Singer Natasha Owens Overcomes Depression to ‘Stand for Life’

Natasha Owens fought anxiety and nerves as she stood backstage, praying she would not trip and fall in front of the crowd in her cowboy boots.  

She hadn’t sung solo on a big stage before, let alone for 10,000 people.  

The opportunity to open for popular Christian musician Michael W. Smith on Oct. 3, 2015, however, bore significance for Owens far beyond the attention the experience would bring her. 

Owens was a relatively new recording artist, having released her first album in 2013. She had no idea then where her music would take her, or that it would become a rallying cry in the fight for life.  

Owens knew music was powerful because it had played a significant role in bringing her out of depression after the death of her father, an executive with a pharmaceutical company.  

Owen’s father died unexpectedly in 2010 at just 58. His birthday was Oct. 3, the same as her scheduled gig opening for Smith.   

According to Owens, she likely would have turned down the anxiety-provoking opportunity to sing on a big stage. But the concert date on her father’s birthday felt like a sign to her, and she could not say no.  

“I just feel like God [was] saying, ‘Step out and move and I will meet you there. Just be prepared and I’ll meet you with the rest.’ And he did,” Owens, now 46, says.  

“It was a great night, and that was the beginning of my career. One that I didn’t really want because of my anxiety.”  

When her father passed, Owens tried to be strong for her two young sons and her whole family, but after a year she spiraled into a deep depression.  

In the middle of her grief and depression, her pastor called Owens and asked her to take on the role of music minister at their Dallas area church.  

Owens recalls declining and saying, “I can’t even get out of bed every day.” Her pastor kept asking, however, and eventually she agreed to take on the role.  

Ministering to others through music started Owens on her own healing journey. She put Bible verses to song and reminded herself of the truth found in Scripture when the depression arose.  

“When words couldn’t get through to me from people or from sermons, music can penetrate on an entire different level,” she told The Daily Signal in a phone interview.  

After serving as music minister for a couple of years, she says, she felt it was time to step down. (The church has closed since then.)

The morning after she resigned, Owens received a call from a friend in the music industry asking whether she had thought about recording an album.  

Because music had played such a role in pulling her out of her own depression, Owens recalls, she determined to “create an album to help people make it through—a restoration album.”  

“I’m a restoration artist,” the singer says, explaining that “just means putting back the broken.”  

Owen’s first album, “I Made It Through,” was released in 2013.  

It was not long before a talent manager from New York called Owens and expressed interest in helping promote her music. Through this connection, Owens got the opportunity to open for Smith’s concert on Long Island.  

Owens has recorded five more albums since her debut, including her latest, “American Patriot,” out this month. Tucked between patriotic melodies such as “Freedom Is the Song” and “God Bless America” is a new pro-life anthem titled “Stand for Life.” 

As the new album began to take shape, Owens recalls, she spoke with producers Ian Eskelin and Tony Wood and told them she wanted to add a pro-life song to an album dominated by pro-America songs.  

“I believe that life starts at conception,” Owens says. “I believe that everything that has a heartbeat is alive.”  

At first, some of those around Owens were hesitant, unsure how a pro-life song would fit on an album full of patriotic music. But the singer persisted.  

The album tracks, she says, “are anthems … to stand for something, to rise and stand in front of God and in front of a world that may look down on them.” 

Owens says she hopes “Stand for Life,” which Eskelin and Wood wrote, will “give courage to others to stand not only for this country, but for life.” 

A “lack of love” and “a lack of patriotism” characterize America today, Owens says, noting that she has “been on a tangent for years about the lack of love, starting with motherly love, starting with this abortion issue.”   

The Nashville-based label Radiate Music released “Stand for Life” on July 1, exactly one week after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overruling Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision in which the high court legalized abortion on demand.  

Much has changed for Owens since she first held a microphone in her hand in front of a cheering crowd of thousands, but her passion to use music as a tool to bring restoration remains steadfast.   

If her father were alive today, “he would be so proud,” Owens says, adding: “And I believe that, especially [my] fighting for life, he would be extremely, extremely proud of that.”  

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