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June 23, 2025 22 mins

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Tarrence Phillips captivates listeners with his remarkable journey from forklift operator to rising Christian country star in this genuine, faith-filled conversation. After singing since age three and exploring various musical genres, Phillips reveals how returning to his first love—country music—with a Christian perspective became his life's calling and ministry.

The South Carolina native shares the pivotal moment when a shelved song called "Thank You" unexpectedly launched his career after a friend encouraged him to release it. Within weeks, the song climbed into the Top 10, eventually leading to his signing with LBM Records, a Christian label specifically seeking a country artist. Phillips speaks warmly about serving as a praise and worship leader at New Hope Baptist Church for 24 years while balancing his growing music career with family responsibilities.

What stands out most is Phillips' authentic approach to blending musical influences spanning from Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson to Randy Travis and Charlie Pride. He discusses his recent releases including "Thank You," "My Everything," and "Trouble"—songs that convey messages of gratitude, devotion, and perseverance through faith. With refreshing humility, Phillips previews his upcoming love ballad "Song is About You," dedicated to the wife he met at church, while emphasizing his mission to share Christ's love through country music. His parting wisdom that "trouble doesn't last always" resonates as powerfully as his music, making this episode both uplifting and deeply inspiring for anyone navigating their own path of purpose.

Subscribe to hear more conversations with passionate dreamers and creators, and visit tarrencephillipsmusic.com to discover Terrence's music on all major streaming platforms.

Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with
Curveball, if you believe youcan achieve.
Welcome to the Living the Dreamwith Curveball Podcast, a show

(00:20):
where I interview guests thatteach, motivate and inspire.
Today, I am joined byup-and-coming country Christian
artist, terrence Phillips, sowe're going to be talking to him
about his career and everythingthat he's up to Shout out to
Caden Gordon and the CadenGordon Show for sending me all

(00:41):
these wonderful singers.
So, terrence, thank you so muchfor joining me today.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Man.
Thank you, sir, for allowing meto be a part of your show man,
I am truly excited boy, oh metoo.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Why don't you start off by telling everybody a
little bit about yourself?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, my name is Terrence Phillips and I am from
Duncan, south Carolina, where Ihave been here for probably
about 22, 24 years.
I grew up here, so I'm just nowreturning back.
My parents were military, sothey've already retired and

(01:24):
everything, and I wanted to comeback where all my relatives
pretty much are, and I've gottenmarried, have two kids, have
three grandkids let's see.
I work at a paper company as aforklift operator, for the

(01:48):
moment anyway, and then, ofcourse, I am a part of a church
ministry.
I'm one of the praise andworship leaders there, and then,
of course, on the side, I dowhat I do now, which is
Christian country music, and Ijust got back from the studio a

(02:09):
little while ago.
And then, of course, now I'mhere talking with you.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
All right.
Well, do you want to tell thelisteners about the church
ministry that you're a part of?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
want to tell the listeners about the church
ministry that you're a part of.
Yeah, the name of the churchthat I am a part of is called
New Hope Baptist Church, andI've been there serving under
the leadership of Bishop AlnielBruton for about 24 years.
I've been a part of hisministry as a praise and worship
leader for about the sameamount of time.

(02:48):
I lead worship every now andagain for them.
I'm also an ordained elder ofthe church there and I go out
and minister to people, givethem the word, as well as

(03:08):
through my music, I minister aswell.
I am currently I've justrecently signed with LBM Records
, and so so far, I've just beenamazed by their pushing me to do

(03:30):
what I've always loved to doand encouraged me to keep going
forward in music, thankful thatthey are a Christian label and
they had actually been lookingfor a country artist, and I

(03:59):
bless the Lord because Ihappened to be looking on a
website one night and happenedto come across their label and
submitted a song that I hadwritten a long time ago and was
encouraged to send.
When I sent that particularsong to them it wasn't probably
10 minutes later they respondedback and wanted me to see if I

(04:19):
was interested in being signedto their label.
Tell the listeners how you gotinto country music, christian
country music in the first place.
Wow, how I got involved.
Well, at one point I was doingthe secular music and then, of

(04:45):
course, because I've beensinging pretty much all my life
I've been singing since I wasprobably three years old.
I've always loved music of allgenres, so I was out there doing

(05:09):
the R&B for a little while andthen, after I had accepted
Christ as my Lord and Savior,then I transitioned to the
gospel music of, you know, thepraise and worship, the
contemporary gospel.
And even though I grew up onall different styles of music, I
eventually returned back towhat I've always loved, which
was country music.
And so maybe, probably, I'd say, in the last 10 years, my

(05:34):
heart's desire has been to dothe country style music, of
course Christian.
And so I started pursuing theChristian country arena and God
just started, began laying songsupon my heart that I started
writing, and my first song wasentitled Thank you.

(05:56):
And for a minute I put that songon the shelf, not really
thinking that it would really goanywhere or do anything, not
really thinking that it wouldreally go anywhere or do
anything.
And one day, a friend of mine,who happened to be a
videographer, who works for aChristian television station

(06:16):
here locally and he happened tohear the song and he asked me
one night what was I going to dowith that particular song.
And I told him I wasn't reallyplanning on doing anything with
the song because I didn't reallythink it would do much of
anything.
And so he encouraged me to getthe song put out.

(06:37):
And so we got the song put outwith a promoter, and he put it
out and all of a sudden it juststarted blowing up.
It started getting into the top10 and I was blown away by that
.
And so I went ahead and startedpursuing that particular song

(07:01):
and put it out there and it wasentitled Thank you, particular
song and put it out there and itwas entitled thank you.
And it's still uh popular today.
He actually did a video for it,which you can now see on
youtube uh, under terrencephillips, and uh, just type in
the word thank you and it'llcome up and uh.
So from there, that's reallymuch how I was able to get

(07:26):
connected to the label, becausethat was the song that that
really got their attention anduh, so from there, that's, of
course, how I ended up beingsigned to lbm records okay, well
, talk to the listeners aboutwho are some of your big
influences.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
You know whether they are big artists or small
artists.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
You know who influences you to do what you do
.
Oh man, when it comes down tosome of the artists of today, or
even some who've gone on, I'dhave to say, like Stevie Wonder,
the Sam Cooke, michael Jacksonman in the Christian or gospel

(08:15):
arena, I still love to this veryday, cc Winans, the Winans
brothers, some of Shirley Caesar, and then, of course, when you
go into the country arena, oh,my biggest influences there were
, like Ronnie Millsap and RandyTravis and Conway Twitty,

(08:38):
charlie what's his name?
Charlie Pride, even like theOak Ridge Boys, alabama.
Many of them were a lot of myinfluences.
Kane Brown is another one,someone who is from South

(08:59):
Carolina, darius Rucker Ilistened to a lot of his stuff.
Those are a lot.
Those are still some of the biginfluences for me today, and
even when you listen to some ofmy new releases that have since
come out here in the last coupleof months, there's similarities

(09:21):
to Randy Travis as far as justthe style and the arrangements
and stuff.
And so I had a lot of biginfluences.
I don't really, I don't think Ieven had any small people that
were not well known that wereinfluences for me, even my
mother.
I have to, I have to make surethat I let people know that my

(09:45):
mom was probably my biggestinfluence because she she
embraced my gift long years andrecognized my gift a long time
ago, and she's always been agreat support net for me, as
well as my wife, who also pushesme to just continue doing what

(10:08):
God has called me to do.
And I'm thankful that I'mfinally seeing the manifestation
of my dream of doing Christiancountry come to pass, because
I've always wanted to share mygift with the world, and so now
this is the opportunity for meto be able to do that and share

(10:30):
the love of Christ through myChristian country music, because
that's what it's really allabout is letting people know
that God does exist and that Godtruly loves us, and he loves us
so much and he's willing to dowhatever it takes to to do

(10:58):
whatever it takes to get us tocome to know him personally and
intimately.
And I'm thankful that God gaveme that opportunity to do that,
and now I'm able to share thegospel of Jesus Christ through
the music that he's given me.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Absolutely so.
You talked about, you knowmentioned your new releases here
in the last couple of months.
So talk to the listeners aboutyou know any newer upcoming
projects you know kind ofexplain them and what inspired
them and anything else you wantpeople to know about them

(11:35):
recently, probably about a monthago, I just released Thank you.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
I did a remix of a remake of the original and of
course that song originally wasinspired by just.
I wanted God to know howgrateful I was to him for, first
of all, saving me, and thenjust how grateful I am to God
for, for for choosing me.

(11:58):
Because if anyone would havetold me, uh, years ago that, um,
I would be doing what I'm doingnow, I probably would have told
them they were lying and, uh,truthful.
But I wanted this particularsong, which has been released,
to exemplify Christ and what hedid for me.

(12:21):
And I wanted to express it withthe song Thank you, because
truly, we cannot and will notever be able to thank God enough
for all that he has done andwhat he's doing in our personal
lives.
And not only has Thank you beenreleased, but also I've also
released another song called myEverything, which also points to

(12:45):
Christ, who is everything to me, who is everything to me.
I mean he's my encouragement,he's my provider, he's my
strength when sometimes I'm weakin my faith and in my walk with
him.
He's just everything, he's thevery air that I breathe on a

(13:07):
daily basis.
And that song pretty much sumsup who he is to me.
Some of the words to the songare every morning when I wake up
, you know, I wake up to a brandnew day, you know, and every
morning I get on my knees andpray before I start my day.

(13:32):
And then this next one that hasjust been released last week.
It's entitled Trouble, and whatbrought that song about is you
know, people go through life andsometimes they feel like, you
know, there's no way out oftheir situation.

(13:53):
But this particular song,trouble, just lets people know,
it encourages them to know, thattrouble doesn't last always.
There is, there is a stoppingpoint for the things that we
deal with and we go through.
Trouble doesn't last always,but you've got to have the faith

(14:15):
in Christ.
You have to believe God's word.
God's word says that you knowhe's peace in the midst of
trouble.
You know, and you know you cango through life with knowing
Christ is with you.
And so this particular songthat has just been released on
last week, which is out now onall of your major platforms if

(14:38):
you want to hear it, on Spotifyand on all of the other
platforms YouTube and YouTubeMusic and Deezer it's on all of
the major platforms.
So if you type in my name,terrence Phillips,
t-a-r-r-a-n-c-e Phillips, youcan get every single one of the

(15:00):
songs that have just recentlybeen released.
And, as a matter of fact, nextweek, fridayiday, I will be
releasing another song and it'sentitled um.
The song is about you, which isa love ballad, uh, to my wife,

(15:25):
um, because I met her in thechurch and uh, at her in the
church and uh, it's just, youknow, one of those kinds of
songs that I wanted to use towrite to recognize her and, uh,
let her know how much I love herand appreciate her for being
who she is in my life.
And uh, you know, it's comingout.

(15:48):
As I said, it'll be out nextweek Friday.
So be on the lookout for thatparticular song.
It's called Song, is About youand it's really a song about her
.
And you know anyone who's got aloving spouse that you know God
sent you.
That is everything that canhandle you in a way that other

(16:11):
people probably wouldn't be ableto handle you, you know,
because truly, god does placepeople in your life that only
that individual can handle.
You know, vice versa, whetheryou're the husband or the wife,
I truly believe that the personthat God has placed in my life,

(16:31):
she's the only one that couldhandle me.
She's the only one that knowshow to comfort me when I'm
frustrated and frazzled.
You know, and vice versa.
So you know, this song is thatkind of a song.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Okay, well, I know you threw out your name name.
You know how people can get into check out your music on their
podcasts or the streamingplatforms, but do you have a
website or any other contactinfo that people can contact you
?

Speaker 2 (17:04):
I do.
Um, if you will type interrencePhillipsMusiccom, It'll
take you straight to LBM Recordsand if you look under the
artists, you'll find my name inthe list of artists that are

(17:27):
there Terrence Phillips.
And of course, you can gostraight to all of my videos.
You can go straight to my bio,you can.
It'll take you to all of myphotos, my photo gallery.
It'll also take you to theupcoming stuff that's getting
ready to take place.
It'll also take you to theupcoming stuff that's getting

(17:48):
ready to take place.
So anyone who wants to knowmore about me or what I'm doing
those kinds of things it's canjust go to lbmrecordscom and
look up the artists and you willfind me in that list of artists

(18:12):
and pull up my stuff and it'lltake you from there.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
All right, we'll close this out with some final
thoughts.
Maybe, if that was something Iforgot to talk about, that you
would like to touch on any finalthoughts you have for the
listeners okay, um, I just wantpeople to know, um, check out my
stuff, check out everythingthat I'm putting out there.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
Hey, look on, look on my website for upcoming events,
upcoming, uh, things that aregetting ready to take place here
in the next couple of months.
And if I wanted to leave a wordof encouragement to people, I
just want people to know thatyou know, as I said in one of my

(19:01):
songs, trouble doesn't lastalways.
I know life can be hardsometimes and life can seem to
pull you down, but I need you tounderstand that if you look up,
if you look to the one that isable to keep you, you will be in

(19:25):
the most peaceful place thatyou can ever be in, even in
spite of what you might be goingthrough.
I want to encourage someonethat, if you don't know Christ,
get to know Christ as your Lordand Savior.
He is going to be the bestdecision you ever make in life.
And you are talking to someone,or listening to someone, who

(19:51):
learned that even in your mostdarkest moment, when you make a
conscious decision to acceptchrist as your personal lord and
savior, god can do anything andeverything in your life but
fail.
You know family and friendssometimes disappoint and fail us

(20:13):
, but God never fails.
No matter what you go through,no matter what trials and tests
you may face in life and testsyou may face in life know that
God loves you so so much that hewill do anything and everything
in his power to get you to havea relationship with him.

(20:36):
And so, if I were to leave youwith anything, trust God.
Trust God with every fiber ofwho you are and know that he is
there for you.
He, he, he won't ever leave you.
He never forsakes you, andthat's a promise that he gives

(20:57):
in his word that he'll neverleave you, nor will he forsake
you.
And with that I just want tosay thank you to you, curtis,
for allowing me to be on hereand to share my testimony and to
share a little informationabout me, so that your people,

(21:22):
the public, will go out and youknow, check out my stuff and you

(21:42):
know when you a positivemessage about christ and what
christ is able to do in theirlife.
And with that I'll turn it backover to you, curtis absolutely
well.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
ladies and gentlemen, visit terrence phillips
musiccom.
Check out all the songs on thestreaming platform.
Keep up with everything thathe's up to.
Visit wwwcurveball337.com formore information on the Living

(22:16):
the Dream with Curveball podcast.
Subscribe on your favoritepodcast platform.
Thank you for listening andsupporting the show and Terrence
.
Thank you for the great musicand the great message that you
share.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
And thank you for joining me.
It was truly an honor and aprivilege.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
For more information on the Living the Dream with
Curveball podcast, visitwwwcurveball337.com.
Until next time, keep livingthe dream.
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