With 15 Dove awards under his belt, Brandon Lake is dominating the world of Christian music right now. However, his mom wasn't too excited when she found out her son wanted to be a Christian artist. With Amazon Music, Lake got to talk with his mom, who described Lake as "full of life, from the very beginning."
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Brandon Lake grew up in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where he attended church and learned to play the guitar. "When I'd go to youth group and Sunday school, there was a kid playing guitar. And that was kind of my first memory of like, starting to get interested in music."
His love for the craft started with playing on Sundays and taking up guitar lessons. Eventually, Brandon realised that music was something he wanted to put more time into. His mom wasn't too thrilled about this update, at least originally. "When you came to us and said you didn't want to do sports anymore, that you wanted to pursue playing music, we were heartbroken," his mom told him. "We just thought, 'No! Because we loved going to all the ball games.'"
It seems like God had something different planned for Lake, who recently got a No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The milestone was for a collaboration he did with Jelly Roll called "Hard Fought Hallelujah".
Brandon Lake Says "Hard Fought Hallelujah" Was Never About a No. 1 Hit
Jelly Roll, who doesn't view himself as a Christian artist, first heard "Hard Fought Hallelujah" on TikTok. At the time, unbeknownst to the singer, Lake had already had Jelly Roll in mind for the song. He described it as having a "beautiful and hard-fought story," and he wanted someone who could capture that essence. So, Brandon reached out to Jelly, and the rest was history.
In an interview, Jelly Roll opened up about his faith and the impact "Hard Fought Hallelujah" has had on him. "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,'" he said. "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."
The song ultimately led to a newfound friendship between the two artists, who seem to have great admiration for one another. Brandon shared of the collaboration, "We got on the phone, and we talked about life and being a father and being a husband and traveling and balancing all of that... It was never my goal to turn 'Hard Fought Hallelujah' into a chart-topping hit. It was about a one-on-one relationship."
Photo By: CMA / Josh Brasted
