Interview with Bart Millard - Under The Radar

We're talking with platinum-selling lead singer of Mercy Me, Bart Millard. I focused our interview on his love of hymns & his 2 solo CD's.

DT: When do you first remember falling in love with music?
Bart: Music was a huge part of my upbringing - my dad loved music, my mom sang all the time. I guess growing up in the church - they said I've been singing ever since I was born. I didn't really get really serious about music until probably my sophomore year in high school. I was a big football player and broke my ankles in a game and I had to quit the football program. The only class available since the school year had already started was Choir. So, reluctantly I got into choir, which was totally not cool coming from football. I had an amazing teacher that kind of made me realize that I had a gift. Started singing more and more and fell in love with it and it's obviously changed my life.

DT: What inspired you to make your solo projects, "Hymned, No. 1" and "Hymned Again"?
Bart: The Hymns record... It was a promise I made to my grandmother when Mercy Me started taking off. She used to always give me a hard time saying, "One day I want you to make an album similar to the music you grew up on". I grew up in East Texas and the country and the New Orleans style all played a part in the little bitty country church that I went to, which my Grandfather and Grandmother started. Unfortunately she passed away during the making of it. But I still wanted to finish it just as a promise I made to her. Once I finished it, the one thing I didn't see coming was my kids learning all these old hymns that I grew up on, and unfortunately the church probably doesn't sing as much as they used to. But you know, it's something crazy when you're sitting in the car and your kids are screaming for "Old Rugged Cross" again and again. So I knew at that point I would definitely be making more and sure enough, we made the second one Hymned Again and same thing's happening. The kids are loving the songs and singing them, knowing them by heart. If I had my way I would do ten more if I can.

DT: The Hymns projects is a stylistic departure from what we're used to with Bart Millard. Was it a stretch for you?
Bart: It is definitely music that I enjoy now. As far as my experience with music, I would say I probably have more experience with the music on the Hymns records than I would with what Mercy Me's doing. The style of music on the Hymns records, I mean that's my entire life, that's from when I was born, everything we listened to - and it became very natural to go into the studio and start making those records. Mercy Me does come naturally, but it definitely was a musical style that became a part of my life obviously later in life - and stuff that's hopefully more current. But, it wasn't really a departure so much - departure from what Mercy Me does - but making the Hymns records was like putting on an old pair of shoes.

DT: You've been able to remake over 20 hymns so far. Are any of your versions extra special to you?
Bart: On the first album, "The Old Rugged Cross" is really, really special to me. On a lot of the songs we try to do things different and make songs that sometimes come across boring when you are in church as a ten year old - kind of put a little more life into them, but also kind of maintain the old soul about them. And so we did that with a lot of them. But when we got to "Old Rugged Cross" it was more of a stripped down thing, like "Man I don't know if I really want to touch this much and I want it to be really, really intimate." So it's really just Barry playing guitar, a friend of mine playing Dobro, and a female friend of mine sang the backgrounds. That's pretty much the whole track. For it being so little, it's one of the biggest songs in my opinion on the records. I love the whole vibe of it. I just love the dobro solo, it's just haunting. That song certainly took on a whole new life for me, especially with what the lyrics are saying.

Episodes #64 and #65 of "Under The Radar" feature a collection of artistic re-creations of classic hymns. Bart Millard is a special guest on both episodes.