Emmy Russell Reflects on Her ‘Deep Encounter’ With God
By Movieguide® Contributor
Emmy Russell, former AMERICAN IDOL contestant and the granddaughter of country legend Loretta Lynn, recently spoke on Southern Living’s podcast about her upbringing and how God helped her overcome an eating disorder.
The 24-year-old began by sharing about her “Memaw” Loretta Lynn.
“I grew up going on the road with her. So, my mom, she actually was in a duet, in a duo country group called the Lynns, and they were on the road with her touring,” she said. “My mom became manager, so whenever I was born, they kind of quit doing their, you know, out in Nashville thing and went on tour with her and opened up, and I was just on the road as a baby.”
Russell explained how she wrote her first song when she was only in second grade and continued from there.
“My first song I think I wrote, it was for the talent show, and I was in the second grade. And it was called ‘Keep Trying Again,’ and it was just about math and how I just failed but then I was like ‘keep trying again,’” she said.
“But then whenever I was about nine, I wrote a song called ‘The Mirror Can Lie,’ and it was just, you know, it doesn’t show you what’s inside…that’s what the hook was like, ‘The mirror can lie, it doesn’t show you what’s inside,’ so I was really always like attracted to like identity finding out who you are,” she explained.
She said previously of songwriting, “Whenever you share a song, it’s very vulnerable. Anything I feel, I write. It just starts coming out of me. I go to my iPhone and my piano—it is my best friend whenever it comes to music. I feel a melody, I go to my iPhone, record it. A lyric, go to it, record it.”
Russell recently wrote a song titled “Skinny,” which she performed for her AMERICAN IDOL audition. She shares the song was birthed out of her own struggle with an eating disorder.
“I started developing an eating disorder when I was like 16, 17 out on the road, and I just stopped eating and drinking a lot of coffee. And you know you’re going all the time, and I just really cared what people thought of me,” she said.
Russell also shared how she found a relationship with God.
“My whole family did believe in God, but I didn’t believe in God,” she said. “I was like why am I not happy. I have everything I’ve ever wanted. You know, I’m following in my grandmother’s footsteps, and I couldn’t fill that hole inside.”
“I had like a deep encounter with God, and the preacher, he called me out in the crowd, and he said, ‘You,’ and I said, ‘Oh my gosh.’ He’s preaching on hunger, and I said God I don’t have anything, but I do have hunger.”
Russell said in that moment, God changed her life and helped her find her identity outside of her grandma’s legacy.
Movieguide® previously reported on Russell:
Emmy Russell, Loretta Lynn’s granddaughter, held on in the most recent episode of AMERICAN IDOL, landing her in the top five and continuing her run for the title.
Last weekend’s episode had the competitors belting out some of Adele’s most iconic hits. Russell, however, began her performance with a rendition of Walk The Moon’s “Shut Up And Dance.” The song, however, didn’t quite go as planned due to the intense nerves she felt while taking the stage.
“Were you going to get up and walk around? What happened,” Katy Perry asked Russell after her performance.
“I just kind of changed my mind,” Russell responded with a smirk. “My nerves got nervous.
“You were the most confident I’ve seen you even if it was from a profile,” Perry added. “It was the most confident and best sounding you’ve ever sounded. Chill bumps everywhere.”
