Ep 1080 | Jase's Surprise for Missy Goes Horribly Wrong & Sadie Baby Update from Husband Christian Huff
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I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to the Unashamed Podcast. You would never know this audience, but we are a day late in recording. Here we go. Because of Jayce has some travel issues or something. I don't know. We started getting texts, Zach, in the night. We didn't get texts. We got phone calls. I'm like...

You know what's weird about this? So I did an event west of Abilene, but I'll probably share that with our guests because it may be I have a similar way. I had a similar occurrence because I did this. It was like a jazz concert with young people.

And they were raising money for that. And you're like, why were you there? Which is what I was asking myself the first 10 minutes I was there. It was literally a jazz concert. They got all the rich people from around and they were raising money. And then it finally hit me. Oh, I can blow a duck call. I'm musical. And you're like, oh, that's a joke. No, that was it.

That was it. And so they wanted me to talk about music and the similarities, tell a few jokes. Of course, it wound up being a Jesus sermon. And it was just a secular event. It wasn't like a Christian event, but we turned it into one. Which is perfect because we've got a country music singer on the podcast today, so that worked out. So my daughter-in-law sends me a text, which is not a common occurrence because my wife was in Nashville.

My daughter-in-law sends me a text that says, are you coming to Nashville for Resurrection Weekend? Well, you know, it just kind of hit me. I hadn't seen my grandkids in a while. My wife is there. I'm like, I thought the event was on Saturday, so I never contemplated going because the event was on Friday. And I thought, why don't I just surprise them? And so because I thought Missy would be coming back,

Sunday after the resurrection service, which by the way, was at, my son was leading worship and they had rented out the Ryman Theater in downtown Nashville. And I was like, what am I doing? I got to go to Nashville, you know, support my kids. My son's leading worship.

And so, uh, so I made the change. Nobody, I had to tell one person. So I called Reed cause I was like, cause I'm going to need a ride here, you know, at some point from the airport and all this kind of stuff. So you're surprised at Missy. Yeah. I'm surprised at Missy and my daughter-in-law Reed's wife and you know, my grandkid. I mean, so I kept the secret.

And, uh, uh, cause Reed was practicing for the worship service, right? And the session, I mean, it just, every, the timing just all worked out. It was like right about the time my plane was landing, he was going to be just a few minutes away. I was like, I'll just get a Uber and meet you there, which everything was, was working great.

And so we go to his house and I thought Missy would be there, but she wasn't. She was at our farm. And so then when she wasn't there, because I had a prank in mind. Here's what I was going to do. I was like, you go in and say you picked up a hitchhiker in the neighborhood and you're going to fix him a meal and just see what they do. And I was like, then I'll come in a minute later and be like, I'm the hitchhiker.

So that was the plan. And for a few fleeting seconds until they recognized who it was, they would believe the story. Well, that was my thinking. Yeah. That was my thing. It'll be, ah, it'll be great. You know, we'll take pictures. It'll be good.

Well, when Missy wasn't there, Reed was like, well, forget that idea. I was like, yeah, okay, you're right. So now we're no longer pranking because I just thought, what am I going to prank my daughter-in-law? I mean, it just kind of got weird. So I'm getting all my stuff. Well, he goes on in the house. This is actually better than we previously planned.

Well, when I walked in, she had, Brighton, Reed's wife, had like followed him. Well, he didn't, she didn't. You got to look at it from her perspective because I thought the prank's over. But when I came in, she didn't realize someone was with him, obviously. Because we had gone to the grocery store, you know, had to do a bunch of errands because they were feeding a lot of their friends.

And a lot of the people who sang in the worship that night, which then I realized I was wrong about when Missy was coming back because she was cooking. She cooked crawfish pies and he did a kind of a prime rib. And I was, so that's why then the problem with surprises is,

is she wasn't coming back till Monday in which we have podcasts and we had a guest coming on. So I was like, oh, can we move this to Tuesday? So anyway, I walk in and well, she has her back to me and Reed's kind of grinning because he sees me and then it hit me. I was like, oh, she doesn't know I'm here yet.

So I just walked up and put my arm around her from the back, you know, just put my arm around her shoulder. When she looked at me, I'm going to try to imitate what she did. She went, it scared her so bad. So.

So it wasn't like an emotional, like, I'm glad to see you. She was fearful. This is terror. It was terror to a degree that she started violently shaking even after she realized it was me. Yeah.

Well, then I was like, Lee was laughing. I was no longer laughing. I thought, are you okay? And she was like, no. I mean, it scared her. I was like, well, your husband was right here. It terrified her, and I apologized the rest of the weekend.

And then, so then I was so distraught that we then talked about, she was asking me a lot of biblical questions for three hours. We were waiting for Missy to be there, and I was going to lay down on the couch, and then when she came in, I was going to pop up. But we got so enthroned in this conversation, because Reed fell asleep on the couch, that Missy pulled in without either one of us knowing it, and she just walked in. And you're sitting there. I'm just sitting there, and she's like,

what are you doing here? So it was like, no surprise. So then I was like, no, no surprise happened. All I did basically with the surprise is terrorize my daughter-in-law.

And then Missy was like, what are you doing here? Well, how are you going to do podcasts? You know, it was immediately went into the smart person in the room, which is logistics. We have a logistical nightmare. So then I'm off and started making calls and what are the odds that we can push this back a little bit, which then what's weird is our guest is from Nashville. Yeah.

I was in Nashville, and then we had to rearrange the whole schedule so we could come down to Louisiana and have a podcast. So that's on y'all. Well, I do think we need to get a little Nashville situation set up there. Let's do it. Because we're in Nashville a lot, me and you. Our kids are there. Let me tell you this story. You're not going to believe this.

Because when you go to Nashville, things happen. Things happen. You're never going to guess what happened on Sunday morning. All right. We go to the Easter service. You know, we're at the Ryman. I mean, it's, you know, it took us an hour. I saw it on Instagram. Everything was packed. So I go outside after the service. I was actually looking for a bathroom.

And because they wouldn't let me in. And look, it was complete facial profiling. So I terrorized not only my daughter-in-law, but the security guard. Because I was like, I really need to go to the bathroom. He said, you're not coming in there. I was like, I was just in there, you know, because I walked out. Yeah. And then I was like, oh, I got to go to the bathroom. He's like, no.

So I wind up bribing some company that hadn't opened next door to let me in. I was like, but I had to go get Missy. I was like, she's with me and this is an emergency. And so anyway, guess who I bumped into who went to the same service I did with a friend of my son's, which is weird. Guess who I bumped into just outside the Ryman on the sidewalk while I'm looking for a bathroom.

Dave Ramsey. No, Brock Purdy, the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. Remember I told the story a few weeks ago about one of his offensive linemen meeting me at my house during his bye week coming to Jesus? And it all started from a conversation that

He heard Brock having with somebody else about he was ready for Jesus to come back, you know, and it convicted Colton, led him to me. And I was like, what in the world? And he's like, small world. And so I'm glad we got to meet. So we took a picture. It was Missy's idea because somebody asked me that because I told my son asked me, he's like, did you ask for the picture or did he?

And I was like, no, he, number one, he was way more popular than I was. While we were standing there chatting, uh, him and his wife, he got like 10 picture requests. And I'm like, cause he looked, you know, you see these football players now, but when you see them in real life, he just looked like a kid. Yeah. And he was about the same size as me. I'm like, how have you not just been destroyed? Yeah.

Because, you know, his offensive lineman, I mean, he could eat him. I mean, he's just so huge. And I thought, man, it must be. You must have God's presence on you. You know, I didn't tell him because you look small to me. I didn't say that. I just said, you know, you're in a world where dangerous men, you know. But so we kind of caught up with that. And that was awesome.

Well, I guarantee you he didn't get – he could have went to the bathroom if he'd have wanted to. Oh, that would have let him right in and probably rolled out a red carpet. All right. So we got some guests coming on we're super excited about. So we're going to take a break, and when we come back, we'll introduce our folks from Nashville that are on the podcast. Yeah.

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So welcome back to Unashamed. We've got some special guests in the house. One is an old face. Well, he's not very old, but he's been on our podcast for Christian Huff. Welcome back, Christian. Thank you. I don't know if you're introducing Jace or me.

No, we don't have to introduce James. Trust me, he does plenty of introductions on his own. I like how this is starting. A man who needs no introduction. Exactly. Well, honored to be back on the podcast. And today I brought my good friend, Connor Smith, with me, who's a country music singer. And yeah, he's in town to do the podcast. So we're excited to chat with you guys today. So thanks for having us on. So Connor, welcome to Unashamed Nation. Happy to be here. Yeah.

And he made us feel all at home because we're the only ones wearing camouflage. It's a really good start. Yeah, this was the only sweatshirt I brought, so it just kind of worked out. I like how you roll. I think it fits in for the day. What's interesting, Jason, about Connor, I found this out this week, so this is a good connection. My son Max is in Nashville, and he's playing music too. He met, I think, your manager yesterday.

Because he was playing at a place called The Duck Blind. Oh, wait. There's a place in Nashville. I'm making this connection. He met Jake. Is he in like a band with this girl? Yeah, my daughter. Yep. Okay. This girl called my daughter. Sorry. That was the only one.

But yes. Hey, they're incredible. They're incredible. So my manager, Jake, who's like my best buddy, he's a young kid like me, and he's at the Duck Blind one night. He starts sending me these videos of this band. And they're up there, and he's like, man, I talked to them after. They know all the Duck Dynasty crew, whatever.

and me and Christian have been friends for two or three years now. And, um, and so he, he sends me all these videos. I'm like, this band's unbelievable. They're way too good to be playing in this duck blind, you know, Midtown bar. And then he starts sending me all the, all of their demos cause they became buddies and they're phenomenal. Like they're real deal. Very, very good. Well, thank you. Well, they can actually sing. Like when I saw that, I got, I had to familiarize myself with the country music world since I knew you were coming on. Well,

We've had a weird relationship through the years. I kind of had one moment when Country Boy Can't Survive came out. I thought you were going to say Country Girl Shaker for me, but I didn't know where you fit into the country genre. You just said a title that I'm really glad I'm not familiar with. Country Girl Shaker for me. No, I missed that one. Bye.

But, because I thought, now, country boy, because I never, you know, we were raised, my dad, he was kind of a, well, how would you depict his music? He was kind of a classic rock guy. Yeah, he liked Queen and Foreigner. Well, he's more, CCR. Yeah. So it was a little, I mean, he liked Leonard Skinner. Eagles. Yeah. But I heard you, you know, you had some outs with Alabama. But we can talk about that later. Not the band, but.

Yeah, the state, just the whole state. Oh, that's my new favorite song. I saw that and I thought, this is going to be great. I thought the same thing. I thought, I like this kid already. I'm going to send that to Jill today. You know what I found fascinating? I was researching you and I mean, that song immediately came up and I thought, oh, we got some controversy here. I was like, I hate Alabama.

I was like, he just went ahead and said it. I swung the bat, yeah. And then, so, well, what I found fascinating was all these people interviewing you, and you're just like, no, it's not really about Alabama football. It's about your ex-girlfriends or whatever. It's like, then I looked at the words of the song, and I thought, looks like it's about Alabama football. It's about both. Yeah, man, I mean, I'm a Tennessee guy, so I grew up, like, Tennessee, you know, my dad is...

the biggest Tennessee fan I know. And so we grew up going to games every year. And my entire life, I mean, I'm 24 now, so my entire life, I'd never seen Tennessee beat Alabama.

And then we put out that song because it was kind of that funny little play on, you know, I hate Alabama because of football or whatever. And I thought nobody outside of Tennessee would care. It was the fourth song we ever put out. I was just like, let's put it out. It's fun. All my friends were up in Knoxville. My biggest dream was to hear that at a tailgate in Knoxville going to a game. So we put that song out. You want to talk about the lowest timing. So Alabama hadn't lost in football in two years when we put out the song.

And the next day they're playing Texas A&M. We put it on a Friday. The next day they play Texas A&M. They're number one in the country. Texas A&M is unranked. At the game, Texas A&M plays the song in the stadium. Oh, my God. Texas A&M goes on to beat Alabama that day. You brought down Alabama football. I did not. You brought it down. You're saying that was the lowest timing? It was the lowest timing. Power up.

I love it. Was Saban the coach then? Yeah, Saban was the coach. That's why he quit. Yeah, it was. That's why he quit. No, I had heard that before too. But no, I mean, this was 2022. And so the next day my life changed. When there was a field goal that went through the uprights and Texas A&M beats Alabama, they stormed the field.

The next morning, it was a different ballgame because everybody was like, oh, they lost because of your song, you know, that whole narrative. And so that was definitely like a Lord's timing moment. That was pretty wild. I thought you were going to say the state of Alabama stormed your house. That's how you write. No, that's going to happen now. I did have some buddies' dads who were big Alabama fans hate commenting my Instagram.

And I was like, guys, have y'all not listened to the song here? Like, literally, guys I know. That's a risky deal. I mean, as a new artist, I guess you've got to have a little controversy like that. That's a pretty easy way to do it. The funny thing is, we've played in Tuscaloosa four or five times. They love the song there more than anywhere.

Like it's massive there because all those Alabama girls just think that their ex-boyfriend's singing it about them so that they kind of end up liking the song. So you've made, yeah, you've made it okay. I was wondering if you've ever done an event in Alabama since that song came out. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, you know, Christian's an Auburn guy, so they love it down there. So Auburn, well, I'm sure they love it. Yeah, Auburn loves it.

Yeah, because I was fixing to say my son just proposed marriage to a girl from Alabama, but she went to Auburn, so she's good, right? Yeah, she's great. Yeah, it's about the school, not the state, so we're clean. It's definitely about the school. Yeah, for sure. It's definitely about the school. That's funny.

Christian, I want to hear about the... Now, you are going to be a dad for the third time. How's the pregnancy coming along? What's the update? Well, good question, Zach. Thanks for asking. It's going really good. It's definitely been a lot different than the first two. She's been not as sick as she was the first two times going around. Yeah, trying to navigate...

Filming the show and traveling and all those different things with being pregnant and chasing the two we have right now. But she's doing really good. She's feeling great. She's...

Yeah, entering into almost her third trimester, which is crazy. So it's going to be here before you know it. But she's feeling really good. Still not talking about the gender because it's still a surprise. Oh, y'all are going. I was wondering if y'all were going to do this surprise. Well, we know. We know what the gender is, but we're just not sharing it publicly yet. So...

I think you should break it right here on the same podcast. I'm not breaking it. I think it's great for the ratings right there. Yeah. But yeah, she's doing really good. She's thriving.

She's currently at the right man. I just keep going, man. Don't stop. Don't stop after three. Well, it sounds like it's getting easier, so I think you just need to keep going. So, Connor, tell us. So you're newly married. Is that right? You're a newlywed, Connor? Yeah, we've been married for a year. We just celebrated a year. And, you know, so Christian and I, we met, like I said, two or three years ago. He invited me and some buddies down to do a little hunting trip down here in Monroe. And so that was two years ago.

And so we came down here and it was Christian, like, you know, his eight, eight buddies down in a row doing a whole hunting trip. And, uh, and all of them were married and, you know, baby on the way, or they had one and they

They all got married at 19, and I was dating my now wife at the time. And I left that trip. I was like, all right, I need to go and hurry this thing up and get a ring. So basically, they gave you the birds and the bees talk. Yeah, essentially. We pressured them into hurrying it up. No, they showed me the example of the goodness of marriage. So we got back, and we dated for—

A little bit over a year. She moved to Nashville. We got engaged and then got married last April. When you consider the fact that there are buildings where people go to work every day and their only job is to steal your identity, it actually is very sobering. My realtor just told me that his phone was hacked. Someone stole his identity and ended up getting in his bank account and pulling out $80,000 out of his business account and completely wiped him out.

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That's less than what you're paying for that streaming service that you've got to cancel this month. That's I-D-E-N-T-I-T-Y-G-U-A-R-D dot com slash unashamed to sign up for a 30-day free trial and get 60% off. Certain terms apply, so be sure to check the site for details. Well, congratulations. See, my dad, he's always had a way. Like, if someone's dating, and Al will remember this hundreds of times, he'll meet somebody and he'll say, hey...

Connor, it's better to marry than to burn with passion.

And then if you say, yeah, I think I'm going to marry you, then he comes back with the verse. What is that one he says? Oh, it's the one in 1 Corinthians 7. He said, I want to warn you, though. Life is, I mean, a marriage is filled with trouble. He who marries will be taking on many troubles in this life. That was how he started our wedding.

I know he did. Don't ever bring your wife on this podcast, though. I made that mistake last week. And when I tell you these two guys tried to create a divorce moment for her. Isn't that funny? Let me just tell you what really happened. What?

Zach did one of the more stupid stunts that a husband could ever do. He forgot the rule, which is a godly principle, that when you get married, in God's math, it's supernatural math. It is one, one man plus one woman equals one. So that's math that you won't find at your local public school. So Zach has this moment that says –

Oh, Florida, because he's a Florida fan. She's from Alabama and is an Alabama fan. And we probably shouldn't let her listen to this, probably. Trust me, she doesn't listen. So Zach's like, well, Florida basketball goes to the whatever. What do they go to? Final four. The final four. And so Zach, he starts buying.

He starts buying tickets without remembering the one plus one. When Alabama was one step away. I mean, when he was buying the tickets, there was a possibility. I waited until they got beat in the Elite Eight. But here's what happened. No, no. Hold on, Zach. I'm not finished. So he invites his son. Never invites his wife. Who's a Florida fan. My son's a Florida fan. Well, because he's like, well, she's not a Florida fan.

She's you. If you're going to any event, the first invitation is to your wife because one plus one is one. And so then he calls her and says, can you come pick me up in Louisiana? So not only did he not invite her, then she drives 11 hours to

To pick him up. And then it's like, oh, while you're here, come on our podcast. In a big party bus. You've taken the story to a different level now. That's not actually what happened. Now, these are the facts. So look, then when she sat down on the podcast, she just exploded. It had nothing to do with me or Al. She said, I said, are you upset? And she's like, yeah. Yeah.

And she told us that story. Connor needs to know this because the reason why Jill did not get the invite because I was on YouTube and I was doom scrolling and I came across a song, I Hate Alabama, and it inspired me to not invite my wife on the trip. Hey, don't put me in this. Don't put me in this. So is your wife from Alabama? No, she's from North Carolina. Okay, so if Tennessee ever makes it to any kind of championship game, remember, don't

Don't say, oh, you're from North Carolina. I mean, she's in. I mean, that's something you want to experience with your other half that's now become one. Y'all would think this is funny talking about the marriage is troubled, whatever Phil says. So we moved into a house, and I'm not going to tell our address, but

We moved into a house. And so right when we got married, we bought a house. And so I was like kind of wondering if there was any verse that could be like prophetic over our home or whatever. And so the numbers are 1913. And so I was like, I was like, I wonder if there's any verse, you know, 1913. So the first one I looked up was Proverbs 1913.

Well, Proverbs 19, 13 is a quarrelsome wife is like a leaky roof. Straight up, first verse. Yeah, you don't want that. It's a sign. And so now, you know, when you go to weddings and they'll have the Bible open and they'll have like highlight your favorite verse and write your name. Yeah.

If I know the couple well enough, I'll go highlight Proverbs 19 and 13 and just sign my name with a heart. I am liking Connor more and more. So, Connor, you read that verse, and did you then say...

Babe? Yeah. Oh, I called her immediately. No, actually, I think I texted her and I go, I go, babe, like, you know, just found this verse I feel like is prophetic over our home and just put Proverbs 19, 13, made her go look it up. You know, made her do the work to get the laugh, but she thought it was funny. That's funny. I have a question for you, Connor, because I've been looking on Instagram and at some of y'all's posts and, um,

This is so I've talked a lot about in theological circles. There's a you probably heard this. There's what's called the secular sacred divide. And you don't cross over. You got your church life over here and you got your secular life over here. And those things do not interact. And I think it's one of the tragedies.

of the church in the last 50 years is that we've adopted this lie that there's these spaces. And I operate under the assumption, and I think the truth, that it's all sacred. It's all His. And so I've been watching you guys. There's these clips that are going viral of your concerts, and it'll say something like, worship service breaks out at a country music concert.

Which is awesome because what you're doing, I think in this, I'd love to hear about kind of how that, like, I think our audience will love that. And I want them, by the way, to go watch some of these clips because they're incredible. But like, how did that start? And what, like, what in the heck is going on? Yeah, man. I mean, from the beginning, I've always had felt like I had a dual calling on my life of ministry and country music. You know, I grew up in Nashville, started writing songs at six years old. A lot of that early stuff was worship songs, contemporary Christian songs. I always say that

I was too scared to write love songs for girls, so I just wrote love songs for Jesus. And that was kind of how I started and thought that that was going to be what the Lord had for my life. And then as I grew up, 13, high school, really fell in love with country music and I started to write country songs. And then I signed my first deal at 16, record deal at 18. And so it was pretty young as I started writing.

But I always felt this kind of calling on my heart towards ministry, towards Jesus. I would say if I wasn't, you know, a country artist, I'd probably be a pastor or something of the sort. And so I've spent the last four years growing up a lot and trying to figure out how do you marriage the two, you know, to step into a secular industry and

Where, you know, and country music is specific industry that Jesus is allowed in. Yeah. But it's the same, to say the name Jesus on stage can oftentimes be the same thing as saying the name Trump, where people just celebrate because it's a part of culture, if that makes any sense at a festival or whatever. They either celebrate or boo. Exactly. You know, and so...

But actually like creating not just, you know, country music is faith, family, sports, hunting, right? But how do you actually bring revival into country music has been a big part of my heart. And I don't have all the answers to that, but I do know the Lord's called me into that. And I've been trying to slowly figure out or he's been unveiling things

Some of those things and we've definitely just had some massive breakthrough. I mean, what you're talking about, Zach, we just did a tour. I did a co-headlining tour with my best friend in the music industry named Dylan Marlowe, another country artist at the same level. And our friendship is really centered around how do we do this genre that is of the world.

but how do we steward what the Lord gives us to Jesus? In the same way, you know, you guys had this TV show, but the TV show, you were using the TV show as a platform to speak the name of Jesus, right? How do we do that in country music? And so as we stepped onto this tour, we had had a lot of conversations before him

And we said, hey, it doesn't matter how many people show. It doesn't matter how many tickets we sell. It doesn't matter if they came here for me or for you. How do we unite together?

speak the name of Jesus because there's such a boldness with two of us up there doing that yeah and so we had this song I mean all of it was kind of God ordained but so we had this song that we were getting ready to put out together called country in the clouds and it's kind of this you know kind of a gospel country song about hoping you know heaven looks like the sticks sort of idea yeah and so I called him one day and I was messing around him in my living room and

playing the song and it led perfectly into like a mashups of some worship songs so i sent him a voicemail hey what do you think about doing this and he loved it and so um we were gonna do this one's brandon lake gratitude we're gonna do this song and then go into the chorus of gratitude switch it up i do half he does half well the first night of the tour i sang the wrong song

So I ended up singing Great Are You, Lord instead of Gratitude. David Leonard. Yeah, exactly. And so I start singing this David Leonard song, and I get to the second line. I'm like, I'm singing the completely wrong song. So I just finish the chorus. I'm just like, let me just get through the chorus. And then I look over to Dylan on stage, and I just go, hey, sing Gratitude now. So then he does the whole chorus of Gratitude.

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And the presence fell down. I mean, I almost got emotional every night. And there was such a weight in the room that it brought. And so we did it every night. And every night the Lord came. I've had more comments after the show about how much it impacted people than anything we've ever done. And it was such an eye-opening thing for me and for Dylan to go, man, this is...

this is how you represent Christ in these atmospheres. No one's coming there to encounter Jesus, but man, we've got a platform. We're on the stage. We've got 1,200 people looking at us. And if we could just take a moment to go, hey, man, the only reason we're here, the only reason we've been given this platform. There's a C.S. Lewis quote I love that is like, I think it's in Mere Christianity, where he says somewhere, a man can't take credit for sin,

his giftings and talents any more than a man can take credit for having blue eyes right yeah and so I think about that a lot of like why was I given the gift of singing I have no idea why was I given this gift of being able to write songs and and communicate in that way no idea but God picked me for for that and gave me that attribute and and so my stewardship of that my response of that in thanksgiving is to give it back to him and um and so yeah that I mean in those worship moments man it was really special and it was a it was a

A revival moment for me in my heart to realize how to take those atmospheres and shift them towards the Lord in a really authentic way that doesn't feel forced. I would call that Jesus stuff. You know what's crazy? You said that so like two nights ago, I was doing a show and I,

I was west of Abilene, middle of nowhere. I think there was 94 people there. And by show, you don't mean you were singing. You mean you were speaking. I'm just going to tell you what happened. You can do with this what you want. I was asked to go and be a part of this show. It was a jazz concert. And someone, they had had a meeting, and they wanted to do a fundraiser.

to raise money for these high school kids who are jazz musicians. It was about 30 of them. And I'm at the concert. So I kept thinking, well, why am I here? I assumed it was a Christian school because I'm more about my faith than anything else. But oh, no. They said, well, we know you're musically inclined because you blow a duck call.

So I thought, wow. So it was the same atmosphere you described. I quickly figured out that the people in the audience, even though it wasn't a lot of people, it was basically a private party. They had a lot of money. And that's why they were there. And they had the concert. And I was just there to kind of bridge the gap. But it's funny because I don't know what they thought I was going to say.

But when those kids who were, when I say they were talented, it was off the charts. But I went the same direction you did. I said, you know what you just saw there? This is my opening line. I said, you saw the image of God being shown through their talents. Because they were doing most of their songs ad lib just off the top of their head, and it was really impressive. Of course, I have my Bible. I did my little duck call thing. I was like, it's a lot like playing a trombone, I think. And...

Of course, I share Jesus. And just like you said, the total atmosphere changed because I'm pretty sure me and the kids were the few sober people there. But I think it went well. And it was one of the few events I stayed after because there was only 94 people there. So it wasn't a rush to the door.

And, you know, the altar call just happened organically. People came up with tears in their eyes. It's like, we need to hear more about that. So I think that's Jesus stuff. That's beautiful. Well, I couldn't help but think, Connor, when you were talking about, it sounds so much like David, like King David, I mean, who's famous now.

for being a king and slaying Goliath and doing all these things. But really, his heart was it was the heart of a musician, right?

And the writing of the Psalms, I mean, those weren't, we think of those now because they inspire so many worship songs. It's like he was just, it was strictly that. But these, a lot of these were just where his heart was at the moment. Some of them are rough. Some of them are raw. Some of them are about destroying my enemies and all these different things. But it was a word spoken into his culture at his time, but that God was always a part of it. And so, you know, like you,

I mean, he had different gifts, but that was the one it seemed like that he relied on the most, which I thought was pretty powerful. Yeah, I mean, David's roadmap is something that I look at every day. Because you look at the life of David, he's a shepherd boy, he's out in the field. Samuel comes and anoints him and says, you're going to be king. You can just imagine his confusion in that moment. Mm-hmm.

And, and I look at him, he's out in this field and he's like, probably wondering how in the world am I going to become a king? I'm from the lowest tribe. I'm the last in my family. Yeah. Some say he's an illegitimate child. Right. Right. And he's like, how in the world would that even happen?

Well, it was through the gift of music that he was brought into the throne room, right? It was when Saul lost the spirit of God and couldn't find any peace. Someone said, I know of a boy from the tribe of Benjamin who can play skillfully the lair. So he was good at guitar and he could sing songs and he carried the presence. And so that gifting that David had stewarded

in the field with the sheep winds up getting him in the throne room and finding favor with the king. And I think it's so beautiful because you see what David ended up doing with that opportunity, but it was really through music that he was allowed into the door. Yeah. Some people play a harp for the Lord. Some people blow a duck call. That's my point. Amen. I was, I was thinking that, uh,

Of where we sit today, we're doing this podcast. We have, I mean, it's one of the biggest Christian podcasts out there. And then there's you guys. Not to brag, Zach. Humility is a staple in the kingdom of God. But go ahead. I wasn't bragging, Jace. You guys are fags.

Christian, you're laughing too hard, man. I was going to compliment you next. You guys are filming a TV show, all of Sadie's ministry. We did a movie. There's so much going on. And you think, man, if you could isolate that to a birth moment, what popped in my head when you were talking, Connor, was a moment where Phil...

Did what he wasn't supposed to do. He broke through that secular, sacred divide. He was down in, I think, the Superdome in New Orleans receiving an award. I think it was the Louisiana Sportsman's Hall of Fame induction or something. I can't remember what it was, but he's standing on the stage at this sportsman's banquet.

And he sees the audience and he's like, I have to tell him about Jesus. And he looks down at his bag. He's got his Bible. So I think he'd already maybe done his duck call demonstration, his whole duck hunt thing. He said, boys, I got to tell you something before I leave. He said, I stand before you tonight beneath the sign King of Beers because they had the Budweiser sign above his head. He said, but I can't leave without telling you about the King of Kings.

And it was that moment. And he preached the gospel to him. And all these grown men were like, just started to weep. Like you talk about the atmosphere change. He went and he, he brought the, the sacred, uh,

Into the secular, because it's all sacred anyways. And that seemed to be the moment, would you say, Al? That was kind of the birth of really Phil hitting the speaking circuit. I mean, that was kind of a big moment for him. We all kind of, so I'm not bragging, Jace. I'm saying we're like standing on the shoulders of a decision that he made in a moment.

Now we're able to even have the platform that we have here. But you know what? So, Zach, you're a little off. It wasn't the Hall of Fame deal, but it was in the Superdome, and you described it perfectly. And it was just 400 surprised Cajuns that dad would do this. But you're right. It immediately changed the impact, kind of what Connor was describing. But what's more interesting, when dad walked off stage, because I was there,

The guy who was selling our duck calls for us, he looked at dad and he was like, Phil, you can't do that. He was a Cajun. He said, you can't do that. You can't mix your business and your religion. You'll lose both. And I'll never forget, dad looked him square in the eye and he said, Doobeson, do you understand? Without Jesus, there would be no business.

It's the reason I'm here. And I saw that like ironclad, this is our culture now. And that went forward. And that was, you know, 25 years before anybody even thought about a television show or an ability to do it on a bigger platform. But that's the thing. I mean, what Connor's describing is when you make a decision and do it on whatever platform your own, God can trust you with a little and he can trust you with a lot.

It's really mind-boggling to consider the fact that there's over a billion children in the world who are growing up in spiritual darkness. I mean, that actually blows my mind, having never heard the gospel. But our friends at Tomorrow Clubs are helping the gospel to reach these children, and that's why we want to partner with them in such a powerful way. We just heard an incredible story from our friends at Tomorrow Clubs. Three years ago, the very first Tomorrow Club in South Africa opened up

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You're right. I think that set our culture as a family. Would you agree, Jay? Yeah, I thought he was going to say this moment because my wife reminded me last night because I thought, Connor Smith. I was like, oh, he's a country music singer. And I said in front of my wife, I don't want to hurt your feelings. I said, what do I know about country music? I was like, what are we going to talk about? She said, babe, you were part of country music. And I was like, what?

She's like, you don't remember? We have a country music album that you sang on, or mostly talked, but on one song, that went platinum. That Christmas record y'all did or something? Yeah. So she said, and did you realize that it was the number one Christmas album in 2013? And I was like, well, the number one Christmas album. She said, we beat Garth Brooks.

And I thought, are you kidding me? And I'm not bragging because I just found this out last night. I was like, what does going platinum mean? But she said, you don't remember the whole time we were doing it? You said this will never work, which I did. I was like, this will never work. But what it made me think, the reason I'm telling you that, is really –

Singing is storytelling. And I saw that all over the place where the media and your fans, when I was researching you, that seemed to be the one thing that came out above all others. And so I'm not shocked because the greatest story

in the world is the story of Jesus. And so I think you combining that in this kind of spirit-filled way is why, you know, the Lord is blessing your endeavors. Thanks, man. I mean, you look at Jesus, it's all parables.

Yeah. And there's such an easy way to connect those with country songs. Oh, exactly. I mean, I've written a ton of country songs that are just directly tied to Scripture. You wouldn't know that unless I told you the Scripture. Oh, it makes you smart and clever. I mean, my point was it's the same thing that we did with Duck Dynasty. Because when people look at us, they think, oh, a bunch of dumb rednecks, you know. But really...

Having that connection with the creator of the universe, it immediately makes you way more smarter than you might look. A hundred percent. Christian, how did you guys meet up, by the way? So we met up from, actually from social media. So we, me and Sadie spoke. We did a Q&A together in D.C. at a church. It was a relationship Q&A. I was with my family during the summer.

Three years ago, my cousin was playing Spotify through the speaker of the house we were in, and he was playing Connors music. At the time, I wasn't really listening to country music that much. He was like, Connors is the next big thing in country music. I didn't really think much of it. Then the next week, me and Sadie went and spoke at this event. Then the next day, I got a DM from Connors.

Which you can kind of tell that story. That's kind of how we ended up getting in contact with. Yeah, I mean, I was, it was, so I just started touring kind of full time. I'd gotten asked to be on the Thomas Rhett tour and that was kind of my first massive moment for my career. And so I was just getting started. I just started dating my now wife,

And so, so much was getting thrown at me. I was in the middle of this big transition in life of touring, being on the road and just trying to figure out who I was. You know, it's one thing to, you know, say you're going to do it for the Lord, but then you get thrown into the fire and everything gets tested. And so I was really kind of fighting, fighting for my faith out there, fighting for my calling and trying to figure out what that was. And so a lot of that for me was every night on a tour bus, I would just

Go to bed, listen to a sermon, listen into wisdom, you know, whoever it was. And there was one night, I mean, I think my, I mean, we might not even have started dating, but I was trying to get, convince her to date me sort of thing. And so I was listening to a lot of relationship stuff. I stumbled upon their video and of them talking about their relationship and was really encouraged by it. So I hit up Christian and just told him, Hey man, I'm encouraged by your faith and the way that you're walking and,

in this calling, the way that you're standing for biblical manhood in a way that is sincere and approachable and also, for lack of a better word, cool. You know what I mean? And so we connected through that.

And then I think it was on his podcast from there. Well, then I invited you to, yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's why the timing was so funny because my brother was, or my cousin was showing me his music. And then the very next week he had DM me talking about how me and Sadie's talk had really impacted him. And then I invited, I invited you down after that. Then you came on the, you know, we dug on it a couple of days later.

And then, yeah, we've been good buddies ever since. And then it's cool now because now Connor's good friends with all my friends. We kind of all got a little group hang going on. So it's been fun. So Connor, did you grow up watching the show when it was on? Yeah, every Wednesday night. I mean, we go to church on Wednesday, come home, watch as a family.

Which was, I mean, it's cool. It's wild, I mean, even being in this building right now. This building is famous in my head, right? Kind of weird. Like right next door is the duck call room. So Connor, do you listen to Unashamed? Do you have an opportunity to ever listen to the podcast? Yeah, I mean, I listen to Unashamed a good bit. That was, I mean, like Zach said, one of the biggest Christian maniocs

male podcast right yeah when i said that that was bragging but when jay said he went platinum i just found out about that i was like i still didn't think that worked i don't do social media and stuff so i mean my wife was like tell us uh connor is there how can folks find your music and uh or find out where you're touring and stuff like that

Yeah, man. I mean, Conor Smith Music, C-O-N-N-E-R, Smith Music on pretty much all the social medias, Instagram. And then conorsmithmusic.com is the easiest way to do it. Well, your story is amazing. I want to leave you with this. Psalm 1913, written by King David.

He gave you a 1913. I gave you a 1913. A replacement. Thank you very much. I needed that for my marriage. A replacement in 1913.

And tell your wife we said hello as well. Christian, it's always good to have you as well. Connor, God bless you and what you're doing. We're 100% behind you. To tear down that wall and be Jesus' servant in front of people and for people is an amazing calling. So we're excited to see where God takes you and all that. Praise God. Thank you, guys. Connor, just when I thought I was done with country music, the Lord sent you and pulled me back in. Uh-oh.

It's actually funny. You said you're going to work on the duck blinds later because the river's rising. It is. He has a song called The Creek Will Rise. Really? That's a big one. You'll have to listen to it going down to fix the blinds. Well, remember this. When the creeks rise, I'm moving blinds.

This is a once in a five year opportunity to get the blind on the X. Come on. Well, we got a song coming out Friday called Country in the Clouds. That's just a Jesus country song, so you'll like that one. Country in the Clouds. Now I'm excited. Everybody look for it. Connor, God bless you, brother. We'll see you next time. Thank you for being on Under Shame.

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