Story by Terry Shropshire
Images by Kim Floyd for Steed Media Service
Backstage at the 39th Annual NAACP Image Awards in Los Angeles, a resplendently minted Kirk Franklin, cloaked in a copper incrusted three-piece suit, proffered the universal symbol for #1 as he hoisted his award for Best Gospel Album. It could have meant that Franklin feels perched at the pinnacle of his game. Or, more likely, it could have symbolized that he is at one with “The Almighty.” Whatever it was, his posture, his smile, and the incandescent aura he radiated this night, seem to be in collective contrast to the title of his 10th studio album, The Fight of My Life. Instead, Franklin seemed to be a man afloat a spiritual vessel that’s coasting in calm waters. We cannot discern the gaping emotional wounds that have misshapen his soul in the past. We cannot see the twisting wreckage of his early childhood which, to this day, still broils beneath the surface of his calm exterior. Yet, unlike other celebrities — Britney, Lindsay and Paris — Franklin is not ensnared by the noxious tentacles of temptations.
Deep within the bowels of the Shrine Auditorium, Franklin’s disposition was celebratory but subdued. The atmosphere was more like happy hour at the end of a long work week, than a party worthy of the balloons and confetti dropping from the rafters that such a win would produce. He remains patient as a thunderstorm of demanding photographers roar their directives with blowtorch intensity. He is sporting the professorial demeanor of a man who’s at the top of his game and free of major distractions.
“You know these records of reflection [are a] reflection of where we are spiritually, and where we are emotionally, and where we are in life,” he says. “This album is a snapshot of where God has me, and I pray for a good reflection of Him and His life in me. That’s what it is right now.”
Franklin, for sure, has never demonstrated a preoccupation with a self-promoting image. Most people would rather stick their heads into a swarming beehive or poke their eyes with toothpicks, than to reveal an embarrassing secret to anyone outside of those who closely orbit our own personal universe. Doing so in public — admitting the addiction to promiscuity and pornography – would be slightly less painful than a gum disease for most. But to a man like Franklin, it would have been unbearably excruciating to try to swallow his personal demons, knowing it would contaminate the contents of his soul and send pollutants throughout his entire body. His exercise in self flagellation and penance are proof of his stunning absence of megalomania and sanctimonious self righteousness.
So when Oprah Winfrey aired a show encompassing the subject of pornography and broached Franklin about spilling the contents of his heart before a worldwide audience, Franklin used it as another opportunity to flush his system of any potentially destructive residual toxins. A great deal of intestinal fortitude was exhibited on that show, in most people’s opinion. For Franklin, it would be unconscionable and unthinkable to deprive any lost souls of his testimony.
“They had been doing a show on pornography and they heard about my testimony. And they contacted me and asked me to be on the show. And to tell my story and so, for me, all I was doing was continuing to do what I’d always done, what I’d done for several years,” Franklin said with audible calm, as if he was discussing whether to plant hydrangeas or geraniums in the garden. “It wasn’t new news to my church community, because they heard about it for years. All I was doing was continuing what we do every Sunday morning in the black church on Sunday evenings and that is testifying. I ain’t nobody special. All I was doing was [what] everybody was saying God had been good to them, was supposed to do.”
These days, there are greater references to God and a “Higher Power” post 9-11, than before it. Franklin admonishes caution against believing whatever flies out of the face of everyone on television.
“I think that there is probably more of a higher level of consciousness, and you have more people that are talking about that consciousness. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are talking about the same God that I’m talking about, as far as God being the Father of Jesus Christ, you know,” he says, his gruff baritone offering a mild rebuke against premature sentiments. “There is a distinctive difference talking about a higher consciousness, than talking about the God deity. And so, it’s almost like just because you are seeing more couples doesn’t mean that you are seeing more happy marriages. It could mean that people are shacking more.”
This level of discernment has inspired a moratorium on collaborations. “It has become harder to walk with secular artist, just because the lyrical content that music has right now. It’s much more provocative lyrically, it’s just very hard to collaborate with artists and to work with true artistry,” he says, explaining that the vast menu of talented artistry offers less digestible content. He expresses admiration for many artists’ skills, and in fact Franklin’s eclectic musical taste includes many secular artists, including Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, KRS-One, Eric B., Rakim, Lauryn Hill, and The Eagles along with a score of classical and jazz legends. “The challenge is just the lyrical content right now that a lot of mainstream artists are producing. I have to be more careful,” he adds, noting that the cessation is not infinite.
The fact that Franklin became a musical prodigy – playing the piano at age four and leading his church choir at 11 – is remarkable, if not almost incomprehensible. And for him, like fellow Texan Jamie Foxx, to grow up successfully is even more remarkable, despite having parents who displayed a galling lack of interest in his life. You think you’d have better odds of catching Barack Obama strolling through the hood while turning up a forty than to see Franklin become one of the most recognized gospel artists of the modern era. Franklin freely admits the challenge of forgiving his parents.
“In some areas it’s made me hard, in some areas it’s made me bitter, in some areas it’s made me angry. In some areas it’s made me frustrated,” Franklin says, again exposing a stunning vulnerability, which is conspicuously absent in our image-conscious world. “But at the same time it’s made me better. It’s made my heart hunger for the Lord. It’s made me humble, it’s made me patient, it’s made me both forgiving and more faithful.” Franklin says he is still working to dispel anger and bitterness from his being as God requires. “We have to be able to reconcile with those who have hurt us, as much as possible. And that’s something that I’m still trying to work through … just as God gives me strength to work through it, to work with the process. A lot of times it’s hard, but you still have to be committed to that process.”
Franklin is committed to the perpetual process even as he stormed onto the scene with Kirk Franklin and the Family in 1993 and again later with God’s Property with Nu Nation. Although, he’s collected multi-platinum albums and awards like nickels and dimes, Franklin has kept his eye on the “big picture” of his success that spilled out of the tight parameters of gospel music and irrigated the mainstream landscape.
“If God chooses to open up some doors, He chooses to open them up so that he can get some glory, not necessarily to make some stars and some celebrities. So we have to make sure that when the doors open, why the doors were opened, and … who that door is opening for, and to always keep that in the back of our minds.”
He readily admits that some things have escaped his mind at times, but that his undying devotion to God has provided equilibrium time and time again. “I just try to be a good steward of what God has called me to do, and how to please Him and how to make Him happy. And I fail at times. At times I succeed at it,” he says. “And if a song crosses over, the best thing that I can do is to allow that thing to be my life motive, because you know, the temptation is to try to be a crossover artist, and [at] times I have failed at that. There are times I’ve gotten comfortable and tried to go after that. And God gives me grace and, I really strive to be what He’s called me to be and be just as happy on AM gospel radio as I am on a rock station with 25 million people listening.”
Moving forward, Franklin says that on top of all the projects and opportunities that have descended on him, he says his practice of meticulous introspection is his top priority in order to navigate the unpredictable waters of life.
“My greatest project always is myself, always allowing God to be God in my life, to stop fighting Him over the steering wheel and trusting Him to drive,” he says as a slight chuckle escapes him. “That’s always my greatest project. When we get a snapshot of grace, it’s no longer a question of right or wrong, it’s all about the pursuit of that relationship and being very grateful to receive snapshots that has already been paid, to be alive to still be here.”
