“I had been selfish to want to take time or energy to communicate things that I was hurt by other people, and I was holding it against them,” Hammitt confesses. “That’s when I realized, ‘I don’t want to be alone at the end of all this.’”
Mind you, this is the same man who sang “I’m not alright/I’m broken inside” on
The Face of Love’s achingly honest first single. But the dissimilarities between that album and
We Need Each Other are like night and day. The disc finds the group performing soaring, larger-than-life pop/rock of the highest order, coupled with a message of unity, interdependence and understanding among believers.
The message is nothing new in faith-based music, but for Hammitt it became a new revelation, especially in the months leading up to the recording of the album. The short of it: he had a serious beef with someone in his inner circle, and he couldn’t muster up the courage to confront the person. Once he finally did and things got resolved, he wrote the album’s title track. Even so, words fail as he tries to relate the experience.
“There are a couple of people in particular that I work with…” Hammitt’s voice trails off. “When you’re on the road…” Once again, he leaves the thought unfinished. “It’s hard for me to say, because I don’t even know if the person knows that I wrote the song while thinking of them.”
In fact, when asked about whom he forgave or the particulars of his conflict, Hammitt measures his words carefully. He’s reluctant to delve into specifics or to name names—apparently the flurry of emotions tied to the whole situation is too painful to recount.
Regardless, he proceeds the best way he can: “There were certain things that hurt my feelings, certain things that made me upset—that were said or done—that were never resolved, never talked about,” Hammitt says, now with more resolve in his tone. “It really got to the point where it made me sick to my stomach sometimes when I was around certain people. I didn’t want to deal with them. I didn’t want to accept the fact that I had bitterness going on in my heart.”
Hammitt was not alright. Broken inside, he nurtured those feelings “for months, maybe about a year.” It got to the point where Hammitt felt so powerless, he broke down: “I remember just weeping, feeling like a failure, just laying there, not knowing what to do because I had harbored [those feelings] for so long. I remember at that point realizing, ‘My gosh, you’re way too far.’”
The demon of discord haunted him for so long, Hammitt says it’s only God’s unmerited favor that helped him maintain his composure as he toured, met fans and ministered day after day. “I don’t know how I kept my sanity. You just have to pray for grace. God has a way of using people who are broken. This is crazy, but sometimes I think God used me in very unique ways when I have been broken.”