Thank you for being a valued subscriber to The Washington Times. Please enjoy this exclusive conversation on one man’s path to faith. Billy Hallowell, host of The Higher Ground podcast at The Washington Times, sits down with Ben Fuller, a hot new Christian and country music artist. Fuller’s inspirational story starts with a 14-year addition and how he found God, to ending up on stage in Nashville.   

[HALLOWELL] You have new music out. You recently performed with Carrie Underwood. You have a song with Carrie Underwood. You’ve just been blowing up. What has this been like for you? 

[FULLER] I’m just grateful and thankful to be alive. I really don’t know what’s going on besides I’m just giving all the honor and glory to my Lord and Savior. And His name is Jesus. And, you know, I think the cool thing is… I was this way, and now I’m this way. And so there’s just a very evident difference in my life, and the only person I have to blame or thank is a man named Jesus, that’s it. So it’s like one thing after another and I’m just like, “What is happening in my life right now?” But I just keep thanking God and just saying, “Hey, it’s what you want, not what I want.” 

All these doors are being opened. All these things are being added. And the Bible says more than you could ask, think or imagine. So I think that that kind of sums it up. 

[HALLOWELL] I do want to talk about the music. We can sit here and talk about the music all day long. And that is important, but you just said it. You were this way, and now you’re this way. And I want to dig into that because I think a lot of people may be Christians, so they may understand it. They may not be, and they may be sort of watching and seeing these incredible stories like yours of people who have had life change and transformation through their faith and through God.

Let’s talk about who you were, because you’ve been a Christian for a few years now, I’m just gonna throw it to you. Tell us the person you were before you found Jesus. 

[FULLER] Fourteen and a half years of cocaine, alcohol, sleeping around, trying to fill all the voids, trying to fix all the things, trying to be somebody that I wasn’t. And I think the thing about addiction is you hide in plain sight a lot of times. And it’s embarrassing. And I was ashamed of what I was doing, and knew that it was wrong. I never wanted to consider myself an addict, because addicts are bad people, you know. I was a good person. I love people. I’m friends with everybody. After living that lifestyle for as long as I did, I saw a lot of people die. I lost my best friend to heroin, and it just was like thing after thing and I was like “man what else is there?” 

I was just constantly trying to fill this empty hole in my heart, and music has always been the thing for me. I’ve always loved to sing. Growing up on a dairy farm, to pass the time I would sing. And so I found myself wanting to pursue country music, almost moved down to Nashville in spite of a lot of people being like, “Man, you can make it, you can do it, you can be a big star.” You know, I’m a small-town guy. 

And so here I move into Tennessee, to Nashville. It’s crazy and full of people and everybody trying to make it in the music industry. And I got lost on Broadway for a whole year and just drinking and driving. And again, that void came up of like, “what else is there?”

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