<\/p>\n
The title track of Zach Williams\u2019s fourth studio album Jesus Loves<\/em>, which releases today (Sept. 19) on Provident Label Group, has a heartfelt message to \u201cAll the renegades, the rebels, and the runaways,\u201d but throughout the dozen-song project, he also has songs aimed at healing and inspiring the newfound believers, the \u201cchurch kids\u201d and everyone in between.<\/p>\n Nearly a decade after launching his solo career breakthrough with \u201cChain Breaker,\u201d the title track to his 2016 Grammy-winning album, the Southern rocker-turned-CCM singer-songwriter still has plenty of grit, gravel and passion in his voice and his writing pen, which he blends with a signature soulfulness that has spurred hits including \u201cChain Breaker,\u201d \u201cOld Church Choir,\u201d and \u201cLess Like Me,\u201d but also his current Christian Airplay top 5 hit, \u201cJesus Loves.\u201d<\/p>\n More from Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n His new album is filled with messages of pain, struggle and redemption, all steeped in shades of blues, Southern rock and soul. He reunites with longtime producer Jonathan Smith and as with previous albums, welcomes writers and co-writers known for their work in CCM and\/or country fields, such as Trannie Anderson (Lainey Wilson), Casey Beathard (Eric Church, Kenny Chesney) and Allen Shamblin (Miranda Lambert), as well as CCM kingpin writers such as Ben Glover, Jeff Pardo, and Smith.<\/p>\n \u201cKilled a Man,\u201d written by Ben Stennis, Tucker Beathard and Casey Beathard, is one of the few outside cuts on the album. It\u2019s title, on its surface, seems to suggest murder in a physical sense, but is actually about putting away self-destructive ways in favor of a faith-filled life. Williams was intrigued by the title when he was sent the song.<\/p>\n \u201cThey played me \u2018Killed a Man\u2019 one day when we were hanging out and just the title alone, I was hooked,\u201d Williams says. \u201cAnd as soon as I heard what was going on in the song, I was like, \u2018This is genius. Please let me record this.\u2019 This song was too good for me to let go.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, \u201cHated\u201d doesn\u2019t center on harboring ill will, but rather finding strength to stand up for one\u2019s convictions, even when it brings backlash. \u201cFriend in High Places\u201d is the first song Williams wrote for the album and marked by the poetic lyric, \u201cI\u2019m livin\u2019 proof, what a carpenter from Nazareth can do\/ How a hammer and a nail can make things new.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is one of my favorite lines in the song,\u201d Williams notes. \u201cEvery time I would play the demo back, I just wanted to go ahead and put the song out. We kind of just tested the waters to see what people thought, and it gave me a good idea to see what direction I wanted to go with the rest of the songs on this record.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams doesn\u2019t shy away from the struggles to stay firm in his faith on songs such as \u201cWait For Me,\u201d and \u201cSay a Prayer,\u201d the latter a track he calls one of his most cherished songs on the album. \u201cI\u2019ve had the song for a few years. It didn\u2019t feel right for the last record, and I really wanted it on this one. It\u2019s one of my faves on the record, and it may have a special feature at the top of the year on it,\u201d he teases of the song.<\/p>\n Williams\u2019 sandpaper-and-silk voice has made him a favored vocalist for collaborations, such as his two duets with Dolly Parton, and collabs with Big Daddy Weave and TobyMac. He recently teamed with Crowder on a new version of Crowder\u2019s hit song \u201cStill.\u201d In 2021, Williams joined Christian music trio CAIN on a remix of CAIN\u2019s hit \u201cRise Up (Lazarus),\u201d and Cain joined Williams\u2019 Revival Nights Tour last year.<\/p>\n On the new album, CAIN joins him on \u201cChurch Kids,\u201d a slice of nostalgia for generations of people who grew up attending Sunday morning and Wednesday night church services, singing songs such as the 1983 Michael W. Smith classic \u201cFriends,\u201d and knew that each summer would include a week-long stint at a local church\u2019s vacation bible school program.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just this idea of all the things you see, all the sights and sounds growing up in church as a kid, some of it great, some of it not so great, and finding faith through it. And now, [Williams and his wife Crystal], we\u2019re in this season of our own lives where we\u2019re raising up our own church kids. Especially my generation, I think they\u2019ll get a lot of lyrics that are in this song and they\u2019ll be like, \u2018I remember singing that song.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Current generations of music listeners are more likely to get their first taste of a new CCM favorite on social media rather than in a church setting\u2014a shift that has compelled artists to spend more time focusing on creating content to promote music.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to get better at it, but I guess if you don\u2019t figure it out, you\u2019re going to get left behind,\u201d Williams says of balancing making music with making social media content. \u201cI\u2019m not the guy that\u2019s going to be on my phone shooting a video and posting it later. I think the best thing that\u2019s working for me right now is to try to find a couple of days a month when we can get together and put together some content, some videos and versions of songs we can get out to people, and let them see a little bit behind the curtain. It\u2019s not something that you think about whenever you start down the road of playing music. I mean, I\u2019d love to just be able to focus on writing really good songs and putting out good music, that\u2019s really where my heart is. But obviously, you got to make yourself available and things like that, so I\u2019m having fun with it. I\u2019ll get better at it as we go, I\u2019m sure.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams, booked by Jeff Roberts Agency, will launch the current iteration of his Revival Nights Tour in October, with openers We The Kingdom, Ben Fuller and Leanna Crawford. He says he\u2019s still tinkering with the set list and just how to weave in the new music amidst his hit songs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re talking through our set list and trying to figure out what songs we are going to play. I think we\u2019re playing eight out of the 12 new songs. Some of these songs I\u2019ve never played live and haven\u2019t played since the day we worked on them in the studio. There\u2019s always a new energy when you\u2019ve got new music to play in the set.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Billboard’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The title track of Zach Williams\u2019s fourth studio album Jesus Loves, which releases today (Sept. 19) on Provident Label Group, has a heartfelt message to \u201cAll the renegades, the rebels, and the runaways,\u201d but throughout the dozen-song project, he also has songs aimed at healing and inspiring the newfound believers, the \u201cchurch kids\u201d and everyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2037702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[376480,376482,376484,348718,376483,307957,308486,376481,376485,358935],"class_list":["post-2037701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-casey-beathard","tag-chain-breaker","tag-church-kids","tag-eric-church","tag-jonathan-smith","tag-lainey-wilson","tag-miranda-lambert","tag-provident-label-group","tag-tucker-beathard","tag-zach-williams"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Zach-Williams-Talks-Feeding-Off-the-\u2018New-Energy-of-Latest.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2037701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2037702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2037701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2037701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2037701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}