Stormie Leigh - " I Aint Sh*t".

Stormie Leigh, the 29 year old Backwoods Barbie from Alabama, gladly admits that she “ain’t shit” but her supporters know that isn’t true. As an artist, and as a person, she is definitely someone worth listening to.

Stormie Leigh grew up in Alabama in what she refers to as the trailerhood. She’s very close to her parents and enjoys spending time with them. She went to college and obtained a bachelor’s degree in accounting at Birmingham’s UAB.

She worked her way through college in what she calls the breastaurant industry. Hooters was one of her first jobs. Even now, Stormie bartends at a place called Twin Peaks.She enjoys bar tending. She contributes the job to the fact that her inline hockey team would always stop at Hooters after every win. She was somewhat of a star in inline hockey when young. She has some substantial metals from the time.

Stormie Leigh says she was always interested in music. In middle school, she played second chair trumpet and performed in the marching band. She was very insecure when going into high school. She didn’t want to carry the trumpet around all the time. She traded her trumpet for camo and joined ROTC. Now she admits that the trumpet would have been a better fit for her.

At 16, Stormie Leigh got in her first and longest lasting relationship. Her and the young man dated until she was 21. Stormie said that it was time to separate and grow up. If it was meant to be, she hoped life would bring them back together. Life did bring them back together but not in the way that Stormie expected.

Her ex boyfriend showed up at her apartment one night, drunk. He climbed up 3 floors to her balcony and demanded to be let in. She was scared that he would fall so she let him in. An argument ensued followed by an altercation. Stormie had sustained 3 broke ribs. It was her epiphany moment. The moment she realized life was too short to not go for her dreams.

She started taking classes to learn anything she could about music. She is a very analytical person and knowledge is power. Though she’s never had a 9 to 5 job in accounting, the degree has also been beneficial in her journey into the music industry.

She picked up a job DJing a radio show at night. Hosting Stormie at Night was enjoyable. It inspired her to start her own online station but she knew she wanted to make music. One night she watched Lil Wyte perform. She remembered thinking, “I can do that.”

Studio time, releasing Eps, and opening for fellow artists soon followed. She’s met some really cool people and the girl has stories for days. One of the most inspirational story she told, during the interview, was from a talk with Jelly Roll years ago. Jelly Roll talked about how long it takes to master a craft. Jelly told her that it took 10,000 hours or about 10 years.

“Here I am 7 years in. I feel like I am on the cusp of something big,” she said.

Fans would probably agree. Her music only keeps getting better. It has changed over time. In the past 3 years, she says she has grown exponentially as an artist.

In 2017, her ex boyfriend was killed in terrible accident. It had been a while since she had talked with him. Even with their rough ending, they both had stayed in contact on and off over the years. In the end, the only thing that he had on him was a photo of Stormie. It shook her to the core. She stopped making music for a year and a half.

She thought the break would stop her progress as an artist. Instead, it had only made her grow as a person and artist. Her music became deeper. It talked about the real life things Stormie had experienced. Real things that supporters can relate to.

Stormie said, “The man that brought on my epiphany moment was also the man that made me grow. I always take his ashes with me wherever I go, now. He’s with me on stage. He’s with me in the studio. I feel him there. I get goosebumps when I walk into a studio now. I know he has my back and is cheering me on.”

Stormie Leigh’s album Into The Storm was testament to all the emotions she had after her break from music. It hits you in the feels. The song Days of Our Lives was their story. She says that her next album, titled The Eye of the Storm, will go deeper and speak louder about who Stormie Leigh truly is. Her and Shamu the Panda have been putting fire to songs like Lord Forgive me (I Ain’t Shit) for the album. She hopes to release it in January.

Stormie is bringing the real life stories to Country Rap. Even her recent collab with Big Po on his song Drinking Makes it Easy shows a story from Stormie’s life. She writes from experiences and it shows in her lyrics when you hear her songs. The video for the song is mind blowing.. She says Po and his wife Kelly are good folk and fun to work with. They had become such good friends that it was awkward for her to do certain parts in the video because Po was her homie. That didn’t stop the creation of a truly great video, though.

Stormies’s goals for 2021 is to be able to become a full time musician. Between the songs and videos that Stormie has coming, she’s been in the works of updating her site with new merch. She creates all her own merch and that makes each piece a bit more awesome. She hopes to be able to do more concerts but understands that Covid may affect that, so she plans to do more lives on her socials to interact with her supporters. Be on a lookout for those and her new music. Stormie may think she ‘ain’t shit’ but she’s cooking up fire.

- Ashley Davis