A Love Song For God
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It's Livin' the Bream with the host of Fox News Sunday, Shannon Bream. So if you are a fan of Christian music, you are going to know our next guest. But I've always thought his life was so unique and that he was doing a lot of different things.

And so when I first heard his music, I had no idea about the rest of his life and what was going on. But as a full-time pastor, he became part of this incredible group that was award-winning, has songs that you know, they are out there in your rotation now. Dan Dean of Phillips, Craig and Dean has got a new project we're going to talk about as well. But thank you so much for joining us on Live in the Bream.

It is just my honor to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Well, listen, I got to go back in time a little bit before we get to all the amazing things coming now and in the future for you. But I remember hearing the music of Phillips, Craig and Dean and thinking, gosh, these harmonies, these lyrics, this is such beautiful, powerful music. And then finding out that you guys were in full time ministry. Aside from that, how in the world did you guys come together and manage all of those different things at once?

Well, ours is a story that's quite unique. We grew up in similar church backgrounds and we knew of each other. And as a group, you know, we started out, each of us had recorded some solo projects early on. And Randy, who is the Phillips, took one of the projects that he had done to Nashville, trying to sign and get a deal. And they said, you know what?

We've got tons of solo artists, buying some friends, and we might would look at a group project. So he reached out to me, and then together we reached out to Sean, who's the Craig of the group. And unlike a lot of artists who go out there and burn up the roads and kick up some dust,

Our group basically went into the studio and recorded, and it was one of the first times we had sang was in the studio. So our whole sound was formed with our first producer, which is quite unique.

Really is. And so the blessing of that music for so many people for so many years. And at the same time, you guys all being in full time ministry, you've been in full time ministry for nearly 50 years, but have recently had a transition. Tell us about how those years as a pastor pouring into so many other people. And I know that you and your wife, Becky, have a special ministry for that as well. How all of that worked with the music business at the same time?

Well, I remember shortly after our very first project, we had a conversation. We were headed somewhere in a van to sing, and we had a conversation. You know, if this really takes off, are we going to leave the churches we're a part of and pursue music full-time? And we all three decided in the van that day that, you know what, the church has given us the birthplace for our music and for our songs.

And if so, if this breaks, we're not going to be the typical artists moved to Nashville. We're going to continue to work in the churches that we're a part of. And that happened. And it's the group now enters our 33rd year. Randy and Sean are both still full time pastors. And I'm semi retired now, but stepped down from that lead pastor role about five years ago.

And it has worked well for us. The balance was hard being parents, and we had to rely on a lot of good staff help to be able to. The early days we were doing sometimes, I would say, 80 dates a year. And at that time, I must admit, we weren't in the lead pastor role. So our lead pastors at the time where we were on staff had to have a very –

I would say a good knowledge of understanding that this was something God was doing and not something we were trying to drum up on the side. And that happened. So very cool. Yeah. And so what's also cool is now you are putting together, you've got a solo project that is releasing and it's called More. And I want to talk through some of the songs. I find it interesting that you have collaborations on this in so many different ways, but also including this.

all of your guys that you've been with Phillips Gray, indeed. So there's at least one song on here that has all of those harmonies, but you've got a lot of other really special, significant songs on this project as well, because you've got time now a little bit in sort of your semi-retirement, and you felt like there was more music you wanted to do. That's exactly right. And it started out as strictly going to be a collaboration and just have people that I've admired through the years come in and sing with me

or maybe some new artists and so we have uh emily ann roberts and up up and coming where i say up and coming she's already a big star in the country music field emily ann roberts has a great song out called the building and uh then christine christine dante of out of the gray and the isaacs and there's quite a few different artists that collaborated with me on this project and

That was part of the excitement of it, was getting to sing with some people I've admired for a long time. Yeah, a lot of amazing artists in there. And I was really moved by the story about your son. Tell us how that came to be, too, because it sounds like there must be a lot of writing and musical talent in the family. Well, Devin is my middle son. What's really amazing now, Shannon, is that I...

I get to go to church. My oldest son started interning at our church when he was 19 years old. And five years ago, when I decided to step down, the church elders said, your son needs to be the next pastor. And he stepped into the role and has done fantastic. And my middle son is the worship pastor. So I get to go to church on Sundays and be ministered to.

by my kids after years and years. I have a daughter as well. Last Sunday, she was up on the worship team. It's just been incredible to go to church and see my kids being used in the way they're being used. And I can't be, there's so much to be thankful for. And my son actually penned one of the songs on this project, a song called "Home."

And it's kind of a Ben Rector-ish kind of a song and I just love it and he did a duet with me and it turned out really special. What is it like to go through that process with a family member? I mean, I'm sure there are times that the guys felt like family members. It would have to as close as you all were and all the time that you spent on the road. But to actually have your son not only write this song, but to lay down these tracks and do this song together, what's it like to go into the studio and do that kind of thing as a family?

Well, it was fantastic. He came up to Nashville for a couple days. The producer of this particular song, Jason Webb, was great at integrating his harmonies at the vocal line, or he laid down a lead vocal. And then he decided, and I think it's great, that Devin was going to take the second verse. And what an enjoyable experience to get to work with your son in a field of music.

in which he's extraordinarily talented, great guitar player, keyboard player, and singer. So a lot of people say we sound a whole lot alike, and I would say there's a lot of truth to that. How do you, for the songs over the years, as part of a group and now as a solo artist, how do you decide what songs you do want to record? Do you write as well? This is always fun to talk about because when we have, I think we have 14 albums now.

not counting our Christmas albums. And the process starts with probably, I don't know, 60 songs that we have received from other outside writers. And then all three of us are writers. I might add that Sean is a very accomplished writer.

has written some really big hits including in christ alone which michael english recorded and was a big song back in the day of all time it is a great song and then randy is a great writer he's he's written tons of great songs including uh crucified with christ with a couple guys here in nashville they wrote that song and it was a song of the decade i think for the 90s maybe

And then, so we come into this process with maybe 60 songs, a bunch that we've written, and the three of us and our producer and our A&R guy, we all do a vote. After we've listened to the songs multiple times, we do a vote. And from that vote, there are usually...

five to six songs that all of us have voted yes. The rest of it is just a slugfest. What's going to make it? Because all of us, you know, there's this songwriter saying with songwriters is nobody ever has an ugly baby.

So when you give birth to your own little creation, you think it's really great and beautiful. Sometimes it's not always beautiful, but it becomes a little bit of not a physical slugfest. But, you know, you fight for your own material to make the project. And it usually comes down to somebody outside of our group.

has to make that decision because we're all going to be voting for our own songs. Exactly. Kind of like one year they got away. They got rid of the Miss Congeniality Award at Miss America. That's exactly right. People had voted for themselves. So that's exactly right. It barely happened with songs. Now, does it happen? Because I don't know as not being an artist. Do you record some songs that then maybe don't make it or do they even make it that far if you think they're not going to be on the project?

Yes, there's a song on this album that I just recorded that we recorded back on the same album that had Revelation's song, but it did not make the album, and it's the last song on the project called In the Room. I had already done a vocal, and we had a track laid out for that, and for some reason, it just didn't make the project, and I always loved the song, so when it came time to

To do this project, I pulled it out and said, "Hey, we've got to do this song to wrap up the project with." It's just the perfect last song of a project. It's got beautiful, rich strings that Jason arranged on, and I love it. It just talks about how many times as a pastor

You get through a service at church, and you stay there until the room is empty, and you thank God that you've had the privilege of being able to minister that day and hope that lives are changed. It's just a great song. I didn't write this song. Some friends of mine wrote it, but it's a tremendous song.

So not your baby, but one you can objectively say is a cute baby. It's a cute baby. Beautiful baby. We'll have more Live in the Bream in a moment. Savor every last drop of summer with Starbucks. From bold refreshers to rich cold brews, the sunniest season only gets better with a handcrafted ice beverage in your hand. Available for a limited time. Your summer favorites are ready at Starbucks.

I want to ask you too, because you've had so much success in so many different fields, but specifically in Christian music, how have you seen it change over the decades? Because, you know, trends will come and go. There are different kinds of artists than there were 10, 20, 30 years ago. I really love listening to the 70s, 80s, 90s stuff because that's, you know, my childhood when I was in college and really was getting into CCM. But

How have you seen it change over the years in the ways that people have discovered, the ways that they collaborate together? I mean, it just seems like a whole new world. Well, you know, streaming totally changed music forever, all kinds of music, but in particular Christian music. And I think record companies were probably behind the curve on realizing what was happening. But what I have seen is that

Even this week, I'm in Nashville this week and doing PR work for this project and going into record companies or to places that used to... Their offices were teeming with people and there's maybe six or seven people there where there used to be a hundred people. And that's because of streaming. And what streaming has done is it's allowed...

to rise up in Christian music that in the past would not have been able to do so because you had to go through a record company and you had to have radio support. And nowadays there are people out there who make it in music simply through the power of streaming. And I think that's a good thing. It's been great for Christian music. It's been great for creative people to have that opportunity to

Yeah.

Yeah, there's so many non-traditional ways to go about this. And people we maybe never would have heard their music or their voice can go directly around. It's sort of like, you know, the way that social media has helped politicians go around the traditional media outlets. And so they get a message out there and it can connect with people in a completely different way. I can think of an artist right now that I think rose up this way. She's just a

great singer, Charity Gale. I don't know if you've heard her. Yes. Yes. You know, Charity just started posting stuff on the Internet. The next thing you know, she's got a thousand views. This is crazy. I said a thousand, a million views. And her songs are getting exposed to worship pastors all over the country and everywhere.

That's an example of somebody that just the streaming platform created room for her gift. And I think that's pretty fantastic. Yeah. And I think about how it's really impacted praise and worship over the last decade or more because I love the hymns. I've got a hymn book sitting on my piano and I'll pull that open and play, you know, the oldie goldies that I grew up with. And we sang all six verses and I know all of those and I love those. Oh, yeah.

But I find that praise and worship, the fact that this music is so readily available, you can be in a church in San Diego or in Dallas or New York, and you can be singing the same songs. It's kind of like the new hymnal, all of this worship stuff, which so quickly gets into the bloodstream of Christian music that you don't have to land on radio or with a record deal, like you said, or a formal album or project.

a song can really reach people across all of these places and you find this common thread in really around the world. I mean, I've been in other parts of the country and hear a praise and worship song that I think, I don't know what language that is, but I know that song. So that's been a beautiful thing to see with music kind of breaking down all sorts of barriers.

I want to make sure that I ask you too about Shepherd's Rest because as somebody who has been in ministry and your wife, Becky, because families are serving in ministry along with the person who's the primary, if it's their career or where they're also receiving their paycheck while they're in ministry, families are very much a part of this too. And I know that you guys have got a very special effort that is close to your heart about making sure that our leaders and their families, they get ministered to as well.

Yeah, absolutely. I would say this, Shannon, that pastors are some of the loneliest people in the world. And especially when COVID came along.

The world shifted, and I can't think of one congregation that had a clear-cut path to how to do that because they had people that wanted the space, and they had people that didn't want a space and didn't want a mask. And even when they started getting back in church, it was just hard to bridge those two groups together.

And pastors are, I would say they don't trust very many people. And they're people, you know, they're just like anybody else. They face the same problems. And I think I heard it said in the past that the average church size in America is like 80 people. So there's a lot of small churches, a lot of pastors of small churches, a lot of pastors who are doing biographies.

bi-vocational work. They pastor on the weekends and work during the week. Part of the heart of Shepherd's Rest is to take some of these couples away on a weekend, and I tell them up front

This is not about how to grow your church. This is not about how to be a better pastor. This is all about my wife and I loving you, encouraging you, praying for you, making ourselves available for you. And we do it all. They pay nothing for it. Sometimes we'll take them out to Colorado to a beautiful home out there. Sometimes it's

in the Hill Country of Texas, and hopefully we're creating an experience that they will never forget at no cost to them. Just a way of saying, "Hey, you're doing a good job. Keep up the good work. We're here if you need us." And it's been very rewarding to watch this flourish. So extremely excited about that particular part of our ministry.

Yeah, I love to hear that because we do look at our pastors and their families and others who are in leadership ministry and think they've got it all together. But I do often think, all right, when they're struggling, who do they confess that to? Who do they have as kind of their safety net and a place for them to protect their marriages and their kids and all of these things that are so important to somebody who is constantly in service mode?

So if people want to know about Shepherd's Rest, where can they find out more information about that, either to support it or to take part? Well, we're still working on the website, but they can reach out to me personally at dan.dean at theheartlandchurch.com. That theheartlandchurch is all one word. And we'll be quick to respond to them regarding that ministry issue.

So thanks for bringing that up. Yeah, I think it's just so important. And I love that you have such a heart for that because you've been on both sides of that now. Again, the project that's releasing June 20th, it is available. It's called More. It's got Dan. It's got all kinds of interesting, beautiful collaborations. And I can't wait for

this particular project and for all of the years and decades of service that you've done in so many different ways. Dan, thank you so much. And thanks for being so accessible to people who may reach out and take you up on your offer of a little bit of respite too. God bless you and wishing you all the best with the new project. Thank you, Shannon.

Thanks so much. Thanks for creating time for us. Listen ad-free with the Fox News Podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. It is time to take the quiz. It's five questions in less than five minutes. We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along. Let's see how you do. Take the quiz every day at thequiz.fox. Then come back here to see how you did. Thank you for taking the quiz.