Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / Can We Just Be Grateful? Steven Curtis Chapman on America at 250

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Can We Just Be Grateful? Steven Curtis Chapman on America at 250 · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

0:02
Speaker 1: Life Audio.
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Speaker 2: Hey Steven, thanks for joining me.
0:06
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. Michael. Good to see you, Sir,
0:08
Speaker 1: good to see you, Stephen.
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Speaker 2: Chris Chapman who has a new song with country singer
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Speaker 2: Chris Jansen. It's a new rendition of America the Beautiful.
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Speaker 2: I love it, same chorus, new verses. Steven, I could
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Speaker 2: tell everybody about it. I want you to share a
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Speaker 2: story about it, the inspiration behind it. Why did you
0:25
Speaker 2: want to write this for America's two hund and fiftieth birthday.
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Speaker 2: How is it different from the traditional song we know as.
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Speaker 1: America the Beautiful. Well, I'll back up a little bit
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Speaker 1: and say that I grew up blessed to have a
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Speaker 1: very i think healthy kind of spot on love and
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Speaker 1: appreciation for our nation, for our freedoms that we enjoy,
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Speaker 1: very largely due to the fact that my grandfather, Ruble Rudd,
0:56
Speaker 1: one of the greatest men I've ever known. One of
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Speaker 1: the great moments in my life, and I have a
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Speaker 1: picture of it, is when I got to introduce my
1:01
Speaker 1: Grandpa Rudd to Billy Graham. My Grandpa Rudd was one
1:05
Speaker 1: of the biggest Billy Graham fans, if you could say
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Speaker 1: that on the planet and when he knew that I
1:11
Speaker 1: had done some things with Billy Graham, it was one
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Speaker 1: of Egypt would just cry and he was so grateful.
1:16
Speaker 1: And so I got to introduce him when they both
1:18
Speaker 1: were still alive, and it's a very sweet, amazing moment.
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Speaker 1: But my Grandpa Rudd, he was purple Heart World War
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Speaker 1: Two that came home, lived his life out with shrapnel
1:29
Speaker 1: in his at his leg and he was the only
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Speaker 1: one that survived kind of from his platoon during his
1:36
Speaker 1: time there. And so I just had this great appreciation
1:40
Speaker 1: for the freedom, the cost of freedom, of the you know,
1:43
Speaker 1: the gift that we have in America. And as as
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Speaker 1: broken and as imperfect as it is, I've been blessed
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Speaker 1: to travel around the world spend time in countries where,
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Speaker 1: you know, when I'm singing about my faith, there's a
1:55
Speaker 1: good chance that you know, at best, you know, they
1:58
Speaker 1: might unplug me and shut it down. At worst, you know,
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Speaker 1: probably not me, but someone's going to go to you know,
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Speaker 1: maybe go to jail. And so I have also experienced that,
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Speaker 1: and and so at this great love for America, I've
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Speaker 1: always loved America. The beautiful that song I've seen the
2:16
Speaker 1: Purple Mountain majesties have seen the you know, the all
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Speaker 1: of that, the spacious guies and and all that that
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Speaker 1: song talks about. And I then I'm just heartbroken as
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Speaker 1: I start to see how much division has been created.
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Speaker 1: And there was a time in my life when you
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Speaker 1: would talk about America and there was a there was
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Speaker 1: a sense of honor and respect and and like, yeah,
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Speaker 1: we don't have it all together. We are certainly imperfect,
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Speaker 1: but man, let's just gratitude. Let's just count the blessings.
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Speaker 1: Let's be grateful for what is, what is beautiful and great,
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Speaker 1: and then let's pray for and cheer on the things
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Speaker 1: that need change. That has seems like so much of
2:57
Speaker 1: that has shifted to just is even in sometimes you
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Speaker 1: mentioned America, it's like, oh, well, you're one of those,
3:03
Speaker 1: or you're one of that, and man, it was just
3:06
Speaker 1: heartbreaking to me, especially again given my history, my grandfather,
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Speaker 1: all of that. And so, as I often do, grab
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Speaker 1: a guitar and as the song starts, I sat down
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Speaker 1: today to try to write a song about some troubling
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Speaker 1: things that I see going on. This just breaks my heart.
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Speaker 1: And usually when something's either awesome or kind of not awesome,
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Speaker 1: and heavy my way of processing it is to write
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Speaker 1: a song about it. And so I wrote the song,
3:34
Speaker 1: and I thought, you know, man, I just yeah, things
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Speaker 1: are broken, good and bad. The lyric says it, you know.
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Speaker 1: I even threw a really, who gets the word algorithm
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Speaker 1: in a song? I don't know, might've been a bad idea,
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Speaker 1: but it felt like I needed to say it. The
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Speaker 1: algorithms are tearing us, the worlds apart. They're telling you
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Speaker 1: all the things to believe and not to believe in
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Speaker 1: all that nonsense. And I'm like, can we just remember
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Speaker 1: that we're all in this together, that you know, in
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Speaker 1: this sense we're Americans and celebrate the beautiful things even
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Speaker 1: while we do pray and work towards the things that
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Speaker 1: are broken. So wrote the song, sang it. Kind of
4:11
Speaker 1: interesting story. The first night I debuted this song, actually,
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Speaker 1: I sang it by myself. I sang it on July
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Speaker 1: the I think it was July the thirty first, on
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Speaker 1: the Grand Ole Opry. And after I got done singing it,
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Speaker 1: I was like, hey, I just wrote this song. The
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Speaker 1: Olympics were going on. It was twenty twenty four. I
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Speaker 1: was feeling particularly kind of patriotic. I'm like, man, I
4:32
Speaker 1: got this song. I've never sung it before I wrote it.
4:34
Speaker 1: We'll see what y'all think. Of course, you can imagine
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Speaker 1: the Grand Ole Opry audience loved it, standing ovation like
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Speaker 1: that is you know, that's it? And then Ricky Skaggs
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Speaker 1: walks out after I sing it. Who's going to close
4:46
Speaker 1: the night? And he's a buddy of mine now, and
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Speaker 1: Ricky says, hey, Steve, that was a great song. Hey,
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Speaker 1: come here a minute. I got a surprise for you.
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Speaker 1: We want you to be the next member of the
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Speaker 1: Grand Ole Opry. So I'm mind's blown. I'm like, are
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Speaker 1: you kidding me? So that was an amaz night. So
5:01
Speaker 1: that song will always represent a lot of things for
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Speaker 1: me because of that. So I finally decided, you know,
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Speaker 1: if I'm ever going to record that song and release
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Speaker 1: it July fourth, twenty twenty six, two hundred and fifty
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Speaker 1: years celebrating America, that might make sense to do that.
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Speaker 1: And a good buddy that I've gotten to know as
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Speaker 1: an opry brother, Chris Jansen. First time I met him,
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Speaker 1: He's like, man, I grew up listening to your music.
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Speaker 1: I grew up listening to gospel music. I'm going to
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Speaker 1: make a gospel record someday, and you're going to help
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Speaker 1: me make it because I want to sing about my
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Speaker 1: faith too. And so we just began a friendship and
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Speaker 1: we're actually have been writing some songs together, some gospel songs,
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Speaker 1: Christian songs. But I told him about this song. I
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Speaker 1: know he loves America. He's very much like myself, knows
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Speaker 1: there's a lot that's not perfect and not as it
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Speaker 1: should be, but loves America. And I said, would you
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Speaker 1: sing this song with me? They said, you kidding, Let's
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Speaker 1: do it. So that's how it happened. That's beautiful. That's beautiful.
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Speaker 2: I was going to ask you about the algorithm line
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Speaker 2: because one of the lines is algorithms try to try
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Speaker 2: to keep it keep us worlds apart.
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Speaker 1: Why was that important to you?
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Speaker 2: And secondly, what role do you think social media and
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Speaker 2: the internet are playing and driving us further apart.
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Speaker 1: Well, I don't really understand algorithms that well, my managers
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Speaker 1: try to explain it to me, you know, like you
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Speaker 1: post this and do that, and that helps the algorithms.
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Speaker 1: But my kids, particularly because I have a forty year
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Speaker 1: old daughter who's brilliant, I have thirty mid thirty year
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Speaker 1: old sons Caleb and Will and their band Colony House,
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Speaker 1: and they're amazing musicians, incredible artists in their own right,
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Speaker 1: and we're talking a lot about this, and they're just
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Speaker 1: you know, it's like, Man, the algorithms, whoever algorithm or
6:44
Speaker 1: whatever he is, or whoever he is, I don't like
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Speaker 1: ow much because they just he feeds you constantly, you know,
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Speaker 1: the things that are whatever you have, like, you know,
6:55
Speaker 1: spent some time watching you watch a little something on
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Speaker 1: your phone pops up. I don't know where they come from,
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Speaker 1: and these things and I'm like, okay, what is that?
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Speaker 1: You know, and you watch it for a few seconds.
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Speaker 1: So all of a sudden, some somewhere something says, they
7:07
Speaker 1: watch this longer than the other. So keep feeding that information,
7:10
Speaker 1: keep giving them that stuff, and so you get all
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Speaker 1: of this very skewed, you know, to whatever your interest
7:17
Speaker 1: or your particular persuasion might be. And yet you perceive
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Speaker 1: it as this is the truth. This is the world,
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Speaker 1: This is the world that we live in, and man,
7:25
Speaker 1: it is it is dark, and it is very troubling,
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Speaker 1: and you know, it keeps. It's kind of like if
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Speaker 1: all of our if you just only spend time with
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Speaker 1: the friends that agree with everything that you agree with,
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Speaker 1: which is why I wrote the lyric. I know we're
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Speaker 1: never going to agree on everything. It's like a song.
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Speaker 1: We've all got different parts to sing, But how well
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Speaker 1: we listen is how loud freedom can ring. In America,
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Speaker 1: were listening to each other, listening to other opinions even,
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Speaker 1: and listen to things that we don't have to all
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Speaker 1: agree on it, but to say, man, I'm going to
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Speaker 1: try to respect you and honor that and just you know,
8:01
Speaker 1: be kind It is kindness, and and somewhere in the
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Speaker 1: midst of all of that, it feels like, Yeah, the
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Speaker 1: old algorithm situation just keeps feeding the thing of them
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Speaker 1: us versus them. They're the enemy, They're to those crazy, terrible, ignorant,
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Speaker 1: dumb people that think that way or you know, and
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Speaker 1: so there's just a lot to that that I'm not
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Speaker 1: going to fix anything by singing about it, other than
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Speaker 1: maybe just say, hey, am I being kind of duped
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Speaker 1: a little bit by all the things that I'm being
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Speaker 1: told are how it is? You know that that's just
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Speaker 1: these voices that maybe yeah, wisdom would say, God's word
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Speaker 1: would tell us. You know, the greatest wisdom I think,
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Speaker 1: you know, is to to bear with one another in love,
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Speaker 1: to you know, to listen to one another, to always
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Speaker 1: be gentle, to you know, kind the fruit of the spirit.
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Speaker 1: You know, this is kindness and patience and gentleness and anyway.
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Speaker 2: So you yeah, I thought it fit in the song.
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Speaker 2: Of course, it's it's a positive song, but I think
9:02
Speaker 2: it was good to make that point. I was still
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Speaker 2: in a friend recently. I said, if if the Chinese
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Speaker 2: were to were to have a grand scheme of destroying America,
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Speaker 2: they would probably do what we've done to ourselves the
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Speaker 2: past ten twenty years in terms of just let's let's
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Speaker 2: develop a system where the Americans just argue all the
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Speaker 2: time and.
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Speaker 1: That that's what it's done. That's what it's done.
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Speaker 2: It's like it's like it's like we've done their work
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Speaker 2: for them.
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Speaker 1: Anyway.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I know that's a me preaching. Steven, what is
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Speaker 2: your prayer for this song? How do you want it
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Speaker 2: to land with people? I think you've kind of already
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Speaker 2: answered that a couple of times, But yo, come ahead,
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Speaker 2: you no.
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Speaker 1: I do love. I don't want to make you know
9:49
Speaker 1: too much of it, because then you get in again.
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Speaker 1: The all the arguments of oh Christian nationalis or whatever,
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Speaker 1: all these things I don't even know. I try not
9:58
Speaker 1: spend too much time trying to figure it out, because
10:00
Speaker 1: then you just to your point. The more we argue,
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Speaker 1: that we only have so much energy, and I just
10:06
Speaker 1: don't want to spend mine arguing. I mean, I want
10:08
Speaker 1: to fight against the right things. I want to be
10:10
Speaker 1: angry about the right things to be angry about. But
10:13
Speaker 1: I think there's a whole lot more about being grateful
10:16
Speaker 1: and looking for the ways that we can be connected
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Speaker 1: rather than just fighting and arguing. And so I feel
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Speaker 1: like that there is truth to the fact that America
10:26
Speaker 1: was the freedom of religion all religions, for sure. But
10:32
Speaker 1: there were many argue for sure, what were they, what
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Speaker 1: were their real convictions or were they really true Jesus
10:41
Speaker 1: followers or whatever. But there's definitely no doubt that in
10:45
Speaker 1: God we trust. America founded with a sense of God
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Speaker 1: as the giver of you know, authority, the giver of freedom,
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Speaker 1: and we're going to look to him. And you know
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Speaker 1: the lyric of that original America, the beautiful God shed
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Speaker 1: his grace on me. Well, you can sing that about
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Speaker 1: any anyone, any person, anywhere, because God's grace is the
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Speaker 1: only in him we live and move and have our being,
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Speaker 1: So that is true wherever you are. But in particularly,
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Speaker 1: I feel like God has graced America with a freedom
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Speaker 1: and with that a responsibility, and I think sometimes we've
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Speaker 1: done it really amazingly well. And if and I'm watching
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Speaker 1: the whole thing right now on World War two and
11:31
Speaker 1: all of that, you know, there are times we've really
11:34
Speaker 1: I think, in some really amazing ways and then in
11:38
Speaker 1: some not amazing ways. But God has graced us as American,
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Speaker 1: and God shed his grace on the you know, and
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Speaker 1: crowned our good with brotherhood from See the Shining Sea.
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Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of that lyric that I
11:51
Speaker 1: think it's just as a good reminder in my hope
11:55
Speaker 1: and prayer. I guess it would be that it just
11:59
Speaker 1: might cause us to lay down the weapons and just
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Speaker 1: take a pause and say, first of all, gratitude. There's
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Speaker 1: just so much power and just being grateful, just being grateful,
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Speaker 1: even though it's not perfect and we're not home yet,
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Speaker 1: and it certainly ain't heaven, and America is not God's
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Speaker 1: favorite nation or anything like that, I don't believe, but
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Speaker 1: it is a place that He has shed his grace,
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Speaker 1: He has given us this time in our lives to
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Speaker 1: celebrate the freedom that we have and to use it
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Speaker 1: as best as we can and what we've been entrusted,
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Speaker 1: and just to be unified in that, just to listen
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Speaker 1: to each other and to just try to be kind
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Speaker 1: and recognize that and recognize those that have paid a
12:49
Speaker 1: incredible price, like my grandpa and many many others for
12:53
Speaker 1: that freedom, and remember that, you know, bear that in mind,
12:56
Speaker 1: and show honor where honor is due. And I think
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Speaker 1: that's biblical and Scripture, Yeah, Scripture tells us who the
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Speaker 1: enemy is. Yes, it's not our fellow American and the
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Speaker 1: it's the aestho of an enemy, stake ultimate enemy. That's right,
13:10
Speaker 1: that's right, that's right.
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Speaker 2: Let's transition quickly to music. You're on the final leg
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Speaker 2: of your Speechless twenty fifth anniversary tour this fall. I
13:19
Speaker 2: forget how many dates you have, but give us a
13:21
Speaker 2: preview of that and what people can expect you.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, this will be my third and final leg
13:27
Speaker 1: of the tour. We have had three of those. We
13:30
Speaker 1: started last fall. I had an idea of you know,
13:34
Speaker 1: I saw the Eagles do Hotel California, the whole album live.
13:37
Speaker 1: I saw Huey Lewis do the whole Sports album live,
13:40
Speaker 1: which was like one of my favorite albums of all time,
13:43
Speaker 1: and to get to hear every song, and I kind
13:45
Speaker 1: of had this thought, man, one of these days, how
13:47
Speaker 1: cool would that be to do something like that? And
13:49
Speaker 1: if I was going to do it, Speechless would be
13:51
Speaker 1: one that would make sense because it had seven songs
13:54
Speaker 1: that were played on radio a lot and got you know,
13:57
Speaker 1: got a lot of airplay and people know a lot
13:59
Speaker 1: of that record and it's very special record of mine.
14:03
Speaker 1: And so yeah, we put a tour together. Put ben
14:07
Speaker 1: I thought, well, guys that that record needs strings. It's
14:09
Speaker 1: got all these beautiful orchestra arrangements in the middle of
14:12
Speaker 1: these rock and roll songs. So I thought, could I
14:15
Speaker 1: take a stream section out? So I've got a four
14:18
Speaker 1: piece string quartet, I have a full rocking band. And
14:22
Speaker 1: we did it last fall, just sort of like, let's
14:24
Speaker 1: go do fifteen fourteen fifteen dates and just celebrate this
14:28
Speaker 1: record twenty five years later. And it was so well
14:31
Speaker 1: received and honestly, I had so much fun doing it,
14:34
Speaker 1: and I'm like, can I do this again? Can I?
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Speaker 1: And so we did it in the spring. That was awesome.
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Speaker 1: And but we've yet to get to California, we've yet
14:42
Speaker 1: to get to Texas, a couple of places Northwest areas
14:46
Speaker 1: that I haven't taken the tour yet. So we're going
14:48
Speaker 1: to finish out the Speaks Less Anniversary Tour. I guess
14:52
Speaker 1: it is now in the fall, with about I think
14:55
Speaker 1: sixteen d eight seventeen dates something like that, and we'll
14:59
Speaker 1: do that. And then I've done the same thing with
15:02
Speaker 1: my first Christmas album called The Music of Christmas that's
15:05
Speaker 1: about thirty years old now, which is crazy. And we
15:10
Speaker 1: did that last Christmas with the same configuration orchestra or strings,
15:14
Speaker 1: a band, and a choir that comes at each concert.
15:18
Speaker 1: And so we'll do that again at Christmas. So I
15:20
Speaker 1: am loving playing music as much, maybe more now than
15:24
Speaker 1: I ever have. It's just I'm so grateful and thankful.
15:27
Speaker 2: As we begin to clothes, I want to ask you
15:29
Speaker 2: a couple of questions that I don't know if I've
15:31
Speaker 2: ever heard you answered before. But you have so many
15:33
Speaker 2: number ones I've lost count. Have you ever had a
15:35
Speaker 2: number one song go to number one that you didn't
15:39
Speaker 2: think had a chance at going number one? And secondly, yeah,
15:44
Speaker 2: oh yeah, the opposite, Yeah, have you ever had a
15:47
Speaker 2: song that you loved that just didn't climb the charts
15:50
Speaker 2: at all?
15:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, well the one. I'll start backwards because
15:55
Speaker 1: most people would be surprised, if they know my music
15:57
Speaker 1: at all, that my song Sendrella was as one of
16:02
Speaker 1: my probably top two I will be here and Cinderella
16:05
Speaker 1: would be kind of the top for people that just
16:08
Speaker 1: would hear a song and go, oh, I know that song?
16:10
Speaker 1: Who is that? You know? Or if some what's Stephen
16:12
Speaker 1: Chris Shatman song? They might mention that or The Great Adventure.
16:15
Speaker 1: There's a handful. Cinderella is never a number one song,
16:19
Speaker 1: and that was mainly because from what my record label
16:22
Speaker 1: told me that there were some Christian radio stations that
16:26
Speaker 1: didn't play it because it wasn't a Christian song. It
16:28
Speaker 1: didn't you know, have Jesus mentioned specifically, and you know what,
16:33
Speaker 1: I get it, I understand they make those decisions. For me,
16:37
Speaker 1: it was as Christian of a song as any of
16:39
Speaker 1: ever written, because it's about showing up and being a
16:42
Speaker 1: dad who's involved in my kids' lives and showing up,
16:45
Speaker 1: you know, and dancing with them and just investing. So
16:49
Speaker 1: that was kind of a surprise. And then man on
16:51
Speaker 1: the other side. Yeah, I mentioned the song I Will
16:54
Speaker 1: be Here. That could be a good example, and there
16:56
Speaker 1: have been several over the years that I'm like, wow,
16:59
Speaker 1: I didn't know that that was going to make it.
17:01
Speaker 1: I Will be Here was a very special song for
17:03
Speaker 1: me personally, but I wrote that after my parents actually
17:07
Speaker 1: their marriage dissolved, fell apart, and it was a real
17:11
Speaker 1: heart breaking time because they were and still are amazing.
17:15
Speaker 1: They're still alive, they're godly people. They love me, they
17:18
Speaker 1: love each other, but you know, their marriage broke up.
17:22
Speaker 1: And I wrote that song for my wife out of
17:25
Speaker 1: a real hard, sort of sad, painful time of just saying, hey,
17:29
Speaker 1: I don't want this to happen to us. I will
17:30
Speaker 1: be here. I want to keep showing up even when
17:33
Speaker 1: it's hard, even when it gets ugly, even when we
17:35
Speaker 1: don't even like each other, but we love each other,
17:37
Speaker 1: you know all that. And so I didn't expect that song.
17:40
Speaker 1: I mean, I knew it was special, but I didn't
17:42
Speaker 1: expect it to be one that would just go on
17:44
Speaker 1: to live the way it has. And it's been pretty cool.
17:48
Speaker 2: That's awesome. One more question for you before I let
17:50
Speaker 2: you go. Yeah, you've watched Christian music evolve for four decades.
17:53
Speaker 2: I think what encourages you the most about this June
17:57
Speaker 2: generation of artists? What do you hope never changes?
18:02
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, probably the thing that encouraged me the most
18:06
Speaker 1: is when I see the things that have not changed,
18:08
Speaker 1: because there is a lot that's changed. But when I
18:11
Speaker 1: see artists who are in a way doing exactly what
18:15
Speaker 1: I was doing. When I started all those years ago,
18:18
Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking, Man, I want to go be the
18:21
Speaker 1: next big Christian artist. Honestly, I didn't even think it
18:24
Speaker 1: was gonna the record label, even didn't think it was
18:26
Speaker 1: necessarily going to work. I was going to be a
18:28
Speaker 1: songwriter for other people. But I had these songs that
18:31
Speaker 1: nobody was recording and I wanted to sing them. So
18:34
Speaker 1: I made a record and people began to listen, and
18:37
Speaker 1: again it grew. But I think at the core it's
18:41
Speaker 1: you know, was saying, and this is I want to
18:46
Speaker 1: write these songs as Honestly, I'm not fabricating. I'm not
18:49
Speaker 1: looking for a formula how can I get a big
18:52
Speaker 1: song on radio? These are just honest chapters from my life.
18:56
Speaker 1: It's what the songs were, I mean, and the songs
18:59
Speaker 1: are to me why they're so powerful and profound is
19:02
Speaker 1: that in one minute, David or the psalmist is saying,
19:04
Speaker 1: how long, old Lord are you going to forget me forever?
19:07
Speaker 1: And there's honesty and there's the integrity of that that God,
19:10
Speaker 1: I'm not even sure I even know where you are
19:14
Speaker 1: or if you are, but I am going to trust you.
19:17
Speaker 1: And that's what the psalms keep doing is taking the anger,
19:20
Speaker 1: the tears, the sadness, the joy to God and expressing
19:24
Speaker 1: that in a way that I can enter into that.
19:28
Speaker 1: And when I'm wondering those how long old Lord thoughts,
19:31
Speaker 1: I'm not alone going you lose or you idiot, how
19:34
Speaker 1: could you ever question God? You go to the psalms
19:36
Speaker 1: and go, ah, thank you, thank you Lord? You know?
19:39
Speaker 1: And I love that, And that's what I think as
19:41
Speaker 1: Christian music can continue to do that and does continue
19:45
Speaker 1: to do that in a real honest way, not just
19:48
Speaker 1: wrestling with all our doubts and whatever, but saying, but God,
19:53
Speaker 1: but I'm trusting you, and this is my anchor, and
19:56
Speaker 1: just keep dropping the anchor. It's what Scripture does for
19:58
Speaker 1: us every time we go to it's this is the truth,
20:02
Speaker 1: this is what's ultimately true. The questions, the struggles, the brokenness,
20:06
Speaker 1: that's all real. But let's fix our house on Jesus.
20:09
Speaker 2: Going back to one thing, you just said, your label
20:12
Speaker 2: didn't and you yourself didn't think this whole thing was
20:15
Speaker 2: going to work out.
20:17
Speaker 1: No, not in the beginning, there was I was. Don't
20:21
Speaker 1: tell him, I said this.
20:22
Speaker 2: No.
20:23
Speaker 1: I was basically signed as a favor to an amazing producer,
20:29
Speaker 1: Greg Nelson, who was my He was not my producer
20:32
Speaker 1: in the beginning, but he produced Sandy Patty, Lawrence el Harris,
20:34
Speaker 1: Steve Green, these big voices that were the you know,
20:37
Speaker 1: they were Christian music at that era, and he had
20:41
Speaker 1: great respect and great love from record labels, and he
20:44
Speaker 1: believed in my songs. He told me, this is Greg Nelson.
20:47
Speaker 1: He said, you're not that great of a singer, but
20:51
Speaker 1: let's sky it. Okay, thanks, I'll just be out here.
20:54
Speaker 1: You know, eat worms, he said. But when you sing
20:58
Speaker 1: your songs, when you sing those songs that you wrote,
21:01
Speaker 1: that's unlike anything else to anybody, and that's something special
21:05
Speaker 1: and people connect to that. So that's the record label.
21:08
Speaker 1: I was sort of signed under that, like, let's just
21:11
Speaker 1: give this guy a shot. But we don't hear this
21:14
Speaker 1: thing necessarily being a big deal, but it feels like
21:18
Speaker 1: it might connect to a few people. So yeah, that's
21:21
Speaker 1: kind of kind of where it started.
21:26
Speaker 3: If you enjoy today's interview, please make sure to subscribe
21:29
Speaker 3: and share the episode with a friend. A big thanks
21:31
Speaker 3: to the team at life Audio for their partnership with
21:34
Speaker 3: us on the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio dot com,
21:37
Speaker 3: you will find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in
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Speaker 3: their network.
21:42
Speaker 1: See you next time.