NoiSe Music Gets
Real |
eLi: LIVING Bringing
Conviction Back to Christianity & Christian music despite controversy
By Deborah L. Kunesh ©Copyright by Deborah
L. Kunesh, 2002 “I’ve
decided this is who I am. I’m going to
bring my vulnerability to the table. I
can’t pretend to be aloof. I can’t be
this mysterious artist which makes people go, ‘Oooh,
I want to, I’ve got to be around this eLi guy,’
this or that. That’s just not who I
am. I could sell more albums, I could
be cooler, I could be sexier, I could be more
mysterious. I’m not. That’s just who I
am. This is it. What you see is what you get. It’s not as exciting, it’s not as
mysterious, it’s not as intriguing. And you know what? It’s fine.
I mean, really. I
understand. Look, I know what it takes
to be more successful, I’m not a stupid man.
But I’m just saying, this is what I am and I
can’t be anything that I’m not. ” eLi “…that my hair would not stick up in weird places, and
I’d be someone someday…” Relevant
words, lightened up with a twist of humor.
To any Eli fan, those lyrics are very familiar, ringing true to life
and captured in his song “Things I Prayed For,” off the CD of the same
title. What may surprise some is that
those words ring true to life in how Eli sees himself, even now. Despite the success, Eli is still very much
a down-to-earth guy who takes his faith and his stand that he is just “one of
us” very seriously. “Well, you know what’s so funny?” asks Eli. “I’m not the brightest bulb in the
pack. I didn’t catch on to this until
about a year ago. I don’t get, like…
it doesn’t sink in that people are coming to the concerts to see me. It still doesn’t register. I don’t know what I’m thinking,” laughs Eli. “I guess I just try to make sure I don’t
indulge myself in those kinds of thoughts, you know? I never thought there would be anything
about me. I mean, it’s me. I don’t
understand that because it’s me. You
know?” As he asks in his bio, “I’ve been doing this 10 years-am I somebody relevant? It’s time to find out…and let myself be
me.”
Spend a little time with Eli, whether talking with
him one-on-one, listening to his CDs and really taking in the lyrics or
sitting in the audience at one of his concerts, and you will experience
something that is very rare these days.
Along with the very apparent gift of faith, musical talent and ministry
that he has been given, there is an almost unheard of transparency
there. The ability and willingness to
literally bare his soul and expose who he is emotionally and spiritually,
sharing his personal struggles and weaknesses with all those he comes in
contact with, allowing himself to be vulnerable for the good of others, as
well as sharing his sense of humor and gentle sarcasm. Okay,
let’s back track for a minute here.
Pulling up to the Debbie Kunesh with Eli after the interview This had
been an interview I had wanted to do for quite a while. “King of the Hill” was the first Eli song
that I had heard and it had touched my heart, and after hearing a radio
interview done with Eli several years before, I was intrigued. I picked up a copy of “Now the News”, his
most current CD, listened to it, and my intrigue and appreciation grew. This
was not your usual Christian music fare.
The issues were deep, and as a listener I was being told that I should
“take off my stupid bracelet unless I’m going to do what Jesus would.” Now that’s where it’s at, I thought. After
visiting the little lady’s room, I went back in to the church office where my
husband was waiting and found Eli entertaining both my husband and the
janitor with stories of his recent trip to After
conducting the interview and attending the concert that evening, I had a
whole new appreciation for this artist that I had always admired. I had come that day to conduct an
interview, and left having been ministered to & having a whole new
perspective. Eli was also gracious
enough to grant me a phone interview as well and the result of those 2 fairly
lengthy interviews is this article. I
have never experienced such upfront honesty and openness, as well as a
willingness to really serve and care about people, as evidenced by the complete
acceptance that he shows each and every person that comes to his concerts and
the time he spends with them. But don’t take my word for it. Read on and decide for yourself. This article is a culmination of several hours worth of interviews, but I think you’ll find what
Eli had to say very inspirational, enjoyable and well worth reading. He had a lot of interesting and important
things to say and was quite candid and upfront. This is far from your typical interview. So pull up a chair, grab yourself a hot,
steamy mug of your favorite beverage and be prepared for some life-changing,
thought-provoking, eye-opening and surprising reading. Simply Eli: Getting To Know The Man Behind The Music
“I’m just one of them,” exclaims Eli, after being
asked to describe himself. “I think
that’s the thing. The purpose of the
concert, especially…People have to take time to investigate. That’s why the songs are there, and it’s
not a ploy to get them to buy them.
That’s why I put them out there.
I’ve done all I can. People
have to take the time to investigate.
They need to come to a concert.
They need to listen to a CD.
There’s plenty of bootlegged stuff out there. We let people bootleg the concerts. We encourage them to. Pass the stuff around to your friends. We don’t care. It’s obviously not about money for us. We’re trying to do whatever we can to
encourage people. Money’s obviously
not our goal and people can tell that by now.
I’m every person you’ve ever met.
I’m the majority. I represent
the average male in Having started his music career as the indie artist formerly known as Paul Falzone
(and no, he hasn’t taken on a symbol for his namesake), he was given the name
Elijah by his adoptive father and laughingly jokes with audiences that Paul Falzone is dead. “I’m adopted,” said Eli. “It’s an adopted name. It’s a long, dysfunctional family thing,
but I was adopted by my stepfather, so I was given that name later. It’s not my birth name, so I have two
names. The man with two names. Many names.
The police are still looking for me under my other name. You always need one to fall back on when
leaving the country,” laughs Eli. Eli had some rough beginnings, and has seen his
share of struggles, beginning at a young age.
Having grown up in a really rough neighborhood in LA, “it was a really
bad one. It was a really nasty,
gang-infested area, and the cops wouldn’t even come into my neighborhood
unless there was 2 patrol cars and there were 2 cops per car,” he recounts a
time when he was in second grade and there was a sniper with a high-powered
rifle and scope shooting at the kids at the school from across the street,
and he remembers well the fear and humiliation tied to that experience. His father left the family while Eli was
still fairly young, and Eli dealt with many personal demons and struggles
from a very young age, from drugs, alcohol and promiscuity, to other personal
struggles, including living homeless on the streets of
It wouldn’t be until later on that he came to the
faith. “Yeah, I was in rehab. I had run away and I went into a group home
and ended up in rehab. About a
year-and-a-half later was when I became a Christian,” said Eli. A Young Eli It is these very struggles, some of which at times,
the church has been guilty of turning their backs on, that give Eli his
vulnerability and his ability to relate to all of us as a fellow Christian
who has struggled and failed and gotten up again, and who has found that
there is forgiveness and wholeness at our Master’s feet. It is the very thing that his fans find so
comforting and familiar about him. As
the words of his song “Unqualified” state, “Who am I that you should treat me
like a hero, I am no superman but just another face…” Eli sees himself as one
of us, and not a celebrity of any sort, refers to his concerts as a foot
washing service, in reference to Jesus washing the feet of the disciples,
evidence of his servant’s attitude, and readily admits his mistakes and
failures so that we can all deal with our own piles of manure, so to
speak.
He
is quick to point out, however, that at times, the relevance of his past as a
real testimony to faith, as poignant and real as it is, can sometimes be
wrongly glorified. After one of his
concerts, Eli was approached by a young man who was struggling with the sense
that he had no real testimony to his faith, as he had grown up in the church
and had never experienced the type of struggles that Eli had experienced and
overcome. “The sad part is that we’ve
glorified people like me because I’ve done all the stupid things,” states
Eli. “That’s a sin of the church. Basically it came down to (the fact that)
he was struggling with condemnation.
He was condemning himself for the fact that he hadn’t sinned. A part of him was feeling
like maybe he should go out and slip up so that he could feel more of
God’s grace. I’m going, ‘I understand
that maybe you feel like you should do that so that you can feel more of
God’s grace because right now you’re feeling these struggles, but do you
realize that you and I are both in the same place right now in our walk as
far as going deeper with the Lord? But
the difference is, we’re here, but I’m carrying extra baggage. I’m carrying guilt, condemnation (a
different kind of condemnation,)’…and to see him just open up and get it, I
said, ‘you’ve got to feel pain, you’ve got to be a
partaker of Christ’s suffering.’ (Eli
begins to read) 1st Chapter of 2nd Corinthians, Paul
says, “What a wonderful God we have,” starting in verse 3, this translation
is probably a little different,” states Eli, “but it says ‘What a wonderful
God we have, He is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every
mercy and the One who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our
hardships and trials. And why does He
do this? It says, ‘When others are
troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them the
same help and comfort God has given us.’
We’ve been partakers of Christ’s suffering, so that we can be
partakers of His comfort and pass that comfort along to others. “You’ve got to be partakers of his suffering as well
though if you’re going to be a partaker of that comfort. You’ve got to experience the suffering as
well,” said Eli. “And part of that
means, you can’t learn that from reading the Bible, you can’t learn that from
reading books or going to church services, you’ve got to experience a dying
to yourself and it has nothing to do with sinning. You can go out and sin all day long, that’s
not the road to suffering. That means
drinking from His cup and that means being a disciple and that means dying to
yourself from the inside, and that just means the hurting, and that means God
will use the things in this life, and whatever it is, it’s a cross you carry.
That’s what God will use, and when you see it like that, and when you see,
your perspective changes, (and) that becomes your crown as well as your
cross. God is saying, ‘This is what
I’m using to make you like me,’ and all of a sudden you realize how blessed
you are and you’re saying, ‘Oh, this is what you’re using to give me a
ministry like you Jesus.’ And he’s
saying, ‘Yeah.’ So the next time you
see that person crying and weeping you’re able to have true compassion for
them, not fake compassion, but true compassion to where when you reach out
for them, and they feel true comfort and peace and they look up at you and
you’re able to see them become whole, and you walk away and go, ‘That was
worth a freaking million dollars.’ And
that person walks away going ‘Thank you, that was
worth a million dollars.’ You walk
away going ‘Wow.”’ You’re like, that was worth everything. You’re like, okay, I get it now. And you’re able to go, ‘that was worth
it. All the pain, all the…that was
worth it.’ And I told him, ‘You
couldn’t sin your way to that dude.’
He was like, ‘Okay I get it.’
So sin isn’t the process to that, you can’t sin your way to that
either. It’s dying to that, and I and
everybody else thinks it’s the sin process.
It wasn’t that. It’s Jesus and
dying to that and you and I are both getting there now. My thing is, I did the other stuff as well
and found out a long way around the barn that… ‘Oh,’
and he finally got it. The New
Testament says that the prophets did the right thing and though they suffered
for a while, they’re really glad they did now. All these different lessons I’m learning
and these different things you’re seeing.
And he’s just like, ‘Oh, okay.’
But we don’t know unless we talk about it, unless the church is going
to continue to gather together and unless we’re going to read His Word and
find out about it “states Eli. “So
like I said, it’s a good time we’re having (laughing.) It’s pretty cool.” Eli has traveled a road from rough beginnings to
recognized success and it has been at times, wrought with some inherent
confusion. He recounts the many times
that he has had people approach him or write to him, asking that he would
take a second to come and say hi to a family member who is a fan. “I’m sitting there, and people are coming
up to me, and they have for years,” said Eli, “going, ‘Man, my son is 16 or
my kid’s 8 or my nephew or my wife or my husband or my brother, they’re HUGE
fans, would you please come over for just a second and say hi to them?’ I’m
like, ‘Wow, I’d be so honored.’ I’d be
like, ‘Sure.’ After that I’d give my
foot, okay!” laughs Eli. What was
confusing to Eli initially though was the reaction to those meetings. “I’d be like, ‘Hi, how are you? It’s such a pleasure to meet you,’ and
these people just stare at you, they just look at you!” At first, that led to Eli walking away
wondering, “Why do people do that to me?
The kid doesn’t even know who I am!
Why do people lie to me like that?
Do they feel sorry for me? Do
they try to make me feel better?” says Eli with a laugh. “Then a week later I’d get a 2 page e-mail
from this person. ‘Dear Eli, thank you
for taking the time to meet me. That
was the most incredible experience in my life.’ And I would be like, ‘Okay,
now I’m totally confused. You just
stood there and just looked at me. You
didn’t say a word. I went to reach out
for your hand and you were like a cold, lifeless body,’ and then all of a
sudden I realized, that’s when I started to realize with people that they
weren’t living in the same zone that I was walking in. That I was already, because I’m living in
fast forward because I’m having all of these experiences in a quick amount of
time that a lot of people aren’t having, and that they’re doing it in a
slower pace and I’m seeing the world in a quick amount of time, and I’m
meeting all these people all the time and so, and just because of my
personality and these things that I’m experiencing, are and have forced me to
open up and to be the way I am, and that’s why I realized that, yeah, you
know, that by me taking the chance and by me being vulnerable first, it has
the effect, it just doesn’t have it in front of me. It has it later. And I was like, oh, you’re just going to
have to take the chance and just do it and realize that it will have it’s effect but you just won’t ever get to see it in front
of you. You know? I do sometimes, but a lot of times it’s like, my life is always about throwing the grenade
and maybe hearing the explosion a week later.
It’s so weird because a lot of times it’s about with my eyes, looking
and going, okay, I know this is going to do something later. It’s about always planting the field but
never physically seeing the harvest.
You know what I’m saying? It’s
so weird. So now where I’m at, it’s
such a confidence and it’s such a thing of laughing, when everybody is
standing around you, you know, the locals, standing around you laughing and
going “You know, this ain’t never gonna be corn! And
you’re just laughing going ‘Alright man, I’ll be back for the salad.’ And you’re so confident that you’re
plugging in the refrigerator and you’re leaving all of your salad dressings
and your fixings and your silverware and they’re just looking at you like,
‘Dang, this dude’s not kidding’ and you’re like, ‘I’ll be back buddy. Don’t unplug that refrigerator because I’m
coming back to eat the rest of that salad.’
And they’re like ‘Dang, this dude, he might mean business.’
Eli recalls a man whom he and his staff had helped
as he was going through a really rough time in his life and the man was able
to pull his life back together again.
Once he was up on his feet again, for reasons that didn’t make sense
to Eli, this man felt that he now needed to know all of the personal details
of Eli’s life. “Yeah, and now he said,
‘Now before I’m able to answer other people’s questions about your divorce
and be able to stand up for you and support you and be able to support your
ministry, I would like to be able to know about your divorce now.’ And I was like, you know? I was so
hurt. I’m like, ‘Whoa.’ I’m just like, who are you? Yeah, it’s like all the sudden, you know
what I’m saying? I wrote back and I
said, ‘You know, I’ve answered all the questions I’ll ever need to to God, to my counselors, to the public.’ It’s one of
those things where we give and we give and sometimes you turn around and all
you’ve been doing is giving the whole time and you just turn around and you
just get kicked between the legs for it.
I’m just like, you know what?
MMM MMM, too bad. I mean, those things hurt. Those things really hurt.” Despite
all of the pain and brokenness that Eli has encountered, this is happily a
story of good overcoming evil, and of God using the pain in our lives to
bring about positive change, as all of these life experiences brought a
wealth of learning. Eli recounts all of the positive that has come out of the
negative. “It taught me how to
appreciate life, celebrate, be thankful, be grateful, you know, it’s one of
those things that taught me how to be careful for the future, how to love,
and to appreciate, and taught me that when you’re a kid, your not responsible
for the things that happened to you, you’re a kid, and to be forgiving of
yourself, and to learn to take responsibility for what you do. You need to
learn to put things in perspective and, my old adage of ‘It takes a lot of
manure, you know, to make a beautiful rosebush.’ To say the things that
you’ve been given, good or bad, allow God to put things into perspective and
say, you know, every one of those things has molded me into the man that I am
today, and I thank God for all of them, although I’m sure that He could have
used them…what would I be like without them today? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. The question is,
what am I going to do with it? What am
I going to allow? What am I going to
do with what I have? That’s the
question for all of us to ask. What am
I going to do with what I’ve got?
Well, that’s up to you. Are you
going to let God use it, or are you going to sit on a big old pile of manure
and just be self-destructive. That’s
still a valid option and if you want roses, well, all you’ve got to do is
just submit. If you want
self-destruction, well, get to it then.
One of the two, get busy, one or the other. That’s just what I tell people. It’s like, hey, you know? But the choice is yours, and you take
responsibility one way or another, but I don’t want to hear victim crying. That to me is irritating, because we’ve all
had a tough time, we’ve all had a really tough time,
a ton of people I’ve met. I’ve met
tons of victims, I’ve met tons of molestation survivors, I’ve met tons of
people who’ve been traumatized, and you know what? I’ve met tons of people who’ve had it worse
than the next guy. Worse in ways that
would make most of us just go, ‘I’ve got nothing to complain about.’ So when
I meet people looking for a pity party, I just say to them, you know, ‘If
you’re looking for a pity party, you’re not going to find one. Not with me.’ If you’re looking for validation, I can
absolutely validate your feelings and I will validate your feelings of
absolute pain and loss. You have loss,
you have pain, you have terrible heartache and sadness, you
feel those things, mourn those things, absolutely. Please do.
It’s healthy. But, don’t slit
your own throat again and become a victim again by just sitting there and getting
caught up in, by just doing the pity party thing or just wanting to use that
as an excuse. Instead, do something
about it by doing what’s proper for yourself. Sometimes, by people getting a swift kick
in the blessed assurance in that way, when they know you’re giving them love,
it says, ‘hey man, no, no, some of this is just garbage and you know it.’ You always see them smile and go, ‘Yeah,
you’re right, okay.’ It’s just what
they know and they go ‘Yeah, you’re right, I’m totally full of it.’ That’s just what they need and they go ‘Okay,
cool, I’m going to get on with my life.”’ Okay, great! Because they know you don’t have an agenda,
you’re just saying, I’m going to call you on that, that’s a foul right there,
that’s no good. You know? Okay
cool. Good. I’m proud of you. And you’re right there to affirm them
again. I’m proud of you. You’re doing the right thing. I’m really proud of you,
I’m impressed, good job. Keep
going. I’ll be your cheerleader, keep
going, alright. Okay. Next time you see them they’re right back
on track and they’re doing great.”
Eli’s concert the evening of the interview This
road called life would lead Eli from troubled beginnings, to finding God and
becoming a Christian, and finally finding himself, unexpectedly at first at
the age of 20, as a musician, whose music would eventually become a musical
ministry and a niche where all that he had gone through up to that point,
could now become a testament to the change that God can bring to our
lives. Eli feels that his being
introduced to music was miraculous in a way. Having no family musical
background to speak of “Absolutely nothing.
We have absolutely nothing musical in our family on any side, and I
mean nothing!” exclaims Eli. “My sister
took violin lessons for like a month and it was horrid. That was about as musical as we got. I
think she learned “Twinkle Twinkle Little
Star.” That’s our musical legacy,”
laughs Eli. He
came into music by way of what he feels was truly a miracle. A friend’s mother advised him that she
thought he should play the guitar. She
lent him her guitar and he went home and prayed for guidance. “A guy’s mom had walked up and just told me
I should play guitar, and I’m like, ‘you’re nuts,’” exclaims Eli. “I thought she was insane. It was totally out of the blue. About 6 months later she said, “You should
play guitar” and she had one in her hand and she goes ‘I’ll let you borrow
mine’ and I’m like ‘Oookay!’ I just went home that night and prayed
‘Lord, I have no idea how to play a guitar,’ you know? But I really loved worship, and I just
thought guys that could play guitar and sing, and worship anytime they want
were just the luckiest guys in the world, you know? Like man Lord, they can just worship you
and take this guitar anywhere and just stop and worship you. I used to sing worship songs walking behind
my lawnmower 8 hours a day (Eli was originally a gardener) and the other guys
just wanted record deals, you know, and I couldn’t understand it. So that night, I found a way to figure out
how to play worship songs. It was a
miracle.”
Debbie: Didn’t you know I did that on the side? eLi: Yeah, that would be
funny. Oh yeah, yeah, she does pull an
18-wheeler. You’re getting more
interesting by the day! Excuse Me Sir, But Your
Paper Is On Fire: The Controversy behind “Now The News” and
Setting The Record Straight “I think that if any of the people who have
questions were to take the time to actually come to a concert, I think they’d
understand that we serve people and you can’t serve people and love people
and be angry. You just can’t.” eLi Chances are, you haven’t heard any of the tracks
off of Eli’s last release played on your local Christian radio station, and
there’s a reason for that. There seems
to be a misconception out there about Eli and his latest album “Now The
News”. A misconception that this
latest project from the man of back-to-basics, soul-baring music ministry
just might be too angry, too cynical, too
un-politically correct for Christian radio and media to embrace. It might (heaven forbid) offend
someone. “When did Christians become
so worried that the Gospel might offend somebody?” exclaimed Eli. “That freaked me out. I thought, ‘what are we doing?’ It’s become
really a bizarre thing that I’m becoming more and more embraced by
non-believers than by the church, with the Gospel, and that’s creeping me out
because I’m one of the few artists whose whole desire has been to minister to
the church and (I’ve) been so vocal and so Christian, and yet it almost feels
like the more Christian I am, the more the church has been kind of like, “Oh,
you might offend somebody. You might
offend a Christian with Christ.” I’m
like… OKAY! And I’m angry now all of
the sudden, and I crack up with that.” “Now
The News,” released in 2001, came onto the scene and things changed for
Eli. According to Eli, there was a
shutdown on this newest release, with many Christian radio stations refusing to
play it’s title track or take the time to listen to
any of the rest of the album, stating that the song sounded too angry. “Now
The News”, Eli’s 3rd label release, was preceded by “Things I
Prayed For” and “Second Hand Clothing”, both of which did very well in record
sales, with singles such as “Second Hand Clothing,” “Second Hand Clothing
Part 2,” “Things I Prayed For,” “Unqualified,” “Stand” and “King of the Hill”
getting lots of radio play, with many of them scoring in the top 10. His songs have also had prime time exposure
on shows such as Providence, Party of Five and most recently on Dawson’s
Creek, when they featured the title track off of the “Now the News” CD. Both
of his previous releases had a strong autobiographical nature to them, with Eli
baring his soul to all who listened to his lyrics, exposing his own personal
struggles and weaknesses and his own view of his life and the world around
him. If you listen to these albums,
you get a strong sense of who Eli is, what he stands for, what he’s been
through and how his faith in God has changed him and turned his life around. “Now
The News” took a slight turn in focus for Eli. He stills feels that it is strongly
autobiographical in nature, while revealing a glimpse of how he sees the
world around us. Consider it sort of a
wake-up call to the church, asking us what we really believe, how we’re
living out that faith, and that we need to consider and review all that we
hear and see, with the title track focusing on the media’s strong presence in
our culture and how it shapes and influences much of how we perceive our
everyday lives, while songs like Master’s Feet reassure all who listen that
there is room for everyone at Jesus’ feet.
Now,
on the heels of a new album that he is currently in the studio recording,
there is the lingering concern that Christian radio might not embrace this
newest release either. “You know,
being in the studio, another song will come and another song will come, and
I’m finding myself with the new songs, going, you know, they’re deep, and
some of the audiences are just, depending on where they’re at, I’m finding
two kinds of audiences right now in Christian music. People who are
really deep and who are really getting it, and others, it’s just going right
over their head. They’re just so much
like, ‘Hey, make me laugh Eli. That
was funny!’ I am very funny and
they’re like, ‘Say something funny. Hey I like that hair sticking up in weird
places song,’ you know? They don’t go
beyond that. Here it is. These songs
are so deep and there’s so much meat in them and I’m just scared. I’m just
sitting there going, I don’t have a song about hair
for you. I don’t. I just have songs that are deep. I’m worried that once again that Christian
radio, that they’ll just say to me once again, ‘well, we don’t, unless you’ve
got, oh where is my hairbrush, or, you know, or if you’ve got a song about
cartoons or coffee or where is my hairbrush, we really don’t have a place for
you.’ And that’s God’s problem, but,
judging by the content of some of the comments… I’m still a person who, I listen to songs. When I hear a song I listen to it over and
over again and it moves me. I’m devastated by songs. I’m just like, ‘Wow!’ I’m a music fan still. I’m not a pop star fan, I’m a music fan,
and I still believe that there’s many of those out
there. I listen to all kinds of
music. My music tastes are totally
eclectic. So please understand, I’m totally on all ends of the spectrum. But my songs are,
I just feel like, for me, I know that what I write, it is what it is. It’s very much, what I think it is, at
least, it’s music that you can just turn on and listen to, at the same time
it’s not music that’s obscure lyrically that you’re like ‘Oh it’s so deep I
don’t even know what it’s talking about’.
It’s music that ‘Oh, this is about
something.’ And I just go, well, you
know, you can just listen to it and have it be background music, but if you
want to listen to the lyrics, it’s definitely going to say something. So it’s up to you. I don’t know. So, we’ll see. But if you want it to make you laugh, it ain’t gonna do that, you
know? If you want it to be music you
can juggle to, it ain’t gonna
happen. At the same time it’s not
brooding or anything. I don’t know.
Some of the songs are just downright beautiful. They’re just beautiful and amazing and I’m
so proud of them.” “I’m trying to lead my staff and follow the Lord
and that’s a really weird place to be.” eLi
Debbie: In your bio, you state that it takes a lot
of manure to grow a beautiful rosebush and now thorns and all, you’re ready
to bloom. You also mention that you
feel as if you’ve lived 100 lives, have done things you’re not proud of and
you also touch on the struggles of your youth and the pain of divorce that
you dealt with on the “Second Hand Clothing” album. Can you tell me a little about this
“manure” that has fertilized your faith and made you who you are today. How has all
of that shaped you? eLi: I think it’s the kind of stuff that the
church is uncomfortable talking about, but it’s the stuff that enriches
people’s faith. The ability to find
God in the valleys. We keep looking
for Him on mountain tops and we keep pointing people to mountain tops, but
very few of us live our day-to-day lives on mountain tops, and for me too,
and I’m not shying away from or saying we shouldn’t go for mountain tops, but
what I’m saying is that I see a lot of valleys. There is a lot of disappointment in life,
there’s a lot of negativity, you know?
Before 9/11, I’d hear things, I see and know that some people see me
as a… I know that some people, even in the Christian community, might see me
or feel that I’m negative or that I’m bitter or that I’m angry and I’m not
(saying it with conviction), you know?
I’m trying to say, you know, look at what’s really there and
understand that in our pain and in our failures God is there too. Why are we running from real truth, because
the masses, the people who sit in the audiences every night at my concerts,
are the real people.
They’re the 90 percent. They’re
dealing with things that I deal with.
They can’t pay their bills, they wonder if they’re going to be a failure,
they feel like they’re ugly, they wonder if the person they love is going to
love them back, does God really love them, is He real? All the different issues we deal with, the
things we don’t talk about, the hard to define moments, the quiet times, the
fact that we don’t like quiet. These
deeper things that we don’t talk about.
The fact that I hear songs on the radio about tragedy, about
Columbine, bam I hear songs about it.
9/11, bam, I hear songs about it.
I still don’t hear songs about what’s going on in the Yes, it does.
I think a lot of times in the Church, there are certain things that
are taboo, that you’re not supposed to talk
about. People don’t deal with it. How
can that be? The one place where we
say come and this is the place of ultimate truth. I’m not saying that it’s
not difficult. I’m not saying that
it’s not painful. I’m definitely not
bitter or angry about anything, but what I am saying is this. We are fools and hypocrites if we think
that the world doesn’t come in here and see that we’re lying. Because if you tell people that God is
here, then they come here and expect to see Him. And if we open the door and all of the
sudden we say, “but here are the rules God before these people come in, here
are the rules Lord, you are not to talk about this, this and this,” what’s
the point? Let’s just close the doors
and go home. It’s ridiculous. Here are the pre-nups. Many of the songs on the previous 2 CDs seem more
autobiographical in nature, and on “Now The News”, the songs seem to be more
of a wake-up call to the church to say hey, what do we really believe and how
are we living that faith out? What
caused that change in focus for you? At the point where “Now The News” came about, I
felt like I had spent the first two CDs… I had said everything that I needed
to say at that time about who I was and everything that was in me, and I had
given everything that a man could give as far as all his honesty and
vulnerability, pretty much baring my soul as far as an artist could, and
saying okay, this is the naked truth, the good, the bad and the ugly and
qualifying myself to be heard. I think
you need to do that. You don’t just
walk out, album one, with an album like ‘Now The News” because otherwise
people say, “Who do you think you are?” blah, blah, blah. So I felt like the first two albums I spent
sharing who I was, my mistakes, letting everybody see first and foremost I’m
not pointing a finger, I’m not angry, I’m not judgmental. I spent time focusing on me first. And then it was time where I felt God was
saying, “okay, now let’s take an objective view at all of ourselves and ask
the hard questions” and I felt like it was still very much on my heart, it
was still very much autobiographical.
Just what God was asking me, stretching me, saying “Eli, what are you
doing in light of the Scriptures? What
are you doing in light of the Word and what’s going on in the world around
you?” Challenging me, saying, “what
are you doing, saying, how are you affecting your
world?” What’s funny is, the people,
the people get it. What scared me was
how the world got it, the world press, the secular press, got it. What scared me was that the Christian press
was afraid of it. That disappointed me
because I thought, “You know what guys?
Why should you feel threatened?
Why should you call me angry?
Why would I be angry? It’s not
like I have anything to be angry about, but yet you’re just instantly afraid
of this. You’re
dealing with a guy here who’s got no agenda.
You’re dealing with a guy here who’s been living what he
preaches. You’re dealing with a guy
here who doesn’t want to be a rock star, who isn’t out there oppressing the
masses, soaking people for money.
You’re dealing with a guy here who’s got a track record of integrity
and everything, and who gives his albums away, so it’s not like he’s worried
about album sales. So all these
things, you can really look at and see, “Okay, this is a person who means
what he says”, and as soon as you hear a song like “Now the News,” basically
a song about mainstream Media, you’re offended by it. I thought, “How weird?” I really got a kick out of it. I thought, why are
you so offended and why are you worried that somebody might be offended? Well, I didn’t get any anger from the album at
all. I listened to the whole “Now the
News,” CD, I listened to the whole thing… (That’s
because) You listened to the whole thing. Yeah, I didn’t get that, I didn’t get anger from it… You
can’t, because, when you listen to a couple challenging songs, I think maybe
people feel like… It’s your
perspective. When you see an artist
who, you know, I’m getting older, and you decide how you want to see me. You know I’m getting older, it’s my third
album. See, I don’t know. I don’t
understand either. My last 2 albums were
great and they sold great. I come out
with this one and it’s strong and this and that, but we started with…I mean,
I don’t know. You want socially, you want to talk about an album that’s
relevant? This album was out months
and months before 9/11. You want to
talk about relevant and prophetic, okay?
And yet everybody totally, everybody ignored it still. The last verse
of that song, “Now the News”, I mean creepy.
But still, not a word still.
Nobody. I mean, calls were
coming in from all over the world from the other Christian radio stations,
they’ve all been playing the snot out of it, and then after 9/11, they’re
like, “Oh my gosh, so what’s it like in your country? Everybody must be asking you, “You know
Eli”. So I’m like, “Dude,” and
finally, I just finally had to tell one guy, “You know what, I’m sorry, but I
have not had one phone call. Nobody
even knows this album is out. They
don’t want to hear it. Unless I’m, you
know, bopping and lip synching on stage, and you know, just kind of doing the
Britney Spears thing, but yet I’m sorry but, I just, what am I supposed to be
angry about? I’ve had the best time of
my life. If you gave me a choice to do
that or what I love, what am I supposed to do? I love this. I mean, you know? Because there’s this whole media thing, and
then there’s reality, and what I’m going to do tonight (at the concert) is
reality. I live in reality. I live
with people in the real world. I’m talking about the record business. That’s not reality. I know the record business. I’ve been there
for like 5 or 6 years. I know what
reality is, and that ain’t it. You’re
mentioning radio play and everything and I honestly don’t think I’ve heard
any songs off of the new (“Now the News”) album on the radio. Exactly. But
I don’t think that the content is different, the subjects you’re talking
about. I don’t think… like “Stand” was
played a lot, “Second Hand Clothing, “ so those songs were played all the
time. Exactly. I think those (songs) had the same conviction
behind them as the songs on “Now the News,’ I mean, personally. Well,
that’s my point. We came out with “Now
the News” first, I just wanted to experiment and see, and immediately the
feedback we got was not “it’s a bad song,” or anything else, because it
wasn’t. It was a great song. Billboard Magazine got a hold of it, they
freaked out over it. I know Billboard
Magazine knows what they’re talking about.
Our reviews for this last album were stellar, every one of them,
stellar. It was a great album. We literally got back “Oh, we might offend
somebody.” Um, “It just seems
angry.” I thought, “you know
what? One song like that in your mix
might be good, you know?” For somebody
listening to a Christian radio station, maybe they need something to maybe
stir up a little conversation once in a while. Why not have something that says, “Hey,
maybe you want to think about it.”
Instead of the same safe, contrived, you know. This is safe, this
is the same thing you’ve been doing all week long. But then after that, it was immediately
like “We’re not going to listen to anything else. This is what this whole album is going to
be about” and there was a shut down and it was immediately branded, this
whole albums going to be (raspberries).
And you know what? I know you
can see my face and you can tell, I’m so okay with
that. That is the album God told me to
make. And looking at what happened,
I’ll tell you why. I was really okay
with it, I knew we were supposed to do it. When I do concerts, that album, we sell out
of it. It just flies out the
door. People will write me and go “You
know what? I’ve sat down and listened to it and that album is my
favorite. That album feeds me, it
convicts me, it speaks to me, it’s teaching me
something.” Whoa, that’s what it
should do. This is great. Every album has it’s
purpose. My CDs stay in people’s CD
collection. I see very few of them in
bargain bins. That means something to
me. I want them to be something that
is timeless. They need to be. Otherwise, I don’t want to make them and
churn them out. Everybody’s got
different goals. These are my goals,
okay, and I’m fulfilling my goals and that’s important to me. Everybody’s different. But what’s funny is this, here’s a cool
thing. Come 9/11, I didn’t have to
scramble, I didn’t have to readjust my ship’s course, not one bit. We were already on the course God had set
us (on) a year before. That meant we
were listening to the Lord. That’s
important to me. We didn’t have to
jump on a bandwagon, we didn’t have to do
anything. God had already said, “Go
this direction” we went, and we were already on it. Whether the world paid any attention to us
before, during or after didn’t matter to me.
You know what mattered to me?
That my Father was already saying, “Well done, my good and faithful
servant.” You see? This is important. When I get to heaven, all the other stuff here
ain’t gonna matter to
this little boy right here. This
little boy from LA is going to be going “Whew, thank you Jesus.” Once again, reprioritizing. Listen to what I’m trying to say to you,
because I really mean this. (I’m)
Really trying to get my brothers and sisters to understand, I know this is
hard because I know we all want validation.
Listen, I’m guilty of this so bad.
Trying to say, with my life, humiliating, and this is back to your
fertilizer question. Guilty, guilty as
charged. In saying, look at my life
here, I’m showing you by example, bad or otherwise, we all want validation
guys. But look at this example and let
it show you this album sold nothing, but look at the validation that came
from the Lord and wasn’t it good to be able to see when this all came down I
wasn’t found with my pants around my ankles taking a dump out in the
wilderness somewhere. Instead God
found me ready, and ready for battle, you know, in the sense that I wasn’t
lip synching on some stage. It seems like the church nowadays has become so politically correct… In a time when the world is so open to the Gospel,
which is hysterical to me. I have yet
to offend a nonbeliever. It’s
wonderful. I sit down with
non-believers all of the time. You
would be shocked at the e-mails I get from every kind of person, every kind
of nationality, every kind of religion, every kind of sexual orientation, who
come to my concerts. It’s surprising
the fear and the worry. Fear isn’t
from the Lord. All this, “What if,
what if…”, When you own a restaurant, not everybody who comes to eat there is
going to like the food, but you don’t close the restaurant because 10 percent
of the people don’t like it. What’s
freaking me out is that kind of seems to be the case (in the church). For me, I just go, you know, Okay. All I know is this. As long as God tells me to do what I’m
going to do, it’s not about numbers. I
just see a world, a Christian world, where we are going, “Well, our charts
say… our computers say…” and I’m going “Guys, what does God
say?” “Well, we don’t know, we haven’t had a fax from Him in a while,”
(laughter) and the fact is, it’s funny and I use sarcasm and satire and
laughter, but I’ve never once been on a rant or a rave, so I don’t know when
the last time I’ve been angry was. So,
for me, I just know that if I use humor, if that’s being angry, then I hope I
stay angry for a long time. (laughter). You know, God bless him, man! So, the people at the concerts, they sure
seem to be laughing their heads off for an hour-and-a-half, so they seem to
be pretty angry too then, so I hope we all stay this angry. They sure seem to be encouraged and having
a good time. So once again, I guess
it’s about your perspective. I know we
live in a sound byte society where the church is really taking the wrong
lessons from the world and even that, even the Catholic church, saying
they’re going to decide what they’re going to do about these guys who
molested kids. You know what, “You’re
going to decide?” I mean, as if like
“We’re going to decide when we’re going to punish them.” Well, what about the law? I mean, that’s the one thing that always
cracks me up. I’m thinking about the
government, like, when is the government going to step in and say, “Well, no,
we’re going to prosecute these guys,” and I’m thinking…I mean, it’s just
cracking me up, the common sense factors.
Even my story about (We both laugh) One of the things we had talked about…people
expressing their beliefs but not living them out. How did you acquire your servant’s
heart? What got through to you to be
able to do what you do? It
was a little easier for me for a couple of reasons. Number one, I didn’t have anything to give
up. You have nothing, you’ve got
nothing to lose, and I try and keep that perspective, I try and keep that
lifestyle. I try and keep giving the things I have away. It makes it easier. I don’t have anything. I don’t own very much. I own very little as a matter of fact. I’ve
had a house, I sold my house. I’ve
acquired things and I’ve gotten rid of them.
I don’t own very much. I mean,
what I own would fit in my van. Probably besides a couple of pieces of
furniture. But that’s because somebody
else buys that for me and I keep telling (them) I just don’t want it. I moved
into an apartment. What I own fits in
my van and the money I make, I just, it goes to places where it needs to go
and I have people that I take care of and that I love and I don’t need much. When you don’t have much to lose, it keeps
you in a place, it keeps you a little more
focused. When you have a lot to lose
it makes it harder and I think I’ve remembered that and tried to keep myself
in that kind of a focus. I still enjoy
myself and still buy myself some things and then I get rid of them
eventually, but in the meanwhile I enjoy them for a time. I think that’s the thing. I just read His Word and it reminds me, you
know, I can’t get away from what Jesus says.
I’m not saying that everybody needs to sell all their stuff on some
romantic notion, because my life is a hard one. There (are) people
who I spend a lot of time with when I’m off the road, and I use their cable
TV, you know (laughs), hang out. But
the silence and the solitude of not having those things is
very nice as well, but it can also be looked at as a bunch of romantic B.S.
as well. It’s a nice tension and
balance between the two that I have to have.
I’m a lot more disciplined on the road. When I’m on the road it’s a lot easier to
be focused on the Lord because I’m not as distracted. When you live that way
you see why we’re more spiritually in tune, because we’re not as distracted
by ourselves. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah, it does. I think that’s great because I think a lot
of people would have trouble doing that.
Giving up…you know. I think you
get attached, which you shouldn’t, but you tend to get attached to your
things, you know? Oh, I do. That’s why I just don’t allow. I can’t allow… It doesn’t have anything to
do with ministry to me. It’s just me
personally. I just get so frustrated,
I get so agitated with myself and just get, aw, I just get to the point where
I can’t stand it and I just throw it away.
I just don’t like it. That’s a
personal choice. Other people can have
those things and be fine. For me it
just frustrates me. I just don’t want
to have the TV going 24 hours a day, and otherwise I would, and just realize
it’s just a bunch of mindless garbage and, you know what I’m saying? I don’t want to sit there and watch “Behind
the Music” for 24 hours a day. I’d
just be like “Dude, I could live this.
Why not? You should just go out and do it, you know? You’re a musician.” It’s a situation of just going, because I’m
very obsessive and compulsive and I will get caught in a rut if I’m not
careful, so for me, you know, serving is sometimes, I battle my flesh as
well. You set up for yourself, you
know, a situation of things that you know that won’t work. Same thing as why I don’t hang out with
girls on the road. It’s not a smart
thing to do. So, it’s just things that
you know are good and right things for yourself because you know it’s the
right thing to do. Same thing with
serving, just because what Jesus tells you you’re supposed to do and not because
I’m a great and moral man, it’s just because what I was told to do in the
Bible there, and I’m just trying to do, just like what Jesus said, I’m trying
to do what my Father tells me. Get
Out the Pooper Scoopers, Because There’s Manure In
The Church:
A Wake-Up Call to the Church & The Music Biz to Get Real, Live With Integrity & Conviction, Take Responsibility & Care About Our Kids “I know the times I get up there and I’m faking it
and I’m having a hard time, people, they know. They’re not dumb, and we think they are,
and the music business thinks they are, and the church thinks they are, and
they’re not.” eLi
Eli
has a quote that is quite well known among his fans. “It takes a lot of manure to grow a
beautiful rosebush.” He feels that his
own life is a prime example of this quote in action. Having experienced many pitfalls and made
many mistakes of his own admission, he feels that he now is ready to bloom
with God’s help. Eli feels that this
is one of the problems prevalent in the church today. The unwillingness of people, who
essentially are the church, to accept that there will be “manure” in the
church, because there’s manure in everybody’s lives, whether they want to
admit it or not. He feels that it’s
time for the people of the church, as well as those of the music business, to
take an honest look at the apathy that we’ve allowed to seep in, and replace
it with honesty, integrity and conviction.
In other words, it’s time to really re-evaluate and live out our
faith. Here, eLi speaks more on that… Debbie: In
the song, “Do What You Said,” which is kind of what we’re talking about, you
really hit home about living out your faith and walking the walk versus just
professing empty words, no actions, and I especially like the lyric “Take off
your stupid bracelet, unless you’re going to do what Jesus would.” I think that is really relevant now. It’s easy to become, we all at times become
complacent in our lives and in our faith.
So what gives you the courage to speak out about it? eLi: I just use my
experiences, once again, and I just think, well, it’s like the pink elephant
in the room, you know? We’re all just
going to not say something? I guess
the long haul is maybe it won’t matter, I don’t know. I guess I just feel like, well, I guess
that’s the thing to me. I don’t know
if it will change anything by saying anything, but I know what happens when
you don’t, and that’s nothing. And
it’s always one of those things where people come up to me and go “Man, I’m
so glad that you say that, I’m so glad that you do that,” and I still feel
like saying to them, and sometimes I do, “Well, what are you going to do
about it?” But sometimes, they do
change things. I get an e-mail where I find out that some guy gave up the
cable TV and sponsored a kid with Compassion instead, that’s one life that
got changed. This thing we did last
night, very few people showed up for the benefit concert for this youth
program because, quite honestly, we in America, even the church, for the most
part, I’m speaking a lot in general terms okay, because I know there are
great programs, but I’m speaking very generally. I’m qualified to say these things, because
you know why? Most of the people who are going to read this, don’t travel like I
do. They haven’t seen what I’ve
seen. I have. I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
of churches. I see them all year long,
every year, all across this country and around the world, so I know what I’m
talking about, you know? I see the big
picture and for me, we as a Christian culture, we don’t care about our
kids. We want someone else to care
about them for us, and even then, even if it means that “we’ve got a whole
program for you, we’ve got everything in place, we’ll do it for you, will you just write the check?” “Well, no.
We really won’t. We really
don’t care.” And these people over
here in My website has been a great ministry tool. We called it Elinews.com so that it would
be news-oriented, and it would be something that people would go to and be
encouraged. Weekly updates that I
write myself. It’s a devotional, it’s thoughts, it’s not a fan-zine
kind of thing. It’s just more
informational. I personally would like
to just be an independent artist for a while.
I’m working on a new album right now, and oddly enough, I think with a
sense of freedom and being unencumbered from worrying about anything, like
all of the sudden now, it would figure I’m writing some of the best songs in
years, it’s like everybody’s looking at me like, “Where did that come from?”
and I’m just like, “Just a sense of freedom.”
A sense of not having to do anything, not having anybody looking over
my shoulder and saying, “It’s not Christian enough, or…” so, it’s good. Editor’s Note: One of the things eLi finds disturbing in both the Christian church and the
music business today is what he sees as a lack of sincerity and
conviction. Several days before this
interview took place, he had been singing somewhere else. A Christian pop group
who had performed that day as well, had been lip synching on stage. One of the girls from the group approached eLi later that day and asked for his honest opinion. As you may have guessed, that’s precisely
what he gave. “Two days before I was singing somewhere
else. This pop group, they talked to
me later, and it was just really cheesy and insincere and one of them got
together with me later and she was talking to me and she goes “Tell me what
you think.” I go, “Honestly, you
really want my opinion? You were lip
synching.” She goes, “Well, it was
really hard.” “You were lying to
people. You’re faking. You’re lying to people. You’re lip synching. You’re not even really
singing. It’s not like you even have
any instruments to play, and now you’re not even singing? It’s just crazy. Just because the world does it. So if we shoot people on stage, you’re
going to do it too because the world does it?” “Well, it’s hard, you know?” “I don’t care.” She was really receiving it. I said, “You know what, whatever it is that
you do, whatever kind of music, do it with sincerity. We lack sincerity in the Christian church
today. That’s our point. That’s not funny. Whatever you do, do it with sincerity. Because the people in these seats, they
know it. You know it. The whole time you’ve been sitting here
with me, you can tell if I’m a sincere person or not. You’re not stupid. And I remember that and I know that. I know the times I get up there and I’m
faking it and I’m having a hard time, people, they know. They’re not dumb, and we think they are,
and the music business thinks they are, and the church thinks they are, and
they’re not. Here’s a good litmus test
for you and for anybody else if they’re listening if they hear this part and
I don’t know if they will or not…here’s your litmus test. Would you do what you did the other day
(that performance, the kind of music you did, whatever it is, even if you’re
a pastor or housewife or plumber, performer) everything you did, the same
thing you did. Now that 9/11 happened,
would you do the same thing you did for the survivors and the victims of that
tragedy? Would you do that same performance
you did for them? And she just goes,
“Oh, no.” I said, “Then why do you do
it at all? If you have to adjust what
you do to fit the circumstance, then what you do is not who you are. It’s not sincere.” She goes “I get it.” I said, “I, whether I’m in a prison or in a
complete conservative church or on television, I just do what I do. It’s who I am. You, even if you’re a hip hop artist, do
what you do and if it’s sincere, you should be able to do it at a funeral, a
wedding, a bar mitzvah, whatever and it will be received and it will be
sincere. It will have integrity to
it. You see what I’m saying? You won’t have to apologize. You wouldn’t dare do what you did up there
because you know it was hokey and cheesy and totally about self and it was
pitiful, it was a joke. It was like,
you can do more. You can do more than
just stand up there and look cute on stage.
You can do more. I don’t want
everybody to be me. I don’t want
everybody to be Eli. I want them to
truly be who they are. Because when
we’re not, we’re saying that God wasn’t smart enough, that God wasn’t
creative enough and what I’m saying is, no, go deeper. Don’t be like me, but don’t be like
everybody else either. What did God
make you to be? Let’s really find
out. Let’s not punk out and just go,
well I’m going to go with the status quo.
It’s not Eli, but it’s not everybody else either and let’s find out who it is.
Otherwise we’re not really saying that we trust the Lord. If we’re going to do that, we’ve got to allow each
other some wiggle room. We’ve got to
allow God to be God. What’s that going
to take? For us to be a little
uncomfortable. That the church,
Christian music, everything is going to have to be a hospital again. The people are going to have to try to
understand each other. Not say “No,
spell it all out for me, I’ve got to understand
every part of it. No, because that’s
impossible. By the time you water
something down so that everybody can understand it,
it’s so mundane and blah that it’s just blah, blah, blah. You understand? It’s going to be like, no,
you’re going to have to take some time and some effort here to lean in and
lend me your ear, for him who has ears to hear. You understand? So, this church is going to have to be a
hospital. What does that mean? That blood is going to get spilt on the floor, that the chairs are going to get dirty, that
they’re going to get used. Otherwise,
it’s like the hospital that says, “Are you sick? Oh I’m sorry, could you leave please and
come back when you’re well and then we’ll treat you.” That’s a country club. By definition, that’s a country club. It means that we’ve got to be willing to
spill and have disease, be surrounded by disease and sickness and smell and
(be) uncomfortable. But in that we
learn compassion and love and tenderness.
It’s what you see when you hang out with a bunch of poor, disheveled,
uneducated people. In the midst of
that you see tenderness and love that you don’t find around a bunch of
stuffy, upper middle class people who don’t know how to talk to each
other. It’s the truth. I’m just saying. Am I wrong?
Find out. Anybody who doesn’t
agree with me, you go find out for yourself and write me a letter because
that’s the world I see all the time. I
see all the polar opposites and I’m being very general to just make points
and to bring in observations. But it’s
just true. These are just the weird
dichotomies and we’re trying to sterilize God and I just think it’s
weird. It’s bizarre to me. I’m just…sorry, I just got a little excited
(laughing). It’s okay.
You said you traveled all over the world and everything. Is that a music ministry? Yeah. I started this year in No. Okay,
case closed. That’s just what they
really want to know is going to happen.
Those are the kinds of approaches.
Just think a little about what people really need and want. It’s them that have come and taken their
time to come and sit on that chair. Is
this concert tonight about them or about me?
It’s about them. What do they
need? This is a foot-washing
service. It’s not an Eli service. Let me tell you, I am sick of hearing
myself sing. Listen, I’ve got the CDs
at home somewhere. Those kinds of
mentalities come into play.
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