{"id":440,"date":"2011-08-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-19T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/?p=440"},"modified":"2011-08-13T17:14:02","modified_gmt":"2011-08-13T21:14:02","slug":"a-conversation-with-lead-singer-of-the-almost-and-former-underoath-drummer-aaron-gillespie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-lead-singer-of-the-almost-and-former-underoath-drummer-aaron-gillespie.html","title":{"rendered":"A conversation with lead singer of The Almost and former Underoath drummer Aaron Gillespie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Aaron Gillespie is only 28 years old, but he\u2019s enjoyed the lengthy music career of a wily veteran. As the former drummer for Underoath, Gillespie played the globe and shared the stage with some of the hard rock scene\u2019s biggest acts. Now, as the lead singer of The Almost who moonlights as a solo worship artist, Gillespie is following a new path in hopes of leading even more people into a relationship with Christ.<\/p>\n

In this Whole Notes interview with Gillespie, he talks about memories from his days in Underoath, why he felt called to go a different direction, his expectations of fatherhood, and his hopes for today\u2019s youth generation:<\/p>\n

Chad Bonham: What were your reasons for leaving Underoath?<\/p>\n

Aaron Gillespie: We released a lot of stuff about it. I tried to clear it up as much as I could. But I think a lot of people have still have a lot of assumptions and there\u2019s a lot of hearsay out there. It just ended there. Jesus just really wanted me to do something else.<\/p>\n

Bonham: So it was just time for something different?<\/p>\n

Gillespie: That\u2019s it. I really felt called to a different type of ministry. Underoath does ministry, of course. But I felt called to a different kind of ministry and the Lord just wanted me in a different spot. It was a hard time for me. I was definitely being uprooted and pruned and replanted somewhere else and that growing process of getting used to new dirt in a new pot. For a plant, it\u2019s always a little bit of a shock. It was a little difficult at first, but God\u2019s been faithful and good. We\u2019ve seen people come to the Lord. It\u2019s been awesome.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What was one of the most memorable highlights you experienced as a member of Underoath?<\/p>\n

Gillespie: We played on all six continents and tons of people showed up singing the words and couldn\u2019t even tell you \u201cHello\u201d in English. I remember one night in Chile playing for 3,000 Chileans and they were singing louder than anything I\u2019d ever heard. I couldn\u2019t even hear the band. Nights like that were incredible.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Did you experience any culture shock going from sharing the stage with bands like Slipknot to playing on worship tours?<\/p>\n

Gillespie: You know, it\u2019s a much calmer environment. That\u2019s nice. I\u2019m getting older. I\u2019m only 28, but I\u2019ve been on the road since I was 15. I\u2019ve got an old skeleton. It\u2019s nice to slow down a little bit.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What\u2019s going on with your band The Almost?<\/p>\n

Gillespie: We\u2019re doing weekend fly outs right now and we\u2019re starting to work on a new record. We\u2019ll probably be going into the studio at the beginning of next year. We\u2019re not really touring right now, just trying to write new music.<\/p>\n

Bonham: When did you feel compelled to start producing worship music?<\/p>\n

Gillespie: I\u2019ve lead worship and played worship practically my whole life. I\u2019ve always wanted to do it, but the time had never presented itself until now.<\/p>\n

Bonham: You grew up in the church, so your immersion back into the Christian market wasn\u2019t a big surprise to you.<\/p>\n

Gillespie: I\u2019ve kind of just followed the Lord wherever He\u2019s put us. It\u2019s been a little bit of a ride, but it\u2019s been great. My whole life has been completely in submission to Him and completely in submission to wherever He wants me to go. Right now, that\u2019s here. It\u2019s been surprising, yes. But God never does anything according to what you want. It\u2019s never your will. It\u2019s His will.<\/p>\n

Bonham: When you were working on the solo worship record, what were some of the themes you felt coming out of your heart?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Aaron Gillespie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gillespie: I\u2019m just so grateful for my life and for seeing God\u2019s Spirit poured out on people. We focus so much on the negative in our world, which needs to be focused on, but at the same time the beginning of all things is worshipping God. The beginning of every deed, the beginning of every prayer should be adoration. I just really wanted to highlight that with this record.<\/p>\n

Bonham: As someone who is about to become a father for the first time, how much more does that cause you to reflect on your career and the changes you\u2019ve recently made?<\/p>\n

Gillespie: It\u2019s bizarre to think that God entrusts two humans with another human life\u2014like, completely. Who knows that the little guy can be? Who knows what type of man he\u2019ll be and how important his life will be? And it\u2019s my duty and my ministry to turn him into a person. That, to me, is heavy. That\u2019s a heavy responsibility. I\u2019m so thankful I get to spend a little more time at home and be a little more involved with him.<\/p>\n

Bonham: And then one day you can show him pictures of his daddy playing in front of thousands of crazy South Americans.<\/p>\n

Gillespie: Yeah, I\u2019ll be all fat and bald. \u201cHey look! I was cool.”<\/p>\n

Bonham: What biblical principles and precepts do you feel like God is speaking into your life right now?<\/p>\n

Gillespie: Just to be honest and to be real in public about my faith and about what God has done in my own life. That honesty is what people need to hear. You can get up behind a pulpit and yell at people all day, but if you show them Jesus, they\u2019ll meet Jesus. You read the stories in Acts about what the Apostles did. As I was reading in one passage the other day, they would just show up and one of them mentioned, \u201cHave you been baptized in the Spirit?\u201d and \u201cDo you follow Jesus?\u201d and people just began to weep and meet God. I think we\u2019ve got it all wrong in a lot of ways. We start introducing people to our agenda as opposed to introducing people to Christ. That\u2019s backwards.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What specifically do you feel that God wants to speak into this generation of young people?<\/p>\n

Gillespie:\u00a0 It\u2019s just time to be public. It\u2019s time to realize it\u2019s not about you. It\u2019s time to make Jesus famous. That\u2019s what it\u2019s always been about since the beginning and until the end it will always be about Christ. We need to begin to actually profess Him and make Him popular.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Despite all the negative things we hear about today\u2019s youth generation, are you hopeful that there is remnant that\u2019s rising up to do what you just described?<\/p>\n

Gillespie: Absolutely. Last night we saw 41 people give their lives to Jesus and we\u2019ve seen that all across the country. It\u2019s time for revival. It\u2019s time for the next thing.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What are your expectations for the upcoming tour with The City Harmonic and Jake Hamilton from Jesus Culture, among others?<\/p>\n

Gillespie: We just want to show up and move out of the way and let God work. That\u2019s what it\u2019s about. It\u2019s not about us. It\u2019s not about the night. It\u2019s not about lights and sound and the show. It\u2019s about Jesus and making Him known and getting out of the way and letting that happen. I think all three entities on that tour really grasp that.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Are you excited that you\u2019ve been grafted into a family of worship artists such as Jesus Culture and Hillsong United and the Passion movement that are not only abandoned for the sake of worship but also offer a lot of fresh creativity?<\/p>\n

Gillespie: It\u2019s awesome. It\u2019s time now. It\u2019s time to say yes. It\u2019s time like it\u2019s never been time before.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Are you challenged creatively in a different way than you were with Underoath?<\/p>\n

Gillespie: It\u2019s all the same really. I think people associate genre and music style with creativity, but it\u2019s all creativity regardless of what pipeline it comes down.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How have you enjoyed working with a stalwart of the worship movement like Paul Baloche?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Aaron Gillespie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gillespie: Paul Baloche is a good buddy of mine. He really took me under his wing. Paul Baloche is actually the other writer on \u201cWe Are Made For You\u201d and \u201cI Will Worship You.\u201d He sent me some versions that he\u2019s done of those songs. He calls them the old guy versions (laughs). They\u2019re slowed down, but they\u2019re awesome.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What do you want to see happen in the near future with your music career and ministry?<\/p>\n

Gillespie: I just want to make music that glorifies the Lord and continue to see revival happen all over the world and to see people meet Jesus. That\u2019s it. I can say that with fervor and with completeness. That\u2019s what I want to see happen. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to fight to see happen.<\/p>\n

Bonham: So how that plays out isn\u2019t an issue?<\/p>\n

Gillespie: No. I don\u2019t care. I don\u2019t care if I end up playing harp for Yanni. If people meet Jesus, I\u2019m in. I\u2019d be really bummed if I was playing for Yanni, but you know what I mean. God would have to work on me.<\/p>\n

Stay up-to-date on the latest from Aaron Gillespie by checking out his official website HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

You can also follow his band The Almost by visiting the official website HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

And for more details on the upcoming HELLOSOMEBODY tour with Gillespie and The City Harmonic, click HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aaron Gillespie is only 28 years old, but he\u2019s enjoyed the lengthy music career of a wily veteran. As the former drummer for Underoath, Gillespie played the globe and shared the stage with some of the hard rock scene\u2019s biggest acts. Now, as the lead singer of The Almost who moonlights as a solo worship…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,70,120,337],"tags":[237,241,82,20,74,334,335,238,17,239,336],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-music","category-music-feature","category-qa","category-tour-news","tag-aaron-gillespie","tag-hellosomebody","tag-hillsong-united","tag-jake-hamilton","tag-jesus-culture","tag-paul-baloche","tag-slipknot","tag-the-almost","tag-the-city-harmonic","tag-underoath","tag-yanni"],"yoast_head":"\nA conversation with lead singer of The Almost and former Underoath drummer Aaron Gillespie - Whole Notes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2011\/08\/a-conversation-with-lead-singer-of-the-almost-and-former-underoath-drummer-aaron-gillespie.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A conversation with lead singer of The Almost and former Underoath drummer Aaron Gillespie - Whole Notes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Aaron Gillespie is only 28 years old, but he\u2019s enjoyed the lengthy music career of a wily veteran. 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Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":451,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions\/451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}