Gabby Barrett Shares Why Faith, Not Fame, Defines Her Measure Of Success

Since she was 17, Gabby Barrett’s life has been moving at lightning speed. She launched her career on American Idol, where she met her now-husband Cade Foehner, and has worked tirelessly ever since to grow her career while also becoming a mom of three by age 25. Through it all, she’s stayed grounded in her faith, which has helped her to shape how she now defines success.

Sitting down on the The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast with her husband by her side, Barrett reflected on her journey up until this point. When asked how she has been able to manage all the different aspects of her life with such grace, the songstress responded, “By the grace of God, I just take it day by day. That is all that I can do. If I think too far down the line, it just doesn’t work out very well for me.”

She went on to admit that there is no secret to finding that perfect balance between her constant flow of performances and spending time with her kids. There is no doubt that it has been a difficult task, but being able to lean into her faith has been her true saving grace.

“I trust in the Lord that he will keep me on the right path. He knows that my heart wants to be towards my children and my family and my husband first,” she declared. “And I truly believe that he sustained me to this point in doing so. And I think something that’s been big for me is just reframing my brain and this is something that I’m continually working on.”

To keep herself in check, Barrett says she often asks herself, “What is the definition of success for me? What does that mean for Gabby?” Doing this has allowed her to see that while all the recognition and accolades that have come from her career are meaningful, those trophies aren’t what defines how successful she feels in life.

“Charts are great. All the streaming numbers are great, awards are great, all those things are great and I’m very, very thankful for them. But success, when I get down to brass tacks, in my heart, success is measured for me by faithfulness. So how am I treating other people? What am I singing about? How am I representing myself so that my children will look at me? Who do they see as they get older? Am I doing things that are pleasing to God? All of those things are really what’s important to me, and that is my measure of being successful is being faithful at the post of where God’s put me. And that’s something that I struggle with because being an artist in the music industry, it’s very competitive. It’s very fast moving. It’s very work, work, work, work, work, work. It’s very challenging sometimes,” she explained.

“It’s always a work in progress for me,” Barrett continued. “But that’s where I’ve had to reframe my mind is successfulness about being faithful with what God has given and where you’re at rather than paying attention to the numbers and the money and the awards.”

Barrett says she really began leaning into her faith when she and Cade started dating in March 2018. He gave her a Bible, and she remembered feeling as if a switch had flipped in her mind.

“I can’t even explain it, but yeah, so our journey’s been interesting. God’s been guiding it the whole way.”

As their bond grew, so did their faith and their desire to have deeper conversations about where their relationship was headed and how they would navigate that journey with their individual music careers.

“We’re both Christians, we both want our relationship to work. We know that it probably won’t work if you’re trying to pursue that solo and I’m trying to pursue this solo and we’re going to meet up a weekend out of the month at the airport to have a date and then be ships crossing in the middle of the night. How are we going to be able to sustain a marriage? How are we going to be able to raise a family?” she wondered. “I knew I wanted to be a mother, I wanted to have kids. And so we were talking about all this, and it just made sense to start doing it together.”

The lovebirds stuck together through all the ups and downs that came their way and eventually tied the knot in 2019. They welcomed their first child, a daughter named Baylah May shortly after, followed by a son, Augustine Boone Foehner, and another daughter, Ivy Josephine Foehner.

Even though marriage and having kids, Gabby Barrett says they had tremendous support around them and have always felt lucky to be able to have a team that shows so much support in their goal of growing a family alongside their musical dreams.

“Everybody was very supportive. Now, by the time I got to the third baby within a couple of years, I was a little nervous about that one. I was a little bit nervous. But again, everybody was very supportive on my team’s side of it, which I really appreciate. That’s really helpful.”

Now, the family of five lives out their lives together, splitting their time between their home in Texas and touring on the road.

Gabby Barrett is currently on her Life I’m Living Tour 2025, with one remaining date on October 5 in Ocean City, MD. In the midst of the trek, she dropped her new song, “The Easy Part,” marking her first release this year that offers a glimpse at the next chapter of her career.