How God brought 2 strangers together - now reaching millions for Jesus... with Ben Fuller & Jon Reddick

Jon Reddick:
… We’ve ever done this.

Ben Fuller:
No, I’ve never done any kind of event at all. You heard it first. 99.1 Joy FM.

Sandi:
Debut.

Ben Fuller:
And we’re back.

Jeremy:
You won’t need those on, Ben.

Ben Fuller:
But it looks cool, doesn’t it? And we’re back, 99.1 Joy FM. You heard it first.

Jon Reddick:
When I put these on, I feel like I need a turntable.

Ben Fuller:
Oh, what about this around? You know what I’m saying?

Sandi:
That’s how you do it, around your neck.

Ben Fuller:
Yeah. Like a real DJ.

Jon Reddick:
Yeah, yeah. See, I got [inaudible 00:00:32].

Ben Fuller:
We’ll be right back after a few words from our sponsors.

Nick:
99.1. This is Joy in the Morning. In studio, we are so excited to have two special guests with us. I mean, seriously. We’ve been hoping for this moment for a long time. Ben Fuller and Jon Reddick together.

Jon Reddick:
Yo.

Ben Fuller:
Praise God. Praise God.

Sandi:
Now, this is not the first time you guys have been in the same room. That’s why we have you in the room now because we want you to tell the story that when we first … We’ve talked to both of you, but when we first heard the connection, it so speaks of God’s sovereignty and how he pursues us and uses us to reach other people that we just had to make sure that that story was out there and told. So let’s start with you, Jon.

Jon Reddick:
Okay.

Sandi:
We’re going five and a half years ago? Is that what we’re doing?

Jon Reddick:
Yeah.

Sandi:
What was the year?

Ben Fuller:
2019, fall.

Sandi:
Okay. 2019, the fall. Jon, what were you doing? You were worship leading at a church?

Jon Reddick:
Worship leading at church. There’s a song that I was singing that actually, my own story from it was that it was birthed out of a conversation I had with my dad. And he and I, we talk sometimes, but we just hadn’t talked a lot in life and it’s kind of estranged a little bit. And I remember having this healing conversation with him as we talked about just things. We were sharing things that happened in our lives. And I remember hanging up the phone, tears of joy in my eyes because I was grateful that God was bringing his healing, right? And I remember saying, “God, you really do turn things around.”
But by 2019, I was actually, in that moment, probably singing that song around places, but my dad and I walking through what it meant to do the next step of healing. And so I was singing that place where, first, it was a song that I was singing like it’s a prayer that I’m asking God. It became … I mean, for others because I’m like, “Oh, God. He can do it. He could do it. I believe he could do it,” all of a sudden it became my own prayer again because I was asking him to heal my dad and I. So that may have been around that time when you walked in.

Ben Fuller:
Yeah, wow.

Jon Reddick:
Yeah.

Nick:
So you’re on stage singing the song from a very personal place.

Jon Reddick:
Yeah.

Nick:
Not quite sure how it’s affecting everybody else in the audience.

Sandi:
Church service? Just a normal … Is that what it was? It was a Sunday night, a Wednesday night church service?

Jon Reddick:
Sunday morning.

Ben Fuller:
Sunday morning.

Sandi:
Sunday morning? All right, so you’re leading worship there. It’s what you do a lot of Sunday mornings, right?

Jon Reddick:
Mm-hmm.

Sandi:
All right.

Jon Reddick:
Yeah.

Sandi:
And then in walks Ben Fuller. How did you get to church in Nashville?

Ben Fuller:
It’s crazy. I moved down to Nashville from Vermont in 2018 to pursue country music and had a dream to do all the things, and God had other plans for me. With me, I drug 14 and a half years of cocaine and alcohol, sleeping around, and all that. I’d worked on Broadway for a whole year playing four-hour shifts on Broadway in the mornings because I was so …

Sandi:
You’re talking about Broadway, Nashville, Tennessee.

Ben Fuller:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sandi:
Not Broadway. Because I was like, “What? Broadway?”
Ben Fuller:
No, no. Broadway.
Nick:
You were the music man?

Ben Fuller:
You ain’t never had a friend, never had a friend. No.

Sandi:
Sorry to ruin your story.

Ben Fuller:
Thank you, Lord. We’ll be right back.

Sandi:
I just wanted to make sure everybody knew what Broadway we were talking about. Honky Tonk bars.

Ben Fuller:
Honky Tonk in Broadway, Nashville, Tennessee, where every single famous star from every hometown in America that can sing really amazingly is posted up. I was so overwhelmed like, “How am I ever going to get discovered and noticed here?” and it was really overwhelming. And along with that, I was drinking excessively, making no money. I was miserable and I’m like, “What else is there? I’ve got nothing.” And so I was on my way home one day, fall of 2019, right? Something’s got to give. Meanwhile, my father and I, I come from a really tough relationship with my dad as well. Never said, “I love you,” just was very … His dad was a strong man, and so therefore he was and he passed that down to me. And I just wanted to feel that love and emotion and it just wasn’t there. So there was just a lot of name-calling. There was just a lot of verbal abuse and things. So I carried that with me and that’s the main reason for why I used and drank just to escape it all.
Because I saw other relationships and, again, I’m like, “Why can’t I have a father-son thing like that? Why can’t I go fishing and hunting?” but God knew. And so I got a phone on the way home from this family from Vermont that God moved to Nashville a year before I got there, and they said, “Hey, you might remember us. We came out to see you playing bars when you were in Vermont. We actually live here now. You want to come for dinner?” And I was like, “Ben Fuller doesn’t turn a meal down.” I mean, you see that jelly donut over there? You know what I’m saying? So I’m just like, “I’m ready to eat,” and so I had no idea. And I went over there. I remember putting beers in my pockets because I was nervous I couldn’t be myself without alcohol. And then I went over and at the end of the meal, they asked me if I’d go to church with them.

Nick:
And this is just a family that you met through performing, right? There’s no real relationship there.

Ben Fuller:
We had hardly no relationship. Their son, I landscaped with their son for a short season.

Nick:
Okay.

Ben Fuller:
And we met actually … Crazy thing, but their son ended up getting hurt and we met in the hospital. And so it was a really urgent, fast, “Hey, I’m Ben. I’m here with your son, and this happened and this rock hit him, and so we’re here together,” and that’s kind of how we met. And then fast-forward a couple years later, there we were in Nashville eating a meal together. They invited me to Church of the City and I felt like I owed them something because they fed me. So I was like, “Well, my dad taught me respect.” So it was just like, “Hey. If somebody does something nice for you, you do something nice back.”
So I went to church with them that morning and I walked in and I was so nervous, but I remember those double doors and auditorium in Church of the City when you walk in. I heard [inaudible 00:07:46]. I heard the bass. I could feel the music, I could feel the power. And I’ve always loved music, but I remember leaving the family and being like, “I don’t care what y’all are doing. I’m going in there,” and I just beelined it for there and I stood in the middle of that aisle. And I tell people I heard Jon singing and Chris McClarney singing, and they were just praising God, “God Turn It Around.” And I tell people that it’s like someone who lived their life as an addict, hiding in plain sight.
For 14 and a half years, I’d never been higher. And I stood there, my feet were off the ground, and I felt the Holy Spirit come down like a warm blanket from heaven. And just I knew immediately that I was going to sing like that and I was going to sing for him. And I had no idea how. I had no idea why. I just was like, “This is what I’ve been looking for. This is what I need.” And I just remember seeing everybody with their hands up. I didn’t even know why their hands were up. I was like, “Well, they’re good. Jon’s really good.” I don’t know what they were or if they were just … I was like, “What is going on?”

Jon Reddick:
They were reaching for something then.

Ben Fuller:
Vermont is 2% Christian. “In the name of Jesus” was a swear word in my mouth. I attended a couple of church services, but it wasn’t, I never really heard the gospel and I never really heard about a man named Jesus like that, and it changed me forever. And so I’m five and a half years clean, sober, and celibate, walking this thing out, and waiting on a whole lot of promises. But what you don’t know is that I’ve now had conversations with my dad and God has turned it around for me and my dad.

Jon Reddick:
Oh, man.

Ben Fuller:
And we’ve been talking on the phone and he’s actually healing our relationship. And my dad’s listening to the music going, “What is this?”

Jon Reddick:
Dude.

Ben Fuller:
“Who is this Jesus? My son is playing all these places and doing all this. What?” And so my dad’s getting healed listening to this thing and I’m going to meet my dad out of the water with a warm blanket someday.

Jon Reddick:
Oh, man.

Ben Fuller:
And I’m going to say, “Welcome to the family. Welcome home, Dad.” And I know it’s going to happen, but thank you for being obedient and writing that song and leading worship and saying yes because now that I’m in it, I know how difficult it is. It’s been some of the hardest five years of my life to follow the Lord and getting kicked out of places, getting called things, getting told things, being tempted. So I know what you’ve been through because we serve the same God, and so I know that you’ve been tempted and hurt and told things too. And so it’s just awesome that … Boy, don’t God turn it around?

Jon Reddick:
Dude, I love that you’re telling your story and making it plain and being so transparent with it, man. And I’m convinced. I mean, you’re right. You know this. I’m convinced that some … We don’t know all of the ways that stories are carried in songs. I mean, it’s crazy how God can connect so many things, so many similar stories without the story, the actual story being told. Nobody knows I wrote it about my dad unless I told them, right? But here I meet so many people who are like, “We had this estranged thing also.” I just walked with my dad. I was in Dallas a couple of months ago and we were just taking this walk and I was like, “Wow, it’s amazing how God started like that.”
We go down this deep, deep hill or this deep whatever and trying to come out of it and find healing, and all of a sudden I’m walking with him in one of the most joyous times of my life. You know what I’m saying? Having that time with him was one of the most joyous times. So I love that God is doing that for you right now, man.

Ben Fuller:
Yeah.

Jon Reddick:
That’s phenomenal.

Ben Fuller:
Yeah.

Jon Reddick:
It’s crazy.

Ben Fuller:
Yeah, praise God.

Sandi:
When I hear stories like that where the song is birthed, we’ve played it on Joy FM, I’ve never known that that was connected in any way to a relationship with you and your dad. What does that do to you guys as songwriters? Is there any redemptive part in that when you guys are navigating through something really, really hard that you may not ever even be able to share on a stage, but it births a song then that God uses to help people in really difficult times? Does that redeem somehow or reframe the temptation you do now turn?

Ben Fuller:
Yeah.

Sandi:
How do you then view those valleys that you’re navigating through? Is there some redemption like, “Okay, God’s at least using this in some way that might help somebody”?

Ben Fuller:
Oh, yeah. And I honestly think that scripture, Isaiah 43:19, we we’re just talking about, “Look, I’m doing a new thing. Can’t you see it?” And a lot of times in it, you can’t see it.

Sandi:
That’s right.

Ben Fuller:
A lot of times, you’re blinded from it. You’re in the middle of it. There’s so many attacks. There’s so many things. You may not even recognize them as attacks in that moment and I really didn’t. I was like, “This is just the way it is. Why is it so awful?” Then all of a sudden, I say yes to Christ, come out of the water in November 10th, 2019 at Church of the City, and I’m just like, “Here I am. Send me, and now I’m looking back at all these things. And so yeah, the redemptive part a lot of times for me is once I make it through, is holding on, holding fast through the struggle or temptation or a really low valley been.
Even I’m just coming off a hard couple of weeks of things, just lots of ups and downs and news and things. It’s just like, “Why?” I mean, hospital visits and it’s like, “What is going on?” The preciousness of life and then singing on death row last week in Louisiana, and it’s like we just don’t know.

Jon Reddick:
Yeah.

Ben Fuller:
But a lot of times, you make it on the other side and then you look back and go, “Even through that, you were with me?”

Jon Reddick:
I’m a firm believer of that. It’s actually something I teach my kids. I’ve heard it so many times growing up in church especially. You just never know what God is preparing you for when you’re going through something. Now, I mean, when you’re going through it, it feels like crap. It’s the hardest.

Ben Fuller:
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Jon Reddick:
And nobody can tell you, “Don’t you worry.”

Ben Fuller:
Yeah. Right, right.

Jon Reddick:
“You’re doing it to somebody else.” I’m like, “Somebody else?”

Ben Fuller:
“Be strong and courageous. The Lord God is with you wherever you go.” It’s like, “He’s not with me. I don’t feel it. Where are you?”

Jon Reddick:
Yeah, I know. I feel like one of my daughters. She’s just like me because she’ll be like, “What about now?” so you can’t come with that too much. But I mean, it is so true. It’s almost like any trainer in any sports or something. My wife is a sports person, right? So I mean, she’ll tell you the trainers, they’ve already gone through some version of it.

Ben Fuller:
Wow.
Jon Reddick:
And man, it’s just crazy how, yeah, it turns into a song or it turns into a story. One of my favorite moments is after the concert is over and you’re sitting and you’re talking with people at the table, those are the times that remind me why we do this and it’s the craziest thing. It actually humbles me so much. I’m like, “Man, I can’t believe that God lets me sing songs that are going to encourage somebody.”
Ben Fuller:
Yeah.
Jon Reddick:
That’s the craziest thing.
Nick:
Yeah.
Jon Reddick:
And so I’m just honored that we get those opportunities and we get to run into people who are either going through it or tell you a story that they made it through. I’ve heard some crazy things. Matter of fact, when I wrote that song, we finished it on a Saturday night. And I called the band up and I said, “Hey, y’all. I know this is crazy, man, but can we play this tomorrow?” and they were like …
Ben Fuller:
“I’m gone.”
Jon Reddick:
And so they played it. Here’s the thing, I never knew this.
Ben Fuller:
That’s crazy.
Jon Reddick:
A couple of years later, I found out. A lady comes to me. Now, I love Chick-fil-A, man. I love it so much. My favorite one … Well, my wife gets me to eat healthier so it used to be the number one, but now I get the grilled sandwich.
Ben Fuller:
Still my number one. Hallelujah.
Jon Reddick:
I get the grilled sandwich now, but I was getting the number one with a bottle of water. That was my go-to. Anyway, so I start walking out and in my mind, I’m just imagining this chicken biscuit. I’m like, “Oh, man. This is about to be the best thing. I’m so excited,” and then somebody says, “Hey, Jon.” And I was like, “Oh,” and stopped in my tracks. She was like, “You’re our worship pastor,” and I was like, “I guess it’s in season, out of season.” So she looks at me and she has her husband with her and then two friends, and she just starts tearing up. And all of a sudden, I forgot about my chicken biscuit. You just know in that moment. She says, “I was there the first time you sung God Turn It Around.” I was like [inaudible 00:17:03] and she said, “The reason I know is because the pastor got up and said, “You all just finished it the night before.”
She said, “What nobody knew was my husband …” She said her husband had just told her that he was leaving her for his mistress and that they were standing in there. And she said all of a sudden, the same way that we kept singing God Turn It Around over and over and over again was the same way God started working that week in their home. She says, “Can I just show you?” With tears in her eyes, she says, “Can I show you how we worship God now?” Right in the middle of Chick-fil-A, they just start raising their hands up. I’m like, “Oh, man.”

Sandi:
Them together?

Jon Reddick:
Yes, they were together. Now, here’s the thing. Rewind for a second. I always hit the drive-thru for Chick-fil-A. I never go in. This day, I just randomly went in. We meet this couple. They’ve been walking with us this whole time. She said, “We meet once a year at this Chick-fil-A.”

Nick:
Wow.

Jon Reddick:
“This is the day that we met.” I was like, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Ben Fuller:
Ain’t nothing random about my God.

Jon Reddick:
There’s nothing about random about God at all, man. I’m just convinced that yes we do go through things, one, because God is making us better or more like him in all the different ways and we’re learning, but also because there are people in front of us, beside us, behind us that are always going to be benefiting from the stories that we get to share. We overcome by the word of our testimony, man.
Ben Fuller:
Amen.

Jon Reddick:
I’m grateful to be a part.

Ben Fuller:
Or meeting somebody with 20 years of sobriety and saying, “Bro, I know you got five. Keep going, baby. I’ll be praying for you. I’ve made it. You can make it.” Even just that little bit of, “Oh.” Because some of those days, it’s like I want to throw it all in the can. And then I meet somebody with 20 years and they’re like, “Keep going, bro. That was me. I remember. I’ll be praying for you.” And it’s like just to know that you’re not alone in that, yeah. That’s good.

Jon Reddick:
That’s wild.

Ben Fuller:
Yeah.

Sandi:
Thanks for sharing your story.

Ben Fuller:
Yeah.

Sandi:
So, so good.

Jon Reddick:
Thank you.

Ben Fuller:
I’m praising God for Jon Reddick.

Jon Reddick:
I’m praising God for Ben Fuller.

Ben Fuller:
I’m thankful. And how cool that he’s still working and still using this story and still turning things around? So yeah, I’m grateful.

Jon Reddick:
Thank you.

Ben Fuller:
Love you, buddy.

Jon Reddick:
Love you, dude.

Nick:
I’m praising God for both of you and I’m also praising God for chicken biscuits.

Ben Fuller:
Oh. Now I want Chick-fil-A.

Nick:
And weirdly, rocks that hit friends, right? I mean, seriously, when you think God used a rock, that puts this whole thing into motion. And at the moment, what a scary, “Why would this happen?” kind of thing.

Ben Fuller:
Yeah, it was very scary.

Nick:
It’s so crazy.

Ben Fuller:
Yeah.

Jon Reddick:
Man.

Ben Fuller:
Yeah, yeah.

Jon Reddick:
Y’all are going to get me fired up in here.

Ben Fuller:
Yeah, yeah. I’m going to fire it up too. Now I want waffle fries.