KIM HOPPER Interview | Favorite Southern Gospel Artists | Musical Journey | The Hoppers

[Music] hey guys welcome to another episode of on the couch with vouche we are at the national core tech convention recording all these interviews this year and I've had the great opportunity to sit down this week with a lot of my favorite singers a lot of people that I don't get the chance to see throughout the year if you're watching this interview on Facebook please go ahead and hit the like button right here at the Matthew foutch page comment share please share with all of your friends that like Southern Gospel Music this is the interview series to get to know your favorite southern gospel music artists subscribe on YouTube and sign up at on the couch with alikom to get the emails so that you can get the emails the first of every month directly to your email inbox so that you don't miss the new ones today I have the privilege of interviewing southern Gospels favorite soprano singer year after year that comes from the first family and gospel music the hoppers I have Kim hopper with me thank you so much for being with me today it's my pleasure first of all let's start out and say that I think we should reverse this sometimes and let me interview you because I don't know a lot about you okay so sometimes we have to do that you don't like Kim alright so here's what we're gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna prep you here okay I'm gonna ask you some questions here okay at the end I in the past I've done a little thing called the foutch tone okay since you've not watched before we were talking about that earlier you don't know what that is I'm pretty much computer illiterate so I'm not gonna do that to you okay bit I'm not gonna do that to you but what I am gonna do and I don't know if you'll have time while I'm asking questions you're answering I'll let you ask me a question okay okay you guys so here's what I'll ask my questions okay I don't know if you I don't know if you can work both sides of your brain while you're trying to talk and I get whatsapp so right off the bat most of the questions focused on your family mm-hm and and the the rich legacy and heritage that you guys have had in gospel music so before that you were in the gospel music and things were happening before the hopper to say I've got to musically right just once so talk about your musical journey as Kim okay what all of that entails that's a whole lot I try to convince it cuz I could be a boy I will first of all my dad was a piano player and he would fill in for even groups like Oak Ridge Boys at one time just you know for a night and helping out with different different artists and he had three little kids who we just would sit around and sing all the time and he realized that we could sing harmony when we were young and he would work with the boys a little bit on the baritone part which is you know it was a little harder than the lead and maybe I don't hear it you can kudos yeah it's a hard part it is and he would work with us and so then he started taking us and letting us open up for these groups that he would play for and he had a little little quartets that you know he played for all the time around home and so it just grew from that but I was I think five that's maybe five or six and Tony was just a year younger than me and then my brother Tim was three years older so we were just children when we started so you know what I've actually been doing this almost 40 years and give these folks just by chance they don't know the last name give them the last I was a green great yes yes and my sweet baby brother has gone on to be with the Lord now and Tim is still traveling with a couple guys he's going by the greens again but you know what we we traveled and sang and it just grew and grew and and I remember a sitting in church with my grandmother who was an alto singer and I was trying to learn these harmony parts and she would sit next to me and if I didn't sing him right she'd swap me on the knee it was not right and boy I learned real quick that either I was gonna get slaughtered or I was gonna learn that out to a part so I picked up on those harmonies very quickly in life and I was also get this after the high school I went to cosmetology school and got my license at a very young age I didn't know that yes and I still keep my license so what would you do what would you do with this you can't miss my perfection here but I think you look great face yes um and so I would work in a salon three days a week Monday Tuesday Wednesday and then I would sing on weekends so I've been working well like full-time since I was like 16 years old and then as my my brothers and I continued to to sing and got some hits and things were going well and I met Dean when actually I met him the first time when I was 12 and I had a big crush on him a b-17 that he wasn't interested in a 12 year old which thank God at that time yes and we met when we opened up for them and I met the hoppers I had seen them on gospel singing Jubilee saw Connie and her beehives and I thought she was the most beautiful woman I'm here she was my mother-in-law but we became just good friends when I was about 18 or 19 and then we started dating and we'd only dated three months and we got engaged and and we got married in about eight months after that and I just traveled with my family for another year and we were on separate buses and that was a real difficult thing as newlyweds you know so finally I said boys you know we need to find somebody and that's when we brought in Amy Lambert and I left and joined the hoppers and that's been almost 28 years ago Wow yes time has flown yes it has yes it has mm-hmm I'm gonna ask you this what has what what would you say was your favorite memory of that time with the Greens well there were a lot of them but we did a 10th anniversary live DVD and as far as the the musical part of what we did that that DVD which back then was video and that was right before I was getting ready to leave and when we had some song when I mailed the blood fell yes and that was on that video and CD cassette excuse me it was cassette then yes a certain VHS yes it was and and that was just a memorable night we had a live band that we brought some guys in from Nashville and the boys knew that I was getting ready to leave and it was very emotional but it was good and and we had the song miracle in me and that was produced by Roger Bennett and we were on a record company with Roger Bennett and Eldridge Fox owned the record label and Anthony Berger played piano on there's a miracle in me well so we had some wonderful experiences as kids and we would open up for the cathedrals and and just a lot of groups back even back then we were just children didn't know what we were doing God had a plan and doors yes yes and then through the years after I left the greens got Amy Lambert and then a couple other girls and then taranta came in and Toni married her he thought if that's the only way I'm gonna keep the soprano singer is to marry once okay so you know the new transition to the hoppers like you mentioned and through 28 years I think 28 years you've been doing uh-huh you've been traveled with the hoppers and now you got your daughter on stage with you singing every night and it's just been this talk about what that's like I mean it's you know what it's a it's a it's a journey is a journey because I'm still mom and she's my daughter and we may be business partners up on that stage but I mean before we go in it's like Carly you're late you're running late and mom do my hair pick up my end up no I'm not I mean we argue like moms and daughters do right and then you stand up there and but I know that this was what we're supposed to be doing Carly was when when she was little she was pretty much I'm never gonna do that you know I've seen my mom dad travel all these years I'm not gonna travel on the bus I want to go to college and she's an English major and she loves to write she's an amazing writer and everything that comes out of a hoppers office any biographies anything she writes and she's written some stuff for singing news she's written for Miss Gaither she's written in the homecoming magazine she did some stuff in the homecoming Bible that they put out she she's fantastic writer but she said you know I'm never sing and do all this well she had unfortunately and she had a really bad seizure a few years ago and she couldn't drive she couldn't do anything in our state you can't drive for a period of time after a seizure and it was a like five minute grand mal seizure it was bad and so we had to pull her out of college at that time and I said I'm gonna keep her on the bus so that I can watch her make sure she's always okay and that's about the same time that Miss Connie went through a second bout of cancer and so Carly just stepped in and started filling in for her grandmother and it was all a god thing you know I know that that the seizure was awful and I know Connie's issue that was terrible but God had all that planned you know what I've learned more than anything else is that nothing takes him by surprise you know and so he had Carly to come in and through this experience she she always even though she was I'm not gonna not gonna do this she still always respected the heritage that she had in this business and now even more she wants to honor her grandmother and she says mom you know honestly in a lot of ways being on the stage with you guys really kind of saved me just some things that she was going through in life so you know God knew exactly was doing no I don't ever take anything for granted because every little step is your journey and and he knows what he's doing and you it's woven in and out you know through the years of life but he's got it all covered yeah and he knows what he's doing but boy it's gets scary at times right absolutely and y'all have been through a lot and so for you to for you to say that and have that test he really meat I'm sure it means a lot to a lot of people that are facing some of the similar things or hard things as well I hope so because we we just experienced a lot of kind of crazy things that happened all at once but there again I can see God's hand and everything and I think he honestly with with what my husband's been through he's had ten strokes since December 10 and he's still walking and talking but here here's what I found out God spared him and he did it in such a magnificent way that he showed Dean that look I could have taken you just like that he chose to leave him here he has got more of a passion than he's ever had and I think that all these situations we go through that it makes us see what's really important mm-hmm and all of us are in agreement we are in one Accord that this is our passion this is what we're supposed to be doing right and so when the roads get long and hard times get difficult and you're tired in the way you can say but I know beyond the shadow of a doubt I've got to work to do compassion this is it he kept me here for a reason no this is what I'm supposed to do that's awesome and it keeps you going what a great testimonial so if you're facing something today go back to this this is this is great if you need to rewind it and watch it again rewind it and wanted to give because that's a good stuff it is Lindsay Morton she submitted a question Thank You Lindsay she would love to know what's your favorite thing to do in your downtime oh you know what I love to decorate I am such a little homemaker I'm real domestic when it comes to that I love to cook I honestly women don't be offended I love to clean my house I like doing totally different things from the Kim that's up there I'm at home and ballcap no makeup you know flip-flops and working in my don't say it don't say continue yeah I know we'll get to it but I make dinner for my family I actually my mother lives with us my mom was real ill a few years ago in the midst of everything else and I brought her and delivered us and she's perfectly healthy now she's a miracle and her but she lives with us and then we have a lady that sort of assists us and she's she's our nanny but my kids are told to be a nanny but that's what we hired her for now but she still is with us so there's a whole slew of us I cook you know most nights when I'm home and I left to clean I'll have to organize things I love to work out outside in my yard that is my passive favorite pastime I like to decorate for all this holidays right before convention I had like about eight hours one day and I decorate it on my house for fall I went ran and bought the borage went crazy over the front porch and all in the living room and I put all of my scarecrows and things out and and all my pumpkin stuff and and I love it that brings me so much joy it really does just three months ago and and I can hardly wear shoes I can wear for a little while on stage but then I've got to go yeah well you got to keep especially thank you see you can't keep your feet happy yeah it's a long week if you have pain full feet she's not gonna happen if ya walk if your feet hurt you hurt all over out Queen this week I got one more question than then we get to what I mentioned her okay Andy good would like to know thank you for your question Andy aside from the hoppers what artist appears the most on your playlist probably Celine Dion that's a good one mm-hmm Barbra Streisand I love Barbra Streisand and Celine Selena's has been she's kind of my hero you know I can't sing like her but she sings with such passion and will you believe everything she says and she feels it all and I'm a very very visual person I'm one of those people that if I can't remember anything but if I write it down and look at you know a phone number in two or three years I can remember what that number looks like and I can tell you what it is Wow so for me painting the picture when I sing is vital and that comes across well I hope so because if people like me have to see it yeah and I want the people to see that picture of what we're trying to paint in that song so um any way that you can tell that's important to you by the way you sing and your mannerisms and the inflection I guess you would say in your voice and all that so you do a great job of that and it's good to hear that that's important to you because you do well and what is important to you so that's great thank you and a lot of times I don't realize what I'm doing but and I think everybody we're just visualizing the song and yeah yeah absolutely I'm seeing it myself and so it I'm hopefully they're gonna get that picture too right so we're in a room here at ink you see and we do have some people come and go and occasionally you might have got a little out there but okay so like I said earlier normally we do what's called the pouches olan at this point and I do this crazy thing but since we're not doing that and I mentioned earlier you can ask me one question so what question would you like to ask here's my first question is can I ask two questions I want to know that this is totally different I guess but when's the first time that you saw me when did we do you remember us meeting or you sing me sing or whatever the first time and you know where were you what were you doing were you with a group were you don't tell me that is a year old in a cradle I don't think I can answer that question specifically the first time that I saw the hopper sing okay I can tell you I saw the Greenes saying when I was I believe I was still in high school was I with them but you were not with us it was like Taranto's right at the beginning of when she had joined them I do remember that I don't remember the first time I heard the hopper sing I'll tell you this the first time that I ever had any of a interaction with you I was with sold-out quartet yes and we had a date canceled on us and Matt Rankin called this promoter in West Virginia that was having the hoppers and the promoter I don't know if they called you guys and asked if we could come and open or I don't know how all the details worked out but they agreed the promoter you guys would ever agree to let us come and sing that night for sales because it was a promoted thing it was for you guys it was you know as the day before we're calling Hank we got this cancellation we're gonna be in the area can we just come open up for sales and they let us come and do it and that night at the end of the night you wrote a check but I'm not I'm not saying it telling the story to to say well you gave us money so whatever but I can't really put into words what that meant because when you are a in a group and you have a cancellation and you go somewhere for sales only yeah and you don't sell a whole lot but yet someone comes along and says I'm so sorry I've been in that position before I know what that feels like this isn't it's not a $10,000 check but here's a little something to help you and you write a check and like I said it's not the amount but it was the heart that we felt when you gave that check that was the first interaction and so I don't know if I've ever expressed I think I have I told you before but just thankfulness for that because that means so much when you do a small gesture like that that maybe is small to you but it can mean the world to that person in necessary honor that and I know you didn't ask right that to get that story but that is my first interaction that I remember here let me say to the people here there was a sweet lady I wasn't gonna say but I am gonna say her name when I was we were with the greens and just a kid and we we struggled financially all the time we were trying to get started and we were singing a concert one night and Debbie just slide on her heart and Debbie Talley walked up and gave me a $100 bill and she was singing with the tallies and she said I don't know why but you might need this and I said Debbie I don't want it she said no give this to your family and she said pass it along one day pass it along through life so you know what I don't care it's five dollars if the Lord lays it on your heart not necessarily in an offering in a church but somebody that you see that you just think maybe they're struggling a little bit in one way or another whether it's an encouraging word or it's a five dollar bill or a ten dollar bill and say hey hope this blesses you and then tell them now pass this along when you can yeah because that continue to do so and keep blessing others and that's what I do that much that feeling that feeling of a random act of kindness is just you go through the drive-thru at wherever and someone in front of you pays for your meals it's a five dollar meal it's an eight dollar meal mm-hmm it's a it's a one dollar soda you're the person whatever but when they say the Conn front of you paid for your drink or paid paid for your meal it's like it's almost like your spirit and humanity is renewed and and so I couldn't agree more when God lay something on your heart whatever it is follow through however little big it is follow through with it because you just do not know what that random act of kindness generosity my father-in-law has a thing called cool kids ministry so he calls it random act of coolness so whatever it is that random act mean the world to somebody and so yeah great question for me you know what I have really think I'm getting to know you a little bit and I love your heart I love what you're doing here I know this takes a lot of time you know out of your schedule and people need to hear this stuff yeah you're right a lot of times interviews are what's your new single and give us your websites but hey I want to know somebody's heart visual I want to see that thank you so much for joining us I hope that you've enjoyed this little behind-the-scenes kind of in a way look what we try to do here is exactly what she's talking about we try to just sit down with your favorite artists and gospel music let them share their heart let them share a little bit about themselves that sometimes doesn't get to come across from the stage that you don't hear in the other interviews that you get from southern gospel music and it's a video where you can see the passion in their face you can hear the excitement in their voice about what they're talking about that's what on the couch with foutch is about Kim tell them where they can catch up with the hoppers and everything that you guys got going yes www the Harper's calm and you can go on our website you can shop the hoppers you can check out videos of what we're doing little excerpt here and there of concerts you can find out a better product you can find out about concert dates anything you want to know and but come out and see us we would love to see you live to encourage you to love each other stay true to one another and pray for one another absolutely and on the couch with foutch comm for all the interviews that we have going on here thanks for joining and until next time god bless you all thank you kids [Music] you

Channel: Matthew Fouch

Views: 102,701

Rating: 4.9293523 out of 5

Keywords: kim hopper, kim hopper peace in the midst of the storm, favorite southern gospel artists, musical journey, the hoppers, southern gospel singers, best christian trios, best southern gospel 2018, christian quartet groups, couch with fouch, fouch couch, gospel music (musical genre), on the couch with fouch, southern gospel 2018, southern gospel interviews, the best of gospel music 2018, the best southern gospel, the best southern gospel music, christian artist interviews

Id: Us-BKR5JP_k

Length: 23min 13sec (1393 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 28 2018