How a Christian Artist Connected with This Country Star for Worship Collab
By Movieguide® Contributor
Brandon Lake and Jelly Roll recently released their collaboration of Lake’s song “Hard Fought Hallelujah,” and the duo shared how it happened in a recent interview.
“I’m a Brandon Lake fan,” Jelly Roll admitted in a K-LOVE interview. “Right before I got rid of my phone…he had dropped the first teaser of this ‘Hard Fought Hallelujah’ song, and I just could not quit singing it.”
He wanted to connect with Lake because he believed their values aligned.
“I really wanted to share the song with somebody that had a really beautiful and hard-fought story, you know, and, like, the first person that came to mind was Jelly,” Lake added.
He continued, “I’m like, this is such a long shot, but you know, I get my team to reach out to his team.”
Lake was unsure if Jelly Roll would be open to it, and it took some time for the two to get in touch.
In the meantime, Jelly Roll performed “Believe” with Brooks & Dunn at the CMAs, and the following morning, Lake watched their performance on his phone.
“I’d never seen church like this happen…just so unexpected, and I’m literally bawling my eyes out. I felt the Spirit of God translate through my phone from that moment after the fact,” he said. “And I was like, Oh my gosh. Like, this is the dude, like, he just led the world in worship. And I don’t think anyone saw it coming. People are standing up, lifting their hands, there’s tears rolling down their face. And I was just so moved.”
The singers finally connected and spent some time talking together before they worked on the song, which released earlier this month.
READ MORE: UNLIKELY COLLAB RESULTS IN POWERFUL VERSION OF THIS WORSHIP HIT
“I haven’t had a record touch me like that in so long,” Jelly Roll told Lake in a different interview. “It’s been years since I worshipped the way that I worshipped to that song. Because like, I carry my faith with me, but I’m also struggling and very honest and open about that.”
“I believe music meets you where we are,” he continues. “I needed that record when I heard it, but then to double back and be like, yo, there’s a chance you could work on this record…God sends me the record and not only does he want me to listen to it and worship, he wants me to live with it and learn it.”
Lake recently made his Grand Ole Oprey debut and invited Jelly Roll to join him on stage to perform the song.
“Whenever I got to be a part of this song, I knew it was going to be one of the most special songs of my entire life,” Jelly Roll told the audience when he got on stage. “I believe in these little things called God winks and I was leaving the Grand Ole Opry last night and I was listening to 97.9, the Big 98 here in Nashville, I heard ‘Hard Fought Hallelujah’ on country radio. It just showed God will always use his most unlikely messenger.”
READ MORE: A WORSHIP SONG TOUCHED JELLY ROLL SO DEEPLY THAT HE DID THIS…
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