Famed country music singer-songwriter John Rich has released a new song “Revelation” — and it’s unlike anything he’s written in his celebrated three-decade career. “Revelation” takes passages directly from the final book of the New Testament — specifically, the prophecies of Saint John — and sets them to a revivalist-inspired country melody that serves both a warning and a celebration. The second coming of Jesus Christ may not happen in Nashville, but if it did, this could serve as the soundtrack.
“I wanted this song to come out now in the middle of 2024 as I believe a lot of people are starting to turn back to the Book, to the pages of the Bible to try to find some type of answer, some type of real truth,” John Rich said in an interview Friday with Mike Slater, host of Breitbart News Daily on Sirius XM Patriot 125.
“It is the only perfect truth — what’s written in those pages. It’s not what you say, not what I say, not what the press says, it’s not what your preacher says. It’s what the Books says. So this song is what the Book says.”
The music video for “Revelation” dramatizes the song’s spiritual dimension with a literal showdown between good and evil — with the Devil played by Justified actor Nick Searcy.
WATCH “REVELATION” BELOW:
For Rich, “Revelation” is deeply personal in several ways.
His father, Jim Rich, has been a Baptist minister since the age of 19 and has held a long-running interest in the Book of Revelation — especially the ways in which the apocalyptic visions of Saint John might manifest themselves in a contemporary world.
“[My father] said until the advent of technology — of AI and the internet and all the things we have now — most of us preachers could never really figure out how a lot of these prophecies could ever really happen,” John Rich said.
Now, “the systems are in place for those prophecies to come to life,” he added. “All the things that are talked about in Revelation that are prophetic are now possible.”
Rich — whose latest smash hits include — “PROGRESS,” “End of the World,” and “Shut Up About Politics,” — said he also wants “Revelation” to serve as warning, reminding listeners to search for the real meaning behind their worldly obsessions like Trump vs. Biden and left vs. right.
“I think we’re all guilty of being sidetracked with the circus that is going on and missing the real point — which is there is a spiritual battle going on , right now, and it manifests itself in the physical which is what we’re seeing today.”
“This song was not written to be a hit song,” Rich said. “It was not written to be a piece of commerce, a piece of business. This is a message that is being delivered.”
“I don’t expect it to be played on the radio and thats not the point,” he added. “When you see that video, when you hear it, if it strikes you as my dad would say, if the spirit moves you, you’ve got a little button there, you just forward that thing on to the people who are following you. That’s how this thing gets moved around.”
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com
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