I think maybe the vehicle for me was 'Sam Cooke's Greatest Hits.' It has a song called, 'Touch the Hem of His Garment.' Do you know that song? I kind of got obsessed with that song and started exploring and getting more of his old recordings with the Soul Stirrers and really getting into that super, super deeply.
I grew up the son of a Seventh Day Adventist minister, so I was really close to the church and sang church music between sips at my bottle, you know? I sat on the piano bench next to my mother. She was the church organist, so that music is deeply inside of me.
My father's a deacon, my mother's a choir director, so I grew up in the church and singing in the choir, begging my mom if I could have a solo.
I hope to bring people to God with my songs.
My heroes were gospel blues players like Blind Willie Johnson, Charley Patton, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, not whoever was number one.
Music is part of God's universe.
I was born in Alabama and my first live music experiences were in church. Every Sunday we watched regional gospel groups on television singing their hearts out.
I have been singing gospel music since I was four years old.
Now I've heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this the fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.
I love singing devotional songs, in whatever language.
When I began looking into the Carter catalog and came across 'Will My Mother Know Me There,' it seemed like such a joyful number and such a song of the spirit that I could hear them all singing it together.
For four years, my mum allowed only church music in the house.
I find most 'sacred music' pretty dismal.
I started out in gospel music. A lot of people don't know that I started out in gospel music, and I've never lost sight of it.
I can just be a Christian who sings mainstream music instead of having to be a Christian who has to somehow just sing Christian music.
No matter what these people say about me, my music doesn't glorify any image. My music is spiritual when you listen to it. It's all about emotion, I tell my innermost, darkest secrets.
I call myself a singer-songwriter influenced by the gospel and jazz tradition. Naturally, because of my lifestyle and love for nature, there's a lot of folk and Americana there because that's just my life.
So I will go as far as I can into rock and roll carrying my Christian banner.
Reggae, oh man. It's the ultimate music. The positivity. The musicality. The whole cultural expressionism of it. The danceability. Just the cool factor. The melody factor. Some of it comes from a religious place. If there were a competition of who makes the best religious music, it would definitely be the Rastafarian reggae.
I'm associated with gospel music in the minds of millions of people.
I think 'Never Land' is, like, my first really strong attempt to create music... that can encourage people who share my faith but also challenge and intrigue people who don't.
When I was doing mainstream country, there was no way that an executive was going to ask you to do a gospel album.
You don't question where the music comes from, because it all comes from God.
I'm a spiritual musician, I think there has been enough political musicians and I think everything that can be said has been said about political, social things, you know, and there's still some more to be said but not much.
