Father's Day with Kirk Franklin

00:00:09
Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome to this episode. To keep it positive. Sweet, I'm Christophine A Hazlet, and today we are talking Father's Day with one of my favorite people, the Kirk Franklin.

00:00:21
Speaker 2: Yep, don't know from your favorite one of your favorite people, because you would have had something established for me to sit comfortably. We know there's a uh a height challenge that I exist in, and these these little fancy new modern couches, you know, they take away your masculinity. So I don't know how I feel about being here, but I'm gonna help me get this done so I could go and sit on a regular couch the way regular people sit. First question, let's go wrap this up right right, right, strike, it's over. I've got things to do. Let's go.

00:00:59
Speaker 1: Hell hello me too.

00:01:00
Speaker 2: I gotta study.

00:01:02
Speaker 1: Thank you lord, how you doing, sir?

00:01:05
Speaker 2: Doing good?

00:01:05
Speaker 3: Good?

00:01:06
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming. I like to start every episode with a song or quote. And the song that comes to mind with you sitting on my couch is a song that has guided me through so much and that has hold me now wow, yes, and we're going to talk about that in this episode. I need you to know, jes what you have done with just your voice, your lyrics, your music.

00:01:29
Speaker 2: But not my voice.

00:01:30
Speaker 1: Literally, ladies and gentlemen, I like your when you do the talking singing.

00:01:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, well yeah, okay, I just want it. It works.

00:01:37
Speaker 1: Only you can do that my favorite.

00:01:41
Speaker 2: I'm finding that out. I'm finding that out.

00:01:44
Speaker 1: But for those of you who don't know. Kirk is a songwriter, producer, required director of gospel singer, best known for leading urban contemporary gospel and Christian R and B ensembles such as The Family, God's Property, One Nation Crew, among others. You have one nineteen Grammy Awards.

00:02:03
Speaker 2: Well, I've only won about two or three. What happens is the other ones. I go to the Grammys and when people go to the bathroom, I like, I grabbed their Grammys, and I got a homeboard that's still locked down in jail, and he can take a like a name plate, and he put my name on the front. So I just wanted to be the.

00:02:23
Speaker 1: Other seventeen were actually somebody else's.

00:02:25
Speaker 2: Yeah there, so discard please continue.

00:02:28
Speaker 1: Yes, and you are one of the inaugural inductees of the Black Music and Entertainment Walk of Fames. That's huge.

00:02:36
Speaker 2: No, no, I'm grateful for that.

00:02:37
Speaker 1: Amazing amazing.

00:02:38
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.

00:02:39
Speaker 1: So I want to tell the viewers the first time that I was introduced to you. This is in the nineties. I had to be who probably ten eleven ish when I was first introduced to you, and I told you, I share this with your wife. I said, Kirk doesn't understand that. When he came on the scene, I was a I was raised Methodist Methodist, no shade to any Methodist, No, you know what I'm saying. But it's not just we did not we didn't clap, but we did transition where we actually sang some of your songs in my church because I think they realized we got to switch some things up. We can't just keep singing him those all day. That it was U not a Methodist, Yeah, yeah, were more of the white Catholic. Yeah, almost like almost Catholic, cause we were incite a lot during Okay, and you helped me find my own relationship with God because I always felt like this can't be it, you know this, It didn't excite me. There was nothing where I was like, I really just want to be on fire for God until you came along and it was relatable and I was like, Okay, I can talk to God how I talk. I don't have to. I believe in God, the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth energy. So that thank you seriously. And then twenty nineteen I met you the first time. I'm not sure if you remember this, but it was the grand open of Tyler Perry Studios, the new studio, and we had the gospel brunch that Sunday after the grand open, Yes, and there was lines going everywhere for food, and you had a plate of shripping grits and I said, where'd you go? Where'd you get them shripping grits? And you was like over there, but the line is long. Here take my money?

00:04:25
Speaker 2: Wow?

00:04:25
Speaker 1: Yes, And I was like no, no, no.

00:04:27
Speaker 2: You was like take a girl. It's like give you their food taken wow.

00:04:30
Speaker 1: And I took it and I was like, wow, that's a nice person. Yeah. So that was my first interaction with you in real life.

00:04:37
Speaker 2: And then did you eat?

00:04:38
Speaker 1: I did? I told them up, they were good. I'm sorry you didn't get any.

00:04:40
Speaker 2: No, no, no, it's okay, okay, first adding the other couch, so well then we're just kind of moving in the you know, yeah, it's a first question. Let's go oh my goodness. But it's all about this. This is the this is the mood. It's so arrogant.

00:05:01
Speaker 1: Wrap this up. But on of a more serious note, I opened up about when I was a teenager, I had suicidal thoughts and I was sitting my floor of my bedroom and play hold Me Out over and over and over again, and it was as if God literally was like holding me. And to this day I tried to cry. Dang, we see how we went from this. Took that quick because how real it is. To this day when I hear that song, I cry. And I was talking to a friend of mine, Marquison. I actually do car chronicles where we sing and we play that song, and you would be like if you went to my page and looked at the comments everybody loved. They're like, oh my god, that is my song. Then they went back and started playing. I'm sure your ratings and your spinds went up after that, but but no, seriously, you definitely helped me through a really tough time and now I cry for different reasons. You know, we're gonna bring this up.

00:06:11
Speaker 2: Okay, this is a beautiful moment. Let's stay right here. I'm good, I'm you know, I I can tell you that that that I have always lived in this dichotomy of I knew I loved God, but I had all the hard time believing that he loved me. So now that people are kind of more exposed to the back story of who I am and my experiences with my father, I got you. I'm closer to it. Thank you you. You know. I I have lived with this uh space that a lot of things that have been written have not always been what I feel, but what I imagine. So so it hasn't always been this confident truth that I've always worked from. So when when even when I think about that song, I was like, oh, yeah, that's right. That's another one. That's another one that I was screaming out for help for and people didn't even realize that I was screaming out for help. I was wondering, can you hold me now? It's because you're right, that's not That's a very abnormal conversation for someone to have in a gospel song. But but but that's been the space that I've lived in, always wanting, always searching for what I did not have in the physical world that I lived in. And so I was trying to always ask God, you know it is because when you talk about anxiety and depression, I've lived in that space my whole life. And it is very humbling to know that a song that for me was just a moment of ugh, well speaking to a little girl somewhere that I didn't even know. And so it's I think that's the big, beautiful, chaotic, yes, painful journey of life.

00:08:15
Speaker 1: It is.

00:08:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the dichotomy. It's the duality of reality. I'm extremely humbled and extremely grateful to know that what wasn't mine became yours.

00:08:31
Speaker 1: So thank you, thank you for that.

00:08:33
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

00:08:38
Speaker 1: This year, you dropped the documentary about find Out that your biological father is still alive. I watched it and I wept, like uncontrollably, And when you posted it on your Instagram, I typed in the comments. I just want you to know that all the mess and everything that you felt you were going through ended up helping so many people, and it was so much beauty in that, And I want to talk about just watch. When I watched it, I was just like, oh my goodness, Like, how is this. We look at you, it's like you're like everybody's uncle, everybody's brother, and people don't even know you, like you're that figures to them. How have you been able to navigate that? Like even still, like because you're on tour now, it's almost like your life just had to keep going. But how are you taking time to really deal with that?

00:09:29
Speaker 2: Sometimes? I don't know if you ever really do? You know? I think if we were honest, I think every human and some capacity is always running from something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know it's I think that the biggest food with American Christianity is we want American Christianity to be wrapped in the perfect bowls that it's got to look pretty. It's because the imagery that we portray is a lot of times the stained glass windows.

00:09:57
Speaker 1: Yes, people that are Sunday bests.

00:09:59
Speaker 2: And talking, hey brother, God, bless your sister, high lovel Yah you know TBN and you know, you know, just you know, everything is super and life is messy. It is life is messy, Life is dirty. Life, You can get ugly, and you wonder where's a God in the midst of all that chaos, and and and and what I don't know doesn't cancel up what I do know. But I'm still not afraid to be to acknowledge its a lot I don't know. So I may be running forever because somebody is like, well, no, there's got to be a.

00:10:34
Speaker 1: Blead, right, No.

00:10:36
Speaker 2: Now, Scripture has a myriad of people I remember and in one of Paul's writings, and he's just making a list of all of these people that lived by faith but never lived to see the promise happen. So that's that's a reality. Look at Moses, Moses, Moses would used to part the Red Sea, but didn't make it.

00:10:58
Speaker 1: Indicna, Right, isn't that crazy?

00:11:00
Speaker 2: And it's like it's like it's like my n you know, it's like he didn't make it anyway. So you know that that's that's the reality of what we live in. And so I am learning, though, to be okay with that. Wow, I'm learning to be okay that there will be some crosses I got to carry, There'll be some lips that I'll have, And from those places have come for others. Some of the most beautifully painful songs that I see reached people they don't like. And imagine me, I went on the beach, sipping on my tie with flip flops on I'm going to write, imagine me. You know, it's like you know, you know, it's like it's ugly. Got a song one here and here you go.

00:11:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you know, yeah, during those times, and I know this is still fresh for you, did you ever like question God, God? Why why did it take so long to find this out?

00:11:56
Speaker 2: I questioned God all the time. I was questioning God before that. Really, I question God all the time. When you see a family on the way the church and hear the whole family died in a car wreck, or you know, you you you, you, you meet treat people that die of cancer, and then you see fools. I can live in a life and they and they live until they seven and eighty is still being fools? I mean, yeah, question God all the time. And God welcomes the conversation. He does because the questions at least we're talking. At least we're talking, and he welcomes the conversation. And and and I once once again, I think that so much deconstruction of religious dogma that we've been programmed to believe has to happen for people to have a clear understanding that for most people of color, this fear of what we can't do and can't say to God is really birthed in a colonized version of what Christianity was introduced to a displaced people to control them. And so all that that has to be deconstructed this week. And so it's because what we've got to understand so clearly is that Western Christianity and the teachings of Jesus Christ are not synonymous. They are not the same Who Jesus is and what we a lot of times teach in Western Christianity is dogma and ideology that has nothing to do with the pure heart of Jesus. Wow.

00:13:27
Speaker 1: I remember just recently while you were on this tour a man was outside the venue.

00:13:32
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, not this tour that was four years ago. Somebody just somebody just resurrected it.

00:13:40
Speaker 1: I thought that was happening in real time. Oh my goodness.

00:13:43
Speaker 2: I wouldn't back to tell nobody like that. Now, man, this pandemic. I don't know you, but you literally.

00:13:48
Speaker 1: Took time to like meet with this man after and he ridiculed you just for how you dance and your lyrics. I'm like, people like the we do have to deconstruct because everybody's gotten so like, yeah, literally literal almost like taking.

00:14:04
Speaker 2: It yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then also you know it's it's it's, it's it. It is an extension of the heart of a pharisee, right, you know that that what I don't understand I dismiss. And so it is in the process of being able to engage with people, to to get an understanding of why they maneuver and how they maneuver, and to not demonize or to try to put scripture to things that may not be my cup of tea, Kurtius, may not be your cup of tea, and that's okay. Sometimes I'm not my cup of tea. Some days I get on my nerd, Right, I mean, have you ever had days we'll be like, girl, get it together. Yes.

00:14:50
Speaker 3: So if you had that with you, why would you not not understand that everybody's not going to process and connect with you certain ways and still give them grace for God to keep doing the working.

00:15:03
Speaker 1: Yeah that's good. I love that. Now that you know who your father is, how are you integrating that into your life? How is that getting to have you guys spent?

00:15:15
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, but but you know, it is still the weirdest thing for me, and he's a great.

00:15:20
Speaker 1: Guy, seems like a really really nice, great great guy.

00:15:24
Speaker 2: I just just because you've been introduced to love, don't know, it doesn't mean you're not a process that when you see it, you know it's it's good. Yes, not automatic. And I think once again, we've watched so much TV, we've watched so many movies, we've read so many romance novels, that we want happy endings to everything quickly.

00:15:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, doesn't mean like in a relationship. And I'm was like one guy telling me he's like Crystal, it's not a fairy tale. Get that out of here. Oh my gosh, I'm the same way. Yeah. You know, often because my biological mother passed when I was two, so you always yeah, so I feel like a part of me always wonders like what parts of me are like her?

00:16:18
Speaker 4: You know?

00:16:18
Speaker 1: And now that you know your dad, do you see any like, oh that's where I get that from? Or oh, now things are starting to make a little more sense about you know.

00:16:28
Speaker 2: I have not had to just spend a whole lot of time. We've we've been able to have moments and yeah, there there there are things, but there are things that I know that probably for the both of us still need to grow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, you know, but but you know, you know, because he's headstrong, he's ambitious, he's no like he's he is. I am very much him, very much him, you know. And so but you know, he he's a good man. He's a good man. He is he's a he's he's somebody that I could definitely look up to welcome with the same height. But you know what I mean, you know, you know, but yeah, I think that more than anything, it's just me. It's just it's just the trauma. And then you also got to remember something very important. There was a man in my life that I believed to be my father. Well no, not in my life. There was a man that I knew of that I believed to be my father all of my life. And I hated this man all of my life because it wasn't my father. You just and and and I need to try to make this really clear. I did not hate him because I did not want him to be my father. I hated him because I wanted him to be my father. So that's a different type of images. And so now that I have been introduced to my violat to father. It doesn't mean that I go oh okay, la la la la lot. It's like I have over half a century of hate and anger that I've lived with that now has to be reprogrammed and and and once again deconstructive because of what I believed him to be. Yeah, and so now I'm left with a lot of pieces that I'm having to maneuver through. Yeah, And it takes time. And I'm not going to rush so that people can have another homework move. I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna do that that doesn't that doesn't benefit anybody involved. I'm gonna take my time to do what it is I need to do. In the press itself, I'm fifty three years old. I'm looking for no daddy fifty three. He's gonna pick me up from school, gonna what we're gonna do. Yeah, So you know, I've got to I've got a maneuver and then once again, you know, I have to divorce my heart from what I thought was Yeah, you know, and and and you know, this man went to his grave knowing that I hated him. He went to his great So you know that hurts too, be he didn't deserve it.

00:19:20
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:19:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, So there's there's a lot there, you know. And and the tour has been wonderful because I've been able to, you know, get away. Now that the tour is ending, I can be honest, I do feel anxiety.

00:19:33
Speaker 1: Because you're not gonna have to sit in it for a minute.

00:19:35
Speaker 2: I know, I got to go home. Yeah, and I know I got a maneuver.

00:19:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow yeah yeah yeah, yeah, that's good. So tell me a little bit more about the relationship that you had with your Did you even have relationship with the man you thought.

00:19:51
Speaker 2: Was your father's Yeah, Well, you know, I'm adopted. I'm adopted. I was adopted when I was four by sixty four year old woman named Gertie. Gertrude was a widow. She was born in nineteen oh eight.

00:20:03
Speaker 1: Wow.

00:20:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, No, I had a fourth grade education, and she recycled cans and newspapers to pay for my piano lessons. And matter of fact, Gertrude died before she ever heard any of my music. She never heard any music recording. So in margin, in marginalized communities, it is not uncommon for kids to be raised by people, but still there may be some visual engagement maybe once twice, two, three times a year with their biological parents. It's very dysfunctional, but it's real well because a lot of times outside of our communities, a child that's adopted is in a system and you know, you know, a type of adoption agency where they don't know their biologicals and they get adopted. Now they still have a pain of them they're adopted, but at least they're introduced to a family. And I takes a man. A lot of times in our community, you could be adopted and still know you're biological. So it's a scar that never heals. It's a scar of that stays open because every time that biological leaves to go with a boyfriend or go wherever, you want to know why you're not good enough to go with him? Yes, And so that's what I've lived with my whole life. So when I was six years old, I was introduced to the man that at this point I thought was my biological father. His father died, picked me up into me to the funeral. I believe he probably wouldn't have even done that, but the funeral was at a church in that neighborhood I was living in with Girtue I met him. Then I did see him Againstien I was thirteen. Wow. I didn't see him again until after my first album came out, and then he started trying to show up at concerts, which pissed me. So we show we'll have a relationship, my guy. Yes, no relation, And so that's kind of how that would start to be. And so after that I would even hate him more. So. It was not a man that tried to pursue me at any point and tried to or for anything. It wasn't until after and by the time I'm twenty three years old, twenty five years old, and yeah, that just didn't work.

00:22:07
Speaker 1: Absolutely.

00:22:08
Speaker 2: Yeah. So that that's that's that's that's really the context of him.

00:22:14
Speaker 1: Okay, so with your father, now we know this is your biological father, and you say he's a good man, he's a good man. Was there any point after meeting him that little Kirk was like, dang, I missed out.

00:22:28
Speaker 2: I can be candid with you that there is there was, and there is a part of me that was very angry at God. It is because I give you it to you in this in this capsuleized space. So God in a sovereign plan, because we believe in a sovereignty of God. Right, we believe all things, you know, work together. But we believe everything good, bad and ugly that God creates and a God allows it. That's the sovereignty plan. That's that's that's the doctrine of sovereignty. Right. So, God in the plan allowed my biological father to be ten minutes away from me my entire life, and I didn't know it. In that space, I developed some bad habits, became very promiscuous girls, you know, trying to find the love and girls that I didn't have in my mama is because my mama wasn't there either. And so those habits, as you now become a Christian, now those habits are sins.

00:23:26
Speaker 1: Ooh, yeah, I.

00:23:29
Speaker 2: Feel what I'm going I do. So God, in his sovereignty allowed this absence of my father. I developed bad habits and then as I got older, they I become sins. So God allowed absence that created now something that he hates. Ooh, I war with that, God, I war with that? Wow I do? I do? I do? I war with that.

00:23:54
Speaker 1: I can imagine because as a young boy, you're just looking to fill a void.

00:23:59
Speaker 2: That's how you do. Yeah. So you do. And I was never the kind of dude. It was like, yo, man, I got this girl, you know, you know, like like like girls were never a chess match for me, you know what I mean. It was never trophies. It was always you know, that absence of mama. You know what I'm saying. But you know, when you're young and you know you have you know, you know, you know sexual urges and his eyes like a human would. You know, it is how you interpret and how you try to maneuverent what you think love is. And then you know you realize that it's very a shallow approach to love, but it's what you know. And so for God and this sovereign plan to allow that space because again in the hood, there's no after school programs and deadcats and what do kids do in the hood. You know, you know, you played a little game hi and go get it.

00:24:44
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.

00:24:45
Speaker 2: You didn't got it. You didn't got it with my camera, He didn't got it. He show got it. He got it again and again and again. So you know, you know, you you just develop bad things that were allowed in a space of God's sovereign sovereignly making this emptiness. And so yeah, I struggle. I struggle, and I don't need Christians trying to give me a theological answer. Let me struggle. I struggle. David struggled, Job struggled. We struggle, We struggle. Paul says, I see through a glass darkly. Now I don't understand everything. Now, let us struggle, Chris, I don't. I don't know what that is about Christians. We think that we always got to have the answer and the sous everything. Sometimes the greatest thing, like, like one of the things that pisses me off more than anything is that when somebody's child dies and a Chris are saying, well, God needed another angel, my nick boy. I just think that that is the most offensive thing. Yeah, just shut up.

00:26:00
Speaker 1: Bro, Yes, don't say anything.

00:26:02
Speaker 2: Just shut up. And these are the things that I want want people to understand that we do not offend. If God is our father. I have kids, Ain't nothing my kids can ever say to me that's going to ever stop me from being a well. I mean, we've seen some of my life living publicly. I'm still a daddy. I'm still there, you know.

00:26:25
Speaker 1: So, Yeah, I love that. Let's tap on that real quick. I everybody saw the viral video of you going on viral of you going in on your son.

00:26:40
Speaker 2: Is it something new you're going to reveal?

00:26:47
Speaker 1: But I remember watching it and I was like, I think most of the black community was like, there ain't nothing like nobody, you know, the overly Christian people like, oh, you shouldn't do that, and that's not Christian like and he shouldn't do that. But I'm allowed what I thought. I was like, Oh, that's just a normal talking to you know. But as I thought about it and just thinking of our culture and how we have began to normalize, like, oh, that's fine, you know what I'm saying, Like as my mom was talked to me, you know what I'm saying, and we turned it all right, you know, but exactly, it doesn't make it.

00:27:21
Speaker 2: Right, doesn't make it right. And and that did not make me right. That that was a moment that I was very disappointed in and and and I have to own that, you know, you know, I I can allow for any situation to allow me to get to that space, and I can be honestly say that often like that ain't the first time I went off on somebody like that. You know, you know, I'm mon I'm monk. You know, I have that Napoleon you know, then you know, and I want all the smoke. Yeah, and if you crossed me wrong, you know, it's like I you know, and and that's and that's one of my weaknesses. That's one of my struggles. And it's still Australian. If I see somebody, you know, being treated wrong, I like to jump in and take up form, you know, and and every word and gonna be I pray for your brother, you know, it's gonna be you know, and you know, and and I struggled, you know that that's that's it's not right. It's it's not right. But I'm not going to act in front of people that I've got it all together. So you know, I want to acknowledge that it was something I did wrong, and it was you know, my son was thirty three at the time, thirty two thirty three, you know, So again I'm you know, I'm also talking to somebody who who put themselves in position of a man, you know, and you know, and and we were happy because you know, you know, his audio was on there too.

00:28:42
Speaker 1: It was yes, you know, it was like.

00:28:44
Speaker 2: You had you know, it.

00:28:46
Speaker 1: Wasn't like I'm afraid of you saying.

00:28:49
Speaker 2: And it's just supposed to like why are you talking to like any It wasn't that, you know, his re sponsors, like what what? You know? It was too man. But again, somebody, somebody got to be the bigger person and I wasn't. Wow, you know, and I hate that too, man. But because and the reason why I also hated it, you know, is because I I knew the state of my son and that should have allowed me to be more gracious.

00:29:19
Speaker 1: I feel like that in itself as a message to parents.

00:29:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, yeah, man, I knew the state of my son. But I just sudden, you know, it just caught me because I hadn't talked to when when when when he recorded me, I hadn't. I hadn't talked to carry On like that was the second time I talked to carry On in two two and a half years. And it was then, and those conversations were back to back, like one weekend and next weekend, and they were both bad because the audio that y'all heard, they were two separate conversations. So he recorded me twice.

00:29:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you feel betrayed?

00:29:58
Speaker 2: Yes? I did, Yes, I did, Yes, I did. I felt very much betrayed. But again it doesn't justify what I did. And again I knew the state of my son. And you know, let me also say this also, man, my son is a beautiful I love him. Yeah, he's my firstborn. I love him. He's so handsome, he's so oh you talented. Oh man, this kid has so much talent. And well this young, this this this grown. Yeah yeah, yeah, he's thirty five now, and and I love him and I still believe in him. And you know, we've got a lot of work that we we have to do, but it's a lot of work that I'm committed to do. Oh man, he's my son, he's my first born. And me and this boy but tight, tight, like like he was my road dog when my career first took off. I remember being at a and he was like five. I remember being at a high school doing signing autographs, my first album, signing autographs, and we looked down and this little Negro signing art. Yeah, so you know, yeah, you know, you know he was I mean, he was my guy. Yeah, but he is my guy. Yeah, yeah, you know, I mean, I mean he's been all over the world with me. That he's been all over the world with me. Wow, that's my guy.

00:31:25
Speaker 1: I saw on your documentary you had a conversation with him and told him that you had found your father, and you all had a very warm embrace. What did that moment feel like? Because I know that's when I lost it all, Like I was crying the whole episode, But then that's when I was like because it felt like we were there through it with you.

00:31:43
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Well, you know, I hadn't seen him in over ten years. Wow, I had seen him over ten years when that happened. So so when I saw him, you know, for for that doc you know, you know, it had been over a decade, and so just to get a chest, to see him, to hold him, you know, it was beautiful for me. It was beautiful for me because I hadn't been able to just touch him.

00:32:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know.

00:32:07
Speaker 2: And uh, you know, he's been through a lot. He's been through a lot. He has been through a lot, you know. And and and I want more of that, you know. And I'm very proud of the fact that the hard, deep work I see him doing, and and and I believe someday, when when carry On is ready, he's going to be able to help a lot of young men. Wow, I'm telling you, I'm telling his story. His story is going to be Oh yeah, special, special.

00:32:41
Speaker 1: I love that with everything that you've gone through, you've had your beautiful wife, Tammy s Sammy. I love you, Sis, you have had her by your side. And oftentimes we see Kirk and you are the one that we see. You're the household name, but we don't think about how it's affecting everyone around you. And I saw she was in a state of shock as well when you found out that you got the DNA results back and you were on the phone. You're like, say that again, Like, she's lied. My mom has lied to me my whole life. How has it affected Tammy? I d cause sometimes I don't know if you're like me, I'm the type of person where I need to be by myself.

00:33:21
Speaker 2: That's the problem. That's it right there, And it's it's and I don't know if that's a creative thing, and that's the thing of creatives. I don't know what that is, but it's I think that that's what I have to manage more than anything, the natural instinct to be alone. Yeah, and first of all, shout out to Tammy Franklin. Tammy Franklin is a beautiful soul. She's an incredible woman. Yeah, she's an amazing woman. And it takes a lot to be married to someone who has lived with so much of a traumatic book. Because my f you know, my experiences have not only been traumatical ast for as natural family, my experience I have been traumatic when it comes to religion. When it comes to religion, because think about it, man, is I've been that and we noticed. I've been dogged my career even by the kind of music I do with the church. You know, I've been kicked out of churches. I've been kicked out of Bible colleges for I mean, you know. And so it just takes a very special woman to be able to experience all of that. And yeah, this is a season where I find isolation in being alone even something more that I gravitate to, and I have to fight to try to be intentional, to be reminded. And the first to that that my kids are gone is because my kids was interesting for me, and again because I didn't have family. See t me comes from a big family, So what was natural for her was very unnatural for me. And so having kids gave me something to make up for all the hurd I didn't have not having a daddy. I put it all in them. I put it all in them. Sometimes even to the fault I can be honest and saying, and I've never said this on anything before, and I even saying, and I'll be transparent here to say, is that, even to a fault that a lot of times I realize now that they were empty nesting, I probably invested even more to them than I even sometimes did her, because with her, the natural man to do things is always the red bottoms, the car, the person. You know. You know, you're always doing the things that you think are the things the thing, and they're not the things, you know, and so I am guilty of that. I am make surely guilty of that. You know I don't, and you know it's not intentional. It's just what you end up doing because you're so busy trying to make it and then when you come from poverty, you know, you think that these things are the things that matter. But also it was a lot for me, A lot of the attention was these kids cannot feel what I felt, They cannot feel what I feel. And not having a blueprint for being a daddy. I overdid the day, you know what I mean. You know, it's it's like I would come in from the studio, you know, three or four o'clock in the morning and sit up and sit up in the chair so I wouldn't fall asleep, so I could take them to school, you know, because like they cannot feel it, they cannot feel it. And so that's what drove me.

00:36:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, but in all that, you feel like you was neglecting Tommy as well.

00:36:33
Speaker 2: It's I don't, well, that would be for her to say if it was neglecting you know, you know, it's yeah, you know, but but but but whatever she may feel, I look back and go, you know, man, I did not learn. And then it's also the things that you know, some things are taught, some things are caught, and I did not have a lot around me to be able to teach me some of the husband stuff. Now, my spiritual father, I've spent a lot of time with him, trying to learn how to be a husband, trying to learn how to be a goliment.

00:37:09
Speaker 1: Tony saw his own documentary you're talking about.

00:37:13
Speaker 2: He's my hero. He's my hero and so you know, I know that still got a lot of learning, you know. And I think that this empty nesting things shook.

00:37:23
Speaker 1: Me because you have nothing to be like. Wait, I gotta sit in this for real, look in the mirror.

00:37:30
Speaker 2: Maybe and see what people also to realize. Tam and I got married with kids.

00:37:36
Speaker 1: Oh I didn't know that.

00:37:37
Speaker 2: We've never lived by ourselves. Wow, okay, yeah, I had carried not her as much me because again I come to the table with these family deficiencies. So you know, I got married on a Saturday and went on a plane that tuesday. Oh wow. And and and I've been going ever since. And we had to and we had two kids already, and then we and then we got pregnant less than a year in a marriage, so you know, we just you know, it just kept it. And so the kids became. And when you travel as much as I do, you do have the fear of the kids missing out. You know, it's almost like, as a man, the natural button it's to think of the kids. I don't know what that is, you just naturally worry. Okay, Well, I want these kids and missing me with their play, I don't miss me. You know. It's it's because I think that the life of the children and all that they're involved in becomes the priority for both parents at times. Because you know, I was very blessed to be able to have a position where Tammy didn't have to go to work, you know, so she you know, and I enjoyed watching her poor it to these kids. So you know, that's that was our nucleus. So now that we don't have those things after and again not her me, it's like my babies are gone, I don't have anything to nurture, and so I'm trying to find my ways.

00:39:12
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, I can't imagine what that's like. And it's crazy because as adults we start to look back from like like you said, I just wanted I never wanted them to feel what I felt. Never And but that little boy and that little girl never leaves us.

00:39:28
Speaker 2: That's what it is. That's what it is. And again that ain't got nothing to do with your spouse. You know, like I said, you know, Tammy superwoman, she is man. Tammy is a super here, She's a super Tammy's one of the most kindness. And again Tammy's got a great you know parents, you know she you know, my daddy, big old house, the girl I came from sleeping in the car, you know what I mean. I pawned Gvirtue's wedding ring when I was twenty because I was so hungry and had no food, pawn her wedding ring and the lawnmower. So that's how bad things were for me, you know. So you know, you know, you're just trying to figure it out.

00:40:09
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you live because you've made it? But do you feel like you ever catch yourself living in a scarcity mindset, remembering being homeless and having the pun always.

00:40:19
Speaker 2: Always, and there's never myself for me that I've made it, Like I don't feel like I've made it?

00:40:24
Speaker 1: Are you kidding me?

00:40:26
Speaker 2: Girl? Are you kidding? Because see, here's what you gotta understand. Also, I'm also part of a musical genre that is a niche genre, like like like I'm not doing mainstream music, like I don't do mainstream now now now, Now, I can't deny and say that the Lord has been extremely kind in my career, but you got to understand, I'm part of a genre that behind closed doors, I'm always dealing with issues like I am man, Okay, it is it is. I am part of a genre that behind closed doors, I'm always knocking and begging. Wow, because people on the bigger platforms, major corporations and companies, they don't believe in gospel music. They don't see the marketing value in gospels. So you're always having to prove to them that it can work. There has never been a time in my career that a red carpet has been laid out.

00:41:27
Speaker 1: Wow.

00:41:27
Speaker 2: It's feast of femin over here my entire career. Baby girl, you better ask, man, you better ask. Out Of all the tours that I've done in my life, and I've been touring for the last twenty five years, I've only done two tours in my life that were profitable. What it was The Hopeville tour right after September eleventh where Don mcclerkt and Eline Adams it was profitable. And the Maverick Tour. Wow, those are the only tours that I've I personally was financially the best to make to make money and come on money. Only two tours, yeah, because everything else, you're having to really invest in it yourself.

00:42:08
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness.

00:42:09
Speaker 2: Yeah. Man, In gospel music, there's that's why you don't really see people running to do gospel music. But you know it ain't it ain't like it's a flow of funds and flow of opportunities. No, gospel music is feast of famine. Yeah, so when you have a conversation, I made it. We're so busy knocking on doors. We don't even know what that means. We're so busy banging on doors. Give us a chance, Give us a chance. Oh yeah, always my entire career.

00:42:39
Speaker 1: Wow, you just never know because people like I look at him like, oh, he's made it. Man, he's been doing this since.

00:42:45
Speaker 2: I can remember. Asked when you next time you call tam ass Tammy, tell your man all of the headaches and the man the tears and the discouragement. Oh man, the nose. Wow, because think about it, man, you know it's twenty twenty three, talking about Jesus, like selling amways, selling avon, knocking on people doors, you know, trying to get people to believe it's something they don't even use anymore.

00:43:09
Speaker 4: That a preach, right, yes, preach, trying to get them to believe in something that.

00:43:20
Speaker 1: They don't even use it, they don't even use it. Then let it go over your head. My god, my god, why haven't you given up? You talk about this industry does not support It's like you're constantly knocking on the door asking for help, but you haven't given up yet.

00:43:40
Speaker 2: First of all, I'm too ambitious. I'm too ambitious, I am. Let me tell you, I'm ambitious. I can't sit down like I It's like, I'm hungry. I'm a new artist. Every record I approach is a new artist. I am. I'm trying, and I think some of that is that abandonment. Know, I am fueled by my trauma. Wow, And I'm okay. I'm okay with it because I could be fueled doing some other things. You know. I'm fube. I'm few by my trauma. I'm too ambitious, I'm too hungry. I tell like I had a I had a couple of younger producers come into my studio and they saw, you know, the little you know, the little you know whatever the stuff is, that you'll be winning whatever and and and and and and one of them said, he said, he said, uh, he said, oh gee, what's the secret. First of all, just learning to call me O G.

00:44:36
Speaker 1: I was like, You're like, wait a minute, that's like people call me.

00:44:39
Speaker 2: I'm like y'all watch it. Yeah, yeah, calm that down. Yes, And I said to him, I said, well, I think I know what you're asking me, and so I'll give you the answer. I said, what what? And but I said, I said, but it's not gonna be sexy, man, it's not gonna be sexy. I said. The answer is I am too secure for you to forget me. I can't afford for you to forget me. So I'm going to do whatever I need to do to make sure that you don't forget because I can't afford to be forgotten.

00:45:13
Speaker 1: Wow.

00:45:14
Speaker 2: Not in an arrogant state, just the fact of man, they can't forgive me. It's it's like it's like I can't afford to be forgotten. I know what it's like to be forgotten. Jeez mmmm hurt.

00:45:29
Speaker 1: So yeah, Kirk, with everything that you've been through, we are really big on mental health here in the kids community. You have had a therapist for over twenty years. Yeah. No, yes, even before therapy was popular.

00:45:44
Speaker 2: Because you begin a discount by now, DOCTA. I need a discount. I haven brought so many people to you.

00:45:51
Speaker 1: I have.

00:45:52
Speaker 2: He tells me he's not jeering. He's like oh, your documentary. It's got people calling me. I said, man, can you that's my man? I love him.

00:46:02
Speaker 1: That's amazing. I love that you got into it before it was even popular. What made you say I need therapy because broken? Wow?

00:46:10
Speaker 2: I was broken and I am wired naturally to seek help. That's who I am, naturally, like I get on people's nerves. I'm the type of person if that's a bump on my pinka hoe, I'm at the doctor the next day.

00:46:25
Speaker 1: What is that that though?

00:46:26
Speaker 2: Because you never know, because that I'm like, they're gonna take my pinka toe, you know. And it's like the doctor comes in, it's a bunyant, you know, and I'm like, lid, you know what I'm saying. Because I'm just I'm just that type of person. I'm always wanting help. I always want help. I'm not afraid for help. That's good and that could be that deficiency.

00:46:52
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I was thinking that, Yeah, but it's good you're not afraid to ask for it at all, because a lot of would be oblivious or some people don't even know they needed.

00:47:00
Speaker 2: No, I'm a black man that praise and she's a therapist.

00:47:03
Speaker 1: That's amazing because even I know. I know people personally they're like, I don't need the but have Jesus.

00:47:09
Speaker 2: And I'm like that that it sounds so dumb. Again, so that sounds so dumb. I don't need therapy. I have Jesus.

00:47:18
Speaker 1: Dumb.

00:47:20
Speaker 2: I have cancer, but I'm not going to get chemo because I have Jesus.

00:47:23
Speaker 1: Right, come on, literally, because I know they would go get that chemo.

00:47:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm not going to take a shower because I have Jesus. Yeah, I'm hungry. I'm hungry, but he's the bread of life.

00:47:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have Jesus.

00:47:47
Speaker 2: Jesus.

00:47:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, oh my goodness, so good. So you talk about you constantly questioning God. You go through this phase where you question God a lot throughout your life, but not realizing that everything that you've done has allowed people not to through your career, through your songs, like for me personally, like you gave me reason, like I can move, I can go on. I know that I can make it. I know that I can stand even those ones why I don't feel like, are God wise? Is happening? You've given everybody hope. Do you ever go through situations or question yourself behind closed doors? Like, I know that I doubt in question God, but I'm telling these people you can do it, you can do it.

00:48:36
Speaker 2: And there's that hypocritical Yeah. One of the greatest illustrations of this level of honesty, to me is the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul is this individual that God uses to write ninety percent of the New Testament, so he is the architect of the New Testament Church. And his letters to the churches, they they set the trajectory of us understanding the the ideal construct of grace m moving people from law and legalism. And yet and and and all of his uh uh r writings and teachings and blue prints for us to be able to now be able to have uh uh personal access to God the Father through his uhs resurrected son Jesus Christ. He says in Romans, something that is the template for the discussion we're having. He says to the Romans, he says, but everything that I'm writing to you, guys, I admit I have not obtained it. M For the things that I want to do are the things I don't do. The good that I desire to do the things I don't do, and the things that I don't wanna do, other things I end up doing. Oh wretch man that I am, who will free me from this body of death?

00:49:56
Speaker 1: He just did. That was the intro of one of your songs.

00:49:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, well yeah, I've done it many times. I've done I've talked about it. Yeah yeah, yeah. It's because I think that that is the See. See the paradox of Christianity is I am a mess and a miracle at the same time. Yes, that is the paradox. I am a mess and a miracle at the same time. And so that is why I am so irritated with the perfect bow wrapped on the package of what it looks like to be like Jesus. Because the template in the book that we use, and in this canon of scripture that gives us the outline of how we desire to live are written by murderers, liars, adulterous killers, cheatahs, bad parents, you know, like these and polygamists and and and and and all of these things that we call them our heroes, but they were messes and miracles at the same time. But we don't give that level of patience and grace to each other. While we call them, I don't understand. It is the most it is and that's why I believe. I believe you see one of the greatest exoduses out of Christianity that we have seen in the twenty first century. We have so many people leaving Christianity because people can't take that no more.

00:51:32
Speaker 1: They can't.

00:51:33
Speaker 2: It's like, it's like it's because see, when you go to the club, you know what you're getting. When you go to the you know what you're getting. When you smoke this, you know, well, you hope, you know, yeah, when you drink this, you know you you It's it's it's like there's no ambiguity yes to the things outside of these religious dogmatic structures. You know, I'm saying to you that as a Christian that is married, that is a father that stands from the peace people, there are things about me that are not yet like Jesus. And there's a lot about me I am. One of my mentors said, he he gave me a quote. Well, he said something to me that I made a quote, and so one of my phones a screamsaver. He said, Kirk, you are a man, a sinner, a saint, and a star. And then he said the odds are against you. You see what I'm saying. It's like, that's real talk. Now. I don't say myself as a star, that's what he said, you know, But I understand the content he was talking about, just a public fea, you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, so but but then he concluded a saying, but if God before you, so you know. But but but the thing is, every day I am a man, a sinner, a saint, and a public figure or whatever, and I live in those realities every day. The things that I would do good are the things I don't always do. And the things I don't do I think I shouldn't do it. The things I do. Yeah, Oh, rich Man.

00:53:06
Speaker 1: That I am so wow. I'm just blown away right now. Seriously, thank you so much.

00:53:15
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me in your beautiful home, and congratulations to all of your great success, and it just makes me proud. And from a distance, I'm just proud, you know. I mean, there are others that know you in more intimate, closer ways, but just you know, on the outside, it's like, is it beautiful?

00:53:32
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.

00:53:33
Speaker 2: It is so dope. I'm so proud of you, and you're so consistent with everybody you meet. Everybody you meet, you're.

00:53:38
Speaker 1: The you are too, though. I feel like every time I've met you in different moments, you've been from meeting you at the studio, meeting you, seeing you on the red carpets, meeting you backstage at Maverick City concert to now like you are the same person and you are unforgettable, like literally, like when you say I'm too insecure to be forgotten, Like every moment I was like man, and it was amazing, and it it always sticks with me. I want you to know that you are unforgettable, like seriously, and I hope that you can just come to and understanding that you are enough and that you can let that insecurity go because you really are a light. You are a star like in our eyes. You really are and I want you to know that and walk in there. It's confidently, but.

00:54:26
Speaker 2: I want you to know if I don't, I'm okay because my weakness God uses for other strength.

00:54:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm a witness, so I'm okay.

00:54:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really am. And I know that sounds like it's trying to be other world or super surreal. I'm really coming to a place, you know what's cool if I getting older, is you get to places where you really don't care. Oh, my gosh, it's wonderful. It is, it's wonderful. I'm okay because I understand how the limp lead to other people's race.

00:55:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm good.

00:55:04
Speaker 2: I'm good.

00:55:05
Speaker 1: That is so good. At the close of our show, we do what is called positive outcomes, where our listeners right into us and we give them advice.

00:55:15
Speaker 2: Okay, you down, I'm down.

00:55:17
Speaker 1: All right, let's do it.

00:55:17
Speaker 2: Let's get it.

00:55:18
Speaker 1: This and says Hi, Crystal. I'm fifty years old and for the past eighteen years I've been in relationship with a married man. I know that it's not okay. How many years eighteen years?

00:55:28
Speaker 2: She's been really yeah with a marb man.

00:55:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know this is not okay to be with a married man. But I'm fifty and I'm more afraid that I will never meet someone, and I don't want to be alone. I have a sixteen year old daughters. We have a sixteen year old daughter together, and she does not know that her father has a whole other family. I have gotten to the point where I can no longer keep lying to my daughter and want to tell her the truth. But her father does not want her to know. I don't want her to find out from another source down the line. But I don't want her to judge me either. What should I do.

00:55:58
Speaker 2: For the sake of the child? I think how old is her daughter?

00:56:10
Speaker 1: Sixteen? Yeah, so she's probably starting to have she knows. It seems like she knows her father. She just doesn't know that she has another family.

00:56:20
Speaker 2: Gotch. Okay, so she knows that this guy should yeah, okay.

00:56:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, she does not know that her father has a whole other family.

00:56:28
Speaker 2: Gotcham, But she knows of him. Does he spend time with her?

00:56:31
Speaker 1: I don't know? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:56:36
Speaker 2: I would recommend that heard her daughter find a beautiful therapist because whatever the outcome is of the woman and the relationship, it doesn't change the fact that the daughter's here. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. The daughter is alive and here, so you know, it's really now about the daughter and the well being of the daughter. You know, you know, the unfortunate events of how the child got here doesn't take one the fact that the child is here, and so now it's all about what the best interest is for the child. I would find a therapist who can be able to make sure that the young lady is the least damage. Yes, because there's going to be damage, you know, you know, she's a casualty of this experience. But I would really try to find a therapist. It is because the two of them have a child together now, so you know their experience is now secondary.

00:57:47
Speaker 1: To that baby.

00:57:48
Speaker 2: You know, and and and you know there's going to be repercussion, there's going to be fallout, there's going to be all of those realities. But I would recommend them to be able to get to a loving professional, not not not a not a deacon at the church. Hell, who do who do counseling? In between professional and real professor? Somebody's got a couple of pieces of paper behind their name. You know what I'm saying, you know, and I'm saying that. I'm not saying that that makes them perfect, but there is a discipline that comes from the rigorous process of getting to that place, right. So that's what I that, That's what I would You know, I'm not a professional, but I know that children matter.

00:58:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you one thousand percent, and I can speak I'm sure you know families that like grandparents, I know a lot of people my age have grandparents who grand a mail stepped out and had a whole nother child on the other side of town, and you don't find out about it until your girl's like, oh, I got a brother.

00:58:53
Speaker 2: That's what you know until that funeral.

00:58:57
Speaker 1: Right, Yes, everything starts, everything comes out of funeral. But the child is the one that has to suffer not knowing that, like their friend that in high school was actually their brother or their sister. You know that party. Oh that's the worst when you found like, wait, a weet, we're related, it ain't. Nobody told me so. Yes, I would definitely be honest with her honestly, Yes, for sure. Great advice. Okay, so the next thing we do is what I'm going through and what I'm growing through. For what I'm going through, what I'm growing through for me in this season I am going through and it's been like this. I'm such a control freak. I tell everybody is I like to know the variables. I don't like anything unknown. I like to control it. You know you do, yes, And for me it is trust in God. And even with this strike that just okay, we just finished the strike and we're not We're going back to work. But even in that I was tested so much. I know you were, Oh my goodness.

01:00:07
Speaker 2: I know your life bill was tested. It sure was. I don't know your cardinal was tested. Are you kidding me? Please mortgage every listen. I was like, come on, let's keep it a buck. Yes, okay, sitting around when when when? When? When you're doing what we do, is like, I'm going to have the next three years saved.

01:00:26
Speaker 1: Up right for when the strike happens.

01:00:28
Speaker 2: Now when you're an entrepreneur, because a lot of what we do, we eat, when we kill.

01:00:32
Speaker 1: We do so true. Yeah, but in that, in this time, it's like really taught me that God has it because literally I was praying to God and I said, God, it was so funny because I went I was filming last week, I was filming the podcast, and I went downstairs to give me an energy drink and it was the last day of filming, and literally the Holy Spirit hit me. I hit that last step down there and I said ooh and literally said the strike is gonna be over.

01:00:58
Speaker 2: Wow.

01:00:59
Speaker 1: And I went to Tyler's premiere and everybody's like, oh, yeah, a strike gonna be I give it like tomorrow, I said no today. No, she said January. I said no today, and literally within two hours, everybody got the phone started going off. She was like, you said, I was like no. I was like I felt it, like this bear really hit me because I have been the lord.

01:01:16
Speaker 2: Come on now, I even moved swiftly. Oh this thing, Yeah, yeah, I like the door.

01:01:23
Speaker 1: When we got all these brand partnerships, and she gets swimming, I'm like, so when that money coming, Yeah, I need this a month ago. It's thirty days, thirty come on, listen.

01:01:33
Speaker 2: Listen, man, Like I tell you I I have struggled with through these tours. I told temp because because Tampa want a new house and uh well we were blessed to get a new house and gradu and uh and and I always make a joke to everybody around and I'm like, all right, y'all gonna see me at one of these little clubs. I'm gonna be stripping. I'm gonna be at one of these little gospel I'm the stuper gospel music.

01:01:57
Speaker 1: You think that this gossiping has gone too far? They got to.

01:02:03
Speaker 2: I guess my name is you ready? Ready? Not ready? What striper name is? Little cheeks?

01:02:30
Speaker 1: These days?

01:02:32
Speaker 2: Eli Elsie, that's a good laugh. That was I ain't laugh. That's the ant and lab where you laugh and be saying the word where you laugh. Right, it never happened. You don't have to worry. It never happened. Times got hard. I'm gonna take him up because the Bible says the man that don't take him his fan there's worse than Infidel. So I will be somewhere, right, little cheeks, I got to eat. I got to eat, right, you kids gotta eat, little cheeks.

01:03:17
Speaker 1: I love it. Is there anything that you're going through and growing through in this season of your life.

01:03:24
Speaker 2: That is so funny how she just tried to move past. I love that. Let me let me drink real quick. Hold on m hm oh man. Anything I'm going through growing through, I think you know, has been up for public display over the last six months, and you know it is it. It is a real mountain that I'm that I'm having to climb and that's what I'm going through and it is yet to be seen what the growing looks like. Yeah, yeah, And I'm okay with That's okay with that. I'm okay because again, this is not a movie. This is not a movie. This is not This is not a Christian TBN movie where everybody got to be on the other side shouting and dancing. This is real life. Wow. And in real life, Christians die, Christians are murdered, Christians are hopeless, Christians get hungry. There are Christians in China right now that are having church underground because they will be killed and sent us to prison. That's real life. That ain't pretty.

01:04:44
Speaker 1: That ain't a bowl, it's.

01:04:46
Speaker 2: Not a boat. So I'm okay, I'm okay.

01:04:50
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that, And we end the show with keep it Blank, sweet So how would you feel in.

01:04:59
Speaker 2: The keep it blank sweety? I would say, keep it close.

01:05:07
Speaker 1: Mm.

01:05:08
Speaker 2: I like that, keep it close, keep him close, keep your heart close, yes, keep your experiences close, keep your friends close, keep yourself close. Wow.

01:05:22
Speaker 1: I love that. Oh that's hard to talk. Okay, I would say, hm hmm. We touch on so many good things for this one. I think I would say, keep it real, sweetie, keep it real, keep it real. Yeah, that's what I did to you. Did you can keep it all the way one thousand with the people, and we appreciate it. Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

01:05:54
Speaker 2: Hon need to be here.

01:05:56
Speaker 1: No, it's the honest all mine.

01:05:57
Speaker 2: Seriously it should boy Kirk aka ELCT Wrap.

01:06:04
Speaker 1: It up, guys, thank you so much for tuning to this episode. Or Keep it Positive, Sweetie. If you want to write into our Positive Outcomes listener letter, you can write into keep It Positive Sweetie at gmail dot com and that's Sweetie with an Ie. You can follow kIPS on all platforms at keep It Positive Sweete, And you can follow me on all platforms at Love Chris Orinee and that's luv Kirk. Tell the people they can find you. Let us know what you have going on so we can support because we want to get behind you.

01:06:29
Speaker 2: Literally, you want to get behind me. What's up, y'all? Man, Thank y'all for supporting the new album, Father Stage, the documentary Father State. Thank you for coming to the tour. I'm very very grateful keeping in your prayers as life is lifing, but God is good. And so you can follow me on Instagram, you can follow me Facebook, follow me on my space Black Planet. Remember, oh those are not active no more than now.

01:07:00
Speaker 1: I think my space might still or is it?

01:07:03
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I'm still I'm still on the page. I'm sorry. Maybe Okay, well maybe that's why I ain't got a lot to follow us.

01:07:12
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Oh man, this is good, This is so good. A Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for giving Kirk the time to be with us today. We know it's gonna bless so many people. God, I do not take this platform lightly. I thank you for giving me this opportunity to spread light and positivity. Bless everyone in this room and hear their prayers. Oh God and Jesus thing I pray. Amen,