Dennis Quaid is embracing his faith and going gospel. The actor recently released “Fallen: A Gospel Record for Sinners,” a collection of 12 songs that display his faith. The album combines original songs like “Please Don’t Give Up on Me,” “Fallen,” and others written by Quaid. However, it also has gospel standards like “I’ll Fly Away,” “Amazing Grace,” “Just As I Am,” and “The Lord’s Prayer.”
Ahead of the album’s release, Quaid has shared his rendition of Kris Kristofferson’s country and gospel hit, “Why Me,” which shows off his rugged vocals as he sings, “Tell me Lord/What ever did I do/That was worth loving You/Or the kindness You’ve shown.”
Quaid invites famous voices to join him, as gospel group The Isaacs and Jackson Brumley provide background harmonies on “I’ll Fly Away” and The Oak Ridge Boys on “Life’s Railway to Heaven.” This album isn’t the “Parent Trap” star’s first step into gospel territory, as the album includes his original song, “On My Way to Heaven,” which appeared in the 2018 film “I Can Only Imagine,” based on MercyMe’s hit song of the same name. In the movie, Quaid stars as Arthur Millard, the abusive father of MercyMe frontman Bart Millard.
According to a press release, “On My Way to Heaven” was inspired by Quaid’s struggle with addiction over the years. The press release states, “Quaid also vulnerably acknowledges these personal struggles and his subsequent return to Christianity on songs like the title track.” The Houston, Texas native’s last album, “Out of the Box,” was released in 2018. Quaid previously shared with American Songwriter, “I realized that I was never going to be someone who could shred on guitar. Music was something that I did alone after school. So, it was a pretty natural thing for me. It always has been.”
In an interview with People Magazine, Quaid shared what led him to release a gospel album, saying, “I grew up at the Baptist church. I love the hymns that come from there. Then I’ve written some songs that are very much in the faith category. I guess what really spurred it was ‘On My Way to Heaven,’ which I wrote for my mom when I got out of what I call cocaine school back in 1990 to let her know I was OK, because I wasn’t OK before then.”
The actor has been open about his struggle with cocaine addiction in the past. “I was basically doing cocaine pretty much on a daily basis during the ’80s,” he said on Megyn Kelly Today in 2018. “I spent many, many a night screaming at God to ‘Please take this away from me and I’ll never do it again, cause I’ve only got an hour before I have to be at work.’ Then at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, I’d go, ‘Oh it’s not so bad.'”
In 1990 , he decided to get help and went to rehab. “I remember going home and having a white light experience that I saw myself either dead or in jail or losing everything I had, and I didn’t want that,” he says. After his treatment, Quaid says he felt he needed “fill that hole” with “something that really works” after addiction. He turned to faith and spirituality by studying the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita and the Quran and found that he was “struck” by the words.
The album, which he wrote a couple years ago, is about “looking around, trying to fill that hole in life with everything that the world has to offer.” The actor hopes fans like the music for what it is and they “see themselves” when listening to it. Quaid’s album recently debuted at number one on Top Christian/Gospel Albums chart and landed in the Top 15 on Billboard’s Top 200 Christian/Gospel chart. The album also ranked number one on Amazon’s Best Sellers in CDs & Vinyl, Hot New Releases in Christian & Gospel and Best Sellers in Country charts.