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Glenn Kaiser is one of the friendliest folks you could ever meet. Forget the weathered, leathered, tough-guy biker look. The Christian music veteran loves a good conversation, has an easy laugh, a twinkle in his eye, and generally makes a listener feel appreciated. So why's such a nice guy singing the blues? Because he's also brutally honest. And honestly, life sometimes stinks. Sin is rampant. Evil is everywhere. The blues are alive and well—whether we sing about it or not. The Bible is full of the blues; it's even got a book called Lamentations. Kaiser notes that 57 of the 150 Psalms are songs of lament; he even calls David the "original bluesman." And the 50-something Kaiser has lived the blues. He grew up in poverty. His parents divorced when he was a teen, shattering his life. He became the stereotypical drug-abusing rocker who once attempted suicide. But then he found Jesus and turned his life around. He joined Jesus People USA, where he became a leader and an ordained pastor in the inner-city ministry which focuses on reaching the poor, the down-and-out. Along the way, he founded the popular (and now defunct) rock group Resurrection Band, did a number of side and solo projects, and, more recently, formed the three-piece Glenn Kaiser Band, which specializes in playing the blues. A Christian singing the blues? Kaiser says it makes perfect sense. We sat down with the veteran singer/songwriter/guitarist after a recent gig to get the story.

Glenn Kaiser

Do you think of Glenn Kaiser Band as an extension of Resurrection Band, or something totally new?

Glenn Kaiser It's a natural progression, and in some ways it's come full circle. Before I became a Christian, I was doing three-piece groups—blues rock, very similar to what you're hearing now. In fact, "Grinder," the instrumental tune that we did on Carolina Moon, I wrote that in about '68 or '69, before I became a Christian. So it's come full circle.

Why have you decided to focus on the blues?

Kaiser There are many reasons. For me as a preacher, blues is perfect because lyrically you're communicating stories and concepts you want to put across in a real-world, earthy, feet-on-the-ground way. That's who I am. That's who a lot of the people are that show up at our concerts—people who are tired of plastic wrap on the couches, tired of sterility, of dilution. They don't always trust people. The blues isn't for everybody, but a lot of people just want to hear it straight—and we're pretty in your face lyrically.

And the music is, again, a throwback to my youth when I sang and played in blues and R&B bands. And I grew up listening to it.

Before you became a Christian, you had come from a broken home, had some wild times and even a suicide attempt. You lived the blues. Do those hard times inform your writing today?

Kaiser No question. We were on welfare. If it weren't for USDA peanut butter and nickel loaves of bread, we would have starved. My dad went through a series of operations, and while he was in the hospital, my mother ended up committing adultery. Things went from bad to worse, and the family blew apart.

We were so poor. I'm talking central Wisconsin in the winter. It's the stuff of blues legend, but it's the truth. We had a little potbellied stove in the front room, and when the coal ran out, we were freezing. We put bales of hay around the foundation of the house to try to keep a little warmer, but I was always cold. Many days, breakfast was a couple of pieces of day-old white bread, sometimes fried in grease. That was it.

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