Episode 500 - Paul Baloche Returns! - Voices In My Head (The Rick Lee James Podcast)

Welcome to Voices in My Head, the official podcast of me, Rick Lee James. I'm a recording artist, a singer, songwriter, author, worship leader, an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene, and most recently, a hospital chaplain. The Voices in My Head podcast is where I discuss things that are on my mind. The Voices in My Head. Music, movies, books, pop culture, theology, and more are all on the table as I discuss them here with friends, colleagues, and sometimes just by myself, processing what I'm learning in the moment. Make sure to let me know what you think of today's episode by leaving me a review on iTunes, tweeting to me @RickLeeJames on Twitter, and by joining my mailing list at RickLeeJames.com where you can receive an email every time a new episode is released. By the way, in case you are interested in a daily dose of kindness and encouragement beyond this podcast, I also run the Twitter account @MrRogersSay where I post daily quotes from Fred Rogers, one of the loudest voices in my head, which is ironic because he was such a quiet person. Also, if you do want to be notified about all of my latest releases, not just this podcast, sign up for email notifications on my Substack page found at rickleejames.substack.com. Com. Well, I guess that's it for the intro, so let's get to the latest episode of Voices in My Head, the Rick Lee James podcast.

Welcome back to Voices in My Head. As always, I'm your host, Rick Lee James, and I am so glad that you are all listening today to our 500th episode. I didn't know if we were going to make it this far, especially over this last year as I have been working as a chaplain, working on my master's, as I've been doing every other thing that I do normally. I wondered if we would even be able to keep releasing podcasts, but the Lord has helped, and the Lord has helped me today to be able to bring a wonderful guest on today back to the show again. A friend, a mentor, just somebody who has meant so much to me over the years, and I know to so many of us in the church. Um, he served as a worship pastor at Community Christian Fellowship in Lindale, Texas for more than 25 years, which is an amazing track record. Uh, he's an ordained minister with an M.Div. from the Methodist Episcopal Church. In addition to writing, recording, and touring, he founded leadworship.com to serve, equip, and train local church worship teams across the globe. He teaches modern worship master classes nationally and has created a variety of online instructional videos videos and free resources designed specifically to help worship leaders and musicians. He's a contributing writer for both Worship Leader and Worship Musician magazines. I could go on and on. He's authored books— one of my very favorite books of all time on songwriting called God Songs, which he co-wrote. And his wife Rita is also just an absolutely amazing songwriter in her own right. So I'm glad to welcome back to the podcast Paul Balazs. Paul, welcome!

Wow, thank you, Rick. Man, um, yeah, that makes me tired just hearing all that. All those years, just tried to, uh, chip away one day at a time, and then, you know, you turn around and go, huh, glad we— glad we got some things done.

Yeah, no, it's, it's really, it's really amazing when I, when I look back. It just um, what you have contributed, you know, just to the church, to the life of the church. I was thinking today as I was just preparing for this podcast, I thought, I can't think of too many people that I would say I use their songs at Christmas time, I use their songs at Thanksgiving, I use songs during the season of Lent, uh, during really every season of the church. And I think out of your heart as a servant for the church. And I mean, you've kind of been there through every season. I'm going on— let's see, I'm starting 22 years at my church, so I haven't quite made it 25 like you have, but it's been a long haul. So, so many accomplishments. So I'm grateful for you, and I'm grateful just to have a chance to visit today. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, I was mentioning before we started here that just the fact that this is the 500th episode, it's just a reminder to me. I remember you were one of the few people in Christian music that kind of started this thing called a podcast. Now it's so ubiquitous. Yeah, almost everyone has a podcast. But you and I've mentioned Wisdom Moon, uh, one of the few like, uh, sure, I'll— I guess so, whatever this thing is, sure. I remember doing some of those early ones with you or Wisdom. Yeah, um, but it's been, you know, from afar seeing you with your family and again being, uh, faithful in your local church and then pursuing your master's, chipping away at that. And then your runs— sometimes you'll post something that says, well, just finished a 7-mile run at 4:00 AM. I'm like, who the heck is doing that? Good for you. I mean, wow, that's I don't know how you fit those runs in so early. And then here you are now working as a chaplain. And, uh, that recent song of yours was a powerful song, which I thought was a refreshing, uh, just a refreshing song outside of the usual. The fact that it was connected to your work. Yeah, a very specific work that thousands do every day. And I— we need more songs like that, more unique Whenever I've had a chance to write with Graham Kendrick, it was very Graham Kendrick of you in that he's always mindful of, let's write a song about baptism. Hey, why don't we, why don't we think about writing a song about, um, a song from Monday through Friday, like people who put their hands to the plow, people who go to work, and how can we incorporate that in worship? And, uh, so anyway, I thought you did That was a great job on your most recent.

Thank you. My goodness, what a compliment. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And actually, with this new episode, I'm actually using the music from that song, "As I Walk These Halls," as the new intro and outro music to the show. So with 500 episodes, trying something new this week for sure.

All right.

Well, I know that you're busy, and I know that in a few days you'll be heading out again to do the work that you do. And so I'm grateful that you had just a few minutes to stop by today. And I thought, you know, since we're celebrating 500 and since you probably get similar questions every time you're interviewed that are, you know, about worship leading in the church and why not, because you have a ton of wisdom to share. But I wanted to try to think of maybe just some different kind of little bit offbeat questions that might be like, hey, let's, let's just go a little deeper with Paul today. So just to have some fun. All right. So I have, I have 10 questions and if we have time, I have a bonus question. But, but we'll see until Zoom tells me we're done because because I actually have to pick up my son from school today too. So we'll see what we can do here. Here we go. But here's your first question, all right? And, and you can answer one of two ways. The first question is, what is the first song that made you cry? Or is there a song that makes you cry every time you hear it, just makes you tear up? Can you think of one? Oh wow, interesting.

Uh, This is like a Rorschach test. Yeah, the first, the very first thing that came to mind is, uh, The Long and Winding Road. Oh, The Beatles. Yeah, I, I just remember being a kid, I was so into The Beatles and had all their albums. I had— I was the youngest of 4 kids, so they were much older. They had all the albums, classic rock, all The Beatles. So I just had the luxury of this massive album library. But the Beatles especially were an influence in, in our house and in my heart. So anyway, yeah, The Long and Winding Road.

Wow.

No one's ever heard that. Go listen to it now. Just the melody and the longing. There's such a longing in that. And, uh, so that would be, uh, yeah, that's my—

yeah, excellent, excellent answer. I'm not that it matters too much, but one that just gets me every time is After the Last Tear Falls by Andrew Peterson, um, co-written with Andrew Osenga, actually. Beautifully. I think, I think Osenga wrote the, the verses and Andrew Peterson wrote the chorus. But man, just a beautiful song about, um, what will be in the end is ocean of oceans of love and love again. And we'll see how the tears that have fallen are caught in the palms of the giver of love and the lover of all. And we'll look back at these tears as old tales. I just love that, you know, that's just, just beautiful stuff.

That's brilliant.

All right, well, let's get into the second question. That was an excellent first one. Okay, and this one may be a thinker, and it might be both/and, but I was wondering, what energizes you more personally, songwriting or worship leading? Do you find that one energizes you more than another?

Hmm, what an interesting question. Um, you know, I would say it is probably flip-flopped over the years, over the last 30-some years. There, there may have been seasons where I think in the early days I was so energized to write with Ed Carr. He was a keyboard player, pianist at our church, and I got a— took out a loan, went to a bank. We were both living in little mobile homes in Texas, and, uh, we got a $4,000 loan and bought a 16-track Fostex reel-to-reel recorder.

Wow.

And we just determined, hey, let's meet at the church as often as we can during the week, and, uh and let's, you know, if you have an idea or I have an idea, we'll take one of something from pastor's sermon. We were just writing songs for our church. There was— this was before CCLI or anything like that. It was just— it was— there was such an innocence about just trying to write songs for our church based on what was happening. So, you know, those— that was a season where I was definitely animated, um, and excited by that challenge and that task. But of course, there, there they're really hand in glove, you know, they really function. Then I would say now, more recently, leading worship just keeps my heart moving toward the Lord, keeps my heart fresh toward him. And then oftentimes a song idea will arise out of leading worship. So, so they're very much hand in hand, almost like a seesaw, like you can't really have one without the other. Yeah, for me, really, they just kind of— they work so well. I was going to say yin yang, but that's a different—

makes perfect sense. I love that.

Yeah, yeah, like Laurel and Hardy, Mutt and Jeff, uh, Heckle and Jekyll. They're just, uh, the duo of worship leading and songwriting, you know. They just like a seesaw. I just kind of see that picture back and forth. I'm sort of doing that right now.

Yeah, perfect. All right, well, we're— that's an excellent answer too. Gonna move into number 3, and you've probably had some time to think about this one in all the workshops that you've delivered, but I wonder if you have one common trap that aspiring songwriters often fall into that you would say avoid this if you can, as it's, it's kind of a, kind of a trap for new songwriters and, and maybe seasoned ones as well, but Uh-huh.

Um, well, one particular— don't try to write songs for your music buddies. Ah, because oftentimes in, in, in the attempt to try to be cool or throw in a cool chord or like to impress somebody, you sort of get outside the vibe and the spirit of the song. Don't get too, uh, don't think about that too much. Don't— I've made that mistake back in the day a few times where Oh, we'll just go here. And then when I listen to that song now, it's like, ah, that really probably became a distraction for the listener or the worshiper. But I would say another trap would be, let's say, oftentimes I'll say, you know, don't try to write some big international global anthem that everyone's gonna sing. Like, don't put that kind of pressure on yourself. That's it. I always say it poisons the well and it steals joy if you, if you're trying so hard to just, uh, think about the outcome of a song, of like, oh, this may be— oh, this, you know, maybe this— oh yeah, this, uh, this could be— so as soon as you start going there, that's— you have no control over that whatsoever. Yeah. All you have control over is trying to write the most sincere, honest, and then well-crafted. Hopefully you kind of blend those two together where it's, it's born from pure inspiration, maybe out of a worshipful moment, an inspired moment, and then it's crafted prayerfully over time so that others can sing this prayer with you.

Yeah.

And I've always, still to this day, I try to just bring it back to that. And not be distracted by, oh, what if, oh well, maybe this, oh well. You start like over-promoting it and you haven't even finished the song yet, you know. Like, just stay— try to keep your heart in an innocent place where you just want to write a song that is authentic and sincere to the Lord. And, and maybe, just maybe, others could sing this along with you, and it's a way to serve churches or others with a song that they could sing as their prayer. If I stay in that mindset, that, that has been a helpful thing for me.

Yeah, good advice. Thank you so much for that. That's a good one. All right, so we are— I don't know what my camera is doing, but listeners can't see it anyway. We're— it's flipping back and forth. Um, anyway, this is just kind of a fun one to consider. You may not have even thought of this before, but we're in an age where artists tend to release albums under a pseudonym or a band name. Even if they're like a solo artist. I think of like Feist or Five for Fighting, or, you know, it's really just one person, but they've got, you know, it sounds like they're a band or something. Or to some extent, even the Ben Folds Five, even though there was three in the group, you know, something like that. Uh, so here's the question: have you ever considered, uh, just for fun even, releasing a song or an album under a pseudonym?

I have not. Okay, I have not. Um, I have enjoyed this past year working with, um, a group called Anchor Hymns. Oh yeah, Anchor Hymns. Um, and you mentioned Andrew earlier. Andrew is kind of like the leader of that. He's an A&R guy at Integrity Music, and, um, the heart behind that is just to kind of write, uh, kind of more modern sounding but hymns, modern hymns. Will, um, hymn-like qualities about them, but somewhat more modern in their approach. But, uh, I've enjoyed just working in collaboration and in community with other writers and worship leaders, and nobody's featured. There's no, like, nobody's name is— it's more of a collective, and I really enjoy the spirit of that, and I'm enjoying that. Yeah, so that's the closest. I've never thought of it. That's funny.

Yeah, well, you know, I was thinking too, I, I, I'm trying to remember the story now. I think it was, um, I think it was Donny Osmond back, you know, several years ago, and he'd kind of— his shelf life, you know, I think he had been like a huge artist and then all of a sudden radio stations weren't playing him. So he released a song as a mystery artist and nobody knew who he was, and it became a huge hit. And then all of a sudden he revealed his name and it was Donny Osmond, and you're like, whoa, I can't believe it, you know. So it's kind of a funny But I wonder if that's the roots of like artists releasing as under an idea. It's kind of, kind of interesting though.

Good for him.

Oh yeah.

All right.

So here's another question for you. This hopefully I want you to, if you can pick somebody you've not written with before. Okay. And in your mind, if you had a dream songwriting session, somebody that you've always wished you could write with, it can be any genre. Just somebody that comes to mind. But like, you know what? Like I could just, you know, I have, I have arrived at the top of this. This would be for me. Yeah, think of someone that you go, yeah, this would be it.

I mean, I would be so intimidated, but you know, and it shows my age, but Paul McCartney, of course, very first person. I mean, the, the songwriter of songwriters.

I just—

we just— my wife and I saw him in concert back in June, and that week he turned 80. Wow. And here we watched him for 3 and a half hours, um, no opening act, you know, and playing guitar, playing bass, then playing acoustic, then walking over the piano, singing all the songs in the original keys.

Wow.

And, you know, just, um, so inspired by him. Yeah, inspired by his, uh, and he's just— there's a decency about him. Um, I even met him. Actually, I'm looking across the room here and there was a photo that, yeah, with my family. It was a long story short, is it my— it was a crazy once-in-a-lifetime— a friend of mine said, hey, I'm doing something at Abbey Road. It was while I was there with my family just for 2 days in London. It was— I thought, well, we may never come to London again. It was our spring break. Yeah, you know, it was like, uh, our Europe. We did Dublin London and Paris, 2 days in each. So anyway, I said, hey, what a great opportunity. So we went and he gave us a tour of Abbey Road, and wouldn't you know, McCartney was there, and kind of just ran into him in the hallway, and he was gracious to stop. And I asked for a picture, and he handed the camera. When they handed the camera back, McCartney said to me, did it come out all right? And I was so moved. By that. Like, when I recall that, like, here's a busy guy, like the musician of musicians, and yet the decency to even ask, like, did it come out right? Like, are you happy with it? Like, almost if I'd have said, uh, do you mind if we do another one? I was just pleased that we got one photo. Yeah, it's fine. And, uh, anyhow, yeah, so to write with him, of course, would be amazing to write with. Maybe, uh, you know, a few more would be a James Taylor, maybe a Martin— yeah, James Taylor for sure, big influence. And maybe a guy named Mark Cohn. Oh yeah, Walking in Memphis guy.

Yeah, so good. Yeah, yeah. Dylan—

Jacob Dylan was a back-in-the-day Wallflowers.

Oh yeah, yeah, great choices. No, thank you for sharing that. I love it. And, and you know what, it's interesting because last year for our— I think it was last year, our 400th episode, Phil Keggy was our featured guest. And so, uh, he actually got to give, uh, Paul a guitar. And Paul, sometimes you'll see pictures of him playing that. So that was kind of a fun story. So I guess every 100th episode Paul McCartney is going to be a topic of conversation. And, and the name Paul with you, you have to have Paul. So I can see, I can see the duet album, Paul and Paul, you know, together. All right, so here's just for fun, okay? Yeah, you have to be economical. For some reason, all your guitars are gone. You don't have any, which is a tragedy. All right, we— everyone, everyone bows in silence right now for the moment. But for some reason, in some strange parallel universe, you only have $500 to use to buy a new guitar. Which guitar do you think you would buy for that amount of money to get the most and best use out of?

Okay, um, I have found, um, I have found, and I've given this advice to others who are looking for an inexpensive guitar, is I would go to a lot of pawn shops with my $500 and I would look for a used Yamaha guitar. Ah, now you may be like, what? Yeah, I, I would— if I had more than $1,000, I wouldn't even think of a Yamaha guitar, but yeah, some reason I have seen many guitars, you know, in a $300-$400 range. They were like an old Yamaha acoustic guitar. And, um, yeah, yeah. So that's— that would be my instinct.

Yeah. No, I have given that same advice actually when I was learning guitar. My guitar teacher, uh, used a, a great kind of, you know, nothing great but really pretty good, you know, Yamaha guitar. And I've always thought, man, they really do—

like, if you don't have a lot of money and you go for it.

So excellent advice today. So remember those Yamaha.

Cool.

All right, this may be pretty broad, and it doesn't have to be related to any particular topic.

I mean, it sounded like I wanted to do a Groucho Marx when you just said that. I'm sorry, did you just say a pretty broad? I'm doing the Groucho Marx cigar mustache. Can't see.

That reminds me of my favorite Mar— uh, Groucho Marx Groucho quote, whereas, you know, outside of a book, a dog is man's best friend. Inside a book, it's too dark— or inside a dog, it's too dark to read.

That's what it is.

Very good.

Okay, so a pretty broad question. Here we go.

All right. So this is best advice you've ever received. Wow.

Like, that's a broad—

yeah, I mean, it could, it could be, it could be wash your face in the morning. I don't know.

The best advice. Wow, wow, that almost kind of stumps me. I'm kind of overwhelmed with possibilities of— I'm going through the Rolodex of my mind. If anybody knows what a Rolodex is, it can be just pretty good advice.

I mean, if you know, who knows, it's all subjective.

Yeah. Wow, the best advice. Well, you know, you have to sort of quickly, like, there's a bunch of obvious ones, you know, like make Jesus your personal Lord and Savior.

There you go.

Great advice. And I, I said, yes, Lord. And I, I took up that advice. Um, you know, what is good advice? Uh, well, here's one that I'm, I'm learning in the last 5 years is when you are on an airplane, and before you take off, the flight attendant will go through this, uh, these directions, and she'll take— he or she will take out the sort of oxygen mask and say, if in the event the oxygen mask falls down, please place it on your— please, please apply it to yourself first before trying to help others. And, um, I've had to learn that, man. I've had to learn a lot of, uh I have kind of come close to burnout many times in the last, uh, 30-some years, you know. Um, and I've had to learn, not in a selfish way, but in a, uh, you know, love others as you love yourself, you know, like taking care of— taking care of how is my heart doing, how are things going. So, you know, before we can truly help others, we do have to kind of take care of some of our, our soul needs, our, our body, body, soul, mind, spirit. We really need to make sure we're taking care of this vessel, um, so that we then indeed can turn and help others. So I would say that's one advice I ever got was, you know, please take care of, take care of yourselves first so that you can serve others.

Yeah, well, and you know, it's interesting that you would say that because just last week I released an episode that was all about Ministry of Presence and that we—

I—

it was a kind of a workshop I did at Cedarville University last weekend, and we talked about that very thing, being present to self, present to the presence, so that you can be present to others and help others be present to the presence, you know. And it's, it's good, good sound advice, so I appreciate that very much. Okay, this one is again just a kind of for fun one, okay? Sports teams do this a lot, high schools do this a lot, they have mascots, okay? Things they put on their bus, on their jacket, everything like that. So if you, Paul Belage, had a mascot, what would you like your mascot to be?

Wow, never been asked that. Mascot? Wow. Oh man, I mean, an eagle's a good one, you know. I mean, I'm, I'm Philadelphia guy, the Eagles are going to the Super Bowl.

It's, it's an American symbol.

It's, you know, there's a, there's a lot of beautiful things about an eagle. That would— that's kind of low-hanging fruit. Even in the Old Testament, you know, you will rise up on wings of it like eagles, you know. I mean, it's very biblical as well. So, um, you know, that's— again, we're playing a game here. That's the first thing that comes to my mind is, uh, I know that's already been used a lot. Yeah, try to be more, uh— if I was trying to be more original, maybe a West Highland White Terrier. Oh wow, our favorite dog was a Westie. We had a couple of them.

Awesome. Yeah, I think mine would be a beagle. I have this beagle named Fred and, uh, yeah, he's got it on Instagram. Yep, he's terrific. We have our daily Fred every day on there. So it's, uh, he's—

give us this day our daily—

our daily Fred. He's, he's the best. I love that dog. So that's terrific. Okay. Okay, so here is one for all of us who make and listen to podcasts. And I find that oftentimes people who are guests on podcasts don't listen to very many podcasts, and that's okay. But I'm just wondering, do you have a favorite podcast that you like to listen to just when you have a chance to enjoy something?

Um, it's a good question. I'm quickly looking at some here. I like Michael Hyatt. I, uh, I like one called Honestly with Bari Weiss. It's like a little bit of an independent news.

Yeah, that is a good one.

So hard to find. Yeah, so much news is either kind of way left or way right. I feel like she— I kind of trust that she's trying to find a little bit of— she used to work at the New York Times and then kind of just became more independent and Anyway, there's a guy named Huberman, Huberman Lab. He is a, uh, he's a professor at Stanford University, and he's, uh, it's more kind of health science, neurology, the brain and, and health. And, uh, um, you know, a couple health things, you know, some that probably wouldn't mention. There's probably a comedian or two that I don't hear a lot, but I have, and some of it, it can get pretty crass, so I probably won't say, yeah, go check them out. I understand. Once in a while I'll indulge in like, oh yeah, I've heard of this comedian, and it's like, oh wow, never mind. Actually, there's, there's a guy I really like, Hardcore History.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

I find, uh That's really good. And, um, so yeah, those, those are 4 or 5. Michael Hyatt is like a good sort of more business, but from a believer standpoint, he, um, find that— find him to be— yeah, I'm kind of scrolling through some here. A lot of them I probably need to—

all right, this is—

yeah, the Age of the Point. Oh, you know who else is good is the Karen Newhoff Oh yeah, that's a great one.

Yeah.

Um, and another health guy, Evan Brand. But yeah, and kind of interesting, uh, Evan Brand. Yeah. Yep. So terrific. Sorry, one last—

the— no, go ahead.

Yeah, The Minimalists. You ever heard of them?

I, I don't know if I have. I'll have to look these up. I'm actually making notes as you're saying them because some of them I listen to and some of them are new to me. So, and, and Oh, typology.

Ian Cron.

Oh, okay. Yeah, Ian's great.

Enneagram. So that's all, that's all for now.

Excellent, excellent choices. And I'll, I'll just say one of my favorites too. It looks like we have 8 minutes and 45 seconds till I have to leave, so I'll have to hurry here. But one I'm really enjoying is, is the AND campaign with, with Justin Giboney as one of the hosts. And, um, they're, they're a a podcast of Christians who are— they look at politics, but they look at it from Jesus first and politics second.

And how do you spell them?

And the AND campaign, A-N-D. And okay, yeah, it's really good, really good. They even start the show, they said, we, we're not Republicans, we're not Democrats, we're first we're Christians, and, and we approach all things. And they— it's, it's a little like Barry Weiss, but much more in the Christian vein of things, you know, where they try to approach. So that's one of But these are great recommendations, so maybe our listeners will find some new things to listen to as well. All right, here's the last question, and if I have a chance, I'll do a bonus question, but we'll see how time goes. Okay. Um, so this one is, I know that this is me, I think most guitarists do this when you're at home or when you've just tuned up a guitar anywhere you are, you have a chance, you're by yourself or— it doesn't even have to be by yourself, but you have a chance just to pick up a guitar. So often we have that same riff or same chord, or, you know, what is your go-to when you pick up a guitar and you're by yourself? For me, just as an example, I have this little run in the key of E that I kind of like to do after I tune up, and it's like, yeah, all right, it's in tune, it's good, and, you know, it's just kind of one of the— and it's amazing how many times I just, without thinking, will go to that particular lick. I'm wondering if you have something like that that is in something that you just kind of by instinct go to?

That is interesting, very interesting question. Um, it would probably be a handful, but, um, over the years I've always been inspired by James Taylor's fingerpicking, like just his melodic fingerpicking. Yeah, it's such a unique— some of his chord voicings are always so unique and colorful. Um, and, and, uh, yeah, so one is Never Die Young. That comes to mind, I would say, at least in the last year. It's got a nice opening, like, just beautiful, uh, melody on top with bass, bass notes, almost classical, but it's not. Yeah, but in terms of where you've got a melody and you've got a bass thing going at the same time, so nice. Yeah, Never Die Young, of course. Then sometimes I'll go down that track and just even, you know, Oh Fire and Rain. And then he has a few that I can't remember the names, but just the— they're little guitar interludes from various albums that I'll— those are almost warm-ups for me just to kind of get my fingers and, uh, yeah, colorful shapes and, and get my right hand moving too, the fingerpicking-wise.

You know, that's terrific. No, that's great. I've, I've thought about that a lot over the years. It seems like a lot of us, we have like one or two or three things that we just kind of by instinct go to, and I always find it fascinating, you know, which ones we go to.

But I will say, yeah, that's all acoustic. Now if I walk over and I pick up my electric guitar, the first thing I'll do is usually like an A, you know, and then typically like a blues riff, like—

there you go.

Pentatonic blues thing. Yeah, that's no doubt. When I pick up an electric, that's the first thing is like, you know, some kind of Pentatonic.

And yeah, yeah, you're right, because when I pick up an electric, I always think it's fun. I instinctively, I go to Jesus Freak by DC Talk, you know. So it's fun, and I'm not even the hugest DC Talk fan. I couldn't even sing one of their songs all the way through, probably. But I love that riff.

Yeah, it's classic.

All right, well, these have been great. I think I'm gonna skip the bonus question because I had— I forgot I was gonna tell you something that I, I just— I really wanted to tell you. We have a young man on our worship team who plays bass guitar for us. He's incredibly talented. He's about 15 years old, I think, right now. His name's Tyler, and He just is an amazing musician. I mean, plays trombone in marching band, but when he plays with his band, he does Metallica and sings. When he's at church, he plays bass. And, uh, he has played a ton of stuff with us over the years, plays piano, just all of it. Just loves music, which I love to see. And he tells me numerous times, again and again, of all the stuff that we play, of all the stuff that he plays, he says his favorite song is Hosanna and, uh, Praise is Rising. Hosanna. He's always asking me, when are we going to do Hosanna again? That's my favorite song. So yeah, so for whatever reason, I, I, I didn't— I thought, I've got to tell Paul that when he's here. I need to not forget. And I almost did, uh, but sincerely, like, he, he loves that song. And I just think that speaks so highly to the way that things that you write, God has been using to to transcend generations. You know, we have people my age and older and younger and teenagers who are learning to worship and praise. And, uh, and, and Tyler's just one of those special kids that's so good, he can play so many things, and yet that's, that is the song that he goes, that's the one that resonates most with me when I play.

So encouraging. Yeah, that's encouraging. And that's, yeah, it's encouraging to hear. And, you know, that's where we're in this season of life, right, where whatever we can do to inspire that next generation That's where my head and heart's at these days. Guys like Tyler, that next generation, how do we pass on and inspire them and make room for them to step up and like, come on, lead us?

And amen.

Yeah, amen.

Well, Paul, this has been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for taking time today, and it's made my 500th episode celebration just exactly what I wanted it to be. I'm so glad. I can't think of anybody else I would rather spend today with right now. So Thank you for being so generous with your time. Thank you for serving the church. Just being who you are. God has made you, as he makes all of us, unique and special. And he has done that for you. And, and you have searched him out to find your gifts, your talents. And I'm so proud of the work that you've done. So thank you so much. And thank you for being one of the voices in my head this week.

Wow.

Well, that is quite an encouragement to my soul. Thank you, Rick. The Lord continue to be with you and bless you as, as you go pick up your son right now. Continue to be a dad and a husband and a chaplain and a songwriter and a minister and a podcaster and all the things that God's called you to do. Every spiritual blessing upon you. Hmm.

Thank you. Amen.

Thank you, friend.

Thank you for joining me here this week on Voices in head. Music on the intro and outro of this show is from my single "As I Walk These Halls," which can be streamed on any streaming platform, including Spotify. I hope you'll visit me on my website at rickleejames.com where you can find out more about me, get my music on vinyl and CD, schedule me for a concert, a speaking engagement, a podcast, or even a book signing in your neighborhood. Also, it would mean a great deal to me if you could write a review of this podcast on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. The more positive reviews we receive, the more visible this podcast will be. And now the benediction: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may May abound in hope.