Junior Tucker to launch first album in more than 25 years
Published:Wednesday | September 25, 2024 | 1:45 PMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
MAKING THE decision of dropping secular music and giving one’s life to Christ is not an easy task, but one Junior Tucker has proudly conquered in the last 27 years.
For Tucker, it’s one which took resilience and thee help of the Church, to make a total change from being the man he was to the man he now is.
Speaking with The Gleaner yesterday, he said that during the process of his spiritual transformation, he asked his bishop, sometime after getting saved and baptised, how he could become a successful minister.
“He said to me, ‘Junior, God is not interested in building any ministry. God is interested in building a man, and from the man flows ministry’, and I learnt that lesson very quickly and very strongly,” Tucker said.
“I’m not an artiste who’s a Christian. I’m a Christian, who’s an artiste, so therefore, if I’m not an artiste tomorrow morning, I’m still a Christian,” he professed.
CHRISTIAN FIRST; ARTISTE SECOND
With extensive experience, this is the advice he has for other reggae and dancehall artistes who intend to follow in his footsteps and make Christianity their ultimate choice.
“The very first thing you have to make sure you do is, don’t give your career to Christ. You have to give your life to Christ, because if you do it because of a career move it’s a very crazy move. It doesn’t make any sense,” Tucker told The Gleaner.
“Gospel music is different, in the sense that you can’t fake gospel music, you have to live it to sing it. You need to first and foremost have a relationship with God, and then from that, God develops the ministry,” he said.
On Saturday, in celebration of Tucker’s more than 25 years move to become a gospel artiste and Christian, and in recognition of his birthday, which he celebrated on Monday, he will be launching his latest musical project – his album titled Journey... The Best of Junior Tucker – at Swallowfield Chapel in St Andrew.
The album consists of songs that reflect Tucker’s career in gospel, along with two new releases, Song of Obedience, featuring Alicia Taylor, and Yuh Nuh Easy.
Tucker started his career in music some 30 years before he got saved. He started out singing reggae music at the age of five, performing in nightclubs and soon becoming one of Jamaica’s most beloved child stars and a household name when he appeared on a ‘Nuggets for the Needy’ television broadcast in 1971. He later delivered his first No. 1 hit, Happy, at the age of seven years in 1973.
Throughout his 50-year music career, he recorded countless secular hits, including Which Side Of The Coin, One of the Poorest People, Don’t Test, Move Along and Love of a Lifetime. He received numerous awards for his craft and has performed worldwide alongside some of reggae music’s best: Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, Beres Hammond, Steel Pulse, Inner Circle and Third World.
In October 1997, after becoming saved, Tucker turned out reggae gospel hits, which included Healing Me, Brand New, Sold Out, and I’m Determined.
In 1999, he migrated to the United States, where, over the course of 16 years, he established himself and grew as a worship leader, pastor and counsellor. Jamaica remained in his heart, and in 2014 he returned home to plant and pastor Family Word & Worship Church, located at 6 Belmont Road, Kingston 5, along with his wife of 32 years, Pastor Trudy Tucker. Their union has produced five children.
He said God has really been increasing and blessing his church through the Word and worship.
“The name of the church speaks to what we are about. We’re about family. Once you come to our doors, you become a part of our family. Word and worship, I’m very strong on that; intentional. I make sure when you leave there, you get the Word, and you worship,” Tucker told The Gleaner.
He is looking forward to Family Word & Worship celebrating their ninth anniversary on November 1.
Now, as he prepares to launch his new album, Tucker said he has no regrets about transforming his life and moving away from being a secular singer into being a gospel artiste and Christian.
“The only regret I have is that I didn’t do it (becoming a Christian) sooner, because when I look back, I could clearly see that He was drawing me, calling me; I was just doing my own thing. I wanted to do my own thing,” he said.