By Kayla DeKraker
Pop singer Charlie Puth recently revealed something surprising about his music: he appreciates and is influenced by church songs.
While on THE TERRELL SHOW, Puth sang Richard Smallwood’s “The Center of My Joy.”
Some of the lyrics go, “Jesus, You’re the center of my joy/ All that’s good and perfect comes from You/ You’re the heart of my contentment.”
“…I appreciate all things church,” Puth responded after Terrell asked how he knew the song. “We gotta get the ’90s. Like that chord, I first heard that chord on this record ‘Talking Book’ by Stevie Wonder.”
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He added, “I was always fascinated with that chord, and I always wondered where it came from. It’s kind of a jazz-ish kind of thing without going too deep into it.”
Puth then explained, “It does something to me. I think that visceral reaction that you had just now when I did…it’s all present in the chords. And then when you add lyrics on top of it, it’s like cherry on top.”
The singer said he was raised in the Catholic Church. “I think my parents knew I was artsy and musical when I went to Catholic school, which meant I went to Catholic Church. That was the deal,” he explained on the “Armchair Expert” podcast. “I would hear the same music, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy Lord.’ I would hear the same music over and over every Sunday, sometimes three times a week.”
Through his knowledge of church music, his parents realized he had a musical gift.
“I played the whole mass from memory. It wasn’t like a cocky thing. It’s just like, I’ve heard enough times, I know how to do it…My parents are like, ‘OK, we’re going to go get your brain tested, see what’s going on up there.’’
Although Puth does not make Christian music, he recently made headlines for turning his life around after living a lifestyle focused on fame and drinking.
“It’s hard to describe, but after years of surrounding myself with the wrong things and saying the wrong things, it’s profound when it just all comes to a screeching halt one day at 30 years old in New York City,” he said in an interview earlier this year.
He continued, “It just took me a while to grow up. I’ve always wanted that life…frontal lobe not developed. Twenty-four-year-old kid thinking to myself, ‘I need to enjoy the fruits of my labor. I deserve all of this.’ I’m very thankful for every experience, but I always knew what was best for me.”
It looks like Puth’s faith upbringing continues to influence him today.
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