Anne Wilson‘s life was turned upside down in 2017, when her brother Jacob was tragically killed in a car accident. The devastating loss became the impetus for Wilson’s career in Christian music, after originally planning on becoming an astronaut. Now, the 20-year-old will share the heartbreaking story, and how her faith helped her move forward in spite of her grief in her new book, My Jesus: From Heartache to Hope, out on October 25

Wilson announced the book on social media.

You’ve heard the song, now read the story behind it. My first ever book, “My Jesus” will be released October 25th and you can preorder it now!! 🙏🏼 https://t.co/6KIhgqeWQi pic.twitter.com/JmFeEbdWav

— Anne Wilson (@Annewilsonmusic) August 11, 2022

The Kentucky native just released her debut My Jesus album. It’s a record that she admits likely never would have been made, if not for the untimely passing of her big brother.

“I wanted to work for NASA,” Wilson told Everything Nash. “I wanted to go down that path. Since I was really, really little — my mom said when I was three and four years old — I would always be looking up at space and just admiring the beauty. I would ask to stay up late so that I could look at the stars. I was just always very big into NASA and space, and math and science came naturally to me. That’s what I wanted to do, and it seemed like that was what the path was going to be the path for me. And then my brother passed away in 2017, and that’s when everything shifted for me. My perspective changed on life in a really big way. I was only 15 at the time, so I was still in my early high school years. I decided to pursue music and drop everything to do with NASA.”

In fact, Wilson’s first public performance was at Jacob’s funeral. It was a request her mother made, after hearing Wilson sing “What a Beautiful Name” at the piano, shortly after Jacob passed away.

“I sang for the first time in front of anyone at my brother’s funeral,” Wilson recalled, “I had never sung in front of anyone before; my mom and dad had never heard me sing. I played piano my whole life, but I was 15 years old and I had never sung in front of anyone. I was downstairs just worshiping the Lord in the middle of the day, probably four or five days after Jacob had passed away. We were planning the funeral and my mom came in the room. She overheard me singing, and then she asked me if I would be willing to sing at the funeral.

“So the singing at the funeral led to then posting a video of that song, which that video went viral,” she added. “That’s how I met my manager. And that’s basically how I got into the national scene, all because of that one moment at the funeral.”

Wilson is currently nominated for six Dove Awards,  including for New Artist of the Year, and both Pop/Contemporary Recorded Album of the Year, for My Jesus, and Pop/ Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year, for the record’s title track. Wilson’s “Mamas,” which features  Lady A‘s Hillary Scott, was also nominated for Bluegrass/Country/Roots Recorded Song of the Year.

Matthew West co-wrote several songs on My Jesus with Wilson, including the title track. The two recently shared a collaboration of West’s recent No. 1 hit, “Me On Your Mind,”

Preorder of My Jesus: From Heartache to Hope is available here.*

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