I listen to Christian music.

Love isn't love until you give it away.

Do I think all contemporary Christian music is good? No.

I was influenced by gospel and Christian music from a very young age.

I don't know if it's embarrassing, but I have a lot of girl Christian music.

I listen to a lot of Christian music, and reading my Bible calms me down immensely.

Most of the music I grew up listening to was not Christian music, although I definitely had a lot of that at home, too.

Writing songs is about trying to connect with people on a deeper spiritual level - but I'm not a fan of contemporary Christian music.

I can just be a Christian who sings mainstream music instead of having to be a Christian who has to somehow just sing Christian music.

Standing at a Christian music festival in Asbury, Ky., in the spring of 1978, I gave my life to Jesus Christ, and that's changed everything.

I didn't necessarily grow up with country being my first priority as a music listener. I grew up listening to classic rock and Christian music.

I never wanted to really make a career out of doing Christian music exclusively, but I love it to my core. I love music. I love what I'm doing now.

Me and my family used to have a Christian covers band together... like rock Christian music, upbeat, all in Indonesian. The band was called Roasted Peanuts.

It's no secret that anybody who knows the music business knows that the numbers are substantially different in Christian music than they are in country music.

I am living proof - and I know this for a fact - that you can find encouragement and strength through the message that's in Christian music, because I've lived it.

Rich Mullins was the uneasy conscience of Christian music. He didn't live like a star. He'd taken a vow of poverty so that what he earned could be used to help others.

As far as spiritual influences in Christian music, I would say Crystal Lewis - a lot of her songs especially. The ministry she has through her songs has really hit me.

I like writing different types of music. I like writing Christian music. I like collaborating with Christian artists. We have a Christian following. I love writing kids' music.

You didn't choose Christian music because it's more beneficial. It doesn't pay more. It doesn't make you more famous. There's some reason why you came to this. What changed your life at some point?

I grew up in the church and loved contemporary Christian music. I go back to the early days of when it first started with the likes of Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith. Those people that really pioneered are heroes of mine.

I feel that Christian music is a subculture directed towards the Christians. It's not really being exposed to non-Christians and it's not really created for non-Christians, so non-Christians almost never hear any of this music.

When we first started, I didn't know there was Christian rock or Christian music. I just thought we were a rock band that stuck to our convictions... Like every other hardcore band out there sang or screamed what they thought, we did the same thing.

Christian music was such a huge foundation for me, even as a kid, and I grew to love Christian music not only because of the musicianship, which I thought was extraordinary, but because of the message in it. It was such a huge building block of who I was and who I would become.

We were always just a hardcore band that came out and said what we believed in, but we also talked about the streets and the stuff that we were into and the struggles and everything we were going through. Once people found out we were Christian, it was always, 'Is that Christian music?'

Writing songs out of my faith was a real natural progression. I grew up singing in my dad's choir and singing with my family. Christian music became the music that I identified myself with and was a way that I expressed my faith. Even at a public school I would take my Christian music in and play it for my friends.

I want to be a part of bringing more visibility to the Christian music genre and give it some platforms that it may not have had before. I feel like, as blessed as we've been with Rascal Flatts, I might be able, through some of my own connections and avenues, to give them some visibility in arenas they've never had before.

When I was a kid, and God was talking to me about music, I was like, 'Okay, I'll sing mainstream music,' because I was afraid to sing Christian music to alienate my friends. Honestly, it was going on 'Idol,' having that kind of exposure, that I realized there's something different about me. I just crave God being a part of every moment.

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