Keep Living
Ricky Dillard- “Keep Living”
By Hasan James
There is no director in the history of choir music quite like Chicago native, Ricky Dillard. His energy and charisma is unrivaled and his performance at the 21st Annual Stellar Awards will go down as one of the best performances in the show’s history. He is one of Root Magazine’s 50 Greatest Gospel Acts of All Time (Issue #3) http://issuu.com/rootmagazineonline/docs/issue_3/1 and yet even after more than two decades of blessing the world with choir classics like “More Abundantly”, “You Oughta Been There” and “The Promise”, Ricky Dillard and New G are still struggling to find their place in the gospel music industry. Their new release “Keep Living” is their Light Records debut and although this is one of their best efforts to date, quite honestly, Ricky Dillard and New G have been pretty consistent in giving us solid albums over the years. So, is all of the label drama over? Is Light Records the last stop for the forty something year old choirmaster? What is Ricky Dillard’s favorite past time? What would he be doing if he were not making music? Find out all of that and much more in our EXCLUSIVE with Ricky Dillard.
Note: At Root press time, Ricky Dillard & New G’s new album charted at #55 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart among all genres and at an impressive #3 on the Billboard Gospel Charts. This was Dillard’s highest charted album in his twenty year career.
Root: The new album is great. What does the title “Keep Living” mean to you?
Ricky Dillard: The title “Keep Living” means even through the turmoil of life and what we are going through in America today…we just had some tornadoes today and people have lost loved ones and homes… the economy of the world is going crazy right now. We are living in a time where we are really trying to win their soul. I want people to know that in this time and space of their life that they’ve got to keep living through that. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord, for great is He that is in us. Therefore he has sustained His Word in us. He has sustained His Spirit in us for us to survive through this time. So we have to live through it. No matter what’s happening. Live through it and on the side of the living through it, you get victory.
Root: It’s been nearly four years since your last project and you have since changed labels. What’s the difference between your former label and your new venture with Light Records?
Ricky Dillard: This adventure feels a little different. I feel the shift. I feel that the machine is bigger. Even though we’ve been with labels that have been distributed by machines, this time we are directly connected to the machine, so I can feel the difference. I am also sharing the roster with heavyweights such as Bishop Paul Morton, Pastor Shirley Caesar, JJ Hairston, Jessica Reedy, William McDowell and Dorinda Clark-Cole; so it’s a lot of greatness around me so I feel that the shift is a good shift for me.
Root: Over the last few years it has been an emergence in praise and worship music. Do you think that choir music is a dying genre within the gospel music forum?
Ricky Dillard: Absolutely not! Gospel music will never die because of the mere fact that in everybody’s church pretty much there is a choir, so how could the music die if they are still relevant choirs in churches across the world? We just need writers to write the music and put the music out; which means the record labels and the execs need to embrace the fact that there is still a need for choirs. So if we don’t make the music, then the choirs would be exempt, but if we keep making the music the choir will remain.
Root: You brought up a valid point because back in the 90’s there were so many choirs. Back then we had John P. Kee, Timothy Wright, James Hall & Worship & Praise, Hezekiah Walker & Love Fellowship and you holding it down. Do you foresee more choirs coming on the scene anytime soon?
Ricky Dillard: I do, because the word of the Lord has already spoken concerning what he wants in the kingdom as it relates to the music. As we go back and look at David’s appointment of the singers, that was really the first organized choir. In the scriptures, Chenaniah was the skillful leader and these things are biblical so I believe that some of the players in the music industry are trying to do away with choirs because it’s all about money in the end.
Root: You mean as far as the labels signing choirs?
Ricky Dillard: Absolutely! If we moved them back then, what’s the problem with moving them now? I mean, there are always ways to make it work whether you had 25 members or 15 members, you would still get a choir performance. But again, I think it’s the way that the record executives are making it seem like it’s too expensive to have choirs signed to a label.
Root: I grew up in church singing songs like “More Abundantly” and other Ricky Dillard & New G songs. Over the past twenty plus years you have given the world some of the best choir music ever. Personally,I think that you are an unsung artist. Do you feel as though you are under-rated?
Ricky Dillard: Yes, I kind of feel that I’ve been over looked. I’m not exactly sure if people took my ministry seriously and it could have been that I felt so rejected in years that I kind of moved into a corner. I only came out when I was called because if I came out before I was called then I wasn’t recognized. So many times I wasn’t embraced and it hurt my feelings so I just stayed over in the corner and waited to be called. So that’s how it’s been for me and I feel like this place that the Lord has me in now is a place of reward. I have endured rejection, slander and being stepped on and I just took it. I did what the Lord called me to do and that was to serve Him in this capacity.
Root: Your new project is really great and people are all over Twitter and Facebook talking about how it is a game changer in choir music. Who are some of the writers and producers on this project?
Ricky Dillard: Let me start with writers….“God is Great” was sent to me by a writer in South Carolina by the name of John Lackin, who is an awesome, young cat! Chris Watkins wrote “Because of the Blood” and when he sent me the song I thought it was just phenomenal. His partner Kyle Kelly heard that I was looking for music so Chris and Kyle worked together and he sent me another CD that had “Keep Living” on it and I took that. “Destined for Greatness” was written by Daniel Moore from the Monique Show. These are different writers and I didn’t want to try to write the whole album myself because eventually my ear is going to repeat itself. Of course we went back and pulled out an old Bishop Walter Hawkins tune, which is one of my favorites, entitled “Strange”, a dedication to Bishop Walter Hawkins. So we tried to bring a group of writers on that would balance out the record and give something to every genre of age that everybody who picked up this record would find something that would be a blessing and that they can relate to.
Root: If you were not doing music what would Ricky Dillard be doing?
Ricky Dillard: My first passion would probably be in radio. I’ve always wanted to do radio. I studied at Columbia College in Chicago and majored in Communications Radio Broadcasting so that was my first passion. My second passion came after I started watching “The First 48 Hours Homicide Detective”. I’m fascinated with shows like that because I think it is a horrible act when someone takes another person’s life without any regard. I would want to be the homicide detective to find the person who is held responsible for such a terrible act.
Root: Wow that’s interesting to know. Now what do you do in your leisure time.
Ricky Dillard: I’m a real homebody. I guess the older I get, things are slowing down for me. I love dining, traveling, shopping and going to the movies. I began to broaden my horizons and started to get more into theatre as well. For the most part you will find me at home because the Lord has blessed me with a nice home where I can really chill at home and be comfortable without leaving the house. Besides, if I leave the house, I have to spend money (Laughter).
Root: Right! So are you back in Chicago?
Ricky Dillard: I am back in Chicago and God has also enlarged my territory to join up with the Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington, Maryland with Dr. Grainger and Co-Pastor Jo Ann Browning, so I am serving there as the Director of the Adult Choir. So I actually live in both, Chicago and in the Washington DC area.
Root: Congratulations on all of your success. I think this album will be the one to catapult you to even greater success.
Ricky Dillard: I certainly hope so, but if not, we will keep serving until the Lord promotes. I will serve Him until I die and I want him to use me up until nothing else is left in me.
Root: How can your fans reach you on Twitter and Facebook?
Ricky Dillard: @RickyDillard on Twitter and Dr. Ricky Dillard on Facebook and we have a new website that is under construction right now. Check us out at www.rickydillard.net
