Steven and Kellee Cade Give Guitars, and Hope, to Shelters

Speaker 2 (00:00.11)

Welcome to You Matter Nashville, where we celebrate the people and stories that make our community so special. We believe that everyone has a story to tell, and more importantly, everyone here matters. We're your hosts, Jason and Mindy Hoover, and we're passionate about shining a light on individuals who are making a real impact right here in Middle Tennessee. This is about community, connection,

and the incredible people who are making a difference. Let's dive in as we uncover powerful stories and meet remarkable people whose journeys will inspire us all, right here on You Matter Nashville.

Speaker 2 (00:37.282)

Welcome back to You Matter Nashville. I'm Jason Hoover along with my absolutely beautiful wife, Mindy Hoover. And today we are honored to have some special guests with us. Stephen and Kelly Cade, along with their two beautiful children. Stephen and Kelly are owners of the nonprofit Giving Guitars, which is an organization built on the belief that music can bring hope and light into the lives of people facing homelessness, hardship, and uncertainty. Stephen and Kelly, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much. It's to be here with y'all. Well, before we start, I do want to brag on y'all a little bit and share some information for our audience so they get a little bit more intimate understanding about what you guys do because you guys do a lot of good, not only here in Middle Tennessee, but just around the world. Stephen Cate is a Nashville award winning modern country artist known for the heartfelt songwriting and dynamic performances.

He has been considered for more than 18 Grammy nominations, inducted into the California Music Hall of Fame, and awarded best modern country artist in the Grand Ole Opry on two occasions, not just one, two. He is a seasoned performer. He has shared the stage with Jason Aldean, Eric Church, Keith Urban, and Darius Rucker. Stephen has also led the Giving Guitars Foundation, which has reached more than 155 shelters,

across 24 states and three countries. They donated more than 250 guitars and bringing hope through the power of music. Wow. Okay. So you guys have so much going on. It's amazing. I love everything that you guys are doing, but let's start at the beginning. How did giving guitars come to life? Yeah. Giving guitars came to life. we were, all together and I was performing in the backyard.

of a home in Brentwood, Tennessee. And the gentleman, Brent Yates, happened to just really enjoy our family and just really enjoy just our hearts and the songs that I was singing. so he asked us, hey, why don't you pray about seeing how God could use your gifts and talents? And so we were driving in Texas, my wife came up with the idea of giving guitars.

Speaker 2 (03:01.198)

And we went back to Brent and we told him, you know, the idea we had and he said, well, I want to help you all get that started. And so our first visit was to the Rathgeber Center in Austin, Texas. That was in October of 2021. And we donated our first guitar to the homeless family shelter there. And since then, we never looked back. We've been to 155 shelters, like you said, across 24 states and three countries and donated over 250 guitars and.

That's essentially how Give Me Guitars started. So what gave you the inspiration, Ellie, that would make you think, hey, let's just give guitars out? What inspired that?

Yeah, so the challenge kind of, you will, you know, with...

with Brent, said, you know, they were all about, we like to help others to help others. So that was a great, know, really great thing. And we just, you know, praying about, what can we do? And, you know, our family has gone through challenges and we go everywhere together. This is our daughter, Eliana and our son Levi. that's why they're with us. We're pretty much always together. And, you know, so we understand what it, you know, what it can be like just, you know, any family, you know, go through hard times. And so we just really, you know, for

one just wanted to always try to see you about helping others and what we can relate to and then I thought well, Stevens a musician he you know and music is such a important. It's and I it's kind of its own instrument even you know along with guitars and piano and just all kind of singing you know it's a songwriting there all types of therapy as well as entertainment and so I thought well one thing that we could do helping people in need helping families children and you know and.

Speaker 1 (04:47.982)

with a gift of music and Steven being able to play guitar and that's an easy instrument to bring and to give and so it just kind of just started coming together and here we are.

I love that. I love that your kids actually want to spend time with you. I don't think our kids could put up with us. Well, could for a while, know, especially during COVID they had to. No, our kids love, we love being together. They're just make it to college age. Oh goodness. It's just so hard. So value this time as much as you can.

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:28.822)

I love what you guys are doing. I was a music teacher. Well, I still vocal coach and stuff, but I was a music teacher about 15 years and nothing is more therapeutic to the student body than walking into that music class and being apart and turning everything off for about 50 minutes and honing in on your craft. I am a true believer. We did a ton of research on music therapy. Our daughter went and studied that at Belmont for a year before changing courses. And it is

Just that, just having the access to expressing yourself and expressing your feelings. And most of our best music writing is out of grief or hurt and pain. So it's a universal language. Yeah. So mean, having an instrument nearby, I mean, just to facilitate that. I mean, a lot of people who are homeless, mean, they're, they have everything on their back and sometimes that guitar doesn't fit. um, I really do love that.

We have a rental and we have a guitar in it and they'll comment. They're like, thanks for having that guitar on the wall. Like I took it down and tuned it for you and played it a while. And it's just something about the relaxation of music and what it does in your spirit. God just created us to just take music and it just envelop everything that we are. We're made to worship. We're made to create.

course I'm a musician so I'm gonna say it's the best thing in the world but but it is it just is but going back to the beginnings like you know and you felt that call to start that how did it go from this is a great idea to let's make these first steps and making it happen mm-hmm yeah I mean I think that it's we just felt like there's so much need

It is.

Speaker 2 (07:22.222)

And what's interesting is it happened right just as the time that they shut the world down, that was sort of tapering off. If you recall in March of 2020, I'll never forget, I was performing at the George Jones Museum and they literally knocked Nashville. It's like they took a big switch and went, bam, and they just shut it. And people fled like a tsunami was coming in.

and I was standing there playing and I'm like this is crazy so you know a year and about a half later you know it started to slowly even though they were making you you know put your mask on in between you know sips and bites on the airplanes you know. You know which is absolutely ludicrous but that's a whole other thing but but you know as things were kind of winding down you know when we were going into these shelters.

there were still people very much, they had a lot of trauma from this time that they asked everybody to put masks on. So we were walking around with no masks on and everybody else had masks on. was interesting. we just, know, and there's so much, so many people lost jobs, income, they lost their homes. The fallout from what happened was very unique.

I don't think anything like that had ever happened in the history of the world, maybe except for the flood, know, Noah, something, you know. So there was a lot of people that were just hurting. A lot of people were blown out just in terms of their financially. And so we really felt like this was the time to get involved and do something with my platform because God did give me a platform with music. has, I've sat in the room with

ludicrously talented people. mean, so talented that it's, you know, and I'm thankful that I get to sit there with them. so I just wanted to take that talent, that notoriety, and I just started thinking, what would this world be like? What would, just take it for a second, what if tomorrow the headline was, Elon is saved?

Speaker 2 (09:38.06)

Really? It would be kind of crazy. I mean, is it fair to say that? I I'm just kind of curious. Yeah. I mean, it would be unbelievable because Elon has $350 billion. Yeah. And he could take and if he said I want to take I want to take $349 million and I want to give it to two people that need it. So my point is, is that and well, the reason I'm saying that is because I think that there is a need for people with influence, with talent.

with resources to to to go out and help others and that's part of my personal mission, I guess as an artist and I feel like. Maybe that's I feel like a speck of sand on a Perdido Beach trying to help you know people but I'm not going to I'm not going to give up and I think that I hope that that's sort of you know inspiring my family to feel the same way. Yeah, I mean if everybody had a kind gesture if everybody had.

piece to the puzzle and they were doing it. You know, it all goes together, you know, like, it's like the free will. It's, I think we're all giving that purpose, but it's our free will to tap into it. That's right. You know, I give prom dresses away. It's a prom dress, you know, but it's everything to that girl in the moment, you know, and it's, you know, but that my job is not to do everything else in the world. That's just my job for right now. Many grains of sand.

creates a beach. Yep. Yep. I like that. That's something there. So I'm curious, Elena and Levi, what are- Eliana. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry for Mark and Saul, so you have to forgive me. Eliana. Oh me. Do you all mind sharing?

on it.

Speaker 2 (11:33.644)

How does this make you feel? How are you inspired through this?

Yeah, well definitely when we go into these shelters, it's really inspiring to see whether it's a kid or an adult. They just get really inspired by music and music isn't just something that is pleasing to the ears. It's also a therapy for everybody. Everybody loves music. I don't know if I've really met a person who says I don't like music. I'd be pretty shocked if someone said that.

Music is just inspiring to everybody and it's inspiring to see how it can help people. So we go into these shelters when we give the kids and adults to guitars, it just really helps them get through the seasons and their challenges in life.

I love that. Liva? Well, it's kind of, if you don't mind, I'm just going to add on that. It's kind of interesting because when we reach out to these shelters, we'll talk about the media coming out, maybe a notoriety, maybe a mayor or city council. So we make it, we try to make it a fairly good sized event to bring awareness to the shelter and maybe surrounding organizations. But when we go there, a lot of the time, what we'll find is that they, even the directors, especially the residents, they have

They really just don't know what to expect. So when we walk in, they're just kind of standing there like, not like awkwardly, but like it's just like, they're just not, they don't know what we're about to do. You know, and it's also, it's not very common that people just go in shelters and donate things either. Shelters are pretty isolated from society, which is very unfortunate. But when we go into these shelters and we, you know, maybe go in a cafeteria or an auditorium and all the residents are sitting there, typically they walk in carrying

Speaker 2 (13:20.494)

burden of the world on them. They don't have a very good attitude, not very good outlook. It's just, you can just kind of feel the cloud of darkness over the room. And when my dad strums the first chord, you can just see some people, I mean, it's like the shift in the mood is so fast. hard to put it in. Being from Arkansas, you know, the weather can change.

it into words.

Speaker 2 (13:48.814)

The next second, it's pouring. It's real like that, except it's the other way around. The sun shines. the residents, I mean, their faces light up so bright. We have directors, have staff, they come over to us and they're like, you we were not expecting that, but we haven't seen joy on these residents' faces in this amount since ever, since ever before. They've never been this happy. It doesn't matter. You you can dump so much money into a problem and nothing happens.

and you bring a single guitar and you change a hundred lives. And that's what we are, that's what we're doing. You guys are so wise. So, mean, just your heart, your, and oh my goodness, I, all of that very true. I mean, you're, touched my heart, but what you say or what you said about it, just that first chord, it instantly can just make that trigger. It's, you know, well,

It's plucking the emotional string of our heart, right? So I love that. And I love that you guys are a part of it and you're growing along with it. And I love that, Stephen, that you have created this organization that your whole family can be a part of. That's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. So one thing that I love about it is that you have a music career.

And I mean, yeah, you're playing with some minor artists. mean, I don't, who's Jason? Is it Aldine or, not really certain, but I'm sure they're, I'm sure they're good. but you have this platform and you're taking that. mean, so many people, could, we're such a me society, right? And you could take that and just focus solely on that, but that wouldn't be God's will. And you're saying, no, I'm.

I'm going to take this and I'm going to do God's will and I'm going to show God's love through all of this. And so I admire you for that. But you know, all of you actually. Well, thank you. Yeah. I mean, we were just, we, every morning as a family, we do a Bible study. today we were reading in Philippians 2. And essentially, if you think about Paul, the apostle, which

Speaker 1 (16:02.392)

Yeah, we just were reading about this.

Speaker 2 (16:09.922)

You know, Paul push the envelope, he set a standard. And even though he had his faults, it was just, it's very inspiring for me to think about it. And when you're talking about a platform, you know, there's different platforms, right? I mean, there's, you know, people are either very famous because they're a famous doctor, or maybe they received them

the Medal of Honor, they were president, they sold a billion dollars in real estate, whatever it is. And it's just, whatever you do, I just hope that, I hope people utilize it for good. If you're thinking about it in a secular way, then it's just to help humanity. But if you're thinking about it in a Christian way, yes.

to lift others up and it is difficult to separate the me, me, me because everybody, I just, see artists all the time. I've been around artists most of my life. I've been around artists and I just, and I see a lot of people and that's what they're striving for is to be Madonna or they wanna be Elvis or they wanna be Whitney Houston. I mean, that's really the goal. There's no other.

It's a competition. It's just, it's like, do you want to win the Superbowl or not? So yeah, it's definitely tough to separate that. And there's a lot of players. So how do you connect your music career with the giving of the guitars? Like how do you interconnect that? Do you do that with other musicians? How do you do that within yourself? Other than, cause we know that you actually go in and you play the guitar yourself, but what other ways are you interconnecting your

two passions. Yeah. So what I do is I intentionally, when I get into a songwriting room, first of all, I, you know, I came to Nashville because I wanted to be around other great songwriters and to take my career to the next level. And then of course, let my career be used for God's will. But essentially, I want to try to write songs that are wholesome, clean, let's call it hashtag clean country, if you want to put that there.

Speaker 2 (18:29.758)

There's an intentionality about that about me as an artist and the people that I hang out with and write with, they know that. The musicians that I surround myself with, they know that. it's, you know, I really try to focus my career and tailor it to that more of that good message, clean positive type of thing. But not so much that I get sort of pigeonholed into the...

he's a Christian artist. That means he's only in church and I'm only singing. And I really don't even, I mean, we go to church, but I used to lead worship, but I don't lead worship anymore. And so yeah, I have to be intentional about connecting my career as an artist.

I think that well, I think you're starting to say it where you do song rights a lot of times, you know, it'll be songs that are, you know, that have to do with some of the experiences that either we've seen in these shelters or something that will be used in the shelters for him to sing so that just kind of relates even more so with these people and what they're going through. And I definitely think that's, you know, and obviously at the shows, we always like to talk about giving guitars and help.

let people know that so that they can be aware of, you know, just ways to whether it's a shelter in that community or just in general for people to be aware of that. And then even other musicians for them to understand, hey, there's other things that you can do besides, you know, of course, playing out shows, it's great. But here, you know, you can do things too. Like it's not, you know, it's you don't have to have any other resources other than, know, I use your talents, use your gifts and

make a difference.

Speaker 2 (20:14.944)

a few blocks away. Right. know, it's, you know, and I'm sure that it has affected your songwriting, like the topics that you cover. Just linking the two that, you know, it's affected one and the other. So have you wrote some incredible songs? I'm sure that has spotlighted your ministry. Yeah, absolutely. Recently, I wrote a song called Beauty and the Broken and that

Exactly.

Speaker 2 (20:44.394)

is a very powerful song inside of a shelter or drug rehab or foster home or domestic violence center. It's equally powerful there as it is at a winery with members of the Tulosa winery in, you know, central California.

I Love Louder was even up for a social impact song of the year.

Love Louder as well is a very powerful, I sort of fashion that song after a little bit of after We Are the World. When I got to write that song, I told the artists in the room, said, think we need, it'd be great if we could write a song that delivered a similar message to We Are the World. We need one. Some people don't even know what that song is. Yeah, the world needs another one. What's that? I said the world needs another one.

It does. needs many of them, really. mean, as many as we can get. Yeah, this past 10, 15 years has been rough, you know, on just the divide. You know, it's hard to get everybody in the same room to even be cordial to each other, let alone sing a song together. Oh, it wouldn't be funny if it wasn't true. it wasn't How do you find the...

you

Speaker 1 (22:02.348)

Sorry.

the shelters, how do you pick the shelters to go to?

Yeah, it's bit of a few different ways. I have some water if you need it. Let's see. So sometimes it now that we've been doing it, you know, for a few years, sometimes it'll be people that know what we're doing and they're like, hey, have you heard of this shelter? You know, and they'll let us know, which is always great when we actually have people tell us because it's nice to just hear about some places that are doing a great job and could use that help. And then we know that's a good

place to go to. A lot of times, know, anytime we route tours, if we're going to go into an area, it's, mean, we just always are like, we need to go to a shelter in that area. we always like to tie it in with shows because it really does help the impact for that shelter. You know, like you said, I just down the street, people sometimes don't know that there's even this shelter in their area. Maybe they're new to the area or for whatever reason. But if we can.

visit shelter in that area and then that evening or the evening before you tell people hey this is where we just were and this is a great you know this this shelter is doing great things in your area or this there's this foster home or you sometimes it's a boys and girls club we've been recently going to some low-income schools that could use help with their music department and

Speaker 1 (23:30.25)

It's just so we'll just look. We just start looking in that area. Once we have an area, we either get a suggestion or we'll just kind of start searching and see what fits in. there a family homeless shelter, at risk youth, domestic violence, substance abuse, veterans we've worked with? So yeah, just all along that those lines.

We're getting to the point now where you can imagine there's the top, you know, the words getting out a little bit more and different organizations are telling their friends about us. And yeah, I mean, we were just impressed at Arizona and you know, we donated a guitar to a foundation called HOPE, House of HOPE 316, which focuses on seniors who have basically run out of money.

and they need a place and this gentleman, Bert, who is one of the most genuine, God-loving, God-serving hearts I've ever met in my life, literally.

He's definitely doing his best to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Yeah, it's just amazing. We donated the guitar there and then he's introduced us to other organizations. Yeah, it's pretty much that way. getting the word out. Just to bring clarity for the audience, when you donate the guitar, it's not to a person. It's to that place. I'm sure they let people there.

Speaker 2 (25:03.874)

their play it. Is that right? Yep.

Exactly. Yeah, it's kind of used, you know, kind of like in a library, like they can check it out, know, like, but it's a guitar, so it's kind of along those lines. And so that way, as people come and go, they have access to the guitar.

Yeah. Now, how do you get the majority of your guitars like the ones that you donate to shelters?

Speaker 2 (25:28.974)

Yeah, we We yeah, go ahead. Yeah, we have Several supporters, which is great. We have Gibson guitars that has gotten on board with giving guitars and So they'll send us some guitars, especially to schools Guitar Center has been very kind to us as well. And even when we go into cities, there's a lot of local music stores there as well and sometimes we'll reach out to them sometimes they'll reach out to us and there's

You know, wouldn't believe how many people are really willing to support others who are doing good. And they just don't really know where to donate their guitar or to give their money. And when we come into a city, there are a lot of people who typically, even when we're at shows sometimes, I mean, like when my dad's done, there will be people who will come up and say, I actually have three guitars at home and I'd to give them to you right now. And I it's a remove.

So really at the end of the day, the summary is God provides the guitars whenever we need them, wherever we go. For sure. don't have a guitar to give to someone.

Yeah, that's great. lot of times, sometimes people will donate, you know, how, you know, can I donate money to go get the guitar, which is of course, that's great. We definitely always like to give a new guitar or, you know, as close to new as possible. So that's, you know, we always now that we've been doing this a little longer, we were more hesitant to say, just bring us a guitar because unfortunately, sometimes those guitars are not the kind that we are able to donate. So we we think, you know, but we've been very, yeah, very thankful.

Like Levi said, we have always had a guitar to go donate when we need it. So yeah, really blessed.

Speaker 2 (27:13.934)

So what kind of role do you play in this business, Levi?

I am the IT director primarily, so I run our servers and our emails and our websites. And I do some things in social media as well, but mainly on the digital marketing side and in IT. I do video. is not... All the footage you've seen from giving guitars is...

new video.

sometimes.

probably from black names as well. guys are so lucky. We've tried to get both of our kids to help us and they're like, nope, doing my own thing. I had to call my daughter one time to just to figure out Instagram. I hate that I'm admitting that right here to everybody, but I did. I wasn't patient enough, obviously, teach. So. Nope. But that's fantastic that you're able to help out like that. How about you, Elena?

Speaker 1 (28:13.206)

Yeah, so I basically edit. I'm the editor of this organization and I help edit all the footage taken by Levi and I also basically run our social media and I Yeah, I make sure there's a post almost every day and I try to keep up with editing all that

Okay. And that's exhausting. I'm sorry. You know, we do real estate, you know, we have the podcast. It's like, I feel like we have like five social media accounts on every platform and it's just exhausting. I'm like, have to do something every day. don't want to. Yeah. Don't look at our profile. Like lucky once a week is where I'm usually thumbs up. If you look at it closely, you can tell when I like, okay, I'm going to get this done. And then about three weeks later, it just peters out.

I try to like schedule them. know, yeah, I go and I try to schedule all my social media so they just self post because I'm gonna forget. I'm not that person. So it's an important job to have somebody designated. That's what they do. Yeah. So I know you do a lot of traveling and that takes resources as well. Right. Share a little bit about that. How does that play into everything?

I'm so glad that somebody recognizes that traveling takes resources because I think and here's another thing and you know, yeah. Okay. So well anyways, yes. And we, um, you know, I've for four, I've performed over 7,000 shows and you know, I've, I have a tip bucket. Uh, I have a Venmo account, but, uh, but essentially, yeah, we, um,

What was the question again? I apologize. Absolutely. Are you from Arkansas too? Yeah, exactly. I'm from Texas, so not far. That's why they call it Tex-Arkana. That's back, that's down in our, I'm going to be Arkansan. That's in our neck of the woods. That's our neck of the woods down there.

Speaker 1 (30:00.898)

The resources, it takes resources.

Speaker 1 (30:26.35)

my gosh, that's funny. there's definitely, we don't get to just magically appear at these places. There is a lot of, that'd be nice, travel expenses that are involved with anywhere from obviously the gas, the hotels, and sometimes there are, every situation's a little bit different. Sometimes there are people that...

are thinking of those things, know we're coming, they're like, hey, we have a place that you all can stay or we have a connection with this hotel and we can get a couple rooms. Anytime there's any help with travel, that's very, very helpful. And right now we actually are still working to get the rest of our campaign, I guess, if you will, for our mission vehicle. We had a suburban

and that worked great. And then after the second transmission and some other things, we don't have the threat, but we are believing we're going to get another one. And definitely, you know, we're getting close. We have raised funds and we're, I'd say maybe about just another 15,000 or, you know, maybe a dealership that wants to, you know, do something to help and get. Yes. Right. So we're, we're open to any of that, but we're, you know,

otherwise now we're back to needing to rent and that's just you know obvious that takes a lot of time a lot of money and it's like that is not where we want to be spending our time and money is that we just want to you. have that vehicle and everything go towards as much as possible to actually to the shelter and getting the guitars to give to them and things like that so where we do our best to be you know do whatever we can to cut costs and make the most out of.

everything that we have. yeah, thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (32:19.224)

So, if there is anybody out there that is connected with a auto dealership, it is getting to the end of the year. There's some tax benefits for donating. And those Suburbans, I missed my Suburban. We had that during, you know, when we had 5,000 kids, I swear that wanted to come home with us all the time.

That's better, yeah.

Thank

Speaker 2 (32:45.454)

They called it the Hoover bus. It was funny because we'd go do things. I was the theater mom and all the things. They're like, who's going to ride with Sydney and the Hoovers? They'd be all running because I let them eat in that thing. them just whatever. I loved that suburban. It finally died. God bless it. We prayed it to the car dealership. do not let this thing fall apart before they restart it.

It's a miracle. It was a miracle. It was like Russian rule at that day, but we got it there. We were so sad. It was the end of an era, but I miss those suburban days. We understand. Yes. Well, good. hope you all really do get the remainder of that money because like you said,

it does cost a lot to travel and every penny takes away or what you can give. So in all seriousness, if anybody does hear of anything or knows somebody that could help out with this, this will be a huge, huge, huge blessing to you guys. I'm Now switch gears a little bit. I know you need volunteers and I'm a musician, but say I'm a musician with a guitar.

Thanks.

Speaker 2 (34:10.702)

and I want to go and do some performance time, ministry time at one of the area shelters. And not just Nashville, it can be anywhere. What do we do to sign up with you guys to have that opportunity?

Yeah, think, I mean, we have a great website, Levi. So it is nice.

It is nice.

So at givingguitars.org you can go on to that site and there's you you can fill out a form there you can send in you know an email you can even on social media just you know contact us and let us know where you are what you do and you know how you'd like to help I mean we even as a musician you know that's great and then if there's people that aren't musicians that want to help

besides obviously financially that's always helpful but we also have you know sometimes we'll just need help with if it's reaching out to or finding shelters you know maybe sometimes there is an area we know will be going but we don't have a shelter yet in that area and you know people have been able to help out by just you know looking in the area and calling and making some calls and you know there's always different things that definitely we can find for ways to help.

Speaker 2 (35:22.83)

So I know you guys sometimes have to go and buy the guitars and you know, and you have that need. Can you let us know what the typical cost is for a guitar? Because I know some people will be like, I just want to buy a guitar. How much is that typically going to be?

So I think that ranges. We over the years we've kind of been adjusting and trying to make sure that again, you know, just finding the best price point and then also that we there's a lot of times there's these starter packs which have been really great because they come with a bag and a strap and you know, it's nice for them to kind of just have that all that package and I think that's been around. Those are now about three about $300. We have found seems to be that price where we can kind of just show up and give them.

a little that whole little set, you know, which is really nice. And so yeah, so that's if they somebody would like to, you know, donate to make sure I want to make sure I'm giving you a guitar, you know, worth of a guitar, that would be great. A whole visit if they're thinking I want to cover the cost of you know, like the travel visit for you know, typically that's about two. mean, it depends on where we're going. Assuming we're, you know, driving somewhere out of state, you know.

you know any I so anywhere from the three hundred then to like it can be two thousand depending on again if we're out of state we're definitely going to you know I mean that will include we reach out we do press releases we reach out to media to the government you know local mayors council members and we do that because you know getting that attention is what helps the shelters ultimately yeah you know it's not you know we're not based there it's not I mean it's not like oh hey giving guitars is coming but it's

but it makes a reason for them to be like, well, wait, what's happening there? And then they have the news come out and it's always, and the director gets to talk and they get to tell about what's happening and they do some video for the great things that's happening there. So that's just really a big deal. So anytime we go out somewhere like that, we definitely try to put together a just newsworthy piece so that we can bring as much attention as possible to get.

Speaker 1 (37:33.368)

more funds for that shelter ultimately, and help for those people.

amazing. mean, it's, and ultimately you're wanting them to get more resources as well. So there could be other nonprofits. It's all about coming together with other nonprofits and making things happen. think there's, we have, it seems like 10,000 nonprofits here in middle Tennessee. mean, we are of the volunteer estate. We love to volunteer. We love to do things. when I love like, you know, talking to

some of the other nonprofits who suggest another nonprofit to go on here because you actually work together. And that's what's so incredible is seeing a place that has multiple needs and they go, have you thought about talking to so-and-so to come and help? Have you thought about so-and-so and an organization can build a village of help? Right? So I love that.

It is. Yeah, it's so great.

So all of these trips and places that you've gone, I'm sure you've got some heartwarming stories and maybe some experiences that really touched you. Do you have any that you don't mind sharing?

Speaker 2 (38:45.58)

Well, I can say that the McClellan shelter in Chattanooga, Tennessee, this is one out of hundreds of stories. I I'll never forget that it inspired me so much to know this. So in the McClellan shelter, if you've ever been to Chattanooga, Tennessee, they have a really, well, I'm sure it's still an issue. It's a really bad homeless problem they have there. so,

There was a gentleman who was a pastor for many years and he came up to the, apparently the story goes, he came to the McClellan shelter and he said, listen, I'm basically going to retire as a pastor, but I want to volunteer here at the McClellan shelter. And the way I would like to volunteer, if you will allow me, is to wash the feet of the homeless folks.

And so for 15 years, all he did every day was wash the feet of homeless people. Now that was like, wow, there are still people around that understand the washing of the feet. When we read that about in scripture, how much that impacted us. to know that that's essentially what Jesus wants us to do is to serve others.

unconditionally without thinking of getting anything in return, essentially, which is very hard. It's in the society we live in. You touched on it earlier about me, me, me, and you always expect to get things. But when we go into these shelters, it's funny because sometimes we'll call them and say, we're going to come. I'm a modern country artist, Stephen Cade out of Nashville. I want to come to your shelter.

perform, we want to raise some money for you, I want to bring a guitar and try to lift your organization up and we want to do it for free. And they're like, what? mean, you can't do something for free like that almost, you know, and we do and we don't expect anything and we've just been blessed by it in so many ways. And not only that, we've raised money sort of inadvertently through content.

Speaker 2 (41:07.374)

bringing contacts to that organization, think we counted somewhere around over $200,000, $300,000 we've raised for organizations through just the word of mouth. yeah, not including buildings. Not including buildings that were built as a result of.

Yeah, yeah, it's been great.

Yeah, Village of Hope is one of them. I mean, that's, that's impressive. That was, that was a seed planted by just, you know, just, we just were faithful and just went in and God opened up doors and not for us, just for other people. It's amazing how that happens. Yeah. And I'm, I'm worried that we're going to be seeing more and more, you know, things don't turn around. I mean, it's, you know, us in the real estate industry, I mean, we were just,

bragging, not really bragging, but just talking about, got to help a first time home buyer this weekend. And like, that was a story to share on our call this morning, because we're not seeing that. We're not seeing first time home buyers being able to save enough money to buy a home. And that made us excited, because I love working with first time home buyers. think it's, and especially if it's first time generation home buyers, it's a huge deal to us.

And yeah, I mean, it's a very freeing of, cause to me, if you can buy a home, can start paying for a home. can, it helps you get out of poverty. It breaks the cycle. So, to see, that number going down to me is a huge indicator that we have a housing problem. If we can't even save enough money to buy a home, you know, what about the people that are on that next, that next step down on the ladder and that next step down the ladder? What's happening?

Speaker 1 (42:40.526)

.

Speaker 2 (42:59.5)

Yeah, I mean, I go to a lot of shows, you know, down in Nashville. I go to TPAC all the time. And sadly, you're stepping over people.

Yes.

And it makes you want to cry. mean, you're seeing it more and more often. And it's an epidemic that's heartbreaking. And so many people are a step away. They're a paycheck away, two paychecks away from losing their apartment, being evicted. It's scary. Yeah, it's very scary. And just to have that hope wherever you can find it. Yeah. I agree.

Right.

Speaker 2 (43:40.13)

Yeah. So what is the, the future look like for giving guitars?

You want to speak into this, Eliana? Well, we have big, giant dreams. I do, at least. I know that they, you my family knows these dreams. My dream on the big scale is to have centers in every major city in the world where people can come in and get inspiration and hope.

through the gift of music and in the sense of video production, audio production, songwriting, music therapy, all the things that I have learned in my career that have helped build my career and I've been around the entertainment industry and I've met every type of person, sound men, I've met lighting men and women. And it's just, it's a big industry. There's a lot of different moving parts and

Not everybody gets to participate in that. But that's the bigger vision, but we do have some ideas that will help bridge us to that because we're talking billions of dollars for that. Levi has come up with an idea, and I want you to speak into that a little bit, that will help us get to that, I think.

Well, it's beyond an idea. It's really the beginning of launching web hosting. yeah, we'll let you speak.

Speaker 2 (45:21.356)

You know, lot of foundations, because the biggest problem with foundations is just, for the most part, it is money. And it's just money coming in. And you can get out on your porch and try to preach to the community all day long. people, when they give you money, they want something in return. And you all understand that. When they give you the down payment, they want the keys. Typically.

It's much easier to raise funds when you're able to give something in return. So a lot of foundations will have something maybe like a thrift store and you can go into it you can get like a little shirt or something and then you pay for it. And typically it's actually pretty well priced too. mean, so you're really getting a good deal and supporting a foundation at the same time. So giving guitars is on the road and we don't necessarily have like a big base in one area. We're very spread out.

and really all over the world. So building a thrift store wouldn't really make sense. So instead, something that could be anywhere and travel with us around the world would be ideal. And that's nothing is better than the internet, of course. So if you know what GoDaddy, Wix, Squarespace is, we're basically starting a hosting company. And we're actually going to be officially launching it in the next couple of days, which is crazy. Really? That is incredible.

they we have our our first our first client on there right now this is kind of test in the waters we have a i mean basically to think of it like in the world there's less than one percent of the population as a website this is about seventy million people out of eight billion people i don't know that that's a very sad statistic and the reason for that is i mean and if you look at gmail really that the best of the two real world i mean

Almost every single person has a Gmail and the reason they have a Gmail is because if they want like at your name.com and a special email It's gonna cost you at least ten dollars a month and for most people they just don't think it's worth it It's just not worth it. So they go to Gmail and I mean, that's why we have chat should be deep because of all that data in one area but The goal for beluga would be to cut prices by anywhere from 80 to 90 percent for people and if all that

Speaker 2 (47:44.174)

money that we'd be pulling in as well, gaming guitars. So we're gonna be doing good and receiving money to do even more good, basically. So it's just a, it's almost its own foundation and it might be one day, but right now it will be primarily to help gaming guitars and hopefully to help a lot of people. It's pretty exciting. I could sit here all day and talk about it. And Levi, can you speak a little bit into the way that internet was initially formed? just, I'm kinda,

Fascinates me. I don't know if you all know this

Well, that's a little off topic, but if you could do a quick...

Real quick, the biggest software on earth is something called WordPress. WordPress powers about anywhere from 70 to 80 % of the internet. WordPress is free. And so is every single thing that WordPress runs on. When the internet was first founded and it became widespread in early 2000s, everything was free. And then the big corporations got involved and they decided we'll just build a big data center and we'll sell people $120 a year for website and then another $120 for email.

and it's really gotten out of hand. what was something that was intended to be good has gotten used for pretty bad. And that's really kind of how it is with anything, especially with foundations. A lot of foundations that we'll go into are unfortunately very corporate. And a lot of that money is not going to where it should be going. And it's the same thing with the internet. It's the same thing with really any institution.

Speaker 2 (49:10.99)

our industry but the internet was originally intended to be very cheap or free and hopefully we'll be able to take it down back to cooler levels where people can have a website like having a home. Everybody should have a home. Everybody should have their own website. It should be no-brainer in 2025 that we have to worry about a home or we have to worry about a website. Wasn't it Al Gore that created the internet? Stop.

Speaker 2 (49:43.284)

Sorry. I had to. all remember that? We get a crack out of that. So the name of it is Beluga? Belugahost.com. Beluga like the whale. okay. Just like the whale. Perfect. Now I got the child's song in my head. Thanks.

you should you should be a flower on the wall in our house. Back when our daughter lived here, I kid you not, I felt like I lived in a musical. Well, was a musical theater major and then my daughter grew up in theater and then I also coach vocal like I help kids get portfolios for college and stuff.

for auditions. so yeah, we have lots of noise. And at one point we lived in an apartment as we were transitioning and the neighbors could hear our daughter singing in the shower. we're like, so sorry. They're like, no, it's beautiful. actually bought what they call a voice box where you can put it on it and you can belt. It's a belt box belt box. So you can belt as loud as you want. And it muffles it. It's almost like a trumpet.

Yeah. talking about music, I'd like to shift a little bit. Steven, share a little bit about your music career. Do you have some new music that you got coming out? I do. I have a new song that's going to be released called Better at the Beach and then another song called I Believe, another one that's going to come out called If God Had a Truck and

Just the Yeah, what brand with God's truck? Exactly. Right? Yes, the the creativity I'm sure you know, Mindy and both of you can understand it's for me. It never never shuts off. It's like an always it's kind of a But it's okay

Speaker 2 (52:00.302)

It's therapeutic for me at this point. But I love to write. I love to get really the messages out there. But I love to play guitar, sing and perform. In fact, I'm performing today, later today and tomorrow. But I'm going to be singing at John Bon Jovi's actually. fun. I love that place. Thursday. Yeah, yeah, I know. I've performed at his venue, but I'm looking forward to it. It's really fun.

Thursday.

Speaker 2 (52:30.262)

Yeah, and then I'm going to be performing in like kind of the Monro County, which is kind of close to Knoxville area.

Yeah, lots of shows coming up, lots of plans for 2026. We're working on all the tour dates. So yeah, we're excited.

Yeah, go ahead. Sorry. No, no, please. Oh, I was just saying that, yeah, we all travel together. But yeah, as far as music goes, I try to keep my hand on a guitar as much as I possibly can. You know, fun fact, I tried playing the guitar. I started, I don't know, was 10, 11, 12. so my parents, actually, my aunt bought me my first guitar.

And parents got me some lessons. Unfortunately, my instructor, I think, was a bar hopper. it was like I was getting introduced to him every week. my gosh. Every time. It was always Johnny B. Goode. And so for about two months, I learned really well how to play Johnny B. Goode on the guitar. But after that, being the talent, he was like the only instructor.

That was my brief stint. Yeah. Probably not the best introduction to music in Pumbla, Arkansas. you let them know where I came from. I'm just kidding. Well, I love that your faith plays into all of this as well. And it's a mixture of the different passions and talents of your family. And I can just tell that the blessings are all over you guys.

Speaker 2 (54:16.57)

that's just to have that, that is, that is rich. That is definitely rich. so I know, I know you guys are just proud. So, Levi, is there anything, you know, before we wrap up, is there anything that's, on your heart or mind that you'd like to share with the audience? Yeah, I'd love to encourage everyone to get out and volunteer at your local shelter because it's not always money that will solve the problem. We've.

in the United States we spent over five trillion dollars trying to solve homelessness and not much has been done unfortunately. live in the richest country on earth and it's unfortunate that we still have a homeless problem. know I always like to think the Bible says there will always be poor among you but it does not say there will always be homeless among you. So we have no excuse to have these people on our streets and we have to do something about it. So if you get out and volunteer at local shelter a lot of the time shelters are just

they're in irrelevance and that's the biggest problem. These homeless people, when you drive by them, a lot of the times you just kind of want to just hope they're not there. You know, I mean, it's a really sad thing. So just get up to your local shelter, do whatever you can. We have, I mean, there's people who can serve meals. You can be intake, outreach. There's so many different things you can do because really at the end of the day, it comes down to whatever the community is willing to do for its community.

And if the community isn't willing, nothing will happen. But if it is, very powerful things can be done. So that's just what I'd like to encourage. Very well said, sir. That's very nice. And also, so many people want to come and help between now and the end of the year, which is great. And it's so needed. But I also want to press that there is such a huge need between September, November and January through March when it's cold and school is starting up. So don't forget.

It's not just the Christmas season, we need help in our shelters all year round. And one more time, share the information if they want to donate or get in touch with you. Please share that information for

Speaker 1 (56:25.122)

Yeah, thank you. It's givingguitars.org forward slash donate. We'll take you right to the donate page and can do a one time donation. have, you know, obviously monthly donation is great. I mean, really any amount. I mean, some people do five 50. I mean, then we have people that want to do one, you know, bigger donations at the end of the year. The year end donation tax benefits, write offs, whatever. Great. Everything is thankful.

Speaker 1 (56:57.272)

So yeah, thank you for looking at that. And as far as where we're going to be, that's all based off of a lot of on Stephen's website, stevenkate.com. It's his tour schedule that will also put on the shelters visits that we're going to be at as well. And yeah, we look forward to hearing from people and just continuing to make an impact. And it really is amazing how music really is that universal language and just

Most people understand when you really start thinking about, you know, how do you feel about music and when you think of certain songs and it does have a really positive impact on people and it really helps them get through those hard times and get them out of a dark place and give them some hope to

move forward. Love it. Steven, anything on your mind or heart before we? Yeah, I mean, I just want to thank you, Jason and Mindy for taking the time and you, you know, highlighting folks in the community here in Nashville that are trying to make an impact and difference in their business or, you know, in their nonprofit, just the good that's happening. So we want to thank you all for taking your time. you. Thank you. it allows us to meet people like you. And

You know, I think there is a power among all the people that try to do good, because I think inherently we're all good beings. I mean, we're made by a perfect God. So I think inherently we are and, you know, our choices take us and even our environment takes us different places. But at the end of the day, I think we all have that heart. And I love meeting people like the four of you that are

that you're taking that and making something of it and pouring into people. Like I said earlier, I can tell that you guys are very blessed for what you're doing and what you have accomplished. And I thank you guys. I thank you for loving on our community. I thank you for loving on all the people that you reach as you travel. And Mindy and I will definitely keep you in prayers and believe that. you.

Speaker 2 (59:10.05)

there will be provisions down the road that will help you continue on with this mission. And I'm sure just like with everybody that we meet, there's going to be people that you never meet that you are touching. And don't forget about those. If you ever wonder if you're making a difference, there's people that you'll never know that you have impacted positively. And I just, thank all four of you for doing that.

It's people like you that make our world a better place. So thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you to our listeners. And if you have any questions or if you have a guitar or suburban to donate, please reach out and hopefully you've been inspired by what Stephen and Kelly are doing. But if you know of anybody that does have

Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08.642)

connections with guitars or anything that as far as money-wise that can help benefit, help move this forward and reach more people, more homeless people, please don't hesitate. Please reach out and let them know. So thank you, Stephen and Kelly. Thank you for joining us today and sharing your story, sharing your heart. Thank you everybody for listening. Thank you friends for joining us. And until next time, always remember that you matter.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of You Matter Nashville. We hope you found inspiration on this episode and are reminded that no matter where you are or what you do, you matter. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and even share it with your friends and family. Also, stay connected with us on social media and tune in next time for more incredible stories from the heart of our community. Until then, remember, your story matters.

Your voice matters and most of all, you matter.