Robert Randolph (second from left) with his cousins Danyel Morgan and Marcus Randolph, plus keyboardist Jason Crosby, make up the jam-based Family Band.

Thanks to his stint as frontman of Robert Randolph & the Family Band, pedal steel virtuoso Robert Randolph is one of the world's most popular black musicians who isn't a rapper. Tired of the "bad rap" hip-hop has given African Americans, he wishes more young people would expand their horizons and embrace music for music's sake, rather than because it's cool or popular. Regardless, that hasn't kept Randolph from critical acclaim, both for his band's live shows and his latest album, Colorblind (Warner Bros). Randolph grew up playing the pedal steel guitar in a New Jersey House of God Pentecostal Church—where the pedal steel, and not the organ, is front and center. Several years ago, he played a few non-church gigs, and it wasn't long before the word was out—this guy was a prodigy. In 2003, Rolling Stone named him one of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time—when he was just 24 years old and had only one album under his belt. The rave reviews don't stop with the press; the likes of Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and others have expressed their admiration, and Randolph, without missing a beat, asked some of them to join him on his new album. In this conversation with Christian Music Today, Randolph talks about what he's learned from the greats, how he stays grounded amidst the stars, and why he wants young African Americans to see there's more to music than just rap.

Unclassified came out in 2003. What took so long for the follow-up?

Robert Randolph: We just wanted to take our time and get a lot of input from different artists, from people like [Eric] Clapton, Dave Matthews, even people like Marvin Winans, on how to take it to the next level. That was cool.

Once we got to that point where it'd already been a while [since Unclassified], we just wanted to take our time and really use that opportunity, 'cause when the opportunity comes to work with great people like that, you've just gotta go with it and take your time.

What was it like spending time with the greats?

Randolph: It was fun getting input from [Carlos] Santana and Eric Clapton especially, because they're pioneer guitar players, which is kinda what I want to do. And their thing was to try to come up with the best song that you can come up with or create your own vibe. And most of those guys, when they saw us, they see this great celebration of life, kind of party vibe, so they helped me kinda capture some of those things in the studio.

It's great, just to be able to have that thing with them. It's fun to be able to be appreciated by people from all genres of music—rock, R&B, soul, gospel, all kinds. And for them to really want to help me out and help me get to the next level, that's enough.

What can you tell us about Clapton?

Randolph: I toured with him, and I got a chance to really get to know him. We would sit down, do a sound check, and just talk about music. He was working on his record at the time. One day we were sitting down to eat, when all of a sudden the old version of [The Doobie Brothers'] "Jesus Is Just Alright" came on. And he said, "Why don't we just try this one? This will be great up there." So we got into the studio and we knocked that out. So to be able to have that relationship with him and just see him in the studio recording was a great thing.

"Jesus Is Just Alright" is pretty clear about its subject matter. Is it important for the guests on your album to be on the same wavelength, spiritually?

Randolph: I've worked with so many other songwriters, some of us just wasn't in the same headspace. That's always important—to get somebody who does believe and who knows. Take a song like "Ain't Nothing Wrong with That." I worked on it with two producers, Drew & Shannon, who are from Nashville. We talked and talked about making this thing that's joyful, about pulling everybody in and just have it be a thing where you can have a good time. We wanted a great rock song that lasts forever without really trying to preach to somebody, saying, "You need to do this or do that." And it just so happened that, working with them, they were in the same headspace and believed in the same things that I believed in. And that was a huge part of this record.

Did the opposite ever happen?

Randolph: Oh yeah, making this record we had a bunch of them. There were guys I've worked with that we just weren't on the same page [spiritually]. And it was just like a wasted couple of days. It's like, "No, do this" and "No, do that." And that goes on and on, and next thing you know, it's just wasted time. So there was a bunch of that in this rocky road of recording the record.

You mentioned not wanting to preach to people, yet your music still has a strong inspirational vibe. Does that get lost amidst the scorching musicianship or the lengthy pedal-steel solos of your live show?

Randolph: Sometimes. But other times, some people do come to the shows and are spiritually uplifted. The message that we portray, and the thing that we're trying to do, is to really love life and enjoy life. If you don't love yourself, you really don't love nobody else.

For example, last night, I was in a restaurant and a guy walks up to me and says, "Hey, Robert, can I just give you a hug?" And I'm like, "Yeah." And he's hugging me like I'm his dad or something. So he started to tell a story of how he spent about eight months in jail. And when he got out, the first song he heard was a song from Unclassified called "Going in the Right Direction." And he said it instantly changed his life. A song like that talks about getting people to love themselves and love life and really enjoy being here.

I grew up in the inner city, in northern New Jersey, and all of the time I would see some of my friends say, "I don't care! So what?" A lot of people get into that mind frame, so you want to get them to love themselves and then get them to believe in God and everything else, you know.

Have you had other experiences like that?

Randolph: Oh, yeah. We've gotten e-mails from people who have wanted to commit suicide but changed their minds after they came to a show. We'll get e-mails from kids who are on all kinds of drugs, and they'll say, "Once I heard your set, you made me happy and you made me want to love God and love myself." And I didn't necessarily say anything about loving God [during the concert]. You can write songs and get them to lead people in the right way.

You keep repeating the phrase "to love yourself." Not to get all theological on you, but doesn't that go against the concept of "denying yourself" that Jesus talked about?

Randolph: You know, I'm not the biggest Scripture reader and stuff like that, and I'm sure I could probably get my mother or somebody who's a minister to give you a whole 'nother Scripture to go along with that. People have Scriptures for everything. How many Scriptures talk about this or talk about that? That's why you have Sunday school and you have Bible studies, because somebody read it and he thought one thing, and then somebody else read it and thought another thing.

But some people, sometimes, the church and what-not, people can quote Scripture and tell you to do this and do that, but forget what's actually going on around them, what people are going through.

Do you think the church has lost that ability to reach out to others?

Randolph: Some people have. Some people understand and some people don't. It's something I deal with when I go back to church. Some people believe one thing, and other people believe other things, and you can only do what you think is right and what you think God is leading you to do. People believe you gotta do this, you gotta do that, you shouldn't do this, you shouldn't go there. In the end, everybody has to be judged by God.

What do you think God thinks of what you're doing?

Randolph: I just do what I do, and I know the Lord has continued to bless me and the band and what we're doing. Like I said about that guy that came up to me last night, that guy never had any intention of walking into a church. He just stumbled upon a song of mine. Some times people just do their own thing. And that's kinda what we're doing. If I wake up one day and the Lord gives me a sign or tells me to stop, then I'll deal with that.

You're deeply respected in blues, rock and funk circles, where musicianship is almost like a god. Did you ever feel tempted to treat music the same way?

Randolph: No, nothing like that. Music is not my god. Music is something I love doing, something I love getting into. It helps me get into a certain mind frame. It's a gift God gave me, and I'm going to use it to the best of my ability to do what he wants me to do.

What do you do to keep that outlook on things?

Randolph: You just gotta continue to know what you believe in. I'm around all kinds of stuff. I'll be somewhere, and somebody will be snorting cocaine next to me. But that kind of stuff don't [faze] me 'cause I know what I believe in, and I know where to go and what to do and how to go about it. But it so happens that this musical world, like everything else, no matter who you are, is a trial and a tribulation.

You once said your music can make young black men go, "Wow, I can be from the inner city and I don't have to be a rapper." Is that the consensus when it comes to music made by African Americans?

Randolph: That's what our music has become. Through history, our music has gone from us writing songs about how to get out of slavery— "Lord help us now"—to the doo-wop days. And then you look at the '60s and '70s and everybody, every R&B star at that time that was African American—whether it was Bob Marley or Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder—everybody went into this thing about still trying to "get over," trying to get through racial barriers. So people went through all of that.

Now, the majority of African Americans live in the cities. So the music is about coming from the streets. That [rap and hip-hop] is what every kid grows up seeing, thinking it's cool. People have gotten away from singing or instrument playing. They think, Hey, we ain't cool if we play instruments, but it would be cool if we get into rap and talk about hoes and ghettos and bitches and Bloods and hookers. That's what it's become. So my thing is to really show these kids you can be cool while doing something new.

For more about Robert Randolph & The Family Band, visit our site's artist page. You can read our review of Colorblind by clicking here. Listen to sound clips and buy the music by visiting Christianbook.com.

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