Growing up, country star John Rich’s father was a courageous preacher who shared the Gospel in some of the most difficult places.
Rich, who has achieved widespread success in the country music industry, told CBN News’ “Newsmakers” podcast that his father started preaching when the elder Rich was just 19 years old.
“But he didn’t preach in big churches,” the country singer said. “He was in prison ministry and street ministry — and you want to talk about a guy with some conviction, and bravery, courage; he preached on the street corner in New Orleans during Mardi Gras for 34 years in a row.”
Considering the chaos and debauchery in that area, his father’s commitment in the midst of a tough arena isn’t lost on Rich. But while his dad was sharing the Christian message with strangers, the singer was making way for himself in the entertainment industry.
“My decades in the music industry … that became what I worshiped, even though I gave my life to Jesus at a young age,” Rich said. “When I got out there and started selling millions of records … that became my focal point.”
But once he got married and started having kids, things changed. Watch Rich explain:
“I started looking at how I was living and what was important to me,” Rich said. “And I thought, ‘Is that how I want my boys to live? Do I want them to wind up like I am right now?’ And I was horrified by that notion.”
The singer said the problem with being “subservient to some wicked industry like the entertainment industry” is that it becomes difficult to hear God amid all of the chaos and noise.
“You can’t even hear Him, because your ears are full of your own noise,” he said, noting he felt “convicted” by the recognition of that reality. “So, over those next few years, little by little, I started separating … from the music industry and stepping further, and further, and further out into speaking the truth.”
Over time, he said truth simply couldn’t “co-exist” with the lies he was seeing and experiencing in the music industry. Eventually, he abandoned record and publishing deals and went out on his own, finding a total freedom he hadn’t had before while working as a musician.
“I felt like [God] went, ‘You can say whatever you want, and I’m going to give you some stuff to say that I want you to say,'” he said. “I said, ‘Well, let’s rock and roll. What do you want me to say?’ And when I took that attitude on and re-yielded myself to Him for real, here it came.”
Rich has been speaking and sharing his mind, discussing current events and Christian truth.
As CBN News previously reported, Rich recently released his Bible-inspired song “Revelation” after spending time “watching the way the world’s going, the way our country’s going” and finding himself compelled to speak out.
He’s hoping “Revelation,” a song inspired by the biblical end times, helps inspire people to “pick their Bibles up and start reading it for themselves” and to pay special attention to what Scripture proclaims about culture and the end of days.
The singer encouraged Christians to stop being silent and to stand up for what’s right.
“It is put up or shut up time,” Rich said. “You cannot scream and holler about what’s happening around you If you’re just gonna ride the fence, and keep your mouth shut, and go along to get along.”
He added, “Christians are not commanded to do that. We’re commanded to do quite the opposite of that. We’re supposed to go forward, not retreat … it’s not always the most comfortable thing to do, but it is the right thing to do, and it’s what I feel moved to do.”
***As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up for Faithwire’s daily newsletter and download the CBN News app, developed by our parent company, to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***