Chords for Rich Mullins "Fire By Nite" Interview, 1992

I want you to welcome to the program one of contemporary Christian music's best songwriters
and most unconventional performers, Rich Mullins.
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_ _ _ _ [N] All right, I guess our last good visit was in Guatemala. _ _ _
Since then you've been to several other countries.
You've really got a, I guess, a vision for world missions and [Bb] that's a real part of your
heart and in your music.
I just get a lot of opportunities.
Do you find that there's different organizations you're working with on the mission field that
missions is becoming a more important thing in the church in America and that things are
really happening in other parts of _ the world?
I don't know. _ _
I think there's, I don't know, I don't [Eb] think it's enough of a thing.
Yeah, it needs more.
I suppose, [Bb] yeah.
I think when 90% of the world's preachers preach to 10% of the world's population, I
would say there's probably somewhat of [Bb] a _ mathematical problem that needs to be solved.
I feel my heart, my heart is beating.
_ _ [F] It has a [Bb] rhythm strong and sure.
_ [F] _ _ And in [Bb] the name that brought me here, I _ pray for a healing of this world.
_ _ _ [Fm] And while no secret is well listened, [F] I'll hold me hands redoubt, but [Fm] I cannot keep [Bb] myself
from singing, _ [Eb] hallelujah, _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ [Bbm] hallelujah, hallelujah.
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Rich, we're talking [Bb] in this particular program about the impact of divorce upon the American teenager.
What kind of family life did you have growing up?
I had a very normal family.
I grew up in a Norman Rockwell painting.
Really?
So everything was wonderful.
With a little bit of Picasso, yeah.
I mean, that was the great thing about my parents was they both had hangups.
_ _ _ They both had problems.
I think there were times when they had a lot of trouble getting along, but they believed
in that they said they were going to do it, and so they just did it.
I mean, it was never like, they considered murder several times they've [A] confessed.
_ And it's really great because my dad died last summer, and my last memory of my father
is my parents had come to Nashville for the Dove Awards, and after the awards were over
we went back to the Opera Land Hotel.
I got a room at the Opera Land Hotel.
They were [N] really excited about that.
And they're like in their 60s, right?
So they are no, they are not pinup types.
I mean, there's _ just_
And so they're walking along behind me, and I'm talking a mile a minute, you know,
walking through there, and I turn around and my parents had disappeared, and I thought,
oh wow, they're so old they can't keep up with me.
So I turned around and went to look for them, and they had stepped off in this little enclosed
kind of place, and they're standing there holding hands, looking at each other.
Oh, really?
You know, like they were really in love.
And I think, my dad, when I was engaged a long time ago, I said, well, how do you know
if you're really in love with somebody?
And my dad says, well, you will never know until you make the leap.
And I did not know that I loved your mother until I'd been married to her for 20 or 30 years.
Wow.
And I think that's very wise.
You know, it was really interesting, one of the very interesting things about divorce
is I was working with a group of young people.
There were four of them, and two of them came from split homes, and two of them came from
parents that had stayed together and had honored their commitments.
And it was very interesting, because we were working in a studio, they were working on an album,
and one of the kids who came from a split home, whenever she was having trouble singing,
she would say, oh, I think the bass singer is flat, and that's throwing me off.
Or she would say, there's something wrong in my mix, in my headphones.
And she would clink the headphones around.
And it was always someone else's fault.
She was very afraid of making a mistake.
The guy that came from the split home, his whole reaction was, why don't you just sing
this, because you're a better singer.
So he was trying to get everyone else to sing his part.
And he wanted to just kind of back out.
One of the girls that came from a home where there had not been a split, when she would
make a mistake, she would call everybody in and say, wow, listen to this, this will flip you out.
And then she would play this terrible thing she did, and she would laugh her head off.
And the guy that came from the home that had stayed together was the same way.
He made a lot of mistakes.
They all made the same number of mistakes.
They all were very equally talented.
The two people who grew up in an environment where they came to realize that love is not
conditional, that someone loves you not because you're worthy of their love, or not because
you're cool enough to love.
Somebody loves you because it is in them to love.
That they are able to accept you and they are able to support you, even when you're
not doing what they think is your best.
They were able to make the mistakes, laugh, and go on, and finally get things right.
The two people that came from a split home, I think since that time, because I've stayed
kind of in touch with all of them, and they've worked through some of those insecurities
and they've worked through some of those problems, but it was much harder for them.
So I think there's a reason why we were created to be monogamous. _ _ _
_ You're single and are staying, I guess, have no plans to change in the next few months anyways.
I have trouble getting a date.
[Eb] Really?
Let alone getting married. _
You don't fear marriage, it's just that your career is such that you just aren't
able to settle down, I guess.
Well, I wish I could say that, but it is scary to think [Gb] about.
Yeah, because I just kind of go, wow, it's scary to me.
Do you think young people, in your dealings with them, feel that same way?
They look at all the marriages [Ab] today, they're breaking up and say, [N] oh, I don't know if
I want that.
_ Very much so.
I think, in fact, if Farron and I were just talking about it, about how confusing it is
right now, not in terms of our faith, not even in terms of the information that we have.
The information that we have is very negative.
The information that we get says, don't do this.
The faith, _ the Christian faith, teaches that love is possible and that marriage is a good
thing and etc.,
etc.
So the information that we get from our culture and the information we get from our faith
are two conflicting things and we end up with all this confusion going, yes, I know that
it is possible that people can love one another, but wow, can _ I take that leap?
Because it is a big leap.
Well, you're going to come back in just a little bit and do a song.
What's the name of the song you're going to do for us?
Sometimes By Step.
All right, we're looking forward to it.
Rich Mullins! _
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