God Can Heal You w/ Julius Adams

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Speaker 1: There are few things that make people successful. Taking a step forward to change their lives is one successful trait, but it takes some time to get there. How do you move forward to greet the success that awaits you? Welcome to Next Steps Forward with host, Chris Meek. Each week, Chris brings on another guest who has successfully taken the next steps forward. Now, here is Chris Meek.

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Chris Meek: Hello, I'm Chris Meek, and you've tuned in to this week's episode of Next Steps Forward. As always, it's a pleasure to have you with us. Our special guest today is Julius Adams. Julius is a singer, songwriter, musician, and producer from Peoria, Illinois. From a young age, Julius loved everything about music, from writing songs, to singing, to playing instruments. His love for music extends to his love for people. Julius writes his songs so people feel hope, love, and encouraged, and feel that they're able to conquer anything in their lives. Whether it's pop, rock, jazz, funk, R&B, or contemporary Christian gospel, Julius wants everyone to hear his music and be blessed by it. He's currently promoting his new single, Healer. Healer is a beautiful song that we'll play for you during our conversation. It's about God being able to heal us from anything, whether it's an illness, disease, mental health issues, heartbreak, financial troubles, or something else. Julius Adams, welcome to Next Steps Forward.

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Julius Adams: Thank you, Chris. I also want to be here today. I'm so happy to be doing this show. I can't wait to have fun with you with this interview.

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Chris: It's great to have you. Thank you. Apologies, again, for having to reschedule. I was under the weather last time, I appreciate your flexibility. Thank you.

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Julius: Oh, no. I wouldn't miss it for the world, man. It's awesome.

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Chris: Awesome. Let's have some fun. Julius, I've been hosting this podcast for about four years, and I'm not 100% certain, but I feel very confident saying you are our first guest ever from Peoria, Illinois. I suspect you're familiar with the old saying, will it play in Peoria? That saying had its origins in the early 1900s during the Vaudeville era. Performers and producers used Peoria as a test market of sorts to decide how an act would be received by audiences in other cities. Basically, the idea was that if a show was successful in Peoria, there would be a hit elsewhere. Julius, what's the music scene like in Peoria today?

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Julius: The music scene has died down, it's not the way it used to be. A lot has changed. I would say that it's more about Chicago. The musicianship here has always been great because there's not much to do, so you have to find something to do because you're in a small town. It's always a great scene. We bring a lot of big acts here and stuff like that. A lot of great musicians here come, they bring their bands here, a lot of jam bands, and a lot of celebrity artists and stuff like that. The Civic Center, they try to hold in stuff like that. We keep up with that part. The music scene is not too bad. The country scene is growing here, but it's always been a blues town because of Chicago. You have Buddy Guy come down. You would have different people come down here to do a show here and there. It's a great music scene.

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Chris: Do you feel that people get their start there and cut their teeth, if you will, and then figure out where they can go from there, whether it's Chicago, New York, Boston, or LA?

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Julius: I would say, yes, because Peoria has a-- I don't know how to really say this, but they have a really great feel for talent. When they see something good, the people around here, they can spot on, do it really well and they can tell you, "Hey, this is going to be the next act." They've had success at that throughout the years. I remember when Circus Soleil came here first, a couple of big acts came here before they had Vegas and Peoria loved it and they went out, and boom, it was great. It's a great test market for your talent, for sure.

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Chris: I guess that old saying is true and here we are 100 years later, still being that test market.

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Julius: Yes, it is. It's great. It's a very great test market. It is.

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Chris: That's great. I love it. Julius, you grew up as a child of a minister. What was that experience like and how did it influence your decision to become a singer, songwriter, musician, and producer?

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Julius: I'll tell you one thing. My dad was a great musician. He listened to everything. He would supply me with the sound. My sisters, they were great. Growing up with my dad, it was always about God, it was always about loving people and it was always about music. We always had those feels because he grew up around a lot of music himself. It was always a lot of love for God, a lot of love for music, and a lot of love for people. Growing up was awesome.

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Chris: When you and I first spoke a few weeks ago, you told me something else about your father. He's a weightlifter.

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Julius: The funny part about the weightlifting is that my dad's 5'10 and he's 180 pounds but when he was growing up, he was a big-time powerlifter and he worked out with a guy named Mike Bridges who at the time was a high competition powerlifter. ESPN wasn't as big back in the '70s but he was bench pressing 450 pounds at 180. He just had that old guy strength, they come from a different era. He's from the baby boomer era. He came from that and he was huge. He was huge at that. We always had a lot of fun just working out together. He was awesome at it.

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Chris: I'd like to say that we're a show-off first and snow. I've got a power-lifting pastor on here. That's another first for us. I'm glad you shared this story with us. Thank you.

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Julius: No problem.

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Chris: Did people ever have any misconceptions about you because you were and obviously still are a minister's child?

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Julius: I would say that you get that a lot. You're going to get a lot of misconceptions of what people think of you because they're always on the outside looking in. You have perceptions of what people may think. It may take a while for them to grow to understand who you are and where they can see you past being a PK or being that person. Coming out of church, people are going to have a lot of questions when you do different things that are not with church. They question you and stuff like that, so you do get that. Morally, they can grow with you and realize, hey, he's different.

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Chris: PK is a term I haven't heard in a while.

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Julius: I get it a lot, which is crazy.

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Chris: For those who don't know, it's preacher's kid. It's just interesting to hear you say that just matter of factly that that's who and what you are. Can you recall any specific musical experiences from your childhood that left a lasting impact on you?

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Julius: Oh, man. I'll tell you, my sisters were in a choir at school. I got to do the sound of music with them, little [unintelligible 00:07:14]. A lot of musical plays with those girls. That was the last thing. Then my mom was a big Staple Sisters fan. I got a chance to experience that. Also, a couple Earth, Wind, & Fire concerts that just left me in awe. Those concerts showed me-- Wow, amazing, just to watch those guys play like that, those horn sessions. To be that tight to see the scale of it, it stuck with me and I was like, "Okay, I want to do music." I did, I wanted to be a part of it. I also wanted to play football too but I still wanted to do music badly. Very impressive. I'm not saying this about other bands, I just felt like Earth, Wind & Fire, they're just top-tier. They're just the best.

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Chris: They're different in their class, that's for sure.

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Julius: Yes, for sure.

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Chris: In the intro, I went through a lot of different types of music that you perform, that you like. Pop, rock, jazz, funk, R&B, and of course, contemporary Christian gospel. Is there any one of those that is your favorite or is more of a calling to you?

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Julius: Yes. I love jazz, I love pop, but I love rock. I like a lot of stuff in rock because I listen to a lot of rock groups because there's a lot of different things that can come out of that. I do listen to metal. That's something I do on the side which I don't really tell people but I listen to. When you work out, you need something to push you and sometimes that jazz song is not going to do it but when you're trying to go towards something, you need something a little more tough. I had an experience which is listening to a lot of rock not because I'm trying to be different, it was just something I enjoyed. I would say that's something on the side that I really do and just enjoy.

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Chris: When you go to the gym, your playlist is more Metallica than Kenny G?

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Julius: I will be honest with you, it really is. ACDC, Metallica, I listen to Disturbed. I have a few groups in there I really like. It's just a different sound because they have different things there. It really can help you grow, which is crazy but is good.

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Chris: You're a pure musician, you just love it all?

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Julius: Oh, man, all day. Yes, all day.

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Chris: I love that. Were there any restrictions or encouragements about the different kinds of music you could listen to or perform as you were growing up?

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Julius: Not really. My parents were pretty open with me listening to everything. We were watching a lot of movies and everything. They didn't cut my experiences out with going outdoors, hunting, fishing. They tried to give us everything they could to grow. Basically, my family was more open. My parents were very open about, "Hey, be this, be that, grow to this." They were more restricted about holding me to their heart. As far as growing and trying different things and doing different things musically, they were all for it.

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I was just growing and growing and growing and growing. I really liked solo instruments. Growing up, I loved Kenny G. I loved listening to Herbie Hancock because I loved his chord progressions. I was huge on Prince, Jimi Hendrix because of his guitar. My dad was a big Jimi Hendrix fan. I can't remember the album, but I had never heard Jimi Hendrix play blues. Blew my mind. I never thought that. I'll tell you, somebody else, and I know people probably don't even go because they think more about B.B. King, but Albert King is one of the greatest blues players I've ever heard. Just a great blues dude. My experiences with music, I got a lot too. I was really into the musicians. I'm more a fan of the musician than I am the artist.

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Chris: You're a pure musician. I love that.

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Julius: Yes.

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Chris: As a follow up, at what point did you decide to pursue music as a career?

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Julius: Oh man, I would say probably like in 2000, I don't know if I was really pursuing it. I loved to record. Going to studios and recording was my thing. I don't think I had everything down to understand it just yet. What made me want to pursue music was I wanted to touch people and affect people. Also, listening to a lot of old records. Nothing against new records today, even though there's a lot of remake records that you see today being done. I felt like I wanted to get into music to, not revamp, but to bring music back. Not that people are not bringing music back. It's just that I feel some of the-- sometimes we're not focused in on what music can do emotionally for people. It's just like working out, like you never know what you really need physically to enhance your body, chiropracting, just stuff like that. You see them coming up with different changes, getting better. I just felt that I wanted to jump into music to rebuild what Motown has done, Static Records has done. A lot of great rock and roll groups have done. Just bringing music back to the forefront and bringing the artistry of sound and emotion, just touching the affected people musically. That's why I really jumped in to have that type of thought process.

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Chris: What formal music training did you receive either within your family or this community or elsewhere?

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Julius: I got a lot of piano training from a great piano teacher at Bradley University. He was there for a long time. He passed. His name was Edward Kayser. Dude, he was an unbelievable jazz player. He was a classical piano player that turned jazz in the middle of his life, which was crazy. He could play all these different things. He was very unique to watch. Why he was so unique? Because he would play everything, but he could put so many different things together. Meeting him was a blessing in my life because I got a chance to see somebody, first of all, who turned himself from playing, for being a high-competition classical person. His wife, she was a great ragtime player. I got a chance to learn a lot from them growing up. They gave me a lot to go with. It was awesome.

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Chris: Did your parents support your musical career, or did they expect you to become a strictly contemporary Christian or gospel musician, and did your commitment to secular music create any tension?

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Julius: I would say with my mother, she was more against the secular part. With my dad, he wasn't. He was more open about grow and grow and grow. Because music in our family was about reaching people. I didn't want to glorify images or different things. I want to be love-positive. I want to be positive in my music. I will say that part, because that's just me, not because anyone's telling me to do it or be any type of way. I just felt I just wanted to put love in the people. Just seeing so many people hurt, that wasn't even the reason I'm making Healer. It was just about people just healing from the right things. I think at this time in life, we just need to focus in on love and start bringing people more out of depression with different things. I feel like music can be very healing. That's why I really love the '80s era. There was a lot of love in that era. A lot of love.

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Chris: A lot of bad hair, too.

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Julius: Man, it was. Terrible.

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Chris: My wife talks about her perm. I actually used to have an afro back then, so yes. I did.

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Julius: I would have loved it. Come on, Chris.

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Chris: There's one or two pictures of me that my mother saved from that I thought I burned them all. She's like, no, we'll put this in the wedding video and this one so your kids can see it. People find it hard to believe.

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Julius: She's the greatest. I love it.

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[laughter]

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Chris: Mom always wins. We know that.

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Julius: Yes, they always do. Every time.

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Chris: Julius, obviously the music business is very tough.

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Julius: Very.

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Chris: Have you personally had any moments when you've questioned your own musical path?

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Julius: I would say I had went on a journey to Nashville. At the time, it was a great journey to go down there and do that. The recording and the experience was unbelievable. Then you learn a lot about the industry, too, about just maybe some different things that might have happened, just disagreements. It didn't make me want to quit, but it just made me see things differently. It was just a holdup. It's not so much hate, it's just a lot of competition. It's not bad competition. It's not good competition. It's just competition because it's not coming together.

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You know how everything is set like you do one, two, three, four, five, six. Everything has steps. Everybody has a position to do something like you're set. It's how you have to play the piano. Somebody has to play the bass. Somebody has to play the drums. I felt that when we take our portion in anything, we have a better set. I feel like sports has a better movement because everything is set. You have a coach, you have assistant coaches, you have players in their position and it works that way. I feel like in music, the positions are mixed because it's like you have somebody who's not as talented that want to be in this area. Then it has a bad effect and anything goes.

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I feel like in sports, there's more discipline. In music, it's too free, and that changes the outcome. It's not that sometimes I feel that music is, I want to quit it, I feel like I want to change it. I feel like I can jump in. I feel that they're having a music, in general, that now people can listen more to understand we need balance, not just a over all wild out, hey, we're doing this, we're doing that, we're doing this. I feel that there's a thing about us coming together and knowing our roles and that puts together a great thing. You had that early on, but yet jealousy and hatred and people can feel a certain way, can change that.

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I feel in sports, like football, for example, or baseball, you have to be unified. You need that guy to hit that home run. You need that guy to throw that ball and everybody has their separation because they took more time to build their sports around love and grouping people. Music there's no grouping, it's too solo and everybody's-- I'm not saying it out for themselves, they just want to make it, but they have to change their way about being together. People have to know their place and act more as a team and then it works better for all of us.

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Chris: In the beginning of that response, you mentioned going down to Nashville and recording. Earlier in the show, you touched on Peoria becoming bigger in the country scene now. My listeners and viewers know I'm a huge country fan and it's one genre you did not talk about in your list, but I'm curious, just a moment ago you said that musicians are too solo, but a big thing on the country scene is to do collaboration songs. Is there any insight from your perspective in terms of how or why that's more so in country versus other mainstream music? [crosstalk] Sorry, go ahead, please.

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Julius: I'm sorry. No, sorry. No, I'll let you.

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Chris: Go ahead.

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Julius: One thing about country, I'm a big Shania Twain fan. I love Tim McGraw. Garth Brooks has just got the biggest heart you've ever seen. You have to love that. I was a big Randy Johnson fan, always have been growing up with that. I'm going to say this on the record, I liked [unintelligible 00:19:39] even though I know it was a bad stir. It was a bad stir. It was a great song. [unintelligible 00:19:49] is a great song, I don't care. I loved it. It was cool. In country, they just have more unity. They understood how to change it. Plus, country, they made the right moves at the right times. I felt they did the right things. The artists, they weren't being greedy. They were doing the right things at the right times. That's what keeps them afloat. I think their collaborations are awesome. Even how they brought Nelly in. I don't think Nelly thought Country Grammar wasn't even going to be that big, but it did because it affected people. Country has always been more about love though, and the story's more realistic. They focus in on what you're going through more than they focus in on this or that.

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It's not sexual. It's not violent. It's not crazy. It makes sense. You can listen to a country song and you can actually laugh and you can enjoy it. That's why country is leading the way. Like I said before, if the music industry was more in-depth with how country is moving, I'm not saying they got to go do country songs, and I'm not even knocking a particular artist I don't want to say anything, but I know she's trying to do a country record, and I get why because country is a hot market. You just have to start uniting what you're doing in different genres, what country is doing. You can do better if you do that, not just try to join country.

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Chris: You didn't mention the name, were you referring to Beyoncé doing the country album?

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Julius: Yes, I'm saying that. I think it's good, It's not about the talent, I just felt that country is country. I love Dolly Parton. I don't think she's a superstar because she's beautiful, because God knows she's gorgeous, but she's good because she has a great voice. Faith Hill has a great voice. Shania Twain is really good. Shania Twain had a concert in Chicago, went to, it was amazing. Amazing drummer, the music was set, unbelievable. She's always been a superior artist. I just feel like their unity is better. It always has been.

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Chris: That's an interesting point you make with Beyoncé coming in. You mentioned Nelly. Post Malone has come over. To your point, people are realizing, hey, there's a much bigger audience here, and I think they're actually trying to refine their messaging. By that, we all know the world's a shitty place right now. You can't turn the news on without seeing something terrible. To your point a minute ago, there are certain things about country songs that make you feel good.

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Julius: Oh, all the time. You can't beat it. That and the blues. B.B. King is hilarious. It's like you have to have something in there to me between the blues and the country music where-- you're still touching people. People have to be touched, they have to be affected. They have to leave with something other than you dancing, other than you doing stuff like that. They need real-life moments.

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Garth Brooks has always brought that love out for people. I feel like that's the emotional effect. I feel like, yes, you can have great singing, which you should. You should be highly skilled at what you do. You also have to touch people's heart, realize what people are going through. I feel like if you're doing that, it's more to life than that. That's also about life experiences. It also gives creditation to country artists because they have better experiences. It has nothing to do with just the music. Their experiences in life are better. At times, you can hear it through the song. That comes from any wise man or any person that's just growing, that's it.

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Chris: If there were one musician from any genre you could collaborate with, who would it be?

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Julius: Man, I'm going to say it, Chris Botti. Chris Botti is amazing. He's one guy that I just enjoy. If it was another person, but he's not even alive, Luther Vandross, because I love all his songs. One more, Mariah Carey.

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Chris: Not the Christmas song, though.

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Julius: No.

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Chris: How do you stay inspired and connected to your faith while navigating the music industry?

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Julius: Oh, man. There's so much love around me. I have two great people around me. It's my dad and my manager, Andrea and Nicole. They give me a lot of faith. There's a lot of love there and a lot of hope there, a lot of God there, a lot of prayer. Just a lot of good things, a lot of wisdom. I get a chance to really keep my faith strong. You need that in your life from somebody or something to keep you going. How I keep that going is my experiences, too, just like helping people.

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Also, I like to fish a lot. I feel like your serenity on the water is everything. If you don't fish, do it. Outdoors is, I don't know why, I'm just saying this, just some wisdom from me. Going outdoors is the smartest thing you can do to get close to God or to spirituality. You need that silence to calm you. My dad taught me that. My mother taught me that. That's a great way to speak with God. It's also a good way to just, like I said, find peace.

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Chris: Can you share a story about a song that did not turn out as you expected but ended up being a favorite of yours or your fans?

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Julius: Oh, man. Something I did or somebody's?

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Chris: You did.

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Julius: Oh, man. I'll say this much. It was basically just Healer because the other songs I had, well, I did put out something for smooth jazz, and it was called Wrapped Up in You. I didn't think it was going to do that well, but when I put it out there, it really did well there. It didn't get to the top of the billboard, but it did well with people because it was a great love song to just being wrapped up in a woman's love and enjoying the time with her. It wasn't about sex or anything. It was just a song about being wrapped in her love. It was a good song.

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Then, Healer, I didn't think I was going to get the response I was going to get. I thought it would be good. I really wasn't really pressing it as hard as we should have because I was just trying to fill out the market of radio and media. It started getting the response, and it still is. It's getting the response, but I really haven't pressed it as hard as I should just yet not because the music industry is different, it's just the fact that right now a lot of people are just doing different things. I'm just waiting, just waiting on some different things.

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Chris: We've been talking to Julius Adams about music, faith, and positivity. I hope you stay with us because we'll be right back after a short break. Continue our conversation and share his new single, Healer. We'll be right back.

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[music]

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[music]

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Love from the ashes

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out of the grave

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Sweet taste of freedom

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no longer your slave

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Speaker 1: You are listening to Next Steps Forward. To reach Chris Meek or his guest on the show today, please call in to 1-888-346-9141. That's 1-888-346-9141. Or send an email to chris at nextstepsforward.com. Now, back to this week's show.

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Chris: We are back. I'm Chris Meek, host of Next Steps Forward. My guest today is Julius Adams. Julius is a singer, songwriter, musician, and producer from Peoria, Illinois. From a young age, Julius loved everything about music, from writing songs, to singing, to playing instruments. His love for music extends to his love for people. Whether it's pop, rock, jazz, funk, R&B, or contemporary Christian gospel, Julius wants everyone to hear his music and be blessed by it. Now, we've been talking about the whole show. Here we are. I promise we're going to play Healer for you. Let's do that now, and then we'll use it as a jumping-off point to talk about it and Julius' music writing.

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[music plays: Healer, by Julius Adams]

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Jesus, you're so divine

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When you walk out and show me your power

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And give me a miracle

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You can heal and bless my soul

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[unintelligible 00:29:57] love and glory And give me peace

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But above all these things, you changed my heart

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to show me what is real

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You are my healer

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The healer of all of my disease

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Taken away by a fire of deeds

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Giving me joy with your love

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You are my healer

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The healer of all of my disease

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Taken away by a fire of deeds

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Giving me joy with your love

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You are my healer

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You are my healer

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Oh, you are my healer

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You are my healer

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Your anointing is powerful

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It can heal both mountains

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And change my thoughts into love

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Chris: Julius, I'm not sure what I enjoyed more, either listening to your song or watching you while you were listening to it. You were modeling the words, you were swaying. I could tell you were getting into it, so that was special to watch. I appreciate that.

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Julius: Oh, thank you.

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Chris: All right, let's get into the meat and bones of this now. How did Healer come about and where were you when you wrote it?

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Julius: Healer came in about-- I wrote this song probably, I want to say 14 years ago.

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Chris: That's a long time ago. 14 years ago?

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Julius: Yes, it was like a long time ago. I want to say even longer than that because me and my mom wrote it. When I was writing songs, my mom was a great songwriter as far as showing me how the depositions, how songs would make. When I wrote this song, I was getting better with wording, also getting better with what I wanted to do. I understood this song, but I also wanted to correct my words like what I was saying and how to affect people. When I wrote this song, it came about because I was wanting to do some different things as well.

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I was really having a bad time with allergies. I couldn't get rid of them. When I was younger, it was really tough. I had really bad trouble with pine cones and chocolate. I would break out in hives. I ate too much chocolate. I don't know why I was having the hardest time cutting grass. I was not trying to get out of chores. I was really having a lot of trouble with grass and just being outside. I was going crazy with children's Benadryl. I had to get off that Benadryl. God had blessed me with this remedy with peppermint oil and also with ginger tea. It really started to help me.

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I ended up getting over all these allergies in a matter of three or four years. It was easy for me to go outside. It was easy for me to come up on a pine cone because I love the way pine cones smell. It's like as soon as I smelled it, I would throw up. It would mess me completely up. God ended up healing me from that and giving me the wisdom to get out of that situation. After that, I was like, "Let me write this song." Also, I've seen some other healings that take place with some people I knew who were going through some really traumatic situations. They were close friends of my parents. That's why I decided really to write this song.

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Chris: You touched on it briefly there a moment ago about God healing you through your allergies. Describe your belief in God's healing powers and how has it influenced your life?

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Julius: Man, I felt that, like I said, through that serenity, that peace. I feel like God can heal you from mental illness. He can heal you from sicknesses and stuff like that. He also can mend those broken hearts and anger. There's a lot of different ways God can heal you from a lot of different things. Because you go through so much as living on this earth and being human and just trying to get through everyday life.

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There are struggles because every time we're not just wrestling against fustering blood. We're wrestling against a lot of different things and just fighting to get to where we're trying to get to. There's a lot of issues there where I feel God can step in and heal you from a lot of different things. If you can gather that serenity, that peace, and listen to him. He's there. He's with you. I don't think that God's going to come from every pastor, every preacher, every person. I think God can come in so many different ways.

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I think that's the place that we've missed, too, is that I've given the situations, not even at church. God has blessed me. I've been talked to by people that didn't have a lick of God in them. I've experienced God through those people. I just feel like God comes through a lot of different things. Sometimes we may limit how He talks to us. He comes in so many different ways and gives us great ways and different things. Heals us from a lot of different things. We don't realize how He can do it.

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Chris: Have you experienced any moments in your life where you've felt God's healing presence?

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Julius: Yes. I was going through some really bad situations, being upset with people, just how things were happening. There's a peace that came upon me probably a few years ago. It was just God showing me a better way. He healed me from being angry, from having this anger in me. It actually affected me. It affected my head. It affected me. I was really stressed out about the situation. It was just something God just really dealt with me with.

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He just came in and let me know that I was going to be okay. Then I did something really good with this person. I gave them something that I didn't want to give them. I felt that it was for me to do this. When I did this, it healed our relationship. It healed us from being against each other. It was just something I felt that was His presence coming upon me and showing me to do things a better way than doing things the wrong way.

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Chris: How do you personally seek God's healing in your own life? Does it influence your songwriting?

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Julius: I want to say this. I seek God's healing every day by doing the right things physically. I don't think everything is all magic. I also feel like God's wisdom gives us the knowledge to eat right, to live right. There's a lot of good things out there for us to learn if we listen to. God has a lot of wisdom out there for us and how it affects me. I think you said my songwriting.

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It gives me a better outlook on what to write. Because everything I'm writing is not just gospel. Some things I'm writing just like I wrote a song here recently about taking time for myself. It was really just talking about people who overwork because I see so many people who overwork. I wrote that song for that reason. God told me to write that song because he was like some people need this to take time for themselves. Get out of that situation.

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Self-care is important. You need to have self-care. God wants you to have self-care. You need to care about yourself. You need to take that vacation. You need to move on from that job. You need to move on from that situation. Trust and believe that you're going to find a better situation. Or just get out of that situation, in general. I wrote that song for stress relief. It had nothing to do with God or anything. It was just the care of a human being that take time for yourself and get out of these situations that are hurting you.

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Chris: The song was stress relief for you. What do you hope listeners take away from Healer?

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Julius: I want them to take a lot. First of all, I want them to understand how great God is. To build a relationship in a way they can rebuild it with Him. I think they should know the word for themselves and know God for themselves and their situation. I want them to know that you can't do things on your own all the time. Like I said, I don't feel like we wrestle against ourselves a lot. The tongue is horrible. People could be saying bad things about you. The reflection of how people feel about you. Just stuff like that.

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Jealousy is the real thing. Hatred is a real thing. Evil is a real thing. Sometimes it's not about you just trying to fight something or go through this. Sometimes prayer is important. Seeking God to help you get through situations to be healed may come from you knowing what God is trying to tell you. Like I said, going out to where it's getting that serenity. Listening to God to understand God will give you the answer.

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I just don't want people to lose touch with God because of so many bad religious moments because you've seen so many bad things with pastors. I feel like people lose sight of God. Not sight of who He is, but sight of what's been [unintelligible 00:39:43] showcased or marketed. I want this song to touch people in a different way where they can hear who God is. It gives them something to know that God can heal them from any situation they're going through.

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Chris: How do your beliefs about God's healing powers influence your songwriting process?

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Julius: It makes me better. It gives me a better insight on things, especially, the way I'm writing right now. It's given me a better outlook. I'm seeing things differently than what I have in the past. What it's been doing with me, with my music, it's been showing me just a better way to do things. To be more open. I'll say that for sure, to be way more open than what I've been in the past.

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Chris: You're more committed to your spirituality than any particular organized religion these days. How did you come to identify as spiritual more than religious?

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Julius: Say it one more time.

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Chris: As a transition, you seem to be more about your spirituality versus a specific particular religion.

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Julius: I see what you're saying.

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Chris: How did you come to identify that way?

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Julius: To me, how I came to get that spirituality better is experience. I feel that you have to go through life a little bit more and quit listening to what people are saying so that you can get more of spiritual guidance because everybody's life is different from each other. I feel that sometimes if we're always on the same path-- that's what's so crazy right now, everything is just changing and people don't know how to adapt because their spirituality is connected to religion and religion tells you to do one thing.

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Since religion has been so powerful, everybody orchestrates a thought process to do, hey, I want to do this because maybe this pastor or this politician or something that has a God more feel like if people speak on God, people feel like they have to follow that, but they don't follow their own experience because everybody's experience is going to be different. I feel like your spirituality grows when you have more time with God to go through something that you believe in that you want to work for you because you never know what you will know if you experience it. To me, your spirituality grows when you grow as a person to believe and create more, to see more, to do more.

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My spirituality has grown more because I've been creating more to see things differently, not to fall back because of what someone tells me because I feel like it's going to affect me this way. I feel my spirituality has been growing because I'm growing more with God to listen to what he's telling me. It's been different things. I feel like sometimes the things we're afraid of makes us religious in anything because we don't move forward because we don't believe. I feel like it's ultimately that God wants us to be creators and dreamers and stuff like that. I know people have dreams, but we give up on them. That makes us religious because we stop.

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We start saying, "Okay, I'm going to start." "Hey, I want to do this. I'm going to do that." I keep trying to follow a system. Right now, we can't even follow a system. Everything's different. Being in this age of digital technology, more truth is being realized. You like being told there's nothing you can really do without being watched. You have to create to do different things. Your spirituality has to be more in debt with God to get the answer to where you need to be. That's my thoughts.

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Chris: I appreciate that. It's a great segue. As a follow-up to that, what advice would you give to others who have taken that same journey with their religious and spiritual identity, especially those from deeply religious families?

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Julius: I would tell them to step out from amongst religion. It's old. Old things have passed away. You got to start beginning with new things. Also, I think people have a perception of God being, sandals. It's a thought process of God that gives us this hold of religion. That is the old religion thought process. That's not even a tactic. God is new. Nobody could create a world like this and be old or do the same thing every day. Life is an experience. You have to step out from amongst religion. Religion is not the answer. Spirituality has always been the answer because God is on the heat. He's on the only thing you can do to, like I said, create a better world or move in a new thing. That's why people can't move into the digital age.

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Mind you, when I was growing up, they were teaching us chord. That was the first thing. It was free. That's the funny part about it. I didn't care anything about it. I think I'm not saying this to be rude at all, but I think anybody from the ages of 38 to 44, even 48 or 49, they learned a lot about digital access, but we never took it into consideration because it didn't mean anything. We didn't capitalize on that. It's a lot of people of my age bracket that are stuck because we were religious. We wanted to work. We wanted to continue on doing the same thing as they were doing from the '50s and stuff like that.

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Life has changed so dramatically. Most things are all sewn up. It's like how they're buying real estate right now. They're just buying it up because we weren't thinking that way. We didn't make the right moves. It's off because we try to stick to just doing things that way. I feel that when you get closer to God and you get more spirituality, God can show you a way. He will show you a better way. The question is, will you leave all things, religion, tradition of that stuff?

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When I see a person in church, I'm seeing they're still following these religious tactics. I'm like, "You're going to fail. Get out of that immediately and connect more with God your way, not in what a preacher is saying." I'm not saying you can't have a shepherd, get knowledge. Everybody needs somebody in their life that's going to mentor them to understand. Eventually, mentorship grows into leadership. That's what mentorship is about. Growing into leadership for you to be better. To me, that's what God wants you to have. It's not always for you to be underneath somebody. Eventually, you want to step out and take that journey. To me, get out of religion because you'll always just be the facet of staying with this one thing. That's my thought.

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Chris: Mentorship grows into leadership. I love that. You have to go copyright it or make bumper stickers or T-shirts for it or something. That's amazing. That's very powerful. I appreciate that.

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Julius: It's true.

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Chris: How do your spiritual beliefs help you in terms of resilience, self-care, and personal empowerment?

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Julius: I think that with the spirit being what it is, personal empowerment comes from the access of getting around those who have empowerment. Then also taking those understanding. When you're taking empowerment from other people, understanding that he takes the right steps because everything is measured. Measure, it means a lot. A person can have three hundred million dollars of debt and not be cash-positive. A person can have $300 million and be cash-positive but you want to know how. May take a little bit longer. I feel like patience is the key to having really spiritual power.

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Without patience, you won't get there because you'll be looking for everything fast. Because fast food plays a big game in our quickness. Let's be able to get that double cheeseburger in less than two seconds. Gives us access to we can be in a marriage for a couple of years and get ahead into another one or we can buy a shirt off of Amazon or do stuff like that. I feel that your spiritual empowerment comes like mine has come. Just being patient and listening to what my dad says. Also, I feel like you have to have feats in your life. My dad used to give me feats.

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When I was younger, my dad would tell me-- I wanted to bench press a certain amount of weight. I wanted a squat amount of weight and it was really hard because I had to be patient. It wasn't just about injuries. Sometimes I just didn't get that there. I felt like you have to give yourself obstacles. I don't care what it is. It don't always have to be something that might be career-changing or life-changing. I feel like obstacles in your life, like just trying to lift this amount of weight or trying to paint this art set or do that. I feel like once you do it, you have it. You have an achievement there, then it's easier to step out of something that you want to do and get and achieve it because you have the right spiritual guidance through patience. That's just my thought process.

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I'm not saying everybody should follow that way, but I'm saying to me, you get better spiritual empowerment. We have better patience because everything doesn't come fast. It's just this doesn't. things may come later on in life. Things may come quickly in life, but if it comes too quickly, how will you be able to manage it? With no experience, no stuff like that. Being patient, I think that's something we all need to get back to. It builds us. It makes us better because it's better empowerment.

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Chris: What advice would you give to aspiring songwriters and musicians today?

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Julius: I would say get back to music. Get back to knowing your part. Be a great songwriter. Don't be afraid to invest in great musicians and don't be afraid to do the best you can do because when you affect people with music, they need that. You can't give them something that's diluted. Don't dilute it. Make it the best you can. Don't be afraid to share that copyright. Don't be afraid to share different things because, like I said before, that's just going to make you great, patient, being with the right people, doing the right things. That's what sets you apart.

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Chris: Simple, right?

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Julius: Yes, to me, that's it.

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Chris: Spike Lee said it. Do the right thing.

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Julius: That's it. I hate to say it like that, but we're almost at that compromising moment. There's no more tricks. There's no more tricks. You have to just do it straight out.

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Chris: Julius, we have just a few minutes left. How would someone get in touch with you if they want you to speak to their group, and how can they find your music?

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Julius: Definitely go to juliusadams.com or definitely seek out my manager, Andrea Nicole. She's awesome with putting everything together I've done. Reach out to me, juliusadams.com. They can find me there. Get to us. We have contact information and everything they need to get us there. Any time they want to reach out to us, it would be awesome. We have a lot to share. We have a lot to give. Great music, great stuff. Definitely that right there.

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Chris: Julius, next steps for our guests, always have the final word. I'd like you to take us to the end of our conversation with advice or a story that helps our audience feel less stressed, more resilient, and become more empowered. Would you share with us what gives you hope and why we should all have more hope in today's often chaotic world.

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Julius: I will say this. It's about your belief. It's about your system. It's about your experience. Don't get so caught up into just what people think. Get out of the awareness of human lifestyle. You got to adapt to people, of course, but don't stop dreaming. One thing, don't stop dreaming. Don't stop doing the things that you want to accomplish. Make sure you do all the steps. You don't miss.

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To get all the experience, be patient enough to learn, too. Get around people that can help you learn what you're trying to do in life as well. If you're going through something, and you're really going through a really bad time, like I said before, change up your lifestyle. Change up what you've been doing. The separation is key. Always being around people is not the answer. People always don't want the best for you as well. That's nothing personal. It's just that sometimes your peace is more important than anything else. You really need to focus on yourself.

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God is always there. Even though I know people don't feel like I speak to them, like He's not speaking to me. He may not be speaking to you because it's probably like how you're operating. You need to change a friend. Maybe you need to change a situation. Give yourself hope in this time. Going through this time, it's change. You have to follow change. Not doing the same thing.

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As Americans, we do the same thing. We're so blessed as a country. We're so blessed. We do the same things because it's easy to do. We get caught being stagnant. You don't want to get caught being stagnant because it's easy to be like that when you're blessed. It's like we can go down the street and get food. These other countries don't have nearly what we have. They don't nearly have what we have. We need so much to accomplish, so much land here to do stuff in.

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I think we need to take the bull by the horns, grab on to God, step out and do different things, create differently. We ever have created and do things like that. I know things are going to be hard. I know things are not going to be easy. That's a fact. I don't want to be up here just talking and illustrating like, hey, you can do this, you can do that, because it's not easy. It's okay to take that. Sometimes taking those little steps turn into big steps. You don't always have to do everything big.

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Chris: That's what the show is called, Next Steps Forward.

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Julius: Yes, that's it.

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Chris: Julius, thank you so much for being with us today. I really appreciate your time and your message today. Thank you so much.

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Julius: Thank you, Chris. This was awesome. I appreciate you so much for this. Thank you.

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Chris: Likewise, sir. Thank you to our audience, which now includes people in over 50 countries, for joining us for another episode of Next Steps Forward. I'm Chris Meek. For more details on upcoming shows and guests, please follow me on Facebook at facebook.com/chrismeekpublicfigure, and on X, @ChrisMeek_USA. We'll be back next Tuesday, same time, same place, with another leader from the world of business, politics, public policy, sports, or entertainment. Until then, stay safe and keep taking your next steps forward.

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[music]

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Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in to Next Steps Forward. Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show next Tuesday at 10 AM Pacific Time and 1 PM Eastern Time on the VoiceAmerica Empowerment Channel. This week, make things happen in your life.

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[music]

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[00:54:47] [END OF AUDIO]