Revisiting this conversation from May 2022 offers a crucial snapshot of Lindsay Ell at a professional and personal turning point. Fresh off the deeply introspective and critically lauded album Heart Theory, she was re-emerging with a new anthem and a new perspective. The occasion was a trip to Toronto to throw the first pitch at a Blue Jays game but the real story was the mission statement she had just released: the single “Right On Time.” It was more than a song. It was a declaration.
This wasn’t just lyrical fodder. It was a direct consequence of a world grinding to a halt and forcing a notoriously hard-working artist to finally stand still. And in that stillness came a reckoning. “Shortly after I turned 30, I felt like all of my friends were getting married and having babies and checking all of these life boxes that I was nowhere near close to checking,” Ell says. That feeling of being out of sync with a perceived norm is a potent and universal anxiety and she channelled it directly into her work.
She had spent the pre-pandemic years in a relentless blur of motion. Two hundred and thirty-five shows a year. Over 280 days on the road. The machine was running at full tilt. But when the machine stopped it left a silence that was quickly filled by the noise of comparison culture. “You start playing the comparison game almost, you know, and and feeling societal pressure and feeling social media pressures,” she explains. The song became a necessary antidote.
Written over Zoom with fellow Canuck Jeff Warburton and Nashville hitmaker Jordan Schmidt “Right On Time” was conceived as a message specifically for women navigating these exact pressures. “I think that women feel this pressure at at certain times of their life,” Ell notes. “The pressure on when is the perfect time to be beautiful to maybe be a mother or decide to have kids to go after the career of their dreams.” It’s a sharp diagnosis of the invisible timelines imposed on women.
The core message is a powerful piece of self-help gospel set to a country-pop beat. “You don't need to live your life according to someone else's timeline,” she insists. “You can only really live your life to your timeline and sometimes we don't even know what that timeline should be until you're right smack dab in the middle of it.” It’s a simple truth but one that’s incredibly difficult to internalize when society’s metronome is ticking in your ear.
Of course songwriting has always been Ell’s primary mode of processing the world. She’s been doing it since she was 10 years old viewing it as a therapeutic tool. It’s a way to articulate feelings that defy simple language a universal code that bypasses the limitations of plain English. The music video for “Right On Time” extended this idea visually framing a support group that erupts into a celebration—a perfect metaphor for music’s healing power.
The song’s hooky mantra “You can never be late to your own party” became her personal philosophy. It reframes tardiness not as a failure but as a serendipitous detour. “Sometimes being late to the party is the best blessing that you could ever imagine,” she reflects. This perspective is hard-won born from a career that has been anything but a straight shot to the top. This was not an overnight success story.
You can never be late to your own party.
Looking back from 2022 her debut album Consider This produced by the legendary Randy Bachman was already 14 years in the rearview mirror. The Lindsay Ell of that early record would surely be stunned by the woman she became—a seasoned artist with a much deeper understanding of herself and the industry’s brutal mechanics. She cites a John Mayer interview as a perfect analogy for her journey. “If he were to retrace, like, the past twenty years of his career, it wouldn't be like a straight line a to b. It would be like zigzag and up and down and backwards.” That zigzag is where the real story is written.
That journey led to Heart Theory a stunningly ambitious concept album that charted the seven stages of grief. It was her musical diary a roadmap through emotional devastation that yielded her second number one single “Want Me Back.” But the album was more than its hit. It was a cohesive artistic statement from shock and denial to ultimate acceptance a project that cemented her reputation as a serious songwriter and artist.
While “Right On Time” shares a thematic thread with older songs like “Waiting On You” it broadens the scope from a specific relationship to a universal life perspective. It’s an evolution. And while the track is an undeniable empowerment anthem it also showcases Ell’s sharp understanding of the commercial country landscape. It’s an accessible radio-friendly single that delivers a substantive message without the emotional weight of the full Heart Theory experience—a savvy and necessary career move.
This period also saw her profile explode outside of music. Her role as host on Canada’s Got Talent put her in a new spotlight demonstrating a natural charisma and deep empathy for the performers. She learned from a panel of veterans including Howie Mandel Lilly Singh Trish Stratus and Kardinal Offishall holding her own and proving her instincts when her Golden Buzzer pick Jeanick Fournier won the entire competition.
Her pride in the show was palpable particularly in its ability to provide a national stage for Canadian talent that might otherwise feel compelled to head south. “We did need our own household name and show here in our own country,” she says. “Giving them a stage and a spotlight so that they didn't feel like they needed to go to another country to be heard on a world stage.” It was a full-circle moment for an artist who had spent years making her name in Nashville.
But at her core Ell remains a guitar player. Her love for the instrument is foundational. Mentored by Randy Bachman at 13 she was introduced to a world of blues jazz and rock that expanded her musical vocabulary far beyond country radio. That diverse influence is the backbone of her electrifying live show. When she talks gear she gets specific. She’s a Fender girl a Stratocaster loyalist who loves single-coil Big Dipper pickups. It’s not a prop. It’s another limb.
The summer of 2022 was set to be a massive one with an opening slot for her childhood idol Shania Twain at the Boots and Hearts festival. The significance was not lost on her. She speaks of Shania with reverence admiring her ability to navigate the industry’s treacherous waters. “As a woman, very intentional, says what she means and still does it while being sexy and being completely feminine,” Ell says. “That's a very fine line and hard line to walk as a woman, and Shania does it so well.”
That Boots and Hearts show featuring an all-female lineup on her day was a powerful statement. It represented a tangible shift in a genre often criticized for its lack of female representation. For Ell it was another moment of Canadian pride another opportunity to plant a flag. Looking ahead from that moment she was already in the studio with producer Jay Joyce working on her third major-label album. That pairing alone signalled a continued sonic evolution promising a record with even more grit and depth. This interview captured Lindsay Ell in perfect alignment—grateful for the zigzag path that got her there and secure in the knowledge that she was exactly where she needed to be.
519 Magazine Archive: We are thrilled to officially unearth the 519 Magazine Digital Vault. This isn't just a re-post; it's a high-fidelity restoration of a pivotal era in music journalism. By pairing original print dates with modern retrospectives, we’re bridging the gap between historical rock-and-roll grit and the lightning-fast performance of today’s web. These stories—once locked in physical print and lost URLs—are now back, fully searchable, and optimized for a new generation of fans.
We are thrilled to officially unearth the 519 Magazine Digital Vault. This isn't just a re-post; it's a high-fidelity restoration of a pivotal era in music journalism. By pairing original print dates with modern retrospectives, we're bridging the gap between historical rock-and-roll grit and the lightning-fast performance of today's web. These stories—once locked in physical print and lost URLs—are now back, fully searchable, and optimized for a new generation of fans.
