L-word: So when you write your songs do you feel like you are telling a story?

SH: Yes because I’m trying to say, “You’re not only saying I feel this way, you’re saying this is where I’m coming from, this is where I’m going.” I always actually do beginning, and middle and an end. And I noticed that I’m always trying to make my character powerful or self-empowered, is more the word. Something that has a positive end. I don’t think I have ever written a dark song where it wasn’t a positive end.

L-word: When you write songs do you expect people to get the meaning you’re trying to convey or you want them to draw their own conclusions? Like “As I Lay Me Down”, which ended up being written about your father but people use it as a love ballad to their partners.

SH: Right, it wasn’t even an older man who inspired it. I wrote that emotion that was actually expressed to somebody my age in a whole another relationship so I agree with you. Even for me it’s how I take at that time. I do want people to draw their own conclusions. All I know about art is…and this is like when I read a book I know that I don’t know what the writer meant but I do know that they know it triggers something deep and then it becomes so personal and that’s what art isn’t corporate. That’s why art isn’t a group thing. It’s very private, unique thing and the fact that it can happen to so many people is amazing to me. So I want people to personalize whatever I do, and share with me, even if they can’t say why. That’s the best. Somebody came up to me after my last show and said, “I can’t express in words what your music means to me,” and I thought, “Oh, that is so great,” because it means it’s so personal for him.

L-word: Do you have any stories about fans that wrote to you or told you that your songs changed their lives?

SH: It’s such a great gift again. I understand, for instance, what the organizers of this convention are going through when people cancel. I go out there and people show up but I’m standing out there and I never give less than all my best. And you’ll see that when you come to that show. I don’t care what the situation is. I don’t complain, I just go and I give my best every night. Sometimes people come up and they go, “You don’t know what that performance meant to me.” And I go, “Thank God, I didn’t slip up. Thank God I gave my best because that person actually took their time to tell me, that person actually bought every album, that person actually stayed in their seat.” And I go, “Sophie, don’t ever take this for granted. This is so beautiful.” So yes, when people come up to me after the show and they tell me, even just something like “I came from Kentucky,” or “I’ve loved you since I was twelve,” even just that little bit makes me feel so grateful and it stays with me for a long time. And I say to myself, “Don’t ever be less than your best because that person is out there, that one person who you mean so much to, for whom you opened the door.” I think that’s really great that I can see that because it’s true.