INTERVIEW: Jonny Lang - “I Hated Christianity”

When we asked Sara Groves if she’d be interested in interviewing bluesman Jonny Lang for us, she practically freaked out. Groves, one of Christian music’s finest singer/songwriters, has long been a Lang fan, even before he gave his life to God a few years ago. We had a feeling that Groves, a great conversationalist, would make a fine interviewer—and we were right.

The first time I saw Jonny Lang, he was a 15-year-old kid, perched on a stool, his hair in his eyes—and playing his guitar and singing like he’d sold his soul to the devil. He was an irrefutable talent, and quickly became a young legend in the world of the blues and beyond, touring with The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and Sting, among others. I didn’t see Lang again till a few years ago when my husband Troy and I were watching The Late Show with David Letterman, and Lang was the music guest. When he took the stage that night, he was a very different guy we’d seen years before. As he sang, Troy and I looked at each other and said, “What happened to him?” As we would soon find out, apparently Jesus happened to him, as Lang explained in an interview accompanying what was then his new album, 2003’s Long Time Coming. Now Lang has a new album, Turn Around, which explores his newfound faith in confessional and contagious ways. We talked about the new album, and much more, before one of Lang’s recent shows. […read more]

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