Today we’d like to introduce you to Steele Earhart.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was twelve when everything fell apart. My older brother Sterling was one of those people who lit up a room. Confident, funny, everybody loved him. He was my best friend, my mentor, my hero. On the night of February 13, 2014, he was driving from law school near our house, lost control, and hit an oak tree on our street. He died right there. We found out in the early hours of the next morning — Valentine’s Day.
I didn’t just lose my brother. I feel like I lost me. That’s the night that changed the whole direction of my life. Everything I’ve become since — the lowest points and the calling both — traces back to losing my brother, Sterling.
My childhood ended that morning, and I don’t really know how to explain the next few years except that I was drowning. Even though I had many resources, I fell into a depression I couldn’t shake, and it got dark. I had a strong faith in Jesus but internally was in a battlefield.
And it wasn’t just missing Sterling. It was everything that went with him — how the dynamics within our family changed with his absence, how my friendships changed, losing the world I knew, and feeling like I didn’t fit anywhere anymore. The worst part was how alone it made me feel. A lot of people, those I thought were friends, just didn’t know how to interact with a kid who was grieving such a loss, so they backed off. I get it now — most people were never taught how to sit with someone in pain. The only ones who stayed the course were my family.
I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t function. It took actual medication for the insomnia and HeartSync therapy before I could even start putting my life back together. It was hard, but I experienced glimmers of hope.
What actually pulled me out was music. It was the tool God used to save my soul. The words bled out of me- it was raw. I let out everything one can’t say out loud. An older guy saw what I was going through and took me under his wing. He taught me how to make beats, how to take all the heavy emotions that were tearing me up and turn them into something.
Making beats, writing, recording/producing— that became my therapy. For the first time I could actually put what I was feeling into words, and turn it into something I could hold onto. Something other people who were hurting could hold onto too.
Little by little, I started coming back. Right before I turned eighteen, my mom woke up in the middle of the night and felt like God had put a message on her heart for me. She wrote it down and gave it to me on my birthday. They were words Sterling would say. I took those words, built a beat around them, recorded it, and made it mine — a song called “Hear You Say.”
A week later, my second oldest brother, Marc, was murdered on October 26th in 2019.
I still can’t really wrap my head around the timing, except it honestly felt like God went ahead of me and got me ready. Losing Marc tore open everything I was still carrying from Sterling — but this time I wasn’t the defenseless twelve-year-old anymore. The music, the faith, the ground Jesus helped me rebuild after Sterling held. That’s the difference Sterling’s loss made in me: by the time this hit, I already knew how to take the pain and create from it.
God continued to lift me out to “Rise Above Everything”, which is my artist name. I started a label, White Knight Studios, representing a warrior in faith. The music under the label embodies hope to carry people onward.
That’s what got me to Berklee College of Music, where I honed my craft further— not just as an artist but as someone who tells the story for people who are broken open. I show the hope to help them heal and find their way back to living life. After that, I went to Southeastern University and studied Ministerial and Biblical Leadership, because at some point I realized my music was never really just about music. It’s ministry to provide hope and healing for all of those suffering pain, losses, and trauma in their life.
These days I get to give other people what music gave me — a voice, a way to let it out, a way back to the light. I do that through my company, White Knight Studios, and through The Sterling Rose Sanctuary, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) which is named after Sterling. It was founded in 2017, and I am now the Vice President. At the Sanctuary, we help people Breathe again, Move again, and Live again as they Rise Above Everything,
I know what it’s like to feel too far gone. The isolation, the nights you can’t sleep, that voice telling you there’s nothing left. So if you’re in that place right now, hear me out: your pain can actually become a weapon against the enemy. Mine did. Through music, and through Jesus, you can Rise Above Everything.
My music comes out under Rise Above Everything — it’s on Apple Music and Spotify. To me, those aren’t just songs. I am proof, and so is my music, that the pain doesn’t get the last word.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The music side of things has been full of ups and downs. The hardest part is getting the right words to line up with the music I’m trying to create—making the message and the sound actually fit together. But the Lord has been working on me: on my relationship with Him, and on trusting His timing. That’s changed how I create. Instead of rushing to get something finished, I can slow down and stay focused on the purpose behind the message.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I rap, I sing, I make my own beats, and I mix and master my tracks. I don’t like to box myself into one genre — I make all kinds of songs across a lot of different styles. What ties it all together is that I’m pulling from the lessons I’ve learned from the hardest things I’ve walked through. The whole heart behind it is to Rise Above Everything, and I try to carry that into every part of it — the production, the composition, the lyrics. If there’s one thread running through my music, that’s it.
What would you say you’re known for?
People know me for writing from a really raw place — songs about loss, trauma, and grief, the stuff most people don’t want to say out loud. But I never leave it there. I always try to bring hope and healing into it too. At the center of all of it is — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What I’m really trying to show people is that the Trinity has power over death and hopelessness. I’ve lived that. So when I write about the dark, I’m always pointing toward the way out of it.
What are you most proud of?
Honestly, the thing I’m proudest of isn’t a song or an achievement — it’s that I’m a child of God, and that He can move His healing power in and through me, and that He can do the same for anybody else.
When I look back over the last twelve years, I can actually see what He’s done in my life. He took the negative way I used to think about myself, the anxiety, the depression, and moved me into a place of abundance — personally and in my artistry. There was a time I couldn’t even listen to my own music without it wrecking me. Now I can play it back, and I’m not triggered anymore, because He’s completely healed me. I don’t have the words to convey my thanks and gratitude for all He has done for me.
I’m also just really grateful for the artists I’ve gotten to work with — people who push me and inspire me, personally and professionally, who’ve made me better and helped me break through limits I honestly didn’t think I could get past.
What do you think sets you apart from other artists?
I think what sets me apart is that I keep my music clean, positive, uplifting, and full of hope. And I take my pain and actually put it to work — not to sit in it, but to tell somebody else that there’s a way out of the dark.
Because there is. And I’m proof of it.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
My faith, my family, my friends, and the freedoms I have, as well as the freedom of being able to express myself — creatively, but also in how I connect with people relationally and spiritually. Those are the things I hold onto.
And I don’t take any of it for granted. I’m thankful for the way God has blessed me through the people around me — the ones who challenge me spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. They push me to keep growing. I know I wouldn’t be who I am without them, and I see God’s hand in every one of those relationships, especially my family. I would not have made it without their love and support.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://riseaboveeverything.wixsite.com/website
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steeleearhart/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steele-earhart-a031a4190/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@riseaboveeverything
- Other: https://www.thesterlingrosesanctuary.us
