Rachel has grown up in the public eye. Her dad is Football Icon and Legend Terry Bradshaw. I’ve known Rachel for over a decade; we met when we were in our early 20’s, both of us aspiring singer/songwriters in Nashville. Rachel found instant and early success. She landed a publishing deal and had a hit song w Jerrod Neimann “What do you Want,” immediately when she moved to town. Rachel tells me all about this time in her life and how exciting and easy everything felt. Then her life came crashing down. She had fallen madly and wildly in love with Titans football star Rob Bironas. They were one of the “it” couples in Nashville. They got married and started what seemed a perfect life. Then he tragically died in a car accident. Rachel goes into detail about how her life fell apart. She moved to Texas to get back to the basics with her family and heal. She went into intensive therapy for several years and dug into all the pain she was feeling and carrying around. Rachel talks to me about what she learned and why doing the hard work is so important if you truly want to heal. In the midst of all of this personal work on herself and time with her family, The Bradshaw’s were offered a Reality TV Show on E! Rachel originally did not want to do the show bc she did not want to dive back into the limelight and fame life again after working so hard to heal. But she explains why this show has blessed her life and family, and how she hopes to inspire others with her story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Caroline. She's a queen and she's getting I'm not afraid
of feel so just let it flow. No one can
do with Caroline. This sounds Caroline. So I am pumped
(00:29):
to be here with like fellow Texas native Rachel Bradshaw.
And we're both in Texas right now. I know we're
both in Texas. I always forget I've known you for
like over a decade. Caroline, We've known each other for
a long time and we're both some Texas. It's so crazy.
Where did we meet? Where was it? Because I've known
you from the beginning of my college experience at Belmont.
(00:52):
I remember being at Belmont and we met through a
couple of friends. I mean, you know, back then, it's
like you're trying to get your feet wet and neat people,
so you're always going out, going to writer's rounds. I
think we just met out maybe I think so, I know,
I know, and then ten years goes by. It's like,
how does that happen? And I hadn't seen you in
a couple of years until just recently because you moved
(01:13):
back to Texas Nashville coronavirus hit. I mean, it's just
like it's so easy to have such long periods of
time go by without saying someone. But I feel like
I've just known you my whole adult life in Nashville. No,
I know, I mean we it's unbelievable. I moved at
eighteen to Nashville, had a complete whirlwind of thirteen years
(01:35):
when I lived there, and then kind of got burned
out and just was ready to come back home to Texas.
And now I'm kind of back. I know. I feel
that way too. I feel torn between Texas and Nashville
all the time, and I think that and you have
such a strong family. Obviously we're gonna talk about that.
The Bradshaw Bunch is new on E, which I turned
(01:55):
on EI the other day. Literally, I was just like
flipping through channel all of a sudd Nice see you
on E with your family. Terry Bradshaw as your dad,
and he is obviously such an amazing football player and
amazing character actor. I mean, he is hilarious, and y'all
as a family are just hysterical. I mean, I really
(02:16):
love watching OFF. It is so weird. The other day
I had on E as well, and our marathon was on,
and I'm like, this is so not normal. I'm still
not used to it or people will screenshot it and
send it to me. But it's, um, it's just when
we started filming, everything came together and like it's like
our family just kind of like the charisma just blew
(02:37):
up and then I guess e and the viewers loved it.
But it's I'm still in this like weird bubble. It's
so it's so interesting, Okay, So I want to get
to that because I want to know how that came about.
Because you're made for your face, your personality, your talent.
You were made to be seen like you were one
of those girls who was just so beautiful and talented,
and I mean it's not no shocker to me at all.
(02:58):
When I saw this on you, I was like, this,
it makes so much sense. Like all of you guys
are just like much amazing character, so beautiful and just
like like you said, the charisma as a family is amazing.
But tell me how you got to this point, because
what a journey you had in Nashville before you moved
back to Texas and your whole family. What a journey
all of you have had. You've had all different careers
(03:18):
all over the place to have that moment come together
has to be so special. But tell me about your
journey beforehand. Yeah, so, just like how the show came about.
We'll just talk to me about Nashville. First, your experience
in Nashville, and then why you move back to Dallas
or didn't and outside of the Dallas and then how
the show came about just you know everything and one
fell swoop. Yeah. So, um eighteen moved to Nashville because
(03:42):
I always wanted to be a country music singer and
my parents were like, you're not moving unless you go
to college. So I got into Belmont and I just
like hit the ground running. I I never I never drank,
like I was all about studying and making the best
grades and I kind of lay ended. Um. Dan Huff's
brother actually and I met through this amazing songwriter, Shane Minor,
(04:06):
and he's like, you guys, should you guys you could
together and write a couple of songs. I wrote like
five songs, immediately got a publishing deal, and then um,
that was like just your So Dan have is one
of the biggest producers in Nashville. That's who she's talking about,
who she met and to get a publishing deal, I
think if people who listen to my podcast, I've covered
publishing and talked to a lot of songwriters. But a
(04:27):
publishing deal is where you are paid to write songs,
and it is like the job that every songwriter wants
to get when they moved to Nashville, because then you
sometimes you get like a publishing dealing, you stuff to
work part time. But a lot of times, if you
get a publishing deal, then you can just fully focus
on being a songwriter because you're getting paid to write songs.
So it's a huge deal to get a publishing deal
(04:48):
that young. Yeah, it was really out of the blue,
and I'm like, wow, this is so easy, and so
then I'm which little did I know? Then I became
really those friends. I was going out now and I
was kind of like I was working and writing music
and then also trying to, you know, get a degree
as quick as possible so I could focus solely on music.
(05:10):
And I ran into Um, I'll never forget the night.
It was Jamie Johnson, Dallas Davidson, Rob Hatch, these are
all um just now they're just like the biggest songwriters
in Nashville, huge huge deals. Now at the time, everybody
was still figuring it out, and I met Jared Neeman
and him and I became very good friends and wrote
this song called what do You Want? And shortly after, um,
(05:33):
this is year three of me being in Nashville, He's
text me and says, hey, I got a record deal
and I love to release what do you Want as
a single as my second single. Well, his first single
at number one, and then our single went number one
as well, I think it went number two, number one
or number two, and so any your voice was the
group your voice is the girl voice on that song.
(05:54):
It is, And then I was in the video with him.
So here I am like just at the in world
at my feet success and just um just having a ball.
And then I graduated college with about our business degree,
and um, then I got a record deal. And fast forward.
You must have thought like, man, this is just so easy,
(06:15):
like you said, like, I just came here to town.
I'm in school, I'm doing great, I got a publishing it,
I'm getting paid to write songs. I'm meeting the best
songwriters in town. I'm meeting new artists and oh my god,
now I got a single on the radio and oh
my god, it went over one. Oh my god, I'm
stinking on the song and I'm in the music video,
and what are you thinking? Are you thinking like I
(06:35):
got this? I'm thinking, you know, at twenty what was
I at this point? I'm six. I was just like,
this is just the best life effort. I mean I
love country music and I love the business, and and
then things kind of took a turn. Um sad, just
you know, all the six everything that you could possibly imagine.
(06:58):
And then I was like, you know what, I'm kind
of tired of. I mean, I really want to meet somebody.
And I had dated here and there, but UM was
really ready to meet someone. All my friends were getting married. Um,
I think I'm twenty six at this point. So I
then met um my um husband at the time, UM
my late husband, but he played for the Titans. He
(07:20):
was the kicker rob runist for the Titans, and we
just fell in love very quickly, and UM had this
whirlwind romance. And so I kind of sent music to
this side a little bit. And I still had a
record deal, but I had done so much work. I
was ready to be kind of I wanted to be
in love and like and enjoying my personal life because
I had really put that on the back burner, and
(07:42):
so we got married, had this amazing, beautiful wedding, and
then shortly after he passed away in a car wreck,
and my world just completely went dark. And um seven,
you know, I'm widowed, and it was like, you know,
just a mom exploded in my face, and I just
(08:03):
was at a loss with life and so um, you know,
imagine you know, going through that at that age, having
all this positive stuff. Stuff happened, and so I, um,
I still continued. I tried to make music be you know,
my healing medicine and just try to focus on that,
and it just didn't work out. I spent a couple
(08:24):
of years after that trying to you know, I was
partying too much. I was just, um, I was lost.
I really needed to come back home and and get
my heart back together in my mind, and just I
was just broken. And so that's what brought me back
to Texas a couple of years after, still trying to
make the music thing work. It was just not happening.
I didn't even want to write music anymore. In fact,
(08:46):
I kind of hated Was it hard to live? Was
it hard to be in Nashville? Was it hard to
carry on, because I know you stayed for a while,
but I mean, how how do you carry on when
everything gets flipped upside down like that? You don't. I
tried so hard to make it work, and to the
point where it was unhealthy, and so every street I
(09:06):
turned down, every even friends of mine. It was hard
to to hang out with friends, and it was hard
to go to certain restaurants, and I knew after a
couple of years it just got worse. And I was like,
you know, Nashville, for me, Nashville is an unhealthy environment,
and I need to get away. And that was the
best decision I've ever made, just to get away. And
(09:27):
that's what a lot of people with tragedy, you know,
you try to you can't keep seeing the same things
and talking to the same people. Sometimes you just have
to to walk away for a second, have a fresh start,
like to have like a reset, so it's not just
all you, so you can give yourself the space to
heal and to try to to grow in a different
(09:47):
way instead of being flooded every second of every day. Probably, yeah,
you're flooded and you're cloudy of the mind. And and
then I was I was turning to the wrong people,
and you know, I kind of tried to date a
couple of times, and I was they were disasters and
it was all. It was a me thing for sure.
I was just I was just lost, and I was
(10:08):
trying to going to go into therapy. But you know,
and then also in Nashville, it was a very public situation,
so everybody knew me at that point, whether it was
bad or good. You know, a situation that tragic, you know,
people associate you with that, and so it was really
difficult to pretend everything is normal when I wanted it
to be normal. But outside looking in, I was just
(10:29):
very broken and needed, um really just needed my family
because I'm so close with them and I've been away
from them for so long. And so I packed my
ship up and I was like by Nashville. I honestly
never wanted to write music again. I really kind of
just left Nashville, IM in my dust. Um that's what
(10:50):
I needed at the moment. I quit talking to my friends.
I just I really just started a new life in Texas,
and and for a couple of years I just did
really state, Yeah, what did you do? How did you
set up a new life in Texas, because I've done
that myself when Michael. Totally different scenario, but like Michael
and I broke up for a little while and I
just needed to clear my brain. And I'm not comparing
(11:12):
my situation to yours at all pleasing for anyone listening.
Like Rachel went through something super tragic, and I have
so much respect for the way you handled it. But
I'm just saying I left my whole life in Nashville
two and I thought I would never come back, and
then two years later I came back and it's it's wonderful,
and I understand needing that break, But how did you
start your life over? Because I just started my life
(11:34):
over in Texas and when I moved to Austin because
I just but I I just met new friends, I
got a new job. I had threw myself out there.
But it was so crazy, like it was such a
wild just rebirthing of yourself at an adult age. And
so how did you do that? Just coming through a tragedy,
leaving everything that you've worked for for the past thirteen
(11:55):
years behind, and now you're in Dallas with your family,
your new job. You like, you're not even doing music,
You're doing real estate. Now what are what are those
first few weeks and months and that year look like,
Oh my gosh. And I remember Caroline, you did, I
remember your Michael breaking up and you all been together
for so long, and then you had to you could
(12:18):
just kind of have to reinvent yourself. And and when
I literally the entire ten and alp hour drive to
Dallas from Nashville to Texas was a ball fest because
I knew I was literally just kind of crumbling up
and pushing to this side hard work, like fourteen years
of friendships and relationships and you know, my favorite places
in my favorite city, and I knew I had to
(12:40):
just decline everything for a while and to heal myself.
And it was hard. It took me a solid year
back in Texas to you know what. I met some
friends and who you have met a couple of really
solid friends. But um, you know, then I'd go to
on social media and I'd see all my friends still
flourishing and you know, more people getting married, and I
(13:02):
was so jealous. I mean, I was so jealous because
I wanted that life back so bad, but I knew
it just wasn't healthy for me still. Um, but you know,
I just I was like, I'm just gonna for me
kind of like for me too. I'm a big dreamer,
and so I was in my heart sort of settling. Um.
I wanted to be in real estate, but I just
(13:22):
was kind of dabbling in it and actually kind of
killed it for a while. I don't workaholic, and so
I was selling. I saw like eight million in real estate,
which is on heard of my first year. That's all
I did was work. It was insane. I I was
making great money. Um but I I but in my
heart was healing slowly though. I had my family, and um,
(13:43):
I would be with my family, you know, every weekend
and go to my dad's ranch and go to my
mom's ranch. And really I was just kind of getting
back to the basics of life really. Um but it
was it was really tough leaving Nashville behind. I kept,
you know, kind of like dabbled back into looking all
my friends and um, and was really starting to miss Nashville.
(14:04):
After a couple of years went by and I was
really starting to fill my heart heal and my soul
be refurbished and um and then comes the TV show
How did that come back? And really fast though, before
we talk about the TV show, Why was getting back
to the basics so important to you? Because that's I
relate to you in my own personal way that like
(14:26):
when I felt when I felt lost, I wanted to
just come back home and regroup and be with family.
And why was that so important to you? And how
did you healing? How did you heal your tragedy of
losing your new husband. I mean that's a big deal.
Oh my god, it's a huge deal. Um. I I
think that home is my home will always be Texas,
(14:50):
and I think just having that back to the basics,
Like here I am in Nashville, on top of the world,
and you know, my best friends are all these famous
country singers and know I I marry this, you know,
wonderful man. He's an NFL star. Like my life was
so abnormal, and I also grew up in the spotlight,
and so I've never had any sense of normalcy in
(15:11):
my entire existence. And so coming back home and not
being around a bunch of fame and not being around
but you know, a lot of money and there's a
lot of things that took my mind away from just
being a normal person. Hitting the ground running and asking
for business, you know, real estates to you know, real
estate is a very hard business to get into, and
I was having for the first time in my life,
(15:33):
I wasn't being you know, I wasn't I was like
having to ask, Hey, do you want to sell a house?
Say do you want me to list your house? And
it was a very vulnerable spot that I've never had
to be in before. And it was very healthy for
me to really know what it was like. Even though
I was working my butt off in Nashville, it came
easy to me and I got success very easily. And
so you know that my personal life took a turn
(15:56):
for the worse, and so it just kind of like
dumbed my mind down a little bit. And I think
I needed that that sort of normalcy that I've never
had my entire life. And I could just feel every
single day I was in a lot of therapy and Texas.
I was starting myself with lots of amazing like podcasts
and really just like learning who I am as a woman,
(16:16):
and and I've never taken any time to do that
for myself. And not wanting to fall in love like
I love to me was just almost gross, Like I
just never wanted to meet anybody in this first time,
I'd really let myself be completely alone, and that was
my healing for me. And therapy really helped. And not
just therapy, I'm talking like trauma therapy and focused on
(16:39):
my mind and my spirit and so that um, I
could feel every day for a couple of years, every
day in my heart just started to get more full,
and I wasn't sad anymore, and I started to, you know,
just be just feel good. And I hadn't felt good
in a really long time. So you really did the
work with the therapy, like you really. You didn't just
(17:01):
stuff all of your emotions and your feelings and just
move on and try to act like nothing happened. You
went to work on it. Oh, I beat myself up.
I put myself in boot camp. I mean it was.
It was the most the toughest, like the best years
of my life, but the most tough two years because
you're having to revisit a lot of tragedy that you
(17:21):
kind of dumbed down, and you you you you pocketed
away because it is so painful to relive those things.
And I went back and read, you know, reread some
emails and some text messages and I revisited a time
in my life that was um horrific. It was nightmare.
But it was my my trauma therapist. You know. The
way that they the way that they wanted me to
(17:44):
really be able to heal, was to revisit things that
I never wanted to listen to again or look at again.
And so it was very painful. I I did some
intense emotional work. Wow, okay, two things. What did you
learn about yourself? And why did yourself fight to do that?
Why did you tell yourself? Why did you know you
had to do that? And then what did you learn
about yourself? I knew that I had to do that
(18:07):
because at that age and going through something so traumatic
and tragic and replaying, you know, a car wreck in
your head every day and you will. It's a very
unhealthy lifestyle. And I knew I'm never going to meet somebody,
I'm never gonna get married, and I'll never have a
family of my own if I don't really get to
the bottom of this and heal. And you're always going
(18:28):
to have those scars. Those scars are never going to
go away, but you can still be happy and meet
a wonderful man and move on in your personal love life.
And I had just totally given up on that. So
that was very important to me. And what was the
second thing that you asked? What did you learn about yourself?
I learned how strong that I was. I had kind
(18:50):
of never given myself a lot of credit, and everyone
around me just always was like, you're so strong, and
you're you're so this, and you're so that. I never
believed a word of it. I was like, God, you
guys are just filling me up with a bunch of crap.
And I learned just doing all of that hard work
and moving and picking up and leaving like that, you know,
I made some very big decisions about a lot of
(19:11):
different parts of my life, um pretty quickly, because I
knew I needed to. And so after all the therapy
and the time away, I realized, Man, you're strong, Like
you've got this. You can really I can really conquer anything.
I feel like, wow, Okay, so here comes the show.
Now all of a sudden, you're back in Texas. You're
spending all this time with your family. So it's really
(19:31):
genuine like it's not like everyone moved to Texas to
do the show, Like everyone's like hanging out already hanging
hanging with the family, living life on the farm, back
to the basics. How did the show come into your life? Yeah? So,
um yeah, all back in Texas, just living, living a
normal life, having a great time. And my dad gets
a call and he says, hey, girls, Tammy, do you
(19:54):
want to do family Feud? And of course, and my
my immediate thing is like, I don't want to be
on TV. I don't want to do anything in the
entertainment world, Like screw it, I'm not going back there.
And he goes, Rachel, it's family feud. It's not like
an ask you to start a starring role in a movie.
And we're like, okay, So we do a family feud.
And after family feud, we have this huge celebratory dinner
(20:15):
the whole family and are my dad's very good friend.
His name is Jason Earle, Like he produced a reality
show that my dad did call Better Late than Never
with Henry Winkler, George Foreman all those guys. Was pretty
successful on I think it was NBC. He stands up
and he goes, you, guys, I have a proposition for you,
(20:36):
and I'm like, oh god, what is this? And he said,
I have talked to your dad about this. I've watched
the family. I went to your dad's surprise seventy birthday
and I got to see you guys in her mingle.
What if we pitched a reality show to a big network,
And so we're all, you know, we've had some wine.
It was kind of late. We're like, yeah, let's do it. Well,
(20:58):
unbannounced to us they pitched the idea e ate it
up and they were like, yeah, we wanna, We'll buy
the pilot, you know, do a pilot with a family.
And so a few months go by we filmed the pilot,
so kind of thinking like this is E Network. They're
not gonna We're not cool enough, you know, we all
just kind of like kind of rushed it to the side.
Then a few months after that we get the show
(21:19):
and we're like there were doing contracts and we're talking like,
oh my god, we're doing a TV show. We're gonna
it's gonna be called The Bradshaw Bunch, And so all
of a sudden, like everyone's worlds are completely turned up
to down. Now we've got like, you know, forty person crew,
and we are when you fill a reality show, I
don't think people understand it is a big deal. I
mean they've got you know, it means it's just yeah,
(21:41):
forty plus people. I mean it's it's a lot. It's
like kind of like filming a movie. What is the
pressure like? Or do you have any pressure for now?
It's like you've what you've been, You've been. You worked
so hard to national to have like, you know, a
lot of success, to be known, and then you kind
of decided that you don't want that anymore. You're living
this quiet life family, but now you have this opportunity
(22:02):
that's fallen in your lap to be on one of
the biggest networks and expose your whole family life and
all of this. Like what is that like? Is their
pressure and everything you've gone through? Like do you feel nervous?
How do you plan out episodes? Do you just let
it roll? How does it all come together? Yeah? So
I was, Oh, I was I was absolutely horrified. I
(22:23):
was petrified. And I've always thought it'd be so fun
to do a reality show. But that was the old Rachel.
That was the Rachel that wanted to be a singer
and wanted to be famous, and at the time I
wanted in the music industry. I I got. I wanted all.
I wanted it all, but in it wasn't genuine. I wanted,
like to say, you want to be famous, Like the
old me just had the wrong version of success. And
(22:45):
so now I'm so healthy and I'm healed and and
I'm like, oh no, I'm not going back there. I
don't want to be famous. I do not want to
be labeled as a singer. And they're like, but you
do sing, but you but you love singing, and I'm
like no. I was so mean about it because I
just I had left that all behind and I closed
that chapter. And yet little did I know that this
(23:07):
TV show that I was having nightmares about every night,
because I knew I was gonna have to talk about
my real life and I was gonna have to talk about, yeah,
I've been married and you know. And I was just like,
how am I gonna go back there? And the producer,
I will give Jason this, he's one of the best
producers of all time. He he had like therapy sessions
and in our green screen interviews and He's like, it's
(23:28):
okay to talk about these things, and so I did.
And like the more we were filming, then the episodes
kind of just they kind of smelt together, you know,
as when you start filming it's very nerve wracking, but
then it's like, hey, guys, I've got this tomorrow and
then I'm you know, I'm going on a date with
this guy or my sister. They just kind of evolved,
they episode ideas, kind of volunteer lap but um. Halfway
(23:53):
through filming, I got an opportunity to sing God Bless
America at NASCAR, and I gotten knocked down, drag out
with like my dad, my family out. They're like, you're
a stinger. You can do this, and I was like, no,
I don't want to. I don't. I really don't want
to do this anymore. And I never want to sing again.
And then COVID hit and I started writing music on
(24:14):
the piano. I've I've always been a piano player, had
written a song in almost three years, And that's kind
of where me getting back into the music industry evolved.
Was because of COVID and the TV show Dang and
so UM. Then the show aired and UM and it
(24:35):
was a total success and the numbers were amazing, and
I released a few songs and they the streamings did
pretty damn well. I was very surprised. Um, it's really
amazing what um, what TV does for you or what
it can do for especially now everything's about streaming or
television and in the music industry, and I want to
I want to do so many other things. I don't
(24:56):
want to just do music. But I feel just kind
of bad, got it. I started coming back to Nashville
around October and revisited all my friends like you guys,
and and um, Jesse and the girls, and and I
had been back to Nashville since I've driven away, you know,
three years prior. So it felt like, wow, I'm back.
(25:18):
And when I when I came back to Nashville in October,
I just felt like, Wow, I can go to the
same restaurants now, and I can. I'm That's when I
really knew, Okay, you're healed, You're good, You've you've got this. Wow. Well,
because I saw you hanging out with Jesse James Stecker,
who's a friend of both oars, and we've all been
(25:39):
friends for over ten years. It's been it's been it's
just been wild to like be friends as long. UM.
But I saw you Jessie, and I was like, oh
my god, Rachel's back in town like I hadn't because
I hadn't seen you and so long. And then we
ended up going to a baby shower for our friend
Jess Paine, who was having an amazing thing like miracle
baby story, and it was so excited and celebrate her.
(26:00):
And I was so happy to see you in the
flesh and blood, and I could tell that you, like
you just looked like well and like you looked good
and happy, and I was so I was so just
so happy to see you and to hear your story
and to the thing that I admire so much is
that you have done the work on yourself and so
(26:23):
now here you are having the success with this show,
but you are ready to share knowledge that's going to
help other people heal because you've gone through something so hard,
but yet you've really done work to heal yourself. And
what a blessing to be able to share those moments
and to have a producer who is so encouraging of
(26:44):
that in such a beautiful way. Yeah, it was I'll
never forget. It was raining outside and um and Jason,
you know, Jason is very sensitive with my story. You
know that's a that's a really really heavy topic to
to talk about with a camera in your face. And
I had never spoken of it, especially you know, it
to friends and family, but I've never spoken of it
(27:06):
to anyone, um publicly, and so uh it was raining,
and um, He's like, you know, tell us to just
start talking. And I don't know what it was. I
just started crying. And it's like this dark room and
it's like seven o'clock at night, dark outside, and I've
got a whole production crew right in front of me,
and I'm doing an interview and I was like, you
know what, this is my time to just tell my story.
(27:29):
And I it was like a three hour um therapy
session really, and Jason looked at me, and I looked
at him, and the makeup ladies looked around and everyone's like,
oh my god. We didn't we didn't expect you to
talk about you know, this tragic story. But um, I
knew that talking about it it would obviously be on
the show, and the outpour of people that have lost
(27:52):
a husband or a wife or even you know, girls
that have just been like, um, there's a breakup. But
then I go through on the show as well, just
people just gravitate towards people that are real people don't
want to see this perfect life like people fall in
love with real people, And so I I didn't want
to be some bruised and battered you know Debbie Downer
(28:14):
on the show, But like I've been through some stuff
and why not talk about it and help others? And
my God, like I've baltin eyes out reading some of
a lot of my Instagram uh messages are just like
thank you so much for talking about such a tragedy.
And it's like, and I've never done that before, So um,
what a blessing? Is right to have that sort of
(28:35):
platform and be able to really help other people. I know,
And the fact that you I hate that you had
to go through tragedy and suffering and obviously like no
one would ever wish that for anyone, but the fact
that you're able to turn it into a healing moment
and now you have this platform to speak about it.
I mean, it feels like God's hand is all over this,
(28:57):
Like use your voice, the voice that you have, Like
you've always used your voice to sing, and now your
voice is here. You're feeling your voice again to write music.
You're feeling free to express yourself again. You're feeling at
home in Nashville again, and you're having this platform to
share your story that is so painful and hard, but
it's will help so many others from your journey. And
it's like, wow, how how crazy that it's all kind
(29:20):
of happening like this, you know, and you would have
never wished for this or planned for it, but that
you're having a moment to really help others. Yeah, this
is gonna sound really weird. But when I was like
fifteen or sixteen, um, you know, not to graduate high
school and kind of ready to you know, get away
from home and all that, when I have this, always
(29:42):
always have had this weird feeling that that I was
going to have to go through something really horrible to
really because we did grow up in such a different
a different way. Um, I kind of had everything up
my fingertips as a kid. You know. Yeah, I know
how to work hard and all that, but in a
sense things were kind of handed to us as as kids,
(30:05):
and I knew to really be like the best woman
I can be in the strongest and the best mother
and wife and friend and daughter, sister. I'm gonna I
have this really I gonna have to go through something
really bad and I don't know what that is. UM
at some point in my life to to just kind
of like come to reality and and really find who
I am and here we are, you know, having gone
(30:28):
through all this stuff I've gone through, UM, but now
it's like I'm so secure with myself and I've got
my friends back and my voice back, and UM this
great TV show that lets me work with my family
and that people are loving that you know, we can
help others with. It's just like I've been waiting for
this moment my entire life, just this sort of like
(30:50):
everything's come together, but it's been hell to get here.
But I'm I'm you know what, I would and change
it for the world. I really wouldn't. It feels like
you're in your moment. It tell me what it's like
being with your family all day, every day, working with
your family. Because you grew up with Terry Bradshaw, one
of the biggest football legends in the world. Like you said,
you've had such a public life and having a superstar
(31:13):
for a dad, I mean that has to shape you
in so many ways. But what is it like to
be living with each other and working with each other
as adults. One of your sisters is married or are
brother and sisters? Mary, No, do one just get married.
They're both married. And I know you have like some
nieces or a niece who's like the love of your
of terry your dad's life. Yep, sorry and little boys?
(31:38):
Is that j Diet? So what is it like being
in this moment that you've waited for your whole life?
Being with your famous family, having this famous moment. But
it's more real than ever. It's um, it's pretty amazing.
I have not spent this much time with my dad
since I don't think ever. To be honest, my dad
(32:00):
always worked so hard to provide for our family, which
leads to him having to be on the road constantly
missed holidays. You know, I don't really remember my dad
ever being able to really be around all the time.
And because he's providing for all of us. So it
is like the coolest, biggest blessing to be able to
work every day with your dad and you know, Lacy
(32:21):
and Aaron and and the family, and my stepmom and
my niece and nephew. I mean, I never thought this
would ever be even an option, but it's really cool,
and the most special is really with with my dad
because I feel like I'm making up for lost time.
And I've also I've been gone since i was eighteen
years old, so I've I've missed out on a lot
of time with with my family, who I'm a huge
(32:43):
family person, and um, sleeping away from them for that
many years was very tough. And so it's like it's
really good medicine every day. And my dad is so
funny and charismatic, so it's like just um, just like
having that laughter back in the house and I love it.
It's I I love it. I hope they love it too.
(33:05):
What is the vibe of your family? Like, like, what
are what are y'all? What is your daily vibe? What
do y'all talk about? What do you guys like to
do together? What are your hobbies together? What is a
day like With the Bradshaw bunch, we always were huge
coffee drinkers, so we always wake up and we go
to the kitchen and it's kind of like we try
(33:25):
to solve the world's problems and all go around the table. Um.
We're very Southern traditional family, so we um kind of
always have the same routine. But we all love to
go fishing. Fishing is like our love language. We all
go fishing all the time. Um, the boys all smoke
their cigars and um at night. Uh. My my brother
(33:46):
in law is a really amazing chef, so he's always
cooking us these amazing meals and then we'll get some
wine out. Um. We're just a chill family. We don't
mean my dad, like you would think we have these
like super aborate lives. We don't. We go to the
ranch and we hang out there all day and we
see the horses and ride four wheelers and um, go fishing.
(34:08):
I mean, uh, we're not huge travelers. Like we'll go
to Lacey. No live in Hawaii and so we'll do
a big Hawaii trip every year. But um, it's pretty chill.
Lots of laughter and lots of pranks, jokesters like who's
the biggest jokester and frankster of the family. Tammy Bradshaw
(34:29):
my step mom. And it's on the daily. She will
pull Oh this is absolutely hysterical. The other day she
sends him to the grocery store. Him this is like
during Christmas, him and my uncle, my dad and my
uncle and she sends them this list and they get
like all the basic stuff, and then she added at
the end, um seedless strawberries, um, um, all of these
(34:53):
I oh, diet diet coke, like all these things that
don't even exist. And so she calls him, like they
were gone for like two hours. She calls, She's like,
are you guys okay? He goes, we can't find diet
diet coke. There's no where are the seedless strawberries. I
don't I've never heard of that in my life. And
she's like, oh my god, it's a prank. It's a joke.
(35:13):
Are you that dumb that you still haven't caught on.
He's like, dammy, I gotta go. I mean they were
literally going around Kroger trying to find all of these
items that don't even exist, and it was just like
unsoured cream was another one on the list. But it's
just stuff like that. She's so funny. You think that
that's the key to their marriage, just keeping that laughter
(35:34):
and that joking energy around all the time. One thousand
first and I asked them, they've been together for twenty
plus years, and I'm like, do you guys ever fight?
Have you ever even had a fight. I mean there,
which of course everybody has fights and stuff, but um, laughter,
They'll they both tell me they're like, you have to
be best friends. Dad's like when she walks out of
(35:57):
the room, I want I want to be next to her,
like I don't want to be from her, And that's
to me. Like the recipes, who are really healthy marriage? Laughter? Man,
So how do I when obviously it's a hard time
in the world right now, we're all feeling it. How
sometimes I get swallowed by all the suffering and the
(36:17):
pain and all the all things that are wrong with
the world. How do you stay in laughter and in
this state of the world. Like, what are some tips
that you can share with all of us who are
feeling this heaviness? Like how do you maintain a daily
routine of staying happy and light and laughing? Yeah? This
(36:37):
I think this past year obviously really tested a lot
of people on your own, your your psyche, your emotions,
you know, trying to stay positive. My god, I mean
I have my moments. I have moments all the time
where I get really upset or really sad or super down,
especially with what's going on, and um, and I feel
guilty sometimes because I'm in a really good place in
(36:59):
my life and and I feel guilty being really happy,
especially right now. And I don't know, I'm still trying
to work through that, that feeling of guilt. But I
every single day I turned to the things that make
me super happy. I love to cook when when, and
get off your phone. I've I'm trying so hard to
to stay away from the phone for a minute, like
(37:22):
you know, get a book out, go outside, and like
appreciate a good sunset. Like those are the things that
I'm especially through all this therapy that I was talking
about earlier, Those are the things that I'm learning to
appreciate that really make me happy. The other day, I
put my air pods in and I walked around just around.
I live on a ranch. I walked around the pond
and hung out with the cows and listen to all
(37:45):
this like inspirational music. I haven't done that since I
was a kid. Just really like digging into my own mind. Um,
but doing things to just make you super happy that
aren't on your phone. It's not a movie. Really kind
of getting back and tell with um the world is
for me, just made um. Every day is super healthy
(38:06):
and happy. How do you not get so does that?
Because sometimes I fall into the spiral of like checking
social media and comparing my life and feeling like I
need to do more to keep up, or this person
is doing that and maybe I should be doing this,
and then you feel guilty or bad or that person
is like such a great mom, or that person has
this going on or whatever. Do you ever fall into
that spiral? Because that is, to me, the most unhealthy
(38:30):
part of social media. There's so much great that you
can do with it, but like it really it can
really mess with your brain. Social media. I'm telling you what,
I have gone down a rabbit hole one day. Um,
this was a couple of years ago. I was on
my Instagram for probably four or five hours comparing myself
to others, my body to others, um the fact I'm
(38:52):
not married with kids yet and all of my friends
are married and with children. And you think that that.
I mean, I was literally and it was a minute.
I was comparing myself on the daily and it was
ruining my life. It was it was making me depressed, unhappy.
Even though I'm in this great spot. That doesn't matter.
You're gonna have days that are negative days or moments
(39:13):
that are deep negative moments. Um, but I like, that's
so dangerous. I'll look at I'll look at another girl
on Instagram, some bikini photo, and I'm like, golly, I
need to I need to crack down on how you
got I gotta go eight days, eight times this week,
you know. And it's just unhealthy. And um, we all
do that, all all of us do that, especially being
(39:34):
I'm thirty three, I don't have kids yet, I'm not married.
Like you think it doesn't bother me, but I've talked
enough with friends and family and read like so many
inspirational things that that's everyone's number one piece of advice.
Do not compare yourself to anybody else, because you know what,
there's people that are also looking at your life that
think you have it pretty damn well, and you're looking
(39:56):
at their life and you're like, I want your life,
but then they want yours to. It's super discombobulated. I
just when I catch myself doing that, I just I
literally shut my phone off. It's just so unhealthy. I agree,
and I and I think that now we all are
aware enough that this is a cycle that happens with everyone,
and it's so unhealthy that like being out here in Texas,
Like I literally try just barely my phone. Like I
(40:20):
obviously I love to talk about my podcast on my Instagram,
and I do like to keep up with people on Instagram,
but I just cannot go down the rabbit hole. It's
just it's not good for my brain. And I want
to live like Tammy, and I want to be funny
and laughing and like I want to be cracking cracking
jokes and like I want to have fun and have
like that kind of energy instead of just heavy energy
that I picked up from looking at social media. Yeah,
(40:44):
and we're all guilty of that, just digging in God,
my god, Instagram. It's it's like the worst best thing ever.
It's made people's careers, you know, all of that stuff.
But my god, you know, even in a romantic relationship,
you know, um dating and all of that, you're you
felt like, who do they fall follow? What photos do
they like? I mean us girls can really dig deep
(41:05):
and into some stuff. It's it's psychotic sometimes, just like
how the brain works, especially as as a woman. I
I don't you know, just the comparison and the looks
and have the people that you see they don't look
like that in person. I mean, it's just it's just
crazy and I can't imagine. Um, you know, when I
(41:26):
have kids, I'm really going to make sure that that
they stay off social media as much as possible. I
don't want my kids growing up with eating disorders and
comparing their their lives to other kids. I just that's scared.
I'm so freaked out about that. I know, because we
can feel the effects of it as adults, you know,
so it's even harder for our kids. I know, I know,
I know, I know. Oh, Rachel God, I'm so proud
(41:50):
of you. I'm so proud of like everything that you've
done for yourself, Like what a journey you've been on,
and how amazing that you just had the courage to
dig deep and really find out who you are. Okay,
so tell me if you had to describe yourself in
three words, now, what would those words be? By the way,
that was really sweet, thank you, and this has been
(42:11):
a very therapeutic, amazing morning. Three um um uh strong.
I'm very sympathetic, very I'm very simple sensitive, so strong
sensitive or sympathetic and charismatic. I always want to be
(42:32):
the one in the room that makes everybody laugh or
everybody's smile or um, just entertaining. Wow, I feel like
you have such a piece about you now, like the
fact that this reality show is happening for you now
it makes perfect sense to me because it's right when
you didn't want it, Like right when you weren't looking
for it. You were actually kind of upset about it.
(42:54):
You know, you didn't go try to hunt it down.
You didn't fly to La to try to meet with
an agent to get something going, to help your music,
to do whatever. It's like, you're just kind of living
your life under the radar, and here it comes coming
for you. That's why you can't escape your destiny, right
what's mad for you? Isn't it that funny? And and
now it's like the more I was like, I'm not
a singer, I don't want to be on TV blah
(43:14):
blah blah blah blah, And then this spelling to our
lap and I was, yeah, I was mad about it.
I'm like, why now is this happening now that I'm
like over it? Why in the hell do we don't
have all the things I've dreamt of? And I'm pushing
it away and it's just It is God's way of saying,
hey you, this is what you are meant to do.
And you you are a singer and you can write music.
(43:37):
You also can finally really fall in love because you
know who you are and you can have a camera
in your face and talk about the deepest, darkest things
in the world and help other people. And it's like, WHOA,
I did not know that all this would this was
ever gonna be even you know, possibility for me. So
it's really funny how how that works. Wow, that is
(44:00):
really amazing. I am I am really inspired by you, Rachel.
I am like truly this has been such an inspiring episode.
Thank you for coming on and sharing with me. I
always wrap up with one question, which is leave your
light and what do you want people to know? I
(44:21):
want people to know that don't ever don't ever give
up on yourself. Doesn't matter what someone says about you,
what you go through, what you don't like about yourself.
We all have insecurities, but don't ever give up. Go
back to being a kid again, those happy those moments
(44:41):
where you're just on like you don't know, you don't
know what the darkness is in the world because you
because your kid, go back to that place that made
you want to be the best mom or the best
singer or you know, the best writer, whatever you want
to be. Like, don't ever give up on that, because
I have and it's a really Um I did give
up on myself, and I was okay with really just
(45:03):
settling in my heart. I was like, I'm just gonna
settle because that's a safe way to go. But um,
don't ever don't ever let that go, that light inside
of you. Thank Rachel. You are awesome. Wow, thank you
for coming on here. I really this was such an
amazing Thank you. This was amazing. Thank you. I'm so
(45:27):
happy for in your life and what you've done in
your life. Like really, it's truly awesome. Well, I appreciate that,
and thank you for having me on. This was very
you inspiring me as well, and this was very I've
been listening to your podcast for the past five years
or however long you've had it, and I've always wanted
to be on here. So this is so much fun.
(45:48):
I'm so glad you're here. And it's crazy like I
have not felt inspired lately, Like I literally feel like
I'm in a COVID funk, Like just sort of for
the past year and a half, like just you know,
I became a mom, which I love more than anything,
but that's like a rebirth of who I am, and
it's like who I was versus who I am. And
then COVID hit in the world's upside down and things
(46:09):
that used to matter don't matter. And sometimes I just
feel like, what am I even doing? Like I feel
like I don't even know what I'm supposed to be
doing in my life? Do you? I mean, I just so,
I'm so glad that you are inspired by me sometimes
because sometimes I feel like, what am I What's the
point of any of it? I don't even understand what
my purpose is right now? No, you have no In fact, Um,
(46:30):
I was just I was gonna text Mama Karen, but
that I've been listening to your podcasts for a long
time and I loved that one that you did with her.
I listened to that maybe like two or three times.
It was so inspirational. You have no idea how um,
you know, in the middle of a pandemic, there's a
think there's a lot of people who have been in
a funk for a while. Um, But a good podcast
(46:53):
and and and great inspiring interviews will save someone's day sometimes,
So just know that I appreciate that and I appreciate
you coming on here and being a guest who will
share your heart, because sometimes I'm like, is it too
Like are the story are people feeling? I don't want
people to feel like you have to come share. It's
like the struggle, but like everyone has struggle, so really
(47:17):
like we need to hear the struggle and then the
redemption of the struggle. That's how we know that, like
we can move on because not every day is a rainbow.
I mean it's just not. No. And it's so to
hear someone be so vulnerable and be like, hey, look,
I have literally been through the worst tell in the
world or felt the worst about myself and here's how
I got out of it. But yet I still have
(47:38):
those moments like just be real being real with people.
There's well, we have no clue how many women and
men will will listen to our stories. Sometimes I'm like,
who cares about my story? Like who? Like, I'm not
that great? But then I talk about it or you know,
help someone's day, and that's like wow, you know a
(47:59):
lot of your interviews are so inspiring because it's amazing
to see people rise out of the ashes um when
others are still stuck and they're like, how do I
get to this next level of happiness because I'm still
my funk and what can I do today or read
today that's gonna help me? So you're awesome. I really
needed this episode, Mike. I really this is very inspiring
(48:22):
for me. Thank you for coming on. I'm so glad
to have reconnected with you in the physical form recently
and now we've had this combo and I'm just so
proud of you. Rachel. You're doing amazing things with your life,
and thank you for sharing and helping others. You're awesome
and I hope to see you much more. Thank you
so much. I hope to see you in Nashville. It's
very soon. Okay, Okay, We'll have a great day, all right, girl,
(48:47):
You too. By
Caroline. She's a queen and she's getting I'm not afraid
of feel so just let it flow. No one can
do with Caroline. This sounds Caroline. So I am pumped
(00:29):
to be here with like fellow Texas native Rachel Bradshaw.
And we're both in Texas right now. I know we're
both in Texas. I always forget I've known you for
like over a decade. Caroline, We've known each other for
a long time and we're both some Texas. It's so crazy.
Where did we meet? Where was it? Because I've known
you from the beginning of my college experience at Belmont.
(00:52):
I remember being at Belmont and we met through a
couple of friends. I mean, you know, back then, it's
like you're trying to get your feet wet and neat people,
so you're always going out, going to writer's rounds. I
think we just met out maybe I think so, I know,
I know, and then ten years goes by. It's like,
how does that happen? And I hadn't seen you in
a couple of years until just recently because you moved
(01:13):
back to Texas Nashville coronavirus hit. I mean, it's just
like it's so easy to have such long periods of
time go by without saying someone. But I feel like
I've just known you my whole adult life in Nashville. No,
I know, I mean we it's unbelievable. I moved at
eighteen to Nashville, had a complete whirlwind of thirteen years
(01:35):
when I lived there, and then kind of got burned
out and just was ready to come back home to Texas.
And now I'm kind of back. I know. I feel
that way too. I feel torn between Texas and Nashville
all the time, and I think that and you have
such a strong family. Obviously we're gonna talk about that.
The Bradshaw Bunch is new on E, which I turned
(01:55):
on EI the other day. Literally, I was just like
flipping through channel all of a sudd Nice see you
on E with your family. Terry Bradshaw as your dad,
and he is obviously such an amazing football player and
amazing character actor. I mean, he is hilarious, and y'all
as a family are just hysterical. I mean, I really
(02:16):
love watching OFF. It is so weird. The other day
I had on E as well, and our marathon was on,
and I'm like, this is so not normal. I'm still
not used to it or people will screenshot it and
send it to me. But it's, um, it's just when
we started filming, everything came together and like it's like
our family just kind of like the charisma just blew
(02:37):
up and then I guess e and the viewers loved it.
But it's I'm still in this like weird bubble. It's
so it's so interesting, Okay, So I want to get
to that because I want to know how that came about.
Because you're made for your face, your personality, your talent.
You were made to be seen like you were one
of those girls who was just so beautiful and talented,
and I mean it's not no shocker to me at all.
(02:58):
When I saw this on you, I was like, this,
it makes so much sense. Like all of you guys
are just like much amazing character, so beautiful and just
like like you said, the charisma as a family is amazing.
But tell me how you got to this point, because
what a journey you had in Nashville before you moved
back to Texas and your whole family. What a journey
all of you have had. You've had all different careers
(03:18):
all over the place to have that moment come together
has to be so special. But tell me about your
journey beforehand. Yeah, so, just like how the show came about.
We'll just talk to me about Nashville. First, your experience
in Nashville, and then why you move back to Dallas
or didn't and outside of the Dallas and then how
the show came about just you know everything and one
fell swoop. Yeah. So, um eighteen moved to Nashville because
(03:42):
I always wanted to be a country music singer and
my parents were like, you're not moving unless you go
to college. So I got into Belmont and I just
like hit the ground running. I I never I never drank,
like I was all about studying and making the best
grades and I kind of lay ended. Um. Dan Huff's
brother actually and I met through this amazing songwriter, Shane Minor,
(04:06):
and he's like, you guys, should you guys you could
together and write a couple of songs. I wrote like
five songs, immediately got a publishing deal, and then um,
that was like just your So Dan have is one
of the biggest producers in Nashville. That's who she's talking about,
who she met and to get a publishing deal, I
think if people who listen to my podcast, I've covered
publishing and talked to a lot of songwriters. But a
(04:27):
publishing deal is where you are paid to write songs,
and it is like the job that every songwriter wants
to get when they moved to Nashville, because then you
sometimes you get like a publishing dealing, you stuff to
work part time. But a lot of times, if you
get a publishing deal, then you can just fully focus
on being a songwriter because you're getting paid to write songs.
So it's a huge deal to get a publishing deal
(04:48):
that young. Yeah, it was really out of the blue,
and I'm like, wow, this is so easy, and so
then I'm which little did I know? Then I became
really those friends. I was going out now and I
was kind of like I was working and writing music
and then also trying to, you know, get a degree
as quick as possible so I could focus solely on music.
(05:10):
And I ran into Um, I'll never forget the night.
It was Jamie Johnson, Dallas Davidson, Rob Hatch, these are
all um just now they're just like the biggest songwriters
in Nashville, huge huge deals. Now at the time, everybody
was still figuring it out, and I met Jared Neeman
and him and I became very good friends and wrote
this song called what do You Want? And shortly after, um,
(05:33):
this is year three of me being in Nashville, He's
text me and says, hey, I got a record deal
and I love to release what do you Want as
a single as my second single. Well, his first single
at number one, and then our single went number one
as well, I think it went number two, number one
or number two, and so any your voice was the
group your voice is the girl voice on that song.
(05:54):
It is, And then I was in the video with him.
So here I am like just at the in world
at my feet success and just um just having a ball.
And then I graduated college with about our business degree,
and um, then I got a record deal. And fast forward.
You must have thought like, man, this is just so easy,
(06:15):
like you said, like, I just came here to town.
I'm in school, I'm doing great, I got a publishing it,
I'm getting paid to write songs. I'm meeting the best
songwriters in town. I'm meeting new artists and oh my god,
now I got a single on the radio and oh
my god, it went over one. Oh my god, I'm
stinking on the song and I'm in the music video,
and what are you thinking? Are you thinking like I
(06:35):
got this? I'm thinking, you know, at twenty what was
I at this point? I'm six. I was just like,
this is just the best life effort. I mean I
love country music and I love the business, and and
then things kind of took a turn. Um sad, just
you know, all the six everything that you could possibly imagine.
(06:58):
And then I was like, you know what, I'm kind
of tired of. I mean, I really want to meet somebody.
And I had dated here and there, but UM was
really ready to meet someone. All my friends were getting married. Um,
I think I'm twenty six at this point. So I
then met um my um husband at the time, UM
my late husband, but he played for the Titans. He
(07:20):
was the kicker rob runist for the Titans, and we
just fell in love very quickly, and UM had this
whirlwind romance. And so I kind of sent music to
this side a little bit. And I still had a
record deal, but I had done so much work. I
was ready to be kind of I wanted to be
in love and like and enjoying my personal life because
I had really put that on the back burner, and
(07:42):
so we got married, had this amazing, beautiful wedding, and
then shortly after he passed away in a car wreck,
and my world just completely went dark. And um seven,
you know, I'm widowed, and it was like, you know,
just a mom exploded in my face, and I just
(08:03):
was at a loss with life and so um, you know,
imagine you know, going through that at that age, having
all this positive stuff. Stuff happened, and so I, um,
I still continued. I tried to make music be you know,
my healing medicine and just try to focus on that,
and it just didn't work out. I spent a couple
(08:24):
of years after that trying to you know, I was
partying too much. I was just, um, I was lost.
I really needed to come back home and and get
my heart back together in my mind, and just I
was just broken. And so that's what brought me back
to Texas a couple of years after, still trying to
make the music thing work. It was just not happening.
I didn't even want to write music anymore. In fact,
(08:46):
I kind of hated Was it hard to live? Was
it hard to be in Nashville? Was it hard to
carry on, because I know you stayed for a while,
but I mean, how how do you carry on when
everything gets flipped upside down like that? You don't. I
tried so hard to make it work, and to the
point where it was unhealthy, and so every street I
(09:06):
turned down, every even friends of mine. It was hard
to to hang out with friends, and it was hard
to go to certain restaurants, and I knew after a
couple of years it just got worse. And I was like,
you know, Nashville, for me, Nashville is an unhealthy environment,
and I need to get away. And that was the
best decision I've ever made, just to get away. And
(09:27):
that's what a lot of people with tragedy, you know,
you try to you can't keep seeing the same things
and talking to the same people. Sometimes you just have
to to walk away for a second, have a fresh start,
like to have like a reset, so it's not just
all you, so you can give yourself the space to
heal and to try to to grow in a different
(09:47):
way instead of being flooded every second of every day. Probably, yeah,
you're flooded and you're cloudy of the mind. And and
then I was I was turning to the wrong people,
and you know, I kind of tried to date a
couple of times, and I was they were disasters and
it was all. It was a me thing for sure.
I was just I was just lost, and I was
(10:08):
trying to going to go into therapy. But you know,
and then also in Nashville, it was a very public situation,
so everybody knew me at that point, whether it was
bad or good. You know, a situation that tragic, you know,
people associate you with that, and so it was really
difficult to pretend everything is normal when I wanted it
to be normal. But outside looking in, I was just
(10:29):
very broken and needed, um really just needed my family
because I'm so close with them and I've been away
from them for so long. And so I packed my
ship up and I was like by Nashville. I honestly
never wanted to write music again. I really kind of
just left Nashville, IM in my dust. Um that's what
(10:50):
I needed at the moment. I quit talking to my friends.
I just I really just started a new life in Texas,
and and for a couple of years I just did
really state, Yeah, what did you do? How did you
set up a new life in Texas, because I've done
that myself when Michael. Totally different scenario, but like Michael
and I broke up for a little while and I
just needed to clear my brain. And I'm not comparing
(11:12):
my situation to yours at all pleasing for anyone listening.
Like Rachel went through something super tragic, and I have
so much respect for the way you handled it. But
I'm just saying I left my whole life in Nashville
two and I thought I would never come back, and
then two years later I came back and it's it's wonderful,
and I understand needing that break, But how did you
start your life over? Because I just started my life
(11:34):
over in Texas and when I moved to Austin because
I just but I I just met new friends, I
got a new job. I had threw myself out there.
But it was so crazy, like it was such a
wild just rebirthing of yourself at an adult age. And
so how did you do that? Just coming through a tragedy,
leaving everything that you've worked for for the past thirteen
(11:55):
years behind, and now you're in Dallas with your family,
your new job. You like, you're not even doing music,
You're doing real estate. Now what are what are those
first few weeks and months and that year look like,
Oh my gosh. And I remember Caroline, you did, I
remember your Michael breaking up and you all been together
for so long, and then you had to you could
(12:18):
just kind of have to reinvent yourself. And and when
I literally the entire ten and alp hour drive to
Dallas from Nashville to Texas was a ball fest because
I knew I was literally just kind of crumbling up
and pushing to this side hard work, like fourteen years
of friendships and relationships and you know, my favorite places
in my favorite city, and I knew I had to
(12:40):
just decline everything for a while and to heal myself.
And it was hard. It took me a solid year
back in Texas to you know what. I met some
friends and who you have met a couple of really
solid friends. But um, you know, then I'd go to
on social media and I'd see all my friends still
flourishing and you know, more people getting married, and I
(13:02):
was so jealous. I mean, I was so jealous because
I wanted that life back so bad, but I knew
it just wasn't healthy for me still. Um, but you know,
I just I was like, I'm just gonna for me
kind of like for me too. I'm a big dreamer,
and so I was in my heart sort of settling. Um.
I wanted to be in real estate, but I just
(13:22):
was kind of dabbling in it and actually kind of
killed it for a while. I don't workaholic, and so
I was selling. I saw like eight million in real estate,
which is on heard of my first year. That's all
I did was work. It was insane. I I was
making great money. Um but I I but in my
heart was healing slowly though. I had my family, and um,
(13:43):
I would be with my family, you know, every weekend
and go to my dad's ranch and go to my
mom's ranch. And really I was just kind of getting
back to the basics of life really. Um but it
was it was really tough leaving Nashville behind. I kept,
you know, kind of like dabbled back into looking all
my friends and um, and was really starting to miss Nashville.
(14:04):
After a couple of years went by and I was
really starting to fill my heart heal and my soul
be refurbished and um and then comes the TV show
How did that come back? And really fast though, before
we talk about the TV show, Why was getting back
to the basics so important to you? Because that's I
relate to you in my own personal way that like
(14:26):
when I felt when I felt lost, I wanted to
just come back home and regroup and be with family.
And why was that so important to you? And how
did you healing? How did you heal your tragedy of
losing your new husband. I mean that's a big deal.
Oh my god, it's a huge deal. Um. I I
think that home is my home will always be Texas,
(14:50):
and I think just having that back to the basics,
Like here I am in Nashville, on top of the world,
and you know, my best friends are all these famous
country singers and know I I marry this, you know,
wonderful man. He's an NFL star. Like my life was
so abnormal, and I also grew up in the spotlight,
and so I've never had any sense of normalcy in
(15:11):
my entire existence. And so coming back home and not
being around a bunch of fame and not being around
but you know, a lot of money and there's a
lot of things that took my mind away from just
being a normal person. Hitting the ground running and asking
for business, you know, real estates to you know, real
estate is a very hard business to get into, and
I was having for the first time in my life,
(15:33):
I wasn't being you know, I wasn't I was like
having to ask, Hey, do you want to sell a house?
Say do you want me to list your house? And
it was a very vulnerable spot that I've never had
to be in before. And it was very healthy for
me to really know what it was like. Even though
I was working my butt off in Nashville, it came
easy to me and I got success very easily. And
so you know that my personal life took a turn
(15:56):
for the worse, and so it just kind of like
dumbed my mind down a little bit. And I think
I needed that that sort of normalcy that I've never
had my entire life. And I could just feel every
single day I was in a lot of therapy and Texas.
I was starting myself with lots of amazing like podcasts
and really just like learning who I am as a woman,
(16:16):
and and I've never taken any time to do that
for myself. And not wanting to fall in love like
I love to me was just almost gross, Like I
just never wanted to meet anybody in this first time,
I'd really let myself be completely alone, and that was
my healing for me. And therapy really helped. And not
just therapy, I'm talking like trauma therapy and focused on
(16:39):
my mind and my spirit and so that um, I
could feel every day for a couple of years, every
day in my heart just started to get more full,
and I wasn't sad anymore, and I started to, you know,
just be just feel good. And I hadn't felt good
in a really long time. So you really did the
work with the therapy, like you really. You didn't just
(17:01):
stuff all of your emotions and your feelings and just
move on and try to act like nothing happened. You
went to work on it. Oh, I beat myself up.
I put myself in boot camp. I mean it was.
It was the most the toughest, like the best years
of my life, but the most tough two years because
you're having to revisit a lot of tragedy that you
(17:21):
kind of dumbed down, and you you you you pocketed
away because it is so painful to relive those things.
And I went back and read, you know, reread some
emails and some text messages and I revisited a time
in my life that was um horrific. It was nightmare.
But it was my my trauma therapist. You know. The
way that they the way that they wanted me to
(17:44):
really be able to heal, was to revisit things that
I never wanted to listen to again or look at again.
And so it was very painful. I I did some
intense emotional work. Wow, okay, two things. What did you
learn about yourself? And why did yourself fight to do that?
Why did you tell yourself? Why did you know you
had to do that? And then what did you learn
about yourself? I knew that I had to do that
(18:07):
because at that age and going through something so traumatic
and tragic and replaying, you know, a car wreck in
your head every day and you will. It's a very
unhealthy lifestyle. And I knew I'm never going to meet somebody,
I'm never gonna get married, and I'll never have a
family of my own if I don't really get to
the bottom of this and heal. And you're always going
(18:28):
to have those scars. Those scars are never going to
go away, but you can still be happy and meet
a wonderful man and move on in your personal love life.
And I had just totally given up on that. So
that was very important to me. And what was the
second thing that you asked? What did you learn about yourself?
I learned how strong that I was. I had kind
(18:50):
of never given myself a lot of credit, and everyone
around me just always was like, you're so strong, and
you're you're so this, and you're so that. I never
believed a word of it. I was like, God, you
guys are just filling me up with a bunch of crap.
And I learned just doing all of that hard work
and moving and picking up and leaving like that, you know,
I made some very big decisions about a lot of
(19:11):
different parts of my life, um pretty quickly, because I
knew I needed to. And so after all the therapy
and the time away, I realized, Man, you're strong, Like
you've got this. You can really I can really conquer anything.
I feel like, wow, Okay, so here comes the show.
Now all of a sudden, you're back in Texas. You're
spending all this time with your family. So it's really
(19:31):
genuine like it's not like everyone moved to Texas to
do the show, Like everyone's like hanging out already hanging
hanging with the family, living life on the farm, back
to the basics. How did the show come into your life? Yeah? So,
um yeah, all back in Texas, just living, living a
normal life, having a great time. And my dad gets
a call and he says, hey, girls, Tammy, do you
(19:54):
want to do family Feud? And of course, and my
my immediate thing is like, I don't want to be
on TV. I don't want to do anything in the
entertainment world, Like screw it, I'm not going back there.
And he goes, Rachel, it's family feud. It's not like
an ask you to start a starring role in a movie.
And we're like, okay, So we do a family feud.
And after family feud, we have this huge celebratory dinner
(20:15):
the whole family and are my dad's very good friend.
His name is Jason Earle, Like he produced a reality
show that my dad did call Better Late than Never
with Henry Winkler, George Foreman all those guys. Was pretty
successful on I think it was NBC. He stands up
and he goes, you, guys, I have a proposition for you,
(20:36):
and I'm like, oh god, what is this? And he said,
I have talked to your dad about this. I've watched
the family. I went to your dad's surprise seventy birthday
and I got to see you guys in her mingle.
What if we pitched a reality show to a big network,
And so we're all, you know, we've had some wine.
It was kind of late. We're like, yeah, let's do it. Well,
(20:58):
unbannounced to us they pitched the idea e ate it
up and they were like, yeah, we wanna, We'll buy
the pilot, you know, do a pilot with a family.
And so a few months go by we filmed the pilot,
so kind of thinking like this is E Network. They're
not gonna We're not cool enough, you know, we all
just kind of like kind of rushed it to the side.
Then a few months after that we get the show
(21:19):
and we're like there were doing contracts and we're talking like,
oh my god, we're doing a TV show. We're gonna
it's gonna be called The Bradshaw Bunch, And so all
of a sudden, like everyone's worlds are completely turned up
to down. Now we've got like, you know, forty person crew,
and we are when you fill a reality show, I
don't think people understand it is a big deal. I
mean they've got you know, it means it's just yeah,
(21:41):
forty plus people. I mean it's it's a lot. It's
like kind of like filming a movie. What is the
pressure like? Or do you have any pressure for now?
It's like you've what you've been, You've been. You worked
so hard to national to have like, you know, a
lot of success, to be known, and then you kind
of decided that you don't want that anymore. You're living
this quiet life family, but now you have this opportunity
(22:02):
that's fallen in your lap to be on one of
the biggest networks and expose your whole family life and
all of this. Like what is that like? Is their
pressure and everything you've gone through? Like do you feel nervous?
How do you plan out episodes? Do you just let
it roll? How does it all come together? Yeah? So
I was, Oh, I was I was absolutely horrified. I
(22:23):
was petrified. And I've always thought it'd be so fun
to do a reality show. But that was the old Rachel.
That was the Rachel that wanted to be a singer
and wanted to be famous, and at the time I
wanted in the music industry. I I got. I wanted all.
I wanted it all, but in it wasn't genuine. I wanted,
like to say, you want to be famous, Like the
old me just had the wrong version of success. And
(22:45):
so now I'm so healthy and I'm healed and and
I'm like, oh no, I'm not going back there. I
don't want to be famous. I do not want to
be labeled as a singer. And they're like, but you
do sing, but you but you love singing, and I'm
like no. I was so mean about it because I
just I had left that all behind and I closed
that chapter. And yet little did I know that this
(23:07):
TV show that I was having nightmares about every night,
because I knew I was gonna have to talk about
my real life and I was gonna have to talk about, yeah,
I've been married and you know. And I was just like,
how am I gonna go back there? And the producer,
I will give Jason this, he's one of the best
producers of all time. He he had like therapy sessions
and in our green screen interviews and He's like, it's
(23:28):
okay to talk about these things, and so I did.
And like the more we were filming, then the episodes
kind of just they kind of smelt together, you know,
as when you start filming it's very nerve wracking, but
then it's like, hey, guys, I've got this tomorrow and
then I'm you know, I'm going on a date with
this guy or my sister. They just kind of evolved,
they episode ideas, kind of volunteer lap but um. Halfway
(23:53):
through filming, I got an opportunity to sing God Bless
America at NASCAR, and I gotten knocked down, drag out
with like my dad, my family out. They're like, you're
a stinger. You can do this, and I was like, no,
I don't want to. I don't. I really don't want
to do this anymore. And I never want to sing again.
And then COVID hit and I started writing music on
(24:14):
the piano. I've I've always been a piano player, had
written a song in almost three years, And that's kind
of where me getting back into the music industry evolved.
Was because of COVID and the TV show Dang and
so UM. Then the show aired and UM and it
(24:35):
was a total success and the numbers were amazing, and
I released a few songs and they the streamings did
pretty damn well. I was very surprised. Um, it's really
amazing what um, what TV does for you or what
it can do for especially now everything's about streaming or
television and in the music industry, and I want to
I want to do so many other things. I don't
(24:56):
want to just do music. But I feel just kind
of bad, got it. I started coming back to Nashville
around October and revisited all my friends like you guys,
and and um, Jesse and the girls, and and I
had been back to Nashville since I've driven away, you know,
three years prior. So it felt like, wow, I'm back.
(25:18):
And when I when I came back to Nashville in October,
I just felt like, Wow, I can go to the
same restaurants now, and I can. I'm That's when I
really knew, Okay, you're healed, You're good, You've you've got this. Wow. Well,
because I saw you hanging out with Jesse James Stecker,
who's a friend of both oars, and we've all been
(25:39):
friends for over ten years. It's been it's been it's
just been wild to like be friends as long. UM.
But I saw you Jessie, and I was like, oh
my god, Rachel's back in town like I hadn't because
I hadn't seen you and so long. And then we
ended up going to a baby shower for our friend
Jess Paine, who was having an amazing thing like miracle
baby story, and it was so excited and celebrate her.
(26:00):
And I was so happy to see you in the
flesh and blood, and I could tell that you, like
you just looked like well and like you looked good
and happy, and I was so I was so just
so happy to see you and to hear your story
and to the thing that I admire so much is
that you have done the work on yourself and so
(26:23):
now here you are having the success with this show,
but you are ready to share knowledge that's going to
help other people heal because you've gone through something so hard,
but yet you've really done work to heal yourself. And
what a blessing to be able to share those moments
and to have a producer who is so encouraging of
(26:44):
that in such a beautiful way. Yeah, it was I'll
never forget. It was raining outside and um and Jason,
you know, Jason is very sensitive with my story. You
know that's a that's a really really heavy topic to
to talk about with a camera in your face. And
I had never spoken of it, especially you know, it
to friends and family, but I've never spoken of it
(27:06):
to anyone, um publicly, and so uh it was raining,
and um, He's like, you know, tell us to just
start talking. And I don't know what it was. I
just started crying. And it's like this dark room and
it's like seven o'clock at night, dark outside, and I've
got a whole production crew right in front of me,
and I'm doing an interview and I was like, you
know what, this is my time to just tell my story.
(27:29):
And I it was like a three hour um therapy
session really, and Jason looked at me, and I looked
at him, and the makeup ladies looked around and everyone's like,
oh my god. We didn't we didn't expect you to
talk about you know, this tragic story. But um, I
knew that talking about it it would obviously be on
the show, and the outpour of people that have lost
(27:52):
a husband or a wife or even you know, girls
that have just been like, um, there's a breakup. But
then I go through on the show as well, just
people just gravitate towards people that are real people don't
want to see this perfect life like people fall in
love with real people, And so I I didn't want
to be some bruised and battered you know Debbie Downer
(28:14):
on the show, But like I've been through some stuff
and why not talk about it and help others? And
my God, like I've baltin eyes out reading some of
a lot of my Instagram uh messages are just like
thank you so much for talking about such a tragedy.
And it's like, and I've never done that before, So um,
what a blessing? Is right to have that sort of
(28:35):
platform and be able to really help other people. I know,
And the fact that you I hate that you had
to go through tragedy and suffering and obviously like no
one would ever wish that for anyone, but the fact
that you're able to turn it into a healing moment
and now you have this platform to speak about it.
I mean, it feels like God's hand is all over this,
(28:57):
Like use your voice, the voice that you have, Like
you've always used your voice to sing, and now your
voice is here. You're feeling your voice again to write music.
You're feeling free to express yourself again. You're feeling at
home in Nashville again, and you're having this platform to
share your story that is so painful and hard, but
it's will help so many others from your journey. And
it's like, wow, how how crazy that it's all kind
(29:20):
of happening like this, you know, and you would have
never wished for this or planned for it, but that
you're having a moment to really help others. Yeah, this
is gonna sound really weird. But when I was like
fifteen or sixteen, um, you know, not to graduate high
school and kind of ready to you know, get away
from home and all that, when I have this, always
(29:42):
always have had this weird feeling that that I was
going to have to go through something really horrible to
really because we did grow up in such a different
a different way. Um, I kind of had everything up
my fingertips as a kid. You know. Yeah, I know
how to work hard and all that, but in a
sense things were kind of handed to us as as kids,
(30:05):
and I knew to really be like the best woman
I can be in the strongest and the best mother
and wife and friend and daughter, sister. I'm gonna I
have this really I gonna have to go through something
really bad and I don't know what that is. UM
at some point in my life to to just kind
of like come to reality and and really find who
I am and here we are, you know, having gone
(30:28):
through all this stuff I've gone through, UM, but now
it's like I'm so secure with myself and I've got
my friends back and my voice back, and UM this
great TV show that lets me work with my family
and that people are loving that you know, we can
help others with. It's just like I've been waiting for
this moment my entire life, just this sort of like
(30:50):
everything's come together, but it's been hell to get here.
But I'm I'm you know what, I would and change
it for the world. I really wouldn't. It feels like
you're in your moment. It tell me what it's like
being with your family all day, every day, working with
your family. Because you grew up with Terry Bradshaw, one
of the biggest football legends in the world. Like you said,
you've had such a public life and having a superstar
(31:13):
for a dad, I mean that has to shape you
in so many ways. But what is it like to
be living with each other and working with each other
as adults. One of your sisters is married or are
brother and sisters? Mary, No, do one just get married.
They're both married. And I know you have like some
nieces or a niece who's like the love of your
of terry your dad's life. Yep, sorry and little boys?
(31:38):
Is that j Diet? So what is it like being
in this moment that you've waited for your whole life?
Being with your famous family, having this famous moment. But
it's more real than ever. It's um, it's pretty amazing.
I have not spent this much time with my dad
since I don't think ever. To be honest, my dad
(32:00):
always worked so hard to provide for our family, which
leads to him having to be on the road constantly
missed holidays. You know, I don't really remember my dad
ever being able to really be around all the time.
And because he's providing for all of us. So it
is like the coolest, biggest blessing to be able to
work every day with your dad and you know, Lacy
(32:21):
and Aaron and and the family, and my stepmom and
my niece and nephew. I mean, I never thought this
would ever be even an option, but it's really cool,
and the most special is really with with my dad
because I feel like I'm making up for lost time.
And I've also I've been gone since i was eighteen
years old, so I've I've missed out on a lot
of time with with my family, who I'm a huge
(32:43):
family person, and um, sleeping away from them for that
many years was very tough. And so it's like it's
really good medicine every day. And my dad is so
funny and charismatic, so it's like just um, just like
having that laughter back in the house and I love it.
It's I I love it. I hope they love it too.
(33:05):
What is the vibe of your family? Like, like, what
are what are y'all? What is your daily vibe? What
do y'all talk about? What do you guys like to
do together? What are your hobbies together? What is a
day like With the Bradshaw bunch, we always were huge
coffee drinkers, so we always wake up and we go
to the kitchen and it's kind of like we try
(33:25):
to solve the world's problems and all go around the table. Um.
We're very Southern traditional family, so we um kind of
always have the same routine. But we all love to
go fishing. Fishing is like our love language. We all
go fishing all the time. Um, the boys all smoke
their cigars and um at night. Uh. My my brother
(33:46):
in law is a really amazing chef, so he's always
cooking us these amazing meals and then we'll get some
wine out. Um. We're just a chill family. We don't
mean my dad, like you would think we have these
like super aborate lives. We don't. We go to the
ranch and we hang out there all day and we
see the horses and ride four wheelers and um, go fishing.
(34:08):
I mean, uh, we're not huge travelers. Like we'll go
to Lacey. No live in Hawaii and so we'll do
a big Hawaii trip every year. But um, it's pretty chill.
Lots of laughter and lots of pranks, jokesters like who's
the biggest jokester and frankster of the family. Tammy Bradshaw
(34:29):
my step mom. And it's on the daily. She will
pull Oh this is absolutely hysterical. The other day she
sends him to the grocery store. Him this is like
during Christmas, him and my uncle, my dad and my
uncle and she sends them this list and they get
like all the basic stuff, and then she added at
the end, um seedless strawberries, um, um, all of these
(34:53):
I oh, diet diet coke, like all these things that
don't even exist. And so she calls him, like they
were gone for like two hours. She calls, She's like,
are you guys okay? He goes, we can't find diet
diet coke. There's no where are the seedless strawberries. I
don't I've never heard of that in my life. And
she's like, oh my god, it's a prank. It's a joke.
(35:13):
Are you that dumb that you still haven't caught on.
He's like, dammy, I gotta go. I mean they were
literally going around Kroger trying to find all of these
items that don't even exist, and it was just like
unsoured cream was another one on the list. But it's
just stuff like that. She's so funny. You think that
that's the key to their marriage, just keeping that laughter
(35:34):
and that joking energy around all the time. One thousand
first and I asked them, they've been together for twenty
plus years, and I'm like, do you guys ever fight?
Have you ever even had a fight. I mean there,
which of course everybody has fights and stuff, but um, laughter,
They'll they both tell me they're like, you have to
be best friends. Dad's like when she walks out of
(35:57):
the room, I want I want to be next to her,
like I don't want to be from her, And that's
to me. Like the recipes, who are really healthy marriage? Laughter? Man,
So how do I when obviously it's a hard time
in the world right now, we're all feeling it. How
sometimes I get swallowed by all the suffering and the
(36:17):
pain and all the all things that are wrong with
the world. How do you stay in laughter and in
this state of the world. Like, what are some tips
that you can share with all of us who are
feeling this heaviness? Like how do you maintain a daily
routine of staying happy and light and laughing? Yeah? This
(36:37):
I think this past year obviously really tested a lot
of people on your own, your your psyche, your emotions,
you know, trying to stay positive. My god, I mean
I have my moments. I have moments all the time
where I get really upset or really sad or super down,
especially with what's going on, and um, and I feel
guilty sometimes because I'm in a really good place in
(36:59):
my life and and I feel guilty being really happy,
especially right now. And I don't know, I'm still trying
to work through that, that feeling of guilt. But I
every single day I turned to the things that make
me super happy. I love to cook when when, and
get off your phone. I've I'm trying so hard to
to stay away from the phone for a minute, like
(37:22):
you know, get a book out, go outside, and like
appreciate a good sunset. Like those are the things that
I'm especially through all this therapy that I was talking
about earlier, Those are the things that I'm learning to
appreciate that really make me happy. The other day, I
put my air pods in and I walked around just around.
I live on a ranch. I walked around the pond
and hung out with the cows and listen to all
(37:45):
this like inspirational music. I haven't done that since I
was a kid. Just really like digging into my own mind. Um,
but doing things to just make you super happy that
aren't on your phone. It's not a movie. Really kind
of getting back and tell with um the world is
for me, just made um. Every day is super healthy
(38:06):
and happy. How do you not get so does that?
Because sometimes I fall into the spiral of like checking
social media and comparing my life and feeling like I
need to do more to keep up, or this person
is doing that and maybe I should be doing this,
and then you feel guilty or bad or that person
is like such a great mom, or that person has
this going on or whatever. Do you ever fall into
that spiral? Because that is, to me, the most unhealthy
(38:30):
part of social media. There's so much great that you
can do with it, but like it really it can
really mess with your brain. Social media. I'm telling you what,
I have gone down a rabbit hole one day. Um,
this was a couple of years ago. I was on
my Instagram for probably four or five hours comparing myself
to others, my body to others, um the fact I'm
(38:52):
not married with kids yet and all of my friends
are married and with children. And you think that that.
I mean, I was literally and it was a minute.
I was comparing myself on the daily and it was
ruining my life. It was it was making me depressed, unhappy.
Even though I'm in this great spot. That doesn't matter.
You're gonna have days that are negative days or moments
(39:13):
that are deep negative moments. Um, but I like, that's
so dangerous. I'll look at I'll look at another girl
on Instagram, some bikini photo, and I'm like, golly, I
need to I need to crack down on how you
got I gotta go eight days, eight times this week,
you know. And it's just unhealthy. And um, we all
do that, all all of us do that, especially being
(39:34):
I'm thirty three, I don't have kids yet, I'm not married.
Like you think it doesn't bother me, but I've talked
enough with friends and family and read like so many
inspirational things that that's everyone's number one piece of advice.
Do not compare yourself to anybody else, because you know what,
there's people that are also looking at your life that
think you have it pretty damn well, and you're looking
(39:56):
at their life and you're like, I want your life,
but then they want yours to. It's super discombobulated. I
just when I catch myself doing that, I just I
literally shut my phone off. It's just so unhealthy. I agree,
and I and I think that now we all are
aware enough that this is a cycle that happens with everyone,
and it's so unhealthy that like being out here in Texas,
Like I literally try just barely my phone. Like I
(40:20):
obviously I love to talk about my podcast on my Instagram,
and I do like to keep up with people on Instagram,
but I just cannot go down the rabbit hole. It's
just it's not good for my brain. And I want
to live like Tammy, and I want to be funny
and laughing and like I want to be cracking cracking
jokes and like I want to have fun and have
like that kind of energy instead of just heavy energy
that I picked up from looking at social media. Yeah,
(40:44):
and we're all guilty of that, just digging in God,
my god, Instagram. It's it's like the worst best thing ever.
It's made people's careers, you know, all of that stuff.
But my god, you know, even in a romantic relationship,
you know, um dating and all of that, you're you
felt like, who do they fall follow? What photos do
they like? I mean us girls can really dig deep
(41:05):
and into some stuff. It's it's psychotic sometimes, just like
how the brain works, especially as as a woman. I
I don't you know, just the comparison and the looks
and have the people that you see they don't look
like that in person. I mean, it's just it's just
crazy and I can't imagine. Um, you know, when I
(41:26):
have kids, I'm really going to make sure that that
they stay off social media as much as possible. I
don't want my kids growing up with eating disorders and
comparing their their lives to other kids. I just that's scared.
I'm so freaked out about that. I know, because we
can feel the effects of it as adults, you know,
so it's even harder for our kids. I know, I know,
I know, I know. Oh, Rachel God, I'm so proud
(41:50):
of you. I'm so proud of like everything that you've
done for yourself, Like what a journey you've been on,
and how amazing that you just had the courage to
dig deep and really find out who you are. Okay,
so tell me if you had to describe yourself in
three words, now, what would those words be? By the way,
that was really sweet, thank you, and this has been
(42:11):
a very therapeutic, amazing morning. Three um um uh strong.
I'm very sympathetic, very I'm very simple sensitive, so strong
sensitive or sympathetic and charismatic. I always want to be
(42:32):
the one in the room that makes everybody laugh or
everybody's smile or um, just entertaining. Wow, I feel like
you have such a piece about you now, like the
fact that this reality show is happening for you now
it makes perfect sense to me because it's right when
you didn't want it, Like right when you weren't looking
for it. You were actually kind of upset about it.
(42:54):
You know, you didn't go try to hunt it down.
You didn't fly to La to try to meet with
an agent to get something going, to help your music,
to do whatever. It's like, you're just kind of living
your life under the radar, and here it comes coming
for you. That's why you can't escape your destiny, right
what's mad for you? Isn't it that funny? And and
now it's like the more I was like, I'm not
a singer, I don't want to be on TV blah
(43:14):
blah blah blah blah, And then this spelling to our
lap and I was, yeah, I was mad about it.
I'm like, why now is this happening now that I'm
like over it? Why in the hell do we don't
have all the things I've dreamt of? And I'm pushing
it away and it's just It is God's way of saying,
hey you, this is what you are meant to do.
And you you are a singer and you can write music.
(43:37):
You also can finally really fall in love because you
know who you are and you can have a camera
in your face and talk about the deepest, darkest things
in the world and help other people. And it's like, WHOA,
I did not know that all this would this was
ever gonna be even you know, possibility for me. So
it's really funny how how that works. Wow, that is
(44:00):
really amazing. I am I am really inspired by you, Rachel.
I am like truly this has been such an inspiring episode.
Thank you for coming on and sharing with me. I
always wrap up with one question, which is leave your
light and what do you want people to know? I
(44:21):
want people to know that don't ever don't ever give
up on yourself. Doesn't matter what someone says about you,
what you go through, what you don't like about yourself.
We all have insecurities, but don't ever give up. Go
back to being a kid again, those happy those moments
(44:41):
where you're just on like you don't know, you don't
know what the darkness is in the world because you
because your kid, go back to that place that made
you want to be the best mom or the best
singer or you know, the best writer, whatever you want
to be. Like, don't ever give up on that, because
I have and it's a really Um I did give
up on myself, and I was okay with really just
(45:03):
settling in my heart. I was like, I'm just gonna
settle because that's a safe way to go. But um,
don't ever don't ever let that go, that light inside
of you. Thank Rachel. You are awesome. Wow, thank you
for coming on here. I really this was such an
amazing Thank you. This was amazing. Thank you. I'm so
(45:27):
happy for in your life and what you've done in
your life. Like really, it's truly awesome. Well, I appreciate that,
and thank you for having me on. This was very
you inspiring me as well, and this was very I've
been listening to your podcast for the past five years
or however long you've had it, and I've always wanted
to be on here. So this is so much fun.
(45:48):
I'm so glad you're here. And it's crazy like I
have not felt inspired lately, Like I literally feel like
I'm in a COVID funk, Like just sort of for
the past year and a half, like just you know,
I became a mom, which I love more than anything,
but that's like a rebirth of who I am, and
it's like who I was versus who I am. And
then COVID hit in the world's upside down and things
(46:09):
that used to matter don't matter. And sometimes I just
feel like, what am I even doing? Like I feel
like I don't even know what I'm supposed to be
doing in my life? Do you? I mean, I just so,
I'm so glad that you are inspired by me sometimes
because sometimes I feel like, what am I What's the
point of any of it? I don't even understand what
my purpose is right now? No, you have no In fact, Um,
(46:30):
I was just I was gonna text Mama Karen, but
that I've been listening to your podcasts for a long
time and I loved that one that you did with her.
I listened to that maybe like two or three times.
It was so inspirational. You have no idea how um,
you know, in the middle of a pandemic, there's a
think there's a lot of people who have been in
a funk for a while. Um, But a good podcast
(46:53):
and and and great inspiring interviews will save someone's day sometimes,
So just know that I appreciate that and I appreciate
you coming on here and being a guest who will
share your heart, because sometimes I'm like, is it too
Like are the story are people feeling? I don't want
people to feel like you have to come share. It's
like the struggle, but like everyone has struggle, so really
(47:17):
like we need to hear the struggle and then the
redemption of the struggle. That's how we know that, like
we can move on because not every day is a rainbow.
I mean it's just not. No. And it's so to
hear someone be so vulnerable and be like, hey, look,
I have literally been through the worst tell in the
world or felt the worst about myself and here's how
I got out of it. But yet I still have
(47:38):
those moments like just be real being real with people.
There's well, we have no clue how many women and
men will will listen to our stories. Sometimes I'm like,
who cares about my story? Like who? Like, I'm not
that great? But then I talk about it or you know,
help someone's day, and that's like wow, you know a
(47:59):
lot of your interviews are so inspiring because it's amazing
to see people rise out of the ashes um when
others are still stuck and they're like, how do I
get to this next level of happiness because I'm still
my funk and what can I do today or read
today that's gonna help me? So you're awesome. I really
needed this episode, Mike. I really this is very inspiring
(48:22):
for me. Thank you for coming on. I'm so glad
to have reconnected with you in the physical form recently
and now we've had this combo and I'm just so
proud of you. Rachel. You're doing amazing things with your life,
and thank you for sharing and helping others. You're awesome
and I hope to see you much more. Thank you
so much. I hope to see you in Nashville. It's
very soon. Okay, Okay, We'll have a great day, all right, girl,
(48:47):
You too. By
Host
Caroline Hobby
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