The Sit Down with Jade Helliwell
As a multi BCMA Award winner that has not just been at huge draw for country music festivals in the UK but has also regularly toured Scandinavia in addition to shows in the United States, Australia and mainland Europe, Jade Helliwell has deservedly cemented her place as on of the most prominent and talented country music artists on this side of the pond. We have known this Yorkshire lass for a long time and whilst 2025 has brought a busy touring schedule and her working towards her new album “Rebegin” which will be released next year, the year will end with a little time away from music as Jade and her husband Luke Thomas are set to become parents for the first time. With the release of new single “Drive Me Outta My Mind” pending and the fact that she was down in Essex for a main stage performance at the new Country Calling festival in Chelmsford, Jamie caught up with Jade to look ahead to her new music and the exciting changes coming in to her life.
Thanks for coming to hang, it feels like it has been ages.
“Yeah, literally months. I think maybe it's like C2C that I last saw you and that would have been us both running in opposite directions.”
You’re probably right and that whole weekend is a blur for everybody but it’s nice to be at a little bit more of a chilled pace of life here and back in Chelmsford because you have played here before so it’s not the first time.
“Yeah, Tennessee Fields was here, wasn't it?”
It was in the field next door, but we're here at Country Calling in the big girl field at Hylands Park, where I misspent a lot of my youth at V Festival but how was it playing out there today?
“Yeah, really good. I think that the site is amazing, seeing what they've built here and what's going on so it’s really exciting to be a part of it. The stage was amazing, the crowd great and it was really cool.”
It looks really cool like the way they've spaced it out and things, you know for a new festival, you never really are sure. It's like, what's going to happen?
“Yeah, you kind of turn up not knowing what to expect but they’ve nailed it.”
You sounded great.
“Thank you.”
Moving around very well too. You know I haven’t seen you for ages and in the back of my mind, it’s like Jade is quite pregnant but I knew you would never be the sort of person who just sort of stands there and looks into the mike. Looks like your still feeling good while performing and it’s not taking too much out of you on stage at least.
“I've been very lucky, still feel good, I make sure I warm up before I go on so if those lungs aren’t moving, I can give them some room to get ready to sing.”
Do you have to factor in the fact that you probably can't run around as much on stage and stuff like that when you're rehearsing, picking your setlist and things?
“I forget about it until I'm on stage, then I go to do something and think oh, God, that was a bit tiring, then I have to chill out for a second. But yeah, I've stopped jumping now, the jumping I was doing up until a couple of weeks ago and I was exhausted, I had to like towel my head and was like yeah, I don’t think we can jump anymore.”
Baby is due at the end of the year then.
“Yes, end of November.”
Ooh a Sagittarius like me so obviously the best type of people.
“I’m terrible with star signs, so you’ll have to tell me what that means, what kind of baby boy I'm getting.”
Thanks for coming to hang, it feels like it has been ages.
“Yeah, literally months. I think maybe it's like C2C that I last saw you and that would have been us both running in opposite directions.”
You’re probably right and that whole weekend is a blur for everybody but it’s nice to be at a little bit more of a chilled pace of life here and back in Chelmsford because you have played here before so it’s not the first time.
“Yeah, Tennessee Fields was here, wasn't it?”
It was in the field next door, but we're here at Country Calling in the big girl field at Hylands Park, where I misspent a lot of my youth at V Festival but how was it playing out there today?
“Yeah, really good. I think that the site is amazing, seeing what they've built here and what's going on so it’s really exciting to be a part of it. The stage was amazing, the crowd great and it was really cool.”
It looks really cool like the way they've spaced it out and things, you know for a new festival, you never really are sure. It's like, what's going to happen?
“Yeah, you kind of turn up not knowing what to expect but they’ve nailed it.”
You sounded great.
“Thank you.”
Moving around very well too. You know I haven’t seen you for ages and in the back of my mind, it’s like Jade is quite pregnant but I knew you would never be the sort of person who just sort of stands there and looks into the mike. Looks like your still feeling good while performing and it’s not taking too much out of you on stage at least.
“I've been very lucky, still feel good, I make sure I warm up before I go on so if those lungs aren’t moving, I can give them some room to get ready to sing.”
Do you have to factor in the fact that you probably can't run around as much on stage and stuff like that when you're rehearsing, picking your setlist and things?
“I forget about it until I'm on stage, then I go to do something and think oh, God, that was a bit tiring, then I have to chill out for a second. But yeah, I've stopped jumping now, the jumping I was doing up until a couple of weeks ago and I was exhausted, I had to like towel my head and was like yeah, I don’t think we can jump anymore.”
Baby is due at the end of the year then.
“Yes, end of November.”
Ooh a Sagittarius like me so obviously the best type of people.
“I’m terrible with star signs, so you’ll have to tell me what that means, what kind of baby boy I'm getting.”
But before that, we’ve got some new music as you’ve just put out a new single so what’s the story behind “Drink You Outta My Mind”?
“Well, I was I can't be a country singer and not have a drinking song, but I also can’t even stand the smell of whiskey so I was like, I can't write a about whiskey because then I'm a fraudster. I wrote that with Alyssa Bonagura who as you know is just the best and she was like, what's missing from your album? What haven’t you got? Then I was like, I haven't got a drinking song and at that time I wasn't pregnant, I very much in my margarita era so we decided to write a song about kind of a breakup and you know that situation where it’s like, you know what I’m done with you, I'm about with the girls, have good night and forget about everything that's gone on with two or ten margaritas. So, that's what the song is.”
Alyssa obviously lives here now, she's so cool and she is fantastic as a writer and a performer then doing all her stuff producing, mixing and things like that so how much of an asset is it for all of you girls over here and the guys too, to have someone like that that wants to be so collaborative and is also fighting the same fight that you're all doing?
“Yeah, it's amazing and as you know, anyone who meets Alyssa, she's got a wealth of stories that she'll just pull out from nowhere and you're like, I'm sorry, what? The other day she's like that time Steven Tyler pulled me up to sing a song that I wrote and he cut, I was like, I'm sorry, stop! It's great to have someone like that with so much experience, she's so talented, so lovely and I'm very, very fortunate to get to write with her. She produces my music at the moment so she's produced the last couple of singles for me so, yeah, I think it's really beneficial to have someone like that to co-write with who can build a track as you’re in the room, there aren’t many of us UK artists who do that. Like that song alone is not much different to the day that we wrote it because as we were writing she's over there doing her thing and I’m like this is great.”
She’s just the best, but you’ve got an album coming and a tour planned too! Have you booked in the dates with mum for babysitting duties yet?
“Ha-ha yes, we’re very fortunate that we have a tour bus that can fit in a baby seat, a mother-in-law and my mum. We’ve booked the tour for April, the album is called “Rebegin” so it’s the Rebegin Tour and it’s going to be with a full band again. The last tour I did was acoustic so this is going to be really exciting to get everyone back together but yeah we're taking the baby and the mums to some of the dates.”
In regards to the album what state are we at right now? Is it done where it's just the case of strategy and life literally about to be created or have you still got a little bit of tiding up to do?
“We’re still recording the final touches but I'm very excited about how it's going with this new music and for everyone to hear it, some of the songs that had never been played anywhere.”
So, there is no set date as such yet, are we looking at Q1 or Q2 next year maybe?
“Yes, so the start of 2026 it will be coming out but I haven’t got an exact date just yet. I tie everything together before I make a promise and then give my maternity break time to process rather than be rushing to we've got to get this done.”
Lastly, I guess one of the biggest changes now is that your rider will have changed substantially.
“Ha-ha yes.”
Is there a part of it where Luke, well both Luke's actually, are taking advantage and they’re thinking just ask for the same stuff but there’s even more for them? So, what does a pregnant girlie ask for? What kind of goes into it?
“Today has been a real great touch.”
Has it been a good one? Are Pete and Donna looking after you all?
“Yeah, I have a bottle of specifically Whitley Neil Rhubarb & Ginger Gin on my rider, that’s my favourite and today I have that but she says I’ve got you a non-alcoholic one because you can't drink it. It was amazing, I didn't even know that they did a non-alcoholic one.”
Do you not like feel like non-alcoholic cocktails and non-alcoholic spirits are basically just very expensive juice, like fizzy juice?
“Yeah, to be fair, I'm having a non-alcoholic beer here and when we go out, I'll have a couple of these beers but then I just like drink blackcurrant and soda water because I'm not getting drunk off it and I'm a very social drinker like I don't drink in the house anyway. So, I'm like, I'm not getting drunk then I might as well just have a lemonade.”
Cheers Jade, appreciate you and all of your gang, so thanks for coming to catch up mate.
Rebegin Tour Dates
20th April- Water Rats, London
21st April- Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
22nd April- Night & Day Café, Manchester
23rd April- Cluny 2, Newcastle
24th April- King Tuts, Glasgow
25th April- Belgrave, Leeds
The new single “Drink You Outta My Mind” from Jade Helliwell is out now and available HERE with her brand new album also on the way. Jade will be out on the road next April with all dates shown above and ticket information available on her WEBSITE whilst you can keep up to date with all that she is up to over on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
This year’s Country Calling was a resounding success with plans for 2026 already in progress so you can be the first to find out more details on their WEBSITE and relive all the 2025 highlights on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.
“Well, I was I can't be a country singer and not have a drinking song, but I also can’t even stand the smell of whiskey so I was like, I can't write a about whiskey because then I'm a fraudster. I wrote that with Alyssa Bonagura who as you know is just the best and she was like, what's missing from your album? What haven’t you got? Then I was like, I haven't got a drinking song and at that time I wasn't pregnant, I very much in my margarita era so we decided to write a song about kind of a breakup and you know that situation where it’s like, you know what I’m done with you, I'm about with the girls, have good night and forget about everything that's gone on with two or ten margaritas. So, that's what the song is.”
Alyssa obviously lives here now, she's so cool and she is fantastic as a writer and a performer then doing all her stuff producing, mixing and things like that so how much of an asset is it for all of you girls over here and the guys too, to have someone like that that wants to be so collaborative and is also fighting the same fight that you're all doing?
“Yeah, it's amazing and as you know, anyone who meets Alyssa, she's got a wealth of stories that she'll just pull out from nowhere and you're like, I'm sorry, what? The other day she's like that time Steven Tyler pulled me up to sing a song that I wrote and he cut, I was like, I'm sorry, stop! It's great to have someone like that with so much experience, she's so talented, so lovely and I'm very, very fortunate to get to write with her. She produces my music at the moment so she's produced the last couple of singles for me so, yeah, I think it's really beneficial to have someone like that to co-write with who can build a track as you’re in the room, there aren’t many of us UK artists who do that. Like that song alone is not much different to the day that we wrote it because as we were writing she's over there doing her thing and I’m like this is great.”
She’s just the best, but you’ve got an album coming and a tour planned too! Have you booked in the dates with mum for babysitting duties yet?
“Ha-ha yes, we’re very fortunate that we have a tour bus that can fit in a baby seat, a mother-in-law and my mum. We’ve booked the tour for April, the album is called “Rebegin” so it’s the Rebegin Tour and it’s going to be with a full band again. The last tour I did was acoustic so this is going to be really exciting to get everyone back together but yeah we're taking the baby and the mums to some of the dates.”
In regards to the album what state are we at right now? Is it done where it's just the case of strategy and life literally about to be created or have you still got a little bit of tiding up to do?
“We’re still recording the final touches but I'm very excited about how it's going with this new music and for everyone to hear it, some of the songs that had never been played anywhere.”
So, there is no set date as such yet, are we looking at Q1 or Q2 next year maybe?
“Yes, so the start of 2026 it will be coming out but I haven’t got an exact date just yet. I tie everything together before I make a promise and then give my maternity break time to process rather than be rushing to we've got to get this done.”
Lastly, I guess one of the biggest changes now is that your rider will have changed substantially.
“Ha-ha yes.”
Is there a part of it where Luke, well both Luke's actually, are taking advantage and they’re thinking just ask for the same stuff but there’s even more for them? So, what does a pregnant girlie ask for? What kind of goes into it?
“Today has been a real great touch.”
Has it been a good one? Are Pete and Donna looking after you all?
“Yeah, I have a bottle of specifically Whitley Neil Rhubarb & Ginger Gin on my rider, that’s my favourite and today I have that but she says I’ve got you a non-alcoholic one because you can't drink it. It was amazing, I didn't even know that they did a non-alcoholic one.”
Do you not like feel like non-alcoholic cocktails and non-alcoholic spirits are basically just very expensive juice, like fizzy juice?
“Yeah, to be fair, I'm having a non-alcoholic beer here and when we go out, I'll have a couple of these beers but then I just like drink blackcurrant and soda water because I'm not getting drunk off it and I'm a very social drinker like I don't drink in the house anyway. So, I'm like, I'm not getting drunk then I might as well just have a lemonade.”
Cheers Jade, appreciate you and all of your gang, so thanks for coming to catch up mate.
Rebegin Tour Dates
20th April- Water Rats, London
21st April- Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
22nd April- Night & Day Café, Manchester
23rd April- Cluny 2, Newcastle
24th April- King Tuts, Glasgow
25th April- Belgrave, Leeds
The new single “Drink You Outta My Mind” from Jade Helliwell is out now and available HERE with her brand new album also on the way. Jade will be out on the road next April with all dates shown above and ticket information available on her WEBSITE whilst you can keep up to date with all that she is up to over on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
This year’s Country Calling was a resounding success with plans for 2026 already in progress so you can be the first to find out more details on their WEBSITE and relive all the 2025 highlights on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.
