Family life[edit]

Kelleigh Carlyle Bannen was born February 18, 1981, in Nashville, Tennessee. When she was just 5 years old, she started playing the violin. Her first violin was made out of a Cracker Jack box and a paint stirrer. Her brother, Thomas Grant, died on her birthday in 2008 of a drug overdose.^[5] Subsequent to that Kelleigh embarked on a memory tour benefiting the Hazelden Foundation, which in 2014 merged with the Betty Ford Center, to become the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. She also began advocating for AA, and the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.^[6]


Kelleigh is the host of the podcast "This Nashville Life" alongside producer, Kevin Sokolnicki. On October 29, 2019, Kelleigh made her national television debut on the Today show with Hoda and Jenna.^[7]