Tiffany Turner

”Tiffany Turner has been performing for as long as she can remember. The Paxville, S.C., native gave her first public performance when she was just six years old. Seated on a grand piano played by her mother’s best friend, young Turner sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” dressed to the nines as a diminutive Dorothy Gale, complete with a stuffed Toto and glittery ruby slippers. “I remember how happy it made people,” Turner recounts, “and that made me so happy.” Turner spent her twenties as a solo artist in the contemporary Christian music space. She stepped away from the genre after some big life changes and personal challenges, but she didn’t stop making music — she just flipped the record over. And the metaphorical B-side of Turner’s life has proven to be full of unexpected, but truly beautiful, moments. Around 2005, a guitar player Turner knew from church suggested that Turner form a band and offered to help her put one together. “All I had really sung in my life had been Christian music, gospel music, and a few country songs here and there. That was it,” Turner notes. The band encouraged her to consider a more soul-focused sound and introduced her to bassist Bryan Grassmeyer and drummer Jack Purcell. Little T and the Z’s were born. “For me, it was a really hard time in my life. I was not knowing what I was gonna do [and] feeling like I really didn’t have a ‘unit’ in Nashville,” Turner recalls. “That group of guys created a family for me, like a musical family, that I really had never had, and it really set a precedent for any band I’ve ever been a part of ever since. The Z’s have played together on and off, including on Turner’s 2023 single “Middle of Love,” a cover of a 2016 single by British soul singer Beverley Knight and a staple of Turner’s live sets. “I love the lyrics, the music — it’s fun, it’s light,” Turner says of the song, “and when you’re listening to it, you don’t want to stop.” This present-day iteration of the Z’s features musician and producer Lee Turner — a studio owner, former house band member on the televised singing competition Nashville Star (USA Network/NBC, 2003-2008), a longtime member of Darius Rucker’s band, and Tiffany’s husband — on keys. The couple met at the Nashville airport baggage claim in 2014 and married in 2016. As Tif&Lee, the two released an album in 2017 (Noel) and a single in 2020 (“When It’s Over”). Tiffany has released two solo albums: Scuffed and Simple and Five Minutes More. Using her voice for good also led Turner to her other passion: Soles4Souls, a non-profit organization that sends new shoes & clothing to people experiencing poverty & homelessness. As the organization’s vice president of outreach, Turner oversees S4S’s relief efforts & travels internationally as a volunteer group guide. “How I feel when I sing is the same way I feel when I’m serving people. I feel like I was created to do both of those things, & I really feel like I have the best of both worlds where I am right now.