By my senior year of high school, I was making some really bad decisions. I started running around with the wrong crowd. I started experimenting with drugs and alcohol. When I turned 15 or 16 years old, everything that I'd been taught, everything I knew about who God was, the world kind of creeps into everything.
But like most kids, we’ve all got to find our way. I wouldn't have known that there was a God or anything to come back home to. Had it not been for their relationship with God and just serving as the example that they were to myself and to others, just the example for Christ that they were, I wouldn't be here and wouldn't have these opportunities. I hear people talk about it all the time, train your child up in the ways of the Lord. Honestly, I get to talk about it a lot, but I know I had it not been for that I wouldn't be here. My parents really planted that seed and that foundation in me at an early age in my life. We were in church every Sunday and every Wednesday. My dad led worship and my mom sang on the worship team with him. Yeah, I grew up in a very Christian home. You have an interesting story in that you were raised in the church amongst a warm and loving community but like so many young, inspired musicians you set out on a journey to become a rock star. I recently spoke to Williams about his road to deliverance, the pressure to keep recording hit songs, and how God can use anything to write your ‘rescue story.’ So much so, that his latest album Rescue Story serves as a reflection of where his life was 20 years ago to now. He hopes his story will speak to the hearts of those who are struggling to get through each day. Williams remembers those troubled days well. Through God’s abundant grace, He had found his true calling. Real and honest in his failings, Williams had a “come to Jesus” moment in 2012 that completely altered and shifted his life. Prior to the success of 2017 breakout hit “Chain Breaker”, the Grammy Award-winning artist spent the better part of two decades toiling in musical obscurity.
But he also knows how it feels to be rescued. Zach Williams knows what it’s like to fail.