Country singer Brooke Eden learned to love herself after falling in love
Singer-songwriter released her new EP, `Choosing You,' in July
AI write about love constantly because it’s something that was so foreign to me until I met my fiancée. Like, I never understood Taylor Swift until 6½ years ago because I was like, “Teardrops on your guitar?” Like, girl, get over him. He’s a jerk, whatever. And now I’m like, Oh, my God. If that ever happened to me, I would be crying on my guitar, too! So love made me understand life so much more. And it helped me become a better writer. And I’m
Country singer Brooke Eden has a new EP called “Choosing You.” “Love made me understand life so much more. And it helped me become a better writer,” she said.
Q AWhat made you decide this was the time to come out publicly?
It took me five years of being in the best relationship of my life — with who I knew was the love of my life — even for me to finally come out. And so for me, it was a few different factors that went into me finally coming out. One was I was actually physically ill. I got ulcers in my small intestine that were not curable by medicine. They were only curable by me getting right with myself and becoming aligned with who I was. And so that was a big lightbulb moment of like, “OK if I want to be a healthy human, I can’t just be physically healthy. I also have to be mentally healthy.” And you can’t be mentally healthy if you’re hiding a huge part of who you are. … And I was reading a book called “Untamed” by Glennon Doyle, and she was talking about integrity and just clearly defined it as integrity is when you are to the world who you are in your home. And I realized that I was living my life with no integrity. And then I didn’t want to continue to live my life with no integrity anymore. So I hollered at Hillary, my fiancée, and I was like, “Babe, I just had this lightbulb moment. I have to come out.” And she was like, “Finally, thank God, praise the Lord.”
QThere was this video that was popular on social media last year of Trisha Yearwood introducing you at the Grand Ole Opry. And she changed the lyrics of her famous song “She’s in Love With the Boy” so you both could sing it. What does it mean to have her support you in that way?
AShe was like, “People have come up to me after shows and said, ‘Hey, don’t tell anyone, but I sing ‘He’s in love with the boy’ or don’t tell anyone, but I sing ‘She’s in love with the girl.’ ” And she’s like, “I’ve always wanted to have a moment for that, and I just don’t think that there could be a better moment than to celebrate y’all’s engagement and Pride Month and the 30th anniversary of this song.” … And just to get the reaction that we got from the Opry crowd, it just made me feel like a whole new wave of country music is happening and everyone’s invited and everyone has a place here. And there is a safe place here for the LGBTQ community and also other marginalized communities here in country music. … It was so huge. And to have someone as iconic as Trisha Yearwood be the mouthpiece of love is love and not just saying it, but actually putting action to those words. It meant the whole world.