Richard Smallwood with Clifton Davis on TBN- Aug 26, 2011 Interview

nice Richard I'm always proud to sit and chat with you on the Trinity Broadcasting Network because because you clearly know the Lord and you know people look at people's lives and and their walk and try to discern the fruit but the fruit of your love for God is played on radios and sung by choirs all over the world agape - glory to God be the glory let me ask you this until recently you had you had what we call a writer's block I've been in that moment where I felt like I couldn't write anything but you you thought you had written your last song I really did my mother passed in 2005 December of 2005 and everything just sort of ceased I stopped playing I stopped writing I stopped singing for about a year it was just probably the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with and of course a little by little I began to go back into ministry and but the writing part didn't come back and it was four years before I wrote a song so during those four years I just basically thought well God you know you've given me so many songs and I guess maybe you know it's it's gone that particular gift did you feel pressure from others you didn't have a record company the label was like looking at me cross-eyed but it just there was nothing there even I would try nothing would happen and in 2009 really was looking at at television and and just being bombarded by all of the negative things that are going on in the world the recession and people who were losing their homes and their jobs and things of that nature and da just sort of spoke to me and said I want you to write a CD that talks about my promises and I began to sort of come up with some ideas in terms of the whole thing is that that that God has given us certain promises in his word and I think sometimes we get so caught up I hope you hear on TV and what we read the newspapers we forget to read Kings kids and he promised that he'd never leave us no matter what's going on in the world he promised that he'd never forsake us he promised that he'd take care of you probably provide for us he promised he'd be I heal or he promised that he would be our deliverer and I want to write songs to remind us that no matter what CNN says our Father is our King and he owns the cattle on a thousand did you find that there were one or two promises that kick-started the work I thought were the promises that you needed at a given moment I think that the promise that that the one that really hit me is that I'll never leave you and I said there's so many times that even though we know God and we know who he is and we know that he's by our side we get to those valley situations where we can't feel them we can't see him we can't sense him and although intellectually we know he's there but we can't feel inferior and I was in a place like that when my mom passed and so he was like thing and I'm here I'm here for you I will never leave you no matter what happened no matter what you do you can go the opposite way I still will never leave you know so that was the first one of the first songs I wrote a song called trust me which deals with him never leaving us fighting our battles and being there for us and actually the songs began to come in dreams just like one we know something I don't know you know I'm curious about that and in depth from a songwriters perspective because I I don't know do you get music first or words first or how does it usually roll for you usually the music comes first sometimes I'll hear a concept or an idea or sometimes I get my pastor preaching or something and I'll get you know a concept but never have I've gotten songs like at least not coming in such frequency and dreams before and I'd wake up and maybe two or three songs going in my mind at the same time and I have to run to the pion and put it down before I forget it yeah and a lot of songs I would say maybe 80% of the songs came that way having the other came you know the old fashioned sit down and right away but you see isn't that the way the Lord does you know one just when you think you're you've reached the end of your rope he says oh I got a couple other ways to show you yeah here why don't I just put something in your night vision right right and God will use his people he will speak to us in dreams won't it all most definitely most definitely most and how do you trust that it's God speaking in those dream I you know I had not enough said stomach you know I've been on this pathway long enough to know his voice mmm you know I know that's my daddy my daddy calls I know his voice friends oh boy yeah you talk about being on this journey a long time how old were you when you first got the gift discovered your musical talent well my mother says that I was probably about to when she began to hear me hum songs melodies that I would hear church and so it sort of freaked her out you know of course she got me a toy piano and then I was banging the rhythms out on the piano at home you know until I was big enough to crawl up on my stepfather's piano and pick out melodies so by the time I was seven he was a pastor I was playing for his church I came for the senior choir when I was seven Wow I was telling Sopranos what to do with the Altos not to do with it and they and they was looking at me like this little kid no he's still wet behind the ears he don't know what are you talking about you know but that's how it all started challenges that you have as a as a youth trying to lead choirs it and be strong and let your gift be shown in in church well I mean I think at the beginning was difficult because here was you know the pastor's son just sort of pushed out in front of them it's okay he's gonna tell you how to saying but I think through the years people began to respect me you know for what I did and my mom was constantly making sure that I had piano lessons and she was bringing home classical music at eight years old I was listening to Rachmaninoff concertos so God was setting me up I always say that because he was putting those influences in my life so that when I began to write when I begin to play that would be my foundation I see well now let me ask you this have you found that songs that you've written well it's a two-fold question because and it comes from my personal experience I once wrote a song before I knew the Lord with it about the Lord right and it didn't minister to me when I wrote it okay my question to you is have you written a song that you felt at some level that years later ministered back to you oh yeah most definitely I mean I've written songs thinking that I'm writing this for someone else to encourage somebody who's going through something and two and three four years later that song will turn around administer to a situation that I'm going through personally I mean the lyrics like like focus writing on what I'm dealing with what I'm going through like you know God knew before that I was going to be in this situation and he knew that I'm gonna use this song have him write this song and I'm a minister to him with it way down the line so when I wrote it I had no idea they you know it was certainly that's happened do you see songwriting and music as ministry I mean almost get a full sense full since most definitely I mean music has a way of reaching people in such a miraculous way I've had the opportunity to perform overseas in Russia and I remember going to Russia and then not understanding the language and most of them were not even Christians and singing and watching them cry as I say and I'm like they don't know what you're singing saying you know what is going on and they had this particular tour that we did in Russia there was a heavy metal rock band who opened up for us every night so that was quite a that was quite interesting I mean with the fire you know and and the pyro techniques and the you know crashing the guitars and all this kind of stuff Lord why am I here you know and God just like hang in there just I got something for you and one particular night we were on the bus going from one city to the next and the hand of this heavy metal rock band comes to me and it broken English he says Richard why is it when I hear you saying no he said why is it that when I sing I feel bound but when I hear you sing I sense freedom you know and I stood there on this bus with the tears just rolling down my eyes and God said that's why you're here you don't kneel you you don't need lyrics the communications that the kind of communication that we need going from human to human I don't need that all I need is my spirit you know and so it began to show me how powerful music was and how God could use even music where the lyrics we're not understood to make a difference in people's lives we were able to witness over there we'd left Bibles over there and you know God just really opened a lot of doors for us to be able to minister so definitely it's a ministry well that's the thing isn't it that he sent you into darkness to be the light yeah yeah and I complain you know we get so caught up in in how we live the United States we're so blessed we really are and we take so much for granted you know we get I went over there and I was like the food wasn't good I was sick the whole time it's like why did you send me here I wanna go home I want to go to McDonald's I just you know and just he just began to reveal one thing after the other just people just giving their lives to Christ that some people I still talk to that's was years ago and still talk to you about the Amahle and email who turned their lives around you know so it's it's definitely ministry Stephanie administer I love the idea that you've put forward that God looked down the annals of time and saw in the future yes how this would manifest if this moment played out like this today you and and and that's amazing how God does that it is it really is if we knew how God orchestrated our lives in order to add goodness and mercy and longevity and salvation into our existence right I guess we'd be more willing to let him lead us yes yes but unfortunately that's not the case even for believers yeah well we walk by faith in that by side yeah yeah yeah there's the key and that's where I was headed with that lawyer you know it really is clearly you speak a lot about your mother yeah you've had a lot of influences obviously in your life maybe you could share some of those influences but at the end in the end uh your mother was one of the greatest influences in your life am i right oh yeah she was my biggest supporter my biggest cheerleader she believed in me when I didn't believe in myself you know I used to sell my mouth I don't know if I'm good enough to do this she said baby God has given you a gift you anointed and you're gonna do it and so she was like you know my biggest supporter she really was you miss her I definitely do miss her but I know that she's in a better place you know and and I just praise God for you know what she instilled in me in my heart and my spirit what she taught me about who God was when Jesus was and and the values she taught me you know I'm just like you know when your kid you could I don't mom I don't want to do that I don't want to go there and she was a beautiful I mean she was a beautiful woman but she didn't play you should get she would definitely I I have I can tell some stories scars I have physical scars mama'll in play play but she was one of those beautiful people and she definitely was my different I love it when parents somehow inculcate instill within us yes you know discipline yeah oh you teach us with a boundaries all right I think that's one of the problems in our society today it is children don't know the boundaries and don't respect authority enough right that's so thank God for Christian parents yeah who very often do teach their children what the authority is yes and and part of that is by yielding to the authority of God in there exactly is that the she was a god-fearing woman and she didn't let me get away with nothing tell us about some of your favorite collaborations my favorite collaborations Wow there have been many I've been blessed certainly my my dear friend the late great Bishop Walter Hawkins was a mentor and I got a chance to collaborate with him on my vertical my last album journey my pastoral he passed away about the Hawkins family back together I collaborated with Aretha Franklin she just did a song called faithful that's what her new project on your new project or hurt new project you better listen I'm sorry that's the songwriter in me means somebody going here it does oh that's a big fear for songwriters on yeah I wrote this great anthem and no idea yeah somebody's gonna hear this Chaka Khan Chaka Khan I collaborated with her on a song on my last project journey there been so many people of course all the people that I admired I've grown up with I got a chance to play for the Roberto Martin singers who I used to idolize as a kid they had a reunion number of years ago and they asked me to come and play I was able to play for them you know so some of my inspirations some of my mentors I've had the chance to work with so it's a blessing what is the principal message this is my last question because I know you're getting ready to sing but what's the principal primary message you want to convey with the CD promises that it does not matter what you're going to it doesn't matter how difficult your Valley maybe God has promised certain things in his word and if he said it that settles it he's not gonna go back on his promise he's not like some of us is gonna tell us one thing today and say something else tomorrow if God said it you can take it to the bank that's that's what it is and so just I think we need to be reminded to hold on to those promises because he's there for us but whatever situation we go through praise the Lord Richard Smallwood everyone and prepare to bring us the first of several numbers that are bad all right so take your liberty right there and and I want to share with this amazing audience one amazing musician a pianist a composer a singer choral director this man is an award-winning songwriter there are a lot of songwriters out there but I'll tell you I'm one but one of the people I'm most admire is Richard Smallwood I tell you quickly of one day I saw him on the set at TBN in in California and he was one of the guests on the show and I happen to be hosting that night and I said sure I want to do center of my joy would you play for me and everybody was going bananas oh we didn't set up the lighting we don't have the sound all set for that you know television needs to prepare but we ended up working it out and one of the great moments of my life on the Trinity Broadcasting Network was Richard Smallwood playing for me as ice

Channel: The Inspirational Corner

Views: 11,714

Rating: 4.8832116 out of 5

Keywords: Richard Smallwood with Clifton Davis on TBN Aug 26, 2011 Interview

Id: WjYi5zVXUyA

Length: 17min 43sec (1063 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 23 2011