“Come, they told me, pa rum pa pum pum...” Follow me to for KING & COUNTRY's "Drummer Boy Drive-In" concert series!
Today’s podcast episode is terrific times two!!! Brothers from down-under, Joel & Luke Smallbone, are calling in. They’re currently on tour, but taking some time out just for us - to tell us about their safe and creative way of entertaining fans this holiday season. There'll be a little ribbing between siblings, some chit-chat about raising kids (or spoiled pets,) and we question whether or not road-trip potty breaks are really necessary! lol
It was such a treat to get to know these two handsome, wholesome, dynamic entertainers. Join us! ~ Delilah
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Hello, my friend, Welcome to my podcast, another edition of my podcast. I would tell you what number it is, but I haven't a clue because I don't keep track of those things. I just love doing these because it gives me an opportunity to dig deep. When I have people on my radio show, I only get to talk to them for a few minutes and then we play songs. But on this podcast, we can talk about anything and everything. And I am super excited to introduce you to my guest today on Love Someone with Delilah. I've never met them before, but I've been familiar with their music for a long time. Readers of my newsletter, followers of my social media platforms all know I've been a huge fan of this four time Grammy Award winning duo for several years. Maybe you've read about it, found links to their albums. They have an album that I've played a bazillion times, Burned the Ships. They have a drummer boy Christmas or Christmas Live from Phoenix. We've talked about this in my newsletter, we featured them on my Facebook page. Still not figuring out who it is? Well, how about this clue? Last year, A Petite Dynamo named Dolly Pardon fell in love with one of their singles and couldn't wait to collaborate with them. God only knows. Featuring Dolly soared on Christian music stations, on country stations, on AC charts, and the rest of the world fell in love with it too. It earned them two twenty twenty Grammys. Today, for the first time, I get to talk with Joel and Luke Smallbone and you get to listen. If those names still don't sound familiar, perhaps what they call themselves on stage will ring a bell. For King and Country have garnered seven number one hits, top ten hits, six Grammy nominations, three Billboard Music Award nominations, and American Music Award nominations. They've had songs on the Emmys, the Super Bowl, Sunday Night Football. Maybe you've seen them on Good Morning America or The Tonight Show, the Today Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live Show. They've been on the View, They've been on the CMA Awards. They've done it all. For King and Country has accumulated nearly one billion that's with a b billion on demand streams, and I get to talk to them today. You got to wait just a minute longer, though it wouldn't be prudent, It wouldn't be right not to mention the folks that make this podcast possible. By sponsoring this podcast, the place doers get to do things done before Christmas and all year through the Home Depot. If you need a new appla clients, our podcast sponsor has the appliance help you can count on. The Home depots selection of appliances is as large as ever, and this month you'll find special buy savings. Whether you decide to visit your favorite Home Depot in person or download the Home Depot app and shop that way, you'll find the appliances you need and fall season savings on top brands like Samsung and LG And this free delivery and purchases of three hundred and ninety six dollars or more the Home Depot. How doers get more done? Did Delilah? It's Joe here with the King and Country. Hello, Joel, how are you? Lovely? Lovely to hear your voice? How are you? I'm well? Thank you? Is your brother with us? Is it? Both of you? Are? Just you? He's about to be and we play, don't We don't get on interviews very much, very often so, but when we do. We're going to do special game today and that is hang on, hang on the game, Delilah is can you tell the brothers voices apart? All right? Both of you talk. I mean it's very tricky, it's very very hard. Yes, it's very difficult. Well you're on two different sounding phones. Okay, Well I'll have you know. I followed the rules here and it says in asterisk, please use air cords for quality sound. And that's what I'm doing, and Luke is not. I I'm being very well behaved today. Really, that's disappointing. I was kind of hoping I would get to see the wild side of the small Bone brothers. So maybe that's what's about to happen. Thanks and taking the time to hang out with us, Alilah, this is the very kind of you. I'm so excited. My sister Deanna, and if you heard the two of us on the phone together, you would not be able to tell us a part either. Oh, if our mother were still alive. My mom was such a brat, and my sister and I sound exactly like mama did. And when I was a young adult, I might have been a little bit wild, a tiny amount, a small fraction for a nanosecond, and my mom would come and stay with me, come to visit, and she would answer my phone. Back in the day when you know, phones were on the wall, she would answer my phone the same way I do. She would go yellow, and my friends would think it was me and they would start spilling the beans, and my mom would pry into their business and pry into my business the whole time they think they're confessing to me or talking about something I had done, until she got all the download and then she would start cracking up and go, I think your mother is absolutely brilliant, and I'm may take that trick when my boys get a little bit older. Now, do they have a voice anything like yours? Dad? Do any of your comedy kids? Between the two of you, Well, I'm the only one who has kids, but I got little LEAs, so it doesn't really work right now. I got a seven, five and three year old and we have another on the way. Just because life couldn't get a little bit crazy. Congratulations, thank you. But I did have a conversation with one of my kids the other day and he said, Hey, that's I want to make a deal with you. I was like, Okay, what's your deal. He's like, you know, I want to get a phone when I'm twenty. And I said, hey, man, that's the first time you get your phone. Break Donald Mighty, We'll go with that. You should have recorded it, like you should have recorded him saying that, so when he's ten or twelve and lobbying for the first phone, you can just play that back and say, son, I know I am holding you to your word. Spoken like someone who is in radio where you're always recording conversations exactly, and who has a lot of kids who always want cell phones. And I'm an old, a mean old mom when it comes to technology. Yeah, how many? How many do you have? Out of curiosity between my husband and I? My husband had five biological children before I met him. We have twenty now. Oh my goodness. Yeah, So Luke, come on, catch up, dude. I mean you got number four on the way. That ain't nothing, honey. I got some work to do, both of you. Come on, I've got plenty of work to do. I have a great dane in the cat You have a great dane. Yeah. She was running past me yesterday and it literally sounded like a horse was galloping by. I've got lots of horse tack in my barn, so you're welcome to borrow it if you need. You know, now, Luke, do your kids ride on his great Dane? I think they've tried to play that game before. But Merriweather is kind of like to say that she's a very special dog that has not encountered a lot of difficulty in her life. So when she the only human on her back, she's immediately saying something's wrong, something's wrong. This child needs to move, this child needs to get up. So maybe she hasn't broken in yet, Joel, How old is the dog? Joel? She's four? Oh yeah, you're you're not. You're not going to break her in? Then, now she's that's not gonna happen. She kind of thinks of herself as royalty Merriweather. So, Joelie, why is that? I wonder? Well, where the classic cliche, I get a dog before we have a kid. Right, So there's like all of that emotional energy that's pent up that that's really probably meant to go to a small human that actually just gets diverted to a kline or a fiend line. You know, I'm gonna have to like talk to your wife a little bit and introduce you to the concept because you guys come from a family of seven, right, five boys and two go, so we need we need to talk to your wife about the concept of you know, I don't know eight, ten, twelve or twenty, Like I have twenty kids is amazing. I don't know if I've ever heard of anybody. I mean, twenty kids. That's absolutely fantastic. Well, I actually only gave birth to three of them. The Lord has blessed me with the other twelve through adoption. Well, and I figured that, which is so cool. My oldest are probably older than you boys, and my youngest is four, so, oh my goodness, I've been a mean old mom for a long time. There you go. There you go, three to four that age. I said to my wife the other day. I was like, I'm so glad we're having one more because I always want to have a child in that three to four age rank. But that's kind of good. Though my wife has been saying, this is it, honey, this is it, So maybe I get more offerall. Well, it might not be the old fashioned way. There you go. You must be very close to God's hot Dalailah, because I've never met anyone that has as many adopted children as you do. Well, I do know this, and I hesitate to say it out loud because people think I'm being egotistical or vain, but I maybe you guys will get it. I know that I am favored and blessed. I mean nothing else matters in life to the degree that how much God blesses me and favors me and adores me. And when I say that to people, they're like, oh, you think you're so special. I'm like, yeah, guess what, so are you? I so would you say that? My wife always says, you know, I just know that, like I'm God's favorite, and she would say that in a way that she said, but you are too, Luke. That's the type of love that God has for us. Is that to all of us, He's just saying no, no, no no, but to your my favorite exactly. Obviously people don't understand the concept of you could have favorites more than just one. But that's that's when because I remember being a child and having friends or you know, having people that were older than me saying, hey, man, of all your family, I just really love hanging out with you what it made me feel so cared for and so loved. And I think that the type of love that God has for us. When when my wife says, well, I'm just his favorite, that is the type of love that He has for every one of us individually. I love your wife already. Oh oh yeah, she says that, and I'm like and I'm like, honey, it's obviously true. God does favor you. My I tell my husband that all the time. Sometimes I don't know if you guys have ever experienced this, but sometimes my husband is slightly hard headed, and I will be trying to tell him something that I feel is really important, and I'll be arguing with him and arguing with him and you know, presenting the facts, and then he'll get this little twinkle in his eye and the corners of his eyes kind of wrinkle up, and he goes, okay, okay, okay, I'll listen, and yes, I'll agree to it because I know you are his favorite. Oh that's a good man, right there. Not because I've made my point clear, but because he knows and he's you know, we've been together long enough that he has seen how many times God has blessed me supernaturally I mean, not even coincidentally, but just like supernaturally, out of this world kind of blessings that you can't even wrap your head around. They're so amazing. And so he'll get this little twin Glenn as I goes, okay, okay, okay, well, hey, hey, here's it. The way that I know that this is really really true is obviously a in the Bible it says that children are a blessing from God. There's nobody else I know that has twenty kids, so it's obviously very evident from bssed I am. I am blessed beyond measure. And the crazy thing is is all twenty of them are my favorite. There you go, that's right. You know. It's interesting because I felt that with Mum as well to life. I like, I don't think any of us ever felt like we were genuinely, you know, the only one, but we all felt like we were her favorites in the best way, you know, and that I think that's a great sign of good parenting right there. I had something happened to me a few weeks ago. There was some folks that I know that were talking about the fact that they have this super equal love for their kids, right, And it was like, I spent two hours here, I spent two hours here. I spent two hours kind of like I doesn't feel like love. And it hit me that what we should be attempting to do with the people that are in our lives and our kids is we should be loving our kids uniquely. Amen. And that's what I think we felt with our mother was she may have spent a little bit more time with one of the other kids, well that was that child love language. I didn't need the same amount of time that way, But with the love language that I had, she showed up for and she loved me uniquely. Okay, So, Luke, what is your love language? Do you know? Have you identified what that is? You know what? I don't know. No, I don't necessarily know. My gut would say words of affirmation would probably be up there, just because I don't know if it's a guy thing or what. But when, like my wife says, honey, I think you did a great job, I'm like, what, Walt do you want me to take down? I got this? I got this? Okay, Luke, Yeah, do you know what your love language is? I mean, Joe, here we go with the voices alike. There, we're not making it easy for you. We need to be on zoom or something so I can look at you. Because Luke, you got curlier hair. Well there we go, I do. It's still there, and it's still as curly. I think it's actually a small bone. I don't know if it's a sort of some sort of family because we all traveled together growing up. Our sister is a singer, Rebecca James, and we were a road crew and and so there was this kind of fuel die mentality that like we ran the lights and in the stage managing and the spotlight and background vocals all the rest of it. And so when you felt like you'd done a good job, even as a young teenager, it was such a big deal. And I feel like for all of us as adult. I was literally having a conversation with Luke this morning, and I was just sort of saying about an individual in both of our lives is just saying he never like it doesn't I'm busting my tail here, and and you know sometimes I just like a little bit of a hey, you know what, like nice nice work man's that's that's very deep in there. But I would say similarly, I think a good word of affirmation is a is a kind thing. But is that your strongest love language? Would you rather hear that? Or would you rather find a present hidden under your pillow at night? Or would you rather get a backrun from your wife? How do you feel loved? A BackRub from my wife would be great. My wife is undoubtedly words of affirmation. I actually wrote her note lested under a pillow last night, because she just loves that sort of thing. No, but I'm I'm pretty convincing the words of affirmation. I would say, you tell me I've done a good job with something I could fly to the moon. Wow. Good, because that's that's an easy one to do. I love your music. I love, love, love, love, love the music that you guys, your whole family. I loved your sister. I mean, I don't know how many years I've loved her music. I love your music. I love your stage presence. I love the way that you share God in a very dark world, but you share him in such a real way. I love you, guys, Joel. I mean, how are you feeling right? I mean, let's just end the podcast here. I'm just going to go and go and float into the atmosphere. I truly do, and I truly praise God for you, because there's a lot of people that listen to your music, that receive your music, that tap their toes to your music, that sing along with your music, that would never walk into a church and hear a sermon, that would never think to turn on a podcast by you know, some of the great preachers, and yet God is speaking to them through your music. And that's what I love the most. Well, it's also fun to watch you guys on on stage up. I'll be honest, we still need to officially get you to a live concert. Third fun that would be nice. That would be I like your drive through that you're doing for Christmas. You're doing drive up concerts this Christmas season. Yes, yeah, we're doing about twenty five of them. I was just that we're actually in Missouri. We're doing a drive in the drive in theater tonight, so we've got a couple between now and Christmas, but we're doing, you know, twenty twenty five of them. And it's been really special to a lot because it's kind of, you know, it's unprecedented times obviously, particularly for musicians and people in the arts community, because large group gatherings are like we're the first thing to go and the last thing to be reinstated in the end. But so we kind of went into this. We the heartbeat behind it was we just felt like, after such a kind of hellish year globally, economically, socially, politically, you know, health wife, that Christmas twenty twenty, celebrating this great hope is going to be one of the most beautiful Christmases we ever experienced in our lifetime, one of the most memorable. And so we actually in the middle of quarantine, we went back into the studio and we did our first ever complete, you know, spared no expense for King and Country full length Christmas album called A Drama Boy Christmas that releases on October thirty. And then and then the drive in tour, called appropriately a Drama Boy Drive In where literally we called our booking agents said what if we spanned you know, basically the southern border of the whole United States. So we start in California in the Rose Bowl, We go to Arizona, we go to Rangers Stadium, and then we end up in Florida. And the response has just been really beautiful, I think some of them are already almost sold out. We're having to add second driving shows, and so it feels like there's something. There's something in the air this Christmas for sure. So you'll be on stage and folks will be sitting in their car, just like our folks used to go to the drive in with popcorn and snacks and watching you guys rock out. Hopefully a bit of hot chocolate as well. We're talking about trying to get a food truck at some of them that has like some of the Christmas Yeah, but like the band, the lights, the sound, the confetti, the speakers, live in person. We're bringing the trucks and the buses and playing the Christmas album as well as some of you know, our year round favorites for people as well. So it's really unique and I think we were both kind of like, oh, this is going to be really strange. How does this work? And they've been some of the most memorable, kind of remarkable nights I think we've had live with people because it cost something not just the price of admission, but in this time in history to go out and even get some friends and family into the car. And even though you say it in socially, didn't it cost something to go out to these events all of a sudden, And so it's really thrilling, it really is. Well, I wish you were coming to a state near me, because I would love to load up the kids. I have a thirteen passenger van. I've only got five children that are still at home. The rest are grown and have kids of their own. No, not all of them have kids of their own. None of them have a Great Dane. However, well know this, we have that in common. When we grew up, we traveled in what we call the fifteen seed that and we had the fifteen seed of van, and we piled up and we did that whole shebang. So I know a little bit about what you were talking about when it comes to the van that everybody looks at as that is a monstrosity. Now, was mom the driver or was Dad the driver? Usually? Was absolutely the driver? And when one of y'all called out, I gotta go potty, did Dad get annoyed or did he just like look for the closest spot to pull over? Oh, that absolutely got annoyed. Yeah, okay, so it's the exact same dynamics. Usually I'm the one driving, But when when Papa's driving, it's like, kids, you better go to the bathroom before we get in that van, because you know Papa is not going to stop. You know that. Well, here's the funny thing is I always used to get annoyed with those antics, like Dad, you know, come on, like, we gotta go to the bathroom. Yeah, I may you've made a mistake. I didn't go when you told you know whatever. I do the exact same thing to my kids, Like when there's a time where I said, hey, you need to go to the bothroom, I say I don't need to, and then you stop forty five minutes later on a road trip. It drives me crazy, and then all of a sudden, I have a moment where I'm like, I'm turning into my father. Yeah. My sister and I laugh all the time and say mirror, mirror on the wall. We are our mother after all. You know. It is frightful, isn't it. It's pretty funny how those things are generational. So yeah, your kids will be saying the same thing, Luke Quinn when their parents then have to pull over because their kids got to go pee. There you go. I know, it's the circle of life. So your wife says no more after number four? When does she do? She is due January thirteenth, And get this wether. It is our first daughter. We had three boys and this is our first daughter, which you know, I don't know if you know much about this or not, but the likelihood after having three boys if you have a daughter is like eight percent or something like that. So she's already very very special and meaningful to us before we've even met this little one. And yeah, we you know, I think every dad kind of hopes to have a little girl. I love raising boys. It's a lot of fun. You have to be very very strong with them. But to have a little girl is a dream come true for both my wife and I. So we feel like it's caused thet the lightning on the cake. We're very very excited. So I'll just throw this little statistic at y luke. Are you ready? Okay? Al ready, four hundred and eighty seven thousand, four hundred and eighty seven thousand children in America will go to bed tonight not knowing where they might live tomorrow because they're in foster care. Yeah, it's unbelievable. Did you adopt nationally? Then not internationally. Half are are from the foster care system, half are from a refugee camp that I work in in West Africa. It's no longer open for adoption adopting out of the country that I work in. They've closed those doors. And oh wow, so yeah, but I didn't adopt children because I had this strange, crazy desire to raise, you know, more babies. Except for the first child that I adopted, Manny is his name, I didn't even like have completed home studies or a caseworker or anything. I wasn't setting out to adopt more than the first child I adopted. In every situation, one hundred percent of the kids that I've adopted, except for Manny and our last adoption. Our last adoption, which was last year, was a fourteen year old girl out of foster care. With the exception of those two adoptions, I did not even have like completed home studies or caseworkers or anything. These were just kids that the Lord you know, brought into my life and said, this child needs a mom. Are you willing? How beautiful is that? I'm going to be giving you a call to Elilah at some point the next few years. It's unknown whether or not the biological will come first or adoption, But my wife and I have had countless conversations about both our mutual heart for adopting, and it feels like they needed almost greater than ever. And the time is sort of the time is now, you know again, I think it's time to there's some seismic shifts happening and think about this that we get to be a part of. Maybe since the Second World War our generation at least is this is the first time something has happened globally with the pandemic that no matter what's your ethnic background, no matter your gender, no matter your your level of affluence in society, that's been the great equalizer that everyone has been affected. And I think there's a great hope, by the grace of God, that as we come out of this in the next period of time, that we have greater commonality and greater understanding because we have a point of suffering together, we can go. Do you remember that moment I felt what you felt? And where were you and where was I? And how did it affect you? And what did you lose? But how are you different now because of that moment in your life? It feels as though the way forward, even on kind of a global scale, is that we can be more united than ever. In a sense, I believe under God because we look at it and go we all suffer together, but we all came through it together, and look at where we are now. You know, every night, I mean every night when I say my prayers and I kind of review my day and I thank God for this and thank God for that, because I truly try to live in an attitude of gratitude no matter what's going on. Lately, I've just been saying, God, use me, use me in whatever capacity you want to to share this joy that is bubbling out of me, to share this love that I can't contain. Absolutely well, thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I know you said you're performing tonight. Where are you tonight, Missouri? So who is traveling? Is your whole family's traveling together or just you two? No? Not today. I usually try and bring one of the boys with me out on the road, but they got into a little bit of trouble, and so I said, hey, you only get to be able to come out in the road with dad if you're good for mom, and you won't very good for mom, so you don't get to come. So that happened. So yeah, it's just me and Joel out here. We have older brother Daniel, who designs all the sets and is an allighting designer. He's with us, and then we got the band guys, the crew guys, and kind of our our team. So we have it so thankfully tomorrow that it's basically just in our hometown. So we get to see all our family tomorrow and they'll be there for the show. So that's nice. And your older sister Rebecca, what is she doing now. She actually signed a new record deal and she just released a new album. I don't know, that's what a few months ago. Joy. And then she does a podcast now as well, and she just had her third child, a little boy. Yeah, but she's relatively busy as we speak. Actually, she just text me just a few minutes ago. So all right, Well, I will pray for the whole family. I thank you for your time, I thank you for your music, and I'm going to go listen to a Little drummer Boy one more time because that is like my all time favorite. Well listen away and keep keeping ear and an eye out as well. In a couple of weeks, we'll be releasing this drummer Boy Christmas which has kind of the ultimate, the ultimate drummer Boy version on it, if you will, even better than the one that I have online that I listened to get me going whenever I need a little inspiration. Well, you have to decide, but our sense is that it is. We're also just in the middle of finishing. We've got a live music video for drummer Boy, but doing an official music video for Drama Boy as well, so that'll come out as well. So it's going to be the Year of the Drama Boy for us twenty twenty. Well, you'll hear it a lot on the Delilah Show, so I know a lot of folks will enjoy that and be blessed. Thank you, Luke, Thank you Joel, God blessed for King and country, and thank you well. Thankful Joel and Luke. I can't believe we have not made each other's acquaintances until now. How did that happen? How did I not get to meet you before? My producer Jane and Deanna, who is also my best friend and my little sister, they met you last November in NAPA at the Live in the Vineyard event, Deanna came running back and said, we had had to get you on a podcast, and she was so right. It has been a pleasure, a joy to get to know you. Best of luck with your tour and your toy drive, and much love to you and your families during the holidays. I don't live in any of the states for King and Country will be visiting on their drive intur but if you do, I highly suggest you get tickets, pack up the car with cozy blankets, your favorite snacks, your most favorite people, and go out to enjoy this super unique Christmas show in a responsible and safe way. A drummer Boy Christmas, as well as Burn the Ships is available wherever you get your music, and I do think you should, of course get this music, all of it. Listen to it. Your heart will be encouraged, your soul will be encouraged. For King and Country, thank you for being here with us.