Since the release of his debut album (Stay) in 2002, BEC Recordings’ Jeremy Camp has had an outstanding career with 25 No. 1 radio singles across all formats, four RIAA Gold-selling studio albums, including that debut, a GRAMMY® nominated project and many more accolades. To celebrate his ten years as an influential artist impacting lives, Camp is releasing I Still Believe: Number Ones Collection on BEC Recordings.
Camp most recently received his 25th No. 1 single with “Overcome” from his album We Cry Out: The Worship Project. This single has spent 5 weeks at the top on the Inspo chart and continues to climb on AC and CHR formats.
I Still Believe: Number Ones Collection is Camp’s first hits release, and it includes 15 No. 1 hit singles including “I Still Believe,” “Take You Back,” “There Will Be A Day,” and many others as well as an unreleased track.
What is the overall message of your new album? Reckless started as a word that kept being embedded in my mind, so I looked up its meaning: doing something without regards for the consequences. It occurred to me that “reckless” is a lot like true faith. When I step out in faith, no matter the circumstance, I know that God will take care of me. Paul was a biblical example of living recklessly for Christ. In 2 Corinthians, 4 he returned to Lystra after being stoned for witnessing to people in the city because he knew the Lord called him to go back. He wrote, “I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me— the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:23-24)
Paul knew that he would face trials and persecution, but God had placed a call on his life and wanted him to surrender his heart to the Lord. My desire, and the message in this song, is to completely surrender everything to God. I want to be able to do what God calls me to do without worrying. That’s being sold out for Christ. I don’t want to miss out on the fullness of what God has for me, so when God calls me, I want to be willing to go!
It’s hard to believe this is already your seventh studio release. How has your sound changed? I think that everything came out almost better than I expected. Musically and vocally, it’s more raw, but in a good way. Like with “Reckless,” instead of bringing in heavy guitar for the chorus, we cranked up the keys and let the piano take that melody. We were over-thinking it in a good way, going back and forth with each other always asking, “What impacts most?” My producer and friend, Andy Dodd, and I really put our blood, sweat, and tears into this. There’s a lot of passion in this album, and it really reflects what God is doing in my life!
How did your daughter inspire “The Way You Love Me”? One of my daughters asked me, out of the blue, “Is there anything that I can do for you that I’ve never done before that will make you happy?” I looked at her and said, “You don’t have to do anything to make me happy. You make me happy.”
I heard the lesson God was teaching me through that moment. Just as my daughter knew I loved her, so do we know God loves us and that’s why we desire to please him - out of love and not obligation. “The Way You Love Me” is almost a direct response to the action of being reckless. When I think about what Christ has done and the depth of His love, despite how wretched I am, I want to tell the world about His love. In the same way, we are called to love as He loved.
Paul wrote, “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3) And, “...neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39) That’s God’s love, and that’s the love that I want to share with others.
How do you hope the message behind Reckless penetrates the heart of those who are in the audience? My hope is that this album encourages people to step into the fullness of what God has called them to do, and take action. The songs are meant to encourage all of us to go out, not just me. If we can all work together and be in the same place spiritually, that body of Christ working together can fuel a passion that is truly great. There is power in numbers!
Not only do you have new music to share, but you have also written a book called I Still Believe. Can you share a little bit about what it reveals? It’s a revised and expanded version of the original that I released last year. We worked with Tyndale on going deeper into my story and taking a different approach. This book shows the Lord’s calling on my life and how that came about, in a lot more detail.
