My name is Linda Wolf and I’m Khalid’s mother
I had the opportunity to get out of the military
And pursue my dream
I couldn’t
Because at the time I was a single parent and had a little boy
Being a military kid whose parents are in the army
I’ve moved a lot of places
Germany, New York, Kentucky
I feel like every first move was always intimidating
No one ever wanted to talk to me
I sat and ate lunch alone
Moving my senior year was probably the loneliest move that I’ve ever gone through
Because it’s almost the end of school
School is almost completely over
And my mom was like I have to tell you something
I’m like what?
She’s like you’re moving to El Paso
I’m like El Paso like Texas?
She’s like yeah you’re moving to El Paso, Texas
I’ve lived a lot of different places
But I would say that my home is El Paso
I get so much love from a city that I’m not even predominately from
Everyone was just nice
Everyone is welcoming
They treat me like their own
It’s a great place with with so much
Just all this heritage that even might not be mine but
Just being around it is just really beautiful
I do try to represent El Paso
Because this was the place that my real creative was born
Like this is where it happened
I started writing songs
I kind of got the confidence to put it on Soundcloud
What I would say just kept that drive
Was the first person to publicly say that they hated the song
I love when people tell me that I can’t do something
Because that just makes me want to do it even more
My job in the military was supply technician
At the time
I was doing the army and I was doing a little bit of music on the side when I could
I got an opportunity to go to Germany and audition for
The army band
If I would’ve went to the chorus
I would’ve you know been with my children
If I didn’t audition for the chorus I would’ve went to war
I did all I could do
I stayed in
I rehearsed
And I made that chorus in two weeks instead of thirty days
It was really challenging on both of my kids
And music is the way we have always calmed ourselves
I think that was something that stuck with him
So he used that to feel better and
Here we are
Everyone always asks me
Like who is one of your biggest inspirations when it comes to music
I’m like my mom
They’re like
Your mom?
I’m like yeah
She’s one of my favorite singers by far
Every road trip
Everywhere we went to
If I was in a bad mood if I was sad
She would sing
And she would always want me to sing with her
But I was always nervous because she’s so great
So I would always kind of like sing quietly behind her
Y’all trying to make me cry on this
I know that’s what it is
It’s like a full circle
That my son has this great opportunity
To go in this business
And do what I wanted to do
And do it well