I don't ever remember a time and I credit my mother for this more than any great thing

she ever passed on to me or gave to me. She taught me to pray and know Jesus

Christ when I was a when I was little. So I had that in my heart from a very, very early age and and

carried me that it was still carried me through my entire life.

Welcome to the Jesus Calling podcast. Today we visit with country hitmaker Colin Ray.

Colin took the country music world by storm in the 90s and has accumulated 24 top 10 records,

16 number one hits, and was nominated as male vocalist of the year 10 times.

Colin recounts how he got his start in music and how early on

faith in God was a thread that wove through his entire life. I was born in a

very small town in southwest Arkansas called De Queen and then when I was very very young we moved 50 miles south to Texarkana which is a much bigger town right on the Texas Arkansas border and that's where I grew up and

over my dad was restless at times and we would move here and there once that we actually moved out to

Oregon for about four years during my childhood and I love that it was real difference you know and then we

moved back home again but primarily Texarkana was was my home and now it's a thriving small city.

At the time there wasn't a lot going on.

It was pretty quiet and as a teenager it got boring like you know it's one of those places you couldn't wait to get out of you know

We didn't have much money you know and so I didn't ever really thought college was going to be an option you know

But it was good in the sense that it made me hone in on music because that was the one thing that was my sort of escape.

My brother was a guitar player from time he was six years old.

He was just a prodigy. So my mom was a guitar player from time he was six years old. He was just a prodigy.

So my mom was a singer, so music was just sort of what we did. And so this promoter knew about

my mom and he became. They were like a little gospel juds in a way. They would go

seeing two-part harmony and stuff and all the churches around there. And this

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