Read All About It! Original Newsboys Lead Singer John James' Journey of Redemption
Author John James. Photo image courtesy Broadstreet Publishing
For millions of Christian music fans, John James was the unmistakable voice that helped launch Newsboys as one of the most influential bands in contemporary Christian music.
As the group's original lead singer, James stood at the center of their rise before his departure in the late 1990s amid a very public struggle with addiction and infidelity. Now, in his new memoir, Newsboy: My Story of Hope and Second Chances, John shares the full story of his life: his success, failures, faith, and ultimately redemption.
I recently sat down with John to discuss his years with the band, the personal battles that nearly destroyed him, and the journey that has led him to tell his story for the first time.
You have been out of the musical spotlight for nearly 30 years. Why publish what is essentially your memoir at this moment in time?
How this really came about was a couple of years ago, The 700 Club did a feature on my testimony and story. And there was a wonderful lady who saw that testimony and she worked with Broadstreet Publishing. She had actually heard me speak somewhere and share my testimony. From the day she saw that, she felt this had to be a book. I had never written a book before. It was never on my radar. And when I was approached about it, I was really excited and intrigued. But it started me on this incredible journey where I wrote about the most redemptive healing process. Not because years later in life, I was still broken and wounded, but because I was so transparent on the whole journey, not only my time with Newsboys, the rise to success, the demise, the fall, the redemption, but also the formative years of John James. That was so instrumental in my demise, believe it or not, because of the way I was wired as a child. And understanding the background of how I was put together psychologically from a child walking through the brokenness and the dysfunction. Sometimes we think, well, that's my past, I'm over it. That was years ago. Get on with life. But we don't always realize those formative years, though we've suppressed them, though we've kind of ignored it or felt like I'm over it, I'm an adult now. But those years can have the most influential impact on our decision making and our choices later in life. For me, when I wrote the book, I wanted to address the dysfunction of my past, my childhood, and my family. Not as an excuse to validate my actions, but to help people understand how our past can so influence our future.
Before we dig deeper in the interview, I should mention that you are the original lead singer of Newsboys. There has been a lot of speculation over the years as to why you moved on from the band. This is a great platform to clear the air. What would you like your readers to understand about why you left?
I've done my best, especially with the book coming out, to really put to bed some of those things that just weren't true. The Internet can sometimes take on a nature of its own and things that aren't facts become facts. Frankly, I'm looking at it in regards to the honesty of the choices that I made that shipwrecked my life.For me, at the height of success, mate, gaining the world as part of one of the biggest Christian bands in the world, I got a wake up call and an education very quickly.
People say to me today when they hear my story, they ask ‘Are you anti-success, money, wealth, and position? Are you anti all those things? And I say, no, of course not. All those things are wonderful blessings and tools from the Lord that we can do much good with. The problem wasn't those things. The problem was those things exposed my foundations. And there were cracks and dysfunctions in my life. They were part of my foundation that was built on sand. And what success did is it just magnified and exposed those character flaws. Those foundational issues and success brought it to the surface, illuminated it, and just expanded it, which eventually caused my life to fall apart.
As you have already mentioned, you had a rough childhood of sorts … rejection, abandonment, family brokenness just to name a few things. How did those childhood experiences shape your identity and the choices that you made later in life?
I carried an incredible sense of abandonment as a child. I had an incredible sense of a lack of worth. Isn't it funny how people can look at a celebrity, a person they admire, a pastor, a singer, an entrepreneur, somebody in the church, and from the stage they can be so charismatic and look like their lives are so together. But on the inside, I was still such a very insecure person. I still had an incredible sense of abandonment, such an incredible sense of you’re useless, you're hopeless, you're nothing, you'll never amount to anything. It's amazing how both of those environments can live under the same roof and function in the same person, even though you are living the dream and incredibly successful. And I look at how it laid that foundation in me as a child trying to deal with the dysfunction in my life.
As I grew older dealing with it, I became a master of running from responsibility instead of manning up, and facing it. I always bent the knee and ran from it, whether it was work responsibility, family responsibility, or faith responsibility. And that's a terrible foundation and trait to build in regards to who you are wired to be. And that trait rose to the surface later in life at the heights of success, where I saw the demise of my family, my career, and my walk with the Lord. Instead of facing the dysfunction and facing the problem, I would hightail it, turn and run.
As you mentioned, your parents divorced when you were young. Thus, you were essentially raised by your aunt and uncle in Australia before moving back in with your father during your teen years. But something was different about him from your earlier years. Can you share a bit about what happened with your dad?
The most unthinkable thing happened. The very man that was so broken and so toxic, struggling with his own demons and his lack of faith and purpose, the very man that utterly destroyed our family, that shipwrecked my family, physically, mentally, emotionally for years, was the very vehicle that God chose to use to be the redeeming patriarch. My dad had such an encounter with Christ, such a road to Damascus moment with the Gospel. It so dramatically changed his life, that he instantly changed direction, and led his new wife to the Lord. That's my stepmother, who I'd never met at that time. My dad hopped on a plane and flew to where we all lived in Australia and proceeded to lead ex-family members to the Lord. He led all my four sisters and my brother to the Lord, as well as aunts, uncles, and cousins.
And it's bizarre, mate, that the very person who was responsible for destroying everything was the vehicle that God chose to use to bring the most miraculous of redemption. So, my dad started this journey of transformation. And I’ve got to be honest, initially family members didn't want to receive the religious element, but you can't deny a changed life. And everybody knew my dad’s track record. He was the sinner of sinners who had made everything shady and illegal. Half of the stuff I don't even know about to this day. But you can't deny the testimony of a changed life that's right in front of you. And my dad proceeded to live a life of repentance and bear fruit that was in accord with the authenticity of that repentance. And he ended up winning everyone over that he met.
So, you end up joining the Newsboys, and what a ride it was for you and the other guys. Big success, coming to America, touring all over the world. But it seems that the more famous you guys became, your faith and spiritual life became less and less of a priority. Bad habits began to bubble up, specifically addiction and hidden sin. Can you share a bit about what happened to you in that regard?
I want people to hear this clearly. I never woke up one day at the height of success and thought, what's on the agenda today? Oh, I know. This week, this month, I'm going to destroy my marriage, my family, my career, and my life. It never happened like that. It was a journey of desensitization. A little compromise here, a little compromise there. I began to cut anchors from my life. So often we think what takes us out of the big things, but so often it's the fundamentals that we don't protect and guard. For example, I stopped having my daily quiet time with God. And it wasn't because I didn't love the Lord. I just got so busy. I thought, I'm doing everything I'm meant to be doing. But the very thing that I desperately needed to nurture and protect the importance of staying connected with my faith in that intimacy, in my daily devotion was the importance of my marriage. It was another anchor I cut.
I'm off saving the world, saving everyone else's marriage, but right under my own roof, I'm neglecting my own marriage and losing it as a result. Another anchor that I made the mistake of cutting from my life was the importance of staying grounded, connected, plugged in, accountable and serving in a local church. I wasn’t around people that loved me enough to be honest with me and speak into my life. I don't care who you are, when you cut anchors like that from your life, you're a train wreck about to happen. And it might not happen today, tomorrow, in six months or a year, because you're busy riding the wave of success. You think that wave is never going to end. But eventually down the road, there's a train wreck waiting for you.
Today, your life and ministry look very different from what it once was. What can you tell me about your ministry and the types of things you are doing for the Kingdom?
With my wife, our ministry is called I Reach USA. We have the privilege of being missionaries to America. We travel around speaking in local churches, inspiring the local church with their intimacy with the Lord and their willingness to reach the lost in their community. We speak in public schools across America. We speak in addiction recovery clinics. We speak in prisons. My wife and I are registered with the military. We go onto military bases, working with the military and their spiritual resilience program for their troops. We are just so incredibly thankful that we have the opportunity to use these platforms to bring a message of redemption, and a message of hope.
And now, because of the book, I'm doing my first music in almost 30 years. I once said I would never, ever sing again. And for nearly 30 years I never sang a note. But God of the second chance, has allowed me to have this wonderful new season of music again in my life. I don't know what that's going to look like, but it seems like we're incorporating the ministry of music as an evangelistic tool to reach people through our ministry.
I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you about the current state of the Newsboys in light of the last year or two. Without going into the gory details, do you think the band has a future in Christian music? And if so, what does that look like?
First of all, I'd like to say my heart breaks and goes out to any of the victims or people that were wounded tragically with what unfolded in this situation. My prayers greatly go out to everyone affected by this. In my personal opinion, do the Newsboys have a future? I don't believe so in the current form and everything. I think the band has run its course. But I believe more than ever that there needs to be a message shouted.
With the unfolding of the tragic events surrounding the Newsboys and Michael Tait, I pray that one day down the road, we will look back with awe. I don't know how the Lord's going to do it. But my prayer is that he would redeem a redemptive thread out of this, that God would bring a redemptive story out of this for His glory. I don't know what that looks like. But if God can bring a redemptive story out of my mess, my hopelessness, mate, He can with any situation.
And we need to not validate, justify, or sweep it under the carpet. We can't take redemption off the table because if we become the redemptive police and we judge, you could be redeemed. You can't do what you did, or there's no hope for you. What hope is there for any of us? And that is my prayer, that somehow God, you would powerfully take what the enemy planned for so much harm, to rob, kill and destroy, that God would bring a powerful story for His glory out of it. That's my prayer, mate.
After people have had a chance to read Newsboy what would you like your readers to take away from that experience? What is your greatest hope for the book?
That people would realize, that in reality, He's not only God of the mountaintop we love. We love life living on top of the mountaintop. But He's not only God of the mountaintop, He's God of the valley. He's God of the storm. He's God of the shipwreck. He's a God that actually draws close to the wounded and the broken hearted. And that redemptive story that no one is so far lost, no one is so far gone, no one is so far broken that God can't redeem. That's my prayer for anyone who reads my book.
I know God's going to bring these things to the surface, but we are all reminded that that a redemptive story isn't only for you and I, but that redemptive story is for every man, woman, and child, no matter what their ethnic background is, no matter what their skin color is, no matter what their toxic, broken past might look like, no matter how lost they may feel, no matter how broken, mate, He's still the God who redeems.
To purchase a copy of Newsboy: My Story of Hope and Second Chances
Watch John James as Newsboys Lead Singer in Take Me to Your Leader Music Video:
