At Brandi Carlile's home outside of Seattle, the driveway is so packed with visitors' cars that friends have nicknamed it "Grand Central Station."
Bandmates and friends come and go. Chickens and rabbits roam the property. Grand pianos sit inside, while an RV and a small boat wait nearby for spontaneous family adventures.
"I've lived in the same log cabin for 26 years now," Carlile said. "It's my first house I ever bought."
As "The Story" singer's family has grown, adding her wife and two daughters, she's built out the area around her cabin. Now, Carlile lives on a compound, built to accommodate a steady stream of relatives, collaborators and friends.
This all makes Carlile's latest creative obsession somewhat surprising.
The Grammy-winning Americana
artist recently revisited her album "Returning To Myself," creating a version rooted in all-things melancholy, solitude and over-the-top drama.
In Carlile's words, it's "shamelessly emotionally indulgent" — a genre she calls "sad gay."
Ahead of Carlile's stop at Bridgestone Arena on Aug. 28, her first time headlining the venue, she spoke to The Tennessean for a phone interview.
Carlile unpacked her recent musical experiment, her decades-long connection to Nashville and how after exploring solitude, she found she much prefers her beautifully hectic life.
Brandi Carlile has never lived in Nashville. But it shaped her.
Carlile, age 45, sat in her tour bus underneath a parking garage in Connecticut after the first night of the fall leg of her The Human Tour. It's one of the Washington native's biggest tours yet.
As she gears up to take the stage at Nashville's 20,000-person arena, Carlile said her Nashville story dates back more than two decades.
"I remember the first time I ever played Nashville was 3rd & Lindsley before they remodeled it," she said. "God, it must have been maybe 2003, 2004, and you could still smoke inside. And I just remember the smoky, carpeted stage, and an amazing time."
It didn't matter where she was playing; getting to play Nashville for the first time was a dream come true.
As a kid, Carlile said she became obsessed with the Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman Auditorium.
"Growing up, it was like, other kids wanted to get taken to Disneyland, and I wanted to get taken to the Ryman."
In 2006, Carlile played the Ryman for the first time, opening for the band Train.
"Getting to step into the Ryman that night was amazing," she said. "I brought my mom with me too. It was my mom's first trip with me."
Since then, she's returned to the stage around a dozen times.
While Carlile has never lived in Nashville, she said she's probably spent more time in the city than any other outside of Seattle.
"When I got to Nashville, it felt like a little bit of a victory lap," Carlile said, explaining she was able to build her career on the West Coast.
"I was fortunate enough to create some momentum for myself outside of the city, so that when I stepped into the city, I didn't have that same hunger and desperation that so many other artists stepped into that city with," she said.
"I got to experience it in a really beautiful way, and I so deeply admire the people that move there with nothing and make it work."
Now, Carlile said the bulk of her friends, and her most "soulful friends," live in Nashville. There's her Highwomen compatriots, Natalie Hemby, Amanda Shires and Maren Morris. Her brother, Jay Carlile, just moved to town for music, too.
Being sad, gay and returning to yourself, all at once
On Sept. 25, Carlile will release a reimagined version of her 2025 album "Returning To Myself," which included the singles "Human" and "Church & State."
The "Sad Gay Version" is a dramatically emotional interpretation rooted in longing, she said.
"I knew when I was making 'Returning To Myself' that it could live in another way. When I finished that album, I just kept dreaming and contemplating in a really shamelessly dramatic way about what it would feel like to make that album just over the top emotionally indulgent. And so that's what this is," she said.
She went into the studio with one objective only: To be sad.
Carlile said songs like Sinéad O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U," Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" and Robyn's "Dancing on My Own" are cornerstones of the genre. For her, "sad gay" music isn't necessarily stripped down or slow. Instead, it's defined by emotional indulgence.
"The sad gays will get it, and you don't have to be gay to be a sad gay," she said. "You just have to be a total drama queen."
Carlile worked alongside producer Aaron Dessner, while also teaming up with electronic musician Jon Hopkins to reimagine "Human," turning the once-upbeat track into a piano ballad. Carlile's rugged, emotion-packed vocals remain the same.
While revisiting the album, Carlile found herself reassessing its title, too.
After years spent balancing a busy home life with collaborations alongside friends and musical heroes in the studio — including Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Brandy Clark, Alicia Keys, Hozier, Noah Kahan, P!nk and Dolly Parton — she wanted to look inward.
"I've been told, growing up, that you have to be comfortable being alone. So I thought I would explore what that meant to return to myself," she said.
Though she's proud of the music that came from that period of reflection, Carlile said the experience reinforced something she'd always known about herself.
"I met the moment, and I'm proud that I did," she said.
"But I think I decided that what I want is people."
'Total chaos, which I love.'
On the tour bus for Carlile's current run, her wife Catherine, and her daughters Elijah and Evangeline, now ages 12 and 8, are along for the ride.
It's always been that way, Carlile shared. Within months of being born, she brought her daughters on the road.
"We bolted cribs to the tour bus, to the bunks," she recalled, reconfiguring the space.
"Where all the rock stars have their beer and ice, it was a diaper changing station for us," Carlile said.
At one point, Carlile and her collaborators, twins Phil and Tim Hanseroth, all had their wives and babies under the age of two on the bus.
"It was total chaos, which I love," Carlile said.
For an artist who spent the past year immersed in songs about heartbreak, longing and solitude, Carlile's life stays firmly rooted in family, friendship and togetherness.
The same sense of community extends to one of Carlile's most celebrated musical projects, The Highwomen.
New music from the country supergroup is on the horizon, Carlile shared.
The group formed over a shared mission back in 2019, to address the severe lack of female representation and airplay on country music radio.
"We sort of got married and then fell in love," Carlile said of the group. "Whenever we get a chance to get together, it is the most natural thing in the world."
Carlile said the group's relationships have deepened since recording their debut album.
While the original project was driven by a common goal, she expects future music will be shaped by the friendships and love they've built over the years.
While Carlile isn't ready to unveil many details of the upcoming project, she shared it will be a "total reversal" of the band's original self-titled album, a Dave Cobb-produced record grounded in classic country and folk.
For now, Carlile is enjoying hitting the road on her solo run — solo, yes, but nowhere close to alone.
Audrey Gibbs is a music journalist at The Tennessean. You can reach her at agibbs@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Brandi Carlile shares insights into 'sad gay' music before Nashville show
