(dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) - She isn't a household name yet, but Liv Warfield could be one very soon.

The Peoria native is competing on America's Got Talent, and in her first performance she wowed the judges.

Take a look.

♪ Well if you stare at it long enough ♪ ♪ You won't see it move ♪ Well if you can't swing the wrecking ball ♪ ♪ Still some damage you can do ♪ Well I say please, please mother may I ♪ ♪ Oh, tell 'em 'bout themselves ♪ ♪ Well if you stare at it long enough ♪ ♪ You become somebody else ♪ Oh, baby baby - Great performance.

Liv Warfield joins us now live via Zoom from Chicago.

Liv, how are you?

- I'm great.

How are you?

- I'm doing well, thanks.

Well, it's been about two weeks since you were on AGT.

How has your life changed in those two weeks?

- Craziness, in the most beautiful way, but it's a lot.

It's a lot.

Yeah.

- I assume a lot of media requests for interviews and everybody wanted to get a piece of you.

- Oh, a lot of media requests, a lot of questions, but mostly I'm very much an introvert.

I'm very shy, believe it or not.

So this is all, it's a lot, but it's really amazing.

Like really amazing, really.

Mm-hm.

- Well, I wanna talk a little bit about your connection to Peoria.

Of course, you grew up here, you graduated from Peoria, Notre Dame High School, where I believe you still have some track records there, is that right?

- I think so, I guess.

I think so, yes.

It's been so long.

- Yeah.

Well you went off to Portland State on a scholarship and somewhere in there you decided, "You know what?

I wanna be a singer."

Tell us how that came about.

- Well, it was something that I had hidden from my family for many, many, many years.

Nobody knew until I moved to Portland.

I was about 21, 20, 21.

And one of my teammates, they were like, "You know, there's this place since you wanna sing, there's this place, like, they call it karaoke, where you go to a bar and you can go sing."

And I was like, "What?"

And I just, honestly, I know it's weird and cliche in a way.

It's my story.

But that's really where I found the nerve, the energy to just explore.

'Cause I had it so pent up in me for many years and nobody knew about it.

And that's where it started, karaoke, believe it or not.

- Well why did you decide to keep that to yourself?

- I was super shy, you know, I was an athlete most of my life, so I didn't think that it, well, yeah, I didn't think anybody would think that a girl who was doing gymnastics for many years or running track, that would even come out of me.

Like nobody, really, nobody knew.

Nobody.

- So when you went to the karaoke bar and started singing, did you think to yourself, "Hey, I'm pretty good"?

Or did other people tell you you were doing a good job?

- I guess, I mean, I knew I could sing when I was younger, but when I got up and I had my back, you know, turned to the crowd, people would say stuff to me.

And I remember my first song was like a Whitney song or something like that.

And I just kept coming back.

I kept coming back and I, you know, it built a community for me.

I have friends that would dress me up and I would do state fairs and like, that was kind of the catalyst really, yeah.

- So after your time in Oregon, do you decide, "Hey, I'm all in, I've gotta move somewhere bigger, like Chicago, New York, LA if I want my career to go anywhere"?

- No, no.

I stayed in Portland.

Portland was a beautiful, supportive community to me.

Like they really raised me in a way of letting me sing and, sit in with these live musicians like Linda Hornbuckle.

And like Portland really wrapped their arms around me to like, help me develop this skill, you know, to be a performer and, you know, so... - Well you keep working at it and your first album "Embrace Me" comes out and what's that like, finally having, you know, your skills on a CD or tape or whatever, come out that everybody can hear?

- That was crazy because I was always a writer, so I wrote a lot.

And the first time I was able to do that, I guess it just showed my vulnerability.

I wasn't afraid to do that.

I was just so excited and I was just excited as a artist in the beginning of the career.

I just wanted people to hear it.

I wanted, you know, people to like it.

And it was well received, it was nice.

And yeah, it just, it was the industry back then.

And I, that was in 2006.

So lot's changed.

- So tell me about, you've been on stage with some greats, Prince, Cyndi Lauper, a bunch of different people.

At what point or what year, and who do you think kind of discovered you in terms of, "Wow, this unknown woman has a lot of talent and we need to do something with it"?

- I guess that's, man, that's a lot in that question.

'Cause there's a lot of people who I can't, who helped me along the way, but the one who really kind of gave me a platform was Prince.

He definitely saw that I was very new.

I was very scared.

Somebody said he was looking for another background vocalist.

I had no clue about singing backgrounds with other people.

And they were like, "We can send a video to him."

And I was like, "No, please don't send a video."

And then somebody sent the video without me knowing.

And then I got a call back from, you know, Prince himself three months later.

And then he asked me to come to Paisley Park.

And my life really, really changed.

You know, I owe him that in that way as far as the artistry and the musicianship that what he gave to me and taught me as being an artist, an independent artist.

'Cause he saw something in me, I really truly didn't see for myself.

But I love live music.

I love how it makes me feel.

I love how it makes people feel.

I love the synergy that it gives with people, you know?

- Yeah.

Well at that point, I'm sure you're ecstatic to be with someone on that level, but at that time also, what was your end game?

What did you wanna be when you grew up, so to speak?

- Oh, I wanted to be in arenas.

I wanted to have a career like a Tina Turner.

I wanted to tell my story in a way of an opus with a symphony.

Yeah, I just wanted to do, I wanted to be a performer, you know, I actually wanted to be a news anchor before all of this started.

But, you know, I wanted to, yeah, I wanted to be a performer.

I wanted to be a performer.

- I can tell you the news anchor stuff's overrated.

I think you picked the right career path.

Let's talk a little bit about, let's come back to Peoria.

What was your childhood like here and your family life, and what kind of connections do you still have with the town?

- Peoria raised me, like, I literally used to live right down the street from the Peoria Stadium.

That was my life.

Walking to that Peoria Stadium with my track shoes on my shoulder.

District 150, Von Steuben Middle School, like Peoria at Glen Oak Park.

I remember many, many days going to Glen Oak Park.

Just Detweiller, just landmark, Avanti's.

I mean, like, those are all the places that you know, that those are the things that stick out most to me.

Northwoods Mall, my mom dropping me off just to want to go to, it's definitely not the same anymore.

But that was the thing where we used to do is go to the mall and just hang around and go walk around.

But yeah, Peoria's beautiful family city, working city, caterpillar, you know, that's what I know about my Peoria.

- How have your parents been and your family been in supporting you, especially when you made that transition from track to singing?

That had to be a little bit of a shock.

- Yeah, it was more than a shock.

They were like, "What's going on?

What are you doing?"

It was scary for them, I'm sure, you know, when you're not showing something, any signs of that creativity in the household, and then your child leaves and then you're kind of like, "Wait, what?

You never really did this around us."

I'm sure they were super concerned.

I think it still comes to a shock to them now to see that it was something I've been harboring for many years.

And they've grown to understand it and like it, and enjoy it, you know?

'Cause it's different.

It's way different.

- How did they react when they first saw you perform?

- Oh, they were shocked.

They were, my mom was ready to drive all the way to Portland, come swoop me back up and bring me back home.

But when she saw it, she was, they were so taken aback by it, you know?

They were like, "Okay.

I think she has something."

I think, yeah.

- Well that's great.

- Thank you.

- You know, you've had appearances on all the late night talk shows.

You've really, you know, put yourself out there for people to see, you know, when you've been on David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon, and all these different shows, after each show, do you kind of think to yourself, "Okay, this is it.

This is my big break"?

- Of course, (grand music) yes.

And because it's a lot of things that go underneath it.

I wasn't really ready yet at the time.

I was so excited and I was put on a platform where I just wasn't ready.

I just didn't understand.

I didn't understand it.

And I just, only thing I really always wanted to do was just be on the stage to perform.

Everything else that came after that, that comes with it at that time.

And Instagram wasn't as big as it is now in social media.

I wasn't ready for it.

And yeah, my career just not, I wouldn't say tanked, I would say it just took a really harsh dip.

And I had to really kind of figure out who I was as an independent artist.

How I can pull my own self back up out of it, you know, without a label, without help, without touring, without any of those things.

Like, I was really bare bones, you know?

And I was okay with it because I wanted to prove for myself and to others that, you know, "I got this thing.

It's gonna be fine."

I'm a little older now, but it's cool.

I got it.

I'm not stopping.

- [Mark] That's great.

I mean, did you ever have thoughts of quitting or is that something that just- - Absolutely.

Without question.

This isn't, as an artist, as a, this isn't something you would wanna dive into.

It's not like you're going into it for me, like, money or something lucrative.

This is an art form, you know, for me, this is something I'm so passionate about and I have purpose behind it for me, so... - What did you tell yourself when you were having those bad thoughts?

How did you motivate yourself to stay in the game and keep looking towards your goal?

- I just, I think being an athlete helps, not kind of having that underneath me, but also just knowing that it was purpose-driven for me, you know?

And I also looked at people like, I mean like a Tina, like the greats, like a Patti LaBelle, like a lot of the greats, like a Lenny Kravitz and even Prince himself.

Like I was looking at people like that.

Like yeah, they had all these obstacles, you know, they didn't stop for what, you know?

- Well, let's fast forward.

Your persistence paid off.

You made it on America's Got Talent.

How did that come about?

- I sent a video of me singing and doing aerial, believe it or not.

And they saw that video and they were like, "Oh, would you be interested?"

And, you know, I'm thinking like, I would really love to do aerial and sing.

And so it was a rolling effect and I was able to bring my band and perform and have the audition live, the live interview in front of the world to see.

So yeah.

- Now tell me a little bit more about aerial, because that kind of came out nowhere, - Like aerial silks.

- Yeah.

Is that what you were doing on the video?

- Yes.

- Wow.

- And singing.

Yeah.

I mean, something definitely like Pink does or stuff like that.

A lot of people, I've seen her do it, but yeah.

Yeah.

- [Mark] And how come you didn't do the aerials for your audition?

- I didn't want to yet.

(chuckles) We'll see.

We shall see.

I don't know.

I, yeah, I'm not like a master at it.

I actually did it in a show in Chicago called Teatro, and that's where I actually learned how to do aerial and sing with a lot of the circus acts.

It was really incredible.

Yeah.

- Well you did an amazing job just singing on your audition.

You did the song.

- Thank you.

- [Mark] You're welcome.

You did the song "Stare."

Why did you pick that song?

- [Liv] It was, I wanted high energy impact.

The song was written by my guitar player and yeah, I thought about doing a ballad, but I just wanted something fun.

I wanted something to represent what we do, what we perform, like what we are on stage, you know?

And it's just a fun song to dance to and to sing live.

- [Mark] Yeah, it's a great song.

I mean, you had the judges with their mouths were open, they gave you a standing ovation, the crowd was going crazy.

You've had more than 2 million views of your video on YouTube.

That's pretty impressive.

And the best possible outcome that you could have asked for happened.

You got the Golden Buzzer.

Tell folks who may not be familiar with AGT, why that's a big deal.

- It's a big deal because you get to go straight to the live shows.

And I was not expect, like, I was not going into that expecting, I just wanted to make it, you know, it's like all of us do, everybody who's there auditioning.

'Cause there's a lot of amazing, beautiful souls that I met during the audition phase.

But having to go straight to the live was, it's still very shocking.

Even talking to you about it, it's still, I'm kind of floating a little bit.

'Cause it hasn't, it's hit me, but yeah.

- Sure.

Well, you've got some time between now and the next live auditions.

It's like August, is that right?

- I believe so.

I don't know any dates.

And maybe that's kind of good, so I'm not freaking out about it.

- Yeah, well, I wanted to ask you, because you know, you've been an athlete, and this kind of popped into my head, you know, when the Super Bowl is decided, the teams that are gonna play on their conference weekend, they've got two weeks until the actual Super Bowl.

And I'm curious with you, is this almost two month layoff, is that gonna be good for you or are you gonna be practicing?

Or is it one of those things where you're like, "Man, I just wanna do it now.

I want to get it over with"?

- All of those things.

Like some days I'm like, "I'm ready, just, I wish," you know, and other days I'm cool with just sitting for a second and knowing what this really means for me and the totality of it all.

Yeah, it really means a lot to me.

So when it gets closer to the time, I'm probably gonna be maybe freaking out just a little bit, but excited.

- Yeah.

- Super excited about, yes.

- I don't know if you can spill the beans on this, but have you decided what song you're gonna do for your next performance?

- No, I'm like lying to you.

I'm serious.

I haven't.

It's mulling over my mind.

Of course.

Asking friends and family and stuff like "What do you think?"

And I don't know yet, but hopefully it's the right choice.

- Sure.

When you were deciding what song to do, you know, you picked an original, a lot of people do covers.

Were you worried at all that an original might be detrimental?

- Absolutely.

Oh yeah.

I mean, you're just putting it all on the line, for me, I'm like, "Why not?"

(chuckles) I've been doing this from jump, putting it all on the line and it's worked.

You know, as long as I just come authentically of, you know, just who I am, you know, not all of it's always gonna be great, but as long as I just always be me and bring me all the time, I'm good with that.

So we just, we gonna take chances.

- That's awesome.

Tell me a little bit about your band, because they knocked it out of the park too.

Where mostly are they from, and what kind of experiences have you had with them?

- So I've been with the rhythm section, which is the guitar based drums, and the vocalist, Red.

I've been with them working for them for maybe five or six years now.

The guitar player I've been playing with for over 20 years actually.

And they're from everywhere.

Seattle, New York, Dallas, Texas, New York.

Yeah, these guys are spread out, and a lot of the horn players are from California.

So it was literally two hours of rehearsal.

- [Mark] Wow.

- With the guys and just, and it was angst, it was energy, it was all those things that I think we all needed, you know, to deliver that performance.

For sure.

Yeah.

- Yeah, absolutely.

When you do go back to AGT, for people who may not be familiar, the end goal is to win it, of course.

And if you win it, you get a million bucks and Vegas residency, I guess that'd be pretty cool.

- Ah, that would be super, super cool.

I would love that.

That I would like, that would be a huge dream of mine.

Huge.

Yes.

That would be great.

I would love it.

- Have you thought about what you would do with the money?

- Yeah, I definitely want to tour.

I mean, I wanna do the things that I so desperately wanted to do as an independent artist these past 10 years that I couldn't have done.

I wanna be able to fulfill like some of the obligations I want for my nonprofit.

It's like all the things that I could build up, you know, that hopefully that will happen.

Like a tour bus would be amazing.

You know, go to different venues and maybe open for Lenny Kravitz or just actually just having the finances to be able to do those things would be amazing.

- Yeah, it's nice to be comfortable when you want to, you know, do your chosen profession as opposed to living outta your car and eating tuna every day.

- There you go.

(chuckles) Seriously.

Like, it's like that, it's really like that for artists, but at the same time, again, you have to have, for me, I have to have a passion and a purpose why I'm doing it.

Like really why am I doing this?

You know?

Or I would've really quit a long time ago.

So... - You mentioned your nonprofit.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

- Yes, it's LenaBlue, and it's basically all from my Aunt Lena.

How she was always pouring into me.

I think that was the one thing that was always stuck in my mind when she was like, "I see it in you.

I see it."

You know, it was those things for me that actually made me step out to want to sing.

And it's like pouring into young folks, pouring into the energy of people.

It does not matter the age, it's not an age gap, it's just more so pouring into that person.

If they don't see it for themselves, they can see it.

You know what I mean by you saying, "I got you.

What do you wanna do?

Do you wanna do aerial silks?

We got you.

Do you wanna run track, athlete?"

"Yes, I need shoes."

"Got you."

You know, it's that kind of pouring in to people that make the difference is if, even if you don't get it at home, you get it from someone, somebody along the way in the path.

'Cause that's what happened for me.

Really, really did.

- Anything you wanna say to the folks out there who have been supporting you?

I know people here in Peoria especially are very excited about all the progress you've made and what could be coming.

- Yes, I just, I wanna thank everybody from Peoria, and just not just Peoria, like Illinois, worldwide.

Like everybody has been so, so supportive of this.

Again, I just, it's overwhelming, all of the love and support, and I cannot thank Peoria.

I cannot thank just everybody enough.

'Cause I'm not about to get emotional again.

But it means a lot, you know, I just, it means a lot to me.

So thank you.

Really, thank you.

- Are you sure you're introverted because you've been a great interview so far.

- Okay, I am.

(laughs) Bless.

I guess I am very much.

- Well tell us, this is the time where you plug away, tell people how they can find your music, how they can find out more about you and all that good stuff.

- Okay, so just like, my name is spelled L-I-V, and then W-A-R-F-I-E-L-D on all platforms.

Liv Warfield, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and LivWarfieldOfficial.com, if you wanna go online to see any shows I have coming up in the Chicago area.

I do have a show coming up July 30th at the space here in Chicago.

Some of my band mates are gonna be there.

We're gonna play, 'cause we miss each other, play some stuff.

So yeah.

- And you're on iTunes and all those different... - Yeah, all iTunes and what?

iTunes, Spotify, it's Liv Warfield there, TIDAL.

Yes, all of those.

All of them.

- Well Liv we appreciate your time today and we really wish you the best of luck.

Hopefully we can talk to you again after AGT is over and maybe we can get some Avanti's and hang out at Detweiller Park.

- Yes, there you go.

Yeah, I love it.

Thank you.

- All right, Liv, thanks for your time and good luck with everything.

- Thank you so much.

- You're welcome.

Thank you.

Alright, Liv Warfield, a great local story.

Well, we appreciate you joining us.

"You Gotta See This!"

is next with Phil and Julie and check us out anytime at wtvp.org and on Facebook and Instagram.

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