Katy Nichole: Cover Story (November 2025)
An Honest Conversation with Katy Nichole
When Katy Nichole walks into a room she is going to give you an experience. I’d seen Katy perform before so I knew she was going to do an incredible job. She has a powerhouse strength in her vocals that feel effortless and second nature. However, it wasn’t until we sat across from each other in the CCM studio, that I understood how impossible it was going to be to describe her on paper. Bright, bubbly, brooding, intellectual, self-reflecting, expressive… I’m not sure the English language has enough adjectives to cover the situation. I’ve been blessed to interview many celebrities, but this is the most unforgettable of my career so far. Honestly.
Katy calls herself an introvert with a personality. The second she starts talking, or laughing, or singing, something ignites. It’s the kind of electricity that makes everyone take notice. There’s a magnetism that reminds me of a Broadway showstopper, all refracted through a heart fully surrendered to Jesus. She’s funny and self-aware, heartbreakingly honest, and completely unpredictable.
Her new album, Honest Conversations, feels like we’re getting a glimpse of her entire soul on record. “I started writing those songs right after I released the first album,” she tells me. “When I Fall was the catalyst that led us into what Honest Conversations is all about,” she says. “And the message I really wanted to bring to people was that honest conversations with yourself, with others, and with God lead to healing.”
That’s not just marketing, it’s the heartbeat of her faith. “I had all the song titles picked out before I ever started the writing process,” she says. “I knew exactly what each song was going to be about. I wanted to talk about the things I was passionate about.”
“If anything, I think life is much more difficult when you’re chasing after Jesus. The devil doesn’t like that.”
– Katy Nichole
Her tone softens as she describes the song. “I wrote ‘When I Fall’ by myself in my bedroom when I was going through some really hard stuff. It ended up being the first song I ever wrote alone that made it to radio. I thought, ‘I want to write songs that are real like that.’ Because I think it’s really important that we don’t hide from those things or try to sugarcoat what it’s like to be a Christian and what it’s like to live this life. Otherwise, people have this unrealistic expectation of what it’s going to be like to follow Jesus.”
Then she says something I can’t stop thinking about: “If anything, I think life is much more difficult when you’re chasing after Jesus. The devil doesn’t like that.” She laughs softly, but her eyes hold something steady. “The battles I’ve faced, those were the times when I was the closest to God.”
The record moves through those battles like her diary. It is full of frustration, surrender, sadness, and healing. “By the end of the record, I felt like I was saying, ‘My healing journey hasn’t ended, but I’ve started healing now.’ That’s why I ended it with the song ‘Healing Now.’ Because healing is something that you’ll do for the rest of your life until we reach eternity. That’s when we’re ultimately healed.” She’s not dramatizing her story for sympathy; she’s testifying with the kind of humility that disarms you and makes you forget that you’re on camera, not just hanging out with a friend. “We have to trust the process,” she says. “And continue to follow Jesus in it.”
“The battles I’ve faced, those were the times when I was the closest to God.”
– Katy Nichole
Katy’s sound doesn’t fit into neat categories. “I don’t think I’ve ever really stuck to one genre,” she admits. “I’m a songwriter first. Writing is something I just do. I don’t think about where I fit. I just want to write songs that feel like where my heart is.” She experimented on this record and dared her fan base to follow her. “I think I’m actually falling into what feels authentic to myself. I never thought I could do what I’m doing now, because I didn’t know that it was going to be accepted. But I’ve felt so welcomed with open arms.”
She pauses, then smiles. “There are haters who will hate. But there are a lot of people who’ve felt like they were seen, and that’s exactly why I wrote it. I wanted people to feel less alone in the journey they’re on, to know that they get to be honest with the people around them. That’s going to move you toward the healing you’ve been longing for.”
There’s one lyric that Katy explains is often misinterpreted and she wants to clear the air. “In ‘When I Fall,’ I sing, ‘I’ve tried, but I can’t let go, because God, You catch me when I fall.’ A lot of people took that literally,” she explains. “But it was actually a metaphor. I was talking about depression—how people reach a point of not wanting to be on Earth anymore. I tried to let go, but God didn’t let me. He didn’t let me.” Her voice gets a bit quiet. “Him catching me when I fall was Him just fully embracing me before I could ever let go. There was no real letting go, because I wanted to let go, but He didn’t let me. He didn’t let me let go. And that’s beautiful. Letting go is like giving up, and the Lord won’t let you give up.”
She pauses again, eyes shining. “Even when you think you’re falling—if you thought you let go, you didn’t, because He was right there. You might even think that you hit the ground, but He’s still holding on to your arm. And then you look over and realize, the Lord has always had me.”
“There are haters who will hate. But there are a lot of people who’ve felt like they were seen, and that’s exactly why I wrote it. I wanted people to feel less alone in the journey they’re on, to know that they get to be honest with the people around them. That’s going to move you toward the healing you’ve been longing for.”
– Katy Nichole
Katy’s relationship with God didn’t arrive in a flash of light. “I think my turning point was when I was about 18,” she says. “But I didn’t fully hit the point of knowing the Lord until I was about 20. When I started opening up the Word and praying in a prayer journal, it was like I saw a new life in front of me.”
She was baptized at 20, long after growing up in church. “I’d known God my whole life, but I didn’t have that personal relationship. I told Him, ‘God, I want what You want for me. Remove whatever isn’t glorifying You.’ And He started doing that and it shook up my world.”
She laughs. “At first, I was just so shocked. I was like, ‘I didn’t mean it!’ Because you start to see that you pray these prayers and He answers them, and then you’re like, should I have said that? But yes, because I do want what God wants for me.”
What happened next sounds like a spiritual earthquake. “God stripped everything away until I quite literally had nothing but Jesus,” she says. “I had the clothes on my back and Jesus, and nothing else. And what you realize is that when all you have is Jesus, you don’t need anything else… If everything in this life fails, which it will, because it’s not God, I still have Him. And one day I’ll meet the Lord and have everything I’ve ever wanted.”
When I ask about her rituals to stay authentically herself, she surprises me again with something simple. “Since I was probably 13 or 14, I’ve been journaling,” she says. “It turned into a prayer journal along the way. Getting my thoughts out on paper has always helped me express my emotions and release things.” She smiles at the thought. “And when I don’t write every day, I try not to beat myself up. I know the Lord sees my heart.”
Katy is both disciplined and delightfully chaotic, flipping between deep reflection and total mischief in seconds. We end up laughing about her cat, Spooky. “She’s more famous than me, but we don’t have to talk about that,” she says, deadpan. Then she does anyway. “I love my cat. She’s a queen. She can take it.”
Her humor carries through even when she’s talking about something as mundane as tour food. “The post-show food is always the spiciest wings you’ve ever had in your life,” she says, shaking her head. “The bus is going to be smelling like farts. That’s why I called the album Honest Conversations—because I don’t know how to shut my mouth.” The whole studio has dissolved into laughter and chaos at this point.
And then, just as quickly as she got us rolling, she’s back in the deep end. “I’ve always wanted to help the next generation,” she says, her voice brightening. “I’d love to do A&R at a record label someday. Help a young artist figure out their sound. Hopefully I’ll be done with my artist career by then and can champion the next generation.”
Her passion for mentoring is genuine. “I was once a youth group leader, and there was one specific girl who was so into music. That was the first time I realized, ‘I want to do for others what people did for me.’ I’d love to mentor a young girl who has the same dreams I’ve had.”
We talk about songwriting, her favorite topic. “I’ve been songwriting since I was 15,” she says. “It’s something I’ve always been massively passionate about. My goal was never really to be an artist—it was to have my songs be heard. I could definitely do without being in the spotlight. I love being behind the scenes. I’m so introverted.”
I laugh, because she’s anything but shy in the moment. She laughs back. “I just have a personality!”
That’s an understatement.
When she talks about collaboration, she lights up again. “Collaboration is something where, if it’s healthy, you’re pushing back on each other in a good way. Usually the best songs come from that. I wouldn’t be the writer I am today without the people I’ve worked with. They’ve taught me so much.”
Social media, of course, plays its part. “Even when I was breaking out, it was a negative thing,” she admits. “But it can be positive—you have to make it positive. Otherwise, the negative takes over. It’s like a war zone. You compare yourself and think, ‘They have everything I don’t have.’ Their path is not mine. God made this path for me, and that path for them. They’re different. If I’m trying to strive toward their path, I’m going nowhere. If I strive on mine, I’ll go wherever the Lord wants me to go.” That resolve has kept her grounded. “I make content that makes me happy. If it gets 100 likes or 100,000 likes, it’s all the same.” I think we can all agree that it’s working for her.
The conversation winds through to cookies, her favorite guilty pleasure (“I love eating cookies at any time of the day—sometimes that’s my breakfast”), her obsession with caffeine (“That might be a sin, I’m not even sure”), and faith (“Anything you lose, you gain ten times that knowing God”).
It’s impossible to categorize her, she’s both a confessional poet and a comic relief, a worship leader and a rock star. One moment she’s talking about divine surrender, the next she’s reenacting a Disney song performed to a reindeer.
“But it can be positive—you have to make it positive. Otherwise, the negative takes over. It’s like a war zone. You compare yourself and think, ‘They have everything I don’t have.’ Their path is not mine. God made this path for me, and that path for them. They’re different. If I’m trying to strive toward their path, I’m going nowhere. If I strive on mine, I’ll go wherever the Lord wants me to go.”
– Katy Nichole
As we wrap, I ask what’s next. She flashes that familiar grin. “I don’t know if I can say this…” She couldn’t. And that’s the thing about Katy Nichole, you think you know what’s coming, and then she surprises you.
Before she leaves, she looks into our camera with that mischievous smirk: “Thanks for watching… things have happened today that shouldn’t be on camera.”
Her name is known as one of the fastest rising stars in Christian music, but it’s her effervescent transparency and that makes her unforgettable.
Plainly stated – Katy Nichole is just honest.
