MONROE, Wash. — Antwane Tyler, a musician and Monroe native, is headed to Nashville in November to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, the most famous stage in country music.
KIRO 7 sat down with Tyler and his family for the latest edition of Western Washington Gets Real.
Antwane Tyler’s songs have racked up more than 2 million collective streams on Spotify. He’s performed them in front of crowds across the country, but he wrote them in Western Washington, inspired by life with his family in Monroe.
“I just wanted to write a song as a thank you, to communicate that because I can’t buy you guys a house yet,” Tyler joked to his parents. “So we’ll start with, I’ll just write you guys more songs.”
The idyllic life he’s lived, surrounded by the Cascade Mountains and a big, loving family almost didn’t happen for Tyler.
“Obviously, I’m adopted,” Tyler said, referencing the fact that he is Black and his parents are white. “Or, these two are adopted.”
Before he turned eight, he lived in the foster system in Tacoma with his sister. But Jennifer and Scott Sonneveldt, who already had two kids, always wanted to adopt more.
“We talked about the possibility of adopting early on in our marriage,” Scott said. “Because of my dad.”
Scott’s father was a foster kid who never found new parents.
A visit to the Snohomish County courthouse made it official; Antwane and his sister had a new family and their new grandfather’s decades-old wound was finally healed.
“We stepped out into the hall and he said, ‘I want to thank you for letting me be a part of this because I’ve wondered all my life what it would be like to be adopted,’” Scott recalled. “He was sixty-something years old at that time. And he said, ‘Now I know.’”
Scott’s father passed along a love of country music to his son and new grandson, Antwane. As it turned out, Antwane had an incredible natural talent for music.
His mother, Jennifer, recalled a moment when they let him loose in a music store and found him playing Coldplay on the piano.
“We went around and I’m like, ‘That’s Antwane!’” Jennifer said.” How does he know how to play the piano?”
“A lot of music that I’ve learned has been by ear,” Antwane said. “That’s just my way of learning instruments.”
Over the years, he experimented with several different kinds of music, but kept finding his way back to the favorite genre of his parents and grandparents: country, the one he was raised on.
Tyler acknowledged there aren’t a ton of Black artists in the genre but said he believes his music speaks for itself.
“The support has been through the roof, but I don’t think it’s at all because of the color of my skin,” he said. “It’s just been, ‘You’re a real person and that’s what you’re communicating on social media and through your music. We love you for who you are.’ It’s just been absolutely incredible.”
He’s now turned his talent into a career, and that career is set to hit a major milestone with a performance at the Opry, the same stage that’s hosted most major names in country music.
Immediately after he was booked, he drove home to tell his parents.
“I got invited to make my Grand Ole Opry debut,” he said in a video posted to his social media pages.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Scott said, followed by an expletive.
“I was blown away, and I ended up getting bleeped,” Scott told KIRO 7.
It’s a major rite of passage. Tyler knows his grandfather would be proud, but his parents are plenty proud too.
“When I was a kid, we sat and watched the Grand Ole Opry on Sunday nights,” Jennifer said. “You’re seeing Dolly and you’re seeing all these greats. To see that your kid is going to do that is surreal.”
Tyler will perform at the Grand Ole Opry on November 13.