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FamilyChristian.com: The title track on the new album, Have I Ever Told You, came from a conversation, that you, Jeromy, had with your dad. Tell me about how that discussion came about.

Jeromy: I was on a visit to Pennsylvania for vacation in September of last year. We weren't singing or anything so it was just Jennifer and me. My dad and I were talking about something unrelated and we got into an argument. You know how arguments kind of fishtail their way into other things and for some reason, maybe it was God allowing it to be exposed and opened up, maybe it was just us getting angry with each other but we actually started talking about my folks' divorce.

FamilyChristian.com: How old were you when they got divorced?

Jeromy: Five. I feel okay to talk about it now because we're so far removed. I mean, I talked to my dad about it since the writing of the song and he's okay with it because it was 20 years ago. So we talked for awhile and got in a knock-down, drag-em-out argument about some stuff unrelated to this and some stuff related to my folks' divorce. I guess some of the minor stuff that we were fighting about led to talking some about the major issues. We got off the phone and we hung up on each other. We let it cool down and he called me back later that night. I was cooled off and he was cooled off and I just started asking him, "Why?" I said, "There's so much I don't understand and so much I don't know."

He basically told me, "It was 20 years ago. Who cares?" He, at one point, said, "Stop living in the past." And I told him, I said, "Dad, it's not me living in the past. It's me having a huge blind spot." I didn't even know who left who. And I'm not saying you should know all the details of your folks' divorce. It's not always healthy. There's things I don't know and I don't want to know. But there's things I wanted to know. After we talked for awhile, my dad kind of understood and what he told me [turned into] the lyrics of the song.

Basically he started to tell me how sorry he was. I would ask him, "Why?" and he said, "I don't know. But I'm sorry." And that was good enough. He said, "I don't know. It just got the best of me." That was okay. That was enough. Even if he didn't have an excuse, it was enough. It was enough for him to say, "I'm sorry. I understand it was wrong." And he told me, "I knew it was wrong all along but I don't want to live in the past." So anyway, we talked for awhile and opened up a whole lot of things and closed a whole lot of things and at the end, he said, "Well, I want you to know that I am proud of you. I'm proud of the way you turned out."

There was a time he wasn't terribly supportive of FFH because he wanted me to take over his business. He's a real successful businessman. He owns a couple companies and I'm his firstborn son. There's no chance of my brother taking them over. He wanted me to take them over and his feelings were hurt by that. This whole conversation, he said, "I want you to know how proud I am. I wouldn't want you to be doing anything else" gave me the lyrics.

When I came home, it was hard because the wounds were kind of open and exposed and Jennifer and I, that next week or two, it was still a little weird because I felt like I was 12 years old again. But at the same time it was a really healing thing and it helped me a lot.

FamilyChristian.com: Was that the first time you guys really had a conversation about it?

Jeromy: Yes. First time ever. I'll be 27 next month. I was 26. For twenty-one years we had never talked about it and you know, there were times when my folks would give me bits and pieces, but never did he ever really sit down and say, "This is what happened. This is why." You know what I mean?

Since then, I can't say our relationship is 100% better but, you know, it is a little bit better. He understands now how important it is that I know. I asked him one time during our conversation, unrelated to my parents' divorce, I said, "Dad, I don't even know your testimony." I said, "You bought me a Bible when I was 16 but I don't even know when you got saved." Then he told me. I mean, just knowing your dad's testimony will change a lot of things. He told me when he got saved. He told me when he went to the altar and recommitted his life to Jesus when he was 18.

Have I Ever... by FFH

He said, "I don't know what you want from me because I can't do anything to change it now." I said, "I need you to be my dad." He said, "How do I do that?" Just hearing him say, "I don't know how to do that" made me understand, "Okay, he really doesn't." It's been better. But I never intended to write the song. It wasn't like I got off the phone and I started writing down what he said. About a week or two later I was writing and I wrote it in about a half hour. I played it for Jennifer and she really liked it. And I played it for these guys and Allyson, Brian's wife, who comes from a broken home. She doesn't even know if her dad's still alive or dead. She never met him. And [our producer] Scott's wife, Vanessa, who comes from a broken home, was like, "Wow, you really need to record that." So I think it means a whole lot more to folks who come from a broken home.

The thing that's so important about this song is it does two things. The first thing that it does is it answers the question. I mean, you said it perfectly. There's all these holes. Other people have this sense of history and tradition that we don't have because we don't feel like we can talk about it because we're don't want to make our parents drag up their past. But we're just trying to find some stability in the template of our life.

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