Life Uncut - From Sleeping In A Car To 11 Billion Streams: Alex Warren Gets Real About Grief

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

Hey Lifers! We have such a special one for you today. If it sounds a little different, that's because we recorded this in the green room! We'd just come off stage after interviewing Grammy-nominated, 11-billion-streamed, ten-times-platinum (here in Australia!) artist Alex Warren, live, on the night his new album Wildchild dropped. You know Alex from "Ordinary",  one of the biggest songs of the last two years, but what makes him so special isn't just the music, it's how openly he talks about what got him there. At nine, Alex lost his dad to cancer. At 16, he was kicked out of home and lived in his car. At 21, he lost his mum. Today he opens up about all of it: writing a song from his late dad's perspective (with a guitar solo from John Mayer), the voice notes his dad left him before he passed, the "what ifs" of grief, his mum's addiction and the regrets he still carries. He also has one of the best love stories we’ve ever heard. Follow Alex Warren on tiktok and Instagram @alexwarren Listen to Wildchild, out now! YouTube Timestamps 0:00 — Backstage at the WILDCHILD album launch 1:49 — Accidentally Unfiltered: the Jack White skate park story gone horribly wrong 4:17 — Writing "Wildchild" from his late dad's perspective, and the John Mayer guitar solo story 8:12 — Losing his mum to addiction and the regrets he still sits with 10:24 — The voice notes his dad left before he died, and why "people die twice" 12:32 — Meeting his wife Kouvr while he was homeless and living in a car 16:38 — Why he calls Kouvr his "rescuer" 20:10 — His favourite song on the new album, and how "Ordinary" took the pressure off 21:24 — His advice for anyone in the middle of grief right now Keep your questions coming! Slide into the Life Uncut DMs at @lifeuncutpodcast on Instagram You can watch us on Youtube Join us on tiktok Or join the Facebook Discussion Group Hosted by Britt Hockley & Laura Byrne Produced by Keeshia Pettit & Soph Nathan Video Produced by Vanessa Beckford & Lachy Pugsley Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! XxSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi guys and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Laura. I'm Brittany. And we have an incredible interview for you today. If it sounds a little bit different, that's because we're in a green room of somebody pretty incredible. I'm talking to Grammy nominee, 11 billion streams, he's 10 times platinum here in Australia. And we're in the green room because we have just gotten off stage with the man himself for a live show. And I don't know about you, Laura. I'm feeling pretty chuffed. I am so, so excited about this. The person that we are talking to, yes, everyone, it is Alex Warren.

You guys would know if you've, I mean, been anywhere near a phone, a radio, a speaker in like the last two years. Ordinary is like one of the biggest hits of all time. But what is even more incredible is Alex's story. At only nine years old, Alex lost his dad to cancer. He was kicked out of home at the age of 16, lived in a car. And at the age of 21, he lost his mum. One of the big things that Alex talks about so much and sings about in his songs is around grief.

It's around figuring life out after losing his parents. It's around learning. And also he sings so much about his beautiful wife, Kovar, and the relationship that they have and how they met. One of my favorite things about watching Alex on social media and having the chance to speak to him is how he makes some of the darkest, most traumatic moments really funny and really light. and he throws comedy into everything. And I think that's a really cool way to get people to talk about it and feel comfortable about some of the conversations that maybe aren't so comfortable. So without further ado, Alex Warren, welcome to the podcast.

Thanks for having me. We start every episode the same way. And you're not getting off Scott Free with this one. Accidentally unfiltered, your most embarrassing story. Okay. Deeply embarrassing. You know who Jack White is, yeah? Okay.

So Jack White, I was at a skate park. and this guy hops out of a range rover and he's wearing all black. He looks like a rock star and I go, this guy's famous. And I was skateboarding and he saw my skateboarding starts walking up to me. And he asks me about it and I'm looking at this guy and I'm like, you look really famous. And he's like, I'm in a band. And I said, would I know it? Anything I know.

And stupidly, I just didn't know what Jack White looked like for some reason. And he says his band and I go, I start doing that to him And he was just like, uh-huh And I just immediately like stopped And to make matters even more embarrassing As he's walking away, I go, hey Jack And he looks over and I go, ordinary.

You know, if you ever hear the song Ordinary, that's me. And he goes, all right, he keeps walking away. And so that was probably the most embarrassing moment of my life. But hang on, how big was ordinary in this interaction? Oh, it had like a billion streams. It had a billion streams. So no recognition or just zero care? I think that he didn't know.

Like, I bet if I sang him the song, he probably would have known. But I don't think that he, like, knew Ordinary was like the title at that time. I think that would be more embarrassing if you were like, hey, Jack, ordinary. Yeah, see, so that's what I thought it would be. Hey, nice, though. You hit that. Did I? Oh, my God, don't.

There has never been anyone more tone deaf than Brit. It actually doesn't matter what you. you ever say to me again because Alex Warren just told me that I hit that. You don't know what you've created. You have no idea what you've created now, Alex. She wound up. She wound up for it. I was ready for it.

She went, Oh, you're liking me now. All right, well, look, we're here because it is the album launch of Wild Child. Right? It is a very exciting night. We're literally backstage. We've just come off having a full chat on the couch. And now we're doing the same thing in the corner of this room.

Yes. Your album came out today. And one of the songs on it, I think, so perfectly encapsulate so much that we're going to be talking about in this episode. But the song at the end, which is called Wild Child, is a song that's written from the perspective of your dad. Can you tell us a little bit about why that song is so important to you? Yeah. My dad, it's just difficult when I write records, especially trying to encapsulate grief because it's such an inexplicable thing. I think that a lot of times when someone goes through grief, you don't know how to tell people what that's like.

And oftentimes it feels daunting or scary because no one talks about it. So you kind of feel like you're trapped in this feeling of no one understands me. No one understands what I'm going through. It's really jarring. So when I write records, especially about my parents or loss, I try my best to kind of encapsulate that feeling. And Wildchild was a song specifically about my dad and his perspective because I just don't think that I've ever heard that, you know,

I'm proud of you or any of those things because he was dead and he passed away. And this song specifically was that for me. And John Mayer, who bless his soul and the sweetest man on earth, I wrote this record and I put in a minute-half guitar solo at the end for John. And my dad was obsessed with John Mayer. He was his favorite artist. And when he passed away and I went into his car and I sat down in his driver's seat, John's album played.

And so I told John about this. And I told him that I DMed him. I said, hey, by the way, you're holding up my album. You've got to put this guitar solo here. And he never talked to him a day of my life. And he's like, I got this. And he did it. And he used the guitar from that time frame.

So it's really cool. Oh, that's actually, I'm a really big, but I'm really big on the universe, sending signs. And I think that that was the fact that you got in the car and John May was playing. I think that's a sign. Who would be your next dream collab? I really love Olivia Rodriguez, which I just don't know if that would ever happen. But I'm obsessed with Olivia and her songwriting. So, yeah, probably Olivia.

I think you're almost at the point, though, you could collab with anyone. Anyone you'd DM you slide into, I reckon they'll reply now. I love it. You think that. Yeah, I'm very optimistic. I want to unpack a little bit more about sort of like getting to the real deep trauma. But like you're a childhood and like where your inspiration for your songwriting comes from. Because one of the things that I think people connect so much with you, you said, you talk about grief. You talk about some of the most heartbreaking moments of your life.

And by you talking about them, singing about them, people attach their own meanings to your songs and to your songwriting. But what is it about, I guess, all of those moments in your life? Like, for there was a period there where you were living in a car that you've decided, okay, this is what I'm going to use as my inspiration. It's so funny because I view songwriting like therapy. Like I don't not, I always talk about everything. I will always write about everything.

Anything that's ever happened in my life, I'm a pretty open book about it all. I just think that it's a weird way to look at things, but I think that the stuff that I've gone through in my life should be a learning lesson for other people. You know, I, I think that the way that I've handled grief or the way that I've handled loss, I don't think it's right or wrong, but I, I want to explain it to people and tell them what I've gone through and hopefully where I am in my life is inspiring to some people who might be going through the same thing. So when I write songs, there's not really a way of like, oh, I'm going to talk about this, this time. It's more of just kind of like trying to find what

sounds like it. You just said it, but you would be helping so many people without you. I mean, maybe you know, maybe you don't know. But even just the lessons, after our conversation tonight, I already want to go home and the first thing I want to do is call my mom and dad. I'm lucky enough to still have my parents. Thanks for rubbing that in. That was one of my finest moments. Leave all that in.

Gotcha. Alex, I don't know if you know my parents are still here. Thanks for letting me. Just reminding you. I feel very lucky, but I want to, the lesson is that you, I want to go home and speak to them. That's all I wanted to say before you rub salt in the wound. No, because you said something tonight, which was like about not realizing how limited time is. Yeah.

Yeah, you don't know. In the most awful way you discovered that with the passing of your mom. Yeah, I never got the closure. I never got to rekindle, you know, and it's so funny because so many, when I tell people that, they're like, well, you didn't know her anything. She was abusive. And it's just, it's at the end of the day. day she was my mom and I think that my mom was so heartbroken by the fact that my dad passed away that she chose drinking over her own children right and like that's a really hard truth to swallow you know

and my mom had a disease it's that simple and I don't think that that warrants her to lose her children in her life and that was something that took me a long time to realize that I feel like I could have been much kinder to my mom more understanding and not have this puffed up chest like I deserve the best in the world. It's not about that. It's not about me. It's about my mom who was sick and having someone be there for her and instead she was alone and she died alone. That's a hard thing for me to be okay with. Do you have regrets? Of course. I think with death, that's a, that's a part of grief that everyone tells you to not do. And it's so funny every time someone tells you, they're like, don't do the what ifs. Don't do the,

well, what if I do this? And it's just like, that's a part of it. Like, it's so healthy to do that because you can't have love without loss. You can't think about that. It's not possible to love something without the fear of losing it, right? Or else, what is love? I don't know what it is. You love someone, and there's a beautiful song, if we were vampires, right? And it's just such a beautiful depiction of why you have that. Because time is so limited, it allows you to love. I just think that that's a healthy part of grief is asking what if. because it allows you to have a different perspective on what you could do differently in your life. So many parts of your songs are about your childhood and your loss and your grief and your parents.

Yeah. And a really special part of Wild Child is you having voice notes from your dad. Yeah. Tell us about how they came about, how you came to find the voice notes and how you decided to put them into the album. My dad knew he was dying. And so it's pretty heartbreaking, though, because you watched the videos before my dad was terminal. He was talking to me as a child. And then as he's realized he's terminal, I'm not even in the frame anymore. And he's talking to me and he knows he's talking to me, but he's not really talking

to childhood me. He's talking to me now because he knows I'm going to watch this video. And it's really sad to kind of realize that this man was leaving these messages, you know? And I can't imagine knowing I'm dying and leaving behind children and all these different things. So it's, My dad was a brave, brave man. And when we made this album, you know, I'd say this on stage and I think that I should practice it's like, you know, I say people die twice. They die when they die and they die when you stop telling their story. And I think that being able to put my dad and my mom and my family in an album that will outlive me,

outlived my dad, it'll outlive, you know, my kids. It'll be there forever. And I think that that's something really important to be able to say that, you know, this is forever. You said something tonight on stage that brought me to tears. which was, thank you for that. You said, like, what do my kids do? Like, when they've done something, you achieve something.

And the example was, like, you know, your kid rides a bike for the first time. What do they do? And they look back and they want you to be excited for them, you know, that want you to be proud of them. And you said, that's what you do every time you have and you perform on stage. You kind of look around and just wish your parents were there to be able to say, we're really proud of you. Yeah. It's an incredible thing. Yeah. I also think it's a perspective that I can't wait until I have kids because it's something that I think that there's in life so many

things are taking advantage of a bed to sleep on anything, like, you know, until you don't have that. And I think that the things that I've gone through in life and the people I've lost and the things that I've lost have allowed me to enjoy every single ounce of what has been given to me, you know? And not to say that I enjoy life more than another person, but I definitely do appreciate a lot of the things that I think a lot of people in my position don't. Speaking of something that we know you appreciate so much, your incredible relationship with your wife, Kovar. Kovar came into your life.

when most people would probably think you're a bit undaatable. You were living in a car. Tell what you really think, Laura. I agree with that. I don't think there's many women out there going, you know what I want? A guy living in a car for a while. It was great.

No, but I get it. I get it. And she left her home. She left her studies to be with you. That's an incredible thing. What's it like when you form a relationship when, I guess, you have nothing to lose because you're both so in it together,

and then you have weathered all of these successes to where you are now. I think it's really nice. I think because we both went through that, there's such an understanding with each other. Like no one knows me better than my wife does. And like I can have a look on my face and, you hear it. You hear about it. You hear like, oh, like my husband, da, da, blah, blah, blah. But like genuinely there's not a single person who knows me better than my wife.

And all the way down to the way I'm standing if something's wrong. And it's really cool to be able to kind of have the best moments of my life be with her, you know? And it's cool. She's my best friend. She's with me at all times, all the time. And it's not because the only reason is because every time we're like, I've, I dropped her off of the airport like two weeks ago. And I dropped her off and I'm driving away. And as I'm driving away, she texts me and she goes, dude, I miss you. I go, I called her. I go, isn't this fucking awesome? And she goes, what do you mean? I said, I dropped you. I'm a hundred feet away from you and I can't wait till the next time I see you like we're eight years into this

relationship you know and the fact that we still feel this way is so fucking cool like you hear all these horror stories and I'm just so it's so evident that we are I'm saying all these things this is verbatim by the way this is not me so many summer I'm literally like it's so cool that we have this like I love you dude and it was I call her dude I'm such an asshole she calls me bro I was bad to say seriously I'm like sup dude like her and I quite literally just have that relationship where we're just, there's no semantics, there's no bullshit. It's very much like you're my person. I imagine your TikToks and your Instagrams have been sent a million times to people that they're sitting into their own partners. You know, and it's like, can you be more like

this? Like, look what Alex says to Kovar. Love me like that. So I think that you're a bit of an inspiration for that. Thanks, but you know what? I have my own issues, guys. No, do you know what it is? Because there are so many people like online. Yeah. It's just not believable. It gives you a bit of the ick, right? But you seem so genuine and it's very real and it's very unfiltered and it's very raw. Oh, thanks. Yeah, it's so easy to love your love story. I thought you were going to say so easy to love you. No, it's sad too. But if we can, scoot back to the car, you said something that I didn't even know tonight. I knew that you lived in the car for a little while, but maybe I didn't quite understand how bad it was. You were talking about how

COVA came from Hawaii to meet you and you'd sort of fakeied it. She didn't really know you were living in the car yet. It's more like I didn't lead with it. Talk to us about that. I think it was more of the sense of like, we were talking on the internet for, we were talking the internet before I was homeless. And then I became homeless and we were still talking, but I wasn't with home. You didn't update her in the living situation. I didn't just randomly go, hey, by the way, I'm homeless.

Yeah, so you didn't lie. You just didn't admit it. But I was like, oh, I'm sleeping at a friend's house. She knew the situation. But then when she came, I was like, homeless, homeless. And I was just like, yeah, so things took a turn. for the worst. My mom kicked me out. She was very aware of all of that. And she was just like, dude, like, I want to do this with you. Let's do it. How long did you live like that for?

I think I did about four to five months of that. And over and I did together. It was only like a month or so, maybe two months, max. Right, honey? Two months? Cova is in the room. Two months together doing that. I'd be like a month and a half probably in a car and then half the month. Oh, no, a month in the car and then a month couch hopping with people. Because we would sleep at our friends' houses too when they would let us. It would share the bed with our friends.

It'd be like four people in a family. Yeah, it was pretty fun. You have a beautiful song on your new album, which is Rescuer, which is written about Kover. Yeah. When you describe Kover, why do you call her your rescuer? Oh, because of that, because the homelessness. I was so alone.

I think that with everything that's ever happened to me, it's so easy to kind of look up in the sky and go, why? Like, why did you do this to me? And, you know, I was really, really sad. I was really, alone. And the fact that my wife chose, or at the time, this beautiful girl that I was obsessed with chose to sleep in a car with me, I almost seemed like there was an agenda that I didn't know about. I was always like, so why are you doing this? Like, it was always like very, and she just was always just down. She was down for fucking anything. Like, it was always, I was like, oh, like, I'm going to go do this. She's like, cool. And then we went surfing. We'd go get burritos.

We'd, it'd be 4 a.m. Right. I'm laying in bed. She's like, in bed, we look at each other, we go, we can't sleep. We'd go to Jack in the box and just buy, like, literally, we would, we would, there was four bucks that we had and we'd buy like whatever and split it. And like, anything I wanted to do, she was down. And anything she wanted to do, I was down. And it just, it was like having fun, like a super long sleepover. Who said I love you first? She said love you over. Oh, that counts. It counts. Oh, sorry. Did I just, there's a big, a couple's argument in the debate, has it been? So the second day we started talking.

She said love you or love you or love you. Oh, love you doesn't count is love you. I think it was love you. And I freaked the fuck out and hung up. What? Freaked the fuck out and hung up. And I text her. I was like, I don't know if I'm ready for this.

And she goes, she goes, dude, what are you talking about? I said love you. And I go, what do you mean? She goes, that's not the same thing as I love you. And I go, what are you talking about? She said, love you. And she's like, love you. It's just like, you say it with your friends, whatever.

It's the precursor to I love you. but we're not there yet. I was like, chill out. I was like, bro. So she said every single time we'd end a conversation, she'd say love you. And I would just wouldn't say anything.

And then I'd be like, I'm going to say I love you the day I meet you and I can see you in person. And she came to San Diego. She's getting off the airplane. Everyone's coming out of the terminal and everyone is in these like floral t-shirts. You know, they all look like they're coming home from a vacation. And this beach blonde tan as hell girl,

walks out and I go that's my wife and I run up to her I kiss her and I go the first words before she can say anything I go I love you and I was the first person so she was just missing the eye she was technicality you know wins every time that's what I'm saying well it's what she was saying we we have but heads on this ever since we met and I will not break it that it's the same thing well there's a song in that I reckon your actual proposal story is really beautiful thanks appreciate it she's from Hawaii she's never seen snow and we I proposed on a snowstorm It was pretty cute. I thought there was going to be more to that, actually.

Yeah, you said this up way bigger than I thought you would. No, it was more the, it was, it was, it was, well, when you told it before, you were like, and then I got down on one knee and I were like sunk in the snow. Oh, yeah, yeah, there was a whole plan. Like, there was the Airbnb. I was supposed to do it in the back. There's beautiful wilderness. And it had record-breaking snow that night prior.

And so literally I got down on one knee and I was sinking in it. So you could only see my hand. And so. But more so was she actually surprised. Yeah. Oh my God. Thank God. Yeah.

Alex, let's go back to the album. Yeah. What would you say is your favorite song? My favorite song would be... Do you have favorite songs? Is it like having favorite children? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like the least favorite, like the annoying one.

I have my favorite songs I listen to. I think this album I love... I love listening to Last Time. Last time's a really fun song for me to listen to. Other than that, passenger is my favorite to perform. That one's really fun. Are there any songs that you don't like performing anymore? Off the new album?

No, no, no. As in like just... Ever. So, yeah, like, I mean, I remember we spoke to Tones and I, and she was talking about Dance Monkey. And she was like, I've now played it so many times that I don't enjoy playing it like I used to play. You know, and it's kind of like changed for her.

Have you ever had an experience like that about a song? No, I love playing. Ordinary, I love playing everything. There's not a song I play that I'm not excited to play. Was there ever any fear when you have a song like Ordinary that goes, so beyond gangbusters. Is there ever any fear around when you start releasing the next thing

or the next songs, like how is it going to live up to something that's already just being like held up out of the stratosphere? No, no, not at all because I never thought I'd have one. So like the fact that I got that one was something so big for me where it's like now all the pressure's off.

Like I don't have to try and make another TikTok song that blows up and changes my life. Now I just get to make music I want to make because there's no pressure anymore. You said earlier, Alex, that when you talk about grief, people in the past have always told you what you shouldn't, shouldn't feel or what you shouldn't say. What would you say to somebody that might be in the throes of grief right now as somebody that has just lived through it to the extent that you have? I think the most important thing is talk.

Grief is the most interesting thing in the world because if you don't talk about it, you feel so alone, but if you talk about it, you feel like you're bringing everyone down. You don't talk about grief because the only way everyone knows how to do it is in a setting of sadness. You know, like you talk about someone and you lost your dad and all of a sudden if i say hey my dad died all of a sudden the room goes quiet everyone stops talking so then all of a sudden you're like okay well that's not rewarding for me to talk about that person so then you just all of the sudden stop talking about it entirely because you can't talk about it or else everyone gets sad or if you the other option is you get sex you're in therapy or something so i think the biggest thing is talk about that person

no matter what like i talk about my dad all the time it doesn't need to be sad it's in a beautiful setting his favorite musician was this he loved this he loved that talk about my mom in all these different ways. And I truly believe people die twice. They die when they die and they die when you stop telling their story. I forgot the way my dad looked. I forgot the way that he smelled. I forget the way it felt to hug him. And it's because I just stopped talking about him. And I truly, truly think that people just need to talk about death more and make it less taboo. And if you're going through it, I think the one thing is it's going to be hard, but I really do think it's important to talk about it. What's the favorite thing you remember about you, dad?

it's hard to pick a favorite. I think off the top of my head, he was so obsessed with trying things. He didn't think anything was impossible. So he had hobbies at the gate. Like he had everything. Any hobby you thought of, he had the thing.

So like if you wanted to play football, he had footballs. If you wanted to surf, he had a surfboard. If you want to learn how to play piano, he had that. Like anything you wanted to do, he was obsessed with trying

because there's nothing in life that wasn't worth trying. And so I think just that kind of idea that everything and anything is possible, created this create like it made me creative as a kid it made me want to try everything and now i'm i'd like to think that i'm somewhat okay at stuff yeah now you're sitting here with us on life uncut look how far you've come Alex your dream thank you so much thanks for having me thank you very you're on this massive tour and you've made time so we can't thank you enough

thank you