{"id":6331,"date":"2024-02-14T08:29:24","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T16:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/?p=6331"},"modified":"2026-08-30T20:46:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T03:46:50","slug":"steph-payne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/steph-payne\/","title":{"rendered":"Steph Payne"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chic<\/span><\/div>
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This article was printed in<\/em>
\nChic Compass Magazine - Issue 17<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"Steph<\/span><\/div><\/div>

Steph Payne (Photo by Enlightened Entertainment)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Steph Payne<\/h1>\n

From the Military to the Ministry to the Main Stage<\/p>\n

BY STACEY GUALANDI \/ PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF STEPH PAYNE<\/p>\n<\/div>

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After a recent performance in front of a packed audience, singer\/songwriter Steph Payne was beaming. She still couldn\u2019t believe what happened when she finished her set. \u201cA man in the audience gave me a $5,000 cash tip!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mind you, Payne\u2019s sultry singing, glamorous good looks, and compelling charisma (or rizz as we say now) are worth that and more, but for her, this was a sign the main stage is where she\u2019s meant to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I\u2019m following my dream,\u201d said the award-winning artist. \u201cI\u2019m finally pursuing what I\u2019ve always wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

In just four short years, the Pasadena transplant has made a name for herself in Sin City as audiences keep boarding the \u201cSteph Payne Express.\u201d But if you\u2019re new to her act, this passionate performer is equal parts sass, soul, and smooth jazz, with a side of gospel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do a lot of things off the cuff, and I sing many different genres of music,\u201d said Payne. \u201cI think my motive is to make people walk away entertained, fulfilled, and feeling better than when they came in. If I can accomplish that, then I\u2019ve done my job.\u201d<\/p>\n

On any given night, Payne is fully engaged on each end of the Strip, whether at the much-in-demand Delilah Supper Club inside Wynn Las Vegas, the iconic Bootlegger Bistro, or her new steady gig at Venetian\u2019s Villa Azur. When she\u2019s not in front of an audience, Payne is live on the air as the host of \u201cSaturday Classics\u201d on 91.5 KUNV FM Radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just in a place where I\u2019m having fun doing what I love,\u201d said Payne, 42. \u201cA lot of people in this business have been doing it since they were kids. I did everything else first.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Steph Payne (Photo by Enlightened Entertainment)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

Payne grew up in the church in Los Angeles. She came from a mixed-race, hardworking family: her grandmother was Scandinavian, her mom was \u201cmostly white,\u201d and her dad is Black.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowing up, the Black side of my family was Baptist, and the white side was Charismatic (Church). I grew up listening to different people speak, so I\u2019m not one or the other,\u201d said Payne. \u201cI\u2019m somewhere in between.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mom was a police officer, and her dad\u2014who played drums\u2014went from managing rundown apartment buildings to being the union chairman for LA rail car and bus drivers. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved and looked up to my parents and wanted to be like them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne said while she never got to meet her grandfather, actor Jimmy Payne\u2014who appeared in the film \u201cThe Arrangement\u201d with Kirk Douglas and in a recurring villain role on the 60s series \u201cGet Smart\u201d\u2014she credits him for her talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel it in my blood, and a lot of it comes naturally,\u201d said Payne. \u201cI don\u2019t rehearse much of what I do; it just comes to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Payne says she is so proud of what he accomplished as a Black entertainer and boasts that his picture is hanging above hers inside Battista\u2019s Hole in the Wall near the Flamingo!)<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Music was all around her growing up. Payne sang in glee club, and the church choir, and her parents always made instruments available to her, but they \u201cnever forced me to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne said they were strict, however, so at 12, to escape the \u201cfamily regime,\u201d she went to work parking cars at the Rose Bowl. \u201cI just wanted to be independent,\u201d said Payne. \u201cWhen you\u2019re that age, you think you\u2019ve got it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time Payne entered junior college, she was a skilled athlete, excelling on the basketball court, not in class. A cousin she looked up to suggested she needed discipline, so why not check out the U.S. Air Force?<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, that\u2019s what I did,\u201d said Payne. \u201cI walked into the recruiting office one day\u2026they were out to lunch at three o\u2019clock in the afternoon, so the Army recruiter came out and said, \u2018Well, why don\u2019t you listen to what we have to offer while you wait?\u2019 I signed up, walked out, and never talked to the Air Force.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was 2000, and a 19-year-old Payne began her six-year service in the military.<\/p>\n

\u201cBootcamp was scary,\u201d said Payne. \u201cThat initial part of going in, they treat you like cattle, [but] it teaches you mental discipline. There are some very traumatic emotional things that you go through during that training, and you have to supersede your emotions and just stay in control and use your brain.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Payne luckily didn\u2019t see combat in Iraq, but she did serve during the attack on the Twin Towers and throughout the war under two presidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was military intelligence, so most of my work was operational versus tactical,\u201d said Payne. \u201cI got really good at my job, so I just started leveling up within the intelligence circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

She earned top-secret clearance as an analyst working in national security and surveillance. When asked what secrets she could share, Payne said she could tell me, but then she\u2019d\u2026well, you know.<\/p>\n

She credits her tour of duty in the Army with giving her thick skin, a trait that now serves her well as a performer.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really have to think past what your emotions tell you,\u201d said Payne. \u201cIt helps me not to care about certain things that other performers care about in entertainment and not to take things personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps it makes perfect sense that Payne would transition from her post to the pulpit after having spent her formative years in church.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been some kind of servant, whether being a soldier in the Army or doing ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne was a successful speaker in California congregations for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the military honed those characteristics in me: the leadership part, the public speaking part, the being able to keep an audience entertained part,\u201d said Payne. \u201cThat\u2019s a big part of preaching and speaking in the church, too, \u2019cause people will fall asleep on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

She learned a lot studying religions, especially the power of positive thinking, but ultimately, the stress and sacrifice in ministry forced Payne to move on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a point in time when I grew out of that stage in my life, and I wanted to pursue other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Payne was busy raising fraternal twin girls, now 15, and starting to create and record original gospel music in Los Angeles. Some of her early gospel \u201cshe-roes\u201d include the Clark Sisters.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\u201cGospel singers are the best singers in the world. They\u2019re not all classically trained; it\u2019s just a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

But life would take another unexpected turn when her then-husband moved Payne and the girls to Las Vegas to be near family in 2019. Her grandmother was diagnosed with dementia, and they were looking for a better lifestyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t come here to sing,\u201d admitted Payne of the move to Vegas.<\/p>\n

But it was only a matter of time before her long-held-yet-not-fully-realized dream to be in showbiz became a reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just called to me, so I started singing at open mics,\u201d said Payne. \u201cThen I joined a couple of bands, worked the lounge circuit off the Strip, and eventually started my own band\u2026I actually opened my first show in a major casino!\u201d<\/p>\n

While a whole new scene opened up in Las Vegas for Payne, it was like the military all over again. \u201cVegas has its own boot camp,\u201d joked Payne. \u201cThe entertainment community here is very close-knit and very protective. You have to break through and prove yourself, but I appreciate that you have to work hard in this town to make a name for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Steph Payne (Photo by Myron Martin)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

It was her intelligence background, said Payne, that helped her analyze the market to see what worked and what didn\u2019t for artists who\u2019ve been performing in Las Vegas for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m okay with taking the long road\u2026rather than using shortcuts; that\u2019s what gets people in trouble in entertainment,\u201d said Payne. \u201cI think I could have gotten to this point if I had done this all my life, but I think I am better off having the career path I had. I\u2019m not surprised that I\u2019m here, but I\u2019m extremely grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

But having a music career can take its toll on a marriage. The constant push-pull of performing eventually came between Payne and her husband, and their marriage ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think with the divorce, that was a sacrifice of my family unit,\u201d said Payne. \u201cIt\u2019s the music business that ruined it, so when I hear people say, \u2018Oh, you did this so fast!\u2019 it wasn\u2019t without sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne gets teary when the subject turns to her two daughters, who live part-time with her in Las Vegas. She says her number one goal has always been to be a role model for them now and long after she\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be someone my girls can be proud of,\u201d said Payne. \u201cI just always want to leave my mark and be a positive example for my kids that they can do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne is no doubt leaving her mark. She recently won an Emmy Award for \u201cLegends Unite for St. Jude,\u201d a musical television production with Skip Martin (of the Dazz Band) and David Cook.<\/p>\n

In 2023, she crushed her number one goal to not only perform her Soul Fusion show on Myron\u2019s stage at The Smith Center in downtown Las Vegas but also to sing her original song \u201cHide Out\u201d for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I start to feel pigeonholed, I\u2019ll do something completely off the map,\u201d said Payne. \u201cWhen I did Soul Fusion, I felt like I had reached the pinnacle in Las Vegas\u2026 now it\u2019s time to go higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne is also back in her home studio recording more original music, a smooth jazz project with legendary musical director (and Barry Manilow keyboardist) Joey Melotti.<\/p>\n

And for those who missed it, she\u2019ll return to Myron\u2019s on February 20th for a new iteration of her Soul Fusion show.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Steph Payne (Photo by Enlightened Entertainment)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

\u201cIf there is one word to describe me, it\u2019s \u2018chameleon,\u2019\u201d said Payne. \u201cI always do something people don\u2019t expect me to do, and I feel like I can change when I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

With her present and future looking so bright, I had to ask who would play her in an eventual biopic. Payne has narrowed it down to two: Vampire Diaries actress-singer-songwriter Kat Graham, or Loki and Morning Show actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw. We shall wait and see!<\/p>\n

For now, Payne hopes her path from the military to the ministry to the main stage proves that it\u2019s never too late to pursue a dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of different facets that you have to deal with as a woman and as a woman of color,\u201d added Payne. \u201cJust know who you are and stand strong in that. Be professional, always. Don\u2019t take anything personally. Don\u2019t get discouraged. Brush it off, let it go, and know you can do whatever you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Look who\u2019s giving a big tip now!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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In just four short years, Steph Payne, the Pasadena transplant has made a name for herself in Sin City as audiences keep boarding the \u201cSteph Payne Express.\u201d But if you\u2019re new to her act, this passionate performer is equal parts sass, soul, and smooth jazz, with a side of gospel. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4520,4075],"tags":[4109,3167,267,2816,3128,4108],"class_list":["post-6331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-issue-17","tag-entertainers","tag-entertainment","tag-las-vegas","tag-nevada","tag-stacey-gualandi","tag-steph-payne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6331"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6341,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6331\/revisions\/6341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}