'I Hated Christianity'
Bluesman Jonny Lang used to be addicted to booze and drugs—and he didn't want to have anything to do with this cat named Jesus. But apparently Jesus wanted something to do with him …
by Sara Groves | posted 9/25/2006
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Editor's note: When we asked Sara Groves if she'd be interested in interviewing bluesman Jonny Lang for us, she practically freaked out. Groves, one of Christian music's finest singer/songwriters, has long been a Lang fan, even before he gave his life to God a few years ago. We had a feeling that Groves, a great conversationalist, would make a fine interviewer—and we were right.
The first time I saw Jonny Lang, he was a 15-year-old kid, perched on a stool, his hair in his eyes—and playing his guitar and singing like he'd sold his soul to the devil. He was an irrefutable talent, and quickly became a young legend in the world of the blues and beyond, touring with The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and Sting, among others. I didn't see Lang again till a few years ago when my husband Troy and I were watching The Late Show with David Letterman, and Lang was the music guest. When he took the stage that night, he was a very different guy we'd seen years before. As he sang, Troy and I looked at each other and said, "What happened to him?" As we would soon find out, apparently Jesus happened to him, as Lang explained in an interview accompanying what was then his new album, 2003's Long Time Coming. Now Lang has a new album, Turn Around, which explores his newfound faith in confessional and contagious ways. We talked about the new album, and much more, before one of Lang's recent shows.
In the song "Only a Man," you sing, "I grew up singing songs in church with questions in my mind." What questions?
Jonny Lang My parents got divorced when I was about four years old. My mom lived in Minneapolis, and my dad lived in Fargo, so we'd go back and forth, my little sister and I, between them. My mom would take us to church, but it never really came off to me that I could have a relationship with God. Something about it was too big for me to get. So I just had all these questions: What are we singing about? What are we doing here? And to what end?
From an early age [as a popular musician], I was presented with a lot of adult-type activities, and so that, combined with me being a pretty rebellious kid (laughs) …
How much of that old world—and those old ways—is a part of your new world?
Lang When Jesus first got a hold of me, I just wanted to be a preacher. I thought, I've got to quit this music business and quit playing in these places. I was very zealous and on fire, so I thought everything I was doing just had to be canned. Then I realized that God called me to this place for a reason, and I needed to stay here. So yeah, I definitely have stayed in a lot of the same places and have a lot of the same friends. But I've lost a lot of friends too.
Has that been difficult?
Lang I don't want to come across saying, "Oh, I lost all my friends, poor me," because a lot of it was just my not having very much wisdom. I would go around saying, "Repent!" You know, that just doesn't fly. And it didn't fly with me when I was young. I just forgot that.
You were so young when your career took off. Were you able to understand what was happening to you?
Lang I knew that I loved to do it, and then people started coming out to see us play and I realized I could do this for a living. But, yeah, it was surreal a lot of times—you know, I was just trying to learn this guy's songs in my bedroom three months ago, and now I'm playing on stage with him. Then we got to tour with all these bands like Aerosmith and Sting and the Rolling Stones. It was just really cool.
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