Tasia Wells/FilmMagicDaughtry‘s latest album Cage to Rattle features a song called “As You Are,” whose lyrics were written by Chris Daughtry‘s wife Deanna. On the surface, the song carries a message of acceptance, but now the couple is revealing that it was actually inspired by Deanna coming to terms with her bisexuality.
Deanna had only confided in a few people, including her husband, that she was once in a relationship with a woman, and she tells People magazine that she’d struggled for years with her sexuality.
“I was hiding and shutting down a part of myself,” she explains. “And it was causing me to shut down so many good, beautiful things about myself. As I built these walls up to protect myself, I was creating a prison, and I couldn’t fully experience life and people couldn’t fully experience me — and it’s all based on fear.”
After years of self-examination, Deanna says she’s finally accepted “as I am,” and that journey inspired the song’s lyrics.
“I really wanted to be vulnerable and say, ‘This is who I am,’” she explains. “’I love me. I hope you will love me, but if you don’t, that’s okay because I still have myself, and I do have people that love me as I am, and that’s all I want.’”
Chris adds, “It’s very important for people to know what the song is about and where it really came from. Otherwise we’re not being authentic.” He adds that he “didn’t care” when Deanna told him about her sexuality.
As for why she’s revealing this now, Deanna says she wants to help others.
“I understand the fear of ‘what if someone finds out and they’re going to reject me?’ Those are fears that heterosexual people don’t need to worry about, and I’ve walked it.”
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