This month’s Artist Spotlight is going to be more reminiscent than an actual review, as I’m covering a group that’s been near and dear to my heart some years now and has seen me through some of the toughest times of my life. Flyleaf is one of the few bands I started listening to in high school and am not ashamed to admit that I still do. Well, it’s more accurate to say I’m hung up on their ex-vocalist, Lacey Sturm. I am an absolute sucker for singers with very distinct vocals, and Lacey fits the bill perfectly. Plus, she’s proven herself to be a gorgeous woman; inside and out.

See? Simply GORGEOUS

I realized this when I listened to her story behind the song “Okay/Tina” on a Youtube clip. Lacey explained that the song was inspired by a fan permanently disfigured from burn scars who approached after a concert (The video can be found here). She told Lacey that she had attempted to commit suicide by dousing herself in gasoline and then lighting herself on fire. The pain was so great she prayed for the first time in her life for God, if He existed, to stop the pain. Immediately she fell into a coma, and when she came to, she realized what had happened and was determined not to waste her life. She gave her testimony to encourage Lacey to not waste her life. More than the meaning of the song, I was struck that an artist could be so inspired by one of their fans.

For me, such interactions show the true character of a person, whether they are a stranger on the street or a celebrity with millions of fans. I could care less about how many albums a band sells or how many awards they receive; I measure the success of a band by how they present themselves on a stage and how they treat their fans. Once I’ve established this foundation, a band’s music can become so much more powerful (or meaningless) to me. Her testimony made Lacey’s songs shift beyond simply nice lyrics to a part of my own story.

Take Flyleaf’s song “Sorrow” for example. This song helped me through the death of a classmate during high school and my best friend. It gave me a mental image to cling to, of their souls passing through mine like a passing breeze rustling the leaves of a tree, filling the cracks in my heart before moving on. I know most people dislike it when singers scream in their songs, but that is the very reason why I find the last line of this song so powerful. By screaming, “Joy will come,” Lacey Sturm validates the pain and loss I felt at losing two people close to my age while acknowledging that one day the cracks would fill in the best they could-- like sap oozing and hardening around a scratch on a cedar tree. While my heart may be rougher and more misshapen than before, Flyleaf reminded me that even the fiercest gall must pass over and that it was OK to stand firm in my sorrow until then. And I can confidently say that joy has come and will come again, as surely as the wind blows.