Brody Ray returns to the Miller Lite Mainstage on Friday, June 7.
Brody Ray is now living in Nashville and working hard to make his dreams become a reality. The recording artist released his first EP worldwide with a new Alternative Rock sound that’s full of life and energy. The EP was written and recorded on Music Row in Nashville, TN and produced by Ben Flanders. Brody is writing and recording his second album with a brand new sound!
Ever since Brody could remember, music has played a major role in his life. Brody learned his first guitar strum pattern from his mother and started taking guitar and cello lessons at age 8. These were only some of the things his parents supported him in doing at such a young age.
Brody’s life started out different from most. As a toddler, Brody, born female, knew that his body didn’t match what he felt on the inside. Brody’s mother remembers him kicking the back of her seat in the McDonald’s Drive Thru until he got the boy toy in his happy meal, and jumping around in diapers and cowboy boots with a guitar singing at the top of his lungs, doing all the things boys did.
As Brody got older, his love for music grew alongside his desire to become the man he always felt he was on the inside. He studied music business at the University of Nebraska at Kearney for three and a half years before deciding make some serious changes in his life in order to be happy. Brody dropped out one semester shy of graduating and started his transition to male and focusing on making his dreams of being a performer a reality.
Brody got the top surgery and hormones he needed to complete the male image he had always seen himself having. During this process, TLC got in contact with Brody and they captured some of his most trying times going through this journey to become who he was inside. They documented his struggles with relationships, hormones, surgeries and family. Brody’s episode, named “Right Guy, Wrong Body,” was featured on a show called Strange Sex. The episode aired May 8th 2011, and it can be seen on the Oprah Winfrey Network, Discovery Fit and Health, TLC, Netflix and YouTube.
Shortly after the airing of the episode, Brody lost his voice while his body was adjusting to the weekly testosterone injections. Brody worked day and night to recover his singing ability and is now able to sing and sound the way he had always imagined.
Brody then auditioned for American Idol, making it through 4 auditions and earning a chance to sing in front of celebrity judges Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson. Over the last several years, Brody had put together several bands and started writing and recording music with his new and deeper voice. Brody auditioned for the Voice and made it to the Blind Auditions for season 7 but was unable to make it to LA. He auditioned for Idol again, this time singing for Jennifer, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. At the beginning of 2018, Brody auditioned for America’s Got Talent, earning a chance to sing in front of the Celebrity judges Howie Mandel, Mel B, Heidi Klum and Simon Cowell who said he was “a force to be reckoned with.” His first performance aired on June 26th, 2018. Earning 4 yeses from all of the judges, Brody them moved on the the Judge Cuts and got to perform an original song that Simon asked for.
Brody has traveled to Belgrade, Serbia 4 times with Family members, completing 4 separate bottom surgeries and now has the complete male body to match the man he has always been inside. He also speaks, advocates for and educates the LGBT community, sharing his experience with transitioning. He speaks on college campuses, for law reviews in South Dakota, at counseling conferences across Nebraska and with local TV stations and newspapers.
Brody has been traveling and performing all over the US and Canada, singing at some of the nations’ largest Pride Festivals. Festivals include: Palm Springs CA Pride, Ottawa, Ontario Canada Pride, Kalamazoo MI Pride, Spokane WA Rainbow Pride, Roanoke, VA PrideFest, Mid-South Pride in Memphis, TN, Heartland Pride in Omaha, NE, Kearney, NE Pride, Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s PrideFest, Washington DC Capital Pride, Lexington KY PrideFest, Central PA Pride Festival and Atlanta GA Pride.
Connect with Brody Ray on Facebook, Instagram, Soundcloud and YouTube.