This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Hey there, this is Josh from Stuff You Should Know with a message that could change your life. The Stuff You Should Know ThinkSpring podcast playlist is available now. Whether Spring has sprung in your neck of the woods yet or not, the Stuff You Should Know ThinkSpring playlist will make you want to get your overalls on, get outside, and get your hands in the dirt. You can get the Stuff You Should Know ThinkSpring playlist on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. With performances by Alex Warren, Kehlani, Laini Wilson, Ludacris, Ray, TLC, Salt and Pepper, and Invoke. Plus Taylor Swift makes her first award show appearance this year. Also Gold Medal Olympian, Alyssa Liu, Neo, Nick Colesure Singer, Nikki Glaser, Sombra, Weiser, and more. Watch live on Fox, Thursday, March 26th, at 8, 7, Central. And listen on iHeart radio stations across America and the free iHeart app. Music saved me. You just have to show people. You have to show them what you're capable of. Nobody is ever going to believe in you as much as you believe in yourself and nobody is ever going to do as much for you as you're going to do for yourself. And being different is your greatest asset. I'm Lynn Hoffman and welcome to this episode of Music Saved Me, where we delve deep into the stories from musicians about their inside story, their passion and resilience, overcoming adversity, and creating for their community. And today I'm so excited. I welcome country music singer, songwriter Jessica Lynn. She has a new music out now and has her own personal story to share about how she almost lost everything in her career and needed her deep connection to music to get through those dark times and to find the light. Welcome, Jessica Lynn, to Music Saved Me. Thank you so much for having me. It's so great to have you on the show this morning or today or in the ether. Whenever you're listening, we're so grateful you're listening. Can you first start off this conversation by telling us about yourself, who you are, and share your story about how music saved you? Sure. So everyone always asked me, when did you decide to do music? And I never have an answer for that because I never made that decision. It was just all I ever did. There was never a choice. I always say I didn't choose it. It chose me. And that was very clear from a very young age. My parents said I was two, three years old. As soon as I could mumble words, I was humming and singing. So I started my first band when I was 13. I was just a kid playing all of the huge rock and roll nightclubs in Manhattan. My friends couldn't even come see me play because nobody underage was allowed. I just always had this driving passion for it. I was playing rock and roll music and writing rock and roll music very much like no doubt my high school band was. And we did a lot of really cool stuff. And then when I was about 19, I always loved country music. I really fell in love with the stories that country music could tell. And my dad, despite being a New York Italian street cop, always loved country music. So I grew up with it on in my house. And my earliest memory of music ever was actually Glenn Campbell's Rhinestone Cowboy. And so I said, you know, my heart is telling me to do country. I really want to make that switch. And I want to be a solo artist because in my high school band, I was writing all the music. My parents were helping me do everything. It was really just me behind the scenes. But it's difficult working with so many different personalities. And they were kids that didn't have that same professionalism and drive that I had inside of me. So I said to my dad, you know, let's, can you help me record a demo? I really want to push this country music I've been writing. And he said, and he loves when I admit that he was right. Dads and daughters out there, you can relate probably. But, you know, he said, let's try something different. You're an Italian New Yorker that wants to do country music. Let's record something for TV. Let's try to go, you know, visual and audio instead of just audio like everyone else. And I fought with him. I said, who's ever going to air an unknown person's video? He wanted to film a television special. So he was like, worse comes to worse. You have, you know, a great live video to push your new music with. I was like, all right, I guess what do I have to lose really? Racked up every credit card I had to pay for a camera crew. And we borrowed a venue. We handmade the risers for the set. I mean, it was really a do it yourself low budget production. And we filmed this television special of all my new music had so many issues because of the do it yourself method that it didn't wind up being completed until two years after filming, which as life would have it was the year that all of these major country festivals started popping up all over the East Coast and timing is everything. And there's always a bigger plan and we don't know what it is, but it always reveals itself. And it sure did that television special, which I was kind of heartbroken about because it I just thought it wasn't going to do anything and it wasn't going to go anywhere. It took so long. I didn't have money to promote it as an independent artist. It went nationwide on PBS. I'll never forget, we signed up for this report reporting thing. And it was like Wyoming, Montana, Virginia is playing it, New York is playing it. And it just kept going. And we were covering over 85% of the market with this show. And then we got called to do all of those big festivals. I went on tour with major, major acts. And it was just a dream come true. And that was 10 years ago. And ever since then, we've been on the road and I've been living my dream and I feel incredibly lucky. Wow. Well, you're just on the tail end, I think of the core in the middle of your classic Christmas tour, which kicked off in Foxboro, I believe. It did. I think that's such a cool thing because you pull from the local talent pool wherever you go. And that's such a wonderful thing that you give back to those who are also trying to come up through the ranks. Thank you. So the very merry classic Christmas tour is truly the joy of my life. It's such a special production. Again, this kind of just revealed itself to me. And I always listen and I always look for the signs about which way to go in life. And it always kept me on the right path. And eight years ago, well, nine years ago, I should say, in the beginning of my career, I got asked to open acoustically at my hometown theater for a John Denver Christmas tribute show. So I was like, oh, we never played Christmas music before. I guess that's, yeah, that would be fun. Let's try it. So it was like a 25 minute set we learned, you know, like rock around the Christmas tree, kind of the basic Christmas songs. And I had so much fun doing it. So I was like, let's try to do our own. And ever since then, this is now our eighth year, it has just spiraled into this monster. And it also was a fundraiser for Toys for Tots. Every single show doubles as a toy drive. We have already done over 1000 toys on this tour and we're not even halfway through yet. And yes, something really special about the show is that we use local talent in each and every city that we go to. And it's really amazing to meet and work with all of these kids. And we have family now in every single city that we visit every year. And it's just such a special thing. The whole tour is almost sold out. It is. It's a thing. You have created a bona fide thing. So congratulations. That's a big deal. Thank you. If you had a theme song to your life, what would it be? Oh, don't stop believing. For real. I mean, I've had a hard road. I'm totally independent artist. Never had an uncle that worked for Sony Music or anything like that. You know, my family is a very regular working class American family. We've had to fight for everything that I've ever accomplished and just worked really, really, really hard and never you could never give up hope. Very true. Very true. And your family also I read plays with you in the band, your husband, your mom and your dad, which is amazing. Yeah, it explains a lot about who you are and what you do. It's very special. Thank you. The last few years, really 2020, I would say was a big turning point for me where I decided to stop thinking when I was writing and only feel prior to that. Every writing writing session that I had was, you know, I always tried like, okay, I need to write this that's going to be good on a festival stage or this is too long for country radio or this is too slow for country radio. And I felt like I was really stifling myself, but I was trying to fit in. And I think when I stopped trying to fit in, that's when my career really took off. And I learned that because in the winter of 2020, since we're so busy on the road all year, I usually take the first few months of the year to just write, we're not on the road, I just be creative. Because it's very hard to be creative when you're running around. I mean, we've been on three hours sleep a night for weeks, you just don't have time to get into that headspace. And so I started writing and a lot of the first song I wrote was the song called Run To and it was basically like Bon Jovi with a country-ish twist. And I remembered I had almost stopped myself like, what am I going to do with this? And then I was like, you know what, no, like, this is really good, I'm going to keep going. And that was the first song that I decided to release during the pandemic. And we made a music video for it that it was just me and the band, we couldn't have anybody on set or anything like that, obviously. And I remember loading it into the distribution company to go out as my single for that year. And I panicked after, I was like, what am I doing? This is not country, like, I don't know. I just make such a huge mistake. What a weird song to choose. But I kind of had this gut feeling about it. And that song really changed my career. It was highlighted by Billboard, CMT, I mean, dream publications and partners, and it charted around the world. And I really learned a lesson, you know, like music is music, music that connects with people, connects with people because it's genuine, not because you sat there and thought about every single aspect of it. So ever since then, run two was really my turning point. How did you learn to listen to your instinct? You know, I think experience, there were so many times that are my career in the beginning where I didn't listen to that gut feeling or that little voice inside about a person, maybe that I was working with or somebody that made my stomach not quite feel right when I was around them. And I am a very intuitive person. And I think I've learned that's never steered me wrong, ever in my whole life. So I think now I just, even if my head is saying, no, no, no, that's silly, or don't do that, I don't listen, I just listen to that feeling inside. That's an important message for those who are paying attention and listening to this, because I truly believe that we all have that within us, but we can't. I think music has a lot, brings it out just from personal experiences. But as an independent artist that you are, what are some of the struggles that you've faced? Like what we just discussed and how did you overcome them? As an independent artist, finances are always hard. Everything that I spend, everything that I do, it all comes out of me. I don't have some guy in an office somewhere that's like, you need to do a music video, here you go, here's $10,000. But it's kept me very driven. And it also makes me feel very grateful and very proud, because I know that I really had to work hard for everything that we do. It's true. Now, let me ask you, this is a rather personal question, and you can answer if you want or not, but was I correct in reading that you had a very serious health issue that almost took you out and feel free to speak as much or as little about that as you feel comfortable with. But I just, I find it fascinating because you are forced to be reckoned with. I've seen you perform on stage. You're incredible. People have compared you to a modern day Shania Twain, like to the 10th power. I don't typically like to compare people to other artists, but it's pretty high compliment because I love Shania. Thank you, me too. Yeah. This was a very hard year for me physically. So what a lot of people don't know is that for years I was chronically ill with really bad sinus condition. I mean, I don't think in the last probably seven years I was on a tour that I wasn't seriously sick. And performing, it's funny, people that do know now are like, Oh my gosh, I never would have known. I just got so good at hiding my pain and pushing through that nobody would have ever known but me. But it was, it was hard. And I was very afraid to do the surgery that I needed because obviously my voice, like my whole life, it's very close to your brain and your eyes, the surgery. So it's quite a big risk to go for for anyone, not just a first singer. So I decided in January after a year of being on antibiotics, like every other month, that also was destroying my stomach, my skin. I mean, I always felt sick, wound up in the hospital from the antibiotics one time. I mean, I really went through it. So I said, I have to do the surgery. If I want to try to live healthier, I need to go for it. So I did it in January and it was not an easy recovery because it was a major surgery. Actually, all of my upper sinuses were totally blocked. They were not even functional. So it was just really hard to live like that. And so I had the surgery a day before my birthday on in January, and then my first live performance was March 1, which technically should have been enough to expose like a three month recovery. And that was on live TV for a major news outlet, which was extremely stressful. So it's hard to know exactly what happened because we think it was kind of just a perfect storm of many different elements. But when I started to sing and warm up my voice for those performances, it just something wasn't right. And it was very scary for me. But at first I wasn't so nervous because I'm like, I haven't sung in three months. Of course, I'm going to feel weird. However, when I would do my warm ups, I would notice there was always a chunk missing. So I'd like, like I couldn't and I thought, okay, it's a muscle, you know, it's like you're a runner and you haven't run in three months. And then you start trying to sprint. It's not going to feel like it normally does. So first I didn't think anything of it. And then I started feeling a lot of pain. And I started losing my voice, like really losing my voice. And having such bad like spasms and tension where I couldn't move my neck and I something's wrong. And we had a major tour starting in May, we were going all over Europe, Asia, I was going on tour with Jody Messina, a huge USA tour, we're going overseas with the military, I had our biggest Christmas tour ever booked and I was panicking. And the first time I knew something was really wrong, I was recording. Funny enough, a track off the record called I never said it be easy. And I finished that session and during the session I felt really bad pain in my throat. And after I couldn't speak. And I went to the doctor and I got diagnosed with muscle tension dysphonia, which is basically called squeeze where funny enough, it's what Shania Twain had when she lost her voice. And yes. And hers was coupled with Lyme disease, which I also wound up having earlier this year. So just very strange. But basically the muscles around your voice box are squeezing so the sound can't really come out. So this was mid-March and I immediately went into healing mode. I thought everything is going to get canceled. That's maybe not something that ever totally, totally goes away or can get re, once your muscles are kind of trained to do that, it could always happen again. I was in voice therapy three times a week. I was in acupuncture twice a week, chiropractic care. I had to heat my neck. I had therapy five times a day every day from March until May. And it was hard. I really had to recover my voice from almost nothing all while keeping it totally hidden. I was doing interviews like this and right before it had heat on my neck. I'm nebulizing, I'm putting steam and then immediately after I had no voice and have to like recover. But I didn't want anyone to know. I didn't want shows to get canceled. I didn't want to panic people. But inside I was dying. And I had to record my half of my record like that. It was a fight to the finish. It really was. How did you, how did you get through? Did was music, did music play a role? Of course. You know, to me it was like I've worked my entire life for this career. I'm not going to let this take me out. And I honestly, again, it could have been I was on very heavy steroids, which can affect your muscles from the surgery, long term steroids, could have been something with the intubation. It could have been the runner not running and then sprinting and just pulling things. It was a whole, again, a combination of things that we'll never really know. But music kept me going. He said, I have all this stuff. I worked so hard for all of these tour dates. All of this, I can't lose this. I literally dedicated myself for two months to healing my body and my mind. And believe me, those first shows were like, is it going to be there? But it was kind of sink or swim. Right. And who was by your side during this, this time? This must have been incredibly dark time, which was supposed to be such an exciting, amazing time at the same time. It was. I would be posting my tour dates and would be crying because and normally like, see how I get teary, I talk about it. But yeah, I wanted to be so excited. I just couldn't be. Well, you, you're persevering through this amazingly. And I'm sure a lot of people who are fans of yours right now are completely shocked that this is what they're hearing what you went through. And they would never have known watching you get out there and give it your all like that. So kudos to you for, for figuring that out. Were there, I don't even know many people that could have gone on. Thanks. It's a, it was a hard road, but again, my family was so great. My husband was awesome. It was just a lot of also mental strength, even over physical, like kind of knowing like, it's okay. This is not like a permanent damage. This is just a reaction to something that you have to get through. It was kind of like trying to change my whole mindset into knowing that it was going to be okay, which was also difficult because yes, it was a very dark time and I felt like I was so in the hole. Like as the, and as the weeks kept getting closer, it was just pure panic, which makes you tense, more tense and it's a muscle tension disorder. So it was just like such a hard thing to go through and the recording, the record, I thought we were going to have an entire two months to, to record my vocals. I wound up having two weeks before we left for the tour. I was up till three o'clock in the morning every night because I could only sing in short bursts and then I would have to heat and do steam and all the stuff. Normally when we're in the studio, I get to like play around with the melodies and I only had so much voice to work with. So it was literally like five times through the song, give it everything you got and then that's it. So I'm really proud of this record because it was such, it was such a journey making it and I think you can hear in my vocal how much I gave it. You know, it really, that's, was also why I decided to name the record All I Own because it was literally like all I had that went into it. You gave everything. Do you believe music has healing powers? Oh, 100%. Music has healed me. It's, I always say it's been my best friend, my darkest times and my happiest times and it's such an incredible connector. We play so many countries. I've toured over 15 countries and you connect with people that don't even speak the same language through music. It's just the most incredible healing. I've gotten such beautiful comments and messages after shows about really personal, like deep personal things about how much my concert has saved them or healed them or this particular song is really what they needed to hear. There's nothing like music in the entire world. How does that make you feel when, when your music touches people in, in that visceral type of way that's so. That's why I do it. It's, you know, why do the Christmas tour too, being with the kids, seeing their excitement, it's, it's amazing. Like I see 13 year old me and every one of those 13 year old girls that come on stage, like that excitement and that love for performing and it's just the most amazing thing ever. I'm so lucky to do what I do. Well, Jessica Lynn, you have just made this one of my luckiest days doing music, save me for, for coming and sharing your story and talking about your music and the things that you went through. And I have to ask, is there, is there any message that you would give to those who are seeking to follow in your footsteps in the industry? I know that probably a lot of musicians and artists get this question a lot, but more on a, on a level of if they face adversity, what should they do? Or what would you tell them? The sounds very cliche, but always keep going and always be you in the beginning, especially because I was so different. I had so many doors, like people laughing in my face, like, okay, New Yorker, Italian, no thanks, you know, and I think you just have to show people, you have to show them what you're capable of. Nobody is ever going to believe in you as much as you believe in yourself and nobody is ever going to do as much for you as you're going to do for yourself. And being different is your greatest asset. And having the ability to, how many talented singers there are out there, how many beautiful women there are out there that sing, how many people that are much better singers than I am out there. But they don't have the drive that I have. It's, it's all about that. It's about being able to get up off the ground and you've been kicked down, brush yourself off and be willing to try again. That is a skill that probably one percent of the population has truly mastered. And those are the people that, that get separated from the pack. Well, those are beautiful words from a beautiful woman. And I'm so grateful that you, inside and out, you just, and it's obvious that you spend a lot of time with family because they keep you grounded and, and they do help you to get through things. But I, I can't thank you enough for sharing this time with us on Music Saved Me. And what's your latest single out that people can go listen to right now? Oh, so well, the record comes out January 17th, which I'm really excited about. It's called Yep. So that's also off the record. And the music video for something about you is out now. And it's a tour compilation music video too that you could see on YouTube of our Euro tour this year. Excellent. Well, thank you so much. Her name is Jessica Lin. Go see her, check out her music and please come back and see us again on, and, and congratulations on everything that you've achieved and overcome. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me. Hey, there. This is Josh from Stuff You Should Know with a message that could change your life. The Stuff You Should Know ThinkSpring podcast playlist is available now. Whether Spring has sprung in your neck of the woods yet or not, the Stuff You Should Know ThinkSpring playlist will make you want to get your overalls on, get outside, and get your hands in the dirt. You can get the Stuff You Should Know ThinkSpring playlist on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen on iHeart radio stations across America and the free iHeart app.
