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While best known for moody, contemplative classics like Mercy and Slow Revival, Bryan Duncan takes off on a joyride this time around. Bryan's latest album is an upbeat celebration of blue-eyed soul. Highlights include a remake of Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Where There's Love," which enlists the help of Donnie McClurkin. Bryan recently sat down with FamilyChristian.com for an honest, reflective look back on twenty-three years of ministry, artistry and industry.

FamilyChristian.com: Joyride is your 13th solo album. Before that, you had 6 albums with the Sweet Comfort Band. One might say you've been around long enough to watch the whole Christian music industry develop and "grow up." What are some of your impressions on how the industry has progressed?

Bryan: It's grown larger. You see a lot of people selling a lot of records. That's certainly different from the early days. I think it's still very tiny. It's just real organized now. We know exactly what certain people want. What comes along with that is kind of an in-house approach to life. I think churches have the same problem sometimes. You find a format that works and so you cater to one specific area. I don't know if that is good or bad.

FamilyChristian.com: Knowing what you know now, if you were able to go back and do your career over again, is there anything that you would do differently?

Bryan: No. I think my career and my personal faith has been a process—a long-term process. I don't know how I would change it. All the mistakes that I made led to where I am today and I don't know that there would have been an easier way to do it.

FamilyChristian.com: One of the songs on your new album is a cover of Paul McCartney's, "Maybe I'm Amazed." That kind of ties into what we were just talking about. A popular discussion today is, "What is Christian music?"

Bryan: Ultimately what makes a Christian tune, I suppose, is the singer and his intent. I'm one of those guys who spent a lot of time in the early days with the Sweet Comfort Band doing real soft sell Christian lyrics. It wasn't because we were trying to wash it down. We truly wanted to see lives changed; we felt like we were going to change the world somehow with the Gospel. But at the same time, we were kind of naïve about what selling is all about. Ultimately, you can sell people on stuff and not change their heart. Isn't that an interesting fact?

I've gotten really pragmatic over the years. I've grown a lot quieter when people ask for opinions. I think the intent is always the ultimate thing. My wife and I were in the car with my kids yesterday and we were talking about this song, "Everything You Want" [by Vertical Horizon]. It would make such a great Gospel song. The guy's talking about how you say all the right things at all the right times; you're always there but you're not loved. And nobody quite gets it. You could take that verbatim and point the song toward Christ and it would be the best Gospel song written this year.

I think when you're a Christian, you just listen to songs differently. [Non-believers] don't have ears to hear the Gospel sometimes, even if it's straight-out point blank. They hear what they want to hear. So I've come to the point that you really have to trust God even when you're spreading the Gospel. Nobody comes to the Father except those He draws by His own Spirit.

FamilyChristian.com: It's interesting to hear people's testimonies. So many don't fit the formula we're taught in church.

Bryan: Like the drummer in the Sweet Comfort Band; he came to Christ because of a James Taylor song—"Won't you look down upon me, Jesus, and help me make a stand." I don't know what he's talking about there, but I think God speaks to you before anyone else does. God knows where you are before anyone else does.

FamilyChristian.com: You have an interesting quote in your press kit. You say, "I've come to realize that vague illusions haven't been all that effective in encouraging people to consider the things of God."

Bryan: And that's basically why we've arrived at Joyride. I'm not working so hard to sell Christ. I've got to admit that I've been really angry over the years at my ineffectual abilities—my inability to sell records very well, or not getting the point across. Being misunderstood by Christians more often than not, I've just sent all the wrong signals. And I've gotten kind of angry, because at some point, I felt like I was supposed to be God's marketing director. God doesn't even want a marketing director. He's saying, "I'm not in the business of business. I'm into the relationship experience." I go about representing Christ in the worst ways and thinking that I'm doing Him a favor.

FamilyChristian.com: What types of spiritual disciplines have you developed?

Joyride Bryan Duncan

Bryan: It's feast or famine. When I'm on the road I have more time to do spiritual things and I actually do them less. It's like if you only have two things to do, you don't get either one of them done. If you've got 50 things to do you get at least 49 of them done. When I got home from this tour and finished Joyride in September, it was like going back back to the gym when you realize that you're getting soft and mushy. You don't like it, but you do it. I got into a couple Bible studies. Tuesday night is a men's study and the church's Bible study is on Wednesday. Starting the Bible thing again I was thinking, "Oh man, I've heard all this." It's like reading the same book over and it took me a couple weeks to get back into reading Scripture and realizing that it applies in a deeper way than I was allowing it to. I said, "Why did I let go of this?" It puts boundaries on my life and puts a frame around a not-so-well drawn picture. It gives me a sense of confidence and hope.

The other [study] is like a 12-step program to deal with stuff that we don't want to give up. We deal with all the issues that are typical to men and why we don't do the right things. Some things just refuse to go away. I'll be 47-years-old and it's the same stuff that I was dealing with when I was a kid: pride in the name of love and lust in the name of love and greed in the name of love…

FamilyChristian.com: Are you saying that you're not perfect?

Bryan: Not only am I saying that, but [I wonder], "Am I qualified for humanity?" It's embarrassing, and for men especially, because nobody wants to deal with some of the harder issues and acknowledge that it's not going to go away without you constantly working on it. I'm there whenever I'm available.

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