"Thank God I Do", the lead single on Part 1 of her self-titled album, "Lauren Daigle" was released in May. Part 2 of the album (that includes 10 more singles!) will be available soon! Lauren joins me on the podcast today and my life feels a little brighter and a lot more colorful after our conversation. I'm sure yours will too! ~ Delilah
How's the summer treating you? Have you been able to check out all the events and activities you were planning? If you check those off your list. We are heading into September soon, so I hope you've got a whittled down to just a few more things you hope to do, especially if you have kids heading back to school in the next few days. I hope the last few months I've found you enjoying a mixture of excitement and relaxation. Craziness the good kind, the jumping in the pool kind, the splashing one another kind, and some moments of quiet contemplation. You know, there's never a dull moment around my farm. And while I tumble into bed exhausted each evening, I still find myself wishing that summer could last forever. I love the long summer days. I love having my kids home. I love because I have young kids, grade school kids, and I have grandkids. I love listening to their chatter, their laughter, not so much their arguments. Yeah, I could leave those out. I miss them when they head back to school. I hate having that structure that we have to get up and do the same thing over again. I love the ebb and flow of summer. I'm pouring my energies into teaching them how to toast the perfect marshmallow. I like them gold and brown. I do not like my marshmallows burnt. I remember the words to my girl Scout Camp songs, well some of the words, and we sit around the fire and we sing songs. When my memory fails me, or when we've gone whoorse, someone pulls out a bluetooth speaker and we listen to more modern songs while watching the glowing verse and the fire. A new song that's been on repeat lately is thank God I Do. My daughter, Delilah Junior loves this song. Have you heard it? It's a powerful song about faith and when everything else goes wrong, how you still have a rock to lean on. We're going to talk about that song with today's podcast guest. She is a two time Grammy winner singer songwriter with a new single out. The folks are going absolutely in saying nover thank God I Do. The lead singer on her latest album, debuted to critical acclaim in March, and it's a two part album. She dropped ten songs and then there's a second half to it. Lauren Daegel is the name of the album, also the name of my guest today. The first ten songs were released back in May, and now the second ten songs are making their arrival. It's been a couple of years since Lauren dropped by to Chad. I can't wait to hear what she's been up to and talk about her new music. We'll find out right after I share some details about one of today's wonderful podcast sponsors. With the arrival of Warmer Weather, I want to welcome back one of my favorite podcast sponsors, Laura Geller Beauty. They have the perfect summer essentials that include three of my favorites. For a little shimmer and sparkle, the Champagne Glows Spackles skin perfecting primer can't be beat. Another is the Baked Bronze and Brighton Bronzer. It's easy to apply and gives you that sun kiss look without ever appearing orange or unnatural. And I finished with the Jelly Balm hydrating lip color with Vitamin E for luscious hydrated summer lips. Many days I use only these three products to look and feel ready for whatever summer brings my way. You'll find it all at Laura gellerdotch. That's Laurageller dot com for the perfect addition to your summer beach bag with me. On today's episode of Love, Someone is the incredibly talented, beautiful Lauren Diego. Welcome back. I haven't seen you in a couple of years. Girlfriend.
I know, and I remember our conversation from last time my heart. When I saw your name pop up on my calendar, I was like, yes, I'm so glad I'm getting to talk to you.
We were talking about you behind your back yesterday because you are one of those people that has such natural beauty, like you have natural talent, and you have natural beauty where it doesn't matter. You could put on a gunny sack, you could put on a burlap bag and run your fingers through your hair and look like look like summertime. You look like you look like summertime.
Thank you. It's true. I will be honest. Half the time, I am throwing on a bag. At the last second, he was like, oh wait, I have to be ready for that in ten minutes. We did this event the other day. We had to walk down a red carpet for it, and it's televised, this whole thing, and I ended up we had to be at the red carpet for five point thirty. I had no makeup on, didn't have my hair done. Then it wasn't dressed, and I started at five eighteen. I was like, let's just get it done and roll And you know why because people ask me about it all the time, like why I did the thing where you sit in chairs for two hours and you know, you get your hair done four hours, makeup, just the whole thing. And I noticed how much life I was missing out on because like during that time, the rest of my team would go get coffee or go have dinner or whatever.
And you're sitting They're getting fake eyelashes glued on exactly.
And I said, oh, this is great for very specific occasions, but other than that.
Like a mayor American idol, you can set in the chair to do that, right, did you set in the chair?
I did it.
You did it.
I just threw it together and.
Rolled out and you are a breath of fresh air. Lauren Daegil. So you have an album that's a two part album. The first ten songs you drop back in May, and now the next ten songs are coming out shortly, like in a week or two right, and everybody is talking about thank God, I do. I listened to the lyrics. Usually I just, you know, kind of breeze over them, but I listened to the lyrics. It sounds like you've been going through some stuff, sweetheart, Like did you write that from your heart?
Oh?
Yeah, so you have been going through some stuff?
Yes, And it's kind of crazy like I did. We all went through COVID, right, We all experienced the pandemic. And I remember in that process, I had never experienced a true panic attack or true anxiety attack. There were moments where I would be worried about something or concerned about something, but it never I never really had the true overhaul of those emotions or those feelings, you know. And there was this one time, very first panic attack ever, and it lasted for seven hours. And I had two people that were next to me throughout the entire process, one of my really good friends and my mom. And they didn't look at me in the process with any shame. They didn't think, well, this girl's crazy, she's losing her mind. There wasn't anything. There was no judgment. It was just, hey, we're going to sit with you until you get to the other side, and for me that was like the perfect representation of God's love in the way that even in the midst of what might feel like chaos for us, he is so faithful and kind to just sit next to us and that type of support. I went into the studio a couple weeks later and my friend was talking to me about a similar situation that they'd gone through with one of their loved ones, and I was like, well, this chorus came to mind in this little piano motube came to mind. I don't know if it's anything, but would you want to write on it? And we wrote the song in like forty five minutes. It was super fast, but it was because it was so raw and at the surface for the both of us.
When I listened to the lyrics, I said, a prayer for you, I said, she's going through something for me. If I never went through those really tough times, I don't know that my faith would be so strong. And that's what I got out of the song is even though you're going through it, you know who to cling to.
Oh, yeah, that is it. I've even after having released this song, it is still a song that I lay in bed. This might be crazy, but I literally lay in bed and I still say thank God, thank God, thank God that I know you, thank God that you're someone I can hold on to. And it's because of your kindness and your trustworthiness that I can say that that you know that I can rely on you. So yeah, it came from a very raw place that I was honestly really intimidated to talk about. At the start of this whole journey, I was like, Oh, I'm going to talk about how that song. You know, it's just with like for people that help you through difficult times. And the more I the more I started telling the story them, I was like, you know, I can't. I can't hide the things that I wrestled during that time in the I was telling someone, it's not that I was afraid of COVID, it was that I was afraid of the times. And the thing about it is, I've found myself afraid of people, and you're clearly a deep impath. I'm definitely a deep EmPATH. I can put myself in any person's shoes, and I remember this period of time where everybody was kind of feeling this animosity and if you didn't think the way I thought, or if you didn't believe the way that I thought, there was this bubbling under the surface of the American humanity. It was a lot of animosity. And for me, that was the most paralyzing place to have ever been in my life, where I would look at a stranger and not see a friend, because I was someone who would talk to anybody on the side of the road and you know, instantly draw some sort of connection. And just through flying and seeing people fighting and just all of the intensity of the time, I became very afraid of people, thus drawing these panic attacks. But people were like my love, like the thing that I genuinely cared about. And I was on this one flight and I started having a panic attack, and this was all very new to me, so I didn't know anything about it. And I'm thinking, I got to get off this plane because.
No, when you're at thirty thousand feet.
Yeah, and nobody on here is safe, because that was the narrative that I was believing, right, everybody's somebody's gonna throw soda at me or something, you know, like nobody is safe. And this lady looked at me, she was sitting next to me, and she said, I promise if you stay on this fight. It was before they had closed the boarding door. She's like a promise, if you stay on this fight, I will get you through to the other side. And she did. She held my hand the hall way. We made it through the fight, and it was just this beautiful moment of me seeing like the thing that I was the most afraid of.
And this wasn't somebody traveling with you. This was a stranger that you were seated next to you.
Yeah, traveling alone. This was a stranger and it was so amazing. The thing that I was so afraid of was the thing that got me to the other side. So, yeah, there was a lot learned in that season.
That is beautiful. It is so good to be catching up with Lauren Dagils. She is a breath of fresh air. She is like a daisy. She's like a whole bouquet of daisy. She is lovely and delightful. Well, hear a little more from her when I finished telling you about one of the podcast sponsors that makes this conversation possible. This podcast is sponsored by Better Help. Having someone to talk with in times of uncertainty is so helpful being listened to and hearing wisdom from a thoughtful therapist can be just what you need. Better help can be most helpful in finding a licensed therapist to help you. Better Help is entirely online. It's designed to be convenient, helpful, flexible, and suited to your schedule. You'll fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist. If that relationship is helpful to you, that's wonderful. If you choose to switch therapist, you can do so with Better Help at any time for no additional charge. Let therapy be your map with better help. Visit betterhelp dot com slash love Someone today to get ten percent off your first month. That's Better Help h elp dot com slash love Someone. I think we have a hard time owning or talking about, or admitting when we have something like panic attacks or debilitating fears or grief, that it swallows you up and turns you into somebody you never thought you would be. You know, it's hard to talk about, it's hard to be honest, but I get Like I said, when I listen to the lyrics of your song, I prayed because I said, this sweet little girl is going through something. Lord, please go to her, Please bless her.
Oh thank you. I felt your prayers. I felt them because I got to experience the other side, you know, and it is true. I don't know. I was like the token adrenaline junkie. So I would skydive and I would cliff jump and do all these things. And then I became the person that was paralyzed by fear, and it was such a weird world. I was like, I am the person who constantly overcomes fear. Like the things that would make the world afraid are the things I jump into. Right.
But like you said, your love is people. Your love is connection, your love your soul's desire. Your gift from God is being able to connect with people on a real level and then share truth in song. That's your gift. It's like a photographer that everybody might see the same thing, but a really good photographer with their soul sees a different perspective and takes that picture and then shares it with the world, and you see everything changes when you see it through their lens. You're that photographer. Your voice, you were songwriting, because it's not just your voice, it's the whole combination. And we are in crazy times. You know, COVID might have spurret it or brought it on. But we are in crazy times where if you misspeak a word, if you mislabel something, if you are not even aware of what you're misspeaking, you're attacked, especially if you're in the public eye like you are. Yes, right, there is reason to attack, and so there is a lot of fear. But I noticed because I didn't travel much after COVID, you know, I just didn't not just during COVID, but after COVID, and when I started traveling again, I noticed such a huge change, like night and day from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty two or twenty twenty three, in the level of animosity and rage that's boiling right beneath the surface.
Yep.
And I see it in airports, on airplanes with drivers, with drivers like I cannot believe how crazy drivers are. I'm like, what in the world do you not know? If you hit somebody you will get hurt too, Like yeah, So I get that. I totally get that.
It is I keep telling myself, for anything that is negative that happens in the world, try to put back into the world ten times the amount of positive. Like for any experience the other day, I was driving and I didn't know where I was going, and I pulled over. There was a tow truck in the middle of the road. I was on my haul and Drive, which is if you know anything about the Holland Drive it.
Is I know Mahland Drive, Yeah, and I love the Jagaranda trees on Maholland Drive though.
Yes, beautiful, so beautiful, so beautiful. And there was a tow truck towing a car and in the process they pulled this car over and blocked one of the lanes, and so I went around the tow truck like there was a traffic that was yeah, that was directing people around the tow truck, and I go around and I asked him where are we supposed to park? Because that's why this person was getting towed. So I was like, I need to know what's up. And I end up going around the person and these three bikers come around the corner in the oncoming traffic lane. They started screaming all these profanities, cursing me out, screaming at the top of the lungs. The traffic policeman was like, what is happening? They were so volatile, and I drove off. I looked at them and I said, there's yeah, there's a tow truck. They're directing us around a tow truck. And I drove off and my instant feeling was like so much anger, and then it just anger was covering how sad. I was turned immediately into sorrow and like my eyes filled with tears, and I said, God, I need you to restore humanity, Like what is what is in the hearts of people right now that they feel like they can scream at someone they've never met and curse them out over just going around a tow truck Like it wasn't I wasn't even doing anything to them, right, And so what I did in the process, I went on a hike because I was like, I got to get that out of me.
Toxic. It's toxic, it's like poison in your soul.
Yes, yes, So I went on a hike and I talked to every person on the hike, and so someone stopped me and said, I'm so glad that you actually took time to stop to talk to me today, like this really meant something to me, and it's it was just so kind. And I talked I'm not kidding to probably about nine individuals along this hip and I'm going back to my car on the hall and drive and I was on a jog running and do you know that a biker passed me and cheered me on. He's like, keep going, keep going, because I was running uphill and it was just, you know, it was just a moment. I could sit and focus on that one negative experience, or I could take that one negative experience and turn it into ten positive experiences. And what the plan of that negativity would be is to silence us, to quiet us from wanting to talk to anybody, to keep us from, you know, pouring love back into the world. When you're hurt, you become defensive, right, But the way to get those walls back down is just to love the next person. Just keep loving the next person, keep loving the next person, and eventually it will actually break you out of the pain that you were feeling. Yeah, it's really interesting.
Well, thank god you did, and thank god I do. Yay, Lauren Dagel, thank you for this time. I know you've got a crazy busy schedule, but I love you. I pray for you. You are such a blessing, such a gift from God. So thank you.
Thank You, thank You, Yes, thank you la.
Part one of our self titled album Lauren Dagel was released in May with ten songs, thank God I Do being the lead single. Part two of the album includes ten more singles and will be released soon. If you haven't done so already, download Part one now and definitely get Part two when it becomes available. Lauren's North American Kaleidioscope Tour begins September sixth that last until December ninth. There's bound to be a venue near you, so check it out at Laurendegel dot com and get tickets before they sell out. While there's lots of talk about the approaching fall, don't waste a single day of the summer that we have left. Get your steps in while the evenings are still warm and there's daylight after five o'clock I don't know. Take in a Little league game, dip your toes in the water at a beach, or at a lake or at a creek. If you live someplace where there are fireflies, catch some, Listen to Lauren's new music, and always remember to slow down and love someone