Speaker 1: Welcome to Checking In with Michelle Williams, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio and The Black Effect. Y'all come on income
Speaker 1: on income, on in. I don't have a long Okay, listen.
Speaker 1: Kirk Franklin is checking in with us this week. I'm
Speaker 1: very excited about this interview. He just got off tour
Speaker 1: and I don't even know how he is still up.
Speaker 1: I would have been taking a nap for about two
Speaker 1: weeks straight after y'all. The tour they just did it
Speaker 1: was humongous, But he is checking in with us, So
Speaker 1: just stay tuned.
Speaker 2: Okay, y'all. Every week it gets better and better.
Speaker 1: This week, I am fortunate to have somebody who is very,
Speaker 1: very busy, just got off of a world win tour.
Speaker 1: Not only did we just get off a whirlwind tour.
Speaker 1: Just want a Billboard Music Award for Top Gospel Album
Speaker 1: with Maverick City and also a Soul Train Award for
Speaker 1: Best Gospel Inspirational Award.
Speaker 2: But hauld Up were not done.
Speaker 1: In March, he made history as the first person to
Speaker 1: spend one hundred weeks at number one on any Billboard
Speaker 1: song Writers chart.
Speaker 2: Give it up for producer, singer.
Speaker 3: Singer, binger, writer, inger, and the most as gospel artist
Speaker 3: ever in history.
Speaker 2: Yes, the most amazing. Y'all know his voice, producer, Well,
Speaker 2: what do you want me to say? Artist? Artist, artist,
Speaker 2: he does.
Speaker 3: It all and as she is gospel artist even we'll
Speaker 3: put that on.
Speaker 2: You know what, I'm gonna get you some good oil
Speaker 2: for Christmas.
Speaker 1: I'll sit, I'll get your I'll get an appropriate mailing
Speaker 1: address from your team and send you some oil.
Speaker 3: Some oil.
Speaker 2: You don't have no allergies. No, it's really good. Skin
Speaker 2: oil is good.
Speaker 3: Okay, it's really good. I love it.
Speaker 2: Grapefruit, but it's it's not powerful grapefruit.
Speaker 1: It's like really subtle good oil. Sunflower oil, really good.
Speaker 1: It won't clog your pours.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, I'll take it. I'll take it.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, y'all. Won't clog your poy so you
Speaker 2: can walk out the door. Don't drift none on the floor.
Speaker 2: I can't hear him, now, can't hear me? I can
Speaker 2: hear you talk. I can't hear keyboard.
Speaker 3: That is interesting. She can hit to but she can't
Speaker 3: hit the keyboard. Okay, we tried.
Speaker 1: Well, I can't do that because I don't want to
Speaker 1: sound like I'm off or something.
Speaker 3: No, it's all up, it's all love, It's it's all
Speaker 3: next time.
Speaker 1: Next time, I'll set up an official studio time with you.
Speaker 3: Great, great Greg. Well, it's great to see you.
Speaker 1: It is so good to see you. King fresh off
Speaker 1: of tour, trash off. You need a nap, you need
Speaker 1: a nap.
Speaker 3: I don't know what I need. I don't know what
Speaker 3: I need. I feel like I need to run down
Speaker 3: the freeway in my underwear with some with with some
Speaker 3: some timberling boots on, with a with a with a
Speaker 3: Superman cape on, with a herring bone necklace. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: just I'm just gonna keep going to you to stop me.
Speaker 1: Uh if that, If that's the headline you're going for,
Speaker 1: I go for it.
Speaker 2: I support you. It's gonna be a pr nightmare, but
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have your bag.
Speaker 3: Back.
Speaker 2: I'm like it was fashion week.
Speaker 1: It was fashion week and.
Speaker 2: He was showing off his new line.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: That's what we're gonna go with. That's what listen.
Speaker 1: As it relates to the tour, now, you know you
Speaker 1: about can't do a tour like that any other time,
Speaker 1: because everybody can hold their own do their own show.
Speaker 2: Everybody can headline.
Speaker 3: Everybody but y'all were all.
Speaker 2: Unified like it.
Speaker 1: No issues, No, because I want to know what tour
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go on with. Don't nobody care about because
Speaker 1: you know, the headliner gotta most of the time, the
Speaker 1: headliner gotta pay the most money, so you gotta like,
Speaker 1: I don't need the headline. What an amazing accomplishment for music, period,
Speaker 1: and then for gospel music to be displayed in such
Speaker 1: a way to where people felt like they were at
Speaker 1: it a different type of genre like y'all came with clothing,
Speaker 1: led screens, staging, segues, everything.
Speaker 3: Now, man, we had a really really good time. It was,
Speaker 3: it was, it was. It was very exciting to see
Speaker 3: gospel music, uh in that space, to see people come
Speaker 3: out by the you know, droves, just to be able
Speaker 3: to be reminded of God's love for them and songs
Speaker 3: that carried them through some difficultiess in their lives, and
Speaker 3: for us to be able to curate this moment that
Speaker 3: will just live in in spiritual infamy. You know, yes,
Speaker 3: it is. It is a great moment for the genre
Speaker 3: and it was an epic moment for music.
Speaker 2: A Part two be doing a part two.
Speaker 1: You know, what's an international verson London, Nigeria.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, they'll eat it up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we've been talking about it in nationally.
Speaker 3: You know, we we are just trying to figure out
Speaker 3: how to make it work because you know, when you
Speaker 3: go overseas, there's so many things, you know, different exchange
Speaker 3: rates and different things to be able to try to
Speaker 3: make it accessible to everyone. And so you know, we're
Speaker 3: still on the high and we're still beaming from how
Speaker 3: incredible the love was here in the States.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: With the tour, you know, there were a lot of
Speaker 3: cities we didn't get to go to, like, you know,
Speaker 3: we didn't get to go to New York City proper.
Speaker 3: We were in Jersey, we didn't get to go to
Speaker 3: we didn't get to go to Baltimore, you know, Minneapolis, Indianapolis,
Speaker 3: you know, Portland, Seattle. So you know, you know that's
Speaker 3: part two. Yeah, so yeah, you know, yeah, we we're
Speaker 3: trying to figure it out, man, trying to figure it out,
Speaker 3: you know. So you know, we really trying to see
Speaker 3: if there's a way to be able to make it happen.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well it was good to see everybody. I can
Speaker 2: imagine relationships were probably strengthened and fortified, getting to catch
Speaker 2: up on all things because a lot of y'all live
Speaker 2: in different parts of the country, so to every for
Speaker 2: everybody to be on tour at one time, it was.
Speaker 1: Beautiful to see, so inspiring, Like, you know, there's some
Speaker 1: hint hit the other tours need to happen. Now, come on,
Speaker 1: we got we can do it.
Speaker 2: We can do it. We can do it.
Speaker 3: That's super dump.
Speaker 1: And then before the tour or kind of you know,
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the tour, your Father's Day documentary
Speaker 1: was released in conjunction with your album.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know life, Life was Life Thing
Speaker 3: twenty three. Life was life Thing. It was a lot
Speaker 3: that happened, and you know, we you know, we're just
Speaker 3: still taking it on at a time and still trying
Speaker 3: to figure out, you know, what the new normal looks like.
Speaker 3: You know, you know, it's very much kind of like
Speaker 3: how life was after the pandemic. You know, you you
Speaker 3: had to figure out what the new normal was for you,
Speaker 3: and so yeah, you know that's what I'm having to
Speaker 3: do and and I'm having to do it at my
Speaker 3: own pace and my own race. Uh, you know, it
Speaker 3: can feel very daunting, but one day to time, one
Speaker 3: day at a time.
Speaker 1: You say, at your own pace, at your own race,
Speaker 1: but you decided to share it with the world. Why
Speaker 1: did you decide to share that portion with us?
Speaker 3: Well, because I was already in the creative space. I
Speaker 3: was already documenting the making of the album. And so yeah,
Speaker 3: so as a creative, you don't know how not to
Speaker 3: translate what you go through like it's someone like, as
Speaker 3: a creative, I was going through that. Then it's going
Speaker 3: to the songwriting. So if I have a camera front
Speaker 3: of me and I'm going to naturally incorporate the moments
Speaker 3: that I'm experiencing in the moment that I'm in, I mean,
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, for you know, in my humble opinion,
Speaker 3: I think for real deep core creative people, they don't
Speaker 3: know a separation of art in reality. You know, there
Speaker 3: are is there reality, So you know, you know, you
Speaker 3: just you just naturally continue in the lanes that are
Speaker 3: very organic and their second nature for you. And you
Speaker 3: know that second nature for me.
Speaker 2: Did the album change?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: Did you were your album starting off in one way
Speaker 1: and then things happened with your father, did it kind
Speaker 1: of did it change the album?
Speaker 3: Album? Oh? Yeah, yeah, yeah, the name of the album
Speaker 3: originally was called The Rebirth the Fearless Hero. That was
Speaker 3: that was the name of the album. I was taking
Speaker 3: different titles from different albums, and and uh, yeah, it
Speaker 3: was it was going to be one project that was
Speaker 3: going in another kind of direction, and uh, this ended
Speaker 3: up being, you know, the background music for a very tumultuous,
Speaker 3: life changing experience that I was having in real time.
Speaker 3: And so they both, yeah, they both kind of lighted
Speaker 3: with each other.
Speaker 1: The Rebirth of the Fearless Hero. I mean, I can
Speaker 1: I can only imagine that it was scary for you
Speaker 1: to release that information to us, right, But at the
Speaker 1: same time, you became, if you weren't already a lot
Speaker 1: of people's hero for being able to share, especially a
Speaker 1: man to share and be vulnerable on camera. I always
Speaker 1: say there's a difference between being transparent and vulnerable. When
Speaker 1: you're transparent, you can tell the world anything, Hey, I
Speaker 1: stelled my told hey, I was late for a meeting today.
Speaker 2: But being vulnerable, you actually told us.
Speaker 1: How it made you feel, which being vulnerable for me
Speaker 1: feels yucky. I hate feeling vulnerable and then having to
Speaker 1: voice how it made me feel. I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: watching it all over again, just talking to you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I don't know what other way to be is.
Speaker 3: I don't know. Me talking and me sharing is very
Speaker 3: much just a part of my nature. It's very second
Speaker 3: nature for me, so as I don't know how to
Speaker 3: have the separate space where these things in my life
Speaker 3: exist over here. But then I'm going to do music
Speaker 3: and share the gospel and yeah, and talk about Jesus
Speaker 3: over here. Now they are synonymous in the expression of
Speaker 3: who I am as a broken individual, and so I
Speaker 3: wouldn't know different to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, It's like every time you come out with a project,
Speaker 1: it's like we're hearing Kirk for the first time. It's
Speaker 1: like you somehow you keep our anticipation, you keep everybody so.
Speaker 2: Excited, and you're all well to us.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you ever feel that way, but
Speaker 1: it seems like you're always winning except for that, of course,
Speaker 1: by the grace of God his hand on your life,
Speaker 1: and every time you come out you stay relevant.
Speaker 2: Just I just y'all.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here almost fanning out because this is what
Speaker 1: I've been wanting to say to you. It's like you're
Speaker 1: fresh still, like you're new. How do you keep that energy?
Speaker 1: How do you keep us like literally on the edges
Speaker 1: of our seat, Like, what is Kirk Franklin gonna do
Speaker 1: for us musically?
Speaker 3: I have no idea. I have no idea, Kirk, you'd
Speaker 3: be so humble, But I'm also keeping it a buck. Nobody,
Speaker 3: nobody knows what Listen, you have been doing music all
Speaker 3: your life, you know, like I know, don't nobody know?
Speaker 3: Think about all the big producers that you as an artist,
Speaker 3: You were Destiny's child. You you've seen your other sister
Speaker 3: do and there'll be records you think, oh, this record
Speaker 3: is out of here, and it don't. I mean, nobody knows.
Speaker 3: So why would I get on here with you and
Speaker 3: even act like I have some divine intervention spiritual hookup
Speaker 3: number from God that I can just tell you something
Speaker 3: that is going to be so divinely supernaturally different.
Speaker 2: Everybody wants you to bottle up the secret sauce.
Speaker 3: And sell it, and there is no secret sauce. I
Speaker 3: don't is that nobody knows? You know? I guess I can't.
Speaker 3: You know, like even with you know, even with the
Speaker 3: new music, you don't know you know, I mean, you
Speaker 3: don't know you don't know, you know, but you're mad,
Speaker 3: grateful and overwhelmed that in spite of you, in spite
Speaker 3: of your mistakes and failures or sins and struggles, that
Speaker 3: you know there's something in you, in spite of you,
Speaker 3: that God would choose to use in some kind of way.
Speaker 3: It's it's it's amazing. Yeah, yeah, wow.
Speaker 1: I want to go to the foundation of my podcast,
Speaker 1: and it is about mental health. But I find a way,
Speaker 1: we find a way to have these discussions not in
Speaker 1: a clinical type of way. And everything that you shared
Speaker 1: with us this year on the documentary with the tour,
Speaker 1: being a husband, a father, a son, how have you
Speaker 1: been balancing it all with your mental health?
Speaker 2: How are you doing?
Speaker 3: Thank you great question. You know. I I am grateful
Speaker 3: for the gift of music. I think that God and
Speaker 3: his kindness as a little boy gave me the gift
Speaker 3: of music because it has always been the medicine I
Speaker 3: didn't know I needed. It's very therapeutic to be able
Speaker 3: to sit at a piano and to be able to
Speaker 3: just heard melodes from have you know, it's you know,
Speaker 3: it's it's it's it's very very cathartic when you have
Speaker 3: this space that you can get a chest to occupy
Speaker 3: with God in hearing what others don't get to hear first.
Speaker 3: So that has been my therapy. The tour was very
Speaker 3: healing from me because I was away from me, okay,
Speaker 3: and you know that was helpful. And you know, I
Speaker 3: was just aid my therapist yesterday evening. I had a
Speaker 3: session yesterday evening and we'll have another one either tomorrow, Thirsty.
Speaker 3: You know, you know I'm a black maned praise and see.
Speaker 3: It's a therapist. And I've been seeing a therapist non
Speaker 3: stopped since I was about twenty eight and I'm fifty three,
Speaker 3: so you know, I've I've always been in therapy and
Speaker 3: it has been, you know, very healing component of my life.
Speaker 3: I'll talk. I'm not a person who won't talk. I'll
Speaker 3: talk sometimes too much, you know, but I'm but I'm
Speaker 3: I'm comfortable talking.
Speaker 2: Yeah. What do you say to the person that's like
Speaker 2: Kirk Frankly, you're supposed to be saved. Jesus is enough.
Speaker 2: You don't need no therapist.
Speaker 3: I would say to them, but they sound crazy. I
Speaker 3: would say that they sound dumb. I would say that
Speaker 3: they sound Okay. I can't say those things Okay, I
Speaker 3: would say that you sound you just sound like you
Speaker 3: don't know what you talk to about.
Speaker 2: Ignorant.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I just think that it is it
Speaker 3: is such a disclaimer or a misnomer to be able
Speaker 3: to make these broad statements that we only make in
Speaker 3: our mind, that we don't make with any other parts
Speaker 3: of our bodies. You don't say that to a heart speculus.
Speaker 3: You don't say that to somebody who just fell over
Speaker 3: having a heart attack. Get up, stop that heart attack.
Speaker 3: In the name of Jesus. You don't say that to somebody.
Speaker 3: You will call nine one one will you will try
Speaker 3: to do something to the problem. But when it comes
Speaker 3: to our emotions and our souls and our minds, we
Speaker 3: over spiritualized things that don't need over spiritualized.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: I feel like we put mental health over here. But
Speaker 1: then the rest of our health, your cardiovascular health, you're reproductive,
Speaker 1: if your your your immune system like loopis like if
Speaker 1: somebody goes to the altar and says, you know what
Speaker 1: I just got to diagnosis of loopis, oh.
Speaker 2: We gotta pray, we gotta pray.
Speaker 1: But if somebody comes down and says I'm depressed, Well,
Speaker 1: who you've been sleeping with.
Speaker 2: You ain't praying.
Speaker 1: You not mean your bible. You make a person feel
Speaker 1: like they did something wrong.
Speaker 3: I agree with you. I agree with you.
Speaker 2: That's why you're here.
Speaker 3: I agree with you.
Speaker 2: But we'll pray for everything else.
Speaker 3: I agree with you, and it is it is, so
Speaker 3: help me. It's a form of spiritual abuse.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: For spiritual abuse to be able to.
Speaker 2: They don't know. I don't they don't know they're there.
Speaker 2: I don't think they know that. That's what it is.
Speaker 3: The form of spiritual abuse. You abusing people's spirits when
Speaker 3: you communicate to them in that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, Oh my gosh, because I feel like mental
Speaker 1: health obviously your mind, your emotions. You know, when you
Speaker 1: go see the psychiatrist. Sometimes your practitioners of mental health
Speaker 1: they're in the same building as other medical care professionals.
Speaker 1: That's good, but thank you for sharing that. You know, Hey,
Speaker 1: Kirk Franklin, New Billboard Award winning, Soul Train Award winning,
Speaker 1: GRAMM your award winning.
Speaker 2: You have successful television shows.
Speaker 1: You're in what the second season of Kingdom Business, Executive producer.
Speaker 2: Of Kingdom Business. By the way, y'all, thank y'all, so
Speaker 2: month for having me.
Speaker 3: You did a good job.
Speaker 1: Episode appreciate thank you. You know, I'd be liking to
Speaker 1: act and everything, and so a job. You know, You've
Speaker 1: got a lot that you are doing. Will we see
Speaker 1: you acting like featured featured film, more feature films?
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know, you know, will you know?
Speaker 3: It's I love the space of creating. And if something
Speaker 3: comes that's right and it and it translates in ways
Speaker 3: that are that are conducive to the level of talent
Speaker 3: God has given me, then you know, yeah, I'd be
Speaker 3: more than honor to see if it's something that can
Speaker 3: be a forward moment that I can contribute to. And
Speaker 3: so you know, I'm very open to the accountability around
Speaker 3: me of what I'm good at or what I'm not
Speaker 3: good at when it comes to you and out in
Speaker 3: other spaces. I'm not one that makes the assumption than
Speaker 3: because God has blessed me with one creative lane that
Speaker 3: I can do all creative lanes. And so I love
Speaker 3: the accountability of getting the insight and the input of
Speaker 3: people that I trust around me. And so we'll see,
Speaker 3: We'll see if something comes and we'll see if I'm
Speaker 3: good at it or if I'm not good at it,
Speaker 3: and then if I'm not, I believe it alone.
Speaker 1: All right, musicals inducing musicals, Yeah, some broadways I think, like,
Speaker 1: you know, absolutely amazing. And you do the music on
Speaker 1: the Kingdom Business.
Speaker 2: Can you talk about that? Do you do that differently
Speaker 2: than you would do your own project, your own personal
Speaker 2: music project.
Speaker 3: Well? What I love about doing the music for Kingdom Business,
Speaker 3: so for any other movie or any other TV show,
Speaker 3: is that I love being free of the anxiety of radio,
Speaker 3: the anxiety of the first single and what the first
Speaker 3: single is going to be, because I think that that
Speaker 3: can it sounds be an unnecessary pressure that that just
Speaker 3: burdens all of us, and so I love being free
Speaker 3: of them. And so when I'm working on yeah, whatever,
Speaker 3: I'm working on a TV show, I don't have to
Speaker 3: feel that that kind of pressure. I'm able to just
Speaker 3: be free from that level of pressure and just allow
Speaker 3: it to be what it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, what's your latest music and everything that you've
Speaker 1: been showing us? Now I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: with he can pour all of his emotion and what
Speaker 1: he's been feeling into like even scoring a movie.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you know, like yeah, and I've done that before.
Speaker 3: I've had a couple of Like I scored a movie
Speaker 3: called Kingdom Come Yes, Yes, I also worked on It's
Speaker 3: another movie project that I okay, I got a blank.
Speaker 1: I just feel like with everything, I can imagine just
Speaker 1: sitting down at the piano, pouring your heart out with
Speaker 1: everything that you have gone through this year, and you
Speaker 1: still blazed.
Speaker 2: It on stage. Like I'm like, I know, he gotta
Speaker 2: soak in some epps and salt.
Speaker 1: I do know them twisting turns, jumping up in the
Speaker 1: air and you're sharing in your porn. But that's the
Speaker 1: amazing part of us that we can have something going on,
Speaker 1: but when it comes to serving people and giving our best,
Speaker 1: that you can do it. And so I know that
Speaker 1: you just got off tour, you are exhausted, and I'm
Speaker 1: excited that you came to talk with us today and
Speaker 1: check in and share with you y'all get therapy. Get
Speaker 1: in therapy as well. Nothing is wrong with a good
Speaker 1: old session. I love my Thursdays at one pm, Like,
Speaker 1: I really really love it.
Speaker 2: There's some growth.
Speaker 1: There and I feel like sometimes she takes my money anyway,
Speaker 1: even though we're gonna be having none to talk about.
Speaker 1: But it's just good to check it. She gon't she
Speaker 1: gonna she we have there's still one hundred and fifty dollars. Sorry,
Speaker 1: you know, to talk about crawfish. But I'm so thankful
Speaker 1: for you. I'm so glad we got this time to
Speaker 1: talk and congratulations on your award. I would ask you
Speaker 1: what is next, but I feel like you just need
Speaker 1: to sit in just exactly what y'all just accomplished. To
Speaker 1: me that when people ask me that question, it annoys
Speaker 1: me because it's like, bro, you just see what what's next?
Speaker 2: A nap? What's a vacation of the trip? So you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. So I'm truly thankful.
Speaker 1: Give Tammy my love, and oh yah, y'all have the.
Speaker 2: Show as well about relationship. Y'all are helping people find
Speaker 2: the one and so will we see any more of that?
Speaker 3: Probably not, But it was fun. It was a good tribe.
Speaker 3: It was a good.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, all right, all right, Well, we love you
Speaker 1: and thank you for checking in.
Speaker 3: I love you too, Queen, so proud of you, so
Speaker 3: proud of you.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: We'll see you again, all.
Speaker 1: Right, yes sir, all right bye? Okay, If y'all didn't
Speaker 1: learn nothing from this interview. First of all, work hard. Secondly,
Speaker 1: it's okay to go to therapy. I am so glad
Speaker 1: that Kirk Franklin has decided to even share that y'all.
Speaker 1: He just found his birth father this year in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three, in the middle of him working on his album.
Speaker 1: Y'all heard what he said The album was even a
Speaker 1: different title. I asked him, Hey, you know, did the
Speaker 1: situation with your father even changed the tone and the
Speaker 1: direction of your album.
Speaker 2: As y'all heard him say. He said it did.
Speaker 1: And I love me some Kirk Franklin. I hope to
Speaker 1: work with him one day. That's if he ain't too tired.
Speaker 2: Good lord.
Speaker 1: He's doing a lot execute the producing television series Going
Speaker 1: on the Road, his own album is out, and so
Speaker 1: it's always a joy to talk with him. I could
Speaker 1: tell that he was a little tired, so, you know me,
Speaker 1: I read the room and I do not hold people along.
Speaker 1: So I really hope that y'all enjoy this brief interview
Speaker 1: with my friend and my buddy, Kirk Franklin. Checking In
Speaker 1: with Michelle Williams is a production of iHeart Radio and
Speaker 1: The Black Effect. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.