:01:33

A songwriter is wanting to record their music right.

Speaker 2: 1:01:37

I mean so well.

Speaker 1: 1:01:38

I love the feistiness in the song for sure. It's a well-written song and you perform it really well. I wanted to ask if you have a permanent band these days or if you're more of a solo gal and you pick a band up when you need a band. Is that kind of how it works for you?

Speaker 3: 1:01:58

at it. You said it right, like depends on where I'm playing. Um, sometimes, especially when I'm opening up for somebody, you know, I don't never get to do a full band, um, you know, because of course the big artist gets to do the big band. But I usually will pick, you know, a fiddle player, a guitar player. I play, but I'm not like an amazing guitar player to hold like a whole show. So I, you know, I can play with somebody, um, but usually I will pick and choose depending on where I'm in. There's some venues that I play at that they already have their band.

Speaker 1: 1:02:34

Okay.

Speaker 3: 1:02:34

And so I send them over the songs that I want to do and they have them worked out. But for the most part I either pick them as I go, like when I played. I just got to doing a show for the Show Me 100 in Missouri for Lucas Oil, and so I picked a band. You know you meet up and you're doing an hour or so show and you pick songs that you know that they can do and then they'll put your songs in with it and you go with the flow. But there's so many talented musicians.

Speaker 1: 1:03:09

Oh man. And the fact that they can pick the songs up that quick too is phenomenal. Right, they're good, they're good for sure.

Speaker 3: 1:03:17

Yeah, I mean I would love to eventually have a band to, where you know, but right now I just work everything around Little Cash. You know he is, you know, full-time school, so I'll work all my dates with him. And then during the summer, of course, you know, I do a lot During the winter. I'm writing a lot and I do a lot of interviews and I'm recording so, and that's usually when the slow time is around with music anyway, of course. So I do pride myself on being like a number one hands-on mommy with Cash. I mean, I am that mom that goes and eats lunch several times a week at school and goes on every field trip, and I'm just very hands-on with him, just as I was with my older kids too.

Speaker 1: 1:04:10

But yeah, so.

Speaker 3: 1:04:10

I just kind of work around that.

Speaker 1: 1:04:12

Yeah well, you're doing what you're supposed to do, for sure. Who influences you these days? You know you talked about some of the people back when you were young, but today, who are you vibing with today? Who do you love?

Speaker 3: 1:04:24

You know and it's crazy because I don't listen to a lot of current stuff you know, especially being a songwriter.

Speaker 3: 1:04:31

I don't know if you've ever heard this, but sometimes I just I stay away from anything kind of country because I don't want anything to influence me as far as that. I listen to a lot. I know this is crap, but I listen to a lot of Exile. I love all my Southern rock and I keep it on. I listen to everything. I love the my Southern rock, I keep it on. I listen to everything. I love the 70s funk. My playlist is crazy.

Speaker 1: 1:05:00

You're talking my language like I totally get it. What was the song you said? Oh Exile, didn't they do? I want to kiss you all over. How do you not love that right it's super love yeah right.

Speaker 3: 1:05:19

Super love, Super love. I love Exile. They are super great guys too Sure, and you know it was crazy when I saw them in concert. They come here to the, because I live like five minutes from the Don Gibson Theater and I've played down there a couple of times and then I've gotten to go and see a bunch of different people, but Exile was one of them and there were songs that they were playing that they had wrote that I remember and thought that other artists did Like perfect example is Heart and Soul. Remember Huey Lewis. Huey Lewis of other artists did like perfect example is heart and soul. Remember huey lewis.

Speaker 1: 1:05:59

Of course, exile is the one that wrote that and recorded it and I'm like, oh my gosh, yeah, totally threw me for a loop.

Speaker 3: 1:06:03

But yeah, I mean I, I just I love um and of course, you know I got a little cash so he gets to listen to a lot of. You know, I just play everything because I just want to have all kinds of different stuff. Um, I don't think there's anybody that really influences me right now. I just, I just listen to a lot of. If it makes me feel good, um, I just listen like crazy. I've been recording my new album, so I'm just kind of been knee deep and, you know, getting the songs ready for the new album. Um, and I'm really excited about the, the direction that it's going. I've got some really cool stuff going on on it, cause it's almost like it's it's, it's amazing putting it together. Um, you know, you know it's just such a great process when you first start it and you see it coming together. I'm very proud of where this one's going, sure.

Speaker 1: 1:07:02

You know, what's interesting is it's so cool to learn who writes the storyboard to your life. There's the artists that make the song famous, and then there's the songwriter. And I had a girl on my show probably three, four weeks ago and her name is kristin kelly and she's a singer songwriter from texas and I played this one song that was recorded by Stoney LaRue and I knew it was written by Brandon Jenkins. But Chris and I I'm in a duo here in Cyprus and we play this song every show we play and I had no idea until I asked her to be on my show and I started researching her that, that she wrote the song that we play and it's like. It's like wait, wait a minute, I'm having this like are you serious? So that's cool. And then you know I had guys like Russ Ballard and then I had Holly Knight on and Holly Knight you know, if you say the name Holly Knight, most people would say yeah, I'm not sure. She wrote Love is a Battlefield for Pat Benatar. She wrote two or three of the hit songs by Tina Turner, she wrote. What else did she do? She had a hit song with Rod Stewart. She wrote Ragdoll for Aerosmith, and the list goes on and on and on right, and when you're talking to these people and this guy, russ Ballard, who wrote so many hit songs, like Winning by Santana, you Can Do Magic by America I remember talking to Russ and I kind of like put my, I put my head down in my hands and he looked, and he kind of looked at me.

Speaker 1: 1:08:55

He's like is everything okay? And I said, you know, I'm kind of having this giddy school girl moment here. Russ, I'm not gonna lie to you, I and I and I promise I've never been starstruck on my show, but you wrote the storyboard to my life. You wrote songs that made me the musician that I am today. And I think it's all coming just kind of full circle right now that I'm talking to some of the coolest people on the planet, you know, and I think it just hit me. Then you know, I don't know what it was about that interview and maybe it's kind of like mourning the death. You don't always mourn right when somebody dies. It can be like a month later. And I think it was. I think it all came full circle with me on on my interview with Russ Ballard. That's when it all kind of like, wow, all these people, all these cool people I'm talking to, wrote, wrote the music, the storyboard to my life. Right, it's so cool.

Speaker 3: 1:09:47

It's talking about fangirling, or fan fan, fangirl and or fan fan boy, whatever going you know. But I had that same type thing happen to me and and I would have never imagined that it would have, because I'm not that person that gets all giddy, neither you know. I respect what people do and I admire them and I'm like wow, but normally I never get to the point where it's hard for me to talk. You you know. But the night that Carolina was released, I was invited to go backstage to the Opry by one of the artists to watch the show, and it was on the same night that Carolina was released. It was the first time I had ever been to the Opry and I was backstage and I'm standing there and all of a sudden Bill Anderson whispered. Bill walks up and he's standing right here and he's just talking to me and I'm like I'm thinking to myself. I'm here at the Opry, this Bill Anderson sitting here talking.

Speaker 3: 1:10:48

And I remember being little and I think what it was is I was a little girl watching the Grand Ole Opry and all these shows where he was on with my dad and now he's standing next to me just talking. And then another cool thing was and I've got to tell him that, because this past year I got to co-host the Tennessee Songwriters Awards, which was at the Harkin Hall. Yeah, and they made Bill Anderson, they gave him the Lifetime Achievement. That's cool. I got to co-host that plus perform Yep, and I walked up to him, you know, to get my picture made with him again. I was like you know, you're the only person I've ever fangirled with.

Speaker 1: 1:11:30

That is super cool and you know what's cool about the Opry, if a lot of people may not know this. But what was it? 20 years of live episodes of Hee Haw were recorded right there at the Grand Ole Opry, right, and I had no idea of that.

Speaker 3: 1:11:46

It was so cool I didn't get there until I did the tour and they took you back and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is so cool. I would have never thought that. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:11:55

Yeah, If you could share the stage, I'll say with three, but you could. It could be one, right, Because I don't want you to sit for hours and think about it. But if you could share the stage with one, two or three artists, who would? Who would they be? Alive or no.

Speaker 3: 1:12:20

You can answer the question however you see fit. Well, one I would love to have met Merle. I would have loved to have been able to perform and be there on stage with Merle Haggard. I mean, he was just by far, far to me, one of the best songwriters, like wow, he's just super amazing. Um, hmm, I'm trying to think of anybody. I know Merle's the the main top one that I would most definitely another one, but she's in a different genre Susan Tedeschi. I love Susan Tedeschi. I love Susan Tedeschi.

Speaker 1: 1:12:53

I don't know who that is.

Speaker 3: 1:12:54

Her and Derek Trucks. You know Derek Trucks' family. You'll have to listen to Susan Tedeschi. She's very bluesy.

Speaker 1: 1:13:00

Okay, yeah, can you spell her last name?

Speaker 3: 1:13:07

It's like T-E-D-S.

Speaker 1: 1:13:08

Tedeschi.

Speaker 3: 1:13:09

Tedeschi and then S-K-I.

Speaker 1: 1:13:10

Okay.

Speaker 3: 1:13:11

But it's the Derek Trucks band. But Susan Tedeschi, see, do I Fell in Love? And then she did the song. I always cover her song it's actually John Prine's song, but I do it in her version Angel from Montgomery Sure. But she does it and she plays guitar. She's just amazing, wow. But yeah, her, and probably the next one would be Bonnie Raitt.

Speaker 1: 1:13:35

Okay, interesting yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:13:36

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:13:37

That's. That's an interesting one. I wouldn't have expected that one, but I mean that's probably you know. Angel from Montgomery is probably one of the most heavily played John Prine songs ever, I would imagine. Right yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:13:51

Several times in my past and actually in Alabama. I was there at my daughter's graduation from college and we went to this one little place and they got me up and they were playing it and oh, it was just amazing. It turned out awesome.

Speaker 1: 1:14:07

That's super cool.

Speaker 3: 1:14:08

I guess that's where that little bit of bluesy yeah, yeah, no, I totally get it.

Speaker 1: 1:14:14

What is new and exciting that listeners might look forward to from Lee Newton?

Speaker 3: 1:14:20

Oh gosh Well that I can talk about that you can talk about.

Speaker 1: 1:14:23

yeah, I should have said that, but you caught me.

Speaker 3: 1:14:28

Now, like I said I mentioned, I'm working on my new album. I just got back from Nashville a few weeks ago. I've recorded three of the songs that's on it, but one song that will be the first single that will be coming out. I'm doing and it's an amazing version of Silver Thread and Golden Needles, and I've actually got Georgette Jones on there with me, the daughter of George Jones and Tammy Wynette. And I do have a third person on there. I will be announcing that one probably within the next two to three weeks possibly, but she is. She's, yeah, she's amazing. I cannot wait to. So it's an amazing trio, which I've not. I've got to do the trio before, but this one's a little bit different because, just because of the song, it's going to be really amazing to do that with them girls and release it. I can't wait for everybody to hear it.

Speaker 1: 1:15:30

Yeah, well, I'm sure the listeners will look forward to that. You guys be on the lookout and from a show or tour perspective or specialty shows, what can the listeners learn more about there from you?

Speaker 3: 1:15:43

Yeah, most definitely. Go to my website, leenewtonofficialcom, and all socials Facebook, instagram, tiktok you'll be able to find where I'm playing. But the show that's coming up will be in Calhoun, georgia, opening for Billy Dean. That is August 15th. It's at the Gem Theater there in Calhoun and it's just an amazing theater and, of course, I love Billy Dean. I'm looking forward so much to getting to open for him because he's had so many amazing hits. I can't wait to hear him play and then just get in the open for him. That will be really awesome.

Speaker 1: 1:16:28

Yeah, that's super cool. Well, Lee, how fun this was. I thank you so much for jumping in with me and chatting. I'm glad that we could finally connect in our whirlwind schedules that we try to maintain on a daily basis. But thanks for being here. I appreciate it.

Speaker 3: 1:16:45

Thank you, and thank you for having me on and, like I said, if it wasn't for y'all doing this for us, you know you help get our stories out, get our music out, and that just means a lot.

Speaker 1: 1:16:58

Well, it's our pleasure and I look forward to the new stuff coming out, and I wish you continued success along the way. If you're ever in the Houston area, look me up and maybe we can have coffee or lunch or something like that.

Speaker 3: 1:17:12

I'm talking my language now. I am a coffee-holic.

Speaker 1: 1:17:15

Right on. Well, I asked the listeners to check out Lee's website again at leenewtonofficialcom, and all of her social media handles. I asked the listeners to like, share and subscribe to the podcast on Facebook at Backstage Pass Radio Podcast. Instagram at Backstage Pass Radio and on the website at Backstage Pass Radio Podcast. Instagram at Backstage Pass Radio and on the website at BackstagePassRadiocom. You guys remember to take care of yourselves and each other and we'll see you right back here on the next episode of Backstage Pass Radio.

Speaker 2: 1:17:45

Thank you for tuning into this episode of Backstage Pass Radio. Backstage Pass Radio. We hope you enjoyed this episode and gained some new insights into the world of music. Backstage Pass Radio is heard in over 80 countries and the streams continue to grow each week. If you loved what you heard, don't forget to subscribe, rate and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback means the world to us and helps us bring you even more amazing content. So join us next time for another deep dive into the stories and sounds that shape our musical landscape. Until then, keep listening, keep exploring and keep the passion of music alive.