Church Boy

by Kirk Franklin

  I hadn’t expected that, but I understand that the Koran does say that Jesus is the Messiah. Even Muslims recognize Jesus as the Anointed One and a teacher of truth; they just don’t recognize Him for who He is—the one and only Son of God. But the bad news is, that’s the only thing that counts!

  It breaks my heart to see the impact the Nation of Islam is having on young black men today, because I see what’s happening. Black men have not provided the leadership at home or in the community that they should have. They’ve fathered kids, abandoned their women, and run away from responsibility, and our kids are bitter and angry because they don’t have a father figure in their lives.

  Very cleverly, the Nation of Islam has come up with an answer. Unfortunately, it’s the wrong answer. Jesus is the answer. He is the only way. But some churches have let the black community down, and that’s one of the main reasons I do what I do—to call black men and black women back to Jesus. If they start there, through the music or through the invitation we offer in every concert, then that’s at least a first step back to God, and that’s where we have to be.

  Almost immediately after Arsenio’s show we started doing one national TV show after another. It seemed like we were constantly on airplanes flying off to some network studio for another show.

  Most of the time, the hosts would clap politely and tell us they liked our sound. But when God’s Property and I did Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, Kathie Lee Gifford was praising the Lord the whole time. That was really great, seeing a national talk-show host standing up for Jesus!

  I’m not just a performer, of course; I’m also a fan. So I thought it was cool doing Live from the Apollo up in Harlem. It was exciting for us to be there, because I’ve heard so much about it, and I’ve enjoyed watching it on television for years. But I was really surprised at how small the theater is. Small building, small stage, big impact!

  DOING THE CIRCUIT

  One of the fascinating things about all the exposure we’ve had is seeing how different people react to what we do. Our main audience, the gospel fans, see our music as worship and praise. The mainstream secular market, however, sees it as black culture, not really as an art but as something vague like, “the voice of black music today.”

  Some of these people may like the beat, but they’re not into the spirit of the music. I suspect the only reason we’ve been invited on some of these shows is the crossover appeal.

  In those situations we would usually get the vibe, before and after the show, that neither we nor our message were really very important. It was like they were saying, “We just heard you were doing something different, and we wanted you to come. But as soon as the show’s over, you’re outta here!” There have been some occasions when the cars either didn’t come or didn’t come on time. And the accommodations at times were demeaning. After seeing the same treatment time after time, we realized that the level of respect for gospel music in our culture is still pretty low.

  However, I have met several hosts who have a love for the music and the message and have opened up their arms to us, and for that we are grateful.

  But in our society, some people still think of gospel as yelling and screaming. For them, it’s not an art; we just have to live with that. Fortunately, the attitude seems to be changing a little now, and, by the grace of God, I think the Family has had an impact on that. We have been blessed to bring many new ideas into the gospel scene, and there’s a lot more art to it now than there used to be.

  I still have to work very hard to always keep my eyes focused on the right things. It would have been easy when we were first starting out for me to start thinking I was Jesus’ front man. But I have learned that it’s not my job to change what people think or how they feel about this music. Our job is to do what we can with the gifts we have and let Jesus do His own thing.

  Even though we don’t do what we do for awards and status, God has blessed us, and in 1993 we won Stellar Awards for song of the year and best new artist. In 1994 our first album was named bestseller of the year by the National Association of Record Manufacturers; we also won the Bobby Jones Gospel Explosion Vision Award, four excellence awards, and two Gospel Music Association (GMA) Dove Awards for best album and best title song, and we were nominated for best gospel artist at the Soul Train Awards.

  That’s an incredible blessing for a bunch of young folks who came from nowhere. In 1995 and 1996 we were honored a dozen more times, including nominations for a Grammy, three NAACP Image Awards, five Stellar Awards, a Soul Train Award, and a GMA Dove Award.

  Whenever I go somewhere to receive an award or to participate in ceremonies for something the Family has done, I’m not going just for us but for a lot of other people too. What’s important is the message.

  And I also want to remember the ones who prepared the way for our success, including all those great gospel singers and musicians who came before us—many of whom never got the recognition they really deserved. So I honor them, and I try not to let my own success become a matter of personal pride because if I do I’m not real.

  One of the good things about traveling is that I’ve accumulated a lot of miles, which allows me to upgrade to first class every now and then. Sometimes I am the only black person in first class. I think most people, including the airline employees, think I’m probably the relative of somebody who works for the airline.

  Sometimes somebody will ask me, “So what do you do?”

  I say, “I’m a musician.”

  They say, “Oh really? That’s cool. What kind?”

  And I say, “Gospel music.”

  Then they say, “Oh, I see.” And that’s the end of the conversation.

  It’s like they’re thinking, Uh-oh, this guy’s going to try and get me saved!

  That’s one reason I don’t usually talk about what I do when we’re traveling, because I don’t want to seem to be that kind of Christian who’s always shoving salvation in somebody’s face. Jesus never forced His religion on anybody, and He didn’t go around blowing His own horn.

  He asked His boys, “Who do men say that I am?” (Luke 9:18). He didn’t have to ask that. He already knew the answer. But He wanted them to figure it out for themselves. I’m always ready to give a witness for my faith, but I never want to hurt the cause of Christ by being overly aggressive with anybody.

  If they want to know about Jesus, then we can talk. If they don’t want to know, then I’m not going to force them to listen. But one thing is very clear, and I see it wherever I go. This country is hungry for something to believe in. People need hope, they need answers, and they need a Savior. And that’s what our music is all about. Yes, I will even say, that’s the reason why I sing, and it’s why we’re willing to travel nine months out of the year to share the love of Jesus. But we’re not here to force it on anybody.

  Expectations

  (Part 3)

  Tomorrow is a brand-new day,

  All my sins have been washed away,

  My hands look new, my life is free,

  My heart is pure, I’ve been redeemed.

  I’ve seen His face, touched His hands,

  Finally now, I understand,

  Why He saved a wretch, a wretch like me,

  And by His blood I’ve been redeemed.

  We ran the race, we kept the fight

  We shed our blood for what was right,

  We carried our cross through storm and rain.

  Because of Christ, now we can say

  We are conquerors, conquerors;

  We are conquerors, conquerors.

  No matter what we go through,

  We are conquerors.

  Lord, I’m gonna give my problems to You.

  We are conquerors.

  Words and music by Kirk Franklin.

  Copyright ©1995, Kerrion Publishing / Lilly Mack Publishing (BMI).

  Used by permission.

  8

  Conquerors

  We recorded our second album in May 1994, and it proved to be
a bigger blessing and a bigger challenge than any of us expected. The first album, Why We Sing, enjoyed so much musical success and received such great reviews that, in my flesh, I wasn’t at all sure we could do it again. But as soon as Whatcha Lookin’ 4 was released, we could see that God was going to allow it to do as well or better than the first album.

  Some people felt the music on the new album was more contemporary, more edgy, more sophisticated in some ways. If that’s true, I don’t think it was necessarily a conscious effort on our part. Some of our strongest critics, especially inside the church, said we had turned our backs on traditional gospel music and were just contemporary R&B artists exploiting Christian lyrics for the money. But that’s not true.

  The music we play today wasn’t designed. We weren’t trying to make any kind of statement; it just evolved naturally. It was a natural development and direction that we felt the music should take.

  But I like to think that the growth and musical development are there because we were willing to let the music within us express itself. We weren’t trying to imitate anybody’s style or to make some kind of statement. We never pushed it. We just let the music take us wherever the Spirit led us and wherever the music wanted to go.

  When the God’s Property album came out in 1997, it was even more that way. In that one, God really gave me a chance to open up.

  TRYING TO GET A LIFE

  The Whatcha Lookin’ 4 album was a challenge for me because I was going through some personal and spiritual changes in my life.

  I was twenty-four years old, and I knew I needed to get a grip on my life. I hated the stuff I had been into, and I hated the double life I had been living. But especially, I hated the loneliness and the sense of isolation, not having that special someone I could share my life with. I needed a wife, but I hadn’t found the woman I wanted to marry.

  So 1994 came and went, and I just kept up this crazy, hectic pace. We were doing some good stuff, traveling all the time, and suddenly a lot more people knew who we were. Word was getting out that God was allowing something new to happen in gospel music. But it was a crazy time for me personally. I had this new popularity, and all that comes with it, but I was still empty inside. By 1995, I was wrestling with those things while the music was really taking off.

  We began doing what felt like hundreds of radio and TV shows. We were on Good Morning, America and CNN’s Showbiz Today, and we were featured on Headline News and Prime Time News segments. You name it, we’ve been there. We have even done the Letterman show twice.

  We’ve been flown to national broadcasts on private jets, picked up by chauffeurs and private limos, been interviewed by USA Today and The New York Times, and had stories and interviews appear on all the major wire services and hundreds of local newspapers and monthly magazines.

  I was featured in Ebony, and that helped our visibility, not only with the mainstream black audience, but with the general market as well. My picture appeared on the cover of the August 1997 issue of the inspirational magazine Guideposts, which carried my article about the fall during our Memphis concert. Before that I was on the covers of two or three other Christian magazines. Through these outlets there’s almost no segment of the population we haven’t reached in some way.

  So far, according to our publicists at GospoCentric who keep track of these things, we’ve done more than two dozen appearances on network television and have been featured on ten national TV programs, thirty local TV specials, and fifty radio features, and we’ve appeared in one hundred major newspaper articles and thirty national magazine articles, including Billboard, USA Today, People magazine, Jet, Vibe, Cash Box, Rolling Stone, CCM,

  Gavin, Urban Network, R&B, HITS, and Entertainment Weekly.

  I was on CNN twice before I fell in Memphis and twice afterward, and all of that coverage has helped give the group and our albums more exposure than we could ever have imagined. At one point, USA Today wrote that our success “represents a new day in gospel music.” The article said that since the accident in Memphis I had become “gospel music’s biggest star.” Now, I know that kind of stuff can go to a young man’s head. But I do not intend on letting it. I’m so busy working on me that I don’t have time to focus on all the hype.

  I never want to let myself get into the mold of thinking that I’m more than I am. For one thing, I know God is calling the church to repentance today, at this very minute. We are trying to do something with a highly visible and highly audible impact, but it’s not my message; it’s His. And to be totally honest, it’s not really my music. God put all that stuff inside me that would allow us to bring forth the message He wanted to get out.

  God gave me a ministry of music and schooled me in it from the age of four. He put me through some heavy-duty stuff so that, when the time came, I’d be able to use those gifts to minister to people’s hearts and to touch people who needed a word of encouragement. That’s what Kirk Franklin & the Family is all about. That’s why we sing. It’s not us; it’s Him.

  IN THE SPOTLIGHT

  The song “Why We Sing” and its accompanying album changed my life. As I said earlier, 1995 was a very challenging year in many ways, both good and bad; but the success of the album helped to bring a lot of things in my life into sharper focus—things I don’t think I ever really understood until that time. When we released Whatcha Lookin’ 4 later that year, the success of the new album just took everything to a higher level.

  Whatcha Lookin’ 4 hit Billboard’s Top 200 chart at number 23, the R&B chart at number 5, and both the video and the contemporary Christian charts at number 1. That was the highest breakout ranking of any gospel album in history, and we were totally blessed by it.

  So much was happening so fast. For the first time we had a chance to perform overseas. We went to Frankfurt, Germany, and performed for a large mixed crowd of Germans and Americans, blacks and whites, and it was such a blessing to go there. We’ve been to the Bahamas many times now as well as to Barbados and London; we also did a big concert in Birmingham, England, in 1997— not to mention, of course, touring virtually every major city in the United States over the past three years.

  The business end is not my strength. I enjoy getting onstage and becoming one with the people. I enjoy getting a chance to make an audience feel what I feel. But the Fort Worth boy inside of me is always aware of the risks and the temptations of this business, and I have made it a matter of constant prayer not to be sucked in by the hype.

  With all the things we’ve done and the places I’ve been, I’ve worked very hard not to let ego or pride get in the way of the message. I’ve focused on this so much that sometimes when it’s appropriate to talk about the way it all happened, either for a newspaper story, a TV interview, or even for this book, I find it very hard to open up. There’s a part of me that’s afraid to get into it, not to mention the fact that sometimes it’s just hard to remember!

  My constant prayer is that I can stay honest and humble before God so I won’t have to focus on these things and instead can just be faithful and use the talents and the opportunities I’ve been given to the glory of God. People tell me I can’t afford to overlook the PR aspect because celebrity and commercial success help us get the music out to the audience we want to reach. But I prefer to leave that to people who know more about it. I’m doing my best to focus my energies on the music and message God gave me.

  I heard this illustration not long ago, and maybe it will help explain what I’m trying to say. There’s a point when natural instinct and musical training just take over so that the consciousness of doing it actually disappears. It’s the same thing for professional athletes. If a football running back, for example, concentrates on his moves and starts thinking about what he’s supposed to do to be a great runner, he probably won’t get the job done. But if he just lets go and lets his talent loose, then he becomes the athlete he was born to be. That’s how it ought to work.

  If I—or the members of the Family—allow ourselves to concentrate
on all the media hype and all the Hollywood stuff, or if we start thinking about how we play the game, we’ll soon lose our focus. So when we go out on stage to perform we just rest in what God has given us. At some point it’s like there’s this audible click, and we become “Kirk Franklin & the Family.” God’s in control, the music starts to work, and then we just do what we do best.

  How else can I explain the Grammys and Stellars and Image Awards? How do I account for three sold-out nationwide tours, three platinum albums, and a gold Christmas album? But, you know, even as I say that, it’s hard for me to talk about those things. There are a lot of people who already think I’ve let the success go to my head. A lot of people—especially in the church—have said that I’m starting to believe my own press. But I don’t think that’s the case, and I also say that I work very hard to keep my head on straight.

  Besides that, working with those fifteen beautiful, talented, outspoken singers called the Family, I’m constantly surrounded by people who do a pretty good job of making sure none of the stuff goes to my head! They’ve been there through all the hype and they remember me before we made the first nickel. And, believe me, they keep me humble!

  There are stories that appear in print now and then that could easily make a guy think he’s somebody special. If I’m not careful, I could find myself looking in the mirror someday and saying, “Yeah, that’s right. I am all that!” But I never want—and I honestly pray—that day will never come.

  That’s not what I’m in it for. Everybody in the Family and everybody in the Franklin family—meaning my wife, Tammy, and the kids—have been told to remind me of who I am. And if it ever looks like I’m crossing the line and falling for all the hype, then I expect them to grab me and say, “Hey, Kirk. Chill, brother!”

  A CHANGE OF VIEW

  My radicalness, if there’s such a word, hasn’t created as much controversy as you might think it would. I mean, with some of the things we do onstage—coming out with a group like God’s Property and dancing around out there or rolling across the stage praising the Lord like I do— you’d think the traditional church would have boycotted me. But it hasn’t, and I’m glad for that.