On April 12, Carlile was invited to Ellen’s talk show to promote her memoir Broken Horses. The artist told Ellen that she was the first gay person she ever “met” growing up in Washington and she had secretly recorded the host’s infamous sitcom episode, where Ellen’s character came out, in 1997.
Carlile later came out as lesbian, while at high school, in November 2002. “What you did for me, and people like us, when you came out, was so huge for me in my life,” the star told Ellen. “You were the first gay person I’d ever met.
To me, you were what it meant. And I wasn’t going to stay in the closet after that.” Carlile humorously admitted she hid the inspiring Ellen episode on a tape titled “David’s baseball game” in disguise of a recording of