I spent a lot of years trying to grow up.

Trying to move on. Trying to reinvent myself. Trying to become the version of me that had it all figured out.

But the older I got, the more I realized the stories I was trying hardest to outgrow were the ones still shaping everything.

Like We Were Never Kids is a narrative podcast and original music series where I tell those stories out loud.

Across four decades, twenty episodes, and twenty original songs, I’m going back through childhood, grief, family, trauma, ambition, caregiving, first dreams, big losses, Nashville years, Michigan years, and all the moments that made me who I am — whether I wanted them to or not.

Some episodes are heavy. Some are funny. Some are uncomfortable. Most are all three.

Along the way, you’ll meet my family, hear the people who helped raise me, sit in basement conversations, listen to original songs written for each story, and hopefully remember pieces of your own life too.

Because this isn’t really about nostalgia.

It’s about recognition.

And maybe if we stop pretending we were never kids, we can finally understand the adults we became.

I’ll go first.

Before every chapter of Like We Were Never Kids, I want to spend a few minutes here first.

This isnt' the story.

It's the conversation before the story.

In this first "Before We Go There", I want to share why this project finally had to exist, why I stopped waiting for the perfect moment, and why I've come to believe that maybe life wasn't interrupting the story...

Maybe life was the story all along.

We also talk about where this series begins, why Episode One is called Sunset Chaser, and one small content note before you listen.

Pull up a chair.

Let's go there.

A new episode and original song every 1st Tuesday of the month, with a new "Before We Go There" released the day before. Come back the next week (every 2nd Tuesday) for a new "Basement B-Side" - an after episode conversation for connection.

On Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/4rFBfcrtvOuY844CCkuRpF?si=zgM0NpB0Rte-3qlPeQ9-Bw

On Apple Music:

https://music.apple.com/us/album/sunset-chaser-single/6782677425

On Amazon Music:

https://music.amazon.com/albums/B0H64CKZSN?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_azUtuxCi4Ca0vELIAiWCZ8Sak&trackAsin=B0H647HJXZ

New episodes every Monday.

Like We Were Never Kids is a narrative podcast and original music series created, written, and hosted by Raye Williams.

Visit RayeWilliams.com for episodes, music, videos, and more.

After Chapter 1, Raye calls Kim Copeland - the person who shared a life with Susan Tucker and witnessed so much of this story from the other side.

Calling from a solo birthday trip in Colorado, Kim reflects on hearing Susan’s voice in “Sunset Chaser,” the teenager Raye was when they first met, the family they built together, and what Susan might think of this project now.

This is the Basement B-Side: a looser conversation that stays with the story after the chapter ends.

Start with Chapter 1, “Sunset Chaser,” wherever you listen.

Studio Cut takes you inside the making of “Sunset Chaser” and the story behind the recording.

Raye sits down with producer Ved Kapic to revisit the sessions that brought the song to life, from returning to the studio after years away to the people, conversations, and unexpected moments that shaped the final record.

This is the part of Like We Were Never Kids that happens after the story is told: pulling apart the song, hearing how it was made, and looking at what changes when a deeply personal story finally becomes music.

“Sunset Chaser” is available now wherever you listen to music.

Like We Were Never Kids is a narrative storytelling and music series created by Raye Williams.

A six-week silence between sisters. A song that became an apology. And the story that eventually gave this entire series its name.

Chapter 2 of Like We Were Never Kids is about what happens when being right matters less than remembering who you were before any of it happened.

Listen to the song, "Like We Were Never Kids" by Raye Williams wherever you stream music.

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/like-we-were-never-kids-single/6803335731

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1IlAamygs1Md9MhqNX4Cep?si=KYKYz9VNQKOzpfFQKDb62A

After telling my version of the story, I wanted to hear from two people who lived it too.

In this Basement B-Side, I sit down with my baby sister Erin and my dad after they listened to Chapter 2. We talk about what they remember, what I didn’t see growing up, the roles we all played in our family, and what looks different now that we’re old enough to look back.

Different memories. Different perspectives. Same family.

Give the kid the mic. I’ll go first.

When you’ve spent your life trying to keep everyone else alive, what happens when your own life is on the line?

Days before her sixth birthday, Raye Williams lost her grandpa—and began learning how to be the strong one. For her grieving grandmother. For her younger siblings. For a family navigating years of hospital rooms and unanswered questions.

Decades later, thirteen months into her marriage, she’s headed into surgery for cervical cancer. This time, the family protector is the one in the hospital bed.

In Chapter 3 of Like We Were Never Kids, Raye traces the tangled roots of resilience and hypervigilance: the childhood losses that taught her to anticipate the storm, the love behind her need to protect everyone, and the cost of leaving herself off that list.

At the center is “Fighting Lightning,” an original song that builds like a storm. Raye shares how a summer dog walk, her grandmother’s lightning-struck apple tree, and a tornado tearing through her parents’ backyard helped her find the story - and how her own cancer became its final verse.

For the eldest daughters. The family protectors. Anyone who’s ever mistaken being needed for being safe.

Maybe love can be present without always standing guard.

Like We Were Never Kids is a series of personal stories accompanied by original songs, created by singer-songwriter Raye Williams. Each chapter tells a complete story, with a song of its own.

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Childhood grief and becoming “the strong one”

• The bond between a granddaughter and her widowed grandmother

• Growing up with a parent’s chronic illness

• Eldest-daughter responsibility, resilience, and hypervigilance

• Cervical cancer, surgery, and an altered future

• The real storms behind “Fighting Lightning”

• Learning a different way to love as Aunt RayeRaye

CONTENT NOTE

Includes strong language and personal accounts of childhood bereavement, a child’s death from leukemia, family illness, cervical cancer, hysterectomy, and loss of the ability to carry a pregnancy.

If this chapter brings someone to mind, send it to them. And if you recognize yourself here, follow Like We Were Never Kids for more stories and original songs.

Give the kid the mic.