Guy Penrod is in every sense of the word a man cut from the cloth of rugged individualism.

Never is this more evident than in the tracks of his first solo country album project, Breathe Deep. It's more than a collection of thirteen new songs. It's the creative thumbprint of a man with strong values and a positive worldview that harkens back to deep roots in faith and family.

His well-publicized departure in recent months after 14 years as a centerpiece of Bill Gaither's celebrated Gaither Vocal Band was not a move for the faint of heart—nor for a man less sure that he's tracking on a right course set for new horizons. "I had made fourteen records with the Gaither Vocal Band when Bill asked me last year if I wanted to do a solo record. I was excited by the opportunity to individualize my music and broaden my horizons. I also wanted to be true to the integrity of not doing a solo career inside the walls of my commitment to the Vocal Band. I guess I just felt it was the right time to make the move while I still have my hair," Guy laughs with a twinkle in his eyes.

Guy Penrod is no stranger to country music. Just a country boy who grew up to become a major voice—first in Nashville's creative scene 'behind the scenes'—and later center stage as a major name in southern gospel. In the midst of an exciting new chapter in his career, Guy Penrod believes 'now' is the time for his music and message.

NRT's Andrew Funderburks recently had the opportunity to speak with Guy about his history with the Gaither Vocal Band, and how this new album is presenting him an opportunity to sing to many different audiences and bridge generations.

Hello, Guy! Thanks so much for taking your time to talk with NewReleaseTuesday.com.

It’s my pleasure! I’m glad to do so.

When did you get started in music, and how did you eventually join the Gaither Vocal Band?

I got started as a really young fellow. My dad was a Baptist preacher and had started his own little church. My first recollection of me singing, essentially, was because my parents showed me photos. When I was a five-year-old, my dad got me up in front of the church and said, “Sing us a special, Buddy.” In the picture, I am standing in a folding chair at my dad’s church singing an old gospel song called “Fill My Cup, Lord.” So I guess that I started singing before I can recall too much about it.

I loved singing and all styles of music, and it came naturally. I don’t think it was my design, but I enjoyed it enough that I found it afforded me a lot of opportunities in life. I went to college on a full singing scholarship, and I later moved to Nashville. I began temporary work just to pay the bills for my wife and me. I also tried to get studio work, and that came rather quickly. I had a wonderful time singing on records, radio jingles, TV shows, and commercials.

Fifteen years ago, I was given the opportunity to join up with the Gaither Vocal Band. I like to say it this way. I didn’t necessarily have a plan, and I’m glad because I couldn’t have figured out a plan this cool. I thank God that He has a plan for each of our lives because I am notorious for trying to take things back into my own hands. I have to credit Him for His grace and saving my life and my wife’s life. We try to take our plans into our own hands and hit a wall, but He takes the plans back into His hands and works things out beautifully. So the plan to get into music wasn’t my own. I just followed where He led.


What was it like to sing with one of the most famous groups in all of Christian music history?

It was fabulous! It was quite an experience. You see, I was a fan of the Vocal Band before it was even called the Gaither Vocal Band. In the group were Steve Green, Bill Gaither, Lee Young and Gary McSpadden. I think their first record was He Came Down to My Level, which I bought, and I fell in love with that sound. I had listened to various quartets growing up, but I never considered having the opportunity to sing with the Gaither Vocal Band. I didn’t know to desire it, so to speak. When I got the opportunity to join the group, and felt the Lord leading me to do it, I was ecstatic. When I look back now on all the many things I was able to be a part of with that team of guys--that Homecoming family--it really blows my mind. It’s nothing short of fabulous! I loved it!

What was one of your favorite moments with the Gaither Vocal Band?

Oh goodness! That’s like asking me which one of my eight kids is my favorite! [Laughs.] It’s hard to say because we had the chance to do so many fun things along the way. Probably one of my most memorable trips with the Vocal Band was our trip to Jerusalem in Israel. We cut a video from David’s citadel which was, well obviously, David’s citadel. It was a fabulous night, setting, and audience--the first time I’d been to Israel. It was magic! I’d heard my mom and dad, and some friends who had gone to Israel before, talk about how it just came to life. For me, personally, it was quite an experience walking the streets where Jesus walked and pondering the verses about Jesus I’d hidden in my heart over the years. It hit me fresh and new and in a way I’d never experienced. This is a real guy and historical figure that walked these streets! We took a boat out of Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee, and the boat that we were in was fashioned for the time period when Jesus was alive. It was really inspiring. It quieted your spirit in awe. Since I’m an ordained minister, I was able to baptize Bill [Gaither’s] two grandsons in the Jordan River. It was quite a fabulous thing being able to do that. Jerusalem provided us one situation after another like that.

We also took a great trip to the Sydney [Australia] Opera House, and I was able to take my wife and one of our newborns at the time. Another big highlight, and one of the most heart-wrenching, was being in South Africa at the AIDS hospital for kids. They are so desperate and in need. It was life-changing to be there to see the love of these kids who are right in the middle of the one of the neediest positions a human being can be in.


Was recording a solo project something you’ve wanted to do for a while?

Yes. I have had this particular project in me for twenty years but didn’t have an opportunity to get it finished. Here’s what happened. When my wife and I moved to Nashville about twenty-three years ago, I got into the recording studio and started singing. I had made some acquaintances in the music industry and had a project in my heart that I wanted to do. Honestly, I think the reason that the Lord didn’t let me do the record, at that point, was because I hadn’t lived long enough. At this point, even though I haven’t learned nearly enough I’m sure, I have acquired twenty-three years more of life lessons. I can now sing with more conviction because I now have a better understanding of the subject matter. [What I wanted to do with the project] was to take my Christian, biblical view of the world and wrap it in everyday language because I think that sometimes we start talking vernacular in a way that only church people can understand. I saw the need to take a worldview that’s true--not just to sow my opinion into the world, and sow into the culture in the form of a country record.

Back when I was first working on the project, I had gotten a deal with a label called Polygram. During the process of cutting the record, the label got purchased and all of the acts that were signed at the time went the way of their bosses. Essentially, they restaffed the entire place, and my recording contract went away. So, with a half-finished record, I said, “Obviously God wasn’t in this,” and I went about living. Finishing this album has given me the ability to revisit that same passion.

Doing a record at this time in my life is more poignant for me because, now, I’m sending teens out into the world. It’s a rough place out there. It’s a lot different than when I grew up. The amount of the untrue, bad options that are out there to choose lead to heartache, disillusionment, depression, addictions, and all sorts of other things. I know that, according to Solomon, there’s nothing new under the sun, but I think that all these things are ratcheted up at this particular season and time. If we don’t get out there and sow the truth into the culture in a way that they will receive it, who else is going to do it?

That’s why I put a song on the record about staying married to one woman for a lifetime. It works! You may not agree with that, and you may not like it. You may have already gone through a divorce and gotten remarried. Whatever the case may be, staying married to one person is ideal because it works. There’s a song on the record that deals with abstinence. We’re not immune to any of the issues that everybody else goes through; we’re human. To me, if you don’t have the truth of the Word of God to lean on in your belief system, then you’re going to try and fail at several different things. That’s my motive for doing the record. I’ve always loved country music, and I believe, to a large degree, that the country audience and the gospel audience are one and the same. I want to build a bridge to that side. Honestly I want to build a bridge to younger and older audiences too. Even within the Christian circles, there is a bit of division within our worship, at this stage in the church’s development that I don’t think is healthy. I understand preferences, such as an older crowd not necessarily liking the younger crowd’s music and vice versa. I think we need to learn how to get around that kind of stuff and exemplify unity. I’m hoping that this music will resonate with young and old and that we’re able to hook some great ideas with some great music and build some bridges that way.

If you could choose, what one thing would you want the listeners of Breathe Deep to get off the album?

Conceptually, I want them to feel like it’s a toolbox, or at least a tool pouch, for living. You’re not going to find every piece of advice for living on this one little record with thirteen songs. I realize that it’s not a philosophical be-all and end-all, however, I touched enough subject matter that’s real and relevant to people’s lives today. I believe that, if you take the subject matter and apply it as the truth of how to deal with life, it will be much like a toolbox is to a mechanic who has a problem under the hood and needs the right tools. I think that’s what I see overall in the record--just enough subject matter that has truth to apply. One song that hits that note is “People That Matter”. The song is about our chase in life for things and status. It’s about how those things feel like they equal to success but, at the end of the day, the people that matter don’t care about those things. That’s just one of the ideas in the thirteen songs that we put on the record. I would like the album to be a good piece of life music that will encourage and uplift folks, and maybe give them a real answer for the real situation they’re dealing with.


“Every Saint” would probably have to be my favorite song off your new record. Can you tell us the story behind the song?

Unfortunately I didn’t write it. I could easily be the guy in the song, which I think is the beauty of a lot of country music. The songs tell a story. So much of the time, you can take that individual out of the song, and inject yourself, and really end up having a story about your life. I’m the most like the twenty-one year-old guy that’s walking out in the field, feeling like a failure because of his shortcomings. I’ve done the very same things. To some degree, I also feel like the older guy saying, “Hey, man! It’s not about what you do. A man makes his living by the work he does, but he’ll leave because of who he was.” I think that resonates in all of us because we all fail as humans. It’s in the beauty of God’s grace and His mercy to strive with us until we get to that place like the older guy [in the song]. He walked into a revival meeting one night, and Jesus got his heart, and now he believes. I think that’s the everyday man’s type of story. I also like the earthy subject matter. I like the line that says “He climbed down off his old John Deere.” That says something to me. The guy is walking through a big dirt field to get to his friend and get some help. I like that agricultural feeling.

What song, off of Breathe Deep, is the most personal for you?

That’s a hard question to answer too. All of the songs are out of my heart. Each of those songs, for its own reason, has a very personal and impacting message. I’m going down the list right now in my head and each one, to me, is as strong as the next. I guess one that’s really poignant to me at this particular season in my life is, “Are You the One?” It deals with the struggles of child-rearing. It says that, if we as parents don’t talk about the tough things with our kids, then someone is going to. Our kids are going to form an opinion and a belief system by default, if we don’t sow into them time, love, care, nurture, and things of that nature. That is a struggle we are heavily engaged in right now because we have kids that are eighteen, sixteen, fourteen, twelve, ten, eight, six, and four years old.

Wow! You have a big family!

We have seven boys and one girl.

What has shaped and what is still shaping your music?

I think that it is the successes and failures, on my part, that shape my future as I hear God and follow Him. I think that it’s also the lessons I learn--some He has to bring around two or three times before I get it. I’d say that life is a classroom because you’re always learning. I think you’re shaped by the people you hang out with, by the content you view, and by the things you listen to. We strive hard to surround ourselves with truth and protect ourselves from the stings of the enemy.

What Bible verse or chapter do you draw main inspiration from?

I know and love a lot of them and draw inspiration from the entirety of it as it comes through life. However, every time someone wants me to sign my name, I include a verse beside it, and it’s Mark 10:45. I really believe in that passage. It says, “For even the Son of Man, Jesus, came not to be served, but to serve.” I like the idea of abandon. I like the idea of an all or nothing type of living and approach. I believe that Jesus lived it all out! He didn’t reserve anything! He lived 100% wide open.

Guy thanks so much for sitting down to talk with us! To end the interview, are there any comments or thoughts of encouragement that you would like to send out to the readers or your fans?

Yes, definitely. I’d like to say lean on Jesus day by day. He’s not a high beam to see way down the road, but He’s a light and lamp unto our feet. Let’s take it one step at a time, and leave it all up to Him. That’s what I’m trying to do.