Just because Gospel star Fred Hammond is a Grammy Award-winning artist who has performed before millions around the globe does not mean he is a stranger to struggle.
This past January the 53-year-old Detroit native’s faith was tested in a profoundly personal way: he underwent an excruciating double knee replacement surgery – the same procedure that claimed the life of his biological dad in the early ‘90s – and as a result was unable to walk. Forced for months to rely on family members, friends and sometimes total strangers to get around – the experience was almost too much for the staunchly self-reliant singer, who found it to be humiliating.
“This has been one of the roughest periods I’ve ever been through,” admits Hammond, who today is about “6o% recovered,” “and I’ve been to the army, boot camp, jumped out of airplanes and lost parents – so that says a lot. Having to be in a wheelchair and then on a walker learning to walk again has been the most physically and emotionally taxing experience of my life.”
Just because Gospel star Fred Hammond is a Grammy Award-winning artist who has performed before millions around the globe does not mean he is a stranger to struggle.
This past January the 53-year-old Detroit native’s faith was tested in a profoundly personal way: he underwent an excruciating double knee replacement surgery – the same procedure that claimed the life of his biological dad in the early ‘90s – and as a result was unable to walk. Forced for months to rely on family members, friends and sometimes total strangers to get around – the experience was almost too much for the staunchly self-reliant singer, who found it to be humiliating.
“This has been one of the roughest periods I’ve ever been through,” admits Hammond, who today is about “6o% recovered,” “and I’ve been to the army, boot camp, jumped out of airplanes and lost parents – so that says a lot. Having to be in a wheelchair and then on a walker learning to walk again has been the most physically and emotionally taxing experience of my life.”
To cope during this dark, soul-searching period the father of two leaned heavily on the Word and of course his beloved music, the result of which is I Will Trust, arguably the most intimate album of Hammond’s more than three decade-long career. A stunningly honest collection of songs balanced equally between stomp-worthy praise reports and deep, in-the-valley ballads, Hammond gathers his best and brightest – go-to producers (and drummer) Calvin Rodgers and Phillip Feaster– to deliver this powerfully transformative musical sermon.
“I Will Trust is a whole lot of declaring and decreeing,” shares the star of the upcoming Christian stage play “Cain and Abel” (written and directed by JD Lawrence), who despite his ongoing recovery recently wrapped a 32-city tour. “The message I wish to convey on this song and the album is that sometimes you have to grab life when you’re at your lowest point – not when everything is fine and you’ve got all the money you need, the kids are acting great and the marriage is good,” he says of the beautifully crafted 12-track disc. I Will Trust is about when you are walking in that black, deserted place and you’ve got to declare victory. When you’ve got to say I will be blessed. My family will be made whole. My kids will be made safe. That’s what these songs are about. Declaring and a decreeing what you believe.”
On that note Hammond kicks off his new album with the delightfully rousing call-to-action “Festival of Praise.” Opening it with 1st Chronicles 16: 8-12 he testifies “Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name / Make known his deeds among the people / Sing unto him, sing songs unto him / Talk all his wondrous works / Glory ye in his holy name.”
A tone of bottomless gratitude firmly established Hammond, who wrote 90% of the lyrics on the album, and plunges into deep emotional waters next with the tender, choir-supported Have Your Way, a song inspired by the death of his drummer Calvin Rodgers’ father who never recovered following a stroke. “Lord have your way,” he croons in the chorus. “Here I am / There’s no resistance / I surrender / I lift my hands, lift my voice and cry out to you,” he sings passionately.
The celebratory I Believe is another song that finds Hammond at a vulnerable place and shouting his faith from the proverbial mountaintop. “I Believe is special because I wrote it at a pretty painful part of my rehab,” he says. “I couldn’t peddle a bike, something I’ve been doing all my life. I would literally have tears in my eyes. I would put my head down and peddle because I didn’t want anybody to see. I just wanted to believe it would get better,” he says. “So that’s where I Believe came from. I believe in the power of God. It was a declaration of faith at my lowest point.”
Hammond quotes John 3:16 in the triumphant Perfect Love, witnessing to saints and sinners alike about God’s everlasting mercy, and then has a little fun on the joyous, up-tempo You Bless Me. “It’s just a fun song that’s reminiscent of the biggest songs I ever wrote, We’re Blessed in the City,” he recalls. “Like that song it’s a reminder to those who are listening that no matter where we are in life, we are blessed,” he affirms.
Gratitude is a state of mind Hammond works to maintain no matter what challenges loom just over the horizon, and it’s the reason he closes I Will Trust with the traditional new gospel track I Owe It All. “When it’s all said and done God has blessed me so tremendously, as he does us all,” he says. “I’m considered old in this music game. I don’t have to be here right now doing some of my best work but I am, and it’s all because of Him.”
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