Kayley Bishop Was Smiling on The Voice but Dealing with Major Marital Problems: ‘I Wasn’t Even Living’ (Exclusive)

Kayley Bishop tries not to call anyone by their real name.

“I always seem to have cute names for my people,” Bishop admits with a laugh during a recent interview with PEOPLE. “I call them ‘darling’, ‘nugget’ and ‘honey’. Honestly, it just seems like a natural thing to do. We all kind of have our own lingo. I think it’s just too much respect for people.”

It was this point of view that led Vote season 15 finalist to touch the tender notes now heard on her current single “Hold on Honey,” a majestic beauty she began writing back in the fall of 2022.

“I was actually commissioned by Tyler Ward of Song House to write this song,” Bishop, now 34, recalls. “They just gave me a topic to write a letter to my younger self, especially the 19 to 23 year olds.”

That span of years was particularly memorable for Bishop, as it was during those years that she found herself on a personal roller coaster of emotions.

“I met my ex-husband when I was 19 and married when I was 23,” explains Bishop, who divorced in 2020 after seven years of marriage. “I knew exactly what to say that girl in this one a song. I wrote 30 minutes later. It totally fell from the sky. I truly say that he fell from the sky and landed in my lap.”

And as much as Bishop says she wrote “Hang on Honey” for others, she now admits that she did really writing it for himself. “It came out as an anthem to the girl I am it is used to be,” she says quietly.

Kayley Bishop performs in Nashville on March 13, 2024.

Ike Everard

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It was this hymn that Bishop began playing on the road shortly after she wrote it, and each time she was approached by people moved by her lyrical convictions.

“There was never an audience member who wasn’t moved by the song,” Bishop says of “Hold on Honey.” “I can’t tell you how many times people have come up to me with tears in their eyes saying, ‘This is my song’ and ‘How did you know my life?’ me too do not know their life. Then songwriting becomes more universal than your own story.”

Now, premiering exclusively on PEOPLE, the music video for “Hold on Honey” expands its relevance even further, as Bishop collaborated with Nashville’s Recovery Church to tell the stories of people who have found solace in the song as they deal with a wide problem. a range of addictions and mental health issues.

“I wasn’t necessarily looking to partner with the Recovery Church, but it was almost like a closed door led me to the one I needed to walk through,” says Bishop, adding that she initially had trouble finding a space to shoot the “Hold on Honey” music video. “It made me realize that this needs to be more than just talking to the brokenhearted.”

Kayley Bishop in Nashville on March 13, 2024.

Ike Everard

For Bishop, the song is about giving hope to others.

“It’s all about empowerment,” says Bishop, who has lived in Nashville since 2013. “I want to know your story, but how can we walk together so that you can continue to walk in victory and toward the health and sobriety and stewardship of life that God intended you to have, which is freed from these shackles. You know what I mean?”

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It’s a lesson Bishop had to learn first hand.

“I wasn’t really living,” Bishop says of the dark days of her marriage. “I used to think, ‘Oh, look at me. I’m so good. I’m not hurting myself.’ And I mean, I’ve never cried. And looking back, it was just a defense mechanism. I was denied the right to vote. I was denied my emotional well-being. I was told I was wrong. I was constantly being perpetuated as the problem when it was just the lighting, the narcissism and the abuse.”

Kayley Bishop performs in Nashville on March 13, 2024.

Ike Everard

But those days are now firmly behind her.

“The pendulum has swung so much in both directions now,” concludes Bishop, who plans to release a new EP later this year. “It was as if I felt the deepest pain, I sobbed and sobbed, and then I also felt complete delight. I like to have a rich vocabulary of emotions, and that makes life more colorful and lively.”

It’s an enlightenment she wishes she could have shared with that girl she used to be with Vote. “I would say you are more capable than you could ever imagine,” Bishop says, adding that she is currently happily single. “You’re more capable of things. You will truly be the version of your dreams. Just wait four years, just wait.”

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Source: HIS Education