Jillian Jacqueline

could be adult content. This episode is super exciting. I have one of the hottest new females in country music joined me, Gillian Jacqueline. She has all sorts of new songs that her single hate Me is on Spotify. It's already had a couple of million streams as well as her other single Reasons. She's been opening for Dwight Yoakum, but like Herrington, she got her start with Kenny Rogers. Her story it's fantastic you. I promise we'll love her and we'll just want to eat her music. Up Here

is Jillian Jacqueline. I am so thrilled to have you with me. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. First off, I've known you forever, like how long? Six years? Six years? Yeah. We even wrote us a Long Time Together, we did before you became Jillian. Should we do that again? No, I've retired from writing songs no more. Yeah. The last song, actually,

thing I ever wrote was probably with you. Yeah really yeah, because I was having one of my many midlife meltdown crisis is that LIFEB had several and you were right there and we wrote a song about it was called Papa because you were in a trio at the time and it wasn't going according to plan. I had an experience like that when I first moved here. I was like thrown into a duo with a guy. That's how we met. Oh my god, I forgot about that. Yeah, what were y'all called? Um? We changed our name like

five times. We were Jillian and Ryan, and we were Carousel. We had a bunch of different things. Um, but it just wasn't It didn't work out. And it was you know, eight months of time where we have just tried and the chemistry just wasn't there. So and that's kind of something that I really want to talk to you about today. But we have so much to talk about. But I'm just gonna harp on it right now since they're talking

about it. You have been so ready for this career for so long, or brady is not the right word. You have been poised for this career for so long, starting at nine years old when you were pretty much discovered by Kenny Rodgers, which we have to talk about, and then Vince Gill and then your sisters had a band was it Luna Halo Luna Luna Bells that were signed and you weren't a part of that. But then you have your own duo that's happening, which I forgot about.

All of these things have happened in your music career that you would think one of them would have just gone like this starting at nine. But it's it's now. It's happening now. It's happening now, and it's supposed to be now. And I feel like with my entire existence that it's supposed to be now. For you, it's spupposed to be sooner. Thank you, don't you feel? I completely agree?

I mean I have to think that because I'm twenty nine to wait twenty years for it, Yeah, yeah, I think, Um, it didn't feel like waiting you know, it felt like each phase was like such a different thing, and I was doing I was making music at all the stages of my life. But um, I always really thought long and hard about everything, so all those like stages meant something. But this moment is actually, um a culmination of like me as a human being, like finding out exactly what

I wanted to say. Um, and that takes a long time, at least it did for me, you know, And I feel like these songs really reflect that. And you know, you've own me long enough that you knew I was in a relationship for a really long time, and so um, you know, I've been writing songs for since I got

here and then before that. But these songs, a lot of these songs on this album were like six months old, and we like wrote them and we went right into the studio and they're very fresh from something that I was actually going through. And I this like Reasons and hate Me, which the title hate Me is the best title of a song I've ever heard. Thanks. They're so real, like when you're saying, we're standing at the kitchen sing

and we feel like roommates. Oh yeah, that's that's reasons for Reasons I'm like, oh my gosh, the way that you're putting your relationship that was falling apart into a song. How many people feel that but don't know how to say it, and you say it in such a way I've never heard said before, with the hookiest melodies behind it. Yeah. I think a lot of that is due to the

fact that I wrote them with my best friend. His name's Toford Brown, and he was my therapist through a lot of what I was going through and songwriting Protect the toy. He's so talented, and you know, we became we became friends first, so we were just hanging out and really talking to each other as as best friends, and um, everything was super honest and super real. So when we were going to write songs, there was no

sugarcoating and no skating around it. And for a long time as a as a writer, I was actually avoiding talking about relationships because, um, as a female, I wanted to prove to myself that I didn't have to talk about men, boys, men whatever. I wanted to talk about other things. And then you want to talk about um, just you know, life things and and what makes me human being, and um, you know, I had a lot of like funny tongue in cheek things that I wanted

to say. Um And essentially I still have that side, but a lot of that was just me trying to avoid actually saying the stuff that I didn't want to admit that was going on. And these songs came out and I couldn't really stop them. Yeah, feel like they were divine too in a way. It was like a journal entry. It was just things I was writing down and things I was saying out loud, and then we just put them to music and that felt really scary

and very emotional. Feels very like they even though the songs are so hooky, you learn them and once I hear them one time, it's memorized, but the lyrics feel very vulnerable and very raw. And I was actually wanting to talk to you about that. Is it terrifying to be so honest? It should be? It probably should be. It it has been. Putting them out has been really scary because the person that they're about will hear them, and everybody that knew us will hear them, and they'll

know that. I kind of went for the jugular, like I just said it because I had to say it. It I think, but you still said it peacefully. You didn't say anything that's not there's nothing you're just saying. You're just saying how a relationship is when it's falling apart. I think it's important to be um open minded and also see that everybody has a story, that person has

a side of the story. I have a side to the story, and I would never, um, I would never put the you know, the bad guy role on someone that didn't ask for that. That's not just not fair. So I think the most important thing is when you're being truthful, is the truth is everybody has their side. You know. You can't just write a song and pretend that they were the only We're the only one. No, yeah, because it's never really that way. We all in relationships.

It's always two sided. So they say it's your side, my side of the truth. Yeah right, yeah, yeah, So you've got to tell both sides of the story. And I think I hope that we did that with these songs. I think we did, And I mean the album is very I think the album is really well rounded. It's not just about this breakup. Um, it's uh, like you said, it took me a really long time to get here. So I had a lot of stuff to say. There's songs um that I've already put out that are going

on the album as well. There's a song called kids These Days that has been really important to me for a long time. Uh tofer and I wrote that and we wrote it about three and a half four years ago, and it is something that I've noticed in UM culture, and I'm sure we all have. It's kind of a recurring theme where the teenagers do all the wrong things and the parents are shaking their heads and saying, oh

my gosh, the world's going to hell there. They don't understand anything, they have no morals, and it's happened literally for decades and decades and decades. Yeah, and it's just it. It happens in every generation. And I wanted to sum that up and be like, dude, my parents were the bad guys when they were young, and now they're telling us that, you know, we don't stand for anything and we are to um wishy washy about our you know,

political opinions and all this stuff. So I thought that was worth commenting on and just saying, you know, when you grow up, you just kind of you kind of want to break out of your skin, figure out where you stand in the world, and um, that song is kind of about that. So I love Crime too. It is making the album. I'm so excited because I still really love that. I love that song, and that's kind of in the same sort of vein, like you want to live in your prime, Like, yeah, how great that

you are aware that you're in your prime. Well, I I've had forty five year old women tell me like, I love this song because it makes me feel like I'm in my prime. And I'm like, you are, like wherever you are in your life and you feel happy to be there, that's your prime, you know. And that's so true. Um. I think I like read somewhere online

that they consider your prime, you know. Um, actually it's like married couples whose kids have moved out and then they're in their prime because they get to enjoy their mom is she's free as bird, she loves empty nest. It's great. Yeah, see you wherever you are or you are. Yeah. Think that's really important too for people to know. And I mean we all struggle with that, you know, thinking that the best thing is either behind us or two cut of us. But it could be right where we

are right now. I think it always is, is that I like to think, so okay, so when I kind of go to the beginning, sure, you're nine years old. Nine years old. This is a hilarious story because this is actually the story of my life, which is why it took me so long to get here, because I

was so, um clueless. My mom saw an ad for a for a Broadway show audition in a newspaper that we got, and we lived in Pennsylvania, and so after school one day it was like the last day of third grade, she drove me two hours to New York City. We got there, the audition was already closing. They'd already seen like fifty girls. And my mom was like, please, just like let her come in and she just wants to sing and she can read the part, and um,

it was horrible. I had two different colored socks on and they asked me to dance and I could not dance there like can you do a shuffle thing whatever? Girls that I don't know what those dance moves are, but I didn't know how to do it. And I was like, I, um, I don't know. How did you know? They had a woman there that was supposed to teach you how to do it, and she like showed me one time through and I just couldn't get it. But

I saying, the sun will come out tomorrow. And my head shot was a picture of me and my aunt from dinner my mom my, well it was a picture. It wasn't even a head shot. They're like, you have a picture of my mom's like, this is all we have. And she handed him this picture of me and my aunt. So, needless to say, the audition did not go well. But we're driving home from New York and we get a

phone call. My mom gets a phone call and it was the producer of the show, and he's like, we love her, we love that she had no idea what she was doing. Can you come back? And so we had to do three more auditions and anyway, long story short, I ended up doing the last audition with Kenny and then that was on Broadway. It was this Christmas show.

He started your whole career on Broadway with Kenny Rogers. Yeah, I mean fast forward through all the open mic nights and karaoke that I did when I was like seven and eight, and he doesn't even knowice start this at seven or eight, I was just singing in the car to the radio like Patty Loveless and Pam Tillis and Lorie Morgan, just singing all the time, and so my mom just was trying to find outlets for me to get to do that in front of people, because she

was like, I think she's good. So I thank god my mom was such a mamag because she really pushed me to do it and it made me feel um like proud. I was like, oh, I can do this and people like it when I do it. How wonderful to have a supportive parent, because so many both of my parents were so supportive. So many parents don't support their children and their dreams. I think that's crazy. You need to go to school and finish it all the way.

They don't really want to, not that you shouldn't finish school, but they don't take it seriously. I think it's like a little hobby. Oh yeah, I mean I've heard so many stories of that happening to friends of mine and even like legend artists like Tom petty Is in his um in his What's the Running Down a Dream? In that movie, he talks about how he's dad hated that he was a musician. I'm like, that is amazing to me that he kept going with all that resistance. But

I didn't have that. I've never had that. My parents are incredibly supportive, and I mean they pulled us out of school. We were home schooled for a long time. And you started training with your sisters getting into music because then all of them are also in music also. Well, we started together because after I did the Kenny's Show on Broadway, it went on tour for h five years

and I did the same part for years four. Yeah, so we were like on the road for three months out of the year with Kenny, and he brought all my sisters, he brought my parents. It was a big production. I mean there was a lot of people. But um, my sisters and I started a band during that time, just a four sister family band. We called ourselves the Little Women Band after the movie and the book, so we know where you were in your life reading A

Little Women totally. Yeah, we all like matched the characters in order, like Beth Amy joe y'all really did match them. We thought we did. Yeah, we liked we liked to think so yeah, and then um, the band kind of became our lives while we're homeschooled. So we were on the road in a van, just going wherever, playing festivals and fairs. And do you get booked when you're when you don't have an agent and you don't really have how do you make that? I mean, these weren't like

high level shows. You're still getting shows. My mom was very tenacious. She was the kind of woman that was like, well, we don't have tickets to the show, but we can just show up and like someone will let us in. I'm like, I don't know if it works like that, mom, but she would just get us in and then she'd be like, well, I know the security guard because um so and so, and she was just talked to him to let us backstage. And then we would get backstage and I'm like, huh, just act like you know what

you're doing and people let you into place. Have you taken that philosophy? I try sometimes my like type a stand in line, follow the leader comes into plan like no, we can't do this, no, but I have I have a little bit of her in me for sure with that. So what was it like perform me with Kenny Rogers? Were you even old enough to be starstruck by him, or did you know what was happening. I I'm gonna admit I did not know. That always better. It's a blessing to be naive about it. You had no idea.

You're fresh on the planet. You're really like the world. I knew more about his chicken than I knew about because he had a restaurant for a long time, so I had heard of that killer Rogers Roasters which didn't last. Yeah, so I knew about that. But obviously I became very familiar with all of his stuff, I mean, the Gambler and Lucille, and I've seen his live show I don't know how many times. So I have all those songs

memorized now, and I'm I'm he is. I'm so thankful because I learned so much from him about longevity in your career and just being respectful of the process. And I mean, he's had so many different waves of like being popular and than not, and he's just been very just even keeled and steady and trusted. And it's awesome to watch. What is he like as a performer? What did you take away getting to watch on stage? So that impact how you perform and how how you view

the entertainment industry. He yes, because he's very aware that people want a certain thing from each artist. They fall in love with you for a certain reason. And he's so good about playing the songs the same way every night. He tells the same jokes and they're all still really funny. Um. He knows exactly what they expect when they buy a ticket and he gives it to them, and he's he has no pride or ego about that, like I want

to try this differently, I want to do this. He's like, no, I'm going to give them what they want, and this is what they want. And he's also so humble. He'll say things like I'm not a really good singer, but I just pick great songs, like you're an incredible singer. But he just doesn't ever let himself go to like that place of ego where he's the greatest thing that God's ever made, which I think a lot of artists probably do. I feel like being humble. Really, the artists

that really make it really are humble. And we were talking about share you're kind of mentioning that because you were just watching the Billboard. Yes, last time I can't speak for how Humble shares. I don't know, well, her wigs are pretty big, so I don't know what that means. But I think that she was so cool to say what she said when she accepted her she had it was some lifetime achievement award, I think, and she just said, you know, I'm gonna be honest. I think a lot

of this was luck. I think a lot of my career was just I got lucky. And um to admit that, you know, so late in your career. She didn't want to sin up there and say I did everything right. I take all this recognition, and I was just, you know, I worked really hard. No, she said it was luck, and that is um. You know, it's almost like discrediting all the hard work that she did and how she persevered. But I like that honesty because I kind of believe

that too. I think a lot of it is the right combination of being prepared and also the situation just coming your way. And that's probably why, you know, I'm at the point now where yeah, you can't give a journey. Yeah, I mean for me, there was really no other option because I just I'm wired to want to make music and share it with people. And that probably comes from my parents, to just instilling that, like, you have a gift, you should share it, And I think, um, I think

that's really important. But yeah, share is obviously a legend. And for her to say that was really interesting to me, just to kind of put the credit back on luck, because it is true though you see all these people who are so talented who really never get their big break. But also I do think it is bound to happen. If you have the gift and the talent and the drive and never let it stop, it is bound to somewhere or another. I think you're right. I don't think

it can be avoided. It made your whole life or even after you're dead, but it's going to be exposed. Yeah, I think that. I've seen that happen with a lot of artists in town who I met at a certain point and maybe things hadn't gone as well for them and they were frustrated and they didn't stop. And then all of a sudden, for an instance, so starting at nine and it just now all coming together twenty years later. Well, I kind of view it not as like this aha moment,

but more of like another step up the mountain. It's not like I finally made it. It's more like, this is really cool that I'm getting to a larger audience now, and then the next step will come and then I'll fall back down the mountain and then I'll have to walk back up and then fall back down. I think that's what it is like that that you see. It

have to because it changes so fast. I mean, we know with social media, there's so many different ways people discover music now, and so the relationship with artists is so different than what we grew up with even and I have to keep that in mind when I'm making music that, um, you know, it feels like to me, it's like my heart and my soul in a song. But also, um, you know, come like another six months or a year, people are going to want something else

and then something else. So you're gonna have to keep figuring out how to either reinvent yourself or become We're honest, or try different things or Yeah, it's like a new challenge all the time. So you have this big Kenny Rogers experience to start your life off. That's literally how you start your life. Kenny Rogers touring with him on Broadway. What a way to get into the world. I mean, you're just starting off crazy. It's like I am you know,

I love that. So then your former band with your sisters, your whole life, all of your real existence and memory that you can wrap your head around, has been performing being in a band like this is what you do. You have a burnout, like to be so young. Normally people have a burnout in there a little bit older, but like, you have a burnout. Tell me about that, and how old are you? How did that happen? Yeah? It is really weird because I was only fifteen or

sixteen when it happened. But it's just like a long time, yeah, and it it coincided with a few things. My parents were actually getting divorced and um song that happened and there too, your parents divorcing. Yeah. So when I was thirteen, Kenny Kenny's management company brought me in to sing on a song with Billy Dean and Susie Boggus and it was called Please Keep Mom and Dad in Love while your parents ironically same time, and so I was feeling it like hardcore and as a kid, You're like, oh

my god, this herds and you don't know why. And so I was singing that song and it actually made it onto the Billboard charts for a little while. Um it was like forty eight or forty nine or something for a couple of weeks, which was really cool. But um, yeah, I got to a point after that my parents moved us to New York to try to you know, make things work, and the band was still going. But I was just feeling, um, very defiant against that situation. I mean,

because it was all in the family. I mean it was all kind of wrapped into one, and the band was you know, being affected by what they were going through. Obviously, So are you the oldest, I'm the third. Actually it's two more above me. But I think I felt like I just gotta like on my place outside of this because it it just doesn't feel good. And so I actually left the band and went back to high school. So I went to high school the last two years

of high school. You've been home school your whole life, school will since third grade. Yeah, what is that like all of a sudden, like being in this family band, like you got your little really really hard because they all had not like that. I did that. My sisters were like how could you do this? It was hard with the family. Oh yeah. They the family felt like you portrayed them by wanting to go to school. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Those comp parents were like go to school,

do your homework. And when I go to school, I had one parent that was like I wanted me to go back to school, and one parent that was like how could you do this? To the band? So I was like dealing with all of that. This is major termil on a little heart. Yeah, I think I've always I think a lot of songwriters probably feel this way when they were young. Um, very in tune with our emotions.

And so I was a journal keeper for a very long time, and yeah, a lot of stuff hit me like really hard emotionally, and how do you process that? How do you process You're in a family business, You have family, your parents who are running the family business. It kind of depend on you to make the family business work. And how you want to leave and your parents are divorcing on top of it, how what is

going like? What are you thinking? What are the feelings? Well, so when you're that young, you don't I don't think. I think it was almost like a blackout in my mind. When I look back, I'm like, what happened? And it took me a long time to piece together the chronological order of everything, because I think they say with children, when it feels like trauma, they kind of just block it out, and I think I was sort of doing

that for a little while, trying to to cope with it. Um. I actually tried to do a solo project at that time with the producer in New York City, and your parents are your family is probably so upset with you that you're doing it was weird. Yeah, it was wan be me for a minute. Yeah, And the songs were that way, like I just want to be ordinary, I want to be myself. It was all kind of that theme because I had felt like, you know, thrust into this very un ordinary life, UM, and I wanted some

semblance of normalcy. I just wanted to feel like I had friends and and I went through that face and thank god I did. You're a rebellion was actually going to school and just trying to be yourself pretty much. It's not like, yeah, you think crazy, just like I just go to high school totally heed to beenious exactly, which is so weird. It's such an opposite. The most parents are like, they're like, just go to school, and

they're encouraging those things. Yeah, and not that you know, neither my parents wanted anything bad for me, but they just were they of course, we're thinking they were doing the right things and encouraging me to be unique and

different and stand out. And I have that, you know too, where I'm like, you know, they told us as kids, like you're different, You're unique, And that's helpful when you're an artist because you kind of have to have that mindset because your life looks very different from all your friends, and um, it's just you know, it's just a different lifestyle and perspective. Um. But yeah, when I went back to college, I really didn't do music for like four years.

You just needed a break. Yeah, you needed to just see what else was out there in the world, because honestly, your whole reasoning life had been music, So you just needed to try some other flavors of the ice cream spectrum. Exactly right, Yeah, I get that. It was really great. It was I made some friends that I know I'll have for the rest of my life. And I studied abroad and I studied marketing. Oh and I studied in

Rome in Italy. What was that like to live in Rome and Italy, especially in this very important time of your life? Right? Yeah, well, I I come from Italian roots, so that meant a lot to me to do that. But I was in college, so I was drunk a lot. Perfect, that's true. Cute boys probably, I know, we have a boy who's here. It's all good, but it's good to make out. There was a guy named Marco. His name

was Marco, It's true. Yeah, what a perfect time to be drunk and making out, you know, and eating gelato and pasta. Yes, perfect, a perfect time. Yeah. And they serve like table wine that's two dollars and not disgusting. It's so good. Yeah, So that was awesome. And then literally I graduated, I went to Thailand for three months with my mom, and uh, the day that I left Thailand, I moved here and I haven't left since. And I

just kind of threw myself right back into it. It was one of those kind of like a quarter life thing where you're like, okay, I'm done with that chapter. What is calling me? And I was really going through a hard time, like I don't really want to do anything else. But music, so and my sisters already lived here, and so I formed this band, Luna Bells at that point. Yet they came down here with a producer like a

year before I had even gotten here. Did you feel left out because now Little Women has turned to Luna Bells and guess who's not in Luna Bells? Now? Yeah? I had a little bit of that, but it was more from a family they did. So it's like, not only are you're not in it? Now they have a record deal and you're not in it. The funny thing about that is I never felt competitive with them because I knew that what they were doing was just different

than what I was doing. And I just had this instinct where I was like, this is not for me, so they should enjoy that it's not mine. And I just put my head down and I waitressed a lot, and I bartended, and I asked people to write with me. They probably didn't want to write with me, and I just I was just very determined for a long time. That's so wise of you to even have that kind of awareness, because a lot of people might not feel

that way. It could feel like this whole thing you've been a part of your whole life and now actually it's materialized into something. Yeah, you're not in it. I think it comes down to the music. If I had been like, well, they're making the music I want to make, that would have been hard. But I had my own idea of what I wanted to sound like and it wasn't that. So I just knew it wasn't right, you know.

And I think the only thing I felt left out of was the Sister Bond, you know, in that way, because they were all doing their thing and I was kind of all by myself. But um, it's worked out fine for all of us, and they're all doing music in their own ways and flourishing and living in different parts of the country and we all are so much

stronger now than we ever were. So isn't it interesting how God, the universe, whatever the thing is that we're a part about in this world that we're living in, does that like we have to get our heartbroken and like we have to like just hit the rock. Yeah, and maybe several times, you know, if you just keep hitting bottom, but then you get to a point where you're so much stronger because of it. Yes, Yeah, I

think it's so necessary. It is even like even this horrible heartbreak that you went through, now it has led you to the most authentic real spot in your music career where you're finally emerging as the artist that you've been building up to be. And obviously, like you said, you'll keep reinventing. But if you wouldn't have had that pain, you wouldn't have this song with music. Of course, it's so weird how you have to go through the pain.

It is. It is weird. Um, I'm I'm really thankful for it now because it pushed me to another level of honesty that I never would have gotten to. And I'm really proud that this is the first essentially the first thing people are going to hear. Many people are going to hear from me, you know, because I put stuff out before, but this is truly like naked. You're like, okay, well here it is. You know, here's all the information. And you also like put something I'll Evince s Gale

before too, which was amazing. Yeah, he sang on a song that I wrote with um Tofur and Richard Marks and that was crazy. Yeah, the star setted past like you have been. Everyone has seen your greatness and you have known your greatness and your talent, but it just takes a wild for the the food to be prepared, you know, yeah, to be ready to deserve. Yeah. I

think it happens in different ways. You know. We see people that it seems like overnight, and we see people that are super young, you're like, oh my gosh, everything's happening and that is their story and a lot of and probably would say it was definitely not overnight. Um.

But for me, it's all about conviction. I think people want conviction from an artist, and they want and I think conviction just comes from really like maintaining, um, the same level of dedication for a long time and whatever you do for it to be the best thing that you can do. And I've I feel like I've been pretty careful with that. I think I probably could have put out a lot of music in the last few years and just put it out because I needed to

feel that recognition bouncing back off of me. But I really just had an internal compass that was telling me that this was not the best song was still coming, and I did. I really did feel that. I was like, yeah, even with Overdue, I was like, there's something else coming and this is just the precursor. What does that feel like? Because I feel like many people think it's called perfectionism,

and it's probably not very healthy. It's just always wanting to be better than you currently are, but you know reasons and hate me. You probably don't feel like there's something better. You know, there's something. I'm very proud of them, but those feel like what you've been waiting for for sure right now at this point in my life, and I'm kind of like, yeah, And I don't know what will happen when these songs run their course. I don't know if I'll suddenly have a new wave of Okay,

this is who I am now. It's interesting, it's just kind of following that gut heart thing. Do you believe in callings? Do you think we all have a calling? Mm hmmm. I think we all have dreams callings. It's that's a different I think a calling actually um compels you to act like you're like I'm called to do this, I must, And I think UM certain people have that. I don't. Do you feel like you've been called to do music like you must? Yeah? I guess I would

say that. Yeah, I've never had another option. I've never wanted another option, and it feels like the only way that I could feel true to myself is what I'm doing this. Why do you think people give up on their dreams? M hm, Oh, that's a hard question. I don't even like to think about that, because many people do.

I think about that all the time when I'm at restaurants across the country, like if we're on the road or i always look at the waiters and waitresses and I'm like, I wonder if there's something that they wished they were doing, and I want to tell them to do it. Not that being a waiter or waitress is a bad thing, but I was one for a long time, and I think I always know that that's for a lot of people, it's a means to get to the next level. And I'm like, what does stop people? I

don't know. Do you think people are scared? Were you scared? Have you ever had a moment where you wanted to quit through all of this? No, you haven't, no matter how hard it got, did you ever? Did you ever have a moment where it was so hard You're like, why is this so hard? Yeah? I there was a point a couple of years ago where I had been um trying to. I was doing photography like on the side to make money and it wasn't cutting it, and so I had to go back to bartending at a restaurant.

And I had been writing songs during that time time, but nothing had happened. And I was bartending for a few months and really hating it, like wanting to go home and cry every night because I was like, I can't do this anymore. What how do I Where do I go? And luckily I met with Steve Markland who is now my publisher and tofer and I had done a couple of demos that Steve loved and he took

a chance and signed me. And that was Yeah, that was like the turning point where I thought all hope was lost, I mean, and then there was the light. But I had to go and find the light. Like it wasn't just waiting. I was like, how do I find the light? And I found the light. You have to hunt it down, be proactive. Yeah, totally. Okay, So we're gonna hear some of your songs. Can't wait, But I like to wrap up with leave your light, So leave some inspiration of how you have been inspired or

how you want to be inspired. Oh also, you did say one quote that I love. You said, walk into the room like you're a man. Yes, my friend Elena told me that because she does, like she is so incredibly strong and she just carries herself very proud and she's not afraid to hold herself with respect. Yeah, um, and hold space. And that really impacted me because I think women sometimes feel like we have to, um, be like pliable or at least, um, you know, easy to

work around her. I don't know what it is, but we kind of come into the room. We're like, try to read it. We need to use sexuality? Do we need to use our intellect? We kind of know how to do that. Um. But what if we didn't have to think about that, we could just hold ourselves like

important people and not as women. So love that. I thought that was really important for women to know, especially in the music industry, because I have no problem with being happy and comfortable with your sexuality, but I think it's so important to remember that you are a whole human being and there's a lot going on besides just what you look like. I love that. Yeah, okay, so now leave your life. All this prepared me for this one.

I don't okay, I'm not good at being on the spot. Um, just how you've been inspired or how to inspire people. I think it's uh, it's very important to take care of yourself. Um. That is how you can shine to other people is if you are constantly trying to fill yourself up with goodness. Um, So pay attention to what you need and don't do anything for anyone else because it will not satisfy you. I love that, That's all

I got. You are wise, Jillian Jathan. Okay, than you're play you the ones we've released so like we can go check them out. So reasons and hate me? Okay, so excited? Okay, here she comes. Teal Audio's new speaker line that Aurora live stream speakers are designed to fit seamlessly into your home with its wide range of connectivity. To check out the latest speaker line, go to teal audio dot com. Okay, so, Jillian, first, who do we have of us? This is Brian Brown, amazing guitar player,

also my boyfriend. I love it. You guys are so cute. Tell us about this first song you're singing. The first song we're gonna do is Reasons and we just released it last month, and this one is really about admitting that it's time to go in a relationship and how

all the excuses you're making are just wasting time. I don't want to tell my parents, want to tell my sister, You don't want to tell your friends, you don't want to pack your stuff, all back in love with another girl, like and all alone, picking up, take you out, coming home to an empty house, admitting at the time we spent was just a lesson. We've got all our reasons why Rich shot at Justify is to cunning out, stay together.

It was supposed to last wherever you and die. Just scared to say good bye because it what would happen later. We're not doing a Steely Favors. I'm so sick of living away. So screw all of our reasons. Why we feel like roommates standing at the same sink. We don't even kiss goodnight. I don't want to be a quit or do you want to have dancer? When everybody asked me, where I giving all your t shirts? Bay putting all the stuff in bags. We were supposed to be married

by the time with thirty breaking up scary. All these reasons why Rich shot at just tofine secuny, not stay together. It was supposed to lust rather you will die too scared to say you by because it will happen later. We're not doing sandy favors. I'm so sick of living alive, So screw all of our easons? Why goodbye? I don't love you, you don't love me. You can be. It can be just that simple baby, I don't love you,

you don't love me. It can be. It should be just that simple baby, I don't love you, you don't love me. It can be. It can be just that simple baby, I don't love you, you don't love me. It can be, should be. Yeah, reason why which shot at justifin secunity not stay together? It was supposed to us forever you, and it's just scarce because the one happened later. We're not doing any favors. I'm so sick

of living, So screw a lover e sasons? Why? I mean, I hear that song and one listen, love it, memorize. It's so good and so raw, just the rawness of it. Thanks for sharing your heart with us. We appreciate it as listeners. Oh okay, so it tell us we got one more tell us about this next one. So we got another breakup song for you. Imagine that. This one's

called hate Me. And this just came out on Friday, so if you guys like it, you can check it out everywhere song music is sold, but Spotify's guy at Amazon, Apple Music, and there's a video on Vivo right now. Um, this song is kind of like a coping mechanism for not wanting to be the bad guy in a relationship. Um, but actually you're just sort of admitting just go on and hate me, and that way it's easier for us

to just walk away. So it's kind of trying to push the situation into anger so that you guys don't have to have compassion. Um. So yeah, I think psychologists would probably think this song is not the best strategy. But anyway, yeah, um, anyway, this is called hate Me. Everything seems okay right now. The bottom of the sky hasn't fallen out, but I know when it comes, it's gonna get ugly, get ugly. You don't know you as well as I do, so baby, don't wait a week

or two, go and pull the pendiate off. We'll both be better off if you just come on and Amy. Tell me you great you ever made me? Make sure that it hurts right as I'm leaveveing. Make me believe that you never even really ever loved me. Come on, baby, Ay, don't need those coffee monks from Portland. Don't need that sweater from your drawer. Don't need you to chase me down the stairs and out the door. No, I don't need to hear I'm ay. Don't need your version of

the truth. There's only one thing left that I need from you. To Come on, Come on, any tell me you great, you ever mad me? Make sure that it hurts right as I'm leaveing. Make me believe that you never even really ever loved me. Come on, baby hey, come on, baby heady. I know you're not much for cry, so why go start writing out? Why go start writing out? I'm just trying to make it easy all you on me.

Come on at head in me tell me you regret you ever maby and make sure that it hurts right eyes I believe, made believe that you never even really ever loved me. Come on, baby haty oh whoa Come on baby hate me, hate me, hate don't see you sorry, baby, just say you hate me. Don't say you're gonna miss me. Just say you hate me. Don't say you sorry, baby, just say you hate me. Don't say you're gonna miss me, Just say you hate me. Wow wow wow wow wow. I mean, I just I can't even get over that song.

I feel like everyone has sort of experienced that on some level, or no someone has the way you put that intowards Jillian and Jacqueline. You guys, thank you so much for joining me on my thank you questions. I'm so glad I got you before your superstar and thank you for joining me even I know you loved hearing from Jillian Jacqueline. Make sure to follow her journey and get all her music. She's about to blow up next week. I have steal Union. This is a group of three

people who are so talented. Rachel Potter was a Broadway star, she got twelve from The X Factor. Donnie Foggator and Josh Matheny were at a band called King Billy. They were all the rage in Nashville, and now they have joined forces to make this incredible trio. Y'all will not want to miss that interview next week. See you then, and don't forget to subscribe