Transcript: Bobby Smith Interview Part 2: Inspiring Christian Music Stories

I went over to work, I guess you could say that, for Jerry Lee Lewis at the time. Well, the deal with that was that I struck out because Jerry Lee was down there in a Memphis hospital having some kind of health issues, nearly lost his lungs. But God brought him. Well, to shorten that story, Red and I talked until about 6 in the morning, and then my next stop was Jimmy Swire in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and I'm sure most people heard of him. And he hadn't been worldwide known then, but he was nationally known. And I went there, and I froze up. I wanted to get a job for him, George. there. I wanted to be around that piano plan. And to shorten that story up, nothing came of that. And on the way out, airline highway down in Baton Rouge, on the way, I thought I was going home defeated, on the way out, the steering wheel popped off because the little opals had a rod. It popped off? And it It ended up in my hands. There was a bullpen there. And we're, I mean, we're two kids down there in the city of Baton Rouge. I've never been out of my town at that point in time. And all we're doing is chasing a dream. You know, chasing a dream. And we did, we made it, you know, to a long story short, we made it back to the house. and I literally had to just teach myself. But the experience was good for me That absolutely amazing That I mean I did say to leave Ohio and drive down to Jerry Lee Lewis' mansion and literally walk up and bang on the door until the man with the gun gets there, I mean, if that's not showing someone your determination and your want-to-ness, then I don't know what is. and then to continue on and go to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, did you get to see Jimmy Swaggart at all? Yes, I did. And actually a few years after that, I got to play to truth seed to a gentleman named Fred Johnson. He helped me out there on that. But those were my learning years. And now, you know, I'm 54 years old today, and now that I look back, I can see where God had guided every step. But at that time, all you are is a kid and you see a dream. And, you know, just to me, God was everything to me, but I really, really admired their piano playing. And one thing, George, I always thought when I was learning the piano that, well, that style of music, you know, that's always going to be. You know, I didn't know that years later we would have all this different kinds of music coming in. And now today and I believe God going to bring that back you know but today my music actually ancient In a lot of people eyes you know what I saying Other than the blues they might derive from it Some blues and old hillbilly stuff. I don't know what to call me. I think you call me everything. You know, there's that word. My wife, she always tells me, I'm not fit to speak the English language. I don't know any other one to speak, so I'll do the best I can with what I got. But that word, what is it, John Ray? Is that how you say it? John Ray? Yeah, G-E-N-R-E. You know, the different types of music nowadays. Music engineers, yeah. Yeah. Well, every time I'm talking to my wife, I'll call it Genry. And she'll say, it's John Ray. And I'll say, well, it looks like Genry. So I say, it's John Ray to you, and it's January to me. But anyhow, there are those things, Bobby, that I look at, you know, to this day, and we play, we not only have guests from all over the world on here, we play, let me say, we don't play any mainstream music that people are listening to on the radio nowadays. we play folks like you we get down to musicalley.com and bring music up and play it and we go to Reverb Nation and we look for talent that's not out there in the mainstream yet you know what I'm saying but some of these things that they call now they got rockabilly uh you know listening to some of that i got on to liking some of that rockabilly stuff uh you know they got the blues rocks and so on and so forth but yeah your music is what they would term dinosaur music right Yeah yeah you right You know what Jordan I might put in real quick and I serious when I say this but I mean it ain nothing to get upset about But actually, there was a time that I've had pastors tell me, you can't be playing like that, you're playing rock and roll. and now today it's it's too ancient if you understand what i'm saying i i understand exactly i grew up in the assembly of god church and i remember how it used to be and then i remember how it was and of course today it it's far different all through our culture with everything. But let's do this for a minute, Bobby. Let me play a song for the folks. And ladies and gentlemen, if you have been listening to Unshackled, I've been showcasing Bobby's music now for several weeks, but if you've missed any of it and you haven't back and listen to the archives, this is a great opportunity because I don't, you know me, I'm plain spoken. This fellow, he can just flat out play a piano and I love his music. So as Charlie always says, without any further ado. Thank you.