Jason Upton is a dear friend of mine. I was at Regent University speaking to one of the business classes about the music industry. While I was out there, they asked me to go to chapel with them. Jason was a seminary student. He had a year or two to go and he led worship at the chapel. I was just like, “Wow, I’ve never seen anybody flow in prophetic worship like he did.” I made sure to shake his hand and introduce myself to him. I was living in Nashville and working for Gotee Records and 40 Records at the time. Two years later when Jason graduated, we signed him to 40 Records which was the worship label owned by Gotee.
I’ve known Jason 20 years now. I was president of the label when he made his first album. In fact, of all the artists and all the albums I’ve ever worked with, and I’ve worked with some great artists from Bill Gaither to Lecrae, my proudest moment was Jason’s Faith record. Nobody had done a record like that before and everybody was scratching their heads. It was a powerful worship service that we re-mixed into a free-flowing worship album. I talk to people now in their late twenties and thirties about that record and they all say Faith really had a big influence on them. I knew Jason before he got married, knew him when he was a newlywed, and now he’s got three kids and one’s now in college. That tells you how old I am, and how long I’ve known Jason.
