[laughs]

I heard someone say that to, uh, yesteryears, uh, stained glass, windows, and paintings, that was the art of the day.

That was the culture.

Today, it's music and movies, right? That is what shapes our culture, that's what shapes our generations.

And so I think for us, Joel and I always had a vision of if we could be, you know, uh, with, if the kid's looking at a phone, if we can be in his ears and on that screen-

Yeah

... then I think that we're being a part of, uh, listening to the calling that's on our hearts, which is to be in those places and impact their eyes, their eyes and their ears.

And I think, uh, for us, yes, we're very fortunate to be able to have these kind of elaborate music videos, and it's obviously grown into movies.

in their everyday lives so today on history makers one half of the duo luke smallbone g'day luke welcome to history makers now you guys have hit the heights of the music industry and household names around the world from australia to germany netherlands all over in the us of course how do you guys remain vulnerable to your audience

Oh, man, I think, I mean, you know, you say all those really nice things.

I don't view myself as anything... all that remarkable.

I think for me and my brother, I feel like I'm actually just trying to be faithful to the things that God's given me.

And in some cases, when it comes to vulnerability, I've often joked that I'm not a good enough songwriter to write about things that actually don't mean something to me.

And so in some cases, vulnerability is a part of the songwriting process because I realized that if I'm going through something in my life, there's a chance that the thing that I'm going through, there's millions of other people actually going through something very, very similar.

And those are actually the things that are worth writing songs about.

Hey, when you guys were growing up, how important was radio to you?

in their everyday lives so today on history makers one half of the duo luke smallbone g'day luke welcome to history makers now you guys have hit the heights of the music industry and household names around the world from australia to germany netherlands all over in the us of course how do you guys remain vulnerable to your audience

Oh, man, I think, I mean, you know, you say all those really nice things.

I don't view myself as anything... all that remarkable.

I think for me and my brother, I feel like I'm actually just trying to be faithful to the things that God's given me.

And in some cases, when it comes to vulnerability, I've often joked that I'm not a good enough songwriter to write about things that actually don't mean something to me.

And so in some cases, vulnerability is a part of the songwriting process because I realized that if I'm going through something in my life, there's a chance that the thing that I'm going through, there's millions of other people actually going through something very, very similar.

And those are actually the things that are worth writing songs about.

Hey, when you guys were growing up, how important was radio to you?

And just in general, for those who haven't had a chance to hear some of the new music yet, what's the vibe? What's the heart of it?

Yeah, I mean, look, I think, you know, someone asked me yesterday, like, hey, well, you know, if you would listen to the album, you know, what would you hope that people take away, you know, from it? I think that my hope would be is that life is worth living.

You know, there's a lot of hard things.

We're talking about it before we went on air.

There's a lot of hard things that take place in the world.

And there's a lot of people that live their life with a lot of heaviness.

And my hope is, is that you can turn on this album.

OK, OK, two seconds.

uplifting way fm this is the wally show and it's a sad day in the music world as uh america lost dolly parton and i say america because she was america's treasure you know and i never got to meet her i've been to dollywood and i feel like i know her but uh we have luke from for king and country on with us now you guys got to work with her and uh do your song uh god only knows and she threw some parts down on that were you at all nervous about working with her

When it comes to people that are well-known or famous, she kind of eclipses that she's an icon.

So there's these conversations.

I remember having a phone conversation with her, and then I remember the first time we met her.

A lot of times, it's not the initial exchange that you're nervous about, like the shaking of the hands and the high.

It's when we did a music video together, what do you say to Dolly Parton in between takes? Like, hey, how's your family doing? You know, hey, how's life? Like, it's the small talk that I remember thinking to myself, I've never been kind of short for words in those moments.

But I'm sitting next to Dolly Parton, and she's got nobody else to talk to except for me.

And for

Uh, [laughs] um, but I, I wondered if there was a cool moment that Luke remembered with a fan in the crowd for himself.

I'll never forget, there was this, uh, special needs, uh, lady who had come, and she's come to so many of our shows.

And at this time we were putting on jerseys of, you know, if we were in Dallas, you know, we'd put the Dallas Mavericks jersey on.

And I was like, "Well, I'm not gonna do anything with this jersey.

You know, what am I gonna do?" And so I would, remembered this, uh, this little girl in the audience.

So I went up, I took off the jersey and just gave it to her-

But there's something that connects with people at the heart of this song, and Luke realized it when they were actually recording the song for the very first time.

One day, we go to record it, and I'm in the studio in the vocal booth, and I've got the lyrics in front of me.

oh love

all right so there's a scene in there that you probably know where i'm going here where they asked eric liddell who by the way died as a missionary in china And he was a brilliant man.

He went to a kind of like an Ivy League-ish type school.

Everybody knew that he was a great teacher, a great mind.

And someone and a reporter came to him and said, why do you run? Of all the things that you could do, you're an intellectual, you're all these types of things.

And he says, God made me fast.

And so I feel the pleasure of God when I run.

so

Mm-hmm.

You know, "Is this..." And then, and then it got so scary to where it got to, well, am I gonna be able to, like, hang on and actually live, and are we gonna be able to live through this? And so, um, there was one particular night where...

And you know, marriage has this unique way, and it's a real, an amazing thing that God gives you is, is it's a, it's a reflection period of who you are, and the truth is, is you get married and you have all these hopes and dreams for your life, but it's not until you really get into it that you start to see like, wow, I've got, like, wounds and things-

Mm.

Ever And Ever Before was a song that we, w- w- our e- engageiversary is February 13th, and so on February 13th I sung, "Oh, I love you.

Oh, I love you more."Than ever before.

And it felt significant 'cause it was sitting there on an anniversary, kind of like a big moment, and you're starting to reflect on fif- you know, 15, 16 years, and you go, "Can I make that statement? Is that actually true?" Yeah, it's true.

Well, then, you know, with everything that people know about, you know, not everybody knows these stories, but if they hear these stories and you can get to the end and say, "Oh, I love you more, more than ever before-"