There's nothing you can say

That will take me away from this life

There's nothing you can do

To shut me up when I'm speaking the truth

- Shut Me Out

  by David Dodd

Kutless lead singer Jon Micah Sumrall makes it perfectly clear that when the guys rock, they only rock for His rock.  He explains the passionate significance behind Shut Me Out: 

“That song is inspired by the Apostle Paul,” Jon Micah explains to Apostles That Rock.  “The religious leaders of his day kept telling him, Hey, you need to quit talking about these things, you’re going to get in trouble.  And so he was arrested.  Then he would get out of prison and it would be like, alright, seriously this time…and Paul basically told them, Look, this is the truth, this is the gospel, I have to speak it, you can’t make me stop doing it, you can threaten me, but I’m going to keep speaking the truth.  So the song is a modern day look at speaking the truth.

 Fortunately here in the United States we have the freedom to say what we want - to a degree - without necessarily getting arrested.  At the same time it’s really easy to be influenced I think, especially in music, because there’s a lot of pressures pushing all different of ways.  Shut Me Out is just a modern day statement - this is what we’re all about, our music is about, and there’s nothing anyone can do to make us go in a different direction.  They can put pressure on us to do whatever, but we’re going to stay true to our faith and what we believe in.”

 “For me it’s been my lifelong verse.  It’s been one of those things where it’s proven itself time and time again in my life.  It’s one of those verses that I hold dearly to my own heart and it holds true today as I deal with different things in my life.  It’s been a verse that’s really touched me in many ways.

The first part of that verse talks about waiting patiently for the Lord then it talks about committing your way to Him then finally it speaks of waiting patiently for Him, and that’s the part that often we want to skip out on but it’s a true part of it.

That’s the part that I have the hardest time with.  I remember when we really felt this was in our hearts to be a band and to do music, which was long before the door actually opened for us to start doing it.  There was definitely some time of waiting as patiently as we could. 

That patience tells us to grow and to learn.  It really builds our faith.”

“The real message we try to convict from stage and to speak to people is simply the fact that God loves them in a real personal way, in a way that you seek a relationship with Him.  God isn’t this distant, cosmic creature just waiting for you to get bad.   He cares about us and wants to be part of our lives.  I think too many people tend to have a misconception of what Christianity is, a misconception of what a relationship with God is. 

I can’t believe how many people first of all are just amazed at the type of music we play being Christians, you know, and so many people think you can’t have fun and be a Christian, yet we’re out there rockin’ out and getting crazy and having a good time, and so I think we’re really trying to disprove some of the myths and let people know that you actually can be a Christian, have a good time and play rock ‘n’ roll music.  It’s not about a certain style of music, it’s not about a certain way of singing songs or specific religious actions that you do, but it’s really just all about a relationship with your Creator.

I think unfortunately there’s a lot of people who have gone to church for years that have never been told that God loves them in a real personal way, and it’s sad but I’ve really found it to be true.  There’s a lot of people too that have never set foot in a church that just desperately need to be loved.  That’s what they’re searching for in their lives and it greatly impacts people when they really understand that and hear the truth.”