radionotes podcast episodes

Kelly Lang

by | Jun 4, 2023 | episodes | 0 comments

Kelly Lang

I’m Not Going Anywhere is a song penned by Kelly Lang, who has also released a book with the same name… that is now available as an audio-book.

Of Note: Olivia Newton-John’s latest double album – Just The Two of Us: The Duets Collection Volume 1 – Kelly can be heard doing a duet on the tune ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’.

From their home in America, Kelly called Down Under to chat with John…

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IMAGE CREDIT: Micheal Jenkins

Kelly Lang will be performing alongside Carly Pearce and more at Opry Goes Pink (tickets here) – 10th October 2023

SHOW NOTES: Kelly Lang

Title-track from the forthcoming album Dragonfly (LinksTo)

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Feature Guest: Kelly Lang

Dragonfly:

October 2023 will be performing/ed at the Grand Ol’ Opry – WKRN News 2 interview:

Our next Feature Guest is Joel Trigg of The Rookies:


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CREDITS

Theme/Music: Martin Kennedy and All India Radio   

Web-design/tech: Steve Davis

Voice: Tammy Weller  

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TRANSCRIPT

First version provided by REV team member – check to audio before quoting wider

John Murch:
Welcome to radionotes.

Kelly Lang:
Oh, thank you so much, John.

John Murch:
I listened to the audiobook, which was a strange experience. Normally with a book, I’m taking the highlighter and taking the notes and the little Post-it notes, and all that kind of stuff. Obviously with an audiobook, I had to type things out, and I’d be walking and I’d stop, and I’d write. It is so informative, and we will get to the importance of the book. But if I may, first, if you don’t mind sharing. Olivia Newton-John was an Australian and a world icon, but she also was a dear friend of yours, who took you through some of the journey that you had with breast cancer.

Kelly Lang:
Yes. Indeed, she was a dear friend. I miss her every day. I hear her voice in my head, every day. She was a very wise, witty person. I’m sure, in Australia, you know that already. But to be her girlfriend was… I always knew I was in the presence of greatness when I was in her presence. She would call me. You know what? We were friends for years, 10, 15 years, and I never got over it. I never got over how cool it was that her name would pop up on my caller ID and she would say, “I’m thinking about you. I’m driving to the grocery store, and I’m going to make blah, blah, blah.” During COVID, she was making yeast bread and sourdough bread, so she was telling me her recipes for that. We never really talked music that much, other than the fact that she really liked my style of singing.
I sing very low for a female, and she always sang high. So, she kind of wished that she could sing low, and vice versa. So, anytime I would do an album like say with cover tunes, I would send it to her as just a gift. She would always call me with her critiques of every one of the songs. She gave me the gift of knowing that she plays all of my albums for her dinner guests when she had people over for dinner, which was quite a compliment from somebody like herself. So when I saw her sing with Barry Gibb, there in Melbourne, for her gala for her hospital, they sang How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. So, when she called me and asked me if I was recording any new albums coming up, I said, “Yeah. You want to join me?” I really didn’t think she would because I just thought that was a funny thing to say. She goes, “Yeah. What are we going to sing?”
The first thing I could think of was How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. Barry (Gibb) is the one who introduced us, and it would just be a nice full circle moment. And, yes. It ended up on an album that I had out called Throwback, but we really never promoted it as a single, or anything. So, what a thrill it is to be coming out on this duet album.

John Murch:
And that’s the beauty of it, as well, that it is just like having a friend on your album. As you said, wasn’t promoted big. It was just released, as you do. Barry Gibb, we’ll get back to later in the conversation, but I should mention a duet, different song as a duet, on this album with Barry is there, as well. Woman’s World-

Kelly Lang:
I’ve got a beautiful video, some behind the scenes of never before seen footage, of Olivia and I in the studio, recording How Can You Mind A Broken Heart. It’s going to be debuted on womansworld.com on May 5th. I’m super excited. They never do that. It’s a very big publication here, in the United States. The link will be worldwide, so I’m very happy to share that.

John Murch:
That is part of the double album, Just the Two of Us: Duets, featuring John Travolta, Barry Gibb, Delta Goodrem, of course, who did biopic of Olivia’s life, Dolly Parton doing Jolene, and so much more. You met later in life, as you say, through Mr. Gibb, but what was your first memory of… What I was going to say? Sorry. I’ve got a thumb pop up for some reason.

Kelly Lang:
Yeah. I see that.

John Murch:
Okay. Someone’s popped into the room. Okay. I’ll just take that as being Olivia saying hello.

Kelly Lang:
She’s known to do that. I have lights that come on in my house when I talk about her, so. May be her. I don’t know.

John Murch:
For our listener, we’re on a Zoom chat and the little thumbs up came up. It’s, I believe, only us two on the call. I’m going to get back to my question. What was your first introduction to Olivia Newton-John?

Kelly Lang:
When I was six years old, my dad was Conway Twitty’s road manager for 25 years. Conway Twitty’s a huge entertainer. I’m sure y’all have heard of him, there. So, I was able to go see her in concert, because of Conway, when I was six, and I was able to meet her. I have a darling picture of me looking up at her. I just adored her. Of course, she wouldn’t remember that. So many years later, I became friends with Barry Gibb and his family. Sir Barry Gibb, I should say, was at a benefit that he was performing at. He didn’t think to tell me that Olivia was going to join him on that show. It’s just like drinking water to him, I guess.
So, I’m sitting at their table. He was backstage. I’m talking to his wife Linda, and somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Hello, love. May I sit next to you?” I go, “What? Gosh.” It was her, and it was such a shock. She sat down, and we instantly bonded. We had so much in common. We had, obviously, the Gibb family, music, songwriting, same friends groups, but we just never crossed paths, mothers, and ultimately breast cancer thrivers, as she would like to call us.
I had gone through breast cancer about nine years before that, but you still feel freshly going through that situation even in the eight years. She had gone through it way before me. So when we bonded over that, we were able to talk, “Hey, did you do this? Did you do that?” This is how witty she was. She said, “Did you go through chemo?” I said, “Yeah. But, I quit early, dropped out.” She goes, (Singing). From the movie Grease. So, she had a very quick sense of humour. She would give me her pearls of wisdom as to what she would learn in different cancer clinics, and all.
She would always make sure and call me, or meet me somewhere, and walk hand in hand with me and say, “This is what you should do. This is what you shouldn’t be eating.” I learned how to live life boldly and thoroughly and appreciatively, gratitude filled, because of her. She wrote the foreword to my book, that’s chalk filled with little things that I’ve grown and learned to do, but a lot of her wisdom is throughout the book, too. I dedicated a chapter to her and how much she meant to me. I just am thrilled that she had a part to do with my book.

John Murch:
In her final days, or at least in the final year or two, she was a big advocate of medical cannabis. I’m just-

Kelly Lang:
Yeah.

John Murch:
… wondering whether, or not, you have a view on it. You may not. That’s fine. Or, at least share some of that passion that she had for alternative medicine. So, that’s a broader topic for such treatments.

Kelly Lang:
When you are freshly diagnosed with something that serious, naturally you don’t know what to do. You just take the doctor’s advice. You feel like that’s all that you can do, is just go down that path. What I love about her is her bravery to use… Basically, she used herself as a self example of trial and error, and the possibility that that may work, may not work.
It’s almost like, how brave of her to say no to certain things that were typical treatments and embracing things that could possibly help the next person. She took a big chance on herself. However, I ultimately think it was the right choice. I believe in her passion towards that. My favourite thing that she offers there, at the hospital that she put her name so boldly on, was that we’re all mind, body, spirit. We don’t necessarily just need western medicine pumped into our veins to be able to heal.
It’s about peace and upward thinking and treating the spirit of the self. So, she’s incorporated places to paint, places to listen to music, and relax, and get massages and meditation, within the hospital. So, it’s a wellness centre that she was so passionate about, and I totally am on the same mindset with her. She’s given me the courage, if God forbid I ever get rediagnosed with this terrible disease, I would go down her same path. I would do exactly what she did. She single-handedly gave me that courage to do that because I believe that it was the right path. Even though she’s no longer here with us, I still trust that she did right.

John Murch:
And as we’d suggest, obviously, medical advice should not be ignored in these scenarios, but that holistic approach of-

Kelly Lang:
Yeah. I think you can do both, and she ended up doing both. She did use the more, I guess… I don’t know what the word would be. Less barbaric approach, I should say. She had to deal with some Eastern and Western mindsets, I’m sure, but she fought a great fight.

John Murch:
I also note, in the book, that you did use good old Dr. Google to decide that chemo wasn’t for you anymore. I would not suggest that, but obviously, that was your choice to use Dr. Google.

Kelly Lang:
Well, Dr. Google probably could get me in a lot of trouble, too. Everybody’s got their own path. The one thing I did really want to get across in my book, whether it’s right or not right, I don’t know, but we all are given the gift of intuition. We know our own bodies more than a doctor would. They just meet us, sometimes. “Nice to meet you. You have cancer.” They don’t know what we really feel. For instance, my cancer, that I was diagnosed with, it didn’t show up in a mammogram, or even an ultrasound. I just knew something wasn’t right. I just knew. I felt something there that the ultrasound wand did not detect. So, I had a little bit of… I guess I was abrupt to her, but I said, “May I use your wand and push it a little deeper to show you what I’m feeling?” If I hadn’t been proactive about my own health, I wouldn’t be here because it had already spread. It had already spread to my lymph nodes and needed much stronger treatments, at that point.
My point is, we have the gift, all of us. Women I think sometimes have a bit more of it because maybe we need a bit more protection, or something. I don’t know. I try to teach people to really listen and hone in on that instinct that we have because it’s there to protect us and save our lives, sometimes.

John Murch:
Talk to me about Get Better, Not Bitter. This is a book you read from a newscaster.

Kelly Lang:
Well, that was just one sample of a book that I had started doing a lot of… The thing is I didn’t have anybody to talk to. I didn’t have anybody. I was only 36 years old. I didn’t have anybody that I could just call and go, “What does this feel like? How do you navigate with two little kids?” My children were five and nine. No. They were like nine and 13, at the time.
It was, “Oh, my goodness.” I just felt very fearful, but yet, also angry. I wanted to do something to get out of this darkness so I could move into the light as quickly as I could. That particular book just gave you inspiration and courage to not get so bitter because it’s easy to get down. It’s a choice that we make to stay positive. Some days, clearly, I do not feel like smiling. If you smile anyway, it’s infectious, and it might brighten somebody else’s day up. Sometimes it’s not all about us having a good day. Sometimes it’s just about basically getting through and seeing the light in things. For instance, I’m sitting here at my computer, I have eyes to see you. I started breaking it down into little bits like, “Thank you God for my eyes. Thank you that I hear birds outside. Thank you, my dog’s barking.” I would find little things to just dwell upon, and I would watch comedies on purpose. I didn’t like watching comedies, some days. Then, once I was around Olivia, I realised that’s how she lives her whole life.

John Murch:
By the time we get to the Olivia chapter, you’ve got someone introduced in your life that you can have those eyes as you’re saying, to look back on what had been happening and what choices you’d made. At this point, I should also mention that you were born legally blind, and so at 18 you’re signed up for some eye surgery. Eyesight is something I guess you’re very thankful for, as well.

Kelly Lang:
I had 20/20 vision up til about 43, I guess, and then it started going downhill again. So, to find a doctor, now, that can fit me in unusual contacts… Since my surgery, my eye has got scars on it now from the cuts that they made. So, it’s really difficult to fit me in contacts, but I am blessed to have those. So, I’m really grateful. I hang on to it.

John Murch:
Talking about family, because there was some family that was also threaded throughout this book, and that of your two daughters. Also, quickly back to chapter nine, a character who’s introduced there is your brother Scott, obviously a very sensitive soul, deep down inside, that has some very loving feelings for the health of his sister.

Kelly Lang:
My brother Scott was born with brain cancer. So, the fact that he is in his 60s now is a tremendous miracle. They did not give him but one year to live. Now, he’s got five kids of his own and several grandchildren. He’s a walking miracle, truthfully. He’s one of these brothers, though. He’s not a lovey, touchy-feely guy, so he’s not like one of these, “Oh, I love you so much. I’m proud of you,” or anything. It’s never been that. So, this really shocked me. It took him to the core. I think it brought him back to, perhaps, his situation, as well, and how it touches every family, unfortunately.
He lovingly shaved my head when my hair started falling out in clumps, and he was making light of it. He called me GI Jane. So, I had really long hair before, and then of course, I was bald. So, I didn’t know that affected him so greatly, until I called his wife later for something and she said, “Scott’s in the bedroom crying. He has not been able to stop crying. He could not believe you had to do that, but he was grateful that you trusted him to do that.” Since then, every once in a while, I’ll get a pink ribbon in my mailbox, or a pink T-shirt, or something, just throughout the years. He’s not a real talkative, warm, fuzzy kind of guy, but I know he loves me. I know he worries about me. I know he’s proud of me.
My other brother, Mike, he was more quiet. He won’t talk about it. I think it bothered him more than he would like for you to know, but he’s a real practical guy. He’s one of the guys that go, “Well, it’s circle of life” kind of guy. So, I think it would devastate him if something were to have happened to me.
Now, my sister and I, she took it very seriously. She’s in the medical field, too, so she was very concerned about me, and nurturing and sending me things in the mail all the time. So when I would go through treatments, I would go stay at my mom’s house. It was a family thing. They all took care of me in some way, or form.

John Murch:
Huckabee was good enough to wear a pink shirt. You also made note, over the time, that that itself, just the use of this pink iconography, can sometimes be a little off-putting, particularly with groups like Code Pink, where it’s a very full on environment of personal stories, that that’s attached to. How are you feeling, now, about that representation of pink and the communication that that represents?

Kelly Lang:
I love your questions, John. Digging into things that I haven’t really talked about, really, much before. I really believe in the law of attraction and the fact that whatever you focus on greatly, will come back to you. So, I really use that in my life, a lot. At the time, I clearly wanted cancer to be behind me. I wanted nothing to do with it. I wasn’t wanting to focus on it. Anytime somebody would bring me something pink, it was just a constant reminder of… I liken it to a race car driver. If they’re going to go around a wall and they’re going to focus on one spot on the wall, they’re going to hit the wall.
And out of fear, out of not wanting to bring this in my life, at all, I chose not to talk about it. I clearly went the opposite way. I wanted nothing to do with… Although I appreciated the corporations that bring awareness to it, I kind of kept it at a distance. Not in offence to them. It was a personal thing.
Now, I’m 18 years out. I’m not living in fear anymore. I just thank people, when they offer that for me. I just think that’s very sweet. That’s their way of loving on you, and I’m good with that. I don’t have an aversion to it anymore, but I just choose not to embrace it like some other people would. That’s a me thing. You know?

John Murch:
The running away, then you write a song called I’m Not Going Anywhere. So, are you running away-

Kelly Lang:
Well-

John Murch:
… Kelly Lang, or are you not going anywhere? Let’s talk about the song.

Kelly Lang:
Let’s do. Okay. So, the song’s I’m Not Going Anywhere. I wrote it before I was diagnosed. I wrote it about a person that was watching her husband going through a turmoil with hospice, being at the house. He was terminal. The only time he would feel comforted was when, although he had a lot of help, his wife would say, “Honey, I’m not going anywhere. I’m right here.” Then, he would be real peaceful. I thought, “Wow. If you could bottle that.” That would be such a gift for people to feel that comfort and warmth. So, I wrote this song, and then several months later I was diagnosed. My boyfriend, at the time, I said, “You know what? I might not survive this. It’s time for you to go on. We’re not committed.” He says, “I’m not going anywhere.” I thought, “Ugh. Wow.” I needed to hear that so badly. He didn’t leave, and we’re married. 23 years together, now.
So, running away from it was a natural instinct. It’s human to go, “Hh. I want nothing to do with this.” Learning from Olivia, and I blame this wholeheartedly on Olivia, in seeing how many people she helped just by being open and vulnerable and sharing her story, I would be selfish to keep all of that to myself. I didn’t want to be a light. I didn’t want to be any type of somebody to focus on about this, until her encouragement. I see the many people that she helped heal, not physically maybe, but emotionally. Her music was healing. She was, in essence, a healer, 100%. I took a page from her playbook because I felt that she was not an accident in my life. She was not put in my life to just not learn anything from. That would be silly, to not learn from her, and embrace what she taught me, and help others with it, and her legacy to be able to pass on.
I will say, I had no intention of writing a book. I had written notes down because the doctor said, “Your daughters may want to have a video for you in case you don’t survive.” I’m like, “That’s very morbid.” But, I took her seriously. I wrote a bunch of notes down. I thought, “Maybe, one day I’ll write a book,” but I honestly forgot about them. So during the pandemic, I was cleaning out my garage. I had a lot of time on my hands, as we all did. I came across those notes. A friend of mine, she called me that night and she said, “I had a dream that you wrote a book, and it helped a lot of people.” It just struck with me. I’m like, “Does this have to do with the notes that I found?” She goes, “As a matter of fact, it does.”
So, that’s all I needed. I needed to know that if I did go down this path, that it was of help to people. I could care less about fame, or having a name for myself. The thing that keeps me going and helps me get up in the morning is knowing that this was not in vain. This experience was something that could be of help to others. It’s important for me to spread that message, now that I feel safer and more confident in my survival.

John Murch:
Can you please talk to me about Kim Fannin?

Kelly Lang:
So, we’re talking about our gut instinct, earlier. I was at a party. It was a benefit party, but I didn’t know who the benefit was for. I didn’t know anything about it. I was there not really wanting to be there. I’d really rather be home. As the party was ending and the show was over, I found myself thinking about this person that I saw across the room. I recognised the signs, thinning hair, kind of a green tint to her face, very sad and tired looking. I thought, “I don’t know what she’s going through, and I don’t want to come up and talk to her.” But, I felt this nudge, almost like a, “Go encourage her.” So, I listened and I reluctantly went over there. I said, “Excuse me. I don’t know who you are, but I can recognise myself in you.” At that point, I think I was like 12 years out of going through breast cancer. “I’m here. I’m a lightweight. If I can make it through anything dark like that, anybody can. So, I just wanted to be some kind of encouragement to you.”
Fast-forward, I find out that she’s friends with several people that I know. So, we became friendly. She came to some of my concerts. We became really good friends and started travelling with our families, and stuff, together. She confided in me. This is from her. She gave me permission to share this story in my book, as well. She had gone through breast cancer. She had these two very unhealthy children. Her dad just died, and her mom was just diagnosed with dementia. She was severely depressed, so much so that she was considering taking her life the next day. If I had not said something to her, not complimenting myself, but I encourage people to adhere to whatever nudging that they have, she would not be here today, and the book wouldn’t have been written. Lots of beautiful things have happened, in both of our lives, because of that nudging. So I encourage people, if you feel the need to encourage others, or give people a kind word, give your smile away, it’s free. So, that’s a very important thing that I learned from that.

John Murch:
Those that do need to talk to someone, there’s Lifeline on 131114. That number’s 131114. Resources at beyondblue.org.au. Our international listeners, that’s beyondblue.org.au. You can access those resources anywhere in the world.
Joining us, today, is Kelly Lang. Her audiobook is called I Ain’t Going Anywhere. If you’re one of those people who wants to stay home and not go anywhere, you’re missing out on Country for a Cause, on June 7th. Our guest, today, will be headlining that very show with a plethora of amazing artists. What’s it all about?

Kelly Lang:
Country for a Cause is created by a friend of ours, and my publicist, Scott Sexton. He has a very compassionate heart in wanting to give back to Monroe Carell, Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, in Nashville. Every year, we get together. My husband, T.G. Sheppard, and I host this show. We bring in friends in the music business that have the same hearts. Everybody donates their time. Everybody dedicates their music. We all get together. It’s like a big family. We have a big party. We auction off musical instruments, gifts, and stuff, and trips. It’s just a fun night. A great way to celebrate music, and also be able to help the kids.

John Murch:
What was the song you wrote for Conway, because it was somewhat one of your first ever songs?

Kelly Lang:
Yes. As a matter of fact, I was dating T.G. Sheppard at the time, and he used to open for Conway’s concerts a lot. Being that I grew up in the Conway family and era, we were having dinner one night, talking about our mutual friendship with Conway, and what he meant to him, what he meant to me, and how much we missed him. He’d been gone for several years, at that point. As I parted ways with him, a song started coming to me and I’m like, “Oh, boy.”
We met in the middle. He lived three hours from me, so we met like an hour and a half in. So, on the way back this song started coming. So, I was looking for a pen and a piece of paper, and I didn’t have either. So, I found a napkin and a lip liner. I wrote this song called Goodbye Darling, and it’s in reference to his huge hit called Hello Darling.
It was all about regret and not being able to see him, and not being able to tell him how I feel about him, how important he was to me, and how loved he was, and how he didn’t know how much he meant to so many people. He was a very shy man, very quiet and introverted, I should say. This song is just really in honour of how much I loved him, and the regrets that I have not being able to tell all of that to him. He saw me from the time I was one up until I was 25. Although I was seeing and I was opening up for a lot of people, I hadn’t really evolved as an artist, per se, or a writer, at his passing. He knew I was beginning to sing and knew I was beginning to do things, but I’d give anything to be able to ask his advice and grow as an artist with him, side by side. That didn’t happen, so.

John Murch:
You’ve written for a number of people over the years, but what is it about songwriting for you, Kelly, that keeps you interested?

Kelly Lang:
There’s your thumbs up, again. I can’t help but songwrite.

John Murch:
We’ll just check with Olivia. Olivia, what do you think of Kelly’s songwriting?

Kelly Lang:
Well, I’ll tell you what she thought of it. When she would hear songs that would affect her, that I’ve written, she called me. She goes, “Kelly, did you cry when you wrote I’ll Just Hold my Breath,” which is on an album called Obsession. I said, “Yes. Well, how do you know that?” She goes, “Because I cried when I heard it.” She really, intently, listened to my writing.
Writing, to me, is not something I can help. It’s almost like eating, or breathing, to me. It’s not something I just go make a meeting with other writers, to sit down and write a song. It wakes me up in the middle of the night. If I don’t have my voice recorder next to my bed, or notebook, or something, sometimes it will pass. I’ll regret not having written it down, or recorded something. I just feel like it comes from above.
I feel like God gives you inspiration to do things. It’s up to you to be responsible with what you do with it, but I can’t help but write. It doesn’t happen often. I went to see Brooks and Dunn in concert, a few months back. I didn’t expect to be inspired there. I ended up writing a song because of my experience at a Brooks and Dunn concert, that’s coming out in June. It’s all about getting chills when you hear a certain song. I’m sure you’ve experienced that, or when you get a lump in your throat, when you don’t even know what that’s meaning.
So, I connected the dots, as to what all those signs are, in this song that’s coming up. So, I can’t wait to share that with you. This song is called I Think it’s Jesus. It’s all about like, “Wow. That’s weird. I saw a penny where it shouldn’t belong. I see a thumb where it shouldn’t be. I saw a feather fall down. That wasn’t expected. I didn’t see a dove anywhere around.” So the common denominator, what is that? So, I wrote a song called I Think it’s Jesus. It may not be for everybody, but I really don’t care. I mean, it was for me, and it’s a way to summarise it. It really helped me be able to put a lid on that, for me.

John Murch:
Has there been songs in your time that you didn’t want to give to someone? They were too precious, and you had to record them, those songs that only you could ever record.

Kelly Lang:
Yep, yep.

John Murch:
How does that feel?

Kelly Lang:
Well, it’s something that happened recently. I don’t ever pitch my songs. I really just don’t. If somebody finds them in some way, that’s great. I must be really, really rare in that format. I don’t like sharing things that I’ve written and go, “Oh, this is the greatest song ever.” Because generally, those people that tell you they’re the greatest cooks cannot cook. So, I don’t want to be that songwriter to go, “This is the greatest song ever.” Then, them go, “Oh, please.” So, I’m kind of shy in that department.
I had somebody cut something of mine, that I felt was more for me. I wish them luck with it. I’m coming out with mine, at some point in life. I just feel that sometimes messages are given to you as an individual for your purpose, to share with them. It’s really weird when somebody else cuts your song. Sometimes they hear it in a totally different way than you do, and you’re used to hearing it a certain way, or a certain way you phrase things. If they phrase it different, as a writer, you go, “That’s not how I meant that.” It’s hard. It’s like giving your children away and letting somebody else raise them. It’s a strange, strange phenomenon.

John Murch:
11:11 is a phenomenon. It is the title of your debut album. When I saw that, and I’ve been doing it on and off over the years, I was reminded when I was first introduced to that, and who introduced me to the concept of 11:11. I don’t need to go into the full details of that, now. In fact, I won’t. It’s quite personal. But from that point on, that numerology sort of played in my mind when I saw it. Why is the album called 11:11?

Kelly Lang:
My dad… As a kid, I thought he made this up. Clearly, he did not. Anytime he would be on the road and thinking of us, and it happened to be 11:11, he would call one of us kids, “Hey, it’s 11:11.” That meant, “Thinking of you. Love you.” Just an overall, “Dad’s here and he is watching over you,” kind of thing.
Years after his passing, it was a form of comfort for me. When I would see it, I would be in the process of making a big decision, like say, I was going to purchase a car. This car that I wanted to buy, I was sitting in the car. It was like 3:43 in the afternoon. I was on the edge of whether I should buy it, or not. It was a little bit more expensive than I was comfortable with. So, I just thought, “Wonder what dad would do?” I looked down at the clock, and it was flashing 11:11. I thought, “Sold.” Just little things like that. Nothing really big, or anything. I do notice that, in doing a little bit more research about it, a lot of people think that that is the angel’s way of directing you into making more positive decisions. Who knows?
I’m not a numerologist. I’m not in astrology. I do feel that if we open our eyes, and open our hearts and minds to gifts that are given to us, why not use them to your benefit if that makes you feel comforted? That does, it comforts me. I feel my dad around, and I feel guided in a way. When I see a red bird, I feel comforted by that.

John Murch:
Speaking about things that fly, what is the passion, or the drive, for the dragonfly?

Kelly Lang:
This is the weirdest phenomenon. I’m looking at my backyard, right now, while we’re talking. I’ve got a pool back here, and I noticed the strangest of things. It’s not like it’s the same dragonfly that’s my pet, or something. Every summer I’ll go out there and I’ll hold my fingers up, and inevitably every day a dragonfly lands on my finger. One day, a funny story, I didn’t have my glasses on, or my contacts in. I did that and I’m like, “Wow. That is a big dragonfly. That’s the biggest dragonfly I’ve ever seen.” I reached for my glasses and I go, “Oh, there’s two mating on my finger.”
One thing I’ve learned that I had in common with Olivia, I always knew this, but it really reiterated it. When I was at her funeral service in California, before your service there in Australia, her husband John affectionately spoke about how animals come to her. She’s like Snow white in the forest. All the animals come out to play. That’s one thing we had in common. I find it so strange that birds come near me, and insects land on me, and deer come towards me. I don’t know what that is, but I love it. I love it. I think animals can sense your spirit, somehow. I don’t know.

John Murch:
Can we talk about Coco?

Kelly Lang:
Oh, I love Coco. I put her in her room so she wouldn’t bother us today, but she is the love of our lives. She’s so smart. I love her. I’m glad you asked about her.

John Murch:
Coco is one of many dogs, I believe, that you’ve had over the years. How does Coco make a house a home?

Kelly Lang:
I’m surprised she’s not in here chewing up something, as we’re talking. If I don’t give her 1000% attention, she’s into something. She loves my makeup, she loves clothes. She’ll take off running with underwear, or something through the house. She keeps us laughing all the time, but she’s grown into quite a lover. She just wants to please us so much. But at nighttime, she’s laying as close to me as she can. I just go, “You know what time it is.” She’ll just get up and walk into her little crate, and turns around for a treat. She’s just so much better behaved now than she once was. At one point, I thought she was like the Tasmanian devil. She was crazy. We got through those puppy stages. So, I’m grateful that we got through. Her sister, Piper, is Kim Fannin’s sister. So, they get to see each other quite often. It’s really kind of neat to see them still remember each other, even though months go by. They pick up right where they left off. It’s a neat relationship.

John Murch:
Tasmanian devils aren’t that crazy. I’m sure they were lovely.

Kelly Lang:
Okay. The one on the cartoon, I should say.

John Murch:
Yes, yes. Tazo. Yeah. We need better male role models in society and in the music industry, in general. One thing I picked up is that of the placement of coins across the world. Can you talk to me, if you don’t mind, about significance of coins across the world, not just in fountains?

Kelly Lang:
Well, I had never heard of this phenomenon before dating T.G. He would say, “This is a really special day. We need to celebrate this. We need to stop and realise we need to seal this moment in time. Give me a coin.” I would give him a coin. He would kiss it, he’d make me kiss the coin, and then he’d put it in some place, rather hidden, that nobody else would see, or the weather would affect it, or wind, or whatever. I said, “Why are you doing this?” He says, “Because it’s important to seal this moment. Then, maybe at some point you’ll want to go back and you can reach for that coin, and it’ll take you right back to where you were and who you were with.” I’m like, “That’s amazing.”
We haven’t done it in a little while because we’ve been together for so long. There’s so many coins that we have spread across the world, different locations, like where we had our first kiss, or our football stadium seats, things like that. Some coins we have not been able to refind, again. I actually wrote a song about it called When We Loved Here. I’ll be putting that out at some point in the next couple of years. It’s a really sweet sentiment for people to have that in common and be able to revisit.

John Murch:
When I was listening about the life of your now husband, he had 60 cents to his name when he left home. So, I can imagine him holding coins and going, “This is all I’ve got.” Then, to get to a place in his life where he can place and share coins with the one he loves, across the world, really hit me in a really good way.

Kelly Lang:
I’ve never thought of it like that. That’s beautiful. You know what? A side note. He lived in this little, tiny town called Humboldt, Tennessee. They still have the same amount of people now that they did before. Every time a baby’s been born, a man leaves town is why, so. It’s a tiny little, tiny town in Tennessee. Coming up, they’re getting ready to honour him as T.G. Sheppard Day, and name a street after him, and do a big plaque, and have dinner with the Governor, and all this stuff. So, I’m really thrilled because that’s the same street that he ran away from to go chase his dreams. He was a car hop, there. He’s had a real full circle life, and he’s a fascinating man.

John Murch:
Speaking about your childhood, you were born in Oklahoma. They awarded you with an award for the town, not like a key to the city, but close to it. It was that kind of award. What are your memories of Oklahoma?

Kelly Lang:
I love Oklahoma. I’ve still got a lot of family members there, and I cherish my memories tremendously. It’s changed a lot, a lot of the things that held me there as a child. A lot of the family members are no longer there. There’s so many incredible artists that come from Oklahoma. It’s in the water, there, like Vince Gill, and Carrie Underwood, and oh, my gosh, Garth Brooks.

John Murch:
Garth Brooks.

Kelly Lang:
Yeah. Tonnes of them from close in that region. So, I’m really honoured to be from there. For them to give me a Kelly Lang Day is mind-blowing. The Oklahoma Hall of Fame put me in their Hall of Fame, most recently. My family thinks I’m really special, now, so. It’s quite fun to have the connections, and I’ll always find my heart still lives there.

John Murch:
You started by doing paintings of the top of a coffee cup. Then, doing a portrait of your now husband, which is in your music room, or at least in the home that you now share. What was the kernel of the idea that wanted you to become an oil painter, for which you now are?

Kelly Lang:
I didn’t want to be one. My mom and my brother paint. He’s a trained painter from college. I sing. I thought that was his line. I thought this was my lane, I write. So T.G., as a gift, he just thought, “She could probably paint.” So, he bought me an oil painting kit. I thought, “What am I supposed to do with this? I don’t have any desire to paint.” So, just to pay him back. I’m not sure if you all get Folgers coffee, there.

John Murch:
Going to put an advert you’re about to talk to, in the show notes.

Kelly Lang:
So, he wrote the theme song to their commercial, The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup. So, I thought it was just perfect for me to paint a coffee cup for him, as a gift for buying me this oil painting kit. So, this lady that was framing my painting, that I did for him, she said, “I love this. I want to buy this.” I thought, “Uh. There’s money to be had.” So, I started painting just as a fluke. Then, I started making a living doing it. Then, I got kind of busy, and I got too tired of the deadlines with that. So, I only painted for a while, things that I just really enjoyed, as gifts for people. I haven’t painted in a little while. I just really have been super busy with the book, and travelling, and all that. I need to get into that more in the fall and winter time, so that makes it a little bit easier to be home.

John Murch:
Did a portrait of your husband, and I believe it hangs out with Elvis Presley’s gun.

Kelly Lang:
I just was trying my hand at portraits. It’s not something that’s super easy for me, in any way. My favourite thing about him is not him on stage. It’s not him as an artist, or anything. At the end of his show, he would get on the bus, and he would put his glasses on and he would write checks. He just looked sexy. I don’t know what that is. I just took a snapshot of him doing that one night. It was my favourite aspect of him, and I painted it. I think it looks like him. I don’t know what he thinks about it, but he was appreciative of it.

John Murch:
I did name-drop that he does have, or did have, Elvis’s gun that was gifted to him. That’s his story.

Kelly Lang:
Yeah.

John Murch:
Your story is that Marie Presley is in your circle.

Kelly Lang:
I’m closer to Priscilla.

John Murch:
Priscilla-

Kelly Lang:
His-

John Murch:
… apologies.

Kelly Lang:
… wife. Yeah, yeah. As a matter of fact, she is very supportive of my music. She was going to write me a promotional thing for the last album, but unfortunately, her grandson passed away. I certainly wasn’t going to circle back around for that. She loved my book. As a matter of fact, she’s given my book to several friends that are going through breast cancer. Her cousin, Ivy, who lives with her, she gave Ivy my book. Ivy really benefited, this is her lips not mine, from some things that I went through. She decided to make those same decisions for herself, and is really happy that she chose a different route than what the doctors had posed for her. I don’t advocate that, but I just shared my story. She seemed to really lean in a little harder than I thought she would. It’s been a great relationship between Priscilla and I. She’s a lovely friend. She’s a very sweet and sensitive person. I just hate all of her losses that she’s had. It really is sad, breaks my heart.

John Murch:
She also dropped past for your 53rd birthday, as well.

Kelly Lang:
Yeah. A friend of mine in Jackson, Tennessee, which is in between Nashville and Memphis, was having a dinner party for me. He was just happy to have a few friends over, and he didn’t tell me who he really invited. We were just sitting there talking. All of a sudden I get tapped on the shoulder, and it’s Priscilla Presley at my birthday party. So I was like, “Oh, my gosh.” That was Elvis week, was really a very busy week for her, there in Memphis. My husband just walked in. Hi, baby.

T.G. Sheppard:
Hi.

John Murch:
Hi, T.G.

Kelly Lang:
So-

T.G. Sheppard:
Hey. How are you?

Kelly Lang:
This is John. No. But, she came to my party and surprised me. I can’t imagine her doing that for very many people. She’s a very busy woman, so I marked that as bucket list for me. It was really cool.

John Murch:
Ascension Hospitals, I hadn’t heard of them before, but they’re quite a big organisation across America, where you join us from. Can you talk to us how your song became part of their story?

Kelly Lang:
I’d gone to their hospital for care when I was diagnosed with cancer. It was actually called something else at the time. Many years later, somebody had heard my story. They thought it would be a good marketing tool for them to share my story within their lobby, in their waiting room, to encourage other patients that, “Hey.” I was at that time, 14 years out, I guess. It’s just a nice, feel good story for their patients. Somebody in the higher ups, at marketing, got wind of that. They also heard me sing it at a place here in Nashville called the Bluebird Cafe, on YouTube. They thought, “Wow. That song would be uplifting and encouraging for a national commercial.” So, they reached out to my music administrator and asked if I would be willing to allow that song to be part of the campaign. I did.
I naively thought it would be just a nice commercial and didn’t think much about it. It came out right when the pandemic hit and everybody was stuck at home. Everybody was having to leave their loved ones in nursing homes and hospitals, and it was just an unfortunate situation across the world. So, it really resonated with people, to leave comfort. Music is comforting and somewhat healing to some people. It filled a big void for a lot of people that were needing that filled. I’ve had a lot of lovely letters written to me, from people that heard it and played it for their loved ones. Unfortunately, they played it at some funerals, but then played it at their weddings. It was likened to Debbie Boone’s song, You Light Up My Life, where it was really multifaceted and a lot of people used it in different ways. It really propelled my visibility and my writing, and it’s just a beautiful gift that I was given from them.

John Murch:
And also, it ran during the Super Bowl. Shazam, I noticed, up to about 13,000 plus hits. So, people have been hearing it in the wild and have picked up on that. Of course, that brings them back to you and the other music that you’re producing. I also noticed, cruise ship experience.

Kelly Lang:
I love cruises. We just recently performed on a country music cruise in January. I just love it. I love people. I love when people come and recognise us, and sit with us and talk and give us their impression of our music. My husband and I just absolutely love performing on them. We may be doing our own cruise. That way people can come if they’re fans of our music, or whatever. We might grab some other of our artist friends and do our own cruise. I think it’d be a blast to just, maybe, do three or four a year, and do our own concerts on there. It’s a lot of fun, and the crowd is built in. They can’t go anywhere, so they’re stuck there, and they need entertainment. It’s a win-win for us.

John Murch:
The genre that you’re within, or the range of genres that you’re within, very much are suited to that, as well.

Kelly Lang:
Yeah.

John Murch:
Chapter 13 of the book, you mentioned Tim McGraw’s Live Like Were Dying-

Kelly Lang:
Yes.

John Murch:
… how that fits into this narrative about surviving and not letting the actual disease take over your thought process.

Kelly Lang:
Live Like You Were Dying is a person that, in the song, they were diagnosed with cancer. Before they left there, they had this epiphany like, “Wow. I need to ride that bull. I need to jump out of a plane. I need all these things.” You need to just carpe diem, or whatever. You just need to seize the moment.
I ended up writing a song called Life Sentence. My cancer diagnosis, I didn’t want it to be my death sentence. I wanted that to be switched in my brain and turn it into my life sentence. So I wrote a song, inspired by the Tim McGraw way of living and Olivia’s way of living. “Wow. We could really go dark with this if we wanted to.” A better choice is to appreciate the sky being bluer and the grass being greener, and really live life bigger and enjoy the moment that you’ve got. You’re not guaranteed your next breath. That’s the inspiration that I got from that song to write Life Sentence. As a matter of fact, I dedicated the video to Olivia. It’s a lot of people that, gone through their own experiences with cancer, sent in their picture holding up how they’re going to choose to live life more appreciatively, or abundantly. So, it’s a really exciting video.

John Murch:
You now, or have been doing, the journaling idea of gratitude journaling. How’s that fitting into both your life, as well as your songwriting? Because I can imagine by doing that writing process, it’s helping the songwriting process, as well, if only just for ideas of what to sing about.

Kelly Lang:
Yeah. It does. I’m guilty of going in and out of being faithful to doing it on a daily basis, but I learned something the other day. It gave me a little bit of encouragement not to beat myself up for not doing it every day. I saw Oprah Winfrey talking about The Secret, and things like that. She said that when you learn to live in this way, you don’t have to write things down, then. You just live appreciatively. You live abundantly. So, life gives you back what you give it. You don’t have to be so mindful to journal if you’re already living in that mindset, which I have grown into doing. My life really revolves in such a positive way, I think it can only be the way I’ve trained myself to live. So when I do write it down, it becomes more obvious to me, and it becomes more clear. I can look back on those journals as to how far I’ve come, which is really, really powerful.

John Murch:
2003, watching the Oprah Show, that started you on this journey.

Kelly Lang:
I was at home with my two girls, and the Oprah Winfrey show that day was about breast cancer under 40. This young girl, she was 26 years old, really beautiful girl, she was encouraging people to do a self exam. I never did that before and I thought, “This is boring.” So, I kept clicking the channel, trying to find something more fun to watch. Nothing else was on, so I kept landing on her. I thought, “Okay. What’s it going to hurt?” So I did, and that’s when I found two little spots under my arm and I thought, “Oh, there’s no way.”
So, I put off going to the doctor, and the doctor said, “Oh, you’re too young for this.” I said, “That’s what that girl said.” It ended up, she waited eight more months before she took me seriously. I’d like to be an advocate for people. If you feel something, just go check it out.

John Murch:
Lorrie Morgan.

Kelly Lang:
She is a country music singer, and I looked up to her a great deal. She’s a little bit older than myself, and I really respected and admired her musical career. I kind of wanted to be her when I grew up. It is one of those things, “If I could have a career, that’s who I would want it to be like.” I really love the fact that she took me under her wing at a very young age and was willing to… She didn’t have time. She had a huge career, here, but she took the time to embrace me and love on me and help me. It was a pivotal place in my career that I needed her, in particular, to be kind to me, which gives me the wanting to help others that might be coming up underneath myself. So, I love that about her.

John Murch:
Star Search, what was that experience all about? Obviously, I found the clip of it and I was going, “What a voice, back then.”

Kelly Lang:
I had more enthusiasm than talent, at the time. I was a very hyper kid. I was an opening act for most every country artist at a very young age. I had a single on the charts when I was 15 and was doing local television. Ed McMahon was the host of Star Search. He was on the Tonight Show here, for many years. It’s like American Idol for lack of better thing. I don’t know if you get American Idol there, or not. Well, this was the original American Idol.

John Murch:
Yes.

Kelly Lang:
Okay. This is before social media, but it was that big. It was a huge show. They were going around doing talent scouts. They came to me when I was 17, before they had the younger generation on there. So, I was too young to join it the first year. Second year, they came back and wanted to know if I would try out, and I did.
I went up against a girl named Tareva Henderson. She had won six or seven weeks in a row. The audience tied us. No. The judges tied us, and then they threw it to the audience to break the tie. They tied us, which in the total history of Star Search that had never happened. So, they made me come back and perform against two girls, Tareva and another girl. I was lucky enough to win that night. Came back the third week and did not win, but I was able to go into the semifinals.
It was a really cool experience. Grateful that I did it. In light of that today, with social media and how people are so judgmental and willing to sit behind their computers and be ugly, thank God I’m not in it today. I have great empathy for these kids trying out. It takes a lot of courage to do that, and they’re killing it. I’m so proud of them.

John Murch:
There’s a lot of yarns in this book. I’m looking down my notes going, “Do we talk about that?” I’m like, “No, no. People can find out in the book,” for example, how an ex-wife set you up with T.G. You need to read the book about that. I was like, “What a woman.”

Kelly Lang:
She either really loved us and thought the world of us, or she hated both of us and wanted us to miserably hate each other. It backfired, either way.

John Murch:
So, I’ll leave that for the book. The one thing we should mention is Burt Reynolds, and this is the film Deal.

Kelly Lang:
First time I’d ever heard my music in a movie. There’s two songs of mine that ended up in that movie, actually. To be able to go to Vegas to see the premiere of it, and walk the red carpet… I’m hoping that I can write for more movies. It was a real cool experience. Didn’t meet Burt that night. He was too ill by the time the movie had come out. I had met him before. T.G. was friends with him before, so it’s kind of a full circle moment for us both, to be able to say that we had that experience together.

John Murch:
What is your favourite film of all time?

Kelly Lang:
I love Urban Cowboy. John Travolta is in this movie. You’re familiar with John. He played a cowboy in the movie. It’s when the era of line dancing became really, really big in Texas, and that’s when my career began taking off in America. Everybody was dressing in their finest hats and their finest cowboy clothing, and stuff, and dancing. It was such a great era of music. Really loved that movie. Of course, I love Coal Miner’s Daughter, too. I love true stories. I like to see true stories. So, I’d say those two are my all time favourite, though.

John Murch:
There’s a piano in your home that I think a lot of people have a great admiration for you. Can you talk to us about the piano in your home?

Kelly Lang:
We have a beautiful baby grand piano, and after I went through a divorce, I lost my piano. I had to sell it, and I was so sad. I wanted it back. It’s not that I play that often, it’s not even that I’m even good at it. It just was a feeling of if I needed to write, I could go to that, and it was comforting to me. So, we found a company here, in the Gallatin area, and they were really kind. They knew who I was. They knew about my writing. They knew I had a lot of artists here, at the house. So, we struck a deal for them to place a piano in our house, to have artists play around it and sing around it, sign the piano, and then donate it to causes. We’re on our third piano, now.
Really cool to be able to raise money and be able to enjoy the process of that, too. This one I’m keeping, though. I went ahead and made the deal because I had Brenda Lee, Olivia, Barry Gibb sign it, Mac Davis, which I don’t know if you’re familiar with him, but a huge star in the States, all of the Oak Ridge Boys. It’s just very special to me because Olivia and Barry were here, at my house, and had dinner with me here, at my house. It’s cooking for royalty, and I don’t even cook. I wouldn’t take anything for them being at my piano and singing with me. I couldn’t let the piano go this time.

John Murch:
Can I suggest, if you don’t have vegan guests, then Springer Mountain Farm Chickens might be a good thing to cook?

Kelly Lang:
Right. They’re my beautiful sponsor. Gus Arrendale is the owner of the company. He’s a dear friend, and he believes in sharing music and the love of it, so thank God for him.

John Murch:
Thank you very much Kelly Lang for joining us.

Kelly Lang:
Thank you for your time. I really enjoyed our conversation.

 

AI generated summary supplied by Rev: Kelly Lang discusses her friendship with Olivia Newton-John and the impact she had on her life. Lang talks about their shared experiences with breast cancer and how Newton-John provided support and guidance during her own journey. She also discusses her music career, including her duet with Newton-John and her experiences performing on cruises. Lang shares her thoughts on gratitude journaling and the importance of living life to the fullest. She also mentions her involvement with Ascension Hospitals and the impact her song had on their marketing campaign. Lang reflects on her experiences on Star Search and her admiration for Lorrie Morgan. She also mentions her love for films like Urban Cowboy and Coal Miner’s Daughter. Finally, Lang discusses the piano in her home and its significance to her and her music career.

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