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Of all times to get lost in Nashville , this was the morning I had to get lost. It was an exciting morning. Larry Gatlin's office had called us and asked if we wanted to do an interview with Larry. I said “let me pray about it, YES!!.” So, I was a little flustered as I arrived just barely on time. Thankfully the interview preceding mine went just a few minutes long, so I had time to get my thoughts in order.

As I sat down at the table after the proper introductions, I turned on my tape recorder and said. “This is Larry Gatlin”, so when I got home I would know what interview was on this tape. Larry very quickly in his sharp humor blurted out, “YOU'RE NOT LARRY GATLIN, YOU'RE DEON UNTHANK”. Trying to keep a straight face, I said, “You're right, I'm not Larry Gatlin, this is my interview with Larry Gatlin.” With a smile, he sat down at the table and we proceeded with the interview.

Larry Gatlin is well known for his chart topping Country Music hits, but I was interested in the Gospel songs he has written. Larry is proud of the fact that he has written such songs as “Help Me,” “It Must Have Rained In Heaven,” “ Mercy River,” “Light At The End Of The Darkness," made a hit by the Imperials, and “Healing Stream,” which hit the charts when the Kingsmen recorded it.

Larry and his brothers have recently recorded a new Gospel CD and he has written one on this new project. Larry considers himself an old Gospel singer, since he began singing with his family at a very early age. He and his brothers were taken by his Dad to different churches and singing conventions as young boys and they sang Gospel Music. A few years later their sister LaDonna joined them singing. In fact, his early years Jake Hess and James Blackwood were his vocal influences.

Larry was saved at an early age and as he like to describe it, there is a perfect and a permissive will of God, and he has lived much of his adult life in the permissive will of God. He believes that too many things happened in his life and he met too many people that helped his career along to believe that God didn't have a plan for his life. Now Larry admits that he left the path that God may have had for him at times, even allowing drinking and drugs to take hold of his life, but “Praise God” he is on the right path now. Larry knows that because of his fame from Country Music, he will be able to reach many souls with his Gospel recordings who would never buy a CD from a “Gospel” group. Though he is not proud of some of the mistakes he has made in his life, Larry is SURE that God has control of him now, and is living in peace knowing that his heart is right with God.

Interestingly, Bill Gaither and Larry have been friends for a long time. I noticed that on the first Gaither video Larry made the comment that Bill had beat him to the idea of recording all these old timers, so I asked him what he meant by that. It seems that Bill had broken for lunch and Larry and a few others had gone back into the recording room. Larry suggested that Eva sit down at the piano and play some, and before long, Jake Hess was singing along with her. Then Glenn Payne joined in and before he knew it a historical event was happening. According to Larry, Bill was still in the kitchen area eating when Larry motioned to the cameraman to tape the thing. As a result the Homecoming Video happened. Larry said that Bill sent him a plaque thanking him for what he did, but for years Larry felt a bit of jealousy because he never got credit for getting the whole thing started. In fact, for many years Larry wouldn't even look at a Homecoming tape. If it came on TV, he would turn it off. One day though, he found himself watching one and before he realized it he was blessed. It suddenly occurred to Larry that he had a wrong attitude for these many years. He realized that Bill Gaither was the man that God had planned to use to bless thousands of people with these videos and Larry was just an instrument that God used to get it started. Larry believes that he was seeking something that wasn't his, but realized that he was blessed just to be used of God. Having come to this conclusion he couldn't rest until he called Bill Gaither and apologized. He quickly called Bill to say that he needed to apologize and Bill quickly said that he never realized that anything was wrong and that no apology was needed. Well it all got worked out; Larry has a good conscience now, and has blessed others by singing on more Gaither videos. Larry did say that it was a situation that the devil used to try to mess his life up. Larry added, with a huge smile on his face, that he does still want to remind Bill that it was Larry Gatlin who told them to turn those cameras on.

I asked Larry to explain what he does as a singer. He explained to me that who he is, is Larry Gatlin, husband, father, brother, Christian. What he does is sing. He sings uplifting songs whether they are country or Gospel. He hopes that his music entertains and uplifts people. I will add one thing, Larry Gatlin cannot tell you about a song without singing part of it to you. Larry explained that at one concert in Canada while he was entertaining with Country music, a lady made her way back stage to tell him that she had his song “Help Me” sang at her daughter funeral and that it literally helped her make it through that tragedy. Another lady brought her 16 year old daughter back stage and said that last week she was a hooker on the streets, but because of hearing one of Larry's uplifting songs, she made her way back home and had given her heart to the Lord. So, truthfully, Larry Gatlin's music is touching people.

Larry describes this new Gospel CD as a work of love. The new CD is mostly older Gospel songs, but they will bless you as you listen.

Reader Comments

I'm so glad that Larry did tell them to turn on the tape that historic day or we might not have had all those wonderful inspiring Gaither videos that we now have. Larry is such a wonderful singer & I'm so happy that he has gotten back on the right track. He can minister to people who would never go to a gospel concert. Praise the Lord for his talent & his heart.

God is good all the time & all the time God is good. 

Elaine Harcourt

Larry Gatlin is an amazing talent. One of my all time favs of Larry's is "It Must Have Rained in Heaven on Crucifixion Day."

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