Ben Fuller, the Christian musician who has been overtly open about his struggles with addiction before Jesus radically saved him, recently released a new studio album titled “Walk Through Fire.”
Less than six years ago, Fuller was addicted to cocaine, alcohol, lust and tormented by suicidal thoughts. After losing his best friend to drugs and others close to him to addiction or suicide, God rescued him. Fuller has often said that he is amazed he never got caught by the law—but God caught him.
Sharing with ChurchLeaders what inspired the songs on his new album, Fuller explained: “It’s a mix between Bon Iver meets Johnny Cash,” he said. “There’s some grit and grace in there that I think people are going to relate to. ‘Walk Through Fire’ is the title [because] Jesus walked everywhere.”
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“I’m in such a rush,” he said as he continued, “and I thought about, like, how Jesus, he ministered so much in the interruptions.” Fuller shared that so much of his ministry, “like 90 percent,” he said, “takes place not on a stage,” but behind the scenes talking to people he gets to meet.
Fuller said that he prays this album will help “people sort of just slow down, stop and listen and just reflect on what God has done in their life.”
The “If I Got Jesus” singer collaborated with Grammy Award-winning sensation Carrie Underwood for the song “If It Was Up to Me,” featured on the new album, and shared what he learned from the experience.
“I learned just be quiet. I’m a loud dude,” Fuller joked. “But no, she’s so kind and sweet and just thankful.” Describing Underwood, Fuller said she is “unashamed. She knows Jesus is our Lord. And I think that that’s what really fires me up about—you could be at a status, at a level of Carrie and still claim Jesus as your Lord and Savior and give him all the credit and all the honor and glory for it.”
Fuller’s favorite song on the album is “Since Jesus.” Sharing why, and quoting some of the song’s lyrics, Fuller said: “I ain’t never been the same since Jesus. And ain’t a thing that hasn’t changed since Jesus. He wrecked the plans of this broken man and turned a heart of stone to pieces. I ain’t never been the same since Jesus.”
“He’s changed my life. I don’t know how else to put it to you,” he added.
When he’s not singing on stages, Fuller is sharing the gospel inside the walls of prisons. “It’s been powerful,” he described. “I have more church in prison than I do in church, be honest with you.”
“People are hungry for the Word of God,” Fuller continued. “People need Jesus more than ever now. But what I see in prisons are everything’s been stripped away, and they got nothing. And so when you have everything taken away from you, there’s a vulnerability, there’s a rawness, there’s a need, and so they’re just ripe for hearing the gospel.”
“I walk out of prison so filled up, so encouraged,” Fuller said, because of how he has seen God move. “The Spirit of God knows no boundaries. I’ve met guys that are more free on the inside than they are on the outside.”
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