Well, ‘I am who I am’ worked for the Apostle Paul and Popeye, so it can’t be all bad (laughing).
(Laughing) Good point!
I like so many of the new songs. Which one do you enjoy playing live most?
That’s a tough one…. I really enjoy the song “I’ll Be Free.” I enjoy the arrangement and the orchestration and all that, but that one seems to me to be really simple, and yet the cry of a lot of people. We do have a sin nature, we do make mistakes and mess up. I’m not looking to check out of here anytime soon, but you know what? I do long for the day when I will be free of all that. All of us, even people who don’t know Christ at this point in time, who don’t know exactly what they want to be free of, or how to get free, even they are looking for ways to be free of the struggles we face. So I do enjoy that song, and vocally the range is interesting.
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I like that track because it’s just straight-up worship, as opposed to some of the other ‘story songs.’
I don’t get to perform “76th Street” a lot, because the majority of what I do is in churches and it doesn’t quite fit many places I go. But I love it because it’s my story. Things around me may have changed, but a part of me will always be from 76th Street. I’m trying to take a lot of the things I learned in those four walls to pass along to my own son now about what God expects of us.
I don’t know if your parents are living, but did they ever have the chance to hear that song?
Yes, the first time my Dad heard it we were on a trip to Japan, where I was doing some concerts and some baseball clinics. I had just finished that track, and he doesn’t hear real well, so I wrote out all the words for him. He was reading as I was singing and he just started crying. It meant a lot to him. I took a lot from those days in my childhood, and it has everything to do with who I am today. And he knew that when he heard it. If my boy ever did that for me, I’d be crying too.
It’s a wonderful tribute, you’ve been very blessed.
I have been, yes.
I’ve been blessed too, by our time talking. Thanks, Kent.
Thank you, take care.
Check out Kent's New Album, 'Back In The Game.'
