The Eric Metaxas Show - Laura Osnes & Nathan Johnson (Encore)

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

Laura Osnes, Broadway star, and photographer husband Nathan Johnson talk about how Laura was "canceled" -- but also how she's now turning her career around. (Encore Presentation)

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Eric Mattaxas show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Hey there, folks. You know that on this program, we've talked about what's called cancel culture a lot. I have been a victim of it. And I'm the nicest guy in the world. literally. And if it could happen to me, it could happen to other nice people like you, whoever you are listening. We have to deal with this. We have to speak up and we have to stand

with those who are being persecuted by this nastiness. We really need to do that. And I wanted to highlight someone who's had an experience with this over the last few years. So today, my guest will be, almost is, but not yet, will be Laura Osnes. It's OSNES. So some of you will be familiar with her. She rose to stardom after winning NBC's reality TV competition, Greece. You're the one that I want, earning the role of Sandy in the Broadway revival of Greece when she was just 21. She quickly became what's known as the go-to ingenue of Broadway. So she starred in South Pacific. Imagine this, folks.

Broadway star, South Pacific, anything goes. Bonnie and Clyde got a Tony Award nomination. Roderston Hammerstein's Cinderella, another Tony Award nomination, Bandstand. On and on and on, it goes. She is married to Nathan Johnson, successful photographer. I want to welcome them both to the program, Laura and Nathan welcome. Hi Eric, thank you so much for having us.

When I read what your successes were on Broadway, you know, you don't need to be a theater maven to understand what a big deal that is. That's every actor's dream to be not just starring in Broadway musicals, but then getting Tony nominations. That's kind of as big as it gets. And then something happened. So both of you, you were in New York for what, 10, 15 years?

15 years. Yeah, 15 years. So what was it? I mean, should we start there with what happened? And then we can kind of back back. But what was it? How do you go from that level of Broadway success, which, again, And it doesn't get better than that, Tony Award nominations and starring in shows that even I've heard of, you know.

What happened? What began this canceling of Laura Osnes and Nathan Johnson? Yeah, it kind of happened overnight. I was, as you said, very blessed to have several years of success in New York City. And I do not take that for granted. I loved every second of it. My Broadway dream came true. and I got to live that dream for several years, and I'm really grateful.

But all of it kind of flipped overnight. I had agreed to do, this was last summer, 2021. I had agreed to do a one-night concert, a benefit concert as a favor for a friend. And all of a sudden, the venue for the concert, this is on Long Island, was mandating the COVID vaccine. And the director reached out to me. Just just like, it's hard to, it's hard to process this. At least it's hard. It's hard for me not to interrupt my guess when they say something like that because I live in New York. And the madness, we never have to stop talking about this, the lunacy. I mean, it's just, it's extreme.

I've written about different periods in history and I never dreamt that in the United States, I would bump up against this kind of stuff. And during this COVID stuff, I've never seen such, you know, what do you call it? stupidity, just like tremendous stupidity. You know, and you just think, this makes no sense. And we all had to kind of comply or we were bullied into complying or we had to push back or whatever. So it's kind of an amazing thing that they're telling you, yeah, if you want to perform here, you know, you got all these accolades, but you need to get that shot. And that's another subject. But you're telling me that this was in the middle of 2021.

Yes, this was summer of 2021. This was actually before a lot of the public mandates came about in probably September. You know what I mean? Things started to mandate around then. And to be honest, the theater industry still mandates equity. The actors equity union still requires all actors on the stage to be triple vaxed or quadruplevaxed, even though the audience doesn't have to be. I don't know if you know this, but Fran Dresher just came out.

Yes, we saw that. Yes. wonderful, wonderful video saying like, you know, I'm vaccinated, but, you know, she was disgusted by what we're talking about, this idea that everyone in the industry, you want to work, you know, you've worked your whole life to get to this point. But now you need to get this experimental injection. Hey, maybe it'll kill you, but at least you'll have a job for a few weeks before you die. Yeah, she put it actually perfectly.

She was so clear. We wrote to her probably about three months ago and just said, hey, this has got to stop. And I know that she's been on the side of a lot of people that are in our camp. So we were glad that she came out yesterday and very clearly stated what she thought moving forward, we got to do. And I'm hoping the theater industry will follow. Yeah, it's wild to me that they're still mandating. That's crazy. It is.

It's madness. And look, I've always loved Fran Drescher. You know, I was born in Queens. And I, but the fact that she, this is to me kind of where we are is that people you think of as mainstream are coming out and saying, excuse me, this is wrong. This is sick. This needs to. And they're given pushback. So, but so you're telling me that this was at the very beginning of it.

And this is, it's fairly recent. I mean, it's an amazing thing. So this is like a little bit over a year ago. You are suddenly told you cannot perform. Yes. Well, I was, the director reached out to me privately via email and said, the venue's now mandating, just reaching out to everybody. And I was honest. I told the truth, which now I'm like so many people are kind of living a lie and have been able to skate under the radar. And I feel like I was punished for being truthful. And I said, you know what? I'm not currently vaccinated. I guess I'll have to bow out of this one concert. Are you allowed to say what the venue was? Yes. It was. David, no, it was

something called. I'm sorry. I know, no, no. Therapy has blocked it out of our mind. No, it's Guild Hall in Long Island. Guild Hall in East Hampton. Yeah. Oh, Guildhall.

I have been on the stage at Guildhall. Let me tell you. Oh, I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. I wish I could say the same. I interviewed Dick Cavett on the stage at Guildhall. Guildhall is famous and it's in East Hampton. So this was way out in the Hamptons and you're telling me Guild Hall, which is now dead to me,

Albin, write that down, Guildhall and put Applebee's on that list. I refuse to perform at Applebyes. So you're telling me that Guildhall says, oh, sorry, you can't do this. Can you say what the benefit was for? Yes, it was a one-night concert of the musical Crazy for you, a show I had been a part of for a couple years, actually, in development. and there was rumors of it coming to Broadway, and I was attached, and I loved the people involved,

and it was going to be lovely. And I was honest that I'm currently not vaccinated, and director was completely understanding and respectful, and was like, such a bummer, totally understand, can't wait to work with you again. It was mutually wonderful. We went our separate ways. And then a week later, there was an article in the New York Post,

page six, the gossip column, saying I was fired for refusing to get vaccinated. And the article basically had like a series of untruths as to how this all went down. It said that I refused to test. I was never given an option to test. I would have tested in a heartbeat. You had done that for how many shows before? I had been working regularly throughout COVID and had been tested daily for things. You can't get myocarditis or a stroke from a COVID test.

So why not? Right. So you would have been tested, but this is how these things happen, right? So they're kind of stirring the pot here. Okay. And the article said I was vague about my status, and I'm like, I was very honest. It said my co-star begged me to get vaccinated, which never happened. Like so many things.

And it painted my character and tarnished my reputation in a way that caused this article to catch like wildfire. And seemingly had millions and millions of view. I'm like, why did people even care so much? Actually, in show business, this is called a cliffhanger, folks. You're going to hear the rest of the story talking to Laura Osness and her husband, Nathan Johnson. We'll be right back. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Biden administration has caused a financial crisis and they have no clue how to fix it.

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Folks, we're talking to a Broadway star, Laura Osnes and her husband Nathan Johnson, and we're talking about what happened a little bit over a year ago. It's a cancel culture story. And Laura, I want to remind people if they're just tuning in. you won, you got Tony nominations. You were the star of many Broadway, big hits, big deal stuff. You were, you appeared on the Kennedy Center honors on CBS. I believe you were an episode of Cojack.

Am I getting that right? Just kidding. That's a little bit before you time. It might be before your time. It might be before your time. Didn't you play the heavy in an episode in 1970? and one of those co-jacketing? Yeah, that's it.

That's it. I'm so surprised you remember. Thank you for that. It's amazing. It was a small part, but it was beautiful. No, but so the point is that you, so you're telling us the story of what happened a year ago that you're invited to Guildhall, which I know well in East Hampton, and they find out, or they ask you say, oh, you have to be vaccinated.

And you said, well, I'm not vaccinated, so I'm not going to do it. Page six of the New York Post, not a fan of page six, folks. It's like a sloppy tabloidy garbage. Thank you, Rupert Murdoch. No, thank you, really, thank you. And they stir the pot and they tell all these stories. And it's not true. And suddenly you're dealing with this media firestorm.

That's it. That just spread like wildfire. And I immediately lost like four other jobs that I had been associated to that were upcoming. And, you know, the vaccination. status is is one thing. But what actually happened is I feel like these jobs were lost because no one could no longer associate with me because of this choice. And New York is very one-sided.

The theater industry especially is very one-sided. And if you don't parrot a certain narrative, they're super tolerant until you maybe think a different way about the world and then you're the enemy. And I felt like I was kind of booted out. But that's exactly how this works. I mean, this is kind of the point, right? Is that it's one thing to have a certain disagreement, but it's the smearing and the whispering and the way it goes on like,

she's not one of us. She's a bad person. That's right. That's right. Something phobic or she's this or she's that. And the moment that happens, now what's ironic is Hollywood is to this day making movies about the 50s blacklist and Dalton Trumbo is the hero. And they're going on and on and on.

on like this was like the dark days and they are doing precisely the same thing you talk about irony and the subtlety of evil they're doing exactly the same thing that they complain was done to them in the 50s they're now doing it to folks like you and again you're saying it's not it's one thing to say like look we have a disagreement on this or this or this but it you were honorable you said no, I'm not vaccinated and okay, I guess I'm not going to be a little hall. Okay, that's fine. But they decided to just stir it up. And before you know it, you are losing jobs for absolutely no reason other than people are afraid to be associated with that person, which is so wicked.

It's amazing. I think one of the things, too, that really impacted us was they went after her character. When they said that she was vague in her response and it wasn't until her co-star, begged her to get vaccinated for the sake of his children, which, by the way, he only has one child. We know him very well. And so it just shows kind of some sloppy reporting. But I have to say to go after her character,

Laura's made such an effort to have one of the best reputations on Broadway, to be the first one in the room, to be honest, to be, you know, to stand by all of her, you know, the things that she, you know, reads in the Bible, she tries to live out and we try to live out. And so for them to go after, like, her character in that way and say like basically allude to her lying about it. That's frustrating. And I was fired, the inflammatory language.

Like you said, you're like, you're the nicest guy ever. You've been canceled. I feel like that was kind of my reputation too. And like there was clearly target on my back. And my grace of our time in the city kind of came to an end and we couldn't get out of there fast enough. And we moved to Nashville last year. Well, let me ask you, because this is to me kind of the way this stuff works, right? were you known to be a serious Christian?

Was that part of your background or your witness that people knew she's a Christian? I would say yes. You know, I have like a Bible verse in my bio. And if it ever came up in an interview, I never shied away from it. I was definitely not ashamed of it. We went to church. We had a couple churches during our times there, our years in New York. So you're taking in the hateful rhetoric of the Bible all these years.

I just find it funny because there are a lot of people, that's their mindset. And all they need is a little, you know, thread to pull. And the next thing you know, it's like, oh, yeah, now we figured it out. She's on the wrong side of these things. But you, I mean, listen, there are a lot of people that try to play ball. You know, you do your best, you're honest. But I think the point of one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you is that we're living at a time when those people who are trying to, to do everything right, you realize you can't. You do everything right and they're still kind of

coming after you. And so there are people in the church today who act as though, well, you must have done something wrong. They don't understand that you could do everything right. I mean, I'm speaking because this program was wiped off of YouTube. And I said, you know, what did we say or do? Because I try to be honorable if I did something wrong or whatever. And there's still people in the church who kind of think like, well, if you keep your nose clean, if you're careful, no one was more careful than you. And they decided to kind of come after you. Yeah. That's definitely what it felt like. I think the last couple years have been more polarizing than ever. And if you think one thing, if someone finds out, you think one thing that it automatically means you are this, this, this, this,

and this. And, you know, we can no longer be friends or you no longer deserve to work or live. Which is so funny because we spent, you know, our 15 years in New York, we were, I, we make space for everybody. We love everybody. And it's like, you know, and I, I'm fine with disagreeing with people. In fact, we have lived in disagreement for a long time with certain, certain issues. And we're like, you know what? You still deserve a voice. You still deserve a place in our life. And actually, some of those conversations, let's go back and forth. Let's let's battle it out a little bit. That's how we come to the best ideas sometimes. And it was just so quick. I think the cancellation was just so swift, and we found ourselves literally overnight going, what just happened? Yeah. This is insane. My history there, my 15 years, my reputation there, like, meant nothing.

And I'm like, do you know me? And to be honest, a lot, like, a lot of it was like random fans who didn't know me, like theater fans that just completely turned. And then there were legitimate friends of mine, acquaintances, co-stars that publicly posted horrible things about me. And then also friends who privately messaged me, horrible things about me. And then there were also a whole bunch of strangers

who reached out and said, thank you for taking a stand. Like, God bless you. I was fired from this show. I had to leave the Rockets because I wasn't vaccinated. All these theater people. Or my kid was vaccine, or my uncle was vaccine injured or this happened.

We started hearing those stories. And that was... And it was kind of half and half, But all of these, all of the other people were quiet, were private and silent and not willing to speak up. And then all the hate obviously is so public. People are not shy about the vitriol. Well, what's amazing, I mean, I've been through some of this in a different way.

And innumerable friends of mine have been through exactly what you just described, how friends. I mean, this happened to me where you just think like et two, Brutei. Like, we're friends. We've known each other for years. You read something about me. you believed it was true, and then you kind of either canceled me or it came after me, and you think, wow, this is exactly how it happened in Germany in the 30s.

Like, this is how it happens. We're human beings, just like they were human beings, and we do these things to each other if we don't know better. And it is, it's chilling when it happens because you just can't imagine that this would happen. You spent, as you said, years building relationships and this kind of stuff just can turn so quickly. And it's ugly. And we just have to say, ladies and gentlemen, it's immoral. It's wrong to do this.

And we need to stand up for each other. It's one of the reasons, as I said, Laura, that I wanted you on the program. Thank you. Because people need to understand this is wrong. This is immoral. This is wicked. This is evil. This is very bad.

and we are all because we're sinners, we tend to process things this way, unless you know better the kind of whispering and the kind of, you know, that stuff that goes on. So a lot of these people that do this are people that we've known for years, and they just decided, I want to, you know, I'm going to be part of the virtue signaling thing, and I don't want to be associated with so-and-so. Whether she's guilty, that's not relevant. They say she's guilty. I don't want people to think I might be guilty, and I won't associate with that.

And it is so ugly. We've got the rest of the hour with you, folks. If you want to find Laura and Nathan, you can go to Laura Osnes. It's OSN-E-S. Laura Osnes, O'S-N-E-S dot com, Lauraosnes.com. And, of course, if you want to find us in this program, go to metaxus talk.com. And my website is Eric Mataxis. com. Much more coming up with Laura Osnes and Nathan Johnson. Don't go away.

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quick start discounted to only 1995 to see if it will work for you. It works for me. It has for about 70% of the half a million people who've tried it and have ordered more. Go to relieffactor.com or call 800 for relief to find out about this offer. Feel the difference. Folks, welcome back. We are talking to Laura Osniz and her husband, Nathan Johnson. Laura was a Broadway star until weird stuff happened a little bit over a year ago. The cancel culture came for you. And I am honored to stand with the two of you and to get you to tell your story. because this is so vital. Listen, you guys are Christians.

I'm a Christian. Many Christians have been guilty of this. It's happened to me. People that I've been friends with for years, they somehow don't understand how this works and how horrible it is. And that's why it's important for people to hear this story. So you were talking about, number one, sloppy journalism.

Like, we'll put the madness aside of getting vaccines and all that. That's a whole other subject. So we'll put that aside and we'll pretend like there's nothing to talk about there. So then we get to the issue of you honorably say the truth. You say I'm not vaccinated. And so I can't perform at Guildhall in East Hampton. Okay.

That's their loss, whatever. But then somebody picks it up and sloppy journalism happens and lies get out there. And before you know it, you are being canceled because, and this is to me the classic parallel to what happened in Germany under the Nazis, it's the whispering and that so-and-so is not to be associated with. And it is as wicked as it gets. When that happens in a culture and a society where people don't care about the truth, they just don't want people to come for them and they don't want to be associated with anyone

and that might be problematic and stuff. That is just authoritarian, totalitarian madness. It's against everything we believe as Americans. It's against everything we believe as Christians. And it's been happening to tons of people, including people as prominent as the two of you. And so that's why it's just so important to tell the story. Now, Nathan, you're a successful photographer.

Obviously, you were in the middle of this story. What's your version? I mean, how did you process? Because it's much worse. When something happens to someone you love, then when it happens to you, at least that's how I feel. Yeah. I mean, and there's many times where I'm like, man, I wish I could just switch places right now. But actually, as a husband, I'm really, you know, when you, to see the person that you love, you know, go through something like this, man, I have had to like, I've had sometimes put down the computer because there's stuff that I want to say or just show up at somebody's house.

Because I'm like, to me, this is just, you're gun in for my wife right now. And somebody with outstanding character and who's just. you know, she, if you knew her, Laura has taken it every single time she joins a cast. We prayerfully, like, take the cast and we try to, you know, that becomes our family and love on them. How can we serve them? How can we, and that is her heart has always been our heart. So to have something like this come after her, it felt, you know, I mentioned the sloppy journalism a little earlier, but there was, there's also an element that felt really malicious. And the way the, the way the wording was, she was fired.

the fact that they bring up that she's a conservative Christian, the fact that, you know, they actually, you know, go after her character and say that she was vague, which isn't true. To me, the whole thing kind of just stunk to begin with. But then when she made a, she actually kind of cleared some things up, she made a statement in her Instagram. Yeah. And when they found out that, oh, she actually wasn't vague,

it's not like they made it right or it's not like they reached out to her and was like, see, when I'm wrong, I'm like, you know what? My mother taught me to say, you know what, I was wrong. I'm sorry. They don't make it right. Nobody reached out, nothing like that. They just silently pulled that vague statement out of there, silently pulled a couple things out.

But it was like the damage had already been done. So here's my thing. I've never been more proud of my wife ever. Like so much more than even when she's on the front of the stage and just doing her thing. But right now I've seen to strengthen her that I didn't even know it was there. I don't think you knew was there. And so that I'm just really proud of her.

Thank you. Well, this is, it's something that, you know, to the extent that this has happened to me, it definitely causes you to draw closer to Jesus. You know, you talk about all things, work together for good for those that love the Lord and call the chronic good. I mean, even when this thing happens, it forces you to draw closer to him and to understand he who was perfect, endured. You know, it's an amazing thing to participate.

participate in that a little bit. It's kind of weirdly an honor, right? Yeah. Yes, we've come to, we've come to that, like, position for sure. And I feel like God has never been closer. It was like you lose everything in your life. You're like, all we have is each other, our families and our faith. And relying on that is truly, truly what God is through.

And I often think back, I'm like, you know, with Jesus, like people either dropped everything and followed him or they wanted to kill him. So I was like, if someone wants to kill you, you're maybe doing something right. I thought of that. I'm like, okay, keep us on that path, Lord. Well, that's the whole thing. We kind of have to discern where we are. And we're at a place in the culture where people who, and again, this is always the irony, right? Like people who have power often want to use it for evil. And so you have people who hate Christians because they perceive Christians as hating them,

which is alive from the pit of hell. And yet that's the perception. And so if they can score points and they just, they have an opportunity to score points, they will do that. They just, they don't believe in what we believe in, which is the truth. We want the truth to come out. If I was wrong, I will apologize or whatever it is. They just believe in, how can we take her down a peg because she's one of those hateful Christians? And she's so nice, but I hate her.

and because her niceness comes from hate. And, you know, whatever that is. So we're going to go to another break. Folks, I'm talking to Laura Osnes. It's OSNS and Nathan Johnson, her husband, who are now in Tennessee. We'll be right back. Ballerina must have seen her. Now she's in.

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So order now with promo code Eric at mypillow.com. Mypillow.com. Promocode Eric. Folks, welcome back. I ought to have said at the beginning of this interview, that there's good news. There's a silver lining, to use the secular term, or we could just say Romans 828.

Basically, you, Laura, have used this difficult experience, and you've just come out with an album. Tell us about it. It's called On the Other Side, Part 1, which implies there's more. on the other side. So tell us what is this? What is your album on the other side? What is that?

So when I could no longer create the way that I had created for the whole rest of my life doing musical theater, I was no longer allowed, I had to find another creative outlet in some sort of way to process the emotions and everything I was going through and the loss. And I had a good friend that kind of planted the seeds and pushed me in a songwriting direction,

I was very apprehensive to pursue at first because I've never done it before. And I'm like, I'm not good at that. That's not what I do. But decided to give it a try and kind of ended up putting all my creative eggs in that basket this last year. And worked with three amazing songwriters who helped me tell my story through song. I felt very silenced this last year. Every time I would post, there was always hate, whether I was talking about vaccine or not. I never post about political things, really.

And I would, like, have a picture with my family, and people would be like, how dare you be with your family right now? Like, you're making them all sick. You're going to kill them all. And, like, I'm like, if only you knew, you know. And so I've only you knew that you were Nazis. Block. See, that's what I would do.

I wouldn't respond. Oh, I bought anybody that says anything negative, I block them instantly because I don't need to hear it. It's kind of like drinking a little poison. It's just so ugly. People are so nasty and you just have to say, sorry, but, you know, we're not, we're not here for that. But so you felt like you needed a creative outlet. But I mean, that's a big deal.

Look, it's one thing to sing. I can sing, but I can't write songs. I've never done. That's a big thing when somebody says, I'm going to write songs. I don't know, you know, we all can do stuff and then there's other stuff. I don't know. So that's kind of amazing that you decided to do that. That's how I felt.

And again, I was surrounded by very. talented people who helped foster that in me and taught me how to do it. But I realized I did have a lot to say and I finally had an experience worth writing about and a story to tell that I was being prohibited from telling. This is, it's taken me a year to even talk about it. This is this like second podcast I've done, Eric, finally talking about this. So I'm so grateful to you for giving me another way to help tell my story. But a lot of it is in my music. And I would just encourage people who have either gone through something similar or, you know, could, can relate in any sort of way or have experienced loss during COVID through relationships or jobs or

whatever that I hope it will really resonate with those people. And yeah, there's songs about being being bitter about my breakup with New York. It's honest. There's a song called Great Divide about the Loss of Friendships. But then there's also an uplifting song called Anywhere about Nate and I moving to a brand new place and starting over, but feeling like, you know what, as long as I view, I can be happy anywhere. Which is so fun because we actually had a bunch of friends here in Franklin, Tennessee, sing on the album, just kind of, we wanted a chorus of a lot of friends, and they brought their kids, and, you know, that speaks to the goodness of God in our transition down here.

Like, he's been so present with us. Even though the healing process has taken maybe a little longer than you'd like it to, that's okay. And I feel like this was actually a cool tool in your life. to be able to get your emotions out there, be able to create art, something that might actually inspire or help somebody else as well.

But it's definitely helped us. And we had a big listening release party here in Nashville and got like 200 people in a room to listen to the songs I got to talk about them all. And everybody was cheering and supporting for the first time, you know, in a year I had felt that. And it was... More and more and more, I'm jealous of people who live in Franklin

and Nashville. It's like every area... Come on down. Come on down. Water's fine. It's like, man, you got Twitty City. you got everything going on down there. Yeah.

Okay, so if people want to hear you sing these songs and want to find the album called On the Other Side by Laura Osniss, where can they go? It's available on all platforms, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, like all of the things. And it's called On the Other Side because I feel like we're coming out finally on the other side of cancellation and heartbreak. and loss. And if you go to my Instagram, there's a link in my bio. My Instagram is just my name, L-A-U-R-A-O-S-N-E-S. And yeah, it's available everywhere.

What kind of a name is awesome? What kind of a name is that? It's Norwegian. Norwegian. And how did you two kids meet? When did that happen? How did you meet? Oh, that's a story for you. Go ahead. So we actually met, we were doing a show back in Minnesota. Names used to act as well. And I was, we were both understudies for the lead. and the leads collided in that first scene, and they went to the hospital. He chipped his tooth in her forehead. They literally collided, not metaphorically.

They literally collided. Not ideologically. They literally collided. And it's like we got two birds with one collision, and we both get jobs out of the way. Exactly. Yeah. And then we went on.

First, they re-ded that first scene. They stopped. The God Mike came on and said, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to take a half hour break, and they tried to find his tooth. And it was bad. What, you mean during a performance?

During a performance. Can you say what show this was? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. We generally don't say because it's Aladdin and we were the understudies. And we're very Norwegian, as you can see. Right. This doesn't usually pass as an understudy for Aladdin and Jasmine, not necessarily made an Agrabah, you know?

It was in 2005. It was a long time. It was a while ago. Wow. So that's how you met. That's hilarious. And our first kiss was on stage. And it was a whole thing.

whole new world, you know? There you go. Our first kiss was on stage. So was it a real kiss? I don't know. Well, here's the deal. It was, you know, I was like, hey, how about that kiss? We started dating a couple days later.

And I was like, how about that kiss? And she's like, that was, that was business. Yeah. Which. That was business. It was good on her. She's a professional. I'm a professional.

Yeah. I'm no longer in the theater. Right, right, right, right. Wow. That is, that is so, I mean, my gosh, you talk about, meat cute. That's about as meat cute as, as I've ever heard. My goodness. And where were you both raised? They call it a showman. Where did you? Minnesota. And you were both raised in the Minnesota area. We're both from Minnesota. Yep. We were there. 15 years. Yeah, Minnesota.

But we didn't know each other until the show. We met during that show. Nates a couple years older than me. So we both grew up in like opposite kind of suburbs of Minneapolis, St. Paul. Unbelievable. Well, this is wonderful. We'll be back final segment. But folks, Lauraosnes.com. It's OSNES, Lauraosnes.com. And obviously, the album is called On the Other Side. We'll be right back. You've been out riding fences for so long now.

Both, welcome back. I'm really enjoying my conversation with Laura Osniss and Nathan Johnson. Boy, those are kind of Norwegian names. aren't they? Very much, though. Nathan Johnson. Not to be confused with the other Nathan Johnson. So you guys have been, you've been in the business and show business, you know, your whole adult lives.

You literally met on stage in a performance. It's just kind of, you know, it's a fairy tale story. But of course, the most beautiful part is what you have. been able to experience through this adversity. I mean, it's obviously made you stronger. And you now, by talking about this, you're giving strength to a lot of people who need to hear this, who've been suffering silently.

And really, that's part of what it is to suffer, is that God gives us an ability to use that to bless other people. That's right. It's an amazing thing. We kind of felt the call in this season to be like, when, if we're talking about it, to go, if not now, when, and if not you, who? I had a very crazy experience happened to me and a unique platform to finally do something

about it. And I feel like my music is part of that. I feel like us coming together and talking about it is part of it, part of that. And what happened to me happened to us. Nate had to close down his business in New York. Like, we uprooted our lives and moved here together. And I've never felt Nate be more of a teammate than in this season. and thank you for like having us on here together to talk about it because it affected us and our whole family.

But we're excited for what's next and we're excited to be able to see a new season and a new avenue of how God's going to use us that I never would have seen before. I think that's one of the things that we've really tried to do is say, okay, these types of experiences, you talk about it being an honor or a responsibility. These types of experiences don't come every day. and our prayer has been, okay, how do we use this? How do we get every single little drop of something that, God, you want to show us in this moment? How can we use this in a way? And I actually think that we've been trying to take a different perspective of like, oh, this happened to me or this happened to you as if you're a, you know, a victim. And I think that God uses these opportunities to sometimes bring to pivot your life a little bit and actually bring you into something that could be your calling.

it could be, you know, you inspiring others. I think courage has been kind of tried, has tried to be the theme of our lives this last season, display courage and inspire others to courage. And so that's kind of where we're at. And I actually think it's been, it's not been fun, but it's been exciting. Yeah. And so we're looking forward to the next season. Well, that's the whole thing is like, you know, nobody looks for suffering or whatever, clearly.

But if if the Lord allows it, And you receive it as you say, okay, Lord, what do you want to do with this? I like to avoid it, but if I can't avoid it, maybe you have a purpose in it. And when you allow that, it's so beautiful. And you realize we are on an adventure. We're supposed to be on an adventure. You can always avoid suffering. You can take drugs.

You can run. There's all kinds of bad ways. You can avoid suffering in pain. but there's a time when if you make that right decision, the Lord does something beautiful, unique, that he has purposed for your life. And he steers us in that way. I can think of innumerable stories of people,

friends that I've known, my hero who became my friend, Chuck Colson, you know, he goes to prison for Watergate-related offense. And that is what God uses to turn his whole life into this ministry. And you hear these things over and over. And so that's the beautiful thing, and that's the lesson for people listening, I think, is just like, give it to God. Be anxious for nothing. Bring it to him.

And know that Romans 828, if you let him, he'll take the worst thing and make it into something beautiful. We're out of time. I'm just thrilled to, amen. I'm thrilled to get you both on here. Laura Osniz, Nathan Johnson. God bless you. Thanks for telling your story. and I hope to meet you guys in person someplace.

Bless you. Come on down to Franklin. Appreciate you. Thanks, Eric. Take care.