Cam used each of her songs during her Billboard Live At-Home concert Tuesday (June 9) to underscore what she’s learned about time, sex and love since she was young. She also raised money for The Conscious Kid, a non-profit that places children’s books about race, racism and resistance into schools.
She kicked off the set with “Redwood Tree,” one of her latest singles dedicated to her climbing tree in her backyard. “And I’m singing to it, telling it sort of the understanding of how I’ve spent my life and how time passes much differently for a redwood tree because they live so long,” she said while introducing the song that mixes nostalgia with regret for not spending enough time with family. “I feel a little bit conflicted sometimes singing the song because I feel like when you’re young, you should be able to live for yourself for a bit, and you shouldn’t know the heaviness of wanting to balance it all until you get older.”
Cam also felt conflicted about her other newer single “Till There’s Nothing Left,” which she described as “a steamy, backseat kind of song” with such a sensual swing to it that it made the 35-year-old singer-songwriter blush out of embarrassment. “Guys sing about getting it on in the backseat all the time, but for some reason as girls, we’re socialized to feel like that’s not okay,” she explained. She said her Grandma Marvel would’ve called her a “prude” for not singing it after giving her the sex talk at age 12. “She said, ‘Camaron Marvel, sex is like a milkshake, and once you have it, you’re always going to want it,'” the country star remembered while giggling.
But on a different note associated with love, Cam’s last song “Burning House” from her 2015 album Untamed detailed how she came to terms with a longterm ex-boyfriend in a vivid dream. After a bad breakup, Cam recalled wanting to see him years later to finally apologize for how they split.
“So I was planning this big apology in my head the night before I was going to see him, and I went to bed with all of this on my mind kind of sorting it out. And you know how it kind of comes out in your dreams sometimes?” Cam explained. “I dreamt I was running through this field towards the house that was on fire…. And [the firefighters] say, ‘He’s in there,’ meaning my ex, ‘He’s in there, but you can’t go in there. The house is about to come down.’ And I just push past them and run through and sure enough find him and he’s trapped and I can’t get him out. So instead of leaving and saving myself, I stay there, I lay down next to him and put my arms around him so he doesn’t have to die alone…. And I remember telling that story to one of my dear friends and he said, ‘That is a song!'”
Learn from Cam’s valuable life lessons during her whole Billboard Live At-Home performance below, and donate to The Conscious Kid here.
