Tiffany Hines’ story is one of perseverance through struggle and an appreciation of that journey.

The Chicago-based singer-songwriter and instrumentalist, as she puts it, has had a “rollercoaster” last few years, involving a bout of COVID that turned into pneumonia and a car accident that could’ve very nearly ended her life. It’s those enormous setbacks that have helped Hines pull through and cherish her presence in this world, having her less worried about an effervescent “ticking clock” she previously believed defined what her accomplishments should amount to by the current day.

During a recent interview with BET, Tiffany Hines discussed her Windy City upbringing, the perspective she gained by the unfortunate events that happened over the past three years, as well as her creative process and how she chooses to define herself, and her refreshing look on life itself.

BET: First off, how have you been recently, maybe not on the music tip but everything outside of that?

Tiffany Hines: I would say that this year so far has been a cool roller coaster, and with roller coasters, it has some great highs, and then it has lows. So I feel like this year has been a product of a lot of gratitude while also processing. It's been a little tough at the same time, like earlier this year, I was driving and I was hit by a drunk driver. So it's been good, lots of great opportunities, and also just recovering from that. But I think the past couple years, it just really taught me resilience. So I feel like I'm in a really good place right now.

BET: If you feel comfortable, can you share more about that accident because that must have put all of life into perspective?

Tiffany Hines: In 2021, I was coming from a work trip in Alabama, getting ready for the release, like my first single, and I had a photo shoot the next day I came back did that the next day? By the end of the day I was just extremely sick, and so I'm like, Okay, I probably need to go and take a COVID test. And so I'm like, I'm fine. I'll be a G and I know what to do. And it was not the case. And so it developed into pneumonia. I couldn't keep my fever down. I decided I'm gonna go to my mom's because I feel like at this point, I shouldn't be alone. And while I was in her place, I started developing seizures. So I'm guessing that’s from the fevers or something, but like I've never experienced it before.

It was a very, very crazy season. That happened on August 2, I had still set my date to release my song on September 9 and I had to make a decision like, Are you going to push back the date because you have all this going on? Because it was consistently with the seizures and just something inside of me was like, No girl, because I knew myself and after all, I just put off putting out music and putting out the song and picking it up and putting it down for like several years and I just knew if I pushed it back and this time, I had like a legit reason to do it. I just decided like no, we're gonna go through with it.

So the accident happened earlier this year and I knew that this year specifically was going to be a really special year of growth, of intentionality, and all that stuff when it came to music. So when I got hit by the car – and it was a pretty bad accident where he hit me and sent my car spinning all the way to the left of the highway. So I'm driving and I’m spinning and I see it and I'm kind of bracing myself like I know that I'm about to hit this. I'm turning the wheel and somehow I spin back into the middle of the expressway. It's wet because it lightly snowed in Chicago and I see like an 18-Wheeler coming. I just knew there was no way, even if he tried to break really fast, he wouldn't have been able to make it. So I'm just thinking through all while I'm screaming, yelling, calling on Jesus, while at the same time in my mind, I'm remembering these promises. Like it cannot happen this way. I can't go out this way and I started spinning again and went all the way to the shoulder of the right and the driver hit me again, which disabled both of our cars.

BET: Wow. Yeah I can imagine your perspective changing a crazy amount due to both of those horrible things happening to you. But on the topic of Chicago, for you how did the city shape you growing up and even having you interested in being a musician?

Tiffany Hines: I was born in Chicago and my family and I, we lived like in Chicago housing projects when I was younger. Single parent, two siblings, and we live there. My dad wasn't very active, but my dad is a musician. So I can't even say that he plays like a huge role in [my] environment in music, but I think certain things they're just in your blood. We lived there and he also struggled with substance abuse. So those were the reasons he was in and out. At some point my mom just moved us to the suburbs so we can have a different experience, worked hard.

I've always loved and been around music. My earliest memory is kindergarten. I can remember to this day, graduation. I was a huge Whitney Houston fan – even at five years old, it was something in my mind. I remember singing for the graduation and I remember being upset because I wanted to do the solo, but it was an all kids thing. So I'm singing my little heart out like, I just always loved it.

BET: You released the single “Heaven’s Mercy” a few months ago. Can you explain some of how that came together?

Tiffany Hines: So this might have been like 2018. My younger sister, she has a daughter whom I love so much, and she was telling me this situation that she saw her daughter running outside, and she looked and saw that she was trying to catch her air and she couldn't breathe. So she ran to her and she was very nervous about it, and took her to the emergency room. They told her that it was a chance she probably just was pre-asthmatic. So when she was telling me the story, she was really afraid. All I could think of I am so thankful that it didn't happen that way. that God showed mercy to her. Her name is Nevaeh (heaven spelled backward). So as I'm hearing my sister talk about the story, I get off the phone with her reflecting and I start hearing this melody of that line ‘Heaven's Mercy.’

BET: Is that how you approach recording? Get inspired by life and let those experiences and ideas play out in the studio?

Tiffany Hines: I would say it’s definitely ideas. So whether the idea is changed – sometimes it'd be melody first and that's how that song kind of was. But a lot of times, it's like an idea or my magic place is the car because I don't technically love writing songs. So I would always be hard on myself like, You're a songwriter. And I love the result from it. So how come I just don't sit down and I get this inspiration? I was putting too much creativity in a box that songwriting didn't have to start with the pin, it could start with my voice. So I could be in the car and all of a sudden get a vibe or an idea or melody like, Oh, let me pull out my phone and record it.

BET: You’ve previously noted part of your anxiety stems from a “ticking clock.” And that may be something that some artists may feel but don’t admit to. What does that mean to you?

Tiffany Hines: I think that I have grieved a lot about that. I think I'm now closer to accepting, but I've just again loved it for so long and had these dreams and ideas and wanting to be a part of things. I've done a lot, but like not to the space that I felt like I was supposed to. So it wasn't just music. It was about life. I thought, Oh, I'd already be married and have a family and know how to navigate all these things and stuff. And like some great things happen but then there were these core things that didn't. So as time went on, like with singing, I'm like, Is my voice still relevant? Am I heavy into culture? I love hearing new cadences and different things that they just change and evolve over time. But I just started second guessing – Does my voice tone have relevancy? What do I have to say? I see so many younger artists that are born and know how to play the piano, and I would just be thinking, Oh, if I only got that cultivated when I was younger.

So [there’s] a lot of stuff I wish that I was further ahead in, so I would just start to grieve. And thinking, again, our culture loves people that are young – and that's great, I love my young 20s, I did a lot in my young 20s. But also like your voice is not as mature when you're young and your songwriting can be really dope, everyone has different starts to their songwriting, but you just grow more and more. So now I feel like on the inside that some things are aligning in time, that all that worrying before, I just had to let it go.

BET: Also, outside of music, I really like your podcast Awkward Single Life because it discusses topics for people who are single and for whatever reason can’t find the right person. What’s that been like since you started it and what lessons have you learned about yourself since?

Tiffany Hines: So I started the podcast during the pandemic because we have all this free time. And so dating for me, I've always felt like I didn't have enough experience, insecure about it. I just talked to so many different people about relationships and dating and divorce. So I created the podcast for it – not necessarily because I'm awkward, which I can be for sure. I just launched my second season and my first season was approached definitely heavy on I told a lot of stories, I inserted myself in them. Lots of people on it, we talked about kind of everything.

I will also kind of hide behind other people's stories because I didn't want to have to be as vulnerable. I was being vulnerable, but I knew within myself that it was also like a protective space. So this time around, I just felt like I was supposed to be very honest, maybe the forerunner of this story and being more honest about where I'm at. And I think I finally got to a place where I felt like being single and saying that you want to be in a relationship or that you want to have a family, sometimes it's kind of dammed or you are kind of looked at as thirsty, or at least that's how I always would feel. But I know where I'm at, I've done the work and I feel healthy.

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