Dana Beigay: An Inspiring Journey of Healing, Resilience, Change and Music

Can music heal the deepest of wounds? Can it be your fortress of solitude amidst life's stormiest trials? As your host, I invite you to join this insightful conversation with an indie singer-songwriter, Dana Beigay, who candidly shares her life story, the influence of her upbringing on her musical journey, and how she discovered her unique musical style. From a childhood move from Greenville to Atlanta, surviving a traumatic event in California, to reconnecting with an old friend that led to a move to Savannah and reignited her love for music, Dana's life is a testament to resilience and the transformative power of music.

Dana's journey doesn't stop there. She opens up about the ups and downs of her personal life to finding happiness in her fifth marriage. Music remained a constant source of strength and healing throughout her trials. We also explore her life during the COVID-19 lockdown, her experience of an unexpected job loss, and an unexpected visitor on her farm during the lockdown - a peacock. It turns out this peacock played a profound role in Dana's life.

But Dana's story is not just about survival. It's about finding joy and purpose despite adversity. Dana mentions her upcoming book, her blog Monday's Motivation, and how connecting with an old friend at a police department reunion gave her the strength to move forward. Despite facing an uncertain journey after an unexpected job loss in 2019, Dana found solace in her music and the spiritualism of the peacock that arrived on her farm. So pull up a chair, open your ears, and prepare to be inspired as we journey with Dana Beigay through her life's ups and downs.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hi and welcome, and today I have with me Dana Begay from South Carolina. Dana is an indie singer-songwriter with a solo music career. Dana was born in Greenville, south Carolina, whose music style ranges from John Denver and Sam Cook to Patsy Klein and Fleetwood Mac, and thank you so much for joining me, dana. How are you?

Speaker 2: 0:26

I am wonderful and I can't thank you enough for having me on the show.

Speaker 1: 0:29

Oh, you are welcome. So I'd like to ask two questions to get us warmed up, and the first one is if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Speaker 2: 0:38

Anywhere in the world. Well, it's funny. I've lived in a whole lot of places. I've moved 48 times. I'm going to say and I wasn't even an Army brat I'm going to say my farm. I want to be on my farm for the rest of my life. I am very happy. This is home, this is heaven.

Speaker 1: 0:56

And I totally get that. I totally understand it and I would love that also. So what's your favorite app on your phone and why Favorite?

Speaker 2: 1:05

app. Let's see. It depends on if I'm playing or working, so I might have a couple of favorites If I'm working. I do a lot with photography for my marketing and that sort of thing. So I would say, aside from just my regular photo app, there's an app called TextArt and it lets me put my photos into it and type on top of them. So if I've got a show and I want to do a quick marketing post on Facebook, I can do that. I've got a blog. I'll play about that in a little bit. I won't go off tangent. I do a lot of photography for that and I write on that photography and I put a watermark on it so that I can have my hashtag so people know that the picture belongs to me and hey, I'm Dana Begay Music and so that's awesome Watermark. I like that.

Speaker 1: 2:02

Watermark. All right, I have learned about so many other apps from everybody.

Speaker 2: 2:08

I know there's so much out there.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Oh my gosh, yeah, you could spend 24-7. Oh, wait a minute, I think I do on your computer.

Speaker 2: 2:15

I was going to say, according to my time on the phone, I am here a lot. It's all work. It's all work and Monopoly Go.

Speaker 1: 2:21

I do that with the dollar. Oh my gosh. And before we go any further, where can people find you?

Speaker 2: 2:27

They can find me on Instagram, facebook, youtube, tiktok. I am Dana Begay. I mean, if you go to Google and you type in Dana Begay, b-e-i-g-a-y, you're going to find everything I've got to include all my links. There's an app called All my Links forward slash Dana Begay, so that's the easiest way to find me is just to go to Google. I didn't realize how many pages of myself there actually is on there. I'm bonafide.

Speaker 1: 2:57

I guess you are and I did that and I'm like, oh look, you were born in Greenville, south Carolina, you've been in beauty passions, you've done cheerleading when you were young and you've attended a Christian school, and so you've always had God in your life, along with music, With music, always from the beginning, From the beginning. So what was it like growing up for you with all that?

Speaker 2: 3:16

Well, let's see, I really didn't know any different as far as let's see first, second and third grade. I'm tiny little Dana, I'm a cheerleader, I'm a beauty pageant. I didn't know any different. I didn't know anything other than being in the spotlight. So I was never afflicted with stage fright or anxiety or anything like that. I just was always singing in front of people. It's when I moved from Greenville to Atlanta and had to have the culture shock of not being known, that is when life got interesting. I cried every day, I went into a hole. I just I didn't know who I was if I wasn't in the spotlight. How old were you when you moved to Atlanta? I was in the third grade. I started school early, so I was about eight that's.

Speaker 1: 4:07

That's a big impact on somebody that young, going from what you went from to having to basically start over again, yeah, so then. So where did it go from there? How did you build yourself back up?

Speaker 2: 4:18

Actually, music stopped, beauty pageant stopped. I was absolutely I would say it's funny. I erased most of those memories. I had something traumatic happen in my life back then and I had a very abusive stepfather early on. I erased a whole lot of that. I didn't really get into being my personality that I am now. I guess it was the ninth grade high school. It was yeah, which is tough enough, yeah, yeah. So I went to the ninth grade, still in Atlanta. I graduated early. I wanted to do music. That's what I always wanted to be. And if I've heard it once, I've probably heard it 8000 times You're living a pipe dream. Really, you're living a pipe dream.

Speaker 1: 5:05

So you didn't have any. You didn't have the support. You had the chatter in your ear saying don't do it, you're not going anywhere.

Speaker 2: 5:11

You need to go into business school. You need to do what normal people do 40 hour a week, job. Art doesn't make money.

Speaker 2: 5:21

You got to have some stability, yeah, so then, you picked up the music again while you were in high school, as far as the radio. So no, I still wasn't back in music, but I was finding myself. I was finding my personality and, it's funny, my life has been a what's that song? Two steps forward, 10 steps back, not really, but every time I would get the point where I was feeling confident, something would happen to knock me completely back down again. So high school was fantastic. I graduated early. I did the responsible thing and got a 40 hour a week job, starting at Bell South. I followed in my mom's footsteps. So I was 17. Graduated in January, started working at Bell South, third shift, and I did that for a few years, several years. I hated it. I absolutely hate. So when I was 19, I said I'm going into the Air Force. Oh, wow, that's going to give me some stability that everybody wants me to have and that's going to give me some benefits and all that.

Speaker 2: 6:25

I had met a man during that time who I married. How old are you at this point? I met him when I was 19. He was 29 years old, if that tells you anything. This was a bad move from the beginning. So I ended up having our child when I was 21. We got married right before that Because I didn't want to.

Speaker 2: 6:48

I wanted to do it the right way. I shouldn't have. Ooh, none of that should have happened, but I'm glad it did. It was all part of God's plan. No, going backwards.

Speaker 2: 6:54

That relationship in itself was absolutely doomed. There was. You have to be careful who you talk about and what you say. For legal reasons, especially in my line of work, there was a lot of abuse. It was a very abusive relationship. So I went from an abusive stepfather to an abusive host. There was no music Except for me, and in my garage I would sing to the top of my lungs. When he wasn't home, only my best friend, kathy Garlop, could hear me because she lived across the street. So that was 10 years and that almost killed me.

Speaker 2: 7:27

My son and I escaped from that. He was five. Then I met my second husband. I'm not kind of going off a tangent, but I'm getting back to music. I met my second husband. He's the father of my two daughters. It was 2005 when we got married and it was 2012 when I began singing on stage really for the first time. I'll back up just a hair to say that I did make money. I did have a singing opportunity when I was in high school with my mother. I was paid with a kitchen knife and I still have it. I forgot about that. I just came back to me. Wow.

Speaker 1: 8:07

A kitchen knife.

Speaker 2: 8:09

An awesome kitchen knife too. It's that really awesome silver handle, super sharp. It's like a paring knife but it's longer. I love it, I use it. I have moved 48 times and I've got the knife still. I'm excited about that. Good for you. So, and then, in 2012, I started actually making money to sing. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 8:29

So you had the music when you were younger, then you've lost the music in your early high school, adult, and then you finally get back to it in 2012. Were you still together with your second husband at that point? Yes, okay, and you have your son.

Speaker 2: 8:47

Yes, my son is 27.

Speaker 1: 8:49

He lives in Delaware and he lives in Delaware, so all right. So then, what was the first time you were on stage in that time frame, also, when you got back and or when you finally got to the music in your life?

Speaker 2: 9:00

2012, so I Actually had started going to a church over in the Roswell Alperetta area. Okay, georgia, I was in Georgia. Still, I met my first duo partner, dick Wagner, and we met at church. It was so funny. The first song we ever sang together was Lacey J Dalton's Wild Turkey, before anybody got the choir practice. That was funny, but we hit it off right from that moment and we said, oh my gosh, I mean this is. We sound too good together to not do something with this. So D squared was born from that, because it was day and day, so we played.

Speaker 1: 9:46

We played for about a year, maybe a little over, and that's when I started going through my divorce and and at that time, d Square, you were getting paid Finally, yes, and it wasn't kitchen knives.

Speaker 2: 10:00

Well, I think it's a knife. No, so there was a divorce. Yes, that was final in 2013. Okay, the girls and I had an apartment after that and we lived still in the Atlanta area. I had met. Well, I didn't meet. I had reconnected with somebody that I used to work with. I worked at a police department near Atlanta. I was in law enforcement for a long time. I'm writing a book.

Speaker 1: 10:29

You have a book to write. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2: 10:32

Oh yeah. So I met an officer that I worked with. Back then there was a reunion of. It was a police department reunion and they had been inviting me for years and years and years and I never went. And I decided to finally go and I reconnected with One of the officers. We had always just been friends and not even really I worked in the courthouse, so he wasn't really in my courtroom, so we didn't really know each other, know each other back, just knew of each other. We started talking and One thing led to another. We hit it off. A year later he wants me to marry him. A year after we started talking and he treated me like a queen. I'd never been treated as good as as that.

Speaker 2: 11:20

So he lived in Savannah and Savannah was my favorite place on earth and I thought, oh my gosh, this is. This has got to be a sign from God. I mean I, I Love Savannah, always hated Atlanta. I mean, as far as living there, I mean it's a great place. I just I Didn't like it taking me two hours to get to the Walmart. That was five minutes down the road. It's just too congested for me. You know, yeah, I like, I like the country. I moved with my daughters to Savannah, and that ultimately cost me my children. So, again, music stopped. That was the day the music died for a while and then it came back in 20, 2015, 2014, 2015 is when it started coming back with open mics and I joined a band and all that. There's a big.

Speaker 1: 12:05

If you hadn't done that, we wouldn't be here. No, we would not. We would not. Is the music for you healing? Is it therapy for you?

Speaker 2: 12:14

It is all of the originals that I have. It's so funny I've heard so many times Do you ever write a happy song? You Gotta go through something happy to have that experience. I didn't have at that time, have any happiness, and really for a long time I I didn't. I can honestly say I didn't know what happiness was until I married my fifth husband, the King the Yeti. Everybody knows him as the Yeti and the King. I'll get to that. If this is happiness, and prior to I mean we got married in 2021. We were brought together by COVID lockdown. I know I'm kind of working my way backwards, being in this friendship and Then now into this marriage. This is happiness. This is peace. This is what this is what love feels like. So happy songs have started being written. Christian songs are starting to roll out of me, contemporary Christian a whole lot more. But back then therapy, I couldn't afford it. I, and that is what my music did.

Speaker 1: 13:23

Yes, and so when did you start writing songs? When did you have that feeling that you wanted to write songs?

Speaker 2: 13:31

I've always written. My very first song was when I was about four years old and it was O Butterfly. I'm not going to sing that, because it only had two words and they were O Butterfly. I started writing poetry in high school. My English teacher was very, very supportive. Oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 13:51

Of my writing. They would give me these exercises. They would give me exercises of just like a blank card, like a greeting card oh, a greeting card, okay, with a picture on it. He would give me this and say write a story about oh my gosh, it just piqued my interest. I'd never had anybody do that and this was just for fun. This was just show me what you can do. So that's really where my creative writing got its start. Coach Jared at Shiloh High School in Atlanta Did that for me. From there I wrote poetry most of my life after that. And then it was 2012.

Speaker 2: 14:27

I went to a songwriting event on a friend of mine's farm. His name is Jim Mahoney, and Jim Mahoney actually had a small part to play in getting Ashley McBride her start, built her her guitar. That's pretty awesome. But I went to his farm in Georgia. He had a songwriting event where he brought out this bowl. He had all these books written on little pieces of paper. We had five hours. There was a whole bunch of us. We had five hours to write a song and then we had to perform it that night on the farm. We all spent the night, we all camped out and I had never done anything like this. I mean, it was just awesome. Yeah, I can imagine, so I'll help you know. Set the scene here.

Speaker 2: 15:10

This was I'm still with my second husband, so I went and did this. I did something that was unexpected for me and it felt good. That was right at the end of our marriage. In case you can't see a theme Every time music comes in, the men go out, because music is freedom and a lot of people don't like that. So I went to that and I didn't know how to play the guitar. Oh, I knew nothing about music, except for the song. I mean I would sing, but I sang other people's songs. My title that I pulled was Till I Met you. Jim Mahoney and I sat under a huge oak tree on his property. Everybody else had to go off on their own, but since I didn't know how to play guitar, he offered to sit and help me with chords if I just wanted to blurt out the music. So that's what we did. He played GDC, basically, and I wrote my first real song Till I Met you.

Speaker 1: 16:04

What an awesome story.

Speaker 2: 16:06

Well, yeah, and the people that hear it today think it's about me and my husband. I say, well, maybe it was foreshadowing. Till I met you, I walked alone till I met you. I'll have to record it again, put it on YouTube. How was that? And then I wrote another song after that. They just started coming to me after that. That felt so good and I realized how it worked and I got a guitar just a little cheap guitar. I got a blue guitar because if it wasn't a pretty color I wasn't going to pick it up and try to play it. I'm an artist. It has to have color on it. So I wrote a song called Foo, foo and Fee Fee, but I've changed that now to I Know the Sky Is Blue. It's about my daughter. My oldest daughter was two at the time and I wrote a song about her being so grown up. I got the whole story about that song on YouTube with a video Full slideshow.

Speaker 1: 16:55

So we're up on each 12. You're on. We've gone from second husband to fifth husband.

Speaker 2: 17:01

There's a whole lot of middle.

Speaker 1: 17:02

Now, what state are you in? Where are we now?

Speaker 2: 17:05

At this point in my life, when I was writing that song.

Speaker 1: 17:08

Okay.

Speaker 2: 17:08

When you wrote that song you were, so that was about 2012. Getting near the end of marriage number two, I'm in Roswell, georgia. I had been there for about 10 years. My son was in high school. After that we moved over to Alpharetta Me and my daughters during the divorce. After the divorce we moved to Alpharetta.

Speaker 2: 17:27

Now I'll give a little bit more insight on my work. I'm not a full-time musician, so we know I worked in law enforcement. Then with husband number two, I met him at that, at the job I had. I was his father's administrative assistant, executive assistant. So we worked for an insurance company. It was a third party administrative insurance company, so it wasn't like a state farm or anything like that. My then husband and I met there. We were all let go my father in law, his partner and myself and my husband. We're all let go from that job.

Speaker 2: 18:05

I started working at a needle point shop with his mother. I was managing that. That's when I started getting into my art business. Then I started doing my own business. After we lost our job I was done with the needle point shop because she closed. I was working for myself selling artwork. I've always been sort of a hustler. I've always been able to pull in money from all different avenues. So I did that for a while and then, because I was a stay at home mom, it was really hard to find a job when we were going through our divorce. But I found another admin assistant job that was helping me survive in Alperette. I'd have a 40 hour a week job. They always told me. I got to have a 40 hour a week job.

Speaker 1: 18:46

You can't live without that 40 hour job. I like to eat.

Speaker 2: 18:49

That was that. And then, when I ended up moving to Savannah with husband number three I think my book is going to be called the memoirs M E N W A R S when I moved to Savannah, I was able to take that job with me. They let me work from home. And what year are we up to? We are in 2014. The divorce took about two years. Me and husband number three had a chance to get to know each other during the separation, divorce process and all that, and then we were married. After that. My timing wasn't the best, I guess, but you know, life is what it is, yeah. So I was able to take that job with me to Savannah, and then, as soon as I got to Savannah, I lost my children. My ex-husband took me to court to modify our custody because I had moved four hours from home his home. So life as I knew it ended on October 11th 2014. My daughters were six and four. I didn't know what to be other than my mother. That year was terrible. I actually for 444 days.

Speaker 1: 19:53

I did the math.

Speaker 2: 19:54

That was the darkest period I've ever. I hope I never, ever, ever have anything like that again.

Speaker 1: 20:03

I can't even imagine.

Speaker 2: 20:05

Yeah, I almost lost my mind and I remembered my grandmother when I was little she used to say that in the end times I talk about revelation People would be so scared and sick and tired and they would pray for rocks to fall on their heads. They would pray for death. And I always thought that was such a crazy image. It was just. It was one of those images. As a little kid stays with you. I resonated with that during that time. I wanted to die. I thought being dead would be easier than being on this earth and not being able to see my kids.

Speaker 1: 20:43

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 20:44

And there were months and months that I went where I wasn't able to see them Because at this point husband number three has left the building. He served me with divorce papers one month after losing the girls because I was too sad. In a period of less than 60 days, from October to December, I lost my husband, I lost my kids, I lost my home. Just after that, I lost my job.

Speaker 1: 21:17

What kept you together? I mean, at that point I would think I would have lost my mind.

Speaker 2: 21:21

I tried to lose my mind. I tried to die. Nothing worked. I put myself in the worst situations you can imagine. I mean I'm talking walking alone down a dark alley in downtown Savannah. I just I wanted it to end. I cried so much during that time that I didn't cry again for years, because I don't think I had tears. I honestly thought I had run out.

Speaker 1: 21:48

I can't imagine. I mean, I've had some dark periods, but nothing like that. And so what was the turning point that started bringing you back around?

Speaker 2: 21:56

I was almost killed. I almost got my wish. So I had. Well, I'd gone to California either to make it or to be killed. It's crazy to even say it out loud. But I thought, okay, I'm going to fly over there. I knew someone there from high school. I'm either going to make it or it's going to swallow me whole. Well, it tried, I wouldn't go down. I wouldn't go down. The first night I was there in California. The person that I had known in high school had been doing a drug that I didn't know he was doing, and he put a cigarette out on my face and while I mean I fell asleep I'd been on an airplane all day he got mad because I wasn't up to talk to him and put a cigarette out on my face. I broke his ribs. That sort of set the tone, and then I spent the next month and a half I had to wait for my truck to be delivered. Once it got delivered, I started driving back across country. A whole lot of bad happened there that I say I'm writing a book, and then in August, all right. So I got back from California in June and then in August I had a relative move in with me and I'm thinking, okay, god, I'm going to have somebody help me with rent and all this.

Speaker 2: 23:10

Let me back up just to hair and say that when I had to move out of husband number three's house, I had to move into the ghetto and when I say the ghetto I mean the cops didn't drive down this road. I was the only white girl in the vicinity. I was welcomed on day two by a police officer that was knocking on my door looking for the prior resident because the house had been broken into numerous times. They told me I should move. I said I can't. After that I was welcomed by a gang. That's, that was terrifying. It was a terrifying experience. They were drive by shootings. I went from a PTA neighborhood where there were white picket fences and sidewalks to living as the only white woman for blocks in this area. That I was terrified.

Speaker 2: 23:55

I had no AC. I couldn't afford electricity. I could barely afford rent. I had no food. You realize real quick what priorities are and you realize real quick what necessities are. Because you don't have to have an electricity to live. As long as you've got a candle and a gun, you can live in the dark in the ghetto.

Speaker 2: 24:15

That was terrifying. I lost a whole lot of weight. I honestly, deb, I don't know. I've looked at my checkstubs. I'm not checkstubs, I've looked at my bank statement because of going through this court case. Now you have to get all that stuff together and you have to relive everything that you went through so long ago. And that was therapy in itself, but I don't know how I made it. I was working as a waitress, I worked as many shifts as I could and then I ended up having to get another waitressing job. So before it was over with, I had three waitressing jobs just trying to make ends meet. I was finally able to get my electricity on, and when I had my kids, I would get my electricity cut back on for that visit, because I didn't want to know that there was anything wrong, of course, but my son and I had to live through that.

Speaker 2: 25:03

I mean, my son was in high school. So when my relative moved in, it was a breath of fresh air because I had family Right, and my family had a job and he was also a musician. The first night he was to arrive in town was August of 2015. Okay, I did my very first open mic that night. The night that he came into town, I did my very first open mic waiting for him to get there. I was so excited to have somebody to do music with.

Speaker 2: 25:33

And this is it. So I fought back the urge to just totally throw up on stage because I had never played guitar for any. I had had my guitar now for a few years and I had written so many songs. Now I mean, it's 25 songs by this point Wow, and I've been writing for two years. Really, they're all slit your wrist.

Speaker 2: 25:55

Vertical songs, I mean like just so, so sad. They all tell a good story. It comes into town. We're going to do this. We're going to do some music. We practiced, we went to some open mics together. That's how I met the bass player for the band I joined. Everybody's a link in your chain, you know. So I met the bass player for my band, moss City Groove, I'm going to say about a month prior to this, so November, november 2015. So in December of 2015, my family member had been a meth addict, without me knowing. I did not know that he had been a meth addict. Did I mention I'm a freak magnet? I mean, it doesn't matter if they're family or strangers. If they are, if there's something wrong with them, they are drawn.

Speaker 1: 26:42

They're going to come to you.

Speaker 2: 26:43

Like a moth to a flame. He, because we're in the ghetto, drugs are so readily available. They talked him into. On the night of December 29th he flipped like Dr Jekyll. Mr Hyde, I had no idea. He went in the house to get some sweet tea and never came out. And when I went in to check on him he almost killed me. So that is. He beat me almost to death.

Speaker 1: 27:09

Oh, my God.

Speaker 2: 27:09

And then strangled me with my mic Woman. I didn't even know I was being strangled. I knew I was dying, but I didn't know why I could see. You know, they say that there's a bright light. Well, for me it was, because tunnel vision is real. When you're being strangled, your vision gets smaller and it turns into just a pinpoint of light and all you can hear is a train. I mean, that's it. It's so loud because you're you're dying. How'd you get out of that? I stuck my hand down his throat. I don't even know. I don't know. It's just like you know when, when the guy in California put the cigarette out on my face and I broke his ribs, I beat him and that's the training that my stepfather gave me.

Speaker 2: 27:54

I learned how to fight at a very young age. You know, and it's really funny. I mean, if there is a positive to any of this, it's that everything that happens to you in your life prepares you for the next phase of your life. Everything I had been up to this point had prepared me for this very moment. So when you do something over and over and over for a long enough period of time, like I had in protecting myself because I had to with my first husband. You go into autopilot, you do, and I was able to fight him off of me. I almost ripped his tongue out of his mouth. Wow, and I didn't even know I had done it.

Speaker 1: 28:35

No, no, because I'm sure it's the adrenaline and you just were fighting for, literally, fighting for your life. He.

Speaker 2: 28:42

I got him off of me and I didn't I mean, it's so crazy. I could see him on the, I could see him on top of me Right and I could see his hands like this right here, but I didn't understand what he was doing. But that was the mic cord. So I jumped up from there and ran next door. Now I mean, let me remind you, we are in the ghetto. You don't run anywhere in the dark. You definitely do not run inside someone's home because you could be shot. But I did and my neighbors were actually good people. They were very good people and ultimately all of the people on that street gained a respect for me that night. That we'll get to. But I ran in and I remember Stephanie was sitting there with her grandchild and I asked her for her phone. Can you please call 911? And she did. I look there's no, I don't know what. I looked like a wild animal. I was beat up. I was beat up. So the cops came immediately, which was crazy because they did not come down this street. So they came, they called an ambulance. The ambulance came with them and they took me to the hospital.

Speaker 2: 29:51

I was back about 1230 in the morning the next morning, december 30th, my friend Janet came from Atlanta. I called her. I didn't call. I called my dad because my relative was on his side of the family and I needed him to know what had happened, absolutely. And then I couldn't speak. My vocal cords were broke. So my friend Jan came from Atlanta and she stayed with me for a few days.

Speaker 2: 30:15

I know, you know, people believe what they want to believe. She was able to do energy healing work. She called upon our angels and she did healing work on me during those few days. It's funny, because we asked for my singing voice to be healed. We didn't think about my talking voice. Oh, wow, same. If you can sing, you can talk, not the case. Wow, I did have to teach myself how to sing again. I used to be a soprano, I was a second soprano, now I'm a tenor. You have a beautiful voice, thanks, I'm actually. I'm in the choir at Anderson University. I'm going to school, we'll get to that too, but I'm in the women's choir this semester and I'm an alto. That's a little tough because the notes there are a little high, but they're trying to stretch out my range. So yeah, that was December 29th.

Speaker 2: 31:08

So when I said, 444 days of absolute hell. That's the day that my wish almost came true. I almost died and I decided after that I wanted to live. That's where the song Waking Up to Rainbows came from, because I would always have crystals hanging from my windows and there were rainbows flashing. I had always been raised with God, but I had, I had dared him to help me. Basically, I had turned my back completely on my faith after losing my kids, because I just felt like there wasn't a God. There can't be a God if he's going to let this happen. When you do that, you make a choice to fight your father, and he's not going to disown you, but he sure is going to make you wish you hadn't fought him so hard.

Speaker 1: 31:59

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 32:00

That period of coming back to my faith started that day, december 30th of 2015. I was baptized just a few minutes ago with my oldest daughter. What is this 2023? Yes, it is. So. You know, it's definitely taken a while for that to happen.

Speaker 1: 32:20

And that's OK. It's all in God's time, oh, definitely.

Speaker 2: 32:24

That got me into my right. After that is when I got into my band. It was funny, because all these songs that I had known all my life, I had to learn how to sing them all over again. My son said Mom, you know, there are no accident. Everything happens for a reason and you've always been able to sing good, mom, but your voice, it is original. There is nothing else out there like that. There's nothing. You are original. I think that he didn't kill you. He killed who you used to be. He's giving you a fresh start. Well, that was pretty cool concept.

Speaker 1: 32:56

So I stuck with that. Yeah, very wise young man, yes, yes, I love him very much, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 33:03

Finally got out of the ghetto. You know, I was waitressing and my manager there ended up being husband number four. We had such a good time. He was such a good guy. I mean he was out of all my ex-husbands he is the best. He is the best. We just worked. So, so, so much because I'm still working three jobs. We weren't married yet. We actually bought a farm out in Riceboro, georgia, which is about two hours from Jacksonville, just on the outskirts of Savannah. Oh, it was great. I mean it was great. We had chicken, goats and the dog and you know I thought everything was great, but then the peacock showed up.

Speaker 1: 33:45

Oh, the peacock. Who knew there was a peacock somewhere in this story?

Speaker 2: 33:48

Oh, my goodness, yeah, so it's so funny. It anytime something happens to me. If I see consecutive numbers, what does that mean? If I see a hawk fly over two days in a row, ok, what are they trying to tell me? You know, I got so and I don't know if this happened. Look, I could be totally crazy right now. So judge me, if you will. It has happened before. I don't know if something happened to me.

Speaker 2: 34:12

When I got strangled, my sense of awareness got super keen. I was able to, and I'm able to. Now and this might be too much information People might get on the National Enquirer and start making posts about me. But, for instance, I'll get back to the peacock. But I got to tell you why this resonated today.

Speaker 2: 34:31

If I pray, you know, I get on my knees and I pray every morning and I that's my intimate time with God, and I know that when I go to my Bible and I flip through it with my fingernail, with my thumbnail, he will send electricity up through my arm to tell me where to stop. And it hasn't always done that. That hasn't always happened. I open the page that he tells me to open and what I'm supposed to read lights. I see it, there's a light around it. Just knowing that that's, that's the awareness of it, that's the the sensory awareness of it. So when I say hawks flying over numbers, those things would look different. That's how I knew there was something about it that I needed. I know that my angels were talking to me. I know that they were giving me signs to keep pushing forward, keep pushing forward, and I didn't know what it all meant. I had no idea. I just knew I needed to listen to it and pay attention.

Speaker 2: 35:28

This, this P Hinn what an peacock. It was a P Hinn. She shows up on the farm. We named her Penny. She shows up the week of July 4th and this was 2018, a couple of years have passed 2018. I'm still in the band, I'm still doing music and all that. I got to know what that means.

Speaker 1: 35:47

Right.

Speaker 2: 35:48

What's the you know Native American spiritualism of a peacock. What is the any? What was the angel meaning? What's this meaning? What's that meaning? I need to know everything I can about a peacock. Well, the consistent thing that I got across the board was if a peacock randomly shows up at your house, right, it may be time for a drastic new change, wow, potentially even a move. Husband number four he's been with me for a little while now, so he knows how things work in my life at this point and he has been thinking about getting another job. I said OK, I think that right now you've got your resume open to the Savannah area. I think you need to open it up to all 50 states. Let's just see what happens. We'll see if anybody clicks on it and if they do, then we'll see what we think it wasn't. But maybe two hours and he got a job offer oh my God, from here in South Carolina. That's how you ended there Now, every day that P Hinn would be on top of our roof, right above our bedroom.

Speaker 2: 36:51

It stayed there this particular day. I've got a picture of this. Ok, I've got a photograph of this. I got the news about him being offered a job here in South Carolina. And as soon as he gave me that news and I look to the side, there's Penny looking in the back door. I had to take a picture of it because it was super awesome. And I then taught my my then husband OK, best, two out of five, two out of three, because I am not going back home, I am not going back to South Carolina, I ain't doing it, I ain't doing it. I said that and I swear to him. I mean I'm partially making this up for just funny factor, but I swear. I think I saw Penny shake her head. No, she was not approving, oh my gosh. So he said no, we said we were going to do this and it's a good job and it is a good opportunity. So we're going, girl.

Speaker 2: 37:47

We put the house up on the market. We got married in October. We moved in November. Our house sold before we could find a house. So we moved in with my father. Oh, my goodness, I've never lived with my father. My parents were on again, off again. That's why I've moved 48 times. So we moved in with my dad.

Speaker 2: 38:06

That moment, I mean that experience I am so grateful for. I'm so grateful. What do they say? Every person that comes into your life, there's a reason, there's a season. I don't know all of it, but my fourth husband was literally a season. He was a reason, and it was a reason for both of us.

Speaker 2: 38:24

We decided after moving here that we didn't know each other as good as we thought we did. We really weren't going to make it it just we wanted different things. Okay, it was a. It was a very mutual. It was 2019. I mean, we got married in October. We were done by June of the following year and it was. It was okay. We were both happy and and it was very good because, out of all of that, I taught him about God and I had never gotten the opportunity to do that for anybody.

Speaker 2: 38:53

I feel like the best thing that happened in that relationship was me having time with my father and him. So then COVID happened. Good old COVID. Well, let's see my, my in South Carolina. You got to be separated for a whole year before you can divorce, so our separation lasted longer than our marriage, you know, and it was what it was. I wasn't looking for anybody. I didn't care. At this point, I'm going to live at my dad's house until he passes. I'm an only child. Okay, no reason to go anywhere else. My father and I were getting along beautifully. I had a beautiful apartment I had created in his downstairs the empty part of his house oh nice, I was happy. I was happy Once again.

Speaker 2: 39:36

The job that I had in Savannah allowed me to bring it home, so I was working from home in October of 2019. There's something about October Like PTSD, every time that month rolls around anymore. October 19th, I got a call. I had just gotten a good review from my boss I mean like stellar review. And the very next day I got a call from the corporate office and I'm thinking they're going to like praise me and give me all this money for how great I do, you know? And no, they were letting me go because they did not have a work from home policy. Oh my God, I've been working from home for two years, finally stable, finally got benefits, got a good paying job. No, but we don't have a work from home policy. We got to let you go. I mean, I can help you write one, but anyway, that was not the option. So that was October.

Speaker 2: 40:21

And then what? February, march, whatever, covid starts. Well, during this time, I am getting unemployment checks. Looking for a job, I needed something that was flexible, to allow me to have the ability to see my kids, because my visitation schedule was very long, of course, but luckily I was only two hours from from them. So, anyway, I'm looking for something flexible, I'm looking for something comparable. There's nothing out there. I'm just having a really hard time finding something, not to mention the fact at this point, I'm taking care of my grandmother, has Alzheimer's a lot of factors there. Well then, when COVID lockdown started, you're not finding a job.

Speaker 2: 40:57

During that, unemployment went through the roof. As far as how much people were bringing in Prior to that, all the you know the hawks flying over and the consecutive numbers that I kept seeing. They were saying you're going to have money coming in, don't worry about it, just pray and be faithful and pray and trust that God's got this. When I tell you God's got this, God had this, because every time I turned around, I was getting another check, another check, another check. Well, all these other people are going to Walmart, luton TVs and buying the latest and greatest, and whatever I am putting money away, I'm saving, saving, saving.

Speaker 2: 41:38

I did get my guitar at my guitar, so that's where Gibby came from my Gibson. I got my Gibson during COVID lockdown. I taught myself how to play. That's awesome. Right after COVID lockdown decided I was going to do this again. During COVID lockdown I got on YouTube. That's when I started my YouTube. I got used to talking to people that weren't there. I got really good at talking to people. I got really good at making videos Nice, I think. I mean I'm not a pro at it, but I think I've got a decent rapport with my audience and doing the YouTube COVID lockdown thing helped with that. So many great people during that time. There were so many open mic pages on Facebook and YouTube groups and all that and I really found my style. I found myself musically.

Speaker 2: 42:24

I was so fortunate because it just so happened that when the lockdown started it was spring break with my daughters and I got to keep them from first part of April through summer. Oh, nice, nice, I haven't gone to work since their father got a cast. That's what began the talk of them wanting to come home, that they wanted to come back and they always had.

Speaker 1: 42:49

But it really got nailed in spending the time that, spending that chunk of time with you, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 42:56

I homeschooled our property at my dad's house. He had 11 acres and it became sort of a little mini commune, because here's where the King comes into play. Okay, my husband, he and his wife. You know, if something was broken during COVID, it died. And I don't mean to, I don't mean that to sound insensitive, but businesses that were not doing well died during COVID, absolutely. People that were in poor health died during COVID. No, absolutely. Marriages that were failing died during COVID.

Speaker 2: 43:33

So they had a marriage that had been on the rocks for many, many years and having to spend. You know, when you have something to keep you busy and you have a job to go to, you can endure. When you're stuck in the same house with another human being, you know, just the sound of them brushing their teeth bothers you. The sound of them taking in the same air as you is a problem. That was the point that I guess they had gotten to, and you know it wasn't. It's just sometimes time does that to people. Yes, absolutely. Both decided this, this. We can't keep doing that. Life is about happiness. You reach a point where you know there's no, there's no fixing this.

Speaker 2: 44:12

So my husband and his ex-wife got separated cause of the got to be separated for one year. Law in South Carolina. You got to be separate and apart. Well, he had a camper, he had an airstream camper and he was just going to live in their yard. I mean, he had hookups and everything. He was going to live out in their yard why not? And his attorney was like no, that's not, that's nope, nope. So he had to find somewhere to go and it just so happened that my father had 11 acres but he had hookups on his pro. David moved to the property. He was a neighbor. He was about four houses down from my dad. I'll get back to that four houses down thing before we're done. So during COVID lockdown we got to know each other. I mean, we had nowhere to go.

Speaker 2: 44:58

You know I am an expert in divorce at this point in my life, so I was helping him sort of deal with what this feels like, what this looks like there really is life after divorce.

Speaker 1: 45:12

You're going to be there is.

Speaker 2: 45:14

Yes, we would go out and have coffee. My dad had a shop. My dad had a house across the driveway. He had a big shop. He worked on horse trailers. Oh well, that's what he did for himself. I get my creativity from my dad. And then David was further down on the property, so he would walk up to my father's shop in the morning, get coffee going because there was a coffee pot in there, and we would just sit out in the driveway and watch the sun come up and drink coffee and chat and solve all of life's problems. Well, we did that for a solid year I mean, there was no one else and then life got back to normal. He was a college professor, so life got back to normal. He got back into his thing and for me it was more of the same. I'm doing music, I'm making YouTube videos.

Speaker 1: 46:05

I decided to start doing shows and you decided not to go back to the 40 hours that everybody told you needed to do. I'm done, you're done.

Speaker 2: 46:15

You are done. I'm tired of putting my whole life into a company and have them just fire me on a whim. You know, I gave everything I had several times to several companies. It always ended the same way yeah, they're replaceable. So COVID pushed you out. Covid pushed me out and pushed me in and God said do it? Yep, because of the money that I was able to bring in, I was able to financially support. You know, I had my child support, I had obligations, but even with my child support, I was able to save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save. I saved every dime. I started getting shows.

Speaker 2: 46:52

I had been a Mary Kay lady since I was in my early 20s. Oh well, I still am. I don't do parties and all that. I'm still a Mary Kay lady. I'll never have the car that's not my goal anymore. But I do love Mary Kay and I am a firm believer that if I stop using it, my face might slide right off. I'm not going to test that theory. I've been using it since I was 18. Let's not test that water. Nope, nope, nope, uh-oh, my face is on too many marketing posters anymore. I had learned how to book those parties. I had learned how to run a business. I had learned so much.

Speaker 1: 47:30

All those years and all those skills of being an administrative assistant running a Mary Kay business, working what you worked wherever you could, you brought it all forward and right out of COVID you hit the stages Took off.

Speaker 2: 47:45

There were a few females. There was one in particular in this town that I knew of, darby Wilcox. Keep your eye on that one she's going to make. I mean, she's very talented, very talented. She was really the only solo performer that I knew of back then and still there's not even now. There's girls that have come out of the woodworks since I've gotten on stage here and they say that they well, they're thankful. They say how much they thank me for getting out and doing it because they were terrified. They come to the show and they see what I do and they sit and talk to me and I'm here to give anybody any kind of help I can. The radio has got more than one person on it, the only person out there. I don't want to be the only person out. If I think I've got something that can help you, I'm going to share it with you Because I'm rooting for you.

Speaker 1: 48:38

You're a supporter of yourself and everybody around you.

Speaker 2: 48:40

Yes, yes, and if you're not a nice person? If you're not a nice person, then no, I'm not gonna help you. For the most part, people are nice, despite what the news might tell you.

Speaker 1: 48:51

There are nice people yes, absolutely, very, very nice. Yeah. So you're doing it full time, yes, and you're also going to school full time, yes. And what's your major Commercial music?

Speaker 2: 49:02

I think I finally decided I wanna be a musician when I get big.

Speaker 1: 49:06

I think you might have something there.

Speaker 2: 49:09

I'm a 48 year old freshman Nothing wrong with that and I go to school every day with my backpack when I sit in a chair. I do have one online class this semester, but majority of my classes I'm there five days a week doing everything that the 18, 19, 20 year olds do. It has been awesome, Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 49:28

It has been absolutely awesome and your upbeat, which resonates at this point. Your happiness comes through your love of your music, the passion that you have, that you had so many times try to do yourself in, nevermind to get rid of everything else there, also to come full circle to 2023, working full time. Your girls, your son you have worked your butt off, you have fought to where you have gotten to, and I hope that that resonates with everyone and those that are struggling, because you know there are so many females, so many women not only struggling in careers but in their personal life. I hope that they can take one piece of this conversation away, and for me it would be. You just have to always put yourself out there and it could be a little fight, but fight.

Speaker 2: 50:30

My preacher this weekend said a touchdown can be made just by going three yards at a time. That's it.

Speaker 1: 50:38

It's one step at a time, one new thing to get yourself to the next step out of your comfort zone, because you've had a step out of a lot of comfort zones to get to where you are. There is happiness, there is definitely happiness, and I am so glad that you have found your happiness, your happy place and your happy man.

Speaker 2: 50:58

Yes, me too, me too. It is absolutely crazy and I will say I promised you I would. When I met my husband, he was four houses down from my father. Our lives began when I was born. He was four houses down from my grandmother.

Speaker 1: 51:15

Wow, that is just simply amazing. This whole conversation has been amazing. If I can ask you, if you were to give another woman advice well, one being in an abusive relationship what would you tell them to get out of it? To get out of it.

Speaker 2: 51:34

I did a video run like a lion and that video shows an abusive relationship. It shows me at the very end and I put all the numbers for domestic abuse hotline. I was so afraid that my husband was going to kill me, Of course, that I was afraid to they scare you into staying. Find somewhere to go. It is such a God, Deb, it's such a fine line, because you don't know, if you tell somebody to leave, if their husband's going to track them down and kill everybody that's in the house, and you don't know if you tell somebody to leave and they leave and their husband ends up being a big. I can't say that on radio. Peep peep, peep peep, and they didn't have the guts to do what they were doing. They just like beating up on women.

Speaker 1: 52:22

That was my case with my first death, but there is support. If you decide to make that decision to leave, there is support. There are places to go and there are phone numbers to shelter.

Speaker 2: 52:34

Go to a shelter and it's not your home. It's the first step towards safety and they will keep you safe Absolutely. And don't worry about not having a job, don't worry about not having clothes. I left my house with nothing. When I left my first husband, I had nothing.

Speaker 1: 52:54

Just know there are people out there that will help you and for the women who are struggling to take that leap of faith in their own music career.

Speaker 2: 53:01

In any career music, art. If you wanna be an entrepreneur with anything, do it, because today is a gift, and if you don't know exactly what you're doing, you fake it until you make it, and I learned that from Mary Kay. Figure out a way, and it is the best feeling in the world to know that you did it for yourself.

Speaker 1: 53:21

You just gotta do it.

Speaker 2: 53:22

Gotta take that first step.

Speaker 1: 53:23

Anything else you would like to share with the listeners that you haven't touched on?

Speaker 2: 53:28

I actually do close my mouth and it's during the hours of 9 pm and 5 am. I know I've talked your ears off, but you're so easy to talk. I love it.

Speaker 1: 53:40

I have loved this conversation more than you know, and let everybody know where they can find you once again, because they better.

Speaker 2: 53:48

I love it. I love it YouTube Dana Begay. Facebook and Instagram Dana Begay Music. Tiktok is Dana Begay. That's B-E-I-G-A-Y. And I've also got a blog and it's called Monday's Motivation M-U-N-D-A-Y-S. That's on WordPress Monday's Motivation. I try to get a blog out every Monday, but the reason it's Monday's Motivation is my grandkids call me Monday.

Speaker 1: 54:14

Aw, I like that. I like that, dana Begay. Thank you so much. I have enjoyed this conversation and I hope everybody has, you know, does take away something, because there has been something for everybody in this conversation, and I hope to do this again with you, perhaps prior to your release of your book. That would be great. Oh, that would be so fun, right, I would love it. So thank you, dana.

Speaker 2: 54:42

Thank you very much. I can't wait to come and see you with your horses.

Speaker 1: 54:45

I can't wait to go and do.