Israel Houghton Talks About Finding Peace In Difficult Times
Loni Love: You’ve always been a man of God, you’ve led many gospel albums, you have Grammys. You’ve also been a very private man. And then suddenly, the blogs were writing all about you, and your personal life.
Israel Houghton: Sure.
Loni: How did you handle that?
Israel: Well, it was interesting because, you know, when you go through stuff like that, and you finally announce, “Hey here’s what’s going on,” people assume this just happened last Tuesday! And the truth is, there had been so much leading up to that – five years of stuff leading up to that moment – so I had dealt with all the stuff that I personally had to deal with, and made sure my family was healthy and whole through all of that, before I ever announced, “Hey, here’s what’s up.” But when it happened – I understand what it means to have peace that passes understanding. It’s like peace that makes no sense, because I should be freaking out, I should be replying, I should be, you know, going off, and instead I have this peace. And I think that was…
Loni: Why do you think you had that peace?
Israel: Because. When you’re willing to literally take your mask off and lose everything – like I was willing to lose everything – and I realized here’s why: I’ve had platforms, I’ve had accolades, I’ve had all the things people go after, but I had no peace.
Tamera Mowry-Housley: Ah.
Israel: Like, I’m here worshiping The Prince of Peace, telling people how good God is, and I am living with an absence of peace. And so, getting past that mask, I think the mask for most of us feels like it’s protective, and like, nobody’s going to see what’s really going on, but really, it’s suffocating. It is cutting off your oxygen, when you’re trying to be fake and filter and edit your life. And so I was just like, “I’m taking that off,” and I’m going to – if I have to lose everything, I will, and what I found was instead of a platform, I found peace for the first time in my life.
[The Real audience applauds]
Israel: You can’t beat that.
And co-host Adrienne Houghton’s husband, six-time Grammy winner Israel Houghton, visits to talk about his new CD, Road to Demaskus, and how he found peace during difficult times in his life.
And later Adrienne and Israel perform their duet, “Secrets” from the new album.