Latest / Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews / From Law Enforcement to Worship Leader: Emerson Day’s Story Behind “Get Behind Me”

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From Law Enforcement to Worship Leader: Emerson Day’s Story Behind “Get Behind Me” · Crosswalk Talk: Celebrity Christian Interviews

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life audio.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Hey Emerson, thanks for joining me.
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: Hey Emerson, Day devil Ward nominated artist as AH song
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: Get Behind Me. I love that song. You have fascinator,
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: You have a fascinating bio. Emerson, he played lacrosse in college.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: You planned to go into I think law enforcement. Tell
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: us about that and how in the world did you
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: end up in Christian music after that unique background?
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So the plan for me was always to do
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: law enforcement. Actually, I think since I was probably fifteen
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: or so, that was what I wanted to do. And
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: so when I graduated college, I was offered a special
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: agent position right out of college with a three letter agency,
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: and that, for me, was my dream job.
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  Speaker 1: I was like, I've made it. This is my dream job.
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  Speaker 4: And the way that that world kind of works is
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: you got to go through a background in a polygraph
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: and like all of these things.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: And so it took nine to twelve months.
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: So I moved back in with my parents after college,
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  Speaker 4: and during those nine months of kind of just waiting
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: to go to training, I picked up a guitar again
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  Speaker 4: and I started writing again, and singing and music had
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: always been a huge part of my life, but I
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: never viewed it as a career path or you know,
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: never thought I'm going to pursue this and any professional capacity.
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  Speaker 1: And I was so into sports growing up.
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  Speaker 4: That's kind of all I cared about was lacrosse and
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  Speaker 4: you know, playing at the collegiate level and then law enforcement.
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  Speaker 4: So I start playing, and I start writing and singing,
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  Speaker 4: and the Holy Spirit just used that time to really
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: just work on my heart and speak to me. And
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  Speaker 4: I can remember so clearly hearing you know, this is
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: what you're supposed to do. Like this is what you're
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: supposed to do.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, at first I was like no, like
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: that cannot be it.
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  Speaker 4: You know, like i just got my dream job and
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: you know, I'm doing all the things and all my way.
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: There's no way that that can be it, you know.
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: And for that entire year, I wrestled with that decision.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: And they called me and they said, hey, we're ready
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: for you to come to training. And at this point
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  Speaker 4: in time, the Lord and I had had a lot
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: of long conversations about this, and so I turned them
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: down right there on the phone and they're like, hey,
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: you know, I can't help you if you realize you
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: made a mistake, Like in a week or in a
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: month or whatever, like this is done, like off the
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  Speaker 4: table done?
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  Speaker 1: Are you sure?
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  Speaker 4: And I was like no, not, but I was like, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: I'm just I gotta try this those things, you know,
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  Speaker 4: and hung up the phone. And it was the most
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  Speaker 4: peace that I'd had in that entire year. And so
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  Speaker 4: I knew, like, Okay, this, this is from God, this
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  Speaker 4: is what I'm supposed to do.
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  Speaker 1: But I had no idea what I was doing.
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  Speaker 4: So I started playing out and doing you know, little
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  Speaker 4: acoustic gigs like Thursday through Sunday on the weekends, and
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  Speaker 4: started writing and you know, just asking God really for
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: what the next step was going to be. And really
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: five or six years went by, nothing happened, and I
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: really struggled with did I.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Hear this right? Is this you know? What? What for me?
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  Speaker 4: And so that's like where that that first song I
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  Speaker 4: released got ain't finished yet. That's where that came from
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  Speaker 4: is just recognizing that I don't have to have all
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  Speaker 4: the answers and have it figured out like I serve.
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  Speaker 1: The one that does.
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  Speaker 4: That's all I need to know, so, you know, and
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  Speaker 4: it's just funny that all of the time that I thought.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: You know, was being quote unquote wasted I'm like, I
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  Speaker 1: thought we were doing music. God, Like, what what's happening here?
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  Speaker 4: You know, like it really wasn't Like everything from lacrosse
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  Speaker 4: to law enforcement to the time that I spent, you know,
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  Speaker 4: working my way up, like nothing is wasted by God,
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  Speaker 4: and he was just so faithful continue to open doors
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  Speaker 4: for me. And eight years later now here we are
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  Speaker 4: so pretty crazy.
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  Speaker 3: You've probably got lots of songs out of that, and
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  Speaker 3: you'll probably continue to get songs out of that and
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  Speaker 3: the future.
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  Speaker 2: That's something that's that's yeah, that's the plot twist right there.
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  Speaker 3: So you could have Did you grow up playing the
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: guitar though? I mean, I guess you sang early in life.
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  Speaker 3: I mean you said you picked up a guitar again,
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  Speaker 3: So I picked up a You picked up a guitar
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  Speaker 3: again for the first time since what?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, So I grew up singing and writing, maybe even
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  Speaker 4: writing before. I was singing, like in church as a
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  Speaker 4: little girl. I've got songbooks my mom has saved from
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  Speaker 4: as young as eight years old, I was writing songs
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  Speaker 4: and so it was always in me. It was always there,
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  Speaker 4: And I grew up singing in church. And then when
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  Speaker 4: I was sixteen, I learned to play guitar because at
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  Speaker 4: every family event, my grandparents would make me like sing
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  Speaker 4: for the family, Like I don't know why that was
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  Speaker 4: the thing, and you know, it was really cute when
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  Speaker 4: I was little, But then as I got older, I
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  Speaker 4: was like, man, I have got to learn to play
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  Speaker 4: an instrument, so I'm not just singing a cappella, you know,
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  Speaker 4: like for.
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  Speaker 1: My family, that is all that.
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  Speaker 4: Well.
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  Speaker 3: I was going to ask you about lacrosse though, because
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  Speaker 3: lacrosse isn't as bard that everybody plays we play.
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Are you okay? Are you having audio trouble there? Emerson?
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  Speaker 4: No? Sorry, I muted it just a second because my
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: dog barking.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if you could hear that.
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  Speaker 3: Now, that's okay. We're pro dog on the show. We
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  Speaker 3: love dogs, so keep the dog's marking.
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  Speaker 4: Okay. Well, I fixed to the I checked my hand,
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  Speaker 4: and I'm like, can you come and get the dog.
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  Speaker 2: I was looking at you, thinking what's going on there?
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  Speaker 4: No.
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  Speaker 2: I was going to ask you about lacrosse though, because we're.
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  Speaker 3: A football country, a basketball country, a baseball country, a
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  Speaker 3: little bit of a soccer country.
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  Speaker 2: But lacrosse is not a top five sport. So how
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  Speaker 2: did you, how did you How did you get into lacrosse?
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  Speaker 4: So, lacrosse where I grew up in Maryland is our football,
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  Speaker 4: Like it is kind of the big thing where I'm at.
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  Speaker 4: Like our lacrosse games usually on Friday nights, we're bigger
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  Speaker 4: than the football games of Friday. Like that was just
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  Speaker 4: for whatever reason, the way my school was and how
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  Speaker 4: our area was, so lacrosse was really big. But my
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  Speaker 4: brother was playing first at the time, and he was
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  Speaker 4: ten years older than me. I just thought he was
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  Speaker 4: the coolest person ever, and so if he was doing it,
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  Speaker 4: I'm like, I want to do that, you know. So
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  Speaker 4: I started playing at around six or seven years old,
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  Speaker 4: and at the time they only had a boys league,
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  Speaker 4: and so I actually played in the boys league, like six, seven, eight,
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  Speaker 4: probably even almost till I was ten until they.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Got a girls league.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I had been playing pretty much, you know,
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  Speaker 4: ever since at that point.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, it was just one of those things he
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  Speaker 1: was into.
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  Speaker 4: I you know, fell in love with it and then
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  Speaker 4: took it all the way to the college level.
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  Speaker 1: I just loved playing it.
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  Speaker 2: What position were you?
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  Speaker 1: I was attack, which is offense offense.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, and this is for those who don't know, this
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  Speaker 3: is the it's kind of like a mix between hockey
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  Speaker 3: and I mean, you're catching it in that what do
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: you call the stick?
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Is it a stick? Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Stick it catch you to the stick and you throw
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  Speaker 3: it to somebody else and you're trying to get into
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  Speaker 3: the call. It's a fun sport to watch. But you're
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  Speaker 3: the only lacrosse player I've ever known in my life,
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  Speaker 3: So I had to ask you about I'm a big
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  Speaker 3: sports fan.
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  Speaker 2: What would you have done in law enforcement?
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  Speaker 4: Though?
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  Speaker 3: Would this have been a desk job had you've been
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  Speaker 3: out on the field. What did you even know at
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  Speaker 3: the time what you might have done?
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  Speaker 4: You know, I think you get your assignment kind of
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  Speaker 4: after training, like a little bit later. Like my assignment
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  Speaker 4: was for a special agent position, so I definitely would
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: have been in the field. But they have different like
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: sub sects within each agency. So ATF is alcohol, tobacco, firearms,
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: so you could do any one of those things, you know,
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, violent crime is what they target. But there's
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: also like they have their own arsenal unit, they have
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  Speaker 4: their own like there's tons of things that you could
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  Speaker 4: find yourself in within you know, ATF.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, So ATF was what you were trying to get into. Okay,
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  Speaker 3: you're in music. Now you have an album, Gotting Finished
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  Speaker 3: Jet and a track getting behind Me.
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  Speaker 2: Tell me the story behind the song get behind Me?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: So that one, I feel like was really being written
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  Speaker 4: years ago. It was something my grandmother used to tell
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  Speaker 4: us kids growing up. Anytime I can remember going to
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  Speaker 4: her and being worried about something or just like anxious
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  Speaker 4: or afraid, like as a young girl.
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  Speaker 1: She had this little thing that she taught us.
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  Speaker 4: She's like, those feelings do not come from our heavenly father,
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  Speaker 4: those come from the enemy. And she would say, this
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  Speaker 4: little thing, you need to say three times, you know, devil,
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  Speaker 4: get behind me.
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  Speaker 1: In the name of the Lord. And you would say
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  Speaker 1: it every time.
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  Speaker 4: You would get it like a little bit stronger, with
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  Speaker 4: a little more authority, and then you would forget about
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  Speaker 4: it and you would move on from whatever it was.
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  Speaker 4: And doing that as a kid, I can remember the
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  Speaker 4: piece that I got just instantly, and so it taught
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  Speaker 4: me who really fights for me and who really holds
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  Speaker 4: the ultimate victory?
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  Speaker 1: Who was in control?
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  Speaker 4: But I wanted to write a song about it to
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  Speaker 4: give that to other people and allow them to be
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  Speaker 4: able to speak that over their own lives, because you know,
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  Speaker 4: the Bible tells us very clearly that spiritual warfare is real,
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  Speaker 4: and I think sometimes like we don't talk about it
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  Speaker 4: a lot or enough, and it's one of those things
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  Speaker 4: where it's real and it talks about him prowling around
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  Speaker 4: like a roaring lion, and so it's like why not
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  Speaker 4: call on the only one true it, you know? And
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  Speaker 4: so that's why you hear it in the song three
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  Speaker 4: times as well for like nod to uh my grandmother.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, the whole song. In my mind when we.
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  Speaker 4: Produced it, I was like, I kind of want this
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  Speaker 4: thing to start out like like a freight train.
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  Speaker 1: It just goes and it does not stop till until
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  Speaker 1: the end.
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  Speaker 4: You know. I love it.
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  Speaker 3: I love it, And it's still on the Christian Airplay
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  Speaker 3: Chart on the Billboard Chrisian Airplay Chart.
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  Speaker 2: I was checking that today.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's that's end here, So yeah, it's just
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  Speaker 3: still up there. The latest one is This House Won't Fall, and.
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  Speaker 2: That's a that's an awesome song as well. It's really
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  Speaker 2: poetic and in terms of it's.
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  Speaker 3: Kind of like based on is it based on scripture
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  Speaker 3: and Jesus words and the New testament or what's what's
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  Speaker 3: the base.
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  Speaker 4: It really was based off of Matthew seven twenty five.
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  Speaker 4: I believe it is twenty five and twenty six. Maybe
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  Speaker 4: it might be both, but you know, it just talks
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  Speaker 4: about how when the wind and the rain and the
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  Speaker 4: storms come, and it's so true because we are not
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  Speaker 4: promised butterflies and rainbows following Jesus in this life, and
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  Speaker 4: so it's when the storms come, Okay, what do we have?
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  Speaker 1: What are we standing on? And I love the idea this.
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  Speaker 4: Imagery, you know, that verse kind of paints this picture
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  Speaker 4: of one stone at a time, you're building my testimony
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  Speaker 4: because for me, my faith was not built just overnight
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  Speaker 4: because I decided to follow Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: It was because my faith was at Him.
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  Speaker 4: But so much of it was walking through life with
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: Jesus and learning, you know, that faithfulness I talked about
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: with music and all these career decisions and you know,
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: some craziness, but that song really just talks about building
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: up those building blocks of faith and testimony and strengthening
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: that on the foundation of Christ so that when you know,
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  Speaker 4: those storms come, our.
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  Speaker 1: Foundation is in Him.
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  Speaker 4: And I just really wanted a song that talked about
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: that and represented that in my own life. And you know,
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  Speaker 4: again for people to be able to sing over their own.
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  Speaker 3: How would you describe your own style of music?
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  Speaker 2: And there seems to be a blend of several styles there.
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  Speaker 2: What would you say?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I usually say I usually say to people a
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, but
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  Speaker 4: I love Jesus and so it's all in there together.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's a unique bland, a little bit of
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  Speaker 3: of soul in there as well.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Here some of that in there.
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  Speaker 3: Final questions for I actually tell people Emerson day Music
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: dot Com as the website. I believe the other Emerson
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: Day that was a photographer, they get the website first,
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: but Emerson day music dot Com is the website.
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  Speaker 2: What do you want fans to take away from your music, Emerson?
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  Speaker 4: You know?
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  Speaker 1: The biggest thing for me, Well, I guess it would
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: be two things. I would say.
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  Speaker 4: The first biggest thing is I hope they walk away
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: with their own experience with God through that music. I
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: hope that they would encounter God in a new way,
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  Speaker 4: or He would reveal himself in a different part of
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  Speaker 4: their story, maybe something they haven't you know, thought of.
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  Speaker 4: And all of the people that I meet out on
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  Speaker 4: the road and all of the stories that I hear.
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  Speaker 4: It's so crazy to me because I never thought a
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  Speaker 4: song I wrote sitting on my couch in my living
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  Speaker 4: room would end up be healing for somebody or would
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: end up be freeing for somebody, and so like it's
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: so hard for me to put my finger on you know,
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: because it's such an emotional thing for me, Like I
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: never thought that get by me on my couch writing
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  Speaker 4: that would be so liberating for so many people, Like
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: what a gift. And so my hope is just that
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  Speaker 4: continues to happen, Like I always have felt like the
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: messenger and just the vessel. And so if God continues
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  Speaker 4: to use me to put songs out like I just
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: would hope and pray that He would continue to.
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  Speaker 1: Feed his people with them, you know, and people would just.
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: Be able to encounter and have their own experience with
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: God through the music.
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: If you enjoyed today's interview, please make sure to subscribe
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: and share the episode with a friend. A big thanks
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: to the team at life Audio for their partnership with
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: us on the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio dot com,
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: you will find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: their network.
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: See you next time.