It’s no secret Kirk Franklin endured an unexpected time of difficulty when recording his latest album, Father’s Day.
The title alone is nod to the life-changing event of finding his birth father after more than 50 years. But if he had to pinpoint which of the album’s 10 tracks most accurately illustrates what it was like dealing with the news, it’d be the number six track, “Listen.”
“I remember ‘Listen’ and I remember the day that lyrically I had to try to find my way and listen,” Kirk said.
Describing the special song as somewhat of a “beautiful funeral,” the Grammy winner said the lyrics are a direct reflection of his emotions.
“The lyrics say, ‘Light of the world, please don’t give up on me. I’m so lost right now,'” Franklin recited, adding that the words help to start a conversation.
He continued, “Reach through the dark, I feel like I’ve been missing/ God of the stars, can You silence the storm deep in me right now?/ Relight my fire, That warm embrace has ended.”
Franklin, who was adopted as a young child and did not have much information about his biological dad, said that the time recording “Listen” was “the hinge that the album, in that moment of my life, was hanging on.”
The heartfelt song, echoing his “painful, really dark, sparse, empty” emotions, was his opportunity to really let it all out.
“Let me go ahead and do this doggone thing,” Franklin thought at the time. “Let me go ahead and say I’m concerned about all of this.”
Franklin’s 14th album, Father’s Day, is available for streaming on major platforms.
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