(NASHVILLE, TN) A hungry kid on a dirty floor. A lonely man and his silver Porsche. A single mom on her second shift. A teenage girl with scars on her wrist.
Some songs give you goosebumps. Most don’t. From the moment When the Kingdom Comes, the latest release from country superstar Lee Brice begins, it’s not hard to figure out that this song will be the former.
Brice is no stranger to hit songs, having garnered nine #1 radio singles including: I Drive Your Truck, Hard to Love, I Don’t Dance, Memory I Don’t Mess With, and Drinking Class just to name a few. But this one hits a little differently and seems to reflect an artist who is not only returning to his roots in the church but has become a keen observer of the human condition, and how those two are inextricably connected in today’s world.
Every song has a story to tell but, in many cases, the story behind how a song is written and eventually released is often a story in itself. When the Kingdom Comes is no exception. Breitbart News caught up with Brice and his wife, Sara, a co-writer on the song, for an exclusive interview in which we learned about this song’s journey from ideation to fruition, and that journey started with a title.
A little over a year and a half ago, a good friend and collaborator, multi-platinum songwriter, Jon Stone, called the Brices late one night, excited about a title for a song. When Lee and Sara heard the title When the Kingdom Comes, they both knew immediately they had to pursue it. But sometimes life gets in the way and timing provides a hurdle. It wasn’t until a year and a half later that Lee and Sara were finishing up a late dinner, and Lee found himself the recipient of a type of inspiration he had felt before when writing songs that eventually went to #1. “I had one of those moments and I’ve had couple of ‘em like I Don’t Dance and One of Them Girls,” Lee told Breitbart News. “I have to write this song.”
This would be the night When the Kingdom Comes would find a life. Lee and Sara called over another frequent collaborator, multi-platinum, award winning songwriter with numerous #1 singles, Billy Montana, whom Lee described as a “faith mentor and a poet.”
When the three got in a room, the song “fell out quickly,” according to Sara. Lee had been hearing the chorus in his head for over a year. He had the melody and the imagery. It was the verses they needed to hone in on. Sara told us that child trafficking was heavy on her mind at the time and not only that, her younger half-sister has been cutting herself, was broken and “in a really bad place and questioning her faith.” So, when the writers began to discuss ideas Sara said “I picture hungry kids.” And then Montana said “a hungry kid on a dirty floor,” and added “a lonely man and his silver Porsche” and Lee added “a single mom on her second shift,” and then thinking of his wife’s sister, the final line revealed itself, “a teenage girl with scars on her wrist.” This is the songwriting process.
Montana described the writing process that night to Breitbart News: “I remember feeling like the whole night was one of those ‘meant to be’ moments… hanging out on the back porch in the quiet night air, it all just felt like it was supposed to happen. I got chills several times during the writing process – something that rarely happens. It made me believe the song’s message was way bigger than we were.”
Songwriter Billy Montana Courtesy of Redlight Management/ Chase Lauer
And when you hear When the Kingdom Comes, you know that Montana’s words are an apt description. For Lee, the idea of the song was originally about a “big destination moment…there’s gonna be a time when everything is gonna be okay,” he told us. A sentiment powerfully on display in the chorus lyric:
When the Kingdom comes
When we see the Son
Rollin’ back the sky
There’ll be nothin’ left
Nothin’ left but love
When the Kingdom comes
But as he lived with the song, Lee told us he started thinking “every day right here is heaven on earth. You know, the Kingdom can come for you tomorrow…the Kingdom is every day you wake up. That’s what Jesus intended for us.”
When asked what he wants listeners to take away from the song, one word summed it up for Lee…..hope. Sara chimed in with some scripture: “Don’t be anxious. Don’t be afraid.”
Lee and Sara Brice
Some songs give you goosebumps. Most don’t. When the Kingdom Comes is definitely the former, and what makes it one of those songs is not only the compassion and faith that rings true from four amazing songwriting talents, but Lee’s signature vocal delivery. There’s a power and an honesty. You believe him when he sings, and those characters in the song and the video who represent all of us struggling with our individual journeys, we can hear those words and that voice and feel that everything is in fact, gonna be okay.
And it all started with a title from Jon Stone.
When the Kingdom Comes is available now from Lee Brice’s upcoming record “Sunriser” set to be released this Fall.
***Sara’s half-sister has since found her faith and made an appearance in the music video.
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WHEN THE KINGDOM COMES (LYRICS) – Brice, Brice, Montana, Stone
A hungry kid
On a dirty floor
A lonely man
In his silver Porsche
A single mom
On her second shift
A teenage girl
With scars on her wrist
When the Kingdom comes
When we all know why
When we see the Son
Rollin’ back the sky
There’ll be nothin’ left
Nothin’ left but love
When the Kingdom comes
When the Kingdom comes
Every shattered soul
Every shade of skin
All the broken hearts
Are gonna beat again
Gonna find their way
Gonna feel the cost
Some iron nails
And a wooden cross
When the Kingdom comes
When we all know why
When we see the Son
Rollin’ back the sky
There’ll be nothin’ left
Nothin’ left but love
When the Kingdom comes
When the Kingdom comes
When the first are last
And the last are first
Won’t be no hunger
Won’t be no thirst
When the Kingdom comes
When we all know why
When we see the Son
Rollin’ back the sky
There’ll be nothin’ left
Nothin’ left but love
When the Kingdom comes
We’re gonna all know why
We’re gonna see the Son
Rollin back the sky
There’ll be nothin’ left
Nothin’ left but love
When the Kingdom comes
When the Kingdom comes
When the Kingdom comes
FOLLOW LEE BRICE
FOLLOW SARA BRICE
FOLLOW BILLY MONTANA
FOLLOW JON STONE
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