My great-grandma Carlile was 91 when I came out. What surprised you most about the experience?īrandi Carlile: That the older people in my life accepted it so much more readily than even people my age. Question: I love how you describe your coming out as a series of 'awkward and uncomfortable emergences,' because that's exactly what mine was, too. John Prine's final song 'I Remember Everything' earns two posthumous Grammys, Brandi Carlile tribute (Their biological father is Carlile's childhood best friend, David.) Carlile, 39, recently caught up with USA TODAY from her home in Washington state, where she's been fishing, hiking, gardening and writing during lockdown. The folk-country star and her wife of eight years, Catherine Shepherd, are now proud parents to two young daughters, Evangeline and Elijah. (Carlile's pastor refused to baptize her and she was kicked out of a band.) She describes coming out as gay at age 15 – prompted by Ellen DeGeneres' historic coming-out episode of 'Ellen' in 1997 – and the intolerance she faced as a result. 'Broken Horses ,' out Tuesday, traces Carlile's impoverished childhood in rural Washington singing country songs and playing music with her family. 'I've never stopped enjoying singing it': Elton John on 'Your Song' at 50, new rarities box set 'I'd be like, 'Elton! I got nominated for a Grammy!' And he'd be like, 'Great honor! Love you!' '

'It's weird, he barely knew me, but I felt so compelled to tell him everything,' Carlile tells USA TODAY with a laugh. He first reached out in 2007 to say he's a fan, and soon became her 'gay pen-pal father figure,' Carlile writes in her new memoir 'Broken Horses.' She lost the competition but ultimately had the last laugh: The six-time Grammy winner now considers John one of her good friends and mentors. She wore a thrifted white polyester suit with drugstore boat shoes and pipe cleaner glasses that her mom bedazzled herself. When Brandi Carlile was in junior high, she performed Elton John's 'Honky Cat' in a local singing contest.

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