In this episode, Bryce talks to Brandon Lake about his life story, career, mental health, and more!
Chapter 1: Who is Brandon Lake and what is his background?
I'm doing so good. Having a blast on the West Coast. Let's go. Let's go. And you're originally from the East Coast. Same here. East Coast. Yep. On the other side. Grew up in between Myrtle Beach and Charleston. Old Dirty Myrtle.
Yeah, that is what they call it over there.
That's what we called it, too. That's so great.
dude everyone like growing up myrtle beach um for half my childhood then we moved to charleston's where i'm now but um it's more the more classy uh part of the east coast but growing up in dirty myrtle everyone would go there on vacation yeah and i'm like why no i'm more of a florida guy grungy dude yeah but yeah everybody would everybody would come to myrtle beach and we would escape to the mountains it was like opposite everybody from the mountains came to us but i love charleston man charleston's a gem
charleston is a wet east coast gym yeah it is we're obsessed um yeah i say often like it would make a lot more sense if i lived in nashville i'd probably get a lot more work done um not that i need to be any busier uh but we just we can't leave charleston and now we have like deep roots we just bought a farm and um and we got a bunch of animals now so
Well, I love that. I mean, just from talking off camera, I mean, hearing about your kids, when you talk about your kids to farm, I love that you're a family man. I respect that a lot. And I think we need more... We need fathers, present fathers and present families. So I appreciate that you care about your family and it sounds like you steward it well.
So I appreciate that about you and everything you're doing. Thanks for coming on, man. I'm super honored to be here, dude. Um, I gotta, I just gotta, I gotta break the ice and ask what shampoo you use.
Okay. Everybody asked me this and, um, all right, I'm gonna probably scare some people off, but I have not shampooed my hair in probably 15 years.
Dude, there is no way.
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Chapter 2: What is Brandon Lake's unique hair care routine?
Yeah.
I like that.
Yeah.
I like that. How do you maintain it? Do you have a thing, a system?
No system. Literally, condition, get out of the shower, maybe put a little gel if I'm trying to be on Bryce's podcast.
Hey!
So it stays... A little more tame. But even when I do shows, I'll put gel in it. And the difference between my hair from song one to like song 13, like wrapping up the show, it literally goes from like this to like.
I want to see that.
yeah lions man i want to see it big yeah i like it i ain't got time for like getting into all the products and all that kind of stuff i have people trying to like get me into all these different products and i'm like i just don't have the time for it or i don't care that much yeah that makes it carry on easy at the airport because then you have to worry most people check the back because they got to bring their hair products and stuff and now you just most of those are over three ounces i think that's all you can take and yeah
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Chapter 3: How did Brandon Lake experience and overcome mental health struggles?
And then between that time, I had written songs with like some of my all time heroes, Matt Redman, Phil Wickham. And all this was pretty new to me getting introduced to like all of my heroes.
Yeah.
And so I'm on the craziest high. And back to back and then i go on this tour and it wasn't like you know my content like my my only context for leading has been local church i'm still a local church kid you know or man now i can't say that anymore um and just leading you know a few hundred to maybe most 1500 people in the room
And then I jump on this tour where every night it's like minimum 3000 people. And they're not just giving me the mic to sing a few songs. They're like telling me to go after healing and stuff, which the crazier story is healing broke out in my church right before this happened.
And my best friend, Micah, who's actually here hanging with me, who actually got me out of this crazy panic attack, which I'll tell you in a second, Micah was healed of like a five year like gut disease. And crazy, crazy, like over the phone, like a wild, wild, radical...
miracle yeah and so i see this happen and my church dude is like we have like charismatic roots but like through the whole seeker friendly movement i like to say uh we're like charismatic but like with the seat belt on really tight yeah yeah and so all of a sudden seat belt came off and and in a really beautiful and not like hype way or like trying to manipulate anything or like
we had this worship night and hundreds of documented healings took place. And, um, and so I jump on this tour and sorry, I'm talking a lot, but it's a long story. Okay. So I jump on this tour and then I start going after it. She's like, Jen's like, you got to like pray for people to get. And I'm like, I don't even know how to do that. Except I just watched this guy do it at my church.
Like, let me, uh, I'll just say what he said. And cause I have faith for it. I believe God wants to, he's the same yesterday, today and forever. If it happened, the Bible, it can happen today. I believe it. Miracle signs and wonders follow those who believe lay hands on the sick and they will recover. Okay.
Let's even when I don't feel like it or feel like it's going, I'm still going to align, you know, my posture with what the word says and what are going to go after it. And all of a sudden, dude, so many people were here healed on this tour. Wow. And saw a dude like who had a metal plate in his shin from an accident years ago.
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Chapter 4: What role does faith and community play in Brandon Lake's mental health journey?
is she like like them or like crazy and i had zero re i'm like crazy thoughts got so bad in two days so fast that i was even like i don't even want to be here anymore like dude it was it's embarrassing to say and that's why probably a lot of people don't talk about it because it felt so embarrassing that i didn't even want to admit to my wife that i was
wrestling with such immature thoughts but they felt so real I didn't even recognize who I was my mental state and so we're going to bed one night putting the kids to bed and I reached out and I texted Micah and my buddy Nate and I was like guys I don't know what's going on right now but I need help and I was too prideful to pick up the phone
which is actually literally the lyric in this song was Sons of Sunday. I was like, 3 a.m. God, I was too prideful to pick up that phone. 3 a.m. I know I needed help, but I didn't want anyone else to know I was losing it. But I texted the guys. Micah immediately calls me. I didn't answer. Cause I was like, I don't want to talk about it. I just need help.
And so then he sends me a voice memo of him praying over me. And like that scripture in the Bible, right? Where like, like David plays for Saul, who's got that evil spirit tormenting him.
Right.
And he plays and the spirit leaves.
Yeah.
Dude, that's like exactly what happened. He's praying over me. And all of a sudden it's like something broke. I broke. And I finally surrendered. And my wife, she looks over at me and she's like, babe, what's going on? Because I'm listening to that prayer. And she didn't know. And I just broke. And dude, she held me. I was like fetal position. And she just held me.
And I just finally really reached out to the Lord instead of trying to fight it myself.
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Chapter 5: How does Brandon Lake balance ministry, family, and personal well-being?
How do I, how do I, um, how do I honestly like fix this? And I was going to my wife. I became extremely needy. I needed sex every single day to feel. And she was like, at one point she was like, babe, I cannot fill what you are trying to fill.
Yeah.
Only God can do that. And I'm still learning a very elementary lesson that like, I've got to go to God for like everything. And, um, so it was a tough way of learning that, but I'm so grateful that I did. Um, And learning to also define or celebrate as much as writing with a hero or doing a tour.
I want to celebrate changing my kid's diaper as much and realize God looks at that and goes, man, I'm so proud you're being such a good dad right now. Being a present father, he's probably more proud of that than me getting up and singing for 10,000 people. Yeah.
Man, I'm so encouraged. I think you hit something spot on about mental health struggle that I think a lot of people don't really realize is it's the small believing the immature thoughts that lead to it. And you're saying that, and I'm like, you're telling me
how i think i'm a big over thinker and before i was a christian i was people pleaser to another level because i said man if i can get everyone in my school all these friends every sports team i was doing three different sports because i was trying to figure out who who was who and who was who was bryce but i was yeah i wasn't even bryce i was everybody else around me and i was different person and it was draining
And, and ultimately, you know, you know, my story outside of people pleasing and I had depression and anxiety for years crippling. And I was planning, I had the same thought of, I want to make an irrevocable decision with my life because I don't think I'm valuable.
And, uh, went to take my life one night when I was 17 and I had a supernatural encounter with Jesus inside of waffle house on a waffle house.
I've had some experiences in waffle house, but they weren't supernatural.
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Chapter 6: What is Bryce Crawford's personal experience with anxiety and healing?
as much as he does and more than me going out and ministering to people that I don't even have a very personal relationship with. And God's in that. And he's called me to do that, but he's called me first and foremost to my family. That's my first ministry.
And if I'm not taking care of that, and also he knows that like, there's a reason why I think he blessed my marriage with Brittany and her specifically, because he, He knows she has things, we're a unit, we're a team, and God uses my wife, uses community to keep me in line. I jokingly call her my second Holy Spirit, because she's just got crazy discernment. She knows when I'm off.
She knows the things I need to hear. She knows how to put me in my place. She also knows how to encourage me in the right way. but I've just had to stay grounded. It's been my family. It's been doing things that are opposite of like being on a stage.
Like there's a reason why we bought land and we moved outside of the city where I would come home from a trip and in the middle of the city, I'd feel so claustrophobic. Anywhere I went, people wanted to talk and, oh, how was this? And I was like, I love people.
Yeah.
But I hated coming home and feeling like I hate people.
Yeah.
I'm in the people business. Like that's what Jesus is all about people. And I don't want to. But there there's a reason why Jesus got away often.
Mm hmm.
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Chapter 7: How do Brandon and Bryce define and navigate ongoing mental health challenges?
A church has become so slick that I think people don't trust it anymore. Like give me the real thing. Hmm. You know, like who cares about perfect transitions? Like we're just a bunch of people coming together to like lift up the Lord, minister to him and then like love on each other.
Yeah.
And so, um, I'm going on a tangent, but no, I love it. Um, yeah, it's, it's, I have had to find people that are proud of me. but not impressed by me. So that they don't reinforce what everyone else is saying out there when they're putting glory on you. And they're not trying to. But when they're praising you, even for just doing a great job, you can take that home sometimes.
And I've had to learn how to quickly get that off of me, give it to the Lord. and, and, uh, and have people around me that are like, know how to say the right things, ask the right questions. They know, like my best friends know when I'm off, they can tell something's up. What lie are you believing? You know?
Um, and so, yeah, man, it's a lot of things, but ultimately the biggest lesson I learned, and this is so elementary, but it's been transformative. My counselor said, because I was trying to fill, um, I was trying to cure any kind of anxiety, depression, panic attack, insecurity with, again, good things. My wife, another opportunity to write, like cool things.
but I wasn't filling it with God, time with God. And I had to learn to go to God first and go to God most. And anytime I do that, I feel like I stay in the right state of mind, you know? And I'm trying to still learn how to be transformed by the renewing of my mind and give God, because sometimes I won't let him in and he's like, okay, well, I'm not going to, you know?
But when I let him in, he's like continually transforming my mind and helping heal that, you know?
Yeah. I feel like you're just speaking my language, man. I mean, this is something that I've been trying to learn or that I have been learning. So I went through this like six to eight month time period of... Busy. Good busy. I mean, you know, you were just talking about earlier, you know, good busy.
It's not that things are bad, but I love John Mark Homer has a book called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. And he says, if the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy. Keep you distracted. And I was just busy, busy, busy with good things. And I felt like I couldn't feel God. Yeah.
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Chapter 8: What practical advice do Brandon Lake and Bryce Crawford offer for mental health and faith?
Yeah.
And, uh,
And I come home from this tour, and we just had a real, no, actually, I was in Hawaii, and I was hanging out with this pastor, and he said, it was like hearing from the voice, just directly from the Lord, and he told me what I needed to hear, and I came home, and I was like, I need to apologize, and I apologized to my wife, and I was like, I've not been really hearing what you've been saying, and she was like, I think we need to,
be off for like eight months until the next summer tour. I said no to a spring tour that they'd already had kind of working out everything. And it's not like I make 10 bucks off of a tour. It's like, this is how I provide for my family too. And so I said no to... you know, basically years work like in. And so I was like, man, this is really tough. And things were popping off for me.
And so I'm like, how at the height of my career so far would I why would I take eight months off? Yeah, I was like, all right. So I met with my manager. We're taking eight months off. I, you know, want to be obedient. And then, dude, like I've been home so much, but yet because we were obedient and obedience brings blessing. um, the, so many doors have opened up for me.
And what's really cool is right in this time of taking, I got to go hang out with John Maxwell.
Shout out.
Oh, I mean, amazing. Author, leader, just amazing man of God. And he gave me like my new mission statement for this season, probably the rest of my life. And he looked at me and he said, Brandon, um, And I wouldn't have had that opportunity had I not slowed down. And I got to have dinner with him and he was like, Brandon, stay in the church, but never stop moving towards the lost.
And that struck me to like my core. And right after, like around this same season, I have this song with Jelly Roll and then I'm getting invited to do American Idol and I'm getting invited to do Jimmy Kimmel and I'm getting invited to do all these crazy things that I wouldn't have had
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