I’m gonna make a clean start,
Wash the cold winter away,
Put a scrubby dubby spring in my heart,
And cart the old garbage away . . . Allez!
So what if I get soap suds in my ears?
So what if I get soapy suds in my eyes?
This is the most fun I’ve had in years.
Out of the ashes the phoenix will rise.
—“I’M GOING TO MAKE A CLEAN START” BY KATHIE LEE GIFFORD, FROM UNDER THE BRIDGE
Several years ago Cody introduced me to an extraordinary woman named Angie Clawson. She is basically the heart and soul of the Nashville chapter of an organization called “I Am Second.” You cannot miss Angie. Born of Mexican heritage, her magnificent hair enters a room before she does. And her smile and laugh will melt you. Everyone adores her.
Angie is married to a funny, sweet soul named Greg McCollum. When I met them I had no idea that a few years later, when I moved to Nashville, they would become so important to me. But they certainly did.
As far as it goes for Angie and me, think Lucy and Ethel. Or maybe Thelma and Louise. You get the picture. We have become inseparable, and I hate when I have to leave town, knowing I’m gonna miss my Angie so much. It is a genuine sisterhood. I’m deeply grateful to her and Greg for being there for me at every turn during my life transition to Tennessee.
We all desperately need angels in our lives—ethereal beings who show up “out of the blue” to bless, caress, and direct us. Especially in the deep state of loneliness I was in when I arrived in town. Angie and Greg dragged me everywhere: music festivals, clubs, church, parades (which I hate), restaurants, dinners, lunches. You name it, they dragged me there.
And something magical happened. I had fun. The show with Hoda had been fun, of course, but I hadn’t had fun in my personal life for several years—actually the four years since Frank had passed. I hardly ever went out. Now I was out someplace almost every night. Or they’d be at my house just hanging out and sharing life. It’s almost as if they were afraid to leave me alone. They understood my deep sense of loss and my desire to belong again, to be surrounded by sweet, like-minded souls who laugh or cry with you one minute and get down on their knees and pray for you the next.
They get me.
What happened in July 2019 is a prime example. I had just moved into my larger townhouse when Angie called to tell me about a new fitness company called Manduu. I’ve always been disciplined about exercising but never liked it and certainly didn’t love it as so many people do. I’d never experienced that endorphin rush they talk about. Honestly, the best part of any workout for me was when it was over.
Because Angie asked and agreed to go to a Manduu studio with me, I said yes. I saw a difference almost immediately. But what surprised me most was that I started sleeping better, had tons more energy, and began looking visibly more muscular.
In November of that year I returned to the TODAY show for the first time since I’d left to promote A Godwink Christmas: Meant for Love. I was sitting in the hair and makeup room getting ready for the show when Jenna Bush Hager came in.
“Kathie Lee!” she screamed. “What have you done to yourself?”
“What are you talking about?” I thought she maybe meant my new blonde highlights.
“Hell no,” she roared, going all Texas woman on me. “Look at your guns!”
“What guns?” I truly did not know what she meant.
“These guns.” She came over and squeezed my biceps. “Girl, where did you get these?”
I laughed and then tried to explain to her about my new exercise program.
“Well, you’ve gotta show Hoda your arms on the air,” she insisted.
“I’m not gonna show Hoda!” I laughed. “I’ll show her after the show.”
Jenna is a rascal, and yep, right there live on the air, while I was trying to promote my movie, she yelled for me to show Hoda my arms.
There was no way those women were going to let this get by them, and I knew it. So I took off the sweater I was wearing and made a muscle for Hoda. She gasped. The crew gasped. I laughed. I had left TODAY a scrawny 108 pounds seven months before, and now they were acting like I was Wonder Woman. Thanks, Angie!
Angie was instrumental in my life in many ways. Years before she had been married to a top songwriter in Nashville and was still friendly with pretty much everybody in the business. She began setting up “writes” for me before I even made my move to Nashville—basically a session where songwriters get together in a room for the express purpose of writing a song.
These writes have been fascinating for me. I must have had fifty of them the first full year I was in town. Each one is completely different because the people are all so different. I love these sessions and look forward to them.
Have I had a hit song yet from any of them? Why, thank you for asking. The answer is yes.
But none of it would have been possible without my Nashville angels Greg and Angie. They were there when I needed someone to give me a warm welcome, an encouraging word, a new fitness obsession, and a whole lot of connections. It’s most definitely never too late to meet an angel or two. But it might also be time to be one to someone else.