from the new Faith in Detroit Project led by Christ Church Cranbrook in partnership with Detroit PBS and others.

The initiative lifts up stories of faith and resilience.

Today, we hear from Grammy-winning keyboardist and composer Cory Henry, who was in town recently for a performance at the church.

He sat down with Faith in Detroit Director, Father William Danaher, to discuss the deep influence of the Black church on his life and his music.

(light piano music) - Cory Henry, it's great to have you with us in this interview.

And you are such a magnificent talent.

And one of the things that you said in an interview that you gave in 2025 is that you differentiate the work you do as a musician from the work you do in church.

And you differentiated the work of church as being the place of ritual.

There's alter calls, there's baptisms, and the work of being a musician, it's just as much a ministry.

You actually said the power of God comes through the gift of music.

Can you tell us a story about that?

- Yeah, I believe deeply in the power of God and the gift of music.

Since I was a kid growing up in church, my mother played several different instruments and she taught me when I was literally one or two-years-old, my grandmama actually said the other day.

She was like, "You was seven, eight months playing."

I was like, "Come on, man."

But I never forget when I was playing in church at around the age of four or five or six-years-old.

And I was finishing up a song and my mama was like, "Play the church chords," you know, and like she meant like the preaching chords or whatever.

And I just played these chords and somebody was like, "Ah, hallelujah!"

And started like running around and like doing all this crazy stuff.

And I was like, "What is going on?

Like, why is that response happening?"

And all I did was play a chord.

I didn't even know it was because I played the chord at the time, but now I'm thinking back, I was like, they're reacting very, you know, emotionally and all these different things.

And I figured out from that moment, you know, how powerful music was.

People come to church every Sunday for music, you know, I mean, of course, people go for the Bible and for Word, but like, I know tons of people who's just going to be lifted by the music, lifted by the people singing.

- One thing that you mentioned is that you and your grandmother, she had a huge role in your life and that one of the things you like to think about and pray about, and also to reflect on in the scriptures, was about the biblical figure of David and his gift of music.

And in fact, you mentioned in an interview a couple of years ago that 1 Samuel 16:14-23, where David would play music to soothe King Saul's soul.

- (whooshes) Whew.

Yeah, that scripture stands out to me, David stands out to me as a important biblical figure because the number one thing for me is like, he was the man after God's own heart, right?

Like, the fact that he was a worshiper musician, you know, masterful on his instrument and was able to not just like play the music, but like to be able to communicate the music in a way that changed people's hearts, spirits.

And I see that to be evident so many times when I've played in church or around the world where people have, they come in sad or they come in mad, they come in angry, they come in, whatever that thing is, but then they leave, you know, changed and happy and blessed.

And that's the goal is to play music so well that people's lives are changed.

♪ I can't explain it ♪ - One of the things you did say in another interview I did some research on, is you did have a moment in your life where you were far away from church and from religion and then found yourself drawn back.

And I was wondering if that was a, in a sense, your musical gifts helped you transcend the church for a bit and you kind of followed your music where it was taking you, and then you found the music of the church drawing you back.

Can you talk about that journey back and forth?

- So I played in church, like, specifically for 20 years or so, and then I stopped for almost 20 years, it's crazy, but I stopped for a lot of different reasons.

I kind of was angry and I had rightful just reasons to be upset with the church and people that I respected.

And I didn't want to really be in the church, but the music and the Spirit of God never left me.

I never felt like I was far from God, even though I had left the church.

But I had to have all those experiences outside the church because it has made me who I am today, being able to talk to people, learn about other experiences and cultures has shown me a lot, right, and it seemed like I got to the end of a point where it felt like I needed to be back.

And I had a friend of mine tell me, he was like, "Yeah, you should have made that gospel record years ago, man.

You would've been way more famous."

And I was like, and I said to him, I was like, "No," right, like, because I didn't live the experience that I needed to sing about.

And that's super important.

Like, I made a record called "Church" and won a Grammy.

And I don't think it won a Grammy because I just made it, I think it won a Grammy because it's a true experience, right?

Like, when I listen to the album, you are hearing my whole life on record.

Like, my grandmamas singing a song that we used to sing 30 years ago and like, or still sings to this day actually.

But I think about when I was a kid, hearing some of these songs, some of the songs I recorded, and before I recorded the record, I was just like, it felt like I needed to be back.

Like, I knew the sound never left me, but I wanted to be back in fellowship and like community with people of believers and things like that.

And it's been important, it's been important.

I'm happy that I had the transition to go from being in church to being so far removed and now being back technically.

- Can you say a little bit more about the kind of church you're building now?

For example, the kind of plant you have in LA.

- I started the Church Experience in LA a year ago on resurrection Sunday last year to be exact, you know, He got up and so did we, He got up and started the Church Experience.

And this whole experience is for, it's for everybody, first off.

Literally for everybody.

I mean, like, no matter where you come from, no matter what your belief system in or whatever that, it's like, it's for everybody.

And, like, the people who grew up in church but don't go to church because they have their own things.

And it's a lot of people like that that wanna come back to church, but they won't go to the churches that they grew up in.

But they need and they want a space, I need and I want a space where freedom is like, freedom is exalted a little bit, like freedom is like lifted up versus like somebody telling you what to do, when you can praise, when you gotta sit down.

And we're doing that in LA and I'm seeing people from all different walks of life, Jewish people, Muslims, like young, old, white, Black, Hispanic, like, they're all coming there and they're like (harmonizes) and like crying their eyes out.

And I'm like, "Whoa."

Like, back to the power of God.

Like, my church is, it's like a piece of what heaven is, because correct me if I'm wrong, like, there's like no preaching in heaven as much as I learned, right?

There's like praise and worship and like- - Yeah.

- Just like worship in heaven.

- There is no need for instruction 'cause everybody sees face to face.

- Boom, boom.

And that also stands out to me.

When I learned that, I was like, "Oh no, I want a slice of heaven on earth."

- There's something that came up in a documentary that was done connected to the church, which was amazing.

- Mm, thank you.

- It was one of your cousins I think said that you had lost your mom at seven, your dad at 14.

And first of all, those traumas are never fully transcended, and I'm so sorry that you had to go through with that and going through that trauma, who stepped up?

Who stepped in?

And does that trauma inform a little bit your concern to make sure that that church makes room for everybody?

Is that okay we go there?

- Yeah.

My grandmama, she was a big deal.

She stepped up, my grandparents stepped up.

My godfather Bishop Jeffrey White stepped up, him and Lady Drew, my mama.

I wanna say those four people were very influential, especially when I was a teenager, but the streets of Brooklyn stepped up.

I used to run the streets crazy, like, I learned so much being in New York and I definitely have to give New York credit 'cause there's just a lot that happened as a teenager that like, if I wasn't in the streets, I wouldn't have known good and bad.

But my grandmama is like, she's the closest thing to God I know, right?

Like, she's a theologian, has a master's degree and like prayer warrior and like every day she's just like reminding me to be more godly, you know?

And I also want to shout out Bishop Jeffrey White, my godfather, for being a musical influence, a big musical influence to me.

Those are some people I would love to shout out.

- And you grow and as you think about the work that you're doing now and building a church in full, do you find yourself thinking about those people who struggle with difficulty, or struggle with distance, or struggle with getting into church?

Is part of what you're doing creating that space so that everybody who has in some ways either had a difficulty or distance, or has a bit of church wound finds their way back to God and to the power that church can be for people?

- Absolutely.

I'm trying to build a space and I'll continue to build a space that I feel is safe for people like me, right?

Like, people who've been to church, people got hurt by a church, people who want to come back to church, you know, 'cause people want to have a space where they can worship God.

And a lot of people feel like they can't do that at church, which is so crazy.

What I'm building is like, I want people to feel comfortable to feel God because they need God.

And I want God to make the changes.

I'm not trying to make the changes, right?

Like, whatever your thing is, whatever you like to do, whatever you do outside, it's like, that don't got nothing to do with me.

But if you're supposed to be changed, God will change you.

That's like, I don't feel that my job is to be like, "You gotta live this way because the Bible says so" and blah, blah, blah.

It's like, they can go to Sunday morning church and get that if they want it, you know?

But at my church we are just like, come in and let's worship together and let's start there and then the changes will be made or whatever the case, you know, things will happen, and I feel good about that.

I'm not, like I said, I'm not trying to do anything more than that.

- You can see more of Father Danaher's conversation with Cory Henry at americanblackjournal.org.

That's gonna do it for us this week.

You can find out more about our guests on our website and you can connect with us anytime on social media.

Take care and we'll see you next time.