From Teen Dad to Christian Singer: Rhett Walker’s Story

Although Rhett Walker grew up in a Christian home, he lived by his own rules in his teenage years. That was, until his girlfriend became pregnant.

Find out how his young journey to parenthood led the Christian singer to see God’s grace on this episode of GPS: God. People Stories.  

Connect with us through email at gps@billygraham.org or on Facebook at Billy Graham Radio. 

If you’d like to know more about beginning a relationship with Jesus Christ, or deepening the faith you already have, visit FindPeacewithGod.net.

If you’d like to pray with someone, call our Billy Graham 24/7 Prayer Line at 855-255-7729. 

Transcript

Rhett Walker: 
[00:00:00] When I was 17, I got my girlfriend pregnant the summer before my senior year in high school. And that stopped me in my tracks because you can’t throw out of context Scripture at that. You’re bringing a human into the world. You’re bringing a baby that did not ask to be here and did not ask to be raised by, you know, a selfish jerk that doesn’t care about anybody but himself. And that’s when it kind of all hit. And I was like is this the end of the road for me? 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:00:28] Rhett Walker wasn’t living for the Lord when his high school girlfriend became pregnant. But that moment turned their lives upside down in the best possible way. And today, Rhett tells that story through his songs in Christian music. He’ll be sharing more of it on this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories. It’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I’m Jim Kirkland. 

Billy Graham: 
[00:00:50] I want to speak on the subject the grace of God. Grace, according to the dictionary, is the unmerited favor of God toward mankind. It’s something for nothing. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:01:03] That’s Billy Graham. You’ll get to know more about the grace only God can offer later in this episode. But if you’d like to know more about that grace right now, visit our website FindPeacewithGod.net. That’s FindPeacewithGod.net. And a link to that site is always available in our show notes. 

Audio tag:
[00:01:23] 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:01:29] Rhett Walker grew up as a pastor’s kid in Shelby, North Carolina. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:01:34] When I say I grew up in church, like I grew up in church. Like I’d get dropped off from school at the church. And, uh, we were there pretty much seven days a week. Whatever, you know, if we needed to be the janitor for the day, me and my sister would help clean up or set up for VBS or, you know, whatever. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:01:51] Rhett’s favorite thing to do was to go to the church auditorium. He would turn on the sound system and pretend to put on a concert. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:01:59] I loved it so much that sometimes I would just stand at the back and like move the lights up and down to make them look like they’re flickering like show concert lighting. But that’s where I learned to play drums. That’s where I learned to play guitar. That’s where I learned to sing. That’s where I learned what I wanted to do really for the rest of my life. 

Jim Kirkland:
[00:02:17] Rhett’s mom and dad were fully behind his desire to pursue Christian music. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:02:22] My dad and my mom told me early on … they’re like if you pursue this and make music that points back to Jesus, we’ll support if however we need to. So, my dad, he would take extra jobs like go speak at a conference or something just to get the money to buy me drums. Or like he-he would put in the extra effort to be like, all right, Rhett needs to learn this. I’m going to go speak at a conference and we’ll use that money. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:02:47] Even though Rhett grew up with a loving Christian family and spent a lot of time in church, he did not have a personal relationship with God. He was living all for himself. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:02:58] I knew all the things of Jesus. I knew all the stories. I had a head knowledge but not a heart knowledge. And I knew enough Jesus to get out of trouble. Like I knew all the Christianese that anybody could say. I mean, I was a homeschooled kid in the ‘90s. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:03:15] When Rhett was 16 years old, his family moved to Beech Island, South Carolina. And he was not happy about the move. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:03:23] I kind of had a life here in Shelby. And we moved there and started going to school there. And it was just hard to adapt. So, I just rebelled. And I wouldn’t say rightfully so but understandably so. I just didn’t really care about anybody else. I was just thrown into this whole different world that I didn’t know. So, I was just doing whatever I wanted. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:03:46] As his father began pastoring at a new church, Rhett started at his new school and got kicked out on the very first day. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:03:55] I wasn’t a bad kid. People say trouble finds me. Like that saying, that was me. My first day, people were trying to fight me in the bathroom. I don’t know why, but it was what it was. And me being who I am, I just didn’t put up with really anything. So, it was just a bunch of fighting and just finding myself in trouble. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:04:15] In fact, Rhett nearly went to a juvenile detention center for the trouble he caused. But his mom managed to persuade the judge to give him a second chance at a Christian private school. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:04:26] I about got kicked out of there within like two or three months. I think I was mad at the world honestly. 

Tony Dungy: 
[00:04:33] Rhett’s dad was having issues of his own. The members of the church where he was pastoring were skeptical of him and critical of the changes he brought to their services. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:04:42] They immediately were like how is this guy going to run a church if he can’t even lead his own family. My dad got death threats, you know, for things he was doing. Like he wore jeans and played an acoustic one Sunday. So, my dad was already dealing with trying to build a foundation, but he was like these people are being rude. I’ve got to lead through the grace of Jesus. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:05:04] The difficulties that Rhett’s dad faced at their new church only grew Rhett’s frustration with the church as a whole. Fortunately, his desire to be on the baseball team at his new school helped keep him out of trouble. But soon, that baseball team introduced him to his girlfriend April. And then, Rhett faced an entirely new situation. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:05:25] When I was 17, I got my girlfriend pregnant the summer before, uh, my senior year in high school. And that stopped me in my tracks because you can’t just throw out of context Scripture at that. You’re bringing a human into the world. You’re bringing a baby that did not ask to be here and did not ask to be raised by, you know, a selfish jerk that doesn’t care about anybody but himself. And that’s when it kind of all hit. And I was like have I gone too far? Is this the end of the road for me? 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:05:57] No, it wasn’t the end of the road for Rhett and his girlfriend April. In fact, it was just the beginning. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:06::04] We dated for two months. And then, two months later got married. It was crazy. You know, like I knew I wanted to marry her immediately. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:06:14] But God wasn’t just joining Rhett and April’s lives together. Remember Rhett’s dad’s difficult church? They decided to throw together a wedding for the young couple. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:06:23] Right about the time we were going to get married, something switched. And the church threw our wedding. And they’re all like you don’t even know half of us. You ain’t been here that long. But we’re going to help you. Here’s diapers. Here’s this. It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be a journey, but we’re going to help you. And so, it’s like through all the craziness and why I feel like I came back within a short time as a prodigal, I had the craziest story but ended up having the best church story. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:06:51] The church was willing to put its differences aside to help Rhett and April. That was pivotal in the couple finding their faith in Jesus Christ. After hearing about God all his life, at the age of 17, God down on his knees with April. And they gave their lives to the Lord. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:07:08] I realized, man, I’ve just been living selfishly. I’ve been living the way Rhett wanted to live without any care or remorse for whoever it got in the way of. And whenever you’re bringing a baby into this world, that’s not something you can just throw Scripture out of context to blanket it. Like you’ve got to take care of this baby. And so, me and April, we said, Lord, we’ve heard my daddy stand behind that pulpit and preach about grace, and redemption, and love. And we need that to be true. And we found out really quickly that it is. And that He’s still in the business of redeeming people’s stories. And so, we surrendered our life to the Lord. We surrendered our marriage to the Lord. Surrendered that kid to the Lord and said, Lord, you’re going to have to help us raise this kid. We don’t know what we’re doing. All we know is the path that led us here hasn’t been the easiest. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:07:57] The couple promised to walk through any door God opened. They knew now that only God’s grace could help them survive as a young family. And that drastically changed their lives. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:08:08] We just kind of crazily put our full trust in that. Like it really was a faith. It wasn’t just like a hope so type thing. The faith that hit was kind of dumb almost at first. It was kind of like, nah, we’re going to figure this thing out. God’s got us. And it might, you know, look different than anybody else. It might be weird. And you might have to work three to four jobs at a time. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:08:33] After getting married, the couple moved in with April’s parents for a few months while Rhett tried to provide for his growing family. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:08:39] I needed a big boy job money, but I wasn’t old enough for big boy jobs. And still in school and trying to figure it out. And so, you know, I worked like three jobs. And I homeschooled my senior year. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:08:53] April helped Rhett finish his schoolwork to get his high school diploma. And finally, the couple found a little home they could afford. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:08:59] My dad had a connection through the church that they had a rental property that no one was in. It was-it was the tiniest little thing. And the stairs were the steepest stairs you could ever find, which is perfect for a pregnant woman. And if you ran from one side of the house to the other, I think the thing would have fell over. But, you know, it was ours. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:09:21] Rhett and April started to create a little life for themselves. They even decided they would later try for a second baby. Around the time their son Jed was born, Rhett was offered a job to lead worship at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:09:36] We had my son’s two month check-up. And then, we moved to Wake Forest, South Carolina and started our life with no family close. They were six hours away from us. Honestly, I think that was the best thing we ever did was just force ourselves to grow up and go, all right, this is our life. We’ve got to figure it out. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:09:54] It didn’t take long for Rhett to figure out school wasn’t for him. Nineteen year old Rhett was feeling called to make music and to provide as a husband and a father. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:10:04] I was trying to like really work the system of how do I work and make money, but I feel this calling of music. I’ve got to figure out how to like honing my craft of what I feel called to do but also, being a dude from the south that’s a go getter. I’ve got to learn how to be patient because I know this is God’s calling on my life, but maybe it’s just not now. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:10:28] But maybe it was. Remarkably, every time Rhett started to take a step back from his music career, a door would open. The next door happened to be working for multiple churches in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Rhett Walker:
[00:10:41] And it ended up back in Shelby, North Carolina where I was born at age 22 to 23 and was leading worship at all the different places still. And I felt God just tugging on my heart like you need to move to Nashville. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:10:56] Rhett knew God was calling him there next, but he wasn’t sure about yet another move. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:11:01] So, remember my story. Seventeen, pregnant, two kids by 19. So, two under two. Moved six hours away. Moved to Charlotte. Moved to Shelby. Trying to figure all this stuff out and just, you know, walking through whatever door opened. And that was our prayer, me and April’s, when we got married was we’ll go through any door you open, Lord. Just you’ve got to tell us to go and tell us when to not go. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:11:27] So, Rhett kept praying. The tug on his heart wouldn’t go away. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:11:32] Me and God started having some conversations. Because I was like I can’t move again. My wife is going to kill me. Like, Lord, you keep opening up these doors, and I know what I said. But like you’ve got to shut one every now and then because, you know, it’s been four years of marriage. We’ve been in a thousand different spots. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:11:51] Rhett could tell he wasn’t listening to God and pushed back on his calling. He didn’t bother to ask April about another move. He just assumed she’d say no. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:12:00] And, um, one day, my mom called. And she goes, hey, have you ever thought about moving to Nashville? And I was like are you reading my diary? What is-what’s going on? And I said why did you say that. And she said I was just praying the other day. And the thought hit me if you wanted to be a surfer, you’d move to the ocean. You wouldn’t just try to be a professional surfer in Shelby, North Carolina in the foothills of the mountains. That makes zero sense. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:12:29] Rhett’s mom was right. And he knew it. He finally had the conversation with April about a move to Nashville. 

Rhett Walker:
00:12:37] April was like that’s what we promised. We’ll walk through whatever door He opens. Babe let’s go do it. And so I was kind of hesitant still. And I was like all right. If this is the Lord, it will work. And I saw two churches that looked familiar to like the churches that we went to. And I just shot them an email.

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:12:59] Both churches responded to Rhett. And each of them was looking for a worship leader. God had answered. Rhett and his family were moving to Nashville. 

Rhett Walker:
[00:13:07] Within two months, we were in a new house in Nashville. And I was leading worship at this church. And then, that church was like highly connected to a bunch of people in the industry. And so, one of the people that played keys at the church was a producer and produced my first EP that got me signed. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00;:13:25] Rhett released his first single with that record deal two years after moving to Nashville. The song is called “When Mercy Found Me” about his teenage parenthood. And he was even nominated for a grammy. 

Music:
[00:13:37] 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:13:55] I think it was the next year, 2013, I went on my first arena tour. And I had no business being on an arena tour by myself. You know, it was me and a few guys and 23 years old still looking for the adult in the room. Like what do you mean? We just like go out here and play to thousands of people and just hang out? This don’t feel real. You know. And yet, it changed. Kind of crazy. Because also, I had my third kid in 2012. So, you know, we had a new baby at home. And God’s just opening doors. And it’s working. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:14:33] Over the past decade, God has continued moving through Rhett’s music to change people’s lives and draw them closer to him. Rhett’s music encourages listeners that God is still in the business of redeeming people’s stories just like He did for Rhett and April. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:14:49] Me and that girl, we celebrate 21 years of marriage July 3rd. And, um, I’ve got a 20 year old girl, a 17 year old boy, a 12 year old girl, and a 6 year old boy. And, um, God has blessed us. 

Jim Kirkland:
[00:15:03] Rhett and his family now live in Evans, Georgia where they can be close to both of their families. Rhett is often on the move with his music, and the travel has been hard on him and his family. But Rhett remembers why he plays music. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:15:17] It’s not just daddy going to have a party on stage and all these people show up. And that’s cool. We’re going to for a reason. It’s to have fun and forget about our bills and to get out of reality to lift up the name of Jesus. And go this is the reason we can face another day. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:15:33] In the years since becoming a teenage father, Rhett has realized just how much God’s grace is enough. He and his family have been chasing Jesus ever since. And now, his kids are sharing in the story of redemption too. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:15:49] Thankfully, the Lord has opened up the door where I only play two weekends a month at the most. We’re about to jump on a bus next week to start a new full band tour. And my son plays guitar for me. And my oldest daughter plays keys and sings for me. 

Music:
[00:16:05] 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:16:32] Rhett’s family is a picture of God’s grace in his life. If you have never experienced the grace of God, I’d encourage you to head over to our website FindPeacewithGod.net. When you’re there, click on the link that says Begin a Relationship with Jesus. From there, you’ll get a straight forward break down of why we need God’s grace and what an amazing gift it is. That’s FindPeacewithGod.net. Stick around to hear Billy Graham explain grace in a message he delivered back in 1957. And then, we’ll hear from Rhett one last time. 

Audio tag:
[00:17:08] 

Billy Graham:
[00:17:17] I want to speak on the subject the grace of God. 

Announcer:
[00:17:21] Billy Graham … 

Billy Graham: 
[00:17:22] Grace according to the dictionary is the unmerited favor of God toward mankind. It’s something for nothing. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. That is a mathematical formula. And when a man sins, he’s going to pay for it in this life and the life to come. That is just as certain as 2 + 2 = 4. There’s only way of salvation and that’s God’s way. God has outlined the road to heaven. He has made the rules simple and plain. He has given us the equation. He’s given us the compass and the formula. And the way outlined in His immutable book says to receive the Lord, Jesus Christ as Savior. Ladies and gentlemen, you haven’t really lived until you have acquired the grace of God through faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ. The grace of God is a reality. You can know Him today. You can know the grace of God if you will let Christ into your heart right now. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:18:19] If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior as Billy Graham just said, you can today. Learn how by visiting our website FindPeacewithGod.net. When you’re there, click Begin a Relationship with Jesus. Don’t delay if God is urging you right now. The link is also in our show notes. Our guest on this episode of GPS is Christian Southern Rock musician Rhett Walker. When he and his wife had their first child, they were just 17. Nevertheless, they found themselves showered in God’s grace. It’s something that Rhett says was the only way they made it through that point in their lives. 

Rhett Walker: 
[00:19:00] We weren’t even in the statistics. At 17, like no one stays married. You know. And if we can make it, then God really is who God says He is. But I’d say through all that we walked through with our story that God is who He says He is because mine and April’s story really has nothing to do with us. It was only the grace of God that got us through it. So, our story points back to how big of a God we serve. That no matter what you think you’re walking through God says those who call upon the name of Jesus shall be saved. So, it’s nothing to do with us. It’s everything to do with Him. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:19:36] We’re grateful for Rhett Walker joining us on GPS. He’s a husband; he’s a father, musician, and most importantly a follower of Jesus Christ. Chasing whatever doors God opens up for him. If you know someone who could use a story of grace and redemption, please don’t hesitate to share this episode with them. And if you enjoyed this episode, let us know. You can leave a review or comment on your podcast app or in the comment section on YouTube. We would love to hear from you. And be sure to follow us so you won’t miss a single episode. I’m Jim Kirkland. And this is GPS: God. People. Stories. It’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Always good news. 

Music:
[00:20:20] 

End of transcript