Mark Wills Held Christian Music Too Sacred to Touch… Until Now

Thirty years into a country music career filled with hits, tours and a place in the Grand Ole Opry family, Mark Wills has made a record that he had to grow into.

His new Gaither Music Group release, Grand Ole Revival, brings together the hymns and gospel songs that helped shape him with an all-star collection of friends including Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, Travis Tritt, Ricky Skaggs, Rhonda Vincent, Cody Johnson and more.

But when Wills sat down with CCM Magazine, he admitted there was a time when he didn’t think making a gospel record was something he should do at all.

“I’ve always held gospel music up here,” Wills told CCM. “I come from the country music world where you would, you know, where I feel like you drink all night long, you play in the bars, you know, and all that kind of stuff.”

Wills quickly points out that he was never much of a drinker himself, but the feeling remained. Gospel music was something sacred, and he wasn’t sure he belonged in that space.

That changed during a trip to Gatlinburg.

Wills and his wife happened upon one of Bill Gaither’s events while they were in town. After connecting with friends, Wills found himself invited over onstage. Bill Gaither asked him to sing, and Wills chose one of his signature songs, “Don’t Laugh at Me.”

Then something happened.

With dozens of some of the finest gospel singers in the world sitting around him, harmonies began appearing behind Wills’ voice.

“They started singing with me,” Wills recalled, visibly emotional even retelling the story. “It’s the first time I’ve relived that since it happened. It was emotional. It was very emotional for me.”

His response afterward was simple.

“I came back to Ben and I said, ‘I get it. I want to do it.’”

Watch the full CCM Magazine conversation with Mark Wills in the video above.

In some ways, though, Wills’ connection to Christian music goes back much further.

In perhaps the most CCM-perfect piece of trivia imaginable, Wills revealed that his first public performance outside that setting came in junior high, singing harmony on Michael W. Smith’s “Friends” at a beauty pageant.

“That was the time that it really clicked,” Wills said. “And I went, ‘Yeah, man, this is it.’”

That history comes full circle on Grand Ole Revival, which was recorded in a particularly fitting place: the Grand Ole Opry stage.

Wills and the team cleared the stage and essentially transformed it into an old-school recording studio, approaching the sessions more like records were made in the 1950s and ’60s. Songs were performed from beginning to end, capturing the energy — and imperfections — of a real performance.

That same Opry community also helps explain the remarkable guest list.

Wills and I talked about growing up around Opry figures like Porter Wagoner, Little Jimmy Dickens and Jeannie Seely, and realizing that his generation now carries some of that same responsibility.

“When you shoulder that responsibility as a member,” he said, “you are shouldering that responsibility for your generation and for the future generations that are coming up.”

That sense of history is all over Grand Ole Revival, but so is something much more personal.

Wills admits he may not have been ready to make this album 20 years ago.

Now he is. And that may be exactly why it works.

Grand Ole Revival is available now through Gaither Music Group. Read CCM Magazine’s original review of the album here, then watch our complete conversation with Mark Wills for the stories behind the songs, the guests and the unlikely moment that finally convinced him it was time to make a gospel record.

19 Somethin’ Years Later, Mark Wills Takes Country Back to Church