Singer Songwriter Bonnie Keen: shares her faith journey

In this powerful episode of Amazing Greats, singer-songwriter, author, and original First Call member Bonnie Keen joins us for a raw and hope-soaked conversation about her extraordinary journey. For those who may not know, First Call was one of the most iconic vocal groups in Contemporary Christian Music during the ’80s and ’90s. They were known for their tight harmonies, innovative arrangements, and a sound that helped define an era.

The Highs and Lows of a Remarkable Career

Bonnie pulls back the curtain on the highs of that celebrated career alongside the deep valleys of divorce, single motherhood, identity loss, and a years-long battle with depression. This struggle left her questioning everything she thought she knew. With honesty, humor, and a faith forged in the fire, she shares how God met her in the darkest places and slowly rebuilt her life, her confidence, and her calling.

You’ll hear the untold stories behind her time with First Call. Bonnie discusses the life-changing moments that reshaped her spiritual walk. She reveals the unexpected ways God used pain to strengthen her voice and her ministry.

Finding Strength in Adversity

Bonnie’s journey is a testament to resilience. She faced numerous challenges, yet she emerged stronger. Her story reminds us that even in our darkest moments, there is hope. Bonnie’s faith played a crucial role in her recovery. She emphasizes the importance of leaning on God during tough times.

Through her experiences, Bonnie learned that pain can lead to growth. She encourages listeners to embrace their struggles. They can be transformative if we allow them to be.

The Impact of Music and Ministry

Music has always been a significant part of Bonnie's life. It served as both a refuge and a platform for her ministry. She discusses how her songs reflect her journey. Each lyric carries a piece of her story, resonating with those who listen.

Bonnie believes that music can heal. It connects people and fosters understanding. Her passion for music is evident in her work. She continues to inspire others through her songs and her story.

A Message of Hope

Whether you’ve followed Bonnie’s work for decades or are discovering her for the first time, this conversation will leave you inspired, encouraged, and deeply moved. It’s a reminder that God does some of His most amazing work in the rubble — and Bonnie Keen is living proof of that.

In her own words, Bonnie shares, "God has a way of turning our mess into a message." This powerful statement encapsulates her journey. It serves as a beacon of hope for anyone facing difficulties.

Embracing Change and Growth

Change is a constant in life. Bonnie's journey illustrates how embracing change can lead to personal growth. She reflects on her experiences and how they shaped her. Each challenge brought new lessons and opportunities for transformation.

Bonnie encourages everyone to view change as a chance to evolve. It can be daunting, but it often leads to unexpected blessings. By trusting in God, we can navigate through life's transitions with grace.

The Role of Community

Community plays a vital role in Bonnie's life and ministry. She emphasizes the importance of surrounding oneself with supportive people. Friends and family can provide strength during tough times. They remind us that we are not alone in our struggles.

Bonnie shares stories of how her community rallied around her during her darkest days. Their love and support were instrumental in her healing process. She encourages listeners to seek out and nurture their own communities.

The Healing Power of Sharing

Sharing our stories can be incredibly healing. Bonnie believes that vulnerability fosters connection. When we open up about our struggles, we invite others to do the same. This creates a safe space for healing and growth.

Bonnie's willingness to share her journey has touched many lives. Her honesty resonates with those who have faced similar challenges. By sharing her story, she inspires others to find their voices.

Listen right here, Right now!

Watch right here, Right now!

Conclusion: A Legacy of Hope

Bonnie Keen's story is one of hope, resilience, and faith. Her journey reminds us that we can overcome even the most challenging circumstances. By embracing our struggles and sharing our stories, we can inspire others.

As we listen to Bonnie's music and reflect on her journey, we are reminded of the power of faith. It can guide us through life's storms and lead us to brighter days. Bonnie's legacy is one of hope, encouraging us all to trust in God's plan for our lives.

Episode transcript: Amazing Greats with Ric Hansen

The Music That Saved Her: Bonnie Keen on Abuse, Loss, Grace and Finding Her Voice Again

Guest: Bonnie Keen — Recording Artist, Singer, Songwriter, Author, Podcaster and Mentor

A Nashville Girl Who Didn't Plan on Nashville

Ric Hansen:We have today a new friend of mine, Bonnie Keen, who is a recording artist, a singer, a songwriter, a podcaster, an author, a mentor. Is there anything I'm missing along the lines of your title?

Bonnie Keen:Grandmother. A grandmother.

Ric Hansen:There you go. Yes.

And so we had the pleasure of talking to you just a month after the launch of your new album—a self-titled album, your only self-titled album, right?

Bonnie Keen:Yes, correct. Yes. This is my fourth solo project, and it's just called Bonnie Keen. Easy to find.

Ric Hansen:Exactly. And I had a chance to spot-check a few things off the album because I scoped you out on YouTube here and there, and it just sounds fabulous.

So let's start from the beginning, Bonnie Keen.

First of all, you're a Nashville native. And so is it actually incumbent on a Nashville native to be a singer right from the get-go?

Bonnie Keen:Is that what it kind of seems like it should be? But no.

Of course, country music is huge here, and I was never a country vocalist. But I definitely grew up with a ton of musical influences in my life—classical music, rock, pop, musical theater. All of that is my background.

I've come to really appreciate more about country over time, but a lot of people move here to get into the business, so it's kind of wild.

When Music Became a Lifeline

Ric Hansen:Absolutely.

So tell me about the origin story. When did you first kind of realize, "Hey, I like singing, and I'm not pretty good at it"?

Bonnie Keen:You know, Ric, I was thinking about this this morning because I was with Babbie Mason yesterday, which I'm sure your viewers would love to know more about her.

We were talking about the history of how we ended up where we are.

For me personally, as a very young child, I grew up in a very abusive home environment. I haven't often spoken about it, but I feel like I really must just include it because of God's great mercy in it.

I was physically abused quite a bit and verbally abused, and I was scared to death of everything.

But in the middle of a lot of that fear, when I was four or five years old, God really used music to just speak to me that He was there.

I don't know if that makes sense, but I started playing piano by ear when I was very young. I would hear a melody and kind of pluck it out.

I studied classical music for 13 years as a pianist, which really has helped me in a lot of ways.

And I grew up in a very, very rigid, graceless church environment. But I loved hymns, and the hymns that I learned—the theology in the hymns—has stayed with me. So I'm very grateful.

But I think God—and I really feel like God saved me in many ways—first of all, as a very young child through music.

He let me know there was something very beautiful, that there was a love that was greater than what I was experiencing around me that was abusive.

And in many ways, He saved my life.

So I started this journey of learning music and started to write when I was eight or nine years old—you know, those silly little songs you write—and changed my name to Julie Rose. I wanted to be somebody else.

I have a publishing company now called Julie Rose Music after that little person.

Ric Hansen:Really?

Bonnie Keen:Really.

And then when I was in middle school—or really elementary to middle school—I started doing some local theater and really fell in love with musical theater, Sondheim and a lot of what I was hearing there.

And at the same time, I was loving Steppenwolf and the Eagles.

So it was this mishmash of music.

I didn't really ever study voice. I took a little bit of voice in high school, just a little. I think I've studied enough to know how to not hurt my voice and how to keep it healthy.

It's funny now because I do some adjunct work at Lipscomb University as a vocal coach, which is funny because I don't have a degree.

But I have a life degree, I think.

I began to really love being a vocal performer in high school and college, I guess around that age.

I went on the road with a bunch of Top 40 bands. I played in clubs every night—smoke-filled clubs, five hours a night—which is crazy because I was this very faithful little Christian girl up there singing all these crazy songs.

God just took care of me through all that, but He kept pouring more love for music into me.

And then when I was very young in the business, I was just starting to do some dates around town.

My next-door neighbor ended up being one of Amy Grant's managers, Mike Blanton.

Mike knew that I was a vocalist, and he called me one day.

He said, "We're gonna take this girl named Amy on the road and we're gonna put a backup group with her in a band. Would you wanna go?"

I had never heard of Amy Grant. I had never heard of any Christian music other than hymns.

So I said, "Great. That sounds like great work."

Even then, God—I didn't have a clue what I was gonna be doing or where God was gonna take me.

But I was on the road with Amy and then Russ Taff, when he left the Imperials. He's like my brother, and I was out with him for two years, two and a half years.

And then First Call kind of started doing studio work.

So it was literally just—it's been a lifeline.

I'll just put it that way.

Music has been a lifeline and completely the grace of God.

Breaking Free

Ric Hansen:So at what time did you break away from this abusive situation?

Bonnie Keen:When I was around 17, I really—you know, I was always reading the Bible, and I began to realize that what I was being told was not what the Bible was telling me.

It was not the truth of the Word.

And I began to be freed up to realize the breadth and the height and the depth of God's love—and not to diminish His holiness.

I'm not a deconstructor in any way of the Word of God.

I feel like Jesus said, "I am the Word." John 1:1 is one of my favorite verses.

He is the Word.

If we start taking it apart, we take Him apart.

But the truth and the beauty of the Word sort of saving me—I started journaling about it when I was 18, 19.

And then under a lot of great pastors here in Nashville that taught biblical truth and the grace of God together, I was in my late teens, early twenties when I never looked back at that again, really.

I feel like I was delivered from it.

Ric Hansen:Really? Isn't that amazing? There's a gift from God right there.

Bonnie Keen:Well, and I was taught that to sing about your faith on a platform was sin. And to sing with an instrument was sin.

I was taught that anything in that genre, and especially theater, was bad.

So the irony that God took me out of that environment and poured into me this love of music and this love of Him that gave me an entire body of work for my whole life, honoring Him—it's just the greatest thing.

It just blows my mind.

First Call and the Beginning of a Ministry

Ric Hansen:It blows my mind. That is incredible.

So the start of your musical career, making a living at it, was in session work.

For our audience, session work really means you get a phone call, somebody's recording something, and they want backup vocals.

Explain what a session artist does.

Bonnie Keen:Yeah, I didn't know anything about it either.

You definitely are in a very small sector of people that are called professionally to sing for a living, and that's the gift of it as well.

But you have to be able to read music very fast or to do a number system with chord charts.

What a producer does is he calls in the people—his first-call guitar player, his first-call string players, his first-call drummer, and the first-call vocalists.

"This is the sound I want. These are the people I want."

They call you in.

Many times there's no chart at all. They just play the song down and they say, "What do you hear?"

You make it up in the moment.

You've got to be really fast and have a good blend.

And if you're called in for charts that are written, you've got to be able to read them pretty fast right there in the moment and do it.

So right away you have to be pretty quick on your feet and vocally agile.

I'm pretty schizophrenic, that's how I would call it, vocally.

I can do the high soprano, you know, legit stuff. I can do the rock stuff. I've got a little bit of all kinds of sounds.

Mel Tunney, an alto that I adore who was in First Call, and Marty McCall, this brilliant tenor who was in Fireworks and First Call, we would begin to be hired for the same sessions.

And then pretty soon the three of us were hired because we had this unique sound together.

So we sat down and said, "Let's just market all of our contacts and call ourselves First Call and make up some business cards and try to see how much work we can get together."

And of course, we ended up being called every day.

We were in the studio every day, working and singing backup on country artists' albums.

And then, you know, Sandy Patty, Steve Green, Larnelle Harris, Wayne Watson, Michael W. Smith—all these people were calling us.

And it was wonderful.

All three of us had decided we didn't want to be on the road. We would just stay in Nashville.

We had very young children.

And then Sandy asked us to go on the road with her on this massive tour she did in 1986 and 1987.

Ric Hansen:Sandy who?

Bonnie Keen:Sandy Patty.

Ric Hansen:Yep, yep.

Bonnie Keen:Yes. Greatest vocalist.

And we began to get record offers.

We recorded a project called Evening in December, which was an all-a cappella Christmas project. We had recorded that for Word, just as a studio group.

And it still blows me away. That was 40 years ago, and we're still having people discover that project.

What a gift that was.

And so we began to look at each other and say, "What is happening here?"

Because we did not anticipate having a ministry together.

Again, only God can do something like that—putting us together, knitting our hearts together.

We love Jesus. We knew that together, we had that commonality.

But we began a 14-album, 25-year ministry from there on.

And the whole thing is just—I look back and just go, "This has just been an incredible gift, gift after gift."

Great producers, arrangers, writing—it's just been awesome.

When Everything Fell Apart

Ric Hansen:Well, you're listening to Amazing Greats, where real stories of faith come alive with recording artist Bonnie Keen.

And then career-wise, there was a moment when things took a dip because there was a scandal that took place.

Can you walk us through that? This was with the three of you, right?

Bonnie Keen:Yes.

Mel Tunney, the original alto, left the group to do some work with her husband about four or five albums into our career.

And then when she left, we hired another alto, a magnificent singer, and we began to do some more tours.

It was on one of those tours with a very major male Christian artist who is huge, huge, huge in the industry that they had an affair that started on the road.

It broke nationally.

The news broke about it, they split up their marriages, and we lost our record contract overnight.

I will preface this by saying, too, that Michael English was the artist that she had the affair with, and Meribeth—we are still very good friends.

We love each other. We've got lots of peace between us now.

But at the time it took Marty and me—we were just like, "What is happening here?"

It took the wind out of us.

We had already been signed to another record contract as a trio. We lost that contract.

We had record labels say, "We don't know who they are," and they had just made pictures with us.

It was a painful time.

But then again, I have to say, looking at what God did with it, Marty McCall and I recorded another Christmas project with Warner Alliance, who signed us as a duo.

Many people may not know about it because it hasn't been available online, and it's just become available on all streaming platforms in the last year.

So if you haven't heard Beyond December, check that project out.

First Call started with this a cappella Christian project, and then the second incarnation of healing with us was another Christmas project.

We had guest artists on it—Amy Grant, Larnelle Harris, Russ Taff, Ashley Cleveland—and then we did a song with Mel, like an a cappella homage tribute to Evening in December.

And it was a healing, really, really special project.

But yeah, I mean, it really took the wind out of us.

It was a depressing time.

I went into a clinical depression during that time because I had gone through some divorce issues and single parenting.

Honestly, I hit wall after wall of loss in my life personally.

And when the group hit that kind of wall, I just took a nosedive.

Finding God in the Darkness

Ric Hansen:I mean, where was He headed with you?

We know that God is always good, but these seem not so good.

What good came out of it?

Bonnie Keen:My marriage had broken up over the same issues of infidelity, so it hit me really hard that it happened again in my ministry.

And then I felt like I think I was trying to do an awful lot of things on my own power.

"I'll power through it."

I have a very good pastor who walked me through this healing process after that.

I had a great therapist, counselor, a great pastor, a great circle of friends.

And I wrote a book called The Ladder Out of Depression, which is kind of my journey through that.

But I think you have to heal physically.

I wasn't eating. I couldn't sleep. My body was just depleted.

You know, it's like—is it Elijah who was in the cave, and the angel said, "You just need to eat something first"?

When he finally just said, "I don't want to live anymore," you need to eat something first and sleep.

There's a way our body has to get back to ground zero.

I took a little bit of medication to help my body rest and try to get some strength back.

And then I think what really God brought out of it for me was letting go of what I thought my life was gonna look like and just trusting Him with what was coming and just letting go of everything.

I wrote a song on my first solo project called The Day I Lay My Isaac Down.

It's really one of my favorite life songs because it's about just letting go.

Like Abraham laid his Isaac down—just trusting God with everything that you don't understand.

And truly, God had met me in all that darkness.

I couldn't believe that God was in the middle of the darkness with me.

That's been something I've never forgotten.

Thankfully, I've never gone to that depth again.

But I also have a great compassion for people who struggle with depression.

I mean, Jesus sweat drops of blood in Gethsemane. He understands our human condition.

Which really strengthened my faith all the way around moving forward.

So, yeah.

It was quite a dip there.

Another Loss, Another Season of Grace

Ric Hansen:You had how many children?

Bonnie Keen:I have two. I have a daughter and a son.

Ric Hansen:Okay. And they're grown now, I'm guessing?

Bonnie Keen:Yes, they are.

Ric Hansen:And you have grandkids.

Bonnie Keen:Yes. I have two- and four-year-olds.

Ric Hansen:Did you ever remarry or no?

Bonnie Keen:I did.

And I don't want to really—I hope I'm not being depressing here—but I went through another divorce in 2020.

It gives me no pleasure to have to say that to anybody.

I hate divorce.

But once again, it was inevitable, and I don't think I could have stayed in that situation.

I was physically dying.

A group of friends of mine that have known me for 35-plus years came in around me and they said, "You need to get out of this."

And once again, I felt like such a failure.

But God has met me in this in a whole new way again.

I know God hates divorce. I hate divorce.

But sometimes it is inevitable for some people to be able to stay in a very abusive situation.

And I think, too, that ties into when I first started talking to you.

When you grow up with an abusive parent who is daily abusing you and then daily saying, "I love you"—I grew up with those messages.

"I will punish and hurt and beat you, but I also love you."

So I think I married somebody that did that, and it felt normal until I couldn't do it anymore.

It's been almost five years.

And I was also given the message, "You'll never be effective in ministry again after this. Don't ever raise your head up again."

So this new album is a real gift from God to me.

Larry Hall, my producer, has been another healing place for me to work with.

He and his wife Susan came to me about doing this project.

And I've got to say, I just feel like God has filled my cup to overflowing to give me this season again.

Turning Pain Into Ministry

Ric Hansen:And you've taken these hard times and used them for good in your mentoring and in your speaking and in your writing of books.

So that's a way that you have given back based on the lessons you've learned, right?

Tell me how many books you've authored.

Bonnie Keen:I've authored three books by myself.

And then I have a podcast called Women Who Dare to Believe that's about the women of the Bible.

I've co-written a two-semester Bible study with the other woman that I do this podcast with, Nan Gurley.

So that's like five.

And I'm working on putting together a very small book about each song in my new album that just tells you where it came from because I wrote most of it, what the Scripture references are, and what God gave me in the songs.

So I'm looking at doing that too.

I just love writing. It's very therapeutic for me.

It's hard. I'm not an easy writer.

I labor over it, but I enjoy it.

The Early Days of Contemporary Christian Music

Ric Hansen:Let's jump back just a quick second.

You were kind of in this era where contemporary Christian music was just starting to blossom.

Today there are radio stations across the country. There's K-LOVE, concert tours. It is big and spreading.

But you were there at the beginning.

Who were some of your contemporaries, and what did that look like back then?

Bonnie Keen:You know, we often, when we see each other—the artists from that time and the musicians—we just marvel at what a renaissance it was.

We were all discovering the fact that we could write about our faith in our own voice and our own musical voice and our own genre.

We could just explore how to verbalize the Gospel in those times in a different way.

Of course, I was out with Amy Grant.

I was around Michael W. Smith and Wayne Watson and Steve Green and these men of great gravitas as theologians themselves, like Larnelle Harris.

Russ Taff has been through hell and back in his life and credits Christ with delivering him.

We were all on the road together, and we were all just listening to each other's music.

Take 6 had come out right after First Call. We were just blown away by the creativity and the talent.

Sandy—I mean, there's so many artists, I can't even think of all of them.

But it was before the PowerPoint phrase kind of thing started happening, where you didn't—you just kind of watched the screen and sang along with whoever was leading worship, which I think dumbed down some of the music a little bit.

I think it did for me anyway.

That shows you how old I am, maybe.

But I like the storytelling aspect of pop music and pop jazz and roots.

And I think it was just so wonderful to be able to work prolifically with not a lot of guardrails.

We would keep each other accountable lyrically and in what we were saying and all that, but it was an open field of exploration.

Rick Cua—what a wonderful man.

Kenny Marks and Found Free. Greg and Becca Sparks are amazing.

And we go to California and meet all these other people.

And there again, because I didn't have any history of knowing anything about Love Song or Chuck Girard or these wonderful people that I've discovered since, it was all so new to me.

I will always be really grateful that we were in the era when it was a little bit smaller, maybe.

We played arenas with Sandy and some of those things, but it was quite a creative pool of people always pinging off each other.

Music That Speaks a Language People Understand

Ric Hansen:Stay with us. Bonnie Keen's story is just getting powerful.

In my history, I was kind of wandering around without much spirituality going on back in those days.

I was a rock-and-roll radio DJ.

It was fun and crazy, and I loved the career.

In hindsight, I attribute all of that to God's grace for making that happen for me because every day going into the radio station and playing the hits was like a vacation.

It was just fun.

Bonnie Keen:Absolutely.

I'm going tonight to sing downtown.

I sing with a group of musicians who are all from that era. We do an Eagles-Henley cover band called the Eagle Maniacs, and we're all Christians.

Everybody on stage has worked together for years.

It's so much fun, but that music is just amazing.

So I'm gonna have a great love for all that music too.

Ric Hansen:And I have a great appreciation today for contemporary Christian music.

Back then—and that's why I like hearing your stories and stories from today—you know, when it all started, because I didn't know that day, but I know today.

I love—I attribute God's gift to me to the fact that I liked rock and roll. I liked music.

Music was a big part of my life, even though I'm not a musician.

So to hear artists like Phil Wickham and Chris Tomlin and Lauren Daigle and Wynonna Judd and all—it really, I think that's what brought me back to my faith.

Because I loved that I did hear those Gospel stories and so forth put into language that I loved.

It all blended and made sense to me.

Bonnie Keen:That's a great way to define it too—"in the language that you could relate to."

Ric Hansen:Yeah.

My Catholic background, it was all about people in robes singing hymns that I did not resonate with at all.

You know, it's like, "What's all this? What is this?"

I like the Beatles, and I want to hear Freddie and the Dreamers.

Bonnie Keen:Yeah.

I had a Sting cover on my new project that I did all the vocals on called If I Ever Lose My Faith.

I'm a big Sting fan.

I listen to all kinds of music.

Whatever's good music is good to hear, I think.

A New Album and a New Season

Ric Hansen:Are you anticipating or doing any on-the-road kind of stuff with the new album?

Bonnie Keen:Yes.

I'm talking with some booking agents right now.

I kind of stopped doing that for a while, and I think 2020 stopped everybody down for various reasons.

But I'm really excited.

I'm doing some local events right now, but I'm looking forward to sharing this as much as possible because I enjoy a live setting.

I like looking people in the face and feeling that energy.

It's really, really electric to me.

And that's what brings the music to life—when you're in a live setting and you see other people enjoying it and getting what you're talking about.

There's nothing like it.

Ric Hansen:God bless you for being able to continue a career that you love.

And like my radio career, your career is like, "This is me. This is what I love doing," right?

Bonnie Keen:Exactly.

I want to leave this world with my boots on, you know, doing what I do as long as the Lord allows me to.

The Joy of Being a Grandmother

Ric Hansen:So how's the family now?

Are your kids and grandkids living in town, or are they scattered?

Bonnie Keen:My daughter and her husband and children live here, which is great because I would have to move wherever they lived.

I can't stand to be away from my grandchildren for very long. I would just crave them.

Don't you have grandkids?

Ric Hansen:I do not yet. I just have a son who's getting married.

Bonnie Keen:Oh, you're about to find out.

I told my daughter, it's like my heart grew another chamber or something.

I have to get my hands on those little chunky kids.

But they live about 20 minutes away, so I'm very involved in their lives, which is great.

And then my son, I don't get to see as often.

He's an actor, singer, dancer. He's on the national tour of Spamalot right now.

And I think he's playing the Kennedy Center for three weeks in December.

So I only get to see him a couple of times a year, but we're very close, my kids and I.

We always have been.

Ric Hansen:And have they found a relationship with Jesus as well along the way?

Bonnie Keen:One has, and one is still struggling very hard.

So lots of prayer there.

Ric Hansen:Yeah, no kidding.

We can all pray for that for sure.

The Voices Bonnie Still Loves

Ric Hansen:After all of these years, who are some of the contemporary Christian artists you would say are some of your favorites right now?

Bonnie Keen:Like right now or over time?

Ric Hansen:Well, let's go with over time and right now.

Bonnie Keen:Over time, I would have to say Rich Mullins, who I was very honored to work with quite a bit.

He was unique in that he just lived this unique life of seeking God and asking questions.

And I loved his writing.

Whenever we were asked to sing backup for him in the studio, it was like I couldn't wait because I knew it would be a lot of conversation.

You'd go in the studio and he would just say, "Hey, come listen to this. I don't know if it's good or not."

You go sit at the piano bench and he's playing you this incredible song.

And he goes, "What do you think?"

And I'm like, "Oh my word."

And he goes, "I don't know what I think about this verse in the Bible."

He was always searching, seeking.

I remember losing him was very hard.

But I love introducing his music to younger people.

I'm always gonna love Russ Taff's music, and I get to sing with him quite a bit. I have some on his projects a lot.

Contemporary now, who I'm discovering—I love Brandon Lake's writing. I love his voice.

I think he's just this powerhouse.

I know he gets a lot of criticism, but I really resonate with his lyrics.

Ric Hansen:What does he get criticism about?

Bonnie Keen:I think, you know, his long hair or something.

And he does this great song with Jelly Roll, which I love, that some people have trouble with.

And I'm like, no.

I get being able to say, "Hallelujah through hell."

I get the grit it takes in your face.

He did something where they put rain on him or something, which I'm like, well, whatever.

If you've got a big arena show and they've got all the bells and whistles, they're gonna throw fire at you and they're gonna whatever.

But I think his music is really moving.

I love CeCe Winans.

She's been rock solid, strong as a believer, as a leader, as somebody that's inspired all of us to do the best we can from the first moment I met her in the '80s.

I absolutely respect and revere her work very, very much.

And I'm still discovering a lot of people that are new because there's so many out there.

Andrew Ripp—I really love his writing.

If people don't know him, you've got to look up Andrew Ripp.

What Bonnie Wants People in the Valley to Know

Ric Hansen:This is Amazing Greats with songwriter Bonnie Keen, celebrating the stories behind the voices that we love.

For those people who might be listening and are going through that valley—they're overwhelmed with what's going on in their lives.

Because you've been there, done that, you've talked about it, and you've written about it, what would you say to that person right now?

Bonnie Keen:I would say that you must remember that God is right there with you in the middle of what you feel like maybe He can't look at with you.

He's there.

And there's—I love the Amplified translation of the Bible because it has the Greek and the Hebrew meanings all kind of spelled out.

Isaiah 41:10, which I know a lot of people love, about God saying, "Don't be afraid," and His righteous right hand.

In the Amplified translation, this really came to life for me.

It says, "Do not be afraid to look around you in dismay, for I am with you. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties by my righteous right hand, and I will never leave you."

Now, I've never heard that before.

I read that, "to harden you to difficulties."

Because sometimes when you're in a horrible situation, you have to get some kind of strength in you that hardens you enough to stand up and walk through it.

And I feel like God said, "I'm going to harden you up to get through this valley in a way that you've never seen."

It's not going to make you hard-hearted, but it's going to harden you to difficulties because of me and my strength.

And that's something that I think people need to hear when they're in that kind of valley.

I wrote a song on my new project called God Will Love You, and I wrote it as a song for my grandkids because I wanted them to hear it their whole life.

Because it's one thing to say God's gonna love you as a child.

It's another thing to say God's gonna love you when the sun does rise, He's gonna smile into your eyes.

But it says:

"God will love you when the sky is gray.He will love you when a tear breaks through.He will listen and He will cry with you."

And I think we have a weeping Savior who understands, like I said before, depression and despair and brokenness and sin.

He understands everything we're going through, and He died to save us from it and through it.

So I pray that you will reach out to a few close people that know you, that love the Lord, and will hold you up and not be judgmental, but just hang with you in this pain and walk you through to the other side.

And you can do it in His strength.

Closing

Ric Hansen:You are such an inspiration, Bonnie.

Thank you so much for your time today.

I want to make sure that everybody knows about the album.

It is a self-titled album, so they just look for Bonnie Keen, K-E-E-N, and you can find some stuff online about it.

I'm sure it's available wherever you get your music.

And the podcast again—it's called Women Who Dare to Believe.

Bonnie Keen:Yes.

And I have a website too, which is BonnieKeen.com.

You can buy a CD there if you want it.

You can see where I'm going to be doing concerts or whatever, and keep in touch with me there.

Ric Hansen:And updates. It's going to be listening to outside of updates as well.

Bonnie Keen:Forget my trees. Forget my Christmas trees.

Ric Hansen:Yeah, Christmas trees are absolutely gorgeous.

It's kind of like a little bit more.

That's great. So cool.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your time, and thank you for what you're doing.

I'm excited for you and for your project.

Bonnie Keen:Thank you so much.

It's just been an honor to be with you.

I appreciate it.