my story

It’s crazy how your life changes, ya know?  I guess I just kinda feel compelled to talk about the ending of Out of Asher.  I’m not really a blogger or anything, but thought it might shed some light on all of this by telling my side of the story.

For me, this wasn’t a band. It was way way more than that.

I guess it was about 3 1/2 years ago and I was going through the darkest time of my life. I had just went through some rough stuff and was coming out of it.  I was starting over, hanging out with different people and trying to find where I belonged in this world.  I remember that I prayed for God to help me.  I asked for Him to put me where I needed to be because I was lost.  I had lost all of the people I thought were closest to me and I began to question everything.  So, I asked God to place me with the people who would love me for me and be there for me.  I asked Him to provide me with a support group…a family.  This is where I honestly believe I became saved because He did save me.  I can’t say that I would be here today if it wasn’t for what He did for me.

Anyways, during this time, as I said, I started hanging with a different set of friends. When I started hanging with these new friends, they would go support Out of Asher at their first few local shows.  At this time Out of Asher was Casey, Clifton, Nathan, and Chris Curry was filling in on bass.  I had always been friends with Casey (except 6th grade, of course lol).  I knew Clifton, but I had never really got to know him and I didn’t really know Nathan very well, and I knew Chris fairly well.  But anyways, they needed a permanent bass player and since Chris was only temporary.  But since I was hanging around a lot and they knew I played, Casey and Clifton eventually asked if I would like to fill in on a show they had coming up.  I gladly accepted their offer.  I hadn’t played music in years and was so excited.  We practiced, I played the show, and they ended up asking if I wanted to be in the band.  I couldn’t have been more happy.  I felt like I was starting to gain some friends who actually appreciated me and wanted me around.  I was happy for the first time in a long time.  Time went on and we had a member change when Nathan left the band and then Caleb started to play drums for us and it felt right.  I quickly grew very close to these 3 boys- Caleb, Clifton, and Casey.  The dynamics of us 4 were crazy.  Everything just clicked when it was the 4 of us.

Not very long after I had joined the band I began to have a strong connection with Casey.  I knew he was a caring, fun, talented, good looking guy, but I figured we’d just always be friends.  But as our friendship grew closer, our chemistry did too.  He asked me out after we played a Christcore show in Williamson.  (Those shows were so much fun!)  Then everyone knows how that goes lol he eventually asked me to marry him at Ichthus on the Edge Stage!!  So our relationship wouldn’t have even happened without Out of Asher.  I would’ve never known true love if not for Out of Asher!

As for the other 2 guys, they became like my brothers or maybe even sons since they actually starting calling me mom.  I would always do whatever I could to take care of them all even if it meant putting them in line, and I still do.  I would end up sharing so many of my secrets with these boys as well as them sharing their secrets with me.  We have spent countless hours having heart to hearts and also being complete idiots.  I had never imagined that someday it would be these 3 people that God would put in my life to be my family.  We even say all the time “If you would’ve told me…” insinuating that we would’ve never believed back in high school that we could all be so close.  

That just shows that all of us ending up together was no coincidence. This band and these boys were the answer to all of my prayers.  God put me where He needed me to be…in a crazy rock band ministering to kids who normally wouldn’t hear anything about Jesus, and with Caleb, Clifton, and Casey - my family. 

So that’s why Out of Asher wasn’t just a wild rock band to me. It was something a lot more.  I’m happy to say that just because Out of Asher is gone, the family isn’t.  Everything between all of us is entirely the same.  We all just felt like God was leading us to end it which I’m sure means there’s something else in store now.  Everything has a season and I guess Out of Asher’s season is a closed book now.  

Now that’s it’s over, I like thinking back on the wild and crazy times we’ve shared because believe me there are plenty of them.  Like the time we played in Hamlin and thought it would be cool when we played the Eddie Murphy song to turn with our backs to the crowd, put sunglasses on, and then when the song started, we turned back around and revealed our silly sunglasses we had on. Or when the boys invented the dinosaur pit at a Christcore show in Williamson?  Good times.  Then there was always the day Casey almost knocked me out when his guitar strap broke, flew across the stage, and barely missed my head.  We played shows dressed up like zombies, dressed in basketball uniforms and tube socks with bath robes over them, and we’ve played wearing gold chains from the dollar tree before.  I remember when practices became ghost hunting adventures in Casey’s church, or when we wouldn’t practice at all and we’d just sit around doing stupid stuff the whole time. I could probably write a book about all of the crazy fun times we’ve had playing music together.  The shows that stand out the most to me, though,  are our EP release show when we worked so hard and so many people showed up to support us even though it had rained really bad all day.  That meant a lot to me. And of course, one of our last shows when Casey got down on one knee on stage to ask me to be his wife after singing one of my favorite songs, “Something” by The Beatles.

Even though there were a lot of good times, there was also a lot of bad times.  We started to not get surprised anymore when we were met with opposition.  If something could go wrong with us, it would.  Equipment would break the day of a show, or one of us would be sick, we’d have endless technical difficulties during an important show, we’d get lost trying to find a show, or I’d even cut open my thumb on a can of spaghetti and meatballs the day we were supposed to leave for Ichthus.  We learned early on to just laugh at all of these things and see them as the devil’s attempts to stop us.

So it’s been a great ride.  I’ll miss looking over at them while playing and making goofy faces or just smiling knowing that this is what we were supposed to be doing.  I don’t regret a single thing and I look forward to what God has in store now since the last ride was such a blast.  

I hope that over these past few years we’ve impacted some peoples lives.  I hope that we’ve taught people about the grace of God and that it doesn’t matter who you are, where you’ve been, or what you’ve done that God still loves you and wants to make your life complete.  Just look how he has worked in our lives!

I also want to say I’m so very thankful for the people we’ve met along the way.  There’s so many bands/friends/fans that we’ve met by being in Out of Asher who are life long friends with us.  

So all the glory goes to God.  If you find yourself lost all you have to do is ask for help.  It’s because of him that I now have a family, I have friends, I have purpose, and I have love.

One last thing I want to do is send out a final thank you to Casey, Caleb, and Clifton for putting up with me. You guys are the best!  Now,  Clifton hurry up and move back to Huntington so the family can be complete again!!!! 

9 months ago  /  0 notes