At 19 years old, Anne Wilson is a Christian singer/songwriter with a #1 Christian hit, “My Jesus.” Her debut album, “My Jesus,” releases in April 2022.

PEER: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

ANNE WILSON: My name is Anne Wilson. I’m from Kentucky and I grew up in a really great Christian home. I grew up wanting to be an astronaut and to work for NASA and I wanted to pursue like that whole side of things; basically, just explore God’s creation in that way. And then in 2017, my brother passed away in a car accident and that was really what started music for me; and that was what started my whole journey, was him passing away and me really realizing my need for the Lord and realizing that I wanted to do the rest of my life—telling people about Jesus instead of fulfilling what I wanted to do in my life and so I decided to lay down my dream of being an astronaut and decided to follow God’s leading and calling on my life to do music.

P: How did you come to know Jesus?

AW: I was in seventh grade and I had grown up in a Christian home but I never knew the Lord for myself; I knew His Word and I knew Scripture but I didn’t know Him personally. I was in seventh grade and I had a new Bible teacher come to my school and on the first day of school, he taught us about Jesus and he could not say His name without weeping and I just remember that really hitting me and that was just really powerful for me to think that like a grown man is over here weeping about Jesus. It just kind of like struck something in me to really believe like if this man is crying over Jesus then everything that I’ve been taught my whole life must really be true. And so, I felt the love of Jesus for the first time that day and the Holy Spirit and I gave my life to the Lord that night when I got home from school.

P: How do you maintain your faith and relationship with God especially during those busy busy seasons?

AW: I think that’s something that’s really hard for artists is because we’re in Christian music. It can be hard to intentionally carve out time with the Lord each day. But for me, that’s something that’s important because if we don’t do that then we just lose that relationship aspect with the Lord. And as a Christian artist, you’re constantly pouring out to other people on stage every night in shows and you’re preaching the gospel and like loving on people from the stage. So, if you haven’t been filled up yourself with the Lord, it can become a very empty feeling and can just feel like you’re going through the motion.

So, for me I always try to do it first thing in the morning when I wake up. Um, I always try to carve out like an hour or two in the morning for an hour or two to really just intentionally spend time with the Word. I open my bible, do my devotional, pray spend time with Him and then that normally sets the tone for the rest of my day to where I know like, “okay I started my day off with the Lord and so now I have this foundation in Him to continue building throughout the day.” And I’m also just in constant conversation with the Lord. I don’t always sit down and like have a prayer time but I’m just always kind of communicating with Him in my head and talking to him and so I think it’s important that we have communication like that as artists on the road.

PEER: Who are your songwriting influences?

Anne Wilson: Absolutely my songwriting influences are Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. They’re my influences. Especially Johnny Cash—the way that he uses very interesting language in his songs and his lyrics; and know that his songs are older. But there’s like a specific language that he uses.

I love that God is a huge influence in my songwriting. One of the main ways that I get song concepts and song ideas and song titles is by opening the word of God every day and spending time in His word or devotional or in prayer time. Because I write Christian music, I have that desire to just really involve Him in all my songwriting concepts and ideas and processes.

P: What was the inspiration behind your song, “My Jesus”?

AW: So, after my brother passed away in a car accident four and a half years ago, I had this void inside of me and I just wanted to worship the Lord. Every time I would feel like just giving up, I would go to my piano and worship God—and there was this one specific day where I was just worshipping and having this moment with the Lord; then, I started to realize the importance of wanting to journal and I started to journal every single day and I would write down the day’s date, write down what happened throughout the day and at the end of each day I would write down like, “God got me through another day.” And it’s because I wanted to prove to myself that God was going to pull me through the tragedy and get me to the other side.

And so then, about two and a half years after that,  I was writing I was in Nashville and a songwriting trip writing songs with other people and I go back into my journals and I realize that I had never written any other name referring to the Lord other than “My Jesus,” and so I  remember asking God, “why is that I’ve only ever written ‘My Jesus’?” and He said, “it’s because, Anne, it’s the truth I am yours and you are mine and we have a personal relationship with each other” … and so I ended up taking that song title into a writing session a few weeks later and that’s how “My Jesus” came about.

P: What are you most excited for your debut album and what do you hope listeners will take away from it?

AW: I’m so excited. This has been a long time coming; I’ve written over 130 songs for this and this 15 song record is what it ended up being and it has been just such a joy to be able to be a part of this record and to select these songs and to craft them together for this—my debut album. There’s a song on the record called “Mamas” and that’s probably one of the most exciting songs that I’m looking forward to. It’s just a very honest song and I wrote it about my mom and I wrote it about moms in general and it’s a really special song that we have a feature that’s gonna be on it that’s really exciting in the country world and so that song definitely stands out to me.

I just want people to feel the love of Jesus when they listen to these songs. I want them to I want these songs to lift people out of the pit that they’re in. I want these songs to give life to people; I think as an artist, part of what we do is create songs and release them. We don’t know if people are going to love them or not so I want people to love these songs and want people to connect with them on a deep level and I want people to relate with them. All of these songs are really like from just the realest parts of my life and the depths of my heart and so I really feel like my prayer is just that God would use these songs to impact people for His kingdom and just to impact people in in where they’re at in life.

P: So, you shared about your grieving process and losing your brother at a young age. What advice do you have for the young Christians who are in the grieving process and may have lost a loved one?

AW: Yeah, I think losing a loved one is something. That’s so hard and painful and um, it’s so difficult to get through. I think the most important thing for me walking through it was keeping the Lord as my rock and not turning to other things. Because it’s very easy when you lose a loved one to turn to medication or to even turn to people in a sense or to turn to food or whatever it is but it’s really important to stay rooted in God during that time and to keep Him as your main focus and relying on Him as the rock that He is for us and putting all your burdens on Him putting all your grief on Him because that’s what He’s there for.

Are you going to trust the Lord or are you going to lean on your own understanding? So, for me I chose to trust the Lord and to rely on Him and to let Him lead me in that way. And so, I would just encourage people that are walking through loss, specifically young people, to allow this loss or tragedy to bring you closer to the Lord. Don’t let this push you the other way but grow closer to Jesus through this time—rely on Him. Cast all your burdens on Him and He’s going to give you His rest and His peace.

P: What advice do you have for young Christians who want to pursue music?

AW: I would say work really hard at what you want to do. It is a lot of sacrifice that you have to make but it’s a beautiful thing and I think just working really hard and staying true to who you are and not losing yourself in the process—especially if you get into an industry like the music industry or whatever. I think it can become a little bit suffocating at times and it can become a little bit like wanting to know everyone’s opinion of you, but I think keeping who you are in the Lord, staying true to yourself, staying true to your artistry, and keeping the Lord front and center is very important and never giving up on your dreams and your hopes and your desires but continuing to continuing to work as hard as you can and trusting that God’s timing is perfect for your life.

P: What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve ever been given?

AW: Wow, that’s a great question. This sounds so cliche but I would say I remember my dad one time, when I was probably four or five years old, just pulled me aside and my parents were going through a really difficult season and he just looked at me in the eyes and just said like keep the Word front and center of your life and like everything else will just fall into place and I think  I I’ve really clung to that. I’ve seen in my life when I put Jesus first and when I cling to Him and when I keep Him front and center, everything does fall into place exactly how it’s supposed to and I think that’s something that we can do as human beings is put our trust in Him and let Him do the rest for us.

QUICK QUESTIONS:

P: What’s your go to self-care habit?

AW: Okay, a day off and a massage. I love getting massages. It’s my favorite thing ever I’ve probably spent too much money giving them. But it’s worth it.

P: In only a few words, describe your morning routine.

AW: A few words. Okay, coffee, Jesus and getting ready for the day.

P: What are you currently listening to right now?

AW: Yeah, so I’m listening to Maverick City a lot right now. I love, love the music. Love all country music right now. I’ve been listening to Annie F. Downs “That Sounds Fun” podcast—I love her. I’m listening to a couple of devotionals and then I love listening to the She Reads Truth podcast.

P:  What is your favorite bible verse?

AW: 1 Peter 5:10.