Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Kirk Franklin On Meeting His Biological Father, Wholeness, Healing + More

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INTERVIEW: Kirk Franklin On Meeting His Biological Father, Wholeness, Healing + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Breakfast Club morning.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: Everybody is d j en Vy Charlamagne the God. We
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: the buildings, indeed, the brother Kirk. Frankly, welcome brother, welcome.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Back, Good morning. King.
• 0:14
  Speaker 4: Now, woll I'm not taller than you.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: That's impossible.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: That's that's everybody is.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Don't never happen.
• 0:20
  Speaker 5: God, God does some amazing things in life, works for miracles,
• 0:23
  Speaker 5: but that ain't never happened.
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: I'm talking about I'm talking about them, talking about the charity.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: He's so sensitive.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: But you know the moment, No, no, no, no, no,
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: here the same height.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: You know, that's a damn lie.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: That's not true either.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: On brother, come on now, tower No, you're not towering.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: No, you're not towering. Lam Charlam got you by like
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: an inch. Charlam agnt got you by inch like towers.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: Contest with anyone?
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: How you feeling, my brother, man?
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: A lot of feelings, yes, a lot of feelings. And
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: you know, I thank y'all for letting me come. I mean,
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: this is my first week of having conversations you know,
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: about all of this, and so, you know, just trying
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: to learn how to be able to articulate it in
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: ways that I've never had to have this level of
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: communication about. You know, I'm very open and transparent guy,
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: you know, but some of this recent stuff has kind of,
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: you know, hit me for a little because it's so fresh,
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: it's so new. It's only like, you know, twelve weeks old.
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: So I'm trying to learn how to do it in
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: this way. So yeah, but I'm willing to try for.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: People that don't know. He's documentary father, the time that
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: you met your father for the first time in fifty
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: three years.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, and just the nuances of it, the fact
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: that I hated a man for fifty three years that
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: I thought was my father and he died knowing that
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: I hated him.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: That was powerful. In the Doctor you said you went
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: to go me peace with him.
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I was wondering, like, how did you feel knowing
• 2:05
  Speaker 5: you made peace with a person that you know, you
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: really you really had no problem problem with having a problem.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: With Well, I still would have had the brokenness centate
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: because he wasn't in my life and I hated him
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: because he wasn't in my life and showed up when
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: my career started to take off and that broke me,
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: you know, being adopted and not having a mother and
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: father in my life, but still knowing well, I met
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: him when I was six, saw him again when I
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: was thirteen, and then he started showing up when my
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: career took off. And so for somebody that already had
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: a lot of trauma being adopted and having a lot
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: of abandonment, his shoes and acceptance is shoes, you know,
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: it it it It was a very painful process to
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: live that way, knowing that you wouldn't wanted, and just
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: all the mistakes that a young black man can make,
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: not having the type of mentorship because I didn't have
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: uncles that stepped in. I didn't have those type of things.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: And even in the church, you know, the church majority,
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: it's always made up of women, you know, unfortunately, and
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: so you try to navigate and you make a lot
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: of mistakes, and then religion and dogma can also become
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: a little duplicitous and can make the journey even more problematic.
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: Is because you're living in fear, you know, but because
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: a lot of times in religion is God's going to
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: get you, and God's going to get you, and God's
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: going to get you more than this. God loves you.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: And even one of my mentors, now that a molder
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: told me about twenty years ago, it's hard to know
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: God's love as a father when you've never had one.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Namn O fire right, Oh hell yeah?
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: What made you want to meet him?
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: This guy? Well, you know just how it happened. You know,
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: I was in the military's I wasn't even looking for him.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: They said, this guy. Is that how you refer to
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: him as this guy?
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: Well? You know, and I know that language is necessary, right,
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: and it's very important, and language speaks really the the
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: the tennis of the heart, right. But you know, for me,
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: this this this term father is something that I'm still
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: just grapping with. And it's not his fault. I mean,
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: he's he's been a man who's lived his life. He's
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: a sixty nine year old man that has lived his
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: life not thinking about that he has a son there
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: was ten minutes away from him, his entire life ten
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: minutes away. And so right now I call him mister Ricks.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: I call him mister Rick right now as I'm trying
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: to navigate because you know, he has a daughter, and
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: you know, and she's an incredible young lady. She's trying
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: to navigate because she's been the apple of his eye
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: all of her life. And U you know, you know,
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: and it's like all of a sudden, now they've got me,
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: and and and he's been very loving but very welcoming.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: And but at the same time, my biological mother, who
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: I haven't ever really had, I had a strong relationship with,
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: it's still denying that he's my father after two DNA tests.
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: Why is that? I mean, I don't understand that. In
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: the documentary, like the DNA test was ninety nine point
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: nine nine nine positive. That was I'm not gonna lie you.
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: You're a funny person. You don't be meaning to be funny.
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: They when they gave you to w was like nint
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: nine percent.
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: Of what Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's because I haven't
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: been in that position before in my life.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: It's like I don't get a lot of calls that
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: I got kids by different people, so you know, so
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: I don't know, yeah, and and and then you know,
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: you have a lot of anxiety because you don't really understand.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: But uh uh, why won't she accept it?
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: I don't know. And I would have loved for her
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: to give me that but it's obvious that she can't,
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: and so I have the responsibility of still honoring black
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: women and talking and in a way that still gives
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: a light that I never want to uh attack her publicly.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: And I don't know her as my mother, you know,
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: the woman that adopted me was the woman that I
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: knew as my mother. I would see my biological mother
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: maybe once or twice a year in my life, which
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: makes even the trauma even more painful, because in marginalized communities,
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: when it comes to legal adoption, sometimes they don't always
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: work the same. A lot of times, people outside of
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: our race and Hue, they are adopted in systems where
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: they don't really know their biological parents, and so they
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: may know that they were given up, but at least
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: they find people that want them and love them, so
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: at least it's a wound that heals. But when you
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: have people that come in and out of your life
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: every now and then, and sometimes and our communities, you know,
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: you can be related to somebody that lives right down
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: the street and you don't even know it. And I
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: think that that's what has made the story even a
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: little bit more painful and even more broadest that the
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: amount of people that have come out that look like us,
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: that have this story, and that in itself is daunted
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: to know that the Black American experience has caused this.
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: This this this a fractured understanding of what family is
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: because we were so displaced and separated and so many
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: nuances to why we don't.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Know who we are?
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: Now, let me ask you. You did say that, Uh,
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: what's the name, mister Rich? I don't want to call
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: it mister Rick. So you said, mister Rick has a
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: daughter and.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: That's the apple of his eye.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: How did that make you feel?
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: When you look at mister Rick and you see how
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: much he loves his daughter and raised his door and
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: put the time and energy into his daughter, And then
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: you might look and reflect back on yourself and say, damn,
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: why wasn't I the same way? Why wasn't I the
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: apple of his eye? Why wasn't I his son? And
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: why wasn't I Like why did did you ever look
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: at that and get a little jealous and make you
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: feel away? And how did you overcome that?
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: Because I've never been the apple of anyone's eye. It
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: was just my normal. I've never been an apple of anyone,
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: even the woman that adopted me because of her.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: Is one thing that I do share with my brother
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: Charlemagne is that I am a huge advocate of therapy
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: and counseling. I've been a counseling since i was eighteen
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: years old. I even the therapist I have right now,
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: I'm his longest I'm his longest patient that he's ever seen,
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: you know. And we kind of make jokes about it
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: because he says that every new experience in my life,
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: it triggers a new trauma. And so I believe in Jesus,
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: I believe in prayer, and I believe in therapy, and
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: so I've needed all of that just to try to
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: get by. So him her being the apple of his
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: eye didn't affect men anyway, because that's all I've ever known,
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: not being that. So that's my normal. That's been my normal.
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: You said something the doctor hit me so hard, man.
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: You said, you don't even know who you truly are.
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: I'm paraphrase, and you don't even know who you truly
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: are because you only know the broken version of yourself.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Yes, sir God, yes.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: Sir, And and you know and and and I don't
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: want to, you know, even post myself as as as
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: a victim. I really tried to want to maneuver and
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: And what was very interesting because I was working on
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: this album, and this album was just going to be
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: an album. I was working on Bros. And and for
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: the first time I had a little budget where I
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: could hire a videographer. This is my guy out here
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: to you to your right and left and Chris, and
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: Chris was just with me, just capturing the process of
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: working on my album. And in the middle of this album,
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: one a young lady that sings with me. At her
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: father's church, there was a funeral. And at that funeral,
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: it was a funeral for a woman that is my
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: biological aunt. I didn't go because I knew my mother
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: would be there. I and see my mother in over
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: twenty three years, because there was something that she did
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: to me and my biological well and my half sister
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: that I thought was very painful. My half sister just
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: got out of prison and nobody was at a helper
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: but me. I was thirty one years old, thirty two
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: years old, and I'd have, you know, the knowledge to
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: know i'd handle somebody getting out of prison and what
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: to do because she still was dealing with drugs and
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: different things, and so something painful happened over twenty three
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: years ago that made me go, I'm not going to
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: deal with you again. And so I didn't go to
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: the funeral. But at the funeral there was a man there.
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: There was friends of the family of the church that
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: the funeral was. Head name was Rick. He saw Debora
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: at the funeral and said, oh, I didn't know that
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: Deborah and this young lady that past were related. I
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: used to mess around with Deborah and that was the beginning.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: And so my man was with me. I'm in a
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: studio working on music, and so I was able to
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: hide behind the camera if they If that makes any sense,
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: the camera gave me courage. When mister Rick heard the rumors,
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: it gave me the courage to after I got the
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: test results, to go see him, go see her, go
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: see other people, so I wouldn't have to do it
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: by myself.
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: I wonder, is, Kirk Franklin, is there is there a
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: version in your mind and yourself that you can see
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: that's whole and healed because you say what your you know,
• 11:18
  Speaker 5: your therapist said to you, how every new trauma.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: Every every every new experience.
• 11:22
  Speaker 5: Experience calls this trauma, and it feels like that even now,
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: like you know, you know who your biological father is.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: But does that make you feel more whole or does
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: it make you just feel even more broken?
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: Beautiful question, beautiful question. And it's funny because when you
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: hear this new you know, you know, and you guys
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: know how it is. Man, you know it because you've
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: written books, you've you youth, you are creative, You are creative.
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: You know how art imitates life. And so when you're
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: in the middle of hell, in the middle of something,
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: it's gonna come out and whatever it is that you're
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: you know, you know you're writing or you're doing music.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: And so even even in the new record that comes
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: out Friday, Man, it's just I am trying to figure
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: that out. I'm trying to figure it out lyrically. Is
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: because I find myself, I almost find myself afraid of
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: knowing what even well looks like. Is because brokenness becomes
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: almost like a blanket, and that's warped. That's not healthy.
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: And so that's why I know I've got to continue
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: to keep doing the work. It is because I know
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: that it affects everything and everybody around me. You know,
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: it affects your understanding of love, and so your wife
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: feels it, your children feel it. You know, all the
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: people aren't feeling it. And at the same time, Bros,
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: you see how God uses it in this mysterious way.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: Because there are so many broken people, you're able to
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: communicate to them from a space that you can say
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: to them, me too. And I think that sometimes even
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: in the kind of music that I do, it can
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: make you feel like, Okay, well, Goswin's gonna be so
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: happy and so up in. It's like, you know, it
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: ain't really speaking to my you know, ish right. And
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: but the music that I've been able to do because
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: I heal as I reveal, I really try to communicate
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: my my fragility in the music so that people can
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: be able to see, Okay, he don't have it all
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: together because I don't. And there's a lot about life,
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: a lot about God, a lot about struggles that I
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: don't understand, and I'm still trying to figure it out,
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: and so I'm trying to do my best to to
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: just walk it out.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: And aren't you just trauma bonding what you're listening is, then.
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: Wow, that's a strong question. That's a very strong question.
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: I pray that I give them balance, as I pray
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: that in the lyrical content, in the music, that as
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: I go through the journey, even like someone I can
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: imagine me, you know, imagine me loving what I see.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: And then at the end of the so even though
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: I talk about the beginning of that, I talk about
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: how it's gone, you know, so, and I think that
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: that's important. I think that David the Psalm is David right,
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: you know. And I'm quite sure that you've read, you know,
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: the Psalms before, you know. It sounds a little about
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: polar right, you know what I'm saying. You know, one
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: day he's afraid and questioning, one day he's down, and
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: one day he's rejoicing. And I think that that duality
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: is necessary. It's because the complexity of life requires an
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: honest approach of how rain and sunshine they coexist in
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: our journey.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: But I think it also allows people to know that
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: they're not alone with their journey.
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: That That's what I've always tried to do, you know.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: But what Charlemage just said is something that I definitely
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: want to ponder on this book. I think it's such
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: a strong statement. And I think that it's very important
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: that as you try to give medicine and try to
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: wrap it in candy, that you are at least trying
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: to give the solution. And so I appreciate you saying
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: that to me so that I can, you know, fight
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: still try to be accountable because I'm still learning.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: I think that's the biggest thing. Like you know, we're
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: all just still learning, right like you.
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: We're not experts. We're just sharing our experiences. Yeah, And
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: I think that's what you're doing. You're just sharing your experience.
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: One thing I love in the doctor, man, I love
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: I love seeing folks doing inner child work. And that's
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: what you're doing. You're doing your in a child work.
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: You're trying to hear your in a child. How important
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: is that to you?
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Man? I got to keep it together, bro, good brother,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: we have man people.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: Together once again. It's my first week you know doing it. Yeah,
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: you know, it's amazing because I haven't been around my
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: mother in decades and the fact that she won't give
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: me what I'm asking slight. Just let me know that
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: you didn't know, and you even say you don't know,
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: but to be so adamant about he isn't your father.
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: It's because her not giving me that takes away my
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: ability to be able to even try to embrace it,
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: because she still has power over the little boy, right,
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: And I hadn't seen her in decades, Like in that
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: amazing and that amazing that you can see the cause
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: of the beginning of your reckless life and hadn't seen
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: them in almost three decades, and they still have power
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: over the soul of the little baby.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: You know, first of all, I could never imagine myself
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: in that predicament or position. But I'm just trying to
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: put myself in your shoes. Right, And here's a lady
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: that you call your biological mom, and you haven't seen
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: her in three decades.
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: Well, twenty three years, twenty three.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: Years, almost three decades, twenty three years. And I guess
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: the question I would want to know is why, right?
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: And the reason I say why is in this situation,
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: it's like, you know, you have kids, I have kids,
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: and it's like I think I would feel like, damn,
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: you don't want me. And even even even though that
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: you know I was adopted, and it's like you would
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: feel like, well, I'm successful now, I'm Kirk Franklin, and
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: you still don't want nothing to do with me, You
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: still don't want to be to make up for lost
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: time and to try that that that never affected you.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Because it's just how I feel. I'm about to start
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: crying because I feel them. Because I feel them.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: You are a few amazed. Well, first of all, thank
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: you for the comedy break, and I thank you for
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: the comedy.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: Break because I feel because I'm about to start tearing because.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: I feel away you are.
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: And I love how y'all got that brotherhood fired like that,
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: you know, and it's funny because don't like them, But
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: even that is beautiful to me because I was raised
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: with none of that, you know, you know, being raised
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: by yourself. That's traumatic. I was the kid, I'm embarrassed
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: and said, but I was a kid on the Leicester school.
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: I would cry because I was going back to a
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: house with an older lady who it was. It was
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: just empty and I didn't want to leave these kids
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: because I had no family to go home.
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: Oh man, see before see this is why therapy and
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: stuff is so important. Because before the conversation started, before
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: you even turn on the mics, you were telling to
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: keep having kids because you don't want to have an
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: empty nests and you were like, an empty nexs is
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: a motherfucker.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: You didn't curse, but you might have.
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: Curse, not this time, not this time, but you said,
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: and so now that that's the same thing, right.
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah. And so
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: you fill your life with noise, fill your life with noise,
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: and so uh and then when you talk about what
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: I'm Kirk Franklin, now you still don't want me. I'm
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: gonna tell you whatever. That Kirk Franklin thing is a
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: lot of times makes it worse. It's because success can
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: be traumatizing. And I learned that in therapy. It's because
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: now you've got to deal with how do I maneuver?
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: How do I like? I was so traumatized by success
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: is that when the first album goes platinum, you think
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: a million people like you, and then if the next
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: album goes gold, your work behind things that half of
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: me and people don't like you no more. And so
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: I'm honest enough to say it, I'm crushing. I'm not
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: the only one that goes through that. And so when
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: you don't, when those beginning stages of life, when you
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: don't have people to inform you of who you are.
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: It says the trajectory of how you process everything in life.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: Everything in life has through that same filter. I want
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: to be liked, I want to be accepted. Am I okay?
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: Am I good enough? And you can be fifty three
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: years old still asking how'd I do?
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: How'd I do?
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: How'd I do? I'm doing interviews all week and you know,
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: and I'll still pull the publicist to the side. Okay,
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: how was that? Was that good?
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: You know? Was that? You know?
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: And and it's it's because you just still trying to
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: figure out and so all of this just opens up
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: the new wounds. And so that's why I needed this album.
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: I needed this music. I needed to Man. Can you
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: imagine if all this was going on and I was
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: just at the crib having none to do, Bro, I
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: needed to be working on music. Does that makes sense? Bro?
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: I couldn't be still. I had to be doing something
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: because I was going to go crazy.
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: But isn't that a response to traumatal staying busy? They
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: always say, staying busy is a trauma response?
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Can be?
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: It can be, And I don't know if all of
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: it is terrible? Is because there are other results that
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: you could take. They could even be more detrimental, you know, drugs, drinkings.
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: You know. I think that the most important thing that
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: I do want anyone listening to understand is because again,
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: it's not just Kirk's story. This is a lot of
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: people's story, and a lot of people live in these spaces,
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: which which is mind blowing. All of the responses I've
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: gotten from this is that I just want people to
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: know that you can't wait to get fixed before you
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: get up and win. So what you got to do
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: is you gotta win.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Wounded?
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: Did this help your relationship?
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Kids? Are you gotta win? Wounded? You gotta all of us? Right,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: You gotta win.
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: You can't wait for them sorry, you can't wait till
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: the person wants to fix it. You can't wait for
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: the apology. And what they did was wrong. What God
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: allows at times feels so wrong. But we got to
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: be able to trust his heart when we don't understand
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: his hand. And so you gotta win. I need you
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: with my camera, queens and kings, no matter what has
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: been brought in your life by the winds and ways
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: of life. I need for you to get up. I
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: need for you to limp across the finish line, limp, limp, bleeding,
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: cuss and crying, but I need for you to win wounded.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: Now has that strengthen a relationship with your kids? Has
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: it changed anything with your kids here?
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: You know, it's been very interesting man, because you know,
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: my kids have loved me through all of my deficiencies.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: My youngest, who is brilliant, he's he's he's he's a thinker.
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: And he said to me that, he said that this
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: has given him another level of grace for me, he said,
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: because you have done the best you knew how to do.
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: He said, Man, you you, he said, he said, because
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: I don't know not having a life without yo. He says,
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: so man, you know, and again I don't want him
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: to say his daddy as a victim. You know, but
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: the kindness that they've shown me has really been humbling,
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: you know, the patience, because can you imagine being married
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: to this? You know, you know somebody that does fully
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: understand what love is. I've always because once again, just
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: because you're introduced to love don't mean you're not to
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: receive it, you know, if it hasn't been engrafted in you.
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: And so my family They've been very kind because I
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: know that I've been a lot.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: And did that the end of the doc, right.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: My firstborn, my first I was just talking about my youngest.
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah, when you well, when you let mister Rick know
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: the father, why was that important to do?
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: First of all, it was a great opportunity to have
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: a reconnection with him. I thought that it would be
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: a a a a moment of healing that could open
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: up an opportunity for us to heal ah. And so
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: I was very grateful that, uh, that it was something
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: that he was was was was moved by and and
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: and and and and to have this reconnection point with him.
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: He had a visceral reaction though, just like mister Rick
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: had a visceral reaction, like immediately like tears.
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: My son is a beautiful soul man. He that's my
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: first born. That's my first born. It's my first namesake.
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: And and you know, I you know, carry On has
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: been the homie since you said, I mean since he
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: was six he had the passport, you know, I mean,
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: I mean my son and my kids that traveled the
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: world with me, and and and to be able to
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: see him again and to hold him close to me,
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: and to just touch his face like I hadn't been
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: that close to him in over a decade. And and
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: and to just to just embrace him, you know, man,
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: because I've missed my son. I've missed my son. And
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: I love my son because my son grew me up.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: You know, the church killed me when I got a
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: kid pregnant back and when when when I got my
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: pregnant back in eighty eight, in the eighties, and I
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: was a church musician. Man, the ridicule, but that was
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: my home, that was that was the homie.
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: Man.
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: I took him to all the choir rehearsals and you
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: know what I'm saying when I was working on music,
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: and you know, and so to be able to hold
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: my first born again and to embrace him, it was
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: a very loving moment for me.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: How important is it to here I apologize, oh.
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: Oh oh man, because I would love to hear now,
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: you know. And so to be able to hear that,
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: it's very healing. I would believe it is because it
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: would heal me, you know. And so I it was
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: very important that he heard that from me. It was
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: very important for him to be able to know, man,
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I'm sorry for stuff I mayn't even know.
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry, but I just need you to know it.
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: I need you to be able to hear I'm sorry
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: because I know the healing that exists in those words,
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: and I just wanted him to know, for the for
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: the for the things I knew, for the things I
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: didn't know, for the things I'm trying to figure out,
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: for the things, for whatever, for whatever. You need to
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: put this in the bucket that starts you on your
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: journey and another black man, I need for you to
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: hear your daddy say I'm sorry, and you can apply
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: wherever you need it. I don't care. I don't care.
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: This ain't about winning. All I want to win is you.
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: All I want to win is you.
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: It was another part of the doc Man where you
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: you couldn't call your your aunt aunt. You called her
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: by her first name, and she wouldn't reply to you
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: until you said aunt.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Why was that so hard call her aunt?
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: Well? These are people that I would that I wasn't
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: that I wasn't raised around my entire life. You know,
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: I didn't have that family dynamic, so I don't have
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: the habit of calling people uncle and uh, you know
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: that's not that that that that was not part of
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: my construct and so it's not natural for me to
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: do it. So it's I didn't make any offense. It's
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: just these are not people that have been in my ecosystem,
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: my entire life. And so that's why, you know, and
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: and and and I want to make it inextricably clear
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: that I'm not here to bash my mother. I'm not
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: here to bash my un because he's are black woman.
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: And it is very important for me to make sure
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: that I still, as a black man, carry the role
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: of covering the the the the the most powerful, the
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: most precious treasure that we have to this earth, and
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: that's the black woman. So I'm not here to do that,
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: and I refuse to do it.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: All right, Well, I think it's the only right that
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: we get into the single.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Off I got one.
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: I got one final question. What's that very important? Being
• 27:38
  Speaker 5: that you've gone through all of this, when are you
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: gonna Letplies get his DNA?
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Shut up? Man, Let's get into it.
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: You know that that is the real reason why I'm here.
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: You know, where's my camera?
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: This one right there.
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: Applies. I love you, come home.
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, Let's get into a single off the album.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: The album Father's Day is out this week.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: What you want to play? These guys are crazy?
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: Just have a nice sentimental interview and you gotta end
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: with this.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: This guy's crazy, he's so dumb.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: I rocked with the sentimental interview.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: We're all about to tear and he ends with that,
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: what do you want to can we get the.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: New album comes out?
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: Man?
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: I'm so excited excited about the new tour. I'm on
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: tour right now. Man, I'm on touring now with Ty Tribban,
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: the Clark Sisters, King and.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: They're killing it.
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: They killing it every night, bro, The Clark Sisters, Tammela Man,
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: take me to the King, David Man singers, the whole band.
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: I mean, you know we we're at the Prudential Center
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: on coming up in a couple of weeks and the
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: new album called Father's Day. Uh, it comes out this Friday.
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: And I needed this album and I hope that it
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: can help heal people like it helped heal me, or
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: that it's trying to heal me. I'm still not there,
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: but I'm excited. What do you want heal them? You
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: know what, let's do needs.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: We appreciate you for joining us. We love you, we
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: are grateful, grateful, and ladies and gentlemen, it's Kirk Franklin.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, Wake that ass up
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: in the morning.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: Breakfast Club.