Playboy Club model, musician, and founder of Everly Agency, Lyric Everly is the kind of person who lights up the room. In our interview with her, we talk about her music, how homeschooling changed her life, and more.
Playboy: Where were you born, and what was growing up like for you?
Lyric: I was born in Portland, Oregon, and I actually had a really unique childhood. I lived on a little ranch. It was at the end of a dirt road, and so I was always playing in the woods and in the river. And I was homeschooled and also hyper religious growing up. So it was a little bit sheltered, but it actually ended up being a really cool childhood to have, because it made me very connected to nature and very creative. So looking back now, I’m very grateful for that childhood.
Playboy: Did you enjoy school? Why or why not?
Lyric: So I was homeschooled until high school. I loved being homeschooled as a kid, because there was so much freedom with that, running around on the property and things. But then when it came time for high school, I wanted to go. I was ready to go and like, have those social experiences. And my parents actually didn’t want me to go to regular high school. They wanted me to stay within the family and more sheltered. But I was so ready to get out there and experience life. And so I did go to high school, and it ended up being so wonderful, [I’m] still in touch with people from school, and I just loved it.
Playboy: A lot of kids seem to suffer in typical school systems. Do you feel your homeschooling experience was a benefit, since you didn’t have to experience that?
Lyric: Actually, a lot of people talk about my authenticity being one of my superpowers, and I think it actually stems back to that, because I didn’t grow up around other kids and feeling self-conscious, I was free to be myself. And I think that carried through into adulthood. So now I really encourage people to find out who they really are inside and let that shine, even if it’s weird.
Playboy: What’s the first thing you remember that you dreamed of achieving?
Lyric: So I think the very first thing that was a yes moment was when I watched a little girl get up and sing in church when I was a kid, and she was probably a little bit older, probably nine or 10 years old, and instantly I was like, “That, I want to do that.” And so I begged my mom, and she let me get up on Mother’s Day and sing a solo when I was five years old. And ever since then, I’ve just loved making music. It’s such a soul-stirring thing for me. And so I have a couple albums out, and I just love it so much. I also recently became a certified sound healer. So I’m more into the frequency side of music and how that can heal you. And so I think in the future, if I were to do more with music, I would probably do an ethereal meditation album.
Playboy: Where’s your favorite place you’ve traveled so far?
Lyric: I have a couple. The first ones that came to mind were Costa Rica, and that was actually where I had my first Ayahuasca experience. And then I did three months in Mexico last year, so I was in Cancun Playa Del Carmen and Tulum. So that whole stretch of the Riviera Maya is really special to me. And then also Lake Tahoe, which is so easy to get to in California, and you often don’t think about but it’s so beautiful there.
Playboy: What are you passionate about?
Lyric: A lot of stuff! I think creative expression is probably one of my biggest passions, and always has been since I was a kid. I think that people could get rid of anxiety if they just allowed themselves to create and express themselves more. For me, it would be like music. It could be stuff with Playboy. Playing dress up has always been so much fun for me, so this has kind of been a natural fit for me. Even writing for me is so much fun. So I have a blog that I do and then design, and anything that I can do to express myself feels so good.
Playboy: What do you most want to change about the world?
Lyric: I think there’s a lot of division in the world right now, and people see themselves as so different from others, and don’t feel like they can come together in unity. And I think that if we ourselves became more aligned in our polarity, knowing that we both, we all have the dark and the light, the masculine and the feminine in us able to see each other as more direct reflections of our own being. So I think, you know, uniting and polarity would probably something that could help, you know, bring peace and comfort in the world right now.
Playboy: What are your turn-ons and turn-offs?
Lyric: So as we touched on, I think anytime I’m expressing creativity, that feels like a turn on within myself. I feel like my vitality kind of spikes in that way with people I date. I would say a big turn on is confidence, but a confidence that’s rooted in knowing who they are and feeling comfortable in themselves. Genuine confidence, as opposed to the charisma that they put on as a front.
Doing things with Playboy has been a turn on for me in that it allows me to dip into my feminine energy. And that’s important because I have a business, and it can be challenging to go from my masculine leader energy and then be able to like switch into the soft feminine. Consistently creating for Playboy has been something that has helped me do that.
Playboy: What would the name of your autobiography be?
Lyric: Love lighter. And that, actually, was the name of my first DBA when I started doing design work. It’s now my license plate on my car. I feel like there’s a lot of stuff in the world that can drag you down, but there’s also the opportunity to use it as a driving force to live more in the light and to love more and to bring more positivity and into the world, because it is a choice. We can choose to be dragged down by the darkness in the world, or we can choose to embody and deliver the light.
Playboy: Describe your perfect day.
Lyric: I’m an early riser, so I really love getting up between the four and six o’clock hour, when everything is quiet. I love seeing a sunrise and starting with a guided meditation, something to get me in the zone of creating my perfect day, and then maybe it’s having something yummy for breakfast, and then doing a little bit of journaling. I really believe in the power of scripting your life, so writing down specific goals and desires that you have, and getting really clear on them, I think, is really helpful to bring them into your reality. And then I personally love diving into work. I have a creative career, so it’s exciting to actually get to work on stuff, and I try to get most of my workload done before noon. So the morning is really important to me to stay focused and feel like I’m able to accomplish something for the rest of the day, to feel free.
Playboy: Tell us about the journey of making your own music.
Lyric: So I remember the first time I started writing songs. I was five years old, and I had saved up all my money to buy this Rainbow Bright tape recorder. And I remember locking myself in the bathroom and just making up songs. And I didn’t know at the time that I was actually starting to write music, but to me, it was just a natural fit of something that I desired to do. And so that was probably the earliest memory of creating. Then when I was a teenager, I started performing at county fairs, and so I did that whole circuit and started recording music. That was the first time I went to Nashville and recorded an album. And then as I progressed in life, I have always had something musical going on. It’s probably one of my biggest passions.