Ruining Nate Sallie
03-29-2007
by Brenten Gilbert

According to his press bio, Nate Sallie lost his life three years ago. After a fairly successful debut release and being introduced to the music world as the next pop artist, Nate found himself confronting a lot of secrets in his life. It wasn't until after he faced these issues head on, with the help of God and the truth of His Word, that he would return to music again.

Now, with a freedom that's very evident in his life, Nate Sallie is back and his latest project is called Ruined for Ordinary. CMCentral caught up with Nate a week before the album came out and we chatted about the last three years, forgiveness, the new album, and much more.

Enjoy.

Nate Sallie: Hey! It's Nate Sallie. How are you doing?

brenten gilbert: Not too bad. How are you doing today?

Good. Thanks for rescheduling the interview.

No problem. They said that you were driving through Oklahoma, so I figured you probably didn't have much of a signal.

Yeah. And you never know schedule-wise when they drop you off or when you'll arrive at a venue and all of that. And last week, I ended up with the flu as well. We had four dates in Oklahoma and I wasn't able to sing at any of them. I kept thinking, "Well, the voice will return," but I just went down for the count. So I wouldn't have been very beneficial talking-wise. I probably wouldn't have been able to speak too many words. [It was] the first time in a year and a half out on the road that I lost my voice. So in that sense it's a blessing, since that was the first time, but it's always frustrating.

Yeah, I bet. So you have been doing the tour with the Winter Jam guys, huh?

Yeah, that's been a blessing to be out on Winter Jam with Jeremy Camp, NewSong, Hawk Nelson, Sanctus Real, all those guys. Sanctus Real does a great job. It's a blessing and it was just one of those things. I was out on tour with NewSong - opening up for them - starting in August for their fall tour and that basically ran through Thanksgiving. Then Thanksgiving rolls around and they say, "Hey, we've enjoyed having you out with us. Would you consider coming out on our Christmas tour?" That was NewSong, Todd Agnew and Rachael Lampa, so I said sure. I don't have a Christmas project, but i figured, if [they] were extending the offer, I'd accept. So I went out and just kind of opened each night by playing some Christmas tunes and getting the audience involved, singing right from the beginning. Then I would transition into "Holy Spirit," which is a current single, and we got to share that. Then I sang with Todd and I sang with NewSong, played some keys, did a little bit of everything as the night progressed. At the end of that tour, they said, "Hey, we are going into Winter Jam. Would you come out with us and be a part of that?" So it's definitely about being in the right place at the right time, but more importantly, it goes along with building relationships. The relationship is really key.

So you're like an unofficial member of NewSong now?

(laughs)

Pretty much. I've come on the road with them so often, that, yeah. . . I've pretty much got my own little spot there on the bus and I'm kind of the sixth man so to speak for NewSong, coming off the bench. But yeah, I sang a couple of songs with them during Winter Jam and again they allowed me to fit in and introduce "Holy Spirit." It's just me and the keys. Really that's all I could want, even from the beginning of those six tours. I went out with Natalie Grant on her abbreviated tour she did on the west coast and that was a blessing. And I went out with Todd and Big Daddy Weave on their spring tour. Really, it's been great because it's so low maintenance since it's just me and a piano. And the response has been unbelievable. When I went out with Natalie, I thought, "well, it's the first time I stepped out without a full band and I thought this could be… I could live to regret this. This could be awful, where people just wonder what's going on and there is an out flux of people flooding out of the venue.

(laughs)

But it was great, it was just completely the opposite and the response was overwhelming. And at times, a hundred times the response I ever got in the past with a full band. That's not saying anything about playing with a band, but basically that's just saying that people are really able to connect, make a kind of a heart-to-heart connection with the new material. It's just the new songs, the stories behind the songs and there is no hype around it. There's no, "Hey, this is Nate Sallie." I'm no big name to make people get excited that I'm here. The majority of the people have no clue who I even am. They might have vaguely heard the name once or twice, but that is about it. They might know a couple of the songs, but it's just me sitting down at the piano and playing these new songs from the project and seeing the response makes it worth while.

Yeah definitely. I remember seeing you last year at a GMA showcase, and to be honest, when I heard them say your name, I was like "Oh great, isn't he that teen pop guy?"

(laughs)

And then you sat down and started playing the songs on the piano and it just felt so real. It was almost like everybody just kind of stopped what they were doing and just soaked it in. It was pretty cool. It was a shocker because I hadn't heard any of your newer stuff before that night.

Sure.

So I didn't know what to expect. I'm sure a lot of people were on the same boat. But it was definitely a good moment.

Man, I appreciate that. I think it definitely just stems from the transformation that has taken place [in me] personally. Since the first project and really now, it's been about 2 ½ to 3 years, it's really a reflection. Somebody asked me a couple of months ago just about doing the pop thing asking why I shaved my hair, and what that was all about - basically asking if i was just trying to change my image and go in a different direction. And it's just that. . . Well, you know, it wasn't a conscious effort to change my image, it was basically who I was. The interior was basically reflecting on the exterior. For the first project, that was me. That was true representation of who I was at the time.

But through God transforming [me] with some life-altering things, a transformation happened in my heart and mind and soul over that period of time. It took place on an outward appearance mainly just as a reflection of what is going on inside. It's that complete surrender and that complete letting go of self and going, "God, I don't want." I remember the day a couple of years ago that I was driving down 65 here in Nashville, well Franklin. I almost went off the road because I was so excited. Basically I just came to the realization of the transition that happened over that period of time in my life. It just became obvious. It just became clear. There was just a clarity and focus where [I realized that] music was no longer my life. In the past, if you had asked me if I would consider ever doing something else or what if music didn't work out or what if God has something different for you, I would have become very defensive. I'd have been all up in arms, saying that this is who I am. This is what I do. I'm a musician. This is what I'll always do. How can you even bring that up or even make a statement like that?

So then what had happened was that music was no longer my life. God was my life. And that transition - I got to the place where whatever God's agenda was, that was my agenda. Whatever His will is, that became my will. The Bible says that if you delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart for His kingdom and all of the other things will be added. Where in the past, I lived my life the opposite way. I would say, "Hey God. This is what I'm doing." There was no asking. . . A great example of that is today, as I'm thinking about it. My daughter. . . I'm in town for a couple of days, and we were at a pizza place - my wife, my daughter and me. My daughter is 8 and she wanted to get some of the dough that they give out at this pizza place. She just got up and took off. She started heading for the dough and I said, "Wait! Hold on. You need to ask. You just kind of got up and told me what you were doing instead of asking." So she said, "Oh, I'm sorry daddy." So she asked and then I let her go get the dough, but I just thought that was a great representation of my life prior to this change. I didn't ask God. I didn't seek Him. I didn't consider things before the Lord. I just said, "Hey God. This is what I'm doing. This is where I'm going, so come bless me." I did everything kind of backwards and thank goodness for the transformation that has happened.

Yeah I think that is a trap that we all fall into. Whatever we do becomes who we are. We may not realize it, but we look to our jobs to define us.

Who we are determines what we do. It's not what we do that determines who we are, you know? When people say, "who are you?" usually you go, "Well, I'm Nate Sallie" or "I'm so and so." "Tell us a little bit about yourself." "I've got a shaved head. I've got a goatee. I'm 30 years-old. I've got this. I've got that." You really describe yourself but that's not really who you are. Who you are is who you are in Christ. You are a saint, a citizen of Heaven, a masterpiece, a child of God. You are his workmanship, created to do good works. Really when you start getting those simple truths planted deep inside of you, you start living accordingly. Really, I think that is the message of this whole project. Beyond the project - no matter who I'm talking to or who I'm mentoring, whether it's someone in music or outside of music or no matter - it's really what the deal is. That is just kind of what God has done in my life. Obviously, you can't contain it. It's contagious. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. I just want to speak what He's put in my heart and tell everybody that I come in contact with. It's been exciting.

Very cool. Now, I was really drawn in by the opening line of your bio: "In the fall of 2004, I lost my life." You touched a little bit on the three years in between the projects, but what exactly happened during that point of your life?

Well, I'll tell you what. It was definitely a process. It wasn't a one day deal. Basically, to be completely honest, to be completely open, I was living with this unconfessed sin. I was harboring unforgiveness, disbelief and doubt for years - I mean 5 or 10 years without even knowing that I was living this way, with a cloud, with a fog, with kind of a heaviness. That had just become kind of the norm, just basically the way I lived life, the way I went about business, the way I went about building relationships and connecting with people - there really wasn't any building relationships. I was just kind of living in this mediocrity. Then I finally found value in knowing God for who He is, not just what He can do for me, but really wanting to know the truth and getting hungry for it. I was reading a book by John Bevere called Drawing Near - it's one of those deals. . . If I had read that same book a year before, it could have fallen dormant to the ground - it would have had no impact whatsoeve - r but my heart was completely open at this point and it just completely saturated me. I soaked it up.

It was all about James 4:8 [which says]: Draw near to me (God) and I'll draw near to you. And that doesn't talk about salvation. Salvation is when God draws us [to Him] and Matthew 11:28 says "Come to me and you'll find rest," but this is after the initial salvation where God says, "Hey. Continue to draw near to Me and then I'll draw near to you." And the book was all about being lead on a daily basis, 24/7, by the Spirit and just remaining, abiding, resting, being apprehended and allowing God to work through you. Man, I just began to get hungry. You are hungry for what you see and I was feeding on everything else except on the Word of God. Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the Word of God dwell in you richly," and I wasn't doing that. Three years ago, I could maybe quote John 3:16 and that was the only verse I could quote. But if you asked me anything else about the Bible, any other passage, I would just look at you with a blank stare. It wasn't deep down inside. It wasn't a deep reservoir or a deep well to pull from. The words of God were not on my lips and weren't in my heart and again, "out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."

There wasn't anything there to speak and so basically I just wanted to know the truth because the truth will set you free. How do you get set free if you don't know the truth? I became hungry. I had quite an appetite and my appetite was for the truth. One of the things that keeps us from completely living in liberty and being fully alive in Christ is unconfessed sin. I continued to keep that inside instead of just getting that out. So you think. . . Well, the lie of the enemy - the lie to me - was Nate, if you confess these things to your wife, your marriage is going to fall apart. Well that is the lie of the enemy because actually it's completely the opposite. Because again, I valued the truth and there is a fear, a holy fear, of God above a fear of man. And even though it's not comfortable sometimes to willingly obey God when it seems more advantageous to compromise - you know, many times, in a natural sense, it's advantageous for me to compromise but it's asking myself if I esteem God higher than anything else and anyone else. That finally took place in my life and I got rid of that sin. I confessed it to my wife and the opposite happened. Our marriage now has gone to completely new heights, new levels. Our relationship is stronger and deeper than it's ever been and it continues to grow because there is nothing hindering the relationship. There is nothing in between us. The enemy has no foothold or no place to get a foothold because it's been broken and I can go on and on and on. . . .

It's good stuff. . .

Things like that were just beginning to take place in my life and unconfessed sin, unforgiveness, things that. You know, it's harboring things I was keeping inside, that I wasn't forgiving others and holding onto those things. I just let them go. You think you have to feel your way into forgiveness and that's another lie. Forgiveness is not a feeling. It's not something you feel one day. It's not like, "Oh, I feel like forgiving today." You might never feel like forgiving, but it is a conscious choice of letting that person off the hook and forgiving them. [You have to] choose to live with the consequences and get past it, because forgiveness is not so much for the person you are forgiving as it is for you. [It's about] allowing God to have full reign, a complete open door for Him to have access to your life. Let me tell you something, when those things happened in my life, there was a complete breakthrough - an unveiling of the mind, heart and soul - and everything became clear, the fog just completely lifted.

I was sitting down writing for the new project when my wife walked in. I looked at her and said, "I'm back." She knew exactly what I meant. And by "I'm back," I basically meant that everything had become clear. There was a clarity, a sharpness. There was a focus. [The song] "Breakthrough" just poured out. It was a natural result. It wasn't as if i thought about it, or said, "Hey, let's write a song called "Breakthrough." I was just writing about what was happening. What was taking place right [then] in my life and it was just the natural byproduct. I was delighted as it poured out. That is what happened with every single song on the project.

It just pours out of you and you just try to keep up with it.

Exactly.

Now, you mentioned forgiveness. I recently read The Ragamuffin Gospel (Brennan Manning). . .

Oh sure, yeah. I haven't read it, but I've heard of it.

Definitely. I think there is a liberation. There is a feeling of complete liberty when you know the truth - the truth being what you just said, partnered with, again, you don't feel your way into forgiveness. It's like you forgive and then possibly as a byproduct of that later, the feeling that follows. But it's not that butterflies and giddy feeling - whatever you want to call it. It's not that at all. You just have to forgive and let them off the hook and get over it for your sake and for all of our sake.

Yeah. So obviously the albums speaks right out of all of that had been going on in your heart and life at the time. It's called Ruined for Ordinary. What would you consider to be "the ordinary"?

Well, that's what everybody always asks - especially during concerts and afterwards. Tthey'll say], "Nate, what the heck does Ruined for Ordinary mean?" It just takes a little while to process what that is and break it down. Basically it's that you are ruined for the ordinary, mundane, run of the mill, business as usual, everyday type of existence. Basically it's living like mentioned I was living. I was getting by. I was just making it. But one day we are going to step into heaven and everything is going to be great. Everything is going to be perfect, but until that time I'm just kind of living it every day. I'm just trying to get by. Just kind of that old school thought of being saved but. . . The God saves us, but that is salvation. Then we are just kind of left to wonder and left on our own to just kind of make it until finally one day He returns and we step into heaven.

That's not the truth. The truth is that we don't have to live that way. The truth is that He's given us eternal life, not just so we can step into heaven, but He's given us eternal life for right now. He's ruined us for an ordinary life. It says in John 10:10 that He's come to give us abundant, amazing, extravagant, unbelievable, you know this wonderfully fulfilling life. If we chose to step in and follow Him, to go where He is blessing and [make His] will our will. We need say, "God, I'm going to delight myself in You. I'm going to invest in You. I'm going to completely surrender to You and I'm going to remain in You 24/7 with this unbroken communion, because I know that in the center of Your will is the best place that I can be." And that ruins you for ordinary life. Once you experience that, once you experience what God really has laid out for you - the purposes, plans, blue prints, His ordered steps that He has for all of us from the beginning of time - once we really step into that, there is no going back. It ruins you for ordinary. Once you experience the greatness of God, you can't settle for good. You can't settle for anything less. It's like going to an unbelievable restaurant, a five star restaurant, and the next morning waking up and having to go to a fast food place, you know? It's hard to go back. Thank goodness with our relationship with Christ, we don't have to go back. We can hold onto Him. We can stay and we can remain there. He's says that as long as you stay here, [He's] going to lead you. [He's] going to guide you in His ways and truths and show you His character.

I love Psalm 25:14, which I've been meditating on lately. It's my favorite verse and it says that friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear Him and with them, He shares the secrets of His covenant - which basically means His character or His heart. What an amazing verse. Friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear Him. For those who basically believe in Him. Who obey Him and who go after Him with a whole heart. And He calls us friend. And He shares the secret of His heart, His character. You get to know who He is, what He's all about, why He does things. That's the wisdom and the understanding that comes from fearing the Lord and going after Him whole heartedly instead of standing at a distance and just going, "Well, I'm saved and I'm just going to wait it out until I get to Heaven one day." That's open to all of us, that's for all of us. It's not just for some or a minority or a few, but that is His heart for every single person.

Yep, you just have to ask for it.

Exactly

Well you definitely seem to be enjoying things a lot this time around. You seem very fired up and passionate about your music and I think that translates well for all of us listening. . .

Thank you. I appreciate that.

I came across some of your video blogs the other day. . .

The video blogs, oh no!

(laughs)

It just seems like you are just having a good time with everything right now . . .

I tell you what. I really am.

So is there anything else? The album comes out on the 20th.

Yeah, it comes out on the 20th. . . And there's the new book. I just finished a book called Sing Through Me: Stories and Songs Inspired by Life Ruined for Ordinary. That just came out a couple of weeks ago and I'm very excited about that. That is just a behind the songs, behind the scenes look at the heart of the songs and where they originated. Really the whole project is not about blessing yourself or finding out what I can get out of this, but it's asking what I can give, how I can serve. Mark 10:45 says that Christ came to serve not to be served and we want to follow that example. So my prayer is that wherever I'm going, even when I'm showing up at concerts every day and every night, I just want to serve God. I want to go with a servant's heart, a servant's attitude. I'm a servant singer so to speak, a servant songwriter. When we keep that in focus it completely changes everything. Before, I would usually show up and go, "How am I going to be served? Are they doing this right? Did they follow all of the things that we asked for? Or is it great sound or good this" What are the accommodations?" And it basically changes your whole heart when you go to serve because if you are served in the meantime, that's just icing on the cake. That is not your focus. That is not your priority. You are just going, "Man, I want to tell everybody about this real important area of life." I want to let everybody know, as the book says, that God wants to sing through us. He wants to act through us, work through us and I want to let Him write the songs. He's the creator of creation. He's the vine. He's the pen. He's the one that writes. You can't get a better song - better melodies, better lyrics - than a song from the grand orchestrator of creation. We just have to open our hearts to what He has and He'll pull it out.

Where is that book available?

Well this first book. . . There are two books. The second book that is coming out will be in stores. It's being edited right now and that is more of a. . . That's about a 300 page book that's called Ruined for Ordinary which is more of a chapter book on being ruined for ordinary life. This first book that came out a couple of weeks ago is basically just for shows and obviously you can get it online on NateSallie.com. This one is basically a book for concert goers. Basically it's just being offered at concerts and on the road.

Certainly something to look for. Well alright, I know you have a piano lesson to teach shortly, so I guess we will just wrap this up. I wanted to thank you for taking some time out to chat.

Oh yeah you better believe it.

We'll look for the CD and the book soon and as always, beware of the Canadian condor.

(laughs)

Oh yes. Because believe me, they do exist.

Find out more about Nate Sallie and Ruined for Ordinary at NateSallie.com or MySpace.com/NateSallie