Outlaw Country Has-Been Travis Tritt Releases Christian Album?

this is Travis Tritt he's a former Outlaw country singer very popular who in a desperate attempt to stay relevant has released a new gospel album does the man who is legendary for singing songs like years a quarter call someone who cares really the guy we need singing songs of faith in the church let's talk about how this breaks the church and what we can do to fix it this is Church's lame

Travis Tritt I'm not saying that I have a low opinion of country because that should be obvious from the look on my face right well I think it's safe to say that neither of us like country music is not our first love no right and certainly I've got a little bit of an appreciation for it I live down in the South for a while my dad was a big country music fan so there are parts of country music I enjoy um so Travis Tritt firmly establishes himself in kind of like this group of um country singers that were kind of like the the Harley-Davidson crew of the time you know beards and uh we don't care about the man and we can do whatever we want and you know we don't care if we offend your mama and I'm just kind of wondering how this person becomes gospel music's new poster boy you know yeah like when I saw this headline it was hard for me not to immediately think about you know Kanye oh wow because like he did was gonna do his gospel album and it's like it's just like this trendy thing I mean it it feels like it felt like a cash grab when he did it and it doesn't feel like it's much different than when Travis Tritt's doing it yeah yeah well I I guess we should start by saying that there has always been this kind of long-standing loose relationship between what we traditionally call like white gospel music not black gospel church music but white gospel music and country music right they both kind of come up with very close branches in the musical family tree they both kind of share those roots of like you know Bluegrass and and they share a lot of a lot a lot of country and a little bit of jazz in there as well so musically speaking they're they're certainly related cousins but obviously as time goes goes on and Country Music becomes the money making Mega machine that it now is Optics get involved and people in the country music world do not want to be Tethered to a message that may cause issues in the future right so this decade it may be cool to be a Christian next decade it may not be and so it's hard for a lot of artists and as record companies don't want to plant their flag and say yeah go ahead and put out a strong Christian ethos in your music although right now we are in one of those periods where it's okay to do that yeah and like right now like there's there's a very strong kind of you know reactionary Vibe that's just kind of sweeping you know evangelicals across you know the country and so this just kind of feels like some of that it's like oh you know and Travis Tritt can you can have his faith and I I don't know what his faith even really is you know right he's gonna believe any of these things that he's singing and I'm not going to criticize him for that but like we've seen that you know the Christian and the country music industry are incestuous cousins in Nashville yeah and like they are both nothing but money grubbing [ __ ] so don't hold back Mark how do you really feel yeah nice there's some hard truth there yeah and so it's just like like that the party that wants to give Travis Tritt the benefit of the doubt as a musician that he wants to explore something new is really at odds with the part I mean that just sees the the filthy underbelly of of this kind of music industry yeah definitely so I'm gonna put a link to the actual article because in the article there is a video interview and in the in video interview the interviewer asks him like 30 years you've been in the industry why now which I think is a like a perfectly sensible question to ask and the best thing he could come up with was the timing was never right right that's that's another way of saying you know there's a record label who told me I couldn't shouldn't go this way that you know there were demographics there were there were sales analysis charts that told me this was Dangerous Waters to be in is it now that I'm nobody with nothing to lose I can finally show that I have a spiritual side or is it now that I'm a nobody with nothing to lose it'd be really nice to make some bank and I and the problem is there's no way to know like it doesn't matter what Travis says like we are all reasonably smart people and there's no way to take the money out of the equation of motive yeah like and when you're saying the timing was never right yeah to to express your your faith I mean is that what you're telling me that that you're honest excuse right yeah I'm doing this now because the timing was never right before to admit liking Jesus it's like it it sounds so horribly disingenuous it is I mean it's really just code for you know there was a time in my career where my record sales were here and if I would have put out a gospel album right at that moment my record sales would have tanked here you know yeah and that's the only that's the only way I can hear it you know and I'm I'm like you I I have zero interest tonight in questioning Travis Tritt's Faith right I have no issue of doing that the the question becomes for for me in church in Church's lame and what we do here does him doing this is now help or hurt a church that already looks to many to be nothing but money grabbing [ __ ] to put it the way you just put it so eloquently right and then on the part of the church like so okay on the one hand there's Travis Tritt and how he either helps or hurts the church but then there's the church itself and what is it about the Christian music industry especially the older white gospel music industry that will just accept anybody who used to be a celebrity of any kind I swear to God like if if Billy Crystal chose to make a gospel music album like gave their music would be just like totally we would love it if you would come and do the Fernando accent and make you know a gospel music album there's just something about that demographic that will just take in any opportunity to sell a CD you know and I appreciate you used a very current and relevant example of Billy Crystal You Look Marvelous it is better to look good than the feel good well when you said Billy Crystal that was the voice that immediately came to mind yeah exactly the the other one I always remember is is he did he used to do a sketch with somebody else like you know like when you when you take a statue of the Eiffel Tower and you shove it up your nose that that so so those are my two big memories of Billy Crystal of course who's had a very long and wonderful career in comedy way back before SNL so this is not raking Billy Crystal across the coals because he's definitely a pleasant nostalgia in my memory of of course I mean I think the bigger joke is that you know of course Billy Crystal is Jewish so for him to do a constable album would be quite out of place exactly right I don't know how many articles I've seen um you know like I mean written by you know the likes of Christianity Today Christian Century sojourners Christian Science monitor you know whoever yeah that will talk about how Christians will just kind of jump out or more Point evangelicals we'll just kind of jump out and consume anything that's bad at them yeah you know and it's and it's my tone might sound insulting and it is kind of meant to be I got that yeah I mean just because like you know so many of like the movies that we would see like on pure flicks and so many uh like you know Christian albums can be just marketing really mockeries of the genres that they're doing you know it's like like Christmas will kind of leap out and consume this poorly done media yeah and and they'll do it in record numbers yes absolutely it just appeals to me like as somebody who like likes playing music um that you know evangelicals on the whole just kind of hate what I do and don't have any respect for it yeah you know people like Kanye West and Travis Tritt maybe they should get together and do an album they can call it you know Kanye tritty um

like they are the world gospel Edition yeah it could be horrifying that's that's to put it to put it mildly yeah so it just seems like you know whenever some new I shouldn't say new person Travis Tritt is not new right like somebody whose career has basically come to it's it's Autumn coming out and doing this it just it seems like that's why somebody's gonna jump on this and they're going to publish it and they're going to distribute it just because they know that they can make money off of an audience that it has a reputation for not being the most Discerning of having the most Discerning taste yeah yep I agree with that yeah and you know I'm not even sure that I'm concerned so much with taste right people have bad taste over a multitude of things I am just wondering how Christians keep a straight face when they say it's not about the money you know and how they expect anybody not to roll their eyes in the biggest eye roll ever when Christians say it's not about the money you know it's about glorifying God you know yeah I think you bring up a good point because you know like there's certain news channels like uh like CBN for instance right like there's just no shortage of headlines that they laud Christians who are rich and wealthy and famous yeah I would say in that order like if they're rich first then they get lauded and then if they're just they happen to be famous like oh we know who Kirk Cameron is so we're just gonna like publish whatever he's he's talking about you know yeah um we'll go write any Library he wants to go raid and shut it down for the day the criticisms of evangelicals having kind of a Love of Money isn't just us I mean there's there's a wide criticism all over the Christian and non-Christian world of that tenancy you know yeah so it's like maybe like we're being too cynical about what Travis Tris trying to do but we have a reason why we kind of come to the door with that cynicism yeah I agree with you I think that like is like I chose this story because I knew it was going to be a fun distraction from the heartbreaking things and infuriating things we typically talked about right so this was going to be a fun opportunity just to kind of talk about like this this guy who was well beyond relevance taking his last shot in the gospel music thing fine but I I think this is a great example of modern thinking gone wrong in the church right and the church would have you believe that modern thinking gone wrong in the church is things like um the lgbtq and and women in leadership right and and we're still dealing with racial reconciliation Nation right we're still talking about should we take down uh monuments from the Civil War of Our Heroes who tried to keep slaves slaves right these are things we like we still think are worthwhile fights and and like this this inability for the church to see the way they let money cloud and distort and obfuscate their every motive to the point of young people not even wanting to bother with it anymore is is just kind of astounding to me that that you kind of that they cannot see both sides of the coin yeah I mean and at least you know Travis Tritt is a musician I mean he makes music for a living I mean that's that's his thing he plays music exactly let's be clear he is a capitalist whose vehicle of capitalism is music yeah so it it's it's a little bit of a different situation than you know like famous Pastor X yeah writing 10 different self-help books which are all the same book you know exactly right I'm not going to quote any book titles from somebody who has or hasn't worked for Hillsong but you know they're out there yeah for sure um yeah and and so like I can't at least give him it's like he wants to do a project you know I can I can support that it it isn't as transparently money grubbing as some things that we've seen yeah so you know I I I would kind of put that like in the is this lame category then you know that would be an interesting question so viewers and listeners out there let us know what you think is this lame or are we overreacting I mean we are good at overreacting that is true so let's let's uh let's bring this bird in for a landing here and talk about fixing this I think I've been on the tear uh on ver on on a very similar theme lately um that I think the fix to this is we don't raise up artists anymore we just kind of say they've got the gift let it set them free right we just we just kind of we find the ones who have that special X Factor right yeah and we say hey we can sell a million units off that person let's get them in the studio or let's get them on tour or whatever right so we don't raise up artists anymore we pull from them extract from them every bit of music and Artistry they have and then we spit them out and that's what the industry does and I think the fix for this is raising up artists the same way we should be raising up pastors which is through heavy heavy heavy discipleship and heavy heavy heavy apprenticeship those two things together people should start at the bottom sweeping floors cleaning paint brushes changing guitar strings whatever the bottom is in your industry you go through that and when you're proven that you are detail-oriented and focused and committed to the cause then you get to do the guitar setups right and you get to make sure that the battery is charged and you get to hand him his guitar on stage or whatever right and then once you've proven you're good with that maybe you get to be not the session band in the session but maybe you get to be part of the band that does the demo for the band that's going to be the session band of the session right and once you're good at that maybe you get to be part of the songwriting room you know what I mean but there's an apprenticeship process that should happen and with Christian artists it should have a Christian Focus right so it's not just about being a guitar player a musician a singer a keyboard player but there's also the biblical understanding part of it and that's where we all kind of go this Travis tripping is a joke because he could care less about what the Bible says because he's never preached a day in his life right and I guess that's and so we need to be raising up Christian musicians in the same way with the heart not just for the music but with a heart for the message and a heart for the sheep that they're supposed to Shepherd end of rant yeah I think that's all insanely good stuff thank you um it happens once in a while yeah because and the only thing I could really I could really you know add to that you know or to try to cast it alongside you know just to say is that you know the Christian you know I say the Christian music industry and I'm talking about you know the contemporary Christian music industry that's you know based out of Nashville yeah as for decades been just horrible um you know they're like there were musicians that you know I listened to in high school for instance that had been horribly treated by their labels yeah they're supposed to be Christian organizations um and there are other actors you know acts I should say you know musicians that you know try to get into the you know music industry like who are good well good musicians and very well-meaning and honest and Earnest who get crushed Yeah by that I mean and in a weird example be like Jessica Simpson right like she wanted to do nothing but like you know Michael W Smith you know praise and worship stuff yeah and she was she was basically kicked out of the industry by people that were like yeah we can't really sell you because your boobs are too big right you're gonna you're gonna distract all the boys so it's like the Christian music industry is horrible and so you know I if if there are anybody you know any Christians listening to this who know people in the industry who can affect it like hey like it's maybe something we can focus on is not supporting the industry so much and trying to find a way for musicians who are good and who have a good message to get out there uh without this this Fallen chain in Nashville behind him yeah absolutely absolutely

well this is Church's lame um you may have watched this episode and you may think to yourself man Scott Mark they really hate the church nothing could be further from the church truth wow words is hard nothing should be further from the truth we love the church we are we are participants in the church we are the participants in the big church we want to see God glorified in Jesus name spread to all corners of the earth we just think churches and in this case the Christian music industry makes that job harder than it needs to be and so we collect stories of this kind of stupidity and put them all in one place so that when churches ask the question what are we doing wrong here you go you're welcome now with that go in peace and serve the Lord and hey if you liked this episode and you want to get more of it you're not going to get my sexy coveted voice but if you go check out the playlist uh christian celebrities you can find more on topics like this