Full Interview with James Robinson
Full Interview with James Robinson
James Robinson, President of Light Records
Root: How did you get your start in the music business?
James: I got my start in 1997. Since the age of ten, I had been apart of the GMWA. My aunt Susan Covington who is still apart of the GMWA, was apart of the Trenton, NJ chapter and we would go to Trenton for the summer. When I was younger, my mom was diagnosed with lupus and I would go to Trenton for the summer to give my mom a break. My siblings and I would go with her to the chapter rehearsal and chapter musicals and Craig Hayes’ father, Harry Hayes, was the chapter rep at the time. That summer really left an indelible impression upon on me that I might love gospel music to the point that there was a song that used to come on the radio, the title was, “I Found a Cure” by Isaac Douglas and the Savannah Mass Choir on Savoy Records. That was the first gospel record I ever bought. With that being said, at the age of 14 my mom took me to Pleasant Grove and left me with Bishop Jamison and made him promise that he would take care of me and he did that and actually my start in gospel music really began there. He had Tri-boro Mass Choir and they were recording under the Savoy label by the time I got to know them, they were moving to AIR Records. Those were the first recordings where I really began jumping into gospel music. It was also during that time when I also met Hezekiah Walker and he was still singing with Jeffrey White and Soul Stirrers Community Crusade Choir, I was like 13 years old at the time. I met Rev. James Cleveland, Keith Pringle, Charles Fold and John Kee and began my lifelong relationships. So really what you see in James Robinson today is a product of having those relationships. You know, I don’t think I’m the smartest guy around but I’ve been in the right place at the right time. I also went to The High School of Music and Performing Arts where I met a lot people and formed some relationships for life as well. I then went on to sing background vocals as well as contract background vocals. In 1997, Pastor Hezekiah Walker called me and it was the strangest thing I ever experienced because my mom was dying of cancer at that time and I knew he didn’t know that and I don’t even know til this day if he’s knows that but he called and said he was putting together a group called Love Unlimited and he was going to do a series of concerts and the concerts were going to be done in the five boroughs and just have a good time and introduce Love Unlimited to the world. He asked me to be a part of The Walker Group maybe to help Regina his brother Richard with some things and you know he asked me to be a partner, but again it was so strange. I’ve known Pastor from locking up the church when the Crusade Choir was rehearsing at Pleasant Grove and I followed him for years and from the first recording to the last, I’ve never missed one. We were cool, you know. I don’t know til this day what he saw in me. I never had a conversation about what I wanted to do and I don’t know til this day what is was that made him call the pay phone at Pleasant Grove. I have no idea. But he did and I came, I met with him and even you were apart of the ministry and you know when I came aboard. I just began to do Walker Group stuff with Richard… the publishing deal he did with Lily Mack and all that stuff. Then Richard and I began to contract background vocals on our own. So even outside of the Walker Group, Richard and I, because I had the relationships for the most part from high school, we would try not to use people from the church, whether it was for Wyclef or Puffy, we would just contract background vocals. In the winter of 97, when we were wrapping up the Love Unlimited Tour, we got called to do the Power 98 Tour and Pastor Walker asked me to go on tour with him. Again, I never know why great men of God would see things and its just still mindboggling to me that God gives them vision beyond even what I could see.
Root: Right.
James: But he has vision. I would have to say, between Bishop Albert Jamison, well my mother taking me to him. I was saved under him. I was filled with the Holy Ghost under him and then going on to Bishop Walker and in my spiritual life I was delivered under him. Not only was I delivered under him, but my business was anointed under him. I think I went off on a tangent, but you asked me how I got started? Again I say to you it’s a combination of things. Me going to LaGuardia High School, Bishop Jamison taking me to GMWA and Bishop Hezekiah Walker seeing something in me that til this day I never asked him what he saw, and somewhere along the way, Hasan, the Lord gave me and five friends at the time, but it ended up at the end being three of us, the vision to start Gospelflava.com.
Root: It’s funny that you mention that because I remember the first time I ever saw Gospel Industry Roundup was through you. I never knew what it was and you had a copy of it and let me see it. I don’t know if you remember that.
James: I remember.
Root: I‘m going through it and I was intrigued by it and it sparked my interest in the gospel music industry, the players in the industry and things like that. I remember when Gospelflava was actually birthed. And we’re talking 13, 14 years ago..
James: Yeah you were apart of it, you were right there with me in the beginning, riding in the car, I had just got the Lexus.
Root: Exactly, yes going to the Bronx.
James: Yeah going back and forth to the Bronx, going on tour and its great talking to people like you because you understand what it was. You understand the relationships I had before or the relationships I had with Pastor or Bishop Hez or Bishop Jamison or those guys in the city before. Romans 8:28 says: “For we know all things work together” and I really am a product of that. You mention the round ups but I remember, there are some things I’m skipping like I was the first choir director and founding member of Craig Hayes and the United Voices while I was in Trenton at college.
Root: Really?
James: Trenton State, yeah I started that choir with him. I was the first choir director with him. There are a lot of little things that I’ve done that are too numerous to name. There’s Brooklyn All City Chorus, there’s a lot of things I’ve done because initially I thought I was going to be a singer. I thought I was going to be Luther Vandross for Jesus.
Root: That’s my next question because I think a lot of people don’t even know that about you. A lot of people definitely don’t know that you went to LaGuardia for Performing Arts, so touch on that for a little bit. You wanted to be a singer?
James: I sang from a child. I was anointed to sing. God had blessed me. I was a singer. Maurice Lauchner and Big Den and all of those guys, Efram, that used to be apart of Love Fellowship.
Root: Yep, yep.
James: All of us went to high school together. Tichina Arnold, I mean it’s a lot of us and the Lord has blessed us. Estee (Bullock), Timiney and Anaysha (Figueroa), all those guys came much later after me. Demetrius Griffin, all of us were there together, so if you think I’m lying, I have some witnesses.
Root: You have a cloud of witnesses (laughter).
James: I have a cloud of witnesses. Yeah we all went to the High School of Music and Performing Arts. I thought it was my call to be a singer. Again, The only reason I didn’t sing with Love Fellowship was because I was apart of Tri-boro. I was close to Love Fellowship because I locked up the church for them after rehearsal and I followed them around from day one.
Root: So back to Gospelflava… like I said, it was 13, 14 years ago when it started. Now we have Facebook, Twitter and I have an online magazine. This stuff came much later. You were actually doing this in the beginning of the Internet boom. Tell us how that got started and did you guys think it was going to be successful from the beginning, because you were actually on new territory. What was the concept like?
James: I was a data processing manager for Columbia University Health and Science Division and they had put this thing on my desk and I didn’t know what it is. It was a computer that had the Internet. The Internet was like two years old at the time. I went on a chat room called Gospel International and it was basic at that time but in that chat room I met some people. I met Gerard Bonner (Bonnerfide Radio) in there. Melanie Clark (Praise Charlotte) was in there. A guy named Mark Tillus was in there. Stan North was in there. I was in there. What happened was, we quickly realized that Melanie sang with John P. Kee and New Life.
Root: Oh wow! I didn’t even know that.
James: I was on the road between GMWA and some other stuff and we basically came to the conclusion that a lot of stuff that was being reported wasn’t true. So what we decided to do in our little minds was to create a newsletter to basically tell the truth about the happenings of gospel music. We never intended for it to be anything other than a newsletter and that’s how naïve we all were. We all pitched in $75 and brought the domain and discussed the name for a while. Melanie didn’t want the name so we got in this chat room and it was Melanie’s initial thought, let’s do something on our own. We came up with the name and here we have it. I remember being on the Power 98 Tour and I showed you and Marvin Sapp the initial page. It was nothing but a newsletter. I remember Fred and Marvin saying, “What’s that?” I was basically a pioneer. I was just getting started. Who knew what God was going to do with it then? That’s really how Gospelflava got started.
Root: Just to be clear, none of you guys knew each other. You all met from a chat room?
James: None of us knew each other and the truth of the matter is none of us met each other face to face until two years after we started the company.
Root: That’s unbelievable! Ok so fast forward. So you’re doing Gospelflava and then years later you end up moving to Nashville. You were A&R for Light Records. How did that come about? Did people start recognizing that you were a pioneer?
James: Something happened in between. So I’m a member of Love Fellowship now, still apart of GMWA and my relationship with Bishop Jamison is still cool, but I’m under Pastor Walker and I started this company. If you remember, Pastor Walker would get on me because I was out of town a lot. I wouldn’t be there on Tuesdays and one day Pastor said to me, “Every time I go somewhere I hear you were there. How about you come by here on Tuesdays and Sundays”. From that one statement, I began to be as faithful as I could. From that day on, not only have I become the most faithful tither you’ve ever seen, I’m also a faithful church member. At that point I wasn’t with the Walker Group anymore and I sat there and I listened to him and I was lead under him. Gospelflava was in a position to help people and we were always trying to expose ministries and a guy named J.J. Hairston came to me and asked me if could I help him find a record deal. I tried to find him a record deal and long story short, nobody wanted him. Two days later after I told him that, J.J. called me back and asked me to start a label. It was just that simple. Evidence Gospel Records was a division of Gospelflava.com and was birthed because J.J. Hairston called and asked me would I do it.
Root: Unbelievable!
James: Long story short, I did it and that record, Awesome God, was a big hit. That’s when the national recognition for my music capability came. But check this, had I never started Gospelflava.com that would have never happened. Had I never been apart of GMWA, and really followed Pastor Walker, none of this would have been possible. So our distribution was through Light Records. I did records for about five or six years for them before they asked me to come on board. So that’s what happened.
Root: What’s your formula for success? You have all this success with J.J. and Youthful Praise. What’s your formula for signing or birthing new acts because now your roster is very heavy. Over the past year, you’ve signed Dawkins & Dawkins, Jessica Reedy, Ricky Dillard….
James: I can’t speak for anybody else, I can only speak for me when I say I’m not a perfect man, but I’m a saved man. Of course when conducting business, you can’t go in their speaking in tongues and doing all of those kinds of things but live the life you live. I really do think that it’s the love of the Lord that allows people to gravitate towards me. Remember, I’ve been doing this so long that a lot of the people that I sign are my friends already so I really think it’s a combination of relationships I’ve built over the years and now I have the opportunity to in business be associated with these people. Signing J.J. wasn’t a stretch because he had been with me his whole life, his whole music career. Signing Shirley Ceasar wasn’t a stretch because she’s Shirley Ceasar! Signing Bishop Morton to Light Records wasn’t a stretch because he’s one of the greatest singers out there. So although those weren’t a stretch, they weren’t the easiest things to do because they all could have gone to other labels, but the Lord blessed me to get it done. Ricky Dilliard was someone I had admired and been friends with for years so that really was a direct relationship. I had been after Dorinda for two years even prior to becoming the head of the label.
Root: Wow
James: So that was persistence and hard work. I was the first person to ever meet with Jessica Reedy and wanted to sign her while she was on the show even if she didn’t win. I had been on her heels from the first day I saw her on television. Dawkins & Dawkins, a fan, purely signed them and sought them because I’m a fan. William McDowell was something that we acquired when we merged with E-One because he was under that umbrella already. Am I forgetting somebody? Feels like I am.
Root: James Fortune.
James: James Fortune. I knew I was forgetting somebody. That right there is just a blessing from the Lord. I was somewhere minding my business mastering Ricky’s record and my phone rang. James Fortune was somebody I knew from Gospelflava and he called me for advice and the next thing you know he was coming over to partner with me at Light Records. Again, it’s all about relationship and the timing of God.
Root: Now explain the deal you have with him because you know many people may be confused by it.
James: It’s his label deal but manufacturing, distribution and marketing and radio through us.
Root: So his career is still with Blacksmoke with him and Fiya? Correct?
James: No. He’s under Light and E-One
Root: So he’s under Light totally now?
James: Yep!
Root: Oh ok. I just wanted that to be clear.
James: He’s totally here.
Root: So he’ll be recording under Light from now on, James Fortune & Fiya?
James: Under Fiya World Music, which is apart of Light Records.
Root: Got you. That’s huge!
James: It’s his deal. It’s his Fiya World Music imprint but it’s apart of Light Records. It’s no other entities. It’s just him and us.
Root: Nice. Well bro, you guys are doing it over there. So let me ask you this. Maybe you can give me a sneak peek of what’s next without telling me.
James: In closing I’ll say this…Noooo. You have the tape rolling.
Root: Yep. (Laughter)
James: I will say this. We have done some things that will make our next year really good. What we try to do here is plan two to three years in advance. I always joke with my staff when deals come together that I’m just trying to secure their jobs for another year. We don’t really laugh about it but God really does give me vision past today for a lot of this and the things we have on the table now are for next year. I think the Lord will bless it. But I think that’s all that I can tell you right now.
Root: Alright, that’s good enough, I guess. (Laughter)
Full Interview with James Robinson
Root: How did you get your start in the music business?
James: In got my start in 1997. Since the age of ten, I had been apart of the GMWA. My aunt Susan Covington who is still apart of the GMWA, was apart of the Trenton, NJ chapter and we would go to Trenton for the summer. When I was younger, my mom was diagnosed with lupus and I would go to Trenton for the summer to give my mom a break. My siblings and I would go with her to the chapter rehearsal and chapter musicals and Craig Hayes’ father, Harry Hayes, was the chapter rep at the time. That summer really left an indelible impression upon on me that I might love gospel music to the point that there was a song that used to come on the radio, the title was, “I Found a Cure” by Isaac Douglas and the Savannah Mass Choir on Savoy Records. That was the first gospel record I ever bought. With that being said, at the age of 14 my mom took me to Pleasant Grove and left me with Bishop Jamison and made him promise that he would take care of me and he did that and actually my start in gospel music really began there. He had Tri-boro Mass Choir and they were recording under the Savoy label by the time I got to know them, they were moving to AIR Records. Those were the first recordings where I really began jumping into gospel music. It was also during that time when I also met Hezekiah Walker and he was still singing with Jeffrey White and Soul Stirrers Community Crusade Choir, I was like 13 years old at the time. I met Rev. James Cleveland, Keith Pringle, Charles Fold and John Kee and began my lifelong relationships. So really what you see in James Robinson today is a product of having those relationships. You know, I don’t think I’m the smartest guy around but I’ve been in the right place at the right time. I also went to The High School of Music and Performing Arts where I met a lot people and formed some relationships for life as well. I then went on to sing background vocals as well as contract background vocals. In 1997, Pastor Hezekiah Walker called me and it was the strangest thing I ever experienced because my mom was dying of cancer at that time and I knew he didn’t know that and I don’t even know til this day if he’s knows that but he called and said he was putting together a group called Love Unlimited and he was going to do a series of concerts and the concerts were going to be done in the five boroughs and just have a good time and introduce Love Unlimited to the world. He asked me to be a part of The Walker Group maybe to help Regina his brother Richard with some things and you know he asked me to be a partner, but again it was so strange. I’ve known Pastor from locking up the church when the Crusade Choir was rehearsing at Pleasant Grove and I followed him for years and from the first recording to the last, I’ve never missed one. We were cool, you know. I don’t know til this day what he saw in me. I never had a conversation about what I wanted to do and I don’t know til this day what is was that made him call the pay phone at Pleasant Grove. I have no idea. But he did and I came, I met with him and even you were apart of the ministry and you know when I came aboard. I just began to do Walker Group stuff with Richard… the publishing deal he did with Lily Mack and all that stuff. Then Richard and I began to contract background vocals on our own. So even outside of the Walker Group, Richard and I, because I had the relationships for the most part from high school, we would try not to use people from the church, whether it was for Wyclef or Puffy, we would just contract background vocals. In the winter of 97, when we were wrapping up the Love Unlimited Tour, we got called to do the Power 98 Tour and Pastor Walker asked me to go on tour with him. Again, I never know why great men of God would see things and its just still mindboggling to me that God gives them vision beyond even what I could see.
Root: Right.
James: But he has vision. I would have to say, between Bishop Albert Jamison, well my mother taking me to him. I was saved under him. I was filled with the Holy Ghost under him and then going on to Bishop Walker and in my spiritual life I was delivered under him. Not only was I delivered under him, but my business was anointed under him. I think I went off on a tangent, but you asked me how I got started? Again I say to you it’s a combination of things. Me going to LaGuardia High School, Bishop Jamison taking me to GMWA and Bishop Hezekiah Walker seeing something in me that til this day I never asked him what he saw, and somewhere along the way, Hasan, the Lord gave me and five friends at the time, but it ended up at the end being three of us, the vision to start Gospelflava.com.
Root: It’s funny that you mention that because I remember the first time I ever saw Gospel Industry Roundup was through you. I never knew what it was and you had a copy of it and let me see it. I don’t know if you remember that.
James: I remember.
Root: I‘m going through it and I was intrigued by it and it sparked my interest in the gospel music industry, the players in the industry and things like that. I remember when Gospelflava was actually birthed. And we’re talking 13, 14 years ago..
James: Yeah you were apart of it, you were right there with me in the beginning, riding in the car, I had just got the Lexus.
Root: Exactly, yes going to the Bronx.
James: Yeah going back and forth to the Bronx, going on tour and its great talking to people like you because you understand what it was. You understand the relationships I had before or the relationships I had with Pastor or Bishop Hez or Bishop Jamison or those guys in the city before. Romans 8:28 says: “For we know all things work together” and I really am a product of that. You mention the round ups but I remember, there are some things I’m skipping like I was the first choir director and founding member of Craig Hayes and the United Voices while I was in Trenton at college.
Root: Really?
James: Trenton State, yeah I started that choir with him. I was the first choir director with him. There are a lot of little things that I’ve done that are too numerous to name. There’s Brooklyn All City Chorus, there’s a lot of things I’ve done because initially I thought I was going to be a singer. I thought I was going to be Luther Vandross for Jesus.
Root: That’s my next question because I think a lot of people don’t even know that about you. A lot of people definitely don’t know that you went to LaGuardia for Performing Arts, so touch on that for a little bit. You wanted to be a singer?
James: I sang from a child. I was anointed to sing. God had blessed me. I was a singer. Maurice Lauchner and Big Den and all of those guys, Efram, that used to be apart of Love Fellowship.
Root: Yep, yep.
James: All of us went to high school together. Tichina Arnold, I mean it’s a lot of us and the Lord has blessed us. Estee (Bullock), Timiney and Anaysha (Figueroa), all those guys came much later after me. Demetrius Griffin, all of us were there together, so if you think I’m lying, I have some witnesses.
Root: You have a cloud of witnesses (laughter).
James: I have a cloud of witnesses. Yeah we all went to the High School of Music and Performing Arts. I thought it was my call to be a singer. Again, The only reason I didn’t sing with Love Fellowship was because I was apart of Tri-boro. I was close to Love Fellowship because I locked up the church for them after rehearsal and I followed them around from day one.
Root: So back to Gospelflava… like I said, it was 13, 14 years ago when it started. Now we have Facebook, Twitter and I have an online magazine. This stuff came much later. You were actually doing this in the beginning of the Internet boom. Tell us how that got started and did you guys think it was going to be successful from the beginning, because you were actually on new territory. What was the concept like?
James: I was a data processing manager for Columbia University Health and Science Division and they had put this thing on my desk and I didn’t know what it is. It was a computer that had the Internet. The Internet was like two years old at the time. I went on a chat room called Gospel International and it was basic at that time but in that chat room I met some people. I met Gerard Bonner (Bonnerfide Radio) in there. Melanie Clark (Praise Charlotte) was in there. A guy named Mark Tillus was in there. Stan North was in there. I was in there. What happened was, we quickly realized that Melanie sang with John P. Kee and New Life.
Root: Oh wow! I didn’t even know that.
James: I was on the road between GMWA and some other stuff and we basically came to the conclusion that a lot of stuff that was being reported wasn’t true. So what we decided to do in our little minds was to create a newsletter to basically tell the truth about the happenings of gospel music. We never intended for it to be anything other than a newsletter and that’s how naïve we all were. We all pitched in $75 and brought the domain and discussed the name for a while. Melanie didn’t want the name so we got in this chat room and it was Melanie’s initial thought, let’s do something on our own. We came up with the name and here we have it. I remember being on the Power 98 Tour and I showed you and Marvin Sapp the initial page. It was nothing but a newsletter. I remember Fred and Marvin saying, “What’s that?” I was basically a pioneer. I was just getting started. Who knew what God was going to do with it then? That’s really how Gospelflava got started.
Root: Just to be clear, none of you guys knew each other. You all met from a chat room?
James: None of us knew each other and the truth of the matter is none of us met each other face to face until two years after we started the company.
Root: That’s unbelievable! Ok so fast forward. So you’re doing Gospelflava and then years later you end up moving to Nashville. You were A&R for Light Records. How did that come about? Did people start recognizing that you were a pioneer?
James: Something happened in between. So I’m a member of Love Fellowship now, still apart of GMWA and my relationship with Bishop Jamison is still cool, but I’m under Pastor Walker and I started this company. If you remember, Pastor Walker would get on me because I was out of town a lot. I wouldn’t be there on Tuesdays and one day Pastor said to me, “Every time I go somewhere I hear you were there. How about you come by here on Tuesdays and Sundays”. From that one statement, I began to be as faithful as I could. From that day on, not only have I become the most faithful tither you’ve ever seen, I’m also a faithful church member. At that point I wasn’t with the Walker Group anymore and I sat there and I listened to him and I was lead under him. Gospelflava was in a position to help people and we were always trying to expose ministries and a guy named J.J. Hairston came to me and asked me if could I help him find a record deal. I tried to find him a record deal and long story short, nobody wanted him. Two days later after I told him that, J.J. called me back and asked me to start a label. It was just that simple. Evidence Gospel Records was a division of Gospelflava.com and was birthed because J.J. Hairston called and asked me would I do it.
Root: Unbelievable!
James: Long story short, I did it and that record, Awesome God, was a big hit. That’s when the national recognition for my music capability came. But check this, had I never started Gospelflava.com that would have never happened. Had I never been apart of GMWA, and really followed Pastor Walker, none of this would have been possible. So our distribution was through Light Records. I did records for about five or six years for them before they asked me to come on board. So that’s what happened.
Root: What’s your formula for success? You have all this success with J.J. and Youthful Praise. What’s your formula for signing or birthing new acts because now your roster is very heavy. Over the past year, you’ve signed Dawkins & Dawkins, Jessica Reedy, Ricky Dillard….
James: I can’t speak for anybody else, I can only speak for me when I say I’m not a perfect man, but I’m a saved man. Of course when conducting business, you can’t go in their speaking in tongues and doing all of those kinds of things but live the life you live. I really do think that it’s the love of the Lord that allows people to gravitate towards me. Remember, I’ve been doing this so long that a lot of the people that I sign are my friends already so I really think it’s a combination of relationships I’ve built over the years and now I have the opportunity to in business be associated with these people. Signing J.J. wasn’t a stretch because he had been with me his whole life, his whole music career. Signing Shirley Ceasar wasn’t a stretch because she’s Shirley Ceasar! Signing Bishop Morton to Light Records wasn’t a stretch because he’s one of the greatest singers out there. So although those weren’t a stretch, they weren’t the easiest things to do because they all could have gone to other labels, but the Lord blessed me to get it done. Ricky Dilliard was someone I had admired and been friends with for years so that really was a direct relationship. I had been after Dorinda for two years even prior to becoming the head of the label.
Root: Wow
James: So that was persistence and hard work. I was the first person to ever meet with Jessica Reedy and wanted to sign her while she was on the show even if she didn’t win. I had been on her heels from the first day I saw her on television. Dawkins & Dawkins, a fan, purely signed them and sought them because I’m a fan. William McDowell was something that we acquired when we merged with E-One because he was under that umbrella already. Am I forgetting somebody? Feels like I am.
Root: James Fortune.
James: James Fortune. I knew I was forgetting somebody. That right there is just a blessing from the Lord. I was somewhere minding my business mastering Ricky’s record and my phone rang. James Fortune was somebody I knew from Gospelflava and he called me for advice and the next thing you know he was coming over to partner with me at Light Records. Again, it’s all about relationship and the timing of God.
Root: Now explain the deal you have with him because you know many people may be confused by it.
James: It’s his label deal but manufacturing, distribution and marketing and radio through us.
Root: So his career is still with Blacksmoke with him and Fiya? Correct?
James: No. He’s under Light and E-One
Root: So he’s under Light totally now?
James: Yep!
Root: Oh ok. I just wanted that to be clear.
James: He’s totally here.
Root: So he’ll be recording under Light from now on, James Fortune & Fiya?
James: Under Fiya World Music, which is apart of Light Records.
Root: Got you. That’s huge!
James: It’s his deal. It’s his Fiya World Music imprint but it’s apart of Light Records. It’s no other entities. It’s just him and us.
Root: Nice. Well bro, you guys are doing it over there. So let me ask you this. Maybe you can give me a sneak peek of what’s next without telling me.
James: In closing I’ll say this…Noooo. You have the tape rolling.
Root: Yep. (Laughter)
James: I will say this. We have done some things that will make our next year really good. What we try to do here is plan two to three years in advance. I always joke with my staff when deals come together that I’m just trying to secure their jobs for another year. We don’t really laugh about it but God really does give me vision past today for a lot of this and the things we have on the table now are for next year. I think the Lord will bless it. But I think that’s all that I can tell you right now.
Root: Alright, that’s good enough, I guess. (Laughter)
