Jonathan Traylor

[00:00:00] You're listening to a podcast from Hope FM. Not just because she's Cece Winans, but she moves with so much integrity. She loves Jesus. She represents Christ so well. They say don't meet your heroes, but I'm glad I met her because she's the real deal on and off stage. But she prayed for us and almost gave us this charge. Hey, the world is depending on you. We're depending on you to continue to live holy. Not just to sing good songs, but to live holy, to live for Jesus, to represent Jesus well. And it was like, okay, I feel like a mama, like a mama sending you out.

[00:00:29] Okay, yeah, you're going to want to do right. Do right. You know? The Artist Interview Podcast with Gordon T. Hey, this is Jonathan Traylor. And this is my episode of The Artist Interview on Hope FM.

[00:01:12] And that was I Trust You by Jonathan Traylor. I'm so pleased that Jonathan is here right now for The Artist Interview. Hey, Jonathan, how are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm coming off a tour and just getting settled back in at home with family. And I'm loving it. Happy to be home, but I'm doing great. So wait a second. So where is home? Home is the States. I live in Charlotte, North Carolina. So yes, it's beautiful out here. Perfect, perfect fall time. Wow. And not Nashville then?

[00:01:42] No, no, I can't. Nope, not Nashville. God bless everybody in Nashville. But no, not Nashville. And I don't know where Charlottesville is. Whereabouts in the States is? What's it like? Charlotte is, you're a few hours from Nashville, but it's beautiful. The weather is nice. A lot of trees. A lot of trees. You're close to the mountain, close to the ocean if you need to. So it's just a beautiful place, beautiful place to raise your family to. Okay. And who's in your family?

[00:02:12] So I have my beautiful wife. Her name is Ryan. And I have three daughters. I'm a girl dad. I have my oldest. Her name is Charlie. She's nine. And then we have Blake Michelle. She's seven. And our youngest, she's one. Her name is Corey Ellis. She was born on our wedding anniversary, which was really cool. Wow. And how long have you been married? Been married 10 years. 10 years. Okay. So. Yeah.

[00:02:42] Would be great if we rewound time right back. In fact, how old are you right now, sir? I'm 36. Yeah. 36. Okay. So, so lived a little. Let's rewind right back to when you were young. I'd love to know about how, how music became part of your life. How Jesus became the center as well.

[00:03:01] That's good. Young man grew up in a family. I'm the oldest of three on my, on my mother's side. And we went through some life, to be honest with you. We went through a lot of life. And when I say that, I mean, a lot of struggles and hardships and trials and just things that a young, a young man shouldn't carry at that age, you know?

[00:03:27] Yeah. I'm going to, I'm going to ask you if you don't mind. Can, can you tell us, tell us some of those situations if that's okay? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, for sure. I'm in a broken home. So my mom, she married my stepfather when I was three and she had, they had two children, but I'm again, oldest half, half sibling, but that guy wasn't the best. You know, I went through some abuse.

[00:03:53] Um, my mother went through abuse, went through abuse, um, my siblings. And that was, that was hard, you know? Yeah. And we went through, we went through some homelessness at, at a lot of points in our lives. Um, but in the midst of everything, my, my mother, she was a hard believer in Jesus. You know, um, she wanted to, she was always trying to fight through everything, trying to figure it out and pray through everything.

[00:04:19] Okay. Lord, I'm, I'm not going to get divorced. I'm going to, I'm going to trust you. I'm going to figure that we're going to figure this thing out. And I'm, I will hear my mom at two, three in the morning, praying out to God, crying out to God, saying, Lord, I trust you. Could you come and see about us or cover us? Keep us, keep us, help us. And, um, she finally divorced him later on in life, but it was after we've gone through so much, you know? Um, but I'm telling you, man, if we didn't have anything, we had Jesus.

[00:04:46] And, and that's, that's not me trying to sound extra churchy or anything, but we would, my mom would gather us in the room and she will open up the word of God. We'll go through the word together. We'll pray together. We'll sing songs together. And that was when I knew even, even in our situation, even through our hard stuff, I knew that Jesus was with us.

[00:05:09] I knew that we had hope, you know, and, um, we've grown like later on in life and I'll come with jump back into the past, but I can tell you now that God has redeemed every year, every single tear that we've cried. My mom is remarried. She's happy. My little brother is married. He has a baby on the way. My little sister, she's married. She has, um, one child, another child, a baby on the way.

[00:05:33] And, um, we're all just walking in purpose. God has redeemed and restored our hearts. And so I'm grateful for that. Wow. And that's, that's extraordinary. I've got, I've got to be honest. I don't, I don't know what it's like to be homeless. I never have. Um, but I can imagine that it would be pretty desperate. And I can imagine a lot of people if they're in that situation would be going, well, why God, if you're there, why?

[00:06:00] How, how, if you've been in the situation where you have nothing, uh, and, and yet your mom's still praying. It's amazing faith. I just, hats off to her and that's phenomenal. But, but how, how did you avoid getting bitter at God for the pain and the suffering that you and your family went through?

[00:06:21] No, uh, I definitely got bitter. There were times I got bitter and, and wanted to shake my fist at God and say, why? But that was when I didn't know him for, I didn't have a personal relationship with him. That was when I was just going to church because mama made me, my grandmother made me, you know, but when I went through the scripture for myself and formed my own relationship with Jesus, I understood more.

[00:06:49] I understood that what I'm going through isn't wasted. I understood that, that what I'm going through right now is for a greater purpose, you know? Um, and that was even hard for me to wrap my mind around, you know? Um, but going through the scripture, it will remind me that what I'm seeing right now isn't all there is to be seeing.

[00:07:09] There's, there's something beautiful on the other side of this, even though right now it seems crazy. There's something beautiful waiting on the other side of this. I just got to keep trusting, keep believing. And, uh, I remember like my mom had left, left him and we were on our own. And we, that's when we had started, we started going through homelessness.

[00:07:28] But I remember turning on faith-based music, like a Fred Hammond and Kirk Franklin and CC Winans, which is crazy that, you know, the tour just happened. But, um, I would dance in my room because I was dancing before I was singing. I would dance in my room before the Lord and then pray and then dance some more. What age was that? This is around maybe 13, 14. Yeah. So. Wow. Yeah.

[00:07:54] Okay. So, so was it, you didn't know you could sing, but you, you had the move, so you knew you could dance? So, so I knew that I could sing, but I didn't want to. So like I came from my mom, my mom could sing. Even my stepfather who was abusive, he was a singer. He, he's the one who introduced us to the commission and Fred Hammond and all these people. We were singing in the car, but that wasn't my interest. Dancing was every, I always wanted to dance. Um, and you can ask anybody in the world, they knew me as a dancer. Um, I even tried to audition to get into some schools.

[00:08:24] For dancing. But, um, that was, I was in some dance teams when I was younger, um, around my teenage years and I danced at church and all that, but that was a goal. I'm going to grow up. I'm going to be this professional dancer. I'm going to go to Juilliard. All this, all this stuff, you know, but, um, there were, there were a few moments in life where I was almost kind of forced to sing.

[00:08:47] You know, uh, whether that was, I had to dance somewhere and we had CDs and the CD started skipping at the plate that I was about to dance. So the CD started skipping and, um, I just grabbed the microphone. I was like, you know what? Let's just worship. You know? So I was singing because the CD was working or a moment where there wasn't enough tenors in the choir at church.

[00:09:07] So my mom would lovingly ask me, voluntold. I feel like she voluntold me, but she would lovingly tell me to sing in the choir. And I was singing in the choir and I fell in love with it. I fell in love with, with worship. And there was a moment when the musicians at the church transitioned, they left. There was a keyboard player and a drummer, but before they left, they were pouring into me. I was sitting right beside the drum set, just studying.

[00:09:37] And he would let me play some Sundays and I got good at playing the drums. And, um, the, the keyboard player, she was like a godmother to me now, but she would pray over me and she left. And I remember looking at these empty instruments every Sunday, even though the choir was singing to instrumental CDs, you know, and once the CD is over, it's done. But I remember looking at this keyboard every Sunday, like, Lord, I really want to play. I want to play for my church. So I came in, it's a small church, a small family church. I remember walking up to church one day.

[00:10:07] And asking the Lord to teach me how to play this instrument. And I remember taking some of my pastor's anointing oil and I took his anointing oil and I dabbed it on my fingers and I put some in my ears. I put some on my tongue and I was like, Lord, I want to sing what you want me to sing. I want to play what you want me to play. I want to be able to hear what you want me to hear. And I had that same woman who left. I called her. My grandmother had me call her and I asked her to pray over me and asked her if she could pray that God will give me that gift to play the piano.

[00:10:36] And she prayed her heart out on that phone. And I remember coming to church and getting on the piano. But I wasn't Beethoven immediately, but I started playing. I could hear better. And I started putting formatting chords together and God developed that gift and talent really fast. And I started playing for my church. And not only did I start playing for my church, I started, I got a little, little keyboard from a little shop, took it home.

[00:11:03] I started writing songs and those same songs that I would write at home. I would try to bring to my church. We would sing about the church. So I was a young, young guy, young teenager over the choir. You know, so that was, that was a turning point in my life. Yeah. And it makes such a difference if people are, you said it, you said that two people poured into you. They're gifting, they love their time. And obviously, obviously the prayer then as well. And even though they'd left the fruits, they maybe didn't get to see it at that time because they weren't there.

[00:11:33] Yeah. But they, yeah, they've seen it. They were just at one of the concerts. So they've seen it now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So it's been a blessing. That is so, so cool. And, and it absolutely makes a difference. Having people around you who can encourage you, see your potential, help you walk into it. And also, so, so those people set, set you on a, on a course, but I love, I love that you were praying and asking God to supernaturally gift you to speed that up.

[00:12:02] You're learning. So, so what, what, what, what a training ground. And we've got beside you. Amazing, amazing stuff. So, so as a teenager, they are doing, doing music, wanting to do dance, but then the dance door, you, you, you change your mind, you pivot, decide to do what happens. No, I keep it, you know, someone, I did a little, it was like a little, I would say a showcase. And I remember the judge, he knew me from the dance,

[00:12:31] dance side. He said, Oh, you came to sing. Oh, you said, like, you, you sound amazing. Cause they only, again, they knew me from dancing. They're like, why not put it together? Why not? They were like, you know, there's people in mainstream and secular music. Why not? They, they dance and sing. But for some weird reason on the Christian side at that time and faith-based music, it was either, or you didn't see a lot of people dancing and singing together.

[00:12:59] It was either they just dance or they were singers, you know, you didn't see that together. So he, yeah, he was saying, Hey man, why don't you put it together? And just, so I started making songs that I could dance to and writing songs that I could dance to. And I would be in the room choreographing things and, and fast forward, that's, if you go look up, I trust you, you look at the music video, I'm doing full blown choreography with my background dancers in there while I'm singing. And I said, you know what? Why, why not?

[00:13:27] Why not? God gave me these things. He gave me these gifts. He gave me these talents. Why am I trying to hold back from, you know, he doesn't hold back. God doesn't hold back from me. He's given me everything, freely gave me everything. So why am I trying to give him half of this and half of that? No, he's worthy of everything. So even now, when you come to a concert, you may see me do a little dance stuff every now and then, but, um, yeah. Sweet. That is sweet. So, so I, I, I guess at some point you mentioned about that personal relationship with Jesus.

[00:13:57] Yes. So what age were you when you said, okay, I understand it for myself. It's not my mom's faith. It's now, it's now my faith. Yeah. I would say again, been in church my whole life, but I would say it was around 11, 12 when it became real to me. Now I was younger when I would go to the altar and pray maybe eight. And now when I would pray and I was like, this is,

[00:14:26] I feel something, but around 11 and 12, that's when it became real to me. And I stepped into even leadership roles because I was, I feel like God was calling me into that, you know, but I went to a place called discovery camp and it was a whole bunch of young people, hundreds of young people, my age on fire for the Lord. And I had never seen that again. I was just used to my home church back home. And yeah, we had young people, we dance, we had the dance ministry.

[00:14:54] We had the, the young adult, um, choir and stuff. I mean, and the youth choir and the skits, we had all that stuff at church, but I've never seen this many children, my peers in an altar, lifting their hands, singing, doing all these things, living for Jesus. And I was like, I was like, there's more of us. There's more. There's more. Oh, what? Oh, it blessed my life.

[00:15:23] And at the time I was still kind of dealing with some of the, the wounds, um, of the abuse and some of the trauma, the things that I went through the last day of that camp. I know I'm about to go back home into my reality of just, it wasn't so good. You know, we didn't have, we didn't have, um, the last day of that camp, the pastor gets up and he says, Hey, if there's anybody in here still dealing with unforgiveness, tonight's the night.

[00:15:52] We're going to release their names. We're going to release them. We're going to release them. And you're going to be free. And even though I thought I forgave, I thought I just kind of let it go. When he said that I felt something and internally, man, I just want to be free. I want to be fully free of all of this. And anything I've been carrying, any trauma, any hurt, any pain, any unforgiveness, if there's a slight in anything,

[00:16:22] I want to be free from it. So I go up to the altar and I mean, I'm crying and like intensely, my body feels warm. I lift my hands and I release his name. I say his name. And I remember feeling the, I felt like something broke off of me. I can't even fully explain the feeling,

[00:16:52] but I felt light. I thought, I thought I was good. You know, I went the whole week learning scriptures and, and being in all the activities with my friends at camp and doing the worship events with, I was at this camp. I was at a Christian camp and I had a great time, but it was at that moment where I had to come face to face with the reality of, did I fully forgive? You know,

[00:17:21] and at the altar, just hands raised. And just the release of just everything. And I just let it go. And I remember leaving that camp. Like, Lord, thank you. Thank you. Like, this is it. This is freedom. This is what it feels like, you know, and, and coming back home and telling my mom, telling my brother and sister and just feeling lighter. And, and I, man, I was on such a,

[00:17:49] I was in such a place that I wanted to go back home and tell everybody about Jesus. So I started a ministry at the school, you know, started a little ministry at the school. So it was just, it was cool. Wow. That's extraordinary. That's absolutely amazing. It shows the power of God's love that he can lead you to forgive somebody who, who many people would say that person doesn't deserve any forgiveness. They deserve everything that's coming to them.

[00:18:18] And there are people that just like, would just say that they should just rot. So, so when, when, when, when you forgave, I guess, I guess part of forgiveness is you're forgiven because you're relieved. You're not releasing them from any retribution from you. But of course, there's still the potential for justice under say the law or, or also God's justice as well. So have you ever prayed for, for your stepdad since then? Till this day, till this very day.

[00:18:47] I remember maybe two years ago, I will pray fervently that God would take hold of his heart, that God would heal him. I found out later in life that he was abused by his stepfather. So it was just kind of a generational thing that I broke in the name of Jesus, that God used me to break. And two years ago,

[00:19:16] I was at a event. So I want to book me to come and sing somewhere. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if it was Michigan, but it was in my hotel room and me and my drummer went to breakfast the next day. But the day before I was watching a documentary, a documentary about like, I think it was a Kirk Franklin documentary about him living life without a father, him finding out about his father.

[00:19:42] But the documentary just wrecked me because I care so much about the family unit. I care that children are careful and seen and loved. I care about just the order of family, you know, and how God intended it to be. And I just remember being in my room and I, I don't know, maybe I'm just in tune with my heart, my sensitivity, but being in that room praying and crying like, man, why can't we just get it together? Like, I'm thinking I'm frustrated.

[00:20:12] I'm like, well, I can't fathers just be there for their sons. and this, and I'm thinking about all this, but I pray, I pray for him my whole life. But I remember the next morning going to breakfast with my drummer and I get a random text message. It's from him. And it says, man, he says, I wasn't the best father. Forgive me for not being the best father and for hurting you. And at your,

[00:20:42] at your time, whenever you think it's good at your time and at your pace, would love to talk, would love to, to, to reconnect basically. So I remember crying at the table and I showed my drummer, cause he had just saw me cry the day before and praying. I showed the text message to him and he was like, what? So that was, cause all the years I've never heard him say it. I'm sorry. Or ask for forgiveness. And out of the blue,

[00:21:10] in my thirties, he says that text message. And it was another moment where I was like, okay, Lord, you're in this. You still hear us. You see us. You're still a restorer. You still redeem. So, yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's, that's, that's incredible moment. And obviously you watched the documentary. Your heart was all set. You were praying. And then just the next day. Yeah. It felt like, yeah, God definitely. That is extraordinary.

[00:21:40] Extraordinary moment. So, so since then communication, have you, have you, have you followed up very much or just a little or seen him at all? No. Um, seen him. I've definitely seen him a few times. Uh, of course he was my, he was my stepfather. And when my mom and him divorced, like, you know, that's like really what, yeah. So I'm always asking the question. Do we still need to be in that communication because they're no longer, you know, together. But, um,

[00:22:10] when I do see him when I'm in Texas, cause I'm, I'm originally from Dallas, Texas. Uh, when I see him out there, I still embrace him. I give him a hug. Um, so it's, it's cool. We're good. That's phenomenal. Phenomenal thing to come through. Well, uh, the forgiveness that you proffered right back when you were young. Yeah. I guess that not only, as it brought healing to you and within your family, but, but further beyond as well. That's, um,

[00:22:40] that's extraordinary. Okay. So, so let's just rewind for a moment. Um, I don't, I haven't talked to, I have had talked to a few, but not very many people who've experienced homelessness. Yeah. Uh, when you were, when you were homeless, clearly I'm going to guess finance is a significant issue and you're, you're going along to school normally. Yep. Yeah. And when, when, when you were at school, were you, were you the kids who just didn't have anything and people were, no, look down on you or was it, was it, was the community around you? You wouldn't be,

[00:23:09] you wouldn't have even known that I was homeless. You know, there were so many programs. Um, my mom was real big on not trying to hide it. However, we still wanted to show up as our best selves. Um, so whether, and it was a place called interfaith. Um, they, they categorize it as a homeless shelter, but they made it, they were, they helped women that were in domestic violence situations and they would bring them in. And they, it was almost like an apartment situation.

[00:23:39] Um, so we came in and there was, um, a kitchen that was fully stocked. And I was like, wow. There was a couch. There were three twin size beds in a room. And I remember seeing a teddy bear on each bed and a Dr. Seuss book on each bed. And I looked at my mom, I said, mom, we can, we can sleep on those beds because before we had stayed with a lot of friends of the family. Uh, there was a storefront that my grandmother, she had a storefront. We,

[00:24:09] when it closed, we would make little, uh, put our covers on the ground and we will sleep on the ground. And in the back, and then we'll go to school. And there was a lot of like us, us moving everywhere, going everywhere before we had this, this, this, this organization step in, which organization was called interfaith. And I remember them giving my mom a key and they walked us upstairs and open the door. And it was a couch. It was a little TV. Um, again,

[00:24:38] a fully, fully stocked pantry, a room with three twin size beds. And, and that was our room. And she had a room. And I remember just like crying like, Lord, thank you. Whoa, mom, we get to sleep in these beds tonight. These are our beds. We get to live here. She's like, yes, baby, these are your beds. And we walked in her room and they had all her favorite colors and everything. And I would have to catch, um, I will have to walk and catch a city bus to another city bus.

[00:25:06] And then a longer city bus didn't finally catch the school bus to school. So it almost, it took me maybe almost two hours to get to school every morning. I'll have to wake up a little earlier to catch a few, yeah, a few buses because of the school. But it was, it was worth it. Oh, definitely. Definitely. Um, just, I showed up and I wasn't wrinkled. My clothes were good. We had, we had food in our backpack. My mom would make us some sandwiches,

[00:25:33] but we had people that would rally around us and that organization interface. Um, when it was cold, there was another group that would give us mittens and, and, um, beanies and everything to keep our, our heads warm. And we had jackets and people would donate, um, backpacks and school supplies. So even though we were going through that, God was so kind to use people to bless us. And my mom was not afraid to ask for help, which I'm grateful for.

[00:26:03] She was never, she didn't, she never let her pride get in the way. She, she definitely didn't like that we're going through that, you know, but she would reach out because she cared. She wants, she wants to make sure her kids were taken care of. And my mom, she would go work and do all these jobs, try to figure out what we could do, you know? And she was also still taking care of her mother who was in a wheelchair, you know? So my mom, it's just been. And everyone just trying to show up the best they could for each other, you know?

[00:26:32] And that's the way, that's the reason I'm wired the way I am. I'm a giver. I love to give. I don't like, Hey, if someone says they like this jacket, I'm like, Oh, well here, here you go. You know? Um, and I, I like it that way because God was, God was, Jesus was a giver, you know? So yeah, just want to follow him. I, I like your hat. I'll make sure you get it. I will bring it to you. When you come to the UK. I will bring it out there.

[00:27:02] Hilarious. You're a hero. Okay. So that's an extraordinary story. I'm, I'm of, of God in the middle of some serious mess. And then people, people rallying around and making such a difference. I know the, the, the people at home listening on the radio or in their cars were there. They couldn't see your face, but you're, as you described going into that place and there being beds and stuff, the smile on your face was so beautiful. Um, and just,

[00:27:30] even now you're reliving the joy of, of that moment. It just shows what a difference we can make to, you know, if, if that hadn't been available, if you hadn't had a safe place to go, uh, I've got no idea what things would be like. And I, there are certainly people in the UK. We have quite a lot of homelessness, especially in the town where I am. and there's a lot of people on the streets and the churches do provide a lot of love and a lot of care and a lot of support. Uh, but some people also choose to be just totally outside the system. And it's, um,

[00:28:00] it's a difficult thing to see. And there's so much issue with drugs and all the rest of it. Um, but as a kid, you did a great job of chasing Jesus and you, with your mom, with your mom's care over you, stayed out of trouble. It's extraordinary. I'm so, so, so grateful for that. So, so we'll find out more. More about you, about your journey, but why don't we pause now and hear your second track. Can you tell us what is the track? Tell us all about it. And what do you hope it brings to the listeners? I'm high up.

[00:28:30] High up is my second track. And I pray that people don't let negative folks bring them down. Um, we all know negative people in our lives that if you come outside, it's a shiny, sunshiny day and you're happy. There's always somebody ready to pull you back down. But this song is saying, Hey, keep your eyes, keep your heart on the things above, keep your mind on the things above. Um, stay positive, stay high up.

[00:29:26] And that was high up by Jonathan Traylor. What an extraordinary testimony of God in the middle of the times you never want to go through. But I'm so grateful that, that God was there for you, Jonathan. I'm so grateful you faithfully been following him and, and seeing him provide, uh, and guide you forwards. Um, and I love your heart to be, uh, the dad as well to your kids to, to break that cycle and bring God's goodness and his order into your family as well. Do you know,

[00:29:56] at this moment, we always pause to, to let, uh, our guests pray for our listeners. So if you would be happy to pray right now, whatever's on your heart, that would be so great. Oh, let's do it. Holy spirit. Would you speak through me? Let's speak to every heart that's listening. Lord, we want to first say, thank you. Thank you for your love, for your grace, for your patience. Thank you for your kindness.

[00:30:28] Lord, thank you. Thank you so much for the sacrifice you made for us. Thank you for your heart towards us. And I pray for every listener. that they would know that you're not just this God above the clouds, watching them as they go through life. Lord, you're in it. You're in the battle. You're in the storm. You're in the tears.

[00:30:58] You're in the moments when they're full of pain. You're in everything. God, you're, you are with them. They're not alone. Lord, I pray that you remind them and let them know that. Let them feel your, your, your presence. Even in the middle of heartbreak, in the middle of tears, in the middle of, of, of chaos. God, let them know that you're with them. Help them to hold on to your hand as you lead them through it.

[00:31:26] Remind them that there's always something beautiful on the other side of this. That what we see right now isn't all there is to be seen. You have, you have, you have a beautiful plan and a purpose for their life. And I pray for anyone that's listening that may have bitterness or unforgiveness in their hearts. They've been hurt. They've carried trauma. They've carried pain and they've carried all these wounds.

[00:31:58] God, I pray that they will surrender those things to you. God, help them to not carry that. Let them know that they can be free, that they can walk in freedom. They can experience joy on another level. They can experience love. God, help them to surrender it to you. And yes, we know it's hard. I know it's hard. But God, in this moment, let them feel your presence. Let them feel your love so much.

[00:32:27] So to where they lift their hands and say, God, you know what? You can have it all. Here I am. You can have my heart. You can have all of me, everything. And God, just pour your love on them. But thank you. Thank you for this outlet that we're able to be a light in our community. God, and people are able to hear your gospel, hear your message, Lord, hear the message of hope.

[00:32:54] Let us know that we can do this with you, Father God, but only through you. There's no way we can live this life in our own strength. There's no way we can live this life in our limited wisdom, our limited intellect. There's no way. We need you every day. Every second of the day, we need you. So I pray that we will lean on you and not our own strength. God, would you please let your will be done in our lives? I pray that we will give you a yes every day that we will die to our flesh.

[00:33:23] And I pray that you get all the glory from our lives in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, Jonathan. So we've heard a bit of your story. We've heard, we've heard that you were busy learning, learning the musical ropes, but, um, but your career, your career has, uh, has spanned some time and, and God's taken on an amazing journey. And I'm going to say for people who are in the UK, you're in for a treat because you are coming to the UK to perform. Aren't you?

[00:33:53] I know. So some, something exciting just around the corner, uh, 21st November, 2026 is a star studded night to celebrate. Uh, it's the step forwards awards, which the UK Christian gospel awards, uh, and it's in London, South, South London, just South of the river, very close to Waterloo station. You can get there so easily. Um, so, so it's the 21st November. You're one of the people who's going to be performing at those awards. Uh, there's a myriad of other people, Ellie Limebear, Falabi Noelle,

[00:34:23] Chantal Rotindo, uh, Emmanuel Smith, Josh Carr, um, and also Volney Morgan. And then you, yeah, you loads of people. It's going to, it's going to be an awesome, awesome night. So have you performed lots of times in the UK before? Yeah. Yeah. A few times. A few times. It's my first time doing an award show out there. So, okay. I'm excited. Um, so for people who want to get tickets, cause you can get tickets that do you know the website address? Um,

[00:34:51] I believe it is a step forward.com. Yeah. A step F W D.com. Yeah. I think that if you want the actual award show, I think it's step F W D awards.com. It's got the awards that come in there. So it's step forward awards.com. So you can just search it off in Google. I'm sure you'll find it. So, and it's the sixth year that these have been running. I've been to loads of them, uh, and they are an awesome celebration of the goodness of God through music in the UK. Uh, so, so really,

[00:35:20] really looking forward to that. So, so how comes you're involved? Cause you're not, you're not a UK artist. Um, yeah. So are you there to represent the international crowd? I guess so. I do. I guess so. Yeah. I think it's a cool thing. You're coming to it. I'm happy to do it. And I'll be out there as well, writing some songs. So I can't wait. I believe the UK is like a second home for me. I love you guys. Oh, so where, where's your favorite place in the UK? Oh man. Oh my goodness.

[00:35:49] So the places that I've stayed, I mean, when I've come out there, it's been like shortage. I've stayed in shortage. And, and I just love, I love that area. Like just coming out there period, because you guys have a way of y'all, y'all are progressive, but y'all still hold on to the old, like historic things and you keep it, you keep it beautiful. So I'm like, yes. Yeah. You can, you in, in central London, you can go and find a church that's over. I think, I think there's, I think it's one that's nearly a thousand years old. So, yeah, which is pretty, which is pretty,

[00:36:19] pretty cool in my opinion. So, I love central London. So yeah. Although in fairness, I don't, you've never been to Bournemouth, have you? I don't think so. Nope. No. So Bournemouth's where I'm, that's where my station is. And, and I think that the reason you said London was your, was your favorite place was because you haven't been to Bournemouth. Okay. So I am, I am actually a Londoner, Londoner by birth. So, so great, great place to be. So, so, okay. So let's, let's just catch up with your music side of things.

[00:36:49] So you, you're there, you're honing your skills as a young teenager, you're dancing. Someone says you can do both dance and, and music, which is great. At what point do you go, I am absolutely committed to being somebody who brings the good news, Jesus through music. Or did you think, or I'm going to end up being a plumber? No, I just, I knew, 2012, I knew this is because every job that I worked, I've driven trucks. I've been a debt collection agent.

[00:37:19] I've worked commission jobs and sold. No, no, hold it. You've been a debt collection agent. You would be the worst deck. You're so friendly. I'll be like, is that how you, did you get fired from that job? I didn't get fired. I just left. I had to leave. And I was like, I don't like taking out the money. I don't like people. They're telling you they don't have it. I'm like, you know what? You're, it's okay. That's okay. Have my hat. Exactly. So I was, I was that, that type of guy that I've worked commission,

[00:37:49] sold appliances and, and tech, um, technology. So that's been done a lot of things, you know, but it was around 2012, going into 2013, where I decided, Hey, I want to do this. God had given me dreams and he showed me a lot of stuff that I'm doing now back then. Um, and I, and I would say that doesn't make sense. That's crazy. Me singing in a arena. Like I had a dream. I had dreams about this stuff.

[00:38:17] Me singing in an arena that like, there's no way, you know, um, I would almost laugh at God, but I knew, I knew that was him showing me, you know? And I remember I talked to my uncle. He's the one who got me my, my last job that I probably ever worked. He said, if you want to make music, if you want to do this, go do it. If no one lays the path for you, you lay your own concrete, you make your own path and you go. And he was like,

[00:38:47] you got to go full out. And after that pep talk, almost, I left that last job when I didn't look back. And I started writing songs, releasing, releasing music, doing backyard worship nights, going to places, singing different places. um, I believe I, yeah, that's when I released my first project. And then signed my first record deal with Motown, Motown gospel,

[00:39:16] 2019. And we released that project and switched over to capital. But God's been, God's been kind. I'm just saying Motown gospel is, yeah, is, is, is, is no small fry. That's pretty cool. Not at all. Um, but they, they saw me working really hard and, um, they were kind of seeing all the, the, the impact I was making on social media and doing concerts and people showing up when I was an independent artist. You know, like,

[00:39:46] who is this guy? They called me. They said, bro, where did you come from? Who are you? Um, how long have you doing this? Or who wrote these songs? And I would say, I wrote the songs. Did anybody help you? No, I wrote a hundred percent of my album. I love writing songs. And, um, so my first three projects, I believe I wrote a hundred percent of the songs. Um, and they were like, man, we would love to partner with you. And I had to definitely pray about it. Cause there was some, there were other labels that were interested. Um,

[00:40:15] but Motown just felt right at the time. And it's out with Motown and God just kind of, my career just started going, going up and we got some radio songs. Um, and just recently just won my first devil award here in the States, won a devil award and, and just got off a tour with CC wine and, and charity, Gail and Terry. And it's been a blessing. Yeah. Uh, and both,

[00:40:43] both lovely people who've been on the show before. So, um, uh, my, my, my experience of chatting with both of them was they are so down to earth and such lovely, lovely people that I can imagine being, being on tour with them is genuinely a joy. Uh, what, what was the highlight for you of being on tour with them? Um, for Pastor CC, she brought, she brought, she brought us in a room, no cameras,

[00:41:13] no nothing, just sat there and allowed us to draw from her wisdom. Um, all the years experience that she had, that she has, she allowed us to ask questions, any question that we were like, you know, she just poured into us. We took notes. And at the end, she prayed for us, you know, laid hands and pray for us. And it, it took me back to that time. Remember we talked about in the beginning when I first started doing this and I had the woman pray for me. It took me back to that moment.

[00:41:44] And just to have a woman like her, not just, not just because she's CC Winans, but she moves with so much integrity. She loves Jesus. She represents Christ so well. She's they say, don't meet your heroes, but I'm glad I met her cause she's the real deal on stage. Um, but she prayed for us and almost gave us this charge. Hey, the world is, is depending on you. We're depending on you to continue to live. Holy, not just to sing good songs, but to live. Holy, to live for Jesus, to represent Jesus well. And yeah, do the right things, you know?

[00:42:14] And it was like, okay, like, I feel like a mama, like a mama sending you out. Okay. Yeah. You're going to want to do right, do right. You know? So that was my, that was the highlight of the whole tour. Everyone, everyone on tour from the people on stage to everyone behind the scenes on cameras and, um, setting up the stage. They just moved with so much integrity and respect and honor. And it, the tour went by so fast and we all, kind of cried at the last, on the last day. Like, man,

[00:42:44] we, it was six tour buses out, five semi trucks every day. We're, we're doing devotion together. We're opening up the word of God together. We're singing together. So it was a bittersweet moment, but God, God, there was over 2000 people that gave their life to Jesus on this tour. So come on. Yeah. 2000 people. That's, that's a lot of people finding that. 2154 people. Yeah. I love it. That's phenomenal. So,

[00:43:14] so how, how many venues did you play? How long was it? 16 days. We did a full month. Yeah. Four weeks. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So that's, and that's, that's just great. God, God moving in power and you, and you getting blessed by it as well along the way. Oh my goodness. For anyone who hasn't listened to CC, you've got to go and listen to CC Winans as well as Jonathan Traylor. CC Winans. I think she's got the third most Grammys of any woman in the world. She is,

[00:43:42] she is a phenomenal tour de force, as they say in, in the Christian music world, beautiful gospel singer. And, and amazing, amazing woman of God. So I thought, what a, what a blessing. So how did that come about? Oh my goodness. I believe, cause I'm in a collective known as Red Worship as well. So Jonathan Traylor, solo artist, and then I'm a part of the, a worship collective with Lizzie Morgan and Jonathan Stamper, Andrew, and who I'm missing,

[00:44:12] Trinity Anderson. And yeah, they hurt, I believe CC Winans and Charity Gail. They did a concert and they started, started talking about, I guess, generational worship. And, and they had a conversation, I guess that led to the idea of a come worship, generational tour, worship tour, where you hear from different generations. And they called Terrian. Um,

[00:44:41] and she's amazing. She's so, so great. And they, they said, okay, I think Red Worship will be good for this, you know? And I know that me and CC had already had a relationship. We've done a few shows together before, and it just made sense. It made sense. And we all came together. So it was just, it was really cool being able to win a double award. We won a double award at, um, the doves. And then the next day heading out on towards doing an arena tour with CC wine.

[00:45:11] So it's kind of been like, okay, Lord, what are you doing? What are you doing? We're just buckling up for the ride. moving on then to, to family stuff for a moment. What's your favorite way to bless your kids? Oh man. So many ways, but I love, I probably get emotional talking about it. Um, praying with my family, praying with my wife and kids coming together.

[00:45:39] And I'm going to grab my guitar. We have a piano, an upright piano downstairs. And I just play, we worship and they're, they're singing. And now they're singing and everything. And, um, I always wanted them to see mommy and daddy live. Examples of following Jesus be, I want us to be examples. So it's so cool, man. I mean, I was at rehearsal at church the other day, uh,

[00:46:06] yesterday and seeing my daughters open up the Bible for themselves. And they're reading, they're praying. My daughter just got baptized. My oldest daughter just got baptized. And just, I mean, I could be on a big stage and I will spot my family out. And I see my, my daughters lifting their hands to Jesus and praising and singing, not doing it. They're not trying to impress anybody. It's just in them now, you know? And my, my second,

[00:46:34] my second daughter coming to us saying, hey, I want to follow Jesus all the days of my life because saying yes to Jesus is the best yes I will ever give. And we ask her, why'd you say that? Daddy, because you said it at your concert and, and, and I want to follow Jesus, you know, and then watching her get emotional and cry and, and, and do, and they're doing the things that, I wish I knew when I was that age, but they're waking up and they're praying on their own. They're going to sleep and praying.

[00:47:04] And my youngest, I remember getting off tour one time. I got off tour and I was so tired. I was so tired. And she says, daddy, I want to go and tell everybody about Jesus. And again, I'm tired, but she gets, she gets her backpack. She puts her shoes on, man. And she's like, daddy, come on, come on, get your shoes, come off. And I posted it on my Instagram. But she, we pray for her. We, we empower her.

[00:47:34] And we go knock on the neighbor's doors. She wants to go knock on all the neighbor's doors and she's knocking. Wow. Yeah. She, and she says, Hey, Jesus loves you. And he wants to be your friend forever. That simple, right? Nothing. Just Jesus loves you. And he wants to be your friend forever. And I started praying, Lord, I want help us to be that bold. Help him to be that bold again. Because it's so easy to go and do Christian concerts and tell people about Jesus, but to go out of the norm, you know,

[00:48:04] and go tell somebody about Jesus. That's what I believe God has called us to be, to be in uncomfortable situations like that, you know, and tell somebody about Jesus. And, but that lit a fire at me, but being able to pray with them every day, that's been a blessing. And raise them up in, and, and scripture and raise them up in Jesus. Wow. Wow. That is, that is special. What an encouragement to, to have your kids, your kids bringing that amazing blessing. I love that.

[00:48:33] I absolutely love that. So we're coming towards the end of our time, which means it's important that people know firstly, that, that they can see Jonathan Traylor performing live at the Step Forward Awards, which is on the 21st of November, 2026. Tickets are still available. So get them at Step Forward. That's stepfwdawards.com. 21st of November, just not far from Vauxhall or Waterloo station in central London. So,

[00:49:01] going to be amazing night with lots of great artists performing as well. But if people want to catch up with you now, where do they go to find your socials, your website, streaming platforms? Yeah, everything, a social. So actually let's start with a website. My website is jonathantraylormusic.com. And that's J O N A T H A N T R A Y L O R music.com or Instagram, Jonathan Traylor, TikTok, Jonathan Traylor music, Facebook,

[00:49:30] Jonathan Traylor. And I would love to connect with you. Fantastic. So we've got time just for one last track from you. So I know the track's called, You Get The Glory. This track is a phenomenal fact. It's had so much traction as well. So looking at it, just, I'm looking in Spotify here and it's got over 15 million plays. I'm that's, that's a lot of people getting blessed by it, isn't it? So. Wow. Superb. Wow. Just what, just one platform, just one platform.

[00:49:58] There must be so many other people getting blessed by your music, by, I guess, did you sit down by yourself and just write this one day? And then God's just blown it up that it's impacted so many people. Definitely. Definitely. Um, wrote that, wrote that song during the pandemic and, you know, everyone's kind of locked in their house and shut in and we're going through life. I have friends calling me and I had friends calling me. They were going through a lot of life,

[00:50:29] lost a few friends during the pandemic. And I remember sitting at my piano and I started playing the chord progressions to You Get The Glory. And that was a moment where I felt like I wanted to complain a lot. God, why are you doing this? What's happening? Why are we having to go through this? You don't, is there something else? Like, why do we have to walk through this? I felt heavy. And I remember switching my prayer to God.

[00:50:59] I don't know what you're doing, but God, you know what's best that your will be done. You get the glory from this. And that was the prayer. And I'm with tears in my eyes. I'm just playing these chord progressions. My wife is getting dinner ready for the kids. She's at the table. She looks at me. I have tears in my eyes. She's like, yeah, go ahead and finish that song. I don't know what's happening, but finish that song. And I write this song. It takes probably less than an hour to write this song.

[00:51:27] And it was really just an open prayer to God. It was human in the way of me telling God what I really felt, what I truly felt. This is heavy, God, I don't understand. But the resolve was, God, not my will, you will be done. You get the glory from this. And I pray that everyone adopts that as their prayer.

[00:51:48] You get the glory from this world. As long as you get the glory from it.

[00:52:14] This is my cross to bear. This is my story to tell.

[00:52:41] And that was, you get the glory by Jonathan Traylor. What a lovely guy. I'm such a tragic testimony to start with. And then God stepping in and his power and his love and a life turned around as well. So,

[00:53:09] so grateful for all that Jonathan shared today. And I just encourage you, go and listen to his music. Go and find his streaming platforms and like, follow and make sure you listen to it. You'll be blessed by it. But if you possibly can, get along to the UK Music, Christian Music and Gospel Awards, Step Forward Awards in London on the 21st of November. So, and also go and find his website as well and connect on social media. There are many other episodes of this show, The Artist's Interview,

[00:53:38] that you can enjoy with great stories, stuff that will help you encounter more of God's love and power, and also great music from amazing musicians who are chasing Jesus. So I'm your host, Gordon T, and I look forward to being with you on the next episode. God bless you.