Guest Host, Alex McFarland, is joined by musical dynasty, Van Zant

Transcribed with OpenAI Whisper (base.en). Timestamps are approximate. Lightly cleaned for readability; quotations from on-air callers may include filler words. Use the audio player above for the authoritative recording.

1. 0:00Darkness is not an affirmative force.
2. 0:03It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
3. 0:07This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
4. 0:11It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite.
5. 0:15Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media.
6. 0:18And the philosophies of this world.
7. 0:21God has called you and me to be his ambassador.
8. 0:24Even in this dark moment.
9. 0:26Let's not miss our moment.
10. 0:29And now, the Hamilton Corner.
11. 0:34Well, good evening America.
12. 0:35Alex McFarland here on the Hamilton Corner,
13. 0:38and we have got a great show.
14. 0:40I mean, you know, it's Thanksgiving week,
15. 0:41and I hope you're all set for a special week to praise God
16. 0:45and to be with family and do special things that you love.
17. 0:51But we've got a great show this week
18. 0:53because we have got on the Van Zant Band, the website
19. 0:58VanZantBand.com, Donnie VanZant and Johnny VanZant and they've got a brand new record out that
20. 1:07is a wonderful Christian album.
21. 1:10You know these guys from bands like Leonard Skynard and 38 Special.
22. 1:14Listen, I grew up listening to their music.
23. 1:17And several weeks ago I was on a show with them and they were just so gracious and this
24. 1:21is a completely different audience and later on in the show we're even going to open up
25. 1:25the funds and give you an opportunity to ask questions.
26. 1:28But we've got them on and guys,
27. 1:31I want to say thanks for being interviewed again by me.
28. 1:35But welcome. Maybe this is your first visit to
29. 1:39the American Family Radio Network and guys,
30. 1:41we're glad to have you.
31. 1:44Our pleasure, man.
32. 1:45Yeah, our pleasure, man.
33. 1:47Glad that we can be here and it's a great week
34. 1:50and for families to all get together and have some Turkey
35. 1:54It's a awesome week.
36. 1:56Exactly.
37. 1:57So what are you guys going to do?
38. 2:00I want to get into the record and talk about this because you've gone to the absolute heights
39. 2:08of pop music and rock and roll.
40. 2:11But what led you to do a Christian album?
41. 2:15And first of all, where can people get it?
42. 2:18What's on it?
43. 2:20And how did God lead you into creating some really awesome contemporary Christian music?
44. 2:27Yeah, brother.
45. 2:29We might have told you last time we told you, but we have a bucket list of things that we
46. 2:34want to do as brothers together musically.
47. 2:38And right at the top of that bucket list was doing a Christian record.
48. 2:42So it's been great so far.
49. 2:45You know, for us, it was pulling us years ago through our dad knowing the Bible.
50. 2:50And of course, we're like a lot of youngsters.
51. 2:53We went off and did our thing.
52. 2:55And you know what?
53. 2:57We've done that thing pretty well off,
54. 2:59but there was always something missing.
55. 3:02And that was Jesus Christ.
56. 3:04And older in your life,
57. 3:08you realize just how much you need him.
58. 3:11And we're coming into the season of Christ.
59. 3:16And it's just a wonderful time for us to have this album hit.
60. 3:20actually hit November 22 Friday last week and oh well it's been a great great
61. 3:25you asked where can you get it you can get it you can go to Vansant Band.com
62. 3:30and also Frontier Records and hopefully soon Walmart and everywhere else but
63. 3:41it's been that's where I go to yeah it's been a really really a blessing
64. 3:48for us and we've sang for ourselves now we're seeing for Jesus.
65. 3:53Well it is a great record and you know I I don't know I guess it was six or seven weeks
66. 3:59ago I saw on a website that you guys were releasing this and by the way the album is always look
67. 4:05up it is a great album and listen I've been fans of your music for decades literally and
68. 4:13You know, I listen to it and hey, the lyrics are great,
69. 4:16the musicianship is great, but folks,
70. 4:20I wanna encourage you to support this album
71. 4:22because I hope there's a whole lot more
72. 4:25coming from you guys as well.
73. 4:27And the website again is Van Zant Band.
74. 4:32You mentioned Walmart, isn't it cool?
75. 4:36Cause listen, I grew up spinning vinyl.
76. 4:39I mean, you know, when I was a teenager,
77. 4:42Anytime I could get my hands on a few dollars,
78. 4:45you know, my sister and I were going down to the record store
79. 4:48and I bought y'all's records.
80. 4:50I'm from the South, y'all.
81. 4:52But isn't it cool, like in places like Barnes & Noble
82. 4:56and Guitar Center and Walmart, there's vinyl now.
83. 5:01The records are back.
84. 5:02Isn't that cool?
85. 5:04It is cool.
86. 5:05I mean, LPs are back big time.
87. 5:07You know, we went from two records
88. 5:10because that's one of the things they wanted to do.
89. 5:13They're an Italian company and vinyl's really big in Europe.
90. 5:19And we were like, great, we're all in because we want to see it.
91. 5:23You know, cause we grew up as kids, like you just got to say,
92. 5:27and you know, buying the vinyl and the double ones.
93. 5:29Oh boy, I was thrilled when we got a double one.
94. 5:32You know, to open, eat all this good stuff.
95. 5:35And there's something very appealing.
96. 5:39and yeah, attractive to have a vinyl,
97. 5:42we're selling vinyl and CD,
98. 5:43of course.
99. 5:44Yeah, but it was always cool for me to have a LP
100. 5:48because I open it up and read who wrote the songs,
101. 5:52who produced it and engineered it.
102. 5:55So we used to dream about that.
103. 5:57We'd say one day it's gonna be us.
104. 5:59I wrote a song.
105. 6:02We recorded it, you know.
106. 6:04So I gotta ask you this.
107. 6:06What's it like to be out?
108. 6:09Because I'm sure this has happened to you guys, you know, hundreds of times.
109. 6:13Maybe you'll be out in a store or something and you hear yourself over the sound
110. 6:19system. Some of your own music is because it's just become a part of the American
111. 6:24culture. What's that like?
112. 6:29Well, Alex, I can tell you for it.
113. 6:31It's Donnie Vance.
114. 6:32Yeah. Yeah.
115. 6:33But I can tell you what the 30 eggs special I'm hearing at a public grocery store
116. 6:38now. It's actually great. I mean, I got a kick out of it.
117. 6:43Yeah, years ago, I was, I think I was in another grocery store
118. 6:49here in Florida and we like it. Yeah. Amen.
119. 6:54Southern. Yeah, amen. And I heard a song called Red, White and
120. 6:59Blue of mine and Donnie's and I was sitting there shopping and I
121. 7:02went, man, that song sounds familiar. And I heard, I mean,
122. 7:06got mostly all the way through it before I realized it was us. So I was like, Hey, that's us, man. Yeah,
123. 7:11there was a lot of stuff. Alex, I will tell you that what was really cool for us the other day
124. 7:18was I like reading the comments about what people thinking about the records, you know. So there was
125. 7:24one on there where actually it was fun. It's like a music director of another church that we know
126. 7:31nothing about but they were actually worked up speak his name and we're playing in church
127. 7:37and there's another church that was playing there you are in their church so it was like
128. 7:43like a Christmas present for us. It was pretty cool. Donnie actually, we about 12 to 9 so
129. 7:513,000 pounds like huh yeah okay and but hey you got us very excited you know what we're really excited
130. 7:58about spreading to Word of God. You know, we, you know what, He has gotten us through hard, hard times
131. 8:04in our life and things that maybe most people might not make it through, but with His help, He has
132. 8:11helped us through it. And I always tell people say, at your darkest point, God wants you to come
133. 8:17to Him. He wants you to ask Him for help. And all you have to do is go to Him and it really, really
134. 8:25It is a pleasure to have this music out and spreading his name, you know, Lord Jesus Christ.
135. 8:30But I'll be true of whether we first did it when we start doing the record. Between men, Johnny,
136. 8:38we just said we could bring one person to Christ that would be worth the whole project. We have
137. 8:44really... Yeah, so we're happy about it, man. Well, and I want to encourage everybody to look at
138. 8:50the video of Jesus Christ. This is from Van Zand, the album is always look up. That guys, that is one
139. 8:58of the most powerful songs. The lyrics are so powerful to that song. And you know what, we're
140. 9:05coming to you from our little studio behind my house and you know, I have a picture of Jesus Christ,
141. 9:12the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on my wall. And we didn't have a guitar, but we thought,
142. 9:19I had an old broom in here and I thought, how would it be for Jesus to carry that cross? What would
143. 9:25the music sound like? And we kind of started banging on that just going, do, do, do, do, do.
144. 9:32And that's where it started at. And of course, all the lyrics are very, very true. Fortunately,
145. 9:39that they're true because of course they sacrificed him. But the end of that song,
146. 9:45he has risen and for your listeners don't think it's over with because we're getting
147. 9:52ready to get busy at the end of that and pray.
148. 9:56Amen.
149. 9:57Hey, I got to tell you guys this several weeks ago you guys were graciously with me on another
150. 10:05show and a lot of my friends were like did you really get to interview them and I was
151. 10:10like yeah man they were super nice.
152. 10:13So Donnie, I got to tell you this, the weekend several days after we had that previous interview,
153. 10:20I went to a family reunion.
154. 10:22And we saw a cousin that I hadn't seen in a lot of years, great Christian guy, Greg Layton
155. 10:28is his name.
156. 10:29So he has in his basement kind of a man cave where he's got a big screen TV and on the wall
157. 10:34a lot of mementos.
158. 10:35Well, he had this framed picture of a lot of concert ticket stubs that he had seen
159. 10:42concerts over the years, but right in the middle of this framed picture, clearly it was the special
160. 10:49one to him. Right in the middle was a big ticket stub of 38 special. And I said, if I was seriously,
161. 11:00and I was like, Hey, check it out. I just got to talk to Donnie Van Zandt. So anyway,
162. 11:06Forgive me for going all fanboy on you, but anyway, it's great. That's cool. I think that's great. You know what?
163. 11:14That was back probably when that ticket sale was probably about $10, right?
164. 11:20The prices have gone up now I gotta say this to
165. 11:24Johnny I saw
166. 11:26Leonard Skinner three times over the decades and I always remember I mean so many of the songs like
167. 11:33like Simple Man and, you know,
168. 11:37Sweet Home, Alabama and all that.
169. 11:38But it was always, I mean, it was high drama at the end
170. 11:44when those first piano chords would start of Free Bird.
171. 11:48And, you know, people would cheer, many people would weep.
172. 11:51Cause that is one of the most powerful songs.
173. 11:54What was it like to, you know,
174. 11:58get up in front of probably millions of people
175. 12:01over the years and to be able to sing something that would captivate people so emotionally.
176. 12:07What was that like?
177. 12:08You know, when I first started with Skinner back in 87, I did not sing it.
178. 12:16And we'd always put Ronnie's hat on the microphone and the crowd would sing it.
179. 12:20We were out in Sacramento, California.
180. 12:22I came off stage and Gary Rossings was like, Hey, you're singing Free Bird tonight.
181. 12:27I was like, What are you talking about?
182. 12:29And I said, no, man, don't we made that decision, you know?
183. 12:32And he said, look, your brother was a singer and a songwriter.
184. 12:36He'd want you to sing those words.
185. 12:38And coming from Gary, who was Ronnie's, well, Ronnie was like a father to him, you know,
186. 12:43they went to have a plane crash and went through all the stuff, the make-a-lin, and skinted,
187. 12:48I went, okay, I'll try it tonight, you know, because he told me, he said, I'm not going
188. 12:52back out, not unless you go out.
189. 12:54We're going to have a riot.
190. 12:58But you didn't know what, I did it at night, I've been singing it every since.
191. 13:03And of course, I could never sing it as good as our brother Ronnie.
192. 13:07All these Skinner songs I could never sing as good as him.
193. 13:09He wrote them.
194. 13:10It was heartfelt.
195. 13:13And his message was, well, it's four generations broad now.
196. 13:20But it's been an honor and a pleasure.
197. 13:22And that song I've had people come up and say,
198. 13:25I've played it that, you know, my father's funeral,
199. 13:29or, hey, it was our great-
200. 13:31Chantong, you know, free bird, yeah.
201. 13:33You know what?
202. 13:35I'll be to Johnny does a great job at it.
203. 13:38He's not going to.
204. 13:40He doesn't trip.
205. 13:41Now you 20 bucks.
206. 13:43You'll be 40 bucks.
207. 13:44You'll be 40, oh, yeah.
208. 13:46Right.
209. 13:48It's been an honor and a pleasure.
210. 13:50And I wish if I had my just about it,
211. 13:53but I wish that Ronnie was here.
212. 13:55You know, years ago, I tell people, me and Donnie
213. 13:57went and seen BB King years ago.
214. 13:59And it was a gentleman that came out on stage
215. 14:01with a red solo cup and a towel.
216. 14:05And he, they could be able to take the towel off
217. 14:07of the arm, wife and space,
218. 14:09and he'd take a sip of whatever was on that.
219. 14:12Red solo cup.
220. 14:14And I thought, man, you know, I could have done that,
221. 14:17Ronnie.
222. 14:18I wish that he was here.
223. 14:20And you know with this gospel album always look up. I think well
224. 14:25We wanted to have been like a fall three of us would have been here
225. 14:27You know, but sure but he's in a hair in a better place than we are and we just got to work our way there to see him again
226. 14:34We have a song called
227. 14:36That's why I hold that for give me guys. We got to take a break
228. 14:40Folks stay tuned
229. 14:41Van Zant the the album is always look up great Christian album. I highly recommend it
230. 14:46We're going to have more plus-year phone calls later on in the show.
231. 14:49Stay tuned.
232. 14:50The American Family Radio Network is back after this brief break, Alex McFarland with Van
233. 14:55Zand, a discipleship minute with Joseph Parker.
234. 15:03Sheep desperately need a shepherd.
235. 15:06And we are like sheep.
236. 15:09The Lord is my shepherd.
237. 15:10I shall not want.
238. 15:13Psalm 23 is not just a nice poem.
239. 15:15actually is one of the most favorite passages in all of God's word.
240. 15:20But the fact is, it's not just a nice poem, a nice psalm to be drawn from.
241. 15:25It's a weapon, an important tool for us to read and meditate on every day to confess and
242. 15:31stand on.
243. 15:32Father, thank you for the gift, Psalm 23 is.
244. 15:35Thank you for the opportunity for us to speak Psalm 23, and to know that we can trust your
245. 15:41word.
246. 15:42You have guidance.
247. 15:43You have counsel.
248. 15:44You have encouragement, strength, wisdom, and power, so much more for us as we simply read
249. 15:49and meditate on your word and listen to the voice of you, our great shepherd.
250. 15:53Thank you for the opportunity to do just that.
251. 15:56In Jesus' name we do pray.
252. 15:57Amen.
253. 15:58Shiting light into the darkness, this is the Hamilton Corner, an American family radio.
254. 16:12Welcome back to the program.
255. 16:13Alex McFarland here.
256. 16:15What a privilege to be talking to Donnie, Venzant, and Johnny Venzant.
257. 16:20your life. You've been hearing their music. You've been hearing songs like
258. 16:24caught up in you and hold on loosely and give me three steps and all the great
259. 16:30songs of Leonard Skynard and 38 Special and they're so gracious to be with us
260. 16:35tonight and we're promoting their their record always look up. It's on front tier
261. 16:41records. It's available digitally and LP. I encourage you to support this. These
262. 16:48guys are out there making music for the Lord and God is using them in a great way.
263. 16:53And guys, welcome back.
264. 16:55Thanks for being with us on the American Family Radio Network.
265. 17:00Thank you.
266. 17:01Thank you for having us.
267. 17:04So let's talk and later on we will take some phone calls and I'll give that number.
268. 17:10It's triple eight, five, eight, nine, eighty eight, forty, triple eight, five, eight, nine,
269. 17:15eighty eight, forty.
270. 17:19I wonder like, do you guys play in church?
271. 17:23I mean, have you tried out some of these songs,
272. 17:27you know, in your church?
273. 17:29And then, hey, the ones that got the best reaction,
274. 17:32you said, okay, we're gonna put that on the album.
275. 17:34How did you select these songs?
276. 17:37Wait, we sort of did, if you want another church.
277. 17:40I mean, man, we went in here, you know,
278. 17:42recording on Christian records.
279. 17:44We had no really ideal, really what we were doing.
280. 17:47We were just trying to write the best song we could write, you know?
281. 17:51But we did all of Johnny coming here because it's his church.
282. 17:54Yeah. Yeah. I have a, I go to a little community church here and my
283. 17:58pastor's a great guy and I called him up and I said, Hey, we just recorded this
284. 18:03song, Jesus Christ.
285. 18:06Would you, uh, listen and see what you think, you know?
286. 18:10And, uh, uh, I want to tell you listeners, neither one of us are perfect.
287. 18:14and we're not preachers, we're just singers that love Christ.
288. 18:19But I wanted to take it to my pastor, a man of God who's lived this whole life
289. 18:25praising our Lord. And if I figured out if we got at least a C or we'd be okay.
290. 18:32I played Jesus Christ for him and he looked at me and said, man, that's amazing. What, what,
291. 18:38amazing. And you know what, that kind of gave us the encouragement to keep going to
292. 18:44He's right and play in a more songs and
293. 18:49We we used we used the church. It's called high point. Yeah, and we really we
294. 18:57You know we play songs for them that give us our feedback and it was
295. 19:03Well, it was really funny most of this record doing COVID, you know
296. 19:07I was off the road for 15 months and scared to death like the restaurant world. What is this and and
297. 19:12And I didn't leave home and Donnie's my neighbor,
298. 19:16so we have our little studio here.
299. 19:18And always kids say we shut down the grid here
300. 19:22and Middleburg where we live at,
301. 19:24because we use so much lights.
302. 19:26We're up all night.
303. 19:27God was just pouring it on us, you know what I mean?
304. 19:30And we couldn't sleep.
305. 19:31We're like, oh Lord, oh God, we got this.
306. 19:33What about this lyric in it?
307. 19:35And we had an amazing time,
308. 19:37but we were trying to find a right home and for it.
309. 19:41And what's funny is that my congregation for what,
310. 19:46since 21 or the beginning of 22, the end of 21, 22,
311. 19:52they've been going, when is this record coming out?
312. 19:55We want it.
313. 19:56Yeah.
314. 19:57Yeah.
315. 19:58It's really good.
316. 19:59We're doing a thing December the 1st
317. 20:01and appreciation thing at my church where we're gonna go
318. 20:04talk about each song and how they came up with it,
319. 20:08how we came up with it.
320. 20:09and just to give back to the church,
321. 20:13just an amazing place and Crowder has a song called
322. 20:18Come As You Are.
323. 20:19And you can come to my church,
324. 20:22it's not a wealthy church,
325. 20:23it's a really come church and people come as they are to it.
326. 20:29And it's just gonna be an amazing day for us.
327. 20:33Amen, amen.
328. 20:34Well, are you gonna tour and promote the album?
329. 20:39You know what, I'm a little more hopeful with it.
330. 20:41I got to be.
331. 20:43Donnie had, you know, ear problems.
332. 20:45Yeah, you know, ear problems.
333. 20:46I had internerve damage, which out here in ACE,
334. 20:52I really wouldn't be able to hear you that well at all, really.
335. 20:56But the last week we went to Nashville, Tennessee
336. 21:00and did a lot of PR work.
337. 21:01And we did some acoustic, about three songs.
338. 21:05Yeah, acoustic-wise.
339. 21:06And acoustic wise, I was able to do okay with it.
340. 21:11You know?
341. 21:13We'll see.
342. 21:14If we do it, it probably have to be that way.
343. 21:17You know, for us, we never say never.
344. 21:20And God has to let us to this point.
345. 21:23And if nothing else, getting a little older in your life,
346. 21:27you realize there's very few things you can change.
347. 21:31And, you know, you pay your life bill,
348. 21:35you can take care of your kids.
349. 21:37you know, but he leads you in what direction.
350. 21:40To be honest, 10 years ago, if you told me,
351. 21:42we were talking about doing an gospel album,
352. 21:45I went, what?
353. 21:45You know, even though it was hard and sold to do one day,
354. 21:50you know, it just wasn't realistic at that point in time.
355. 21:54There's a song called Praying on this album.
356. 21:57And it's all about having the fame and all this stuff,
357. 22:03but there was still something missing
358. 22:05and that was Jesus.
359. 22:07You know, we went living for Jesus.
360. 22:09You know, people forget to thank Him every morning.
361. 22:13And I go to, I get up in the morning,
362. 22:14I go thank You Lord for the day
363. 22:16and I go to bed at night praying.
364. 22:18Whenever I was younger, I prayed for myself.
365. 22:21I want to be successful.
366. 22:22I want these things.
367. 22:23I want all the, now I pray for my girls and my wife
368. 22:27and my family and, you know,
369. 22:30so you're as you grow older,
370. 22:31I think you grow older than wise or as you go.
371. 22:35Yeah, we want to pray for the good times and of that time.
372. 22:38Yeah, definitely.
373. 22:39And that's what we do.
374. 22:41Yeah.
375. 22:42Absolutely.
376. 22:43Absolutely.
377. 22:44So let's go back if we could.
378. 22:48Your story.
379. 22:49What were your first musical experiences?
380. 22:52And maybe even talk about at what age did you decide, you know, I want a career in music.
381. 22:57What were some of your first most unforgettable musical experiences?
382. 23:02You know, for me, it was actually scattered, and they wouldn't call that at that particular
383. 23:10time.
384. 23:11But Ronnie Nim used to rehearse right there in our mother and father's ottment in the
385. 23:16living room there.
386. 23:17And at that time, they were calling, called 1%.
387. 23:22But looking at him, watching him and watching Gary and Alan and all of them, I mean, they just
388. 23:27looked like they were having such a great time.
389. 23:30So maybe I can be like big brother, you know, and try this, you know.
390. 23:35Yeah, he really paved the way for us.
391. 23:39And for me, of course, was looking at him and Donnie, but even before that, you were really
392. 23:45looking at me.
393. 23:46Yeah, there you go.
394. 23:48But for me, I can't remember when we were young, we had the old rabbit ears on the TV
395. 23:55watching he ha
396. 23:59Sullivan and you know that that kind of inspired me. I was like wow who's this guy that you know good looking fella
397. 24:05They can dance on dead so oh that's Elvis
398. 24:08you know and
399. 24:09Then on the other channel he ha was George Jones and Tammy why not and all that man our parents
400. 24:16loved music and
401. 24:19You know as kids we had an old circle driveway
402. 24:22And again, we only had four channels.
403. 24:25We didn't have all the internet and everything.
404. 24:27So we'd go out there and set around and sing.
405. 24:30And, well, we'd amuse ourselves.
406. 24:33You know, so.
407. 24:34But our dad was a long distance truck driver.
408. 24:37And our mother worked at a Dunkin' Donut shop.
409. 24:39So that's what he listened to was country music.
410. 24:42Yeah, so it really raised so much.
411. 24:44And it was really like what Johnny said.
412. 24:46I mean, you hear a lot of bands say this on the ad cell
413. 24:49of the show.
414. 24:50Yeah.
415. 24:51The Beatles came on there in a rolling storms and that sort of changed it for us.
416. 24:55Yeah, there was a guy named Farron Young.
417. 24:58Oh, yeah.
418. 24:59And he had the most perfect flat top.
419. 25:02Yeah.
420. 25:03For those of your listeners, what a flat top is you could set a ball on top of your head
421. 25:08with butch wax.
422. 25:09And that's the way we wore our hair whenever we were young, you know?
423. 25:14Really.
424. 25:15Yeah.
425. 25:16Oh, yeah.
426. 25:17So I was going to ask you, I mean, did you guys watch?
427. 25:21Ed Sullivan, the night the Beatles were on, I guess it would have been February of 64?
428. 25:26Yes, yes, yes, yes. I couldn't wait to get a pair of the Beatles boots.
429. 25:32I don't have the best pants, the best pants are not too tall, you know.
430. 25:39You can put an extra lip on the bottom of them.
431. 25:42No, man, we'd actually grow our hair the same way.
432. 25:47Try to go through school with it, but much time we got kicked out.
433. 25:50you know, it was really cool. I was over in Liverpool, where the Beatles are from, and we
434. 25:56rented a bus and took our crew and the band and everything. We did a whole tour of their
435. 26:01neighborhood. They were much like Leonard Skinner, you know, and Skinner wrote songs and
436. 26:06we still do about life, you know, and there was a strawberry field and, you know, all that
437. 26:12stuff.
438. 26:13And you know,
439. 26:14And a mini lane.
440. 26:15Yeah, any lane in the cavern where they played out, you know, all the time.
441. 26:20and then there went on the stage and it was just an amazing thing.
442. 26:23Hey, let me ask you this, if I could, Johnny.
443. 26:29Ed King, the late Ed King.
444. 26:31Okay, growing up as a kid, myself and a hundred million others, we wanted to learn the Sweet
445. 26:38Home Alabama lick.
446. 26:39And am I right?
447. 26:40Didn't Ed write that song?
448. 26:42Well, no, Gary Rosington started that with the...
449. 26:46Do it justice, but
450. 26:50At the old practice place here in green coast and Ed started
451. 26:56Put the doodoo doodoo do it and then they finish now do
452. 27:02Do down that of the down of that you know, but Ed came up with that doodoo doodoo
453. 27:07but it was Gary's song in the beginning and
454. 27:11Ed just added to it. Oh and then Ronnie added the lyrics and boy do they make a good one
455. 27:16Oh yeah, I mean one of the top three or four most iconic guitar licks ever, you know.
456. 27:23He's kid with people I say, you know, there's probably some kid in his bedroom.
457. 27:30Right as we talk right now trying to figure out Lick out, you know, just an iconic.
458. 27:37I still have him.
459. 27:39Yeah, so let me ask each of you, what were some of your favorite songs?
460. 27:46Johnny, I'll start with you. Did you have of all the repertoire of the
461. 27:51skinned songs? What were the ones that you enjoyed singing most?
462. 27:56Oh God, Simple Man would be my top one. Just about the lyrics, man. That song really
463. 28:03blows me away. You know, everybody, at least good people and God-fearing
464. 28:09people want to make their mom happy and that's a mother's speaking
465. 28:12on. And just a great, great song. There's another song that I've sang on stage with
466. 28:21Skinner at all I can do is write about it, which is about, you know, how too much development takes
467. 28:27away from the country side of living. But there's so many. I mean, you know, really, our brother was a
468. 28:34genius. God called him home at an early age, but genius at writing, just simple, great,
469. 28:45communicating with people. And it's four generations bold now.
470. 28:49And it's simple. When John Temple, I'm talking simple.
471. 28:53Yeah, he lived his life. It's hard to write, Sam. It really is.
472. 28:59Donnie, how about with 38 Special?
473. 29:02What were your favorite songs to perform?
474. 29:05You know what, man, 38 was our worst enemy.
475. 29:09I mean, it had to be picked by committee.
476. 29:13Everybody sort of had to like the song.
477. 29:16So it was written on 38.
478. 29:21But I'm just thinking about it right now.
479. 29:24The first one I would think about
480. 29:25would be rocking into the night.
481. 29:28And I've been, hey, that is because it was actually a song that broke the ice for 38 special.
482. 29:35I mean, it was like a song for us.
483. 29:38He had a lot of hit songs.
484. 29:41Yeah, it was like a number one song in a country.
485. 29:46And it was pretty cool.
486. 29:49But I don't know.
487. 29:51So I was sort of like the songs that wasn't it, songs too.
488. 29:56A wrote a song actually dedicated it,
489. 29:59older brother, running called Rebel the Realm.
490. 30:04So after songs too.
491. 30:07But it's almost like,
492. 30:09and both of you had so much success,
493. 30:12but now you've got like a whole other career emerging
494. 30:16with the Christian music.
495. 30:20Yeah, you know what we
496. 30:23We didn't go into this
497. 30:25To be big Christian stars or anything. We just wanted to do something in honor of Jesus Christ
498. 30:32That's a God's honors
499. 30:33now you can't hide what you're doing from Christ and it and it came from our heart and
500. 30:42We'll see where it all goes out and there's so many great Christian artists
501. 30:49you know, singers that are fantastic.
502. 30:51You know, myself, I love Crowder, I love Mercy Me,
503. 30:55I love casting crowns.
504. 30:57You know, Toby Mack, Zach Williams,
505. 31:02they're all fantastic artists.
506. 31:04And for us to even be mentioned in the same category
507. 31:09with them is pretty amazing.
508. 31:13Hey, I wanna give the number folks.
509. 31:14We're talking with Donnie Vincant
510. 31:16Johnny Van Zant of the Van Zant Band dot com.
511. 31:21That's their website.
512. 31:22If you want to ask a question, you want to call in,
513. 31:24you can do that.
514. 31:25The number is 85898840.
515. 31:29If you want to ask a question, 85898840.
516. 31:35Hey, you know, I was in Guitar Center a few weeks ago,
517. 31:39and I was talking to this guy.
518. 31:41We bought a lot of our mics and radio equipment
519. 31:44from Guitar Center.
520. 31:45And anyway, and Frank, I was trying to share the gospel
521. 31:49with this guy.
522. 31:51And he said this, and I thought it was pretty interesting.
523. 31:53He said, you know, it's the churches and the praise bands
524. 31:57that buy the gear nowadays.
525. 32:00He said, you know, guys aren't starting bands like they did
526. 32:03when we were teenagers.
527. 32:05And I quote, he said, if it wasn't for the Christian bands,
528. 32:09I don't know that we would even be selling that much gear.
529. 32:12And I was like, well,
530. 32:14Because when I was in junior high, I meant everybody was in a band.
531. 32:18But now I guess it's in the church that the bands are.
532. 32:21But...
533. 32:22Guys...
534. 32:23Guys...
535. 32:24I believe that.
536. 32:26I'm just watching the call board fill up like instantaneously.
537. 32:31Because I think a lot of people are excited to hear from you guys.
538. 32:35Hey, we've got a brief break.
539. 32:37Stay tuned.
540. 32:38It's Van Zant with us on the American Family Radio Network.
541. 32:42What an honor to be talking with Donnie and Johnny.
542. 32:45They've got the new album out.
543. 32:47Always look up.
544. 32:48I highly recommend it.
545. 32:49It's a fantastic record.
546. 32:50We'll talk with them more after this brief break, folks.
547. 32:53Don't go away.
548. 33:07The feature-linked documentary Culture Warrior, Don Wildman, and the Battle for Decency, premiering
549. 33:12November 11th, chronicles the life and ministry of Don Wildman.
550. 33:17It takes you through the founding of the National Federation for Decency, what has become AFA.
551. 33:22a call to stand firm for righteousness and shows how that resolve can make a huge difference
552. 33:27in our world.
553. 33:28If we lose this cultural war, we're going to have a hedonistic humanistic society.
554. 33:33Find out more and watch the trailer at CultureWarrior.movie.
555. 33:37The Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Bitted Common Terrets are available at AFR.net.
556. 33:47Back to the Hamilton Quarter on American Family Radio.
557. 33:53You know what's really a blessing when you get to meet some of your musical heroes that
558. 33:58you've followed for years and they're everything you hoped for and more.
559. 34:03They're just so nice and accessible and such is the case with Donnie Van Zant, Donnie Van
560. 34:09Zant.
561. 34:10These guys are the leaders of bands that you've heard your entire life, 38 Special Lenders
562. 34:14Skintered, but they've got a new album out on Frontier Records.
563. 34:17It's called Always Look Up.
564. 34:19It's a Christian contemporary Christian album.
565. 34:22Because would you call it Christian Rock?
566. 34:25I don't know, but it's just good music is what it is.
567. 34:29We're going to go to the calls.
568. 34:31If you have a question for our guest, Van Zant, we're going to start out in Mississippi.
569. 34:37Hey Wood in Mississippi, are you there?
570. 34:40The guy out of the bag, right out of the shoe, Alex McFarland, this is going to be one of the
571. 34:49greatest things you ever did.
572. 34:53gonna reach so many people, the generation, and now we're gonna hear
573. 35:01Christian music from one of the greatest rock and roll families in human history.
574. 35:06What a blessing. Hey guys, hey.
575. 35:13a
576. 35:16a
577. 35:18a
578. 35:21a
579. 35:23a
580. 35:26a
581. 35:28a
582. 35:30a
583. 35:32a
584. 35:34a
585. 35:36a
586. 35:38a
587. 35:40a
588. 35:42a
589. 35:44Pete, are you there?
590. 35:46Yeah, I'm glad you're talking to you.
591. 35:50What's got me?
592. 35:54I'm blessing, Holly, favored.
593. 35:57I've been listening to y'all all my life and I'm glad to
594. 36:02read Union tour.
595. 36:04Y'all done in bad roots when I started over again.
596. 36:09And I went to the third day one night and brought my
597. 36:14daughter and that how we had a great meet and he was tells a story about he they opened up we all
598. 36:23at one time. I mean yeah yeah that's awesome that is awesome yeah and he was playing yeah yeah
599. 36:34sorry sorry we got I love y'all music I can't wait to hear y'all new music. Hey Pete thanks for calling
600. 36:42man. God bless you. We're going to go to Arkansas. Bruce and Arkansas. Welcome to the American
601. 36:50family radio network. Hey, thanks for taking us home. Hey, I'm Bill Grayman and how you
602. 36:57all doing? Good sir. You're great. I speak to you. Good. I, I listen to AFR going to work
603. 37:06and coming home from work every day and coming home today. Alex was interviewing y'all and
604. 37:14He mentioned the song, Jesus Christ.
605. 37:19And whenever I, I wasn't aware of the church
606. 37:24and then Christian Evelyn.
607. 37:27I've been a letter to Scener and paying all my life.
608. 37:29I saw the one more from the road to her.
609. 37:34I love 38 special.
610. 37:35I love the letter to Scener later on.
611. 37:38Just I just love you guys.
612. 37:42I love you.
613. 37:43I got home from work and I'm sitting out in my driveway right now, and I just got through YouTube and
614. 37:51Jesus Christ and Alex hit the nail on the head man. That's a powerful song
615. 37:57Thank you so much, sir. Thank you so much. You thank you. Thank you. It's good that it's out. I'm glad it
616. 38:05touched you, you know what that's that's a blessing to us because that's what we try to do through song and and
617. 38:11And for you to say that's a great compliment.
618. 38:15Bruce, I'm so glad you called in.
619. 38:16I'm sorry.
620. 38:17I'm sorry.
621. 38:18Bruce, I'm glad you called in because folks, I kid you not.
622. 38:22A month ago, when I found that on YouTube, Jesus Christ by Van Zant, I started telling
623. 38:28all my friends, I said, check this out.
624. 38:30This is awesome.
625. 38:32And I didn't know I would get to interview the Van Zant's who made that song and that
626. 38:37music.
627. 38:38Bruce, I'm glad you checked it out.
628. 38:41Folks, this record, you will not be disappointed.
629. 38:44It's called Always Look Up.
630. 38:46The website is Van Zant Band Phenomenal.
631. 38:50Bruce, thanks for the call.
632. 38:52Also in Arkansas, David, David in Arkansas,
633. 38:55welcome to our conversation with Johnny and Donnie Van Zant.
634. 39:02Man, this is all right.
635. 39:03I love you.
636. 39:04I'm talking to him, you know,
637. 39:05it's, you know, I had a quick story.
638. 39:08sister. Well y'all might remember this but Donnie I think when you did the shortest
639. 39:15St. Patrick's Day parade in Hoss Springs, Arkansas one year. My sister got a picture taken with you and
640. 39:24she shows that picture to everybody when she meets them and I mean that's
641. 39:31we all she don't care about us but she gonna show you that picture of you and you and her you know
642. 39:36And
643. 39:39Y'all are dying, I don't mean that the bad way. It's a good
644. 39:42I mean you just man you just touch so many people with your lyrics and anybody can relate to it
645. 39:48You know, and it's just man. I just it's it's just the honor to talk to you man. I mean
646. 39:54It's you know man. I've been listening to you like I'm 52
647. 39:58I come in the I come in later in in the in the deal, but man I've been listening to you since
648. 40:06I can remember listening to music, you know, but uh, just man. Hey, I wish you all you all great success, man
649. 40:13I know y'all have already had it
650. 40:14But you know the one thing the one thing that you always wonder when you hear people on the radio when everything is you know
651. 40:20Do they know the Lord and man? I am so blessed to know you know that y'all have grown up that way and that y'all are now just I mean
652. 40:32It's awesome man, you know, and now I can look at listen to your music and and understand where it's coming from because you don't always know
653. 40:39You know you think but you hear things whatever, but but now I know you know
654. 40:45Yeah, well, thank you so much and God bless you. I have a great Thanksgiving with your family tell your sister
655. 40:53Hi, yeah
656. 40:59Hey David
657. 41:06We might have lost.
658. 41:07And that name is Lisa.
659. 41:10Elisa.
660. 41:13Hello for me.
661. 41:15Will you please?
662. 41:17Cool.
663. 41:18David, thanks, man.
664. 41:19We're going to go to North Carolina.
665. 41:21Stephen from North Carolina.
666. 41:22What you got, brother?
667. 41:23Hello.
668. 41:25Yes.
669. 41:26I'm from North Carolina probably about an hour from where Alex lived in Hickory, North Carolina
670. 41:30and listen to classic rock and winter skinner than 38 special my whole life.
671. 41:35but I sort of put it away for some decades
672. 41:37and changed over to contemporary music,
673. 41:40but now I'm starting to play guitar myself.
674. 41:42So I was just curious about,
675. 41:45I could see you guys meeting up
676. 41:48with somebody like Zach Williams and Toby Mack
677. 41:52and having a big concert like they had in Wilkesburg
678. 41:55or a lot of faith this.
679. 41:57So looking forward to seeing you meeting
680. 41:59with other people playing groups together.
681. 42:03Yeah, there were two groups you're talking about,
682. 42:06talking about it, Zach.
683. 42:08We love them, man.
684. 42:09I mean, they're very inspiring to us.
685. 42:12Yeah, we don't know what's gonna happen in the future.
686. 42:14You know, it's all in God's hands,
687. 42:15and we're pretty amazed that we're speaking to you tonight,
688. 42:18and God got this out, you know, and spreading the word.
689. 42:22So we're gonna let Jesus take the will,
690. 42:26and we're gonna go for it.
691. 42:28But we did, sir.
692. 42:30at the beginning of the project, we told each other we could just bring and I said it earlier,
693. 42:36just bring one person to Christ, it'd be worth the whole project.
694. 42:40It looks like God.
695. 42:43Yeah.
696. 42:44Wonderful.
697. 42:45Let's go to Oklahoma.
698. 42:47Kent, in Oklahoma.
699. 42:49Kent, are you there?
700. 42:50Yes, sir.
701. 42:51Hey, Alex, my old friend.
702. 42:53I told you a few weeks ago about the forgiveness question.
703. 42:57Okay.
704. 42:58Welcome to our conversation with the Van Zans.
705. 43:01Oh, yeah.
706. 43:03What a pleasure.
707. 43:04Hey, Johnny Van Zan.
708. 43:05Are you there?
709. 43:07Yeah.
710. 43:08Oh, my gosh.
711. 43:09I'm talking to lead singer Skinner.
712. 43:12That's right.
713. 43:13I saw you in Ardmore.
714. 43:15Like in 1990, do you remember playing that little heritage hall?
715. 43:19Where?
716. 43:20I'm sorry.
717. 43:21Ardmore, Oklahoma.
718. 43:23Uh huh.
719. 43:25It was a venue of like 2000, but you guys did the coolest thing.
720. 43:29did free bird you had them playing the ridge on the background and you guys from the foreground
721. 43:34and I want to tribute to your brothers you know and then but at the end of the concert you let us
722. 43:40come to the stage and you greeted us and there was a man in a wheelchair who couldn't get up there
723. 43:46and you guys came off the stage and met this man and I like these guys are so genuine.
724. 43:52You know, we love the fans. You know, a lot of people say they love their fans and that's great.
725. 43:59And I hope they do, but we truly, truly love her. Love the fans and and you know what? I do a Sunday
726. 44:07thing every Sunday. I've been doing it since COVID. My daughter talked me into it because I wanted to
727. 44:13know what the fans were up to. How, what was going on with them? Really care about them. And I started
728. 44:20doing it and I've done it every Sunday since then and that was probably about a few weeks
729. 44:26into COVID when I started doing it in 2020 and I just love talking to them. You know,
730. 44:34Skinner fans are God-fearing hard-working people and that's what Skinner's always been
731. 44:42about. You know, and we love them and thank you for being one my friend.
732. 44:47We're gonna go to Georgia Roy in Georgia Roy. Thanks for holding welcome to our conversation with
733. 44:54Vanzant band calm
734. 44:57Yeah, I like the last name my grandfather was a Vanzant my dad was a Vanzant but
735. 45:03You say you guys were short my grandfather was six six
736. 45:11My dad and your dad was in the same Sunday school class my dad was born at Kings Ferry
737. 45:16you know when you guys played in Tulsa back in 80 they're that first reunion tour I was
738. 45:28going to Bible school at Waima and I cut you guys out a little wooden Jesus both of y'all
739. 45:33and you know a little while back then and I couldn't get past your security guard in the
740. 45:38hotel I said well my name is Robert Van Zant and and I'm related to them and I said yeah we
741. 45:43don't care. But I've been praying for you guys all these years
742. 45:49and I've rewritten free bird rewritten sweet home and we
743. 45:54written. Uh, to see he's gone into gospel stuff. God's give me
744. 46:01the words and all that stuff. But I live here in Tipton,
745. 46:04Georgia. I've been I went up to see you and uh, Oh up there
746. 46:09at Perry when you're up there a few years back. Perry, Georgia
747. 46:14I'm not that big.
748. 46:16But anyway, I hope you're here from here sometime.
749. 46:18And everything.
750. 46:20Hey, Chuck.
751. 46:22You know what?
752. 46:23There's two sizes of bands in it.
753. 46:26The six feet and higher, and then you got the five, six,
754. 46:29and low.
755. 46:30Yeah, we got that five, six, and lower.
756. 46:34Hey, Roy, thanks very much.
757. 46:36We're going to go to Mississippi.
758. 46:37James in Mississippi.
759. 46:38James, welcome.
760. 46:41Yes, sir.
761. 46:42Thank you.
762. 46:44I just left y'all's brother monument Saturday is my first time being there even though I
763. 46:48lived right by it.
764. 46:50And I was going to see if possible.
765. 46:52Do y'all do any touring with your Christian music?
766. 46:56Not yet.
767. 46:58Not yet brother.
768. 46:59We are leaving it up to God where he leads us to.
769. 47:03But you know what?
770. 47:04We really wanted to record the music and get it out to the masses and then see really what
771. 47:10happens with it.
772. 47:11know, we, we, what we're doing and we're honored in our Jesus Christ's name and, and we'll see
773. 47:19what happens in the future. Yeah, last week, brother, we were in Nashville and we recorded
774. 47:25three songs acoustic-wise. So that turned out pretty cool. So, you know, yeah, you know,
775. 47:31it's kind of crazy. We did that and on Facebook, they got over a million hits in less than three
776. 47:37days we were like wow oh man that's phenomenal guys I know you probably know
777. 47:42this but I mean from a social social media standpoint I mean that is phenomenal
778. 47:48yeah yeah I was pretty kind of we were like well okay my niece Kristen
779. 47:54called us up and was telling us about it first and first when it first came out
780. 47:58it was five hundred thousand you know and I went do you mean 500?
781. 48:03Yeah, we got a song out of my mind.
782. 48:06That was out pretty cool.
783. 48:09Yeah.
784. 48:10Yeah.
785. 48:11Yeah.
786. 48:12And now we're almost out of time guys.
787. 48:13I want to say thanks.
788. 48:15The single Warrior is out, right?
789. 48:18Yeah.
790. 48:19Yeah.
791. 48:20We just put that out and again, the album came out last Friday, November 22nd and Warriors just a great song.
792. 48:28consider ourselves warriors for our Lord and Savior and that's kind of what it's all about.
793. 48:33Yeah, fighting for the kingdom of God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
794. 48:36Guys, I just want to say thank you. God bless you. I wish you much, much success in all your
795. 48:42endeavors. And hey, I'm grateful for this time, Johnny and Donnie. Thank you.
796. 48:48We are too. And as always a player, let's do it again.
797. 48:54Again, the record is always look up. It's on frontier records. You can get it on
798. 48:58vinyl digitally. It's a fantastic record they've done. The website vanzantban.com. God bless you.
799. 49:06Thanks for listening. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.