The Tucker Carlson Show
John Rich on Diddy, Demons, the Antichrist, How to Hear God, and His War on Child Predators
01 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What moment changed John Rich's perspective on success and significance?
So, John, you seem to be evolving as a man, and this is my outside observation, but as a man and an artist, you grew up, and you've said in our last interview, you wanted to be a country music star, you wanted to write a lot of songs, you wanted to chart, sell a lot of records, did all that. But you seem to be, I don't know, on some kind of new mission. Am I imagining that?
And if I'm not, what is it?
No, you're not imagining it. A few years ago, I started to contemplate the difference between success and significance.
Chapter 2: How does John Rich view the role of music in confronting societal issues?
And they are different. Sometimes they intersect where something significant or something successful, they interact. But I spent three decades of my adult life in self-service. competing in the music industry to be successful.
Chapter 3: What dark realities exist in the music industry according to John Rich?
And so to me, success in the music industry, I had really high bars. I had set like, I want to be songwriter of the year, for instance, in Nashville. That's something I, that's like the coveted award because there's thousands of songwriters in Nashville. And I was songwriter of the year for three years in a row. Wanted to sell millions of records.
Well, all told, you know, we sold close to 15 million records. wanted to write hit songs for other people too. And I've had, I don't know how many, I don't even know the number of how many top 10 songs I've written. It's a lot.
So- Can I just ask, how were those victories? Were they as great as you thought they'd be?
At the time, yeah. Because, you know, that's my American dream. That's what I wanted to do. You know, I didn't go to college. I had a four-year ride to a school called Belmont University in Nashville on a vocal scholarship. And my plan was to go there and go to college. And I'm in Nashville and I'll try to get a record deal, you know, and go to college.
If I don't get a record deal, well, I went to college and I got a degree. Maybe I go do something. I don't know. But instead of going to college, I went out on the road with some guys I literally barely knew from Texas who were older than me. I was 18 going on 19.
And instead of going to college, I went out and played about 200 nights a year in a van pulling a trailer all over the US playing holiday in lounges and county rodeos and off-brand casinos and basically anybody that would hire us. because I wanted to be on the radio, I wanted to play the Grand Ole Opry, and I wanted to write number one songs.
And I couldn't understand how college was going to make that happen. Fair. It can't.
Yeah.
I mean, it just can't.
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Chapter 4: What actions is John Rich taking to combat child predators?
So I said, I'm going to just go do it. And so that band became a band called Lone Star, which we got a record deal a couple of years after we started, sold four or five million records with them, wrote my first number ones with them. So in those moments... where you gambled to that level and then you win and then everybody loves it. It is just a constant high five.
I mean, it's just a constant celebration because that is so hard to do.
Yes.
It's like an Olympian winning a gold medal. That's what it's like to write a number one song or to step out on a stage and there's 30,000 people that know the words to your music and you've never met any of them. And it's that way all over the U.S. You can imagine that feeling, especially in your 20s.
Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, there's no better physical feeling I don't think you can have than just, it's just massive adrenaline. And so...
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Chapter 5: Is John Rich concerned about his career for preaching the gospel?
throughout the course of the next years, here comes Big and Rich, which is, you know, my singing partner, Big Kenny. And we sold millions of records and we have 20, 30,000 people a night. And here's a whole nother rack of hit songs coming. And now I'm finding people, you know, bartenders who I hear sing one night. And I talked to this girl and I go, you're one of the best singers I've ever heard.
We got to get you in the studio. We got to write some songs. She goes, all right. And so we do. She gets a record deal. Her name's Gretchen Wilson. And Gretchen Wilson sold about 13 million records. Damn. You following this trend? Yeah, yeah. So I mean, just home run after home run, grand slam, grand slam.
which puts a lot of plaques on your wall, make a lot of money doing that, get a lot of praise, a lot of applause, and that's success. That is success. In that world, that's it. That is success. But is it significant? Meaning, what did it do other than make me feel great and accomplish things that were on my personal list? Nothing.
And then I thought about, well, when I die and I go stand in front of the boss, is he going to pat me on the back and say, good job on all those hit songs, man. You were great. Good job. You played 4,000 concerts, man. We're all so happy for you. You think he really cares about that? Probably not. He doesn't. The answer is he does not care. How'd that come to you? Um.
Seeing the things that go on in our country, seeing things that go on in our culture, seeing things that happen to people who cannot defend themselves, whether it be kids, whether it be poor people, whoever, that just get steamrolled every single day, taken advantage of, targeted, used, abused. And I thought...
I'm wasting my heartbeats right now because I am capable of taking a simple idea, a simple line, and turning it into a piece of music that can penetrate tens of millions of people. And I can make them cry. I can make them jump up and down and scream and holler and party. I can make them think. I can make them not think. I can do all kinds of... I mean, music is the ultimate X factor.
Like, you can't touch it. It...
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Chapter 6: How does John Rich believe Christians should respond to evil?
music seeps in between the cracks and crevices of a person's body, mind, and soul. Like everybody's got defenses up, everybody. We do, I do. Music goes right through it. It just gets through it. How? I don't know. Music is, it's like magic. I mean, Psalms, the entire book of Psalms means songs, basically, that David wrote. And David was, King David was a musician and a songwriter.
And so there was melodies to all those psalms. Someday I can't wait to hear him sing. I wonder what melody he put to that. Like I've had that thought before.
But he probably put it to music because he knew what I know, which is you can give a speech or you can make a statement to somebody and you can say the exact same thing with a melody wrapped around it and have two completely different outcomes. One thing music does is once it goes into you, it stays there. Yes. You'll forget a speech. You'll forget this podcast down the road.
You'll forget about it.
Chapter 7: What does John Rich say about the significance of prayer in hearing God?
Like an Eddie Rabbit tune from 1978, Never Goes Away.
That's exactly right. Exactly right. The earworm factor, you know, it goes deep down into your subconscious. I don't know where it goes. I have thousands of them in my head, but it goes deep down in there. And I just decided that I was disappointing myself the man, disappointing the Lord, that he gave me this ability and then gave me a massive platform of people.
I mean, tens of millions of people know my music. So I already have their attention. So what am I going to feed them next? What am I going to give them? Am I going to give them another party song? Am I going to give them another love song? To what end? Like, what does that accomplish? Nothing. It might give me another plaque on the wall.
And I need another plaque on the wall like I need a hole in the head. I walk past those plaques and go, eh, like today I do. Or I'll see pictures of me back in the day winning an award or whatever. And I'll remember how I felt back then. It seems so insignificant to me now, like shallow, insignificant. Like, what does that even mean? It doesn't mean anything to me now.
So success versus significance. How do I be significant with my music and with my talent? It's writing songs. Revelation was a great example. You were the first guy to put a spotlight on that song. I flew up and saw you. We did a podcast on that song. it resulted in millions and tens of millions actually of views and consumption on that song.
And when I go to a big and rich concert now, they don't generally walk up and say, man, I'm a big fan of your music. If they have enough guts to walk up to me and say something, which I'm always glad when they do, they say, that song, Revelation, he said, pulled the Bible off the shelf for the first time in 20 years after I heard that song. Made the hair on my arm stand up.
I had three sorority girls down in Fort Worth, Texas. We had a concert down there, like 19, 20-year-old girls. come walking up to me and I'm like, first of all, I'm glad to still have people 19 and 20 that like my music. Yay, good for me. But they came up and they said, Mr. Rich,
We heard your song, Revelation, and our sorority started a Bible study on 2 Thessalonians, Matthew 24, Revelation, and Daniel, all the things that you mentioned in your Tucker interview. And we've done a month long deep dive on that. And they said, everything you said in that interview is correct. Like, that's what it says. But we didn't hear that in church.
But you were right, that's what it said. I said, that's unbelievable. I said, well, congratulations, keep going. So it makes me think, I wonder how many times that has happened and I'll never know about it because that song was significant. It wasn't about success. I don't even have a record deal. I really can't make money on my songs anymore. There's no money to really be made on music.
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Chapter 8: How does John Rich's new song address the issue of child exploitation?
They grow up eating baby food. They have no muscle. They have no backbone. They have no constitution. They have no fight in them whatsoever. None. Because they don't understand the Bible well enough and have digested it and given themselves over to it because their preacher never talks about it. He won't bring it up. And why not? Because it's uncomfortable to hear those things.
Christians don't wanna hear that they will be persecuted at some point if they do it correctly. Jesus said, basically, if they hate you, just remember they hated me first. I mean, they crucified me, what are they gonna do to you? Get ready. If you're the real McCoy, get ready. And Christians don't wanna hear that. That doesn't keep the church full. That doesn't keep the offering plates full.
That doesn't keep the donations and the estate plans that go to these churches. That doesn't keep that going. They want the easy message because it allows them in their mind a way to not have to engage the devil and his people and his armies. And so what you have is, A whole rack of weak Christians that are constantly being attacked by a totally dedicated force of wickedness. Totally dedicated.
What do you mean dedicated?
I mean, they pray to their daddy for real. I mean, they are dedicated. They dedicate their lives to him. And they do what he says.
What signs do you see of that?
Well, watch what's going on in the world. Does it seem like sane people would do a lot of the stuff that we see going on these days? No, right. So they are being controlled and carrying out the will of their father, the father of lies. And we're supposed to carry out the will of our father who created their father. And that's not even a fair fight.
So the Christians are standing on the side of an insurmountable, undefeatable God, the Lord. who could wipe out the universe with a blink. That's who we serve. Yet, we stand out here and run and hide and go, please don't come to my house. Please don't attack me, Mr. Bad Guy, Mr. Wicked Man, Mr. You Belong to the Devil. Oh no, no, I don't wanna hear it, I don't wanna see it.
And because of that attitude, our country, is completely compromised at this point because of weak Christians.
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