#8 Radical Kindness - Rick Cua
Episode 8 | 26 Minutes | Dec 17, 2024
What happens when a rock star trades fame for faith and uses music to bridge divides?
In this episode of the Collective Impact Podcast, we sit down with Rick Cua, former bass player for the renowned Southern rock band The Outlaws. Rick shares his compelling journey from the heights of secular music fame to a life dedicated to ministry and radical kindness. Together, we explore how embracing kindness can heal divisions and create meaningful connections in a fragmented world. Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed by negativity or seeking ways to make a positive difference, this conversation will inspire you to think differently and harness the transformative power of kindness in your own life.
In this Episode:
Rick Cua’s Transformative Journey: Hear how Rick transitioned from being the bass player for the renowned Southern rock band The Outlaws to dedicating his life to ministry and spreading radical kindness.
Embracing Radical Kindness: Learn practical ways to incorporate kindness into your daily life and discover how small acts can have a profound impact on those around you.
Overcoming Division: Explore insightful discussions on healing divisions and fostering genuine connections in a world that often feels fragmented.
Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself: Gain a deeper understanding of what it truly means to love others and why self-love is essential in this process.
Music as a Bridge: Discover how Rick uses his musical talents to bridge gaps between people, uniting communities through the universal language of music.
Inspiration to Act: Be motivated to think differently about how you can make a positive difference, starting with simple acts of kindness.
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Rick Cua is a renowned musician, songwriter, and ordained minister with a career spanning over four decades. He began his musical journey as the bass player for the popular Southern rock band The Outlaws, enjoying success on major stages across the country. In 1983, Rick made a bold decision to leave the secular music scene to pursue a higher calling in Christian music and ministry.
Since then, Rick has released numerous albums that blend rock energy with messages of faith, hope, and love. His music has resonated with audiences worldwide, and he is known for his passionate performances and heartfelt lyrics. Beyond his musical talents, Rick is dedicated to spreading radical kindness and bridging divides through his ministry work.
Rick is also a mentor to aspiring musicians and a speaker who shares his insights on living a life of purpose and compassion. His upcoming project, “40: The Ultimate Collection”, celebrates 40 years of his music and ministry, highlighting the journey and the people who’ve influenced his path. Rick’s story is a powerful testament to the transformative impact of embracing one’s calling and loving one’s neighbor.
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And I pray that we would say some things that could be fun and helpful and encouraging and a blessing to others. So just be with us now, pray in your name.
Amen.
Amen. This is
All right.
Republic. So, Um,
welcome back to the podcast. Okay, there are lots of fun people I've gotten to interview in the time that I've been doing these.
Lots
of people who are friends. I'm blessed with a lot of friends. But this one, he and I go
back
a long ways and have done a whole bunch of crazy stuff together around the world.
And I
am excited
to introduce you to my dear old friend, Rick Kua. Rick, how are you today,
brother?
I'm doing great, Scott. Thank
you so much
for having me, and it's great to see your face and be able to chat a little bit to you and whoever else is watching.
It's awesome. It's awesome to have you here. For those of you that don't remember Rick, I'm going to let him tell a little bit of his story, his testimony, but Rick and I, connected years and years ago, uh, when I was doing a bit more youth ministry. and just have stayed friends solidly all, over all the years.
And, uh, he's a musician and I'm going to let him talk a little bit about that. And I still try to be a musician,
except he's
a, he's the real deal kind of musician. So
Rick, uh, take,
take our listeners back in case they maybe have forgotten you or have not
heard of you. Talk
a little bit about your, your journey with Jesus and how that kind of worked with your music career.
I sure will,
but first I do want to say, uh, Scott, you are a great musician. You play great sax and I've got a new project coming out and I list all my bandmates over the last
40 years
and your name is in that list.
You are kidding me. Thank
you.
don't ever sell yourself short.
We
Wow. that's awesome. Thanks, brother. That's cool.
your saxophone. We had a good time.
Yeah. So
for
many good times.
Yeah.
Yes. So for me, I was, uh, I grew up
in Syracuse, New York. That's
where I was born and raised. My dad was a musician.
And because
of his influence, uh, I began to love music and love musical instruments and landed after, after piano, accordion, piano, clarinet, trumpet,
all these other
instruments.
I landed on
guitar
for a minute,
but there was a point where my dad said,
listen, if you play bass, You'll never be out of work, but in the same
breath,
my mother said, yeah, Rick, but
you'll be no
fun at parties. So,
so
I took the bait from my dad and played bass and
I've been
playing ever since. So
Okay, so that's like the truest of musical statements, right? Your dad was dead on.
Like
bass players, everybody's a guitar player, everybody wants to be a drummer, but not everybody's a bass player.
So,
I
I'm. I'm happy, me and the drummer,
to just get there
in the back, lay down the groove,
do
what we're meant to do, and let everybody else
do what
they're meant to do.
I, you know, this is totally off topic. Well, maybe not so much, but I saw a crazy thing, um, on the Facebook the other day. And it was basically somebody saying, if you lose your wallet, you'll be broke for a week. But if you grow up loving musical instruments, You'll be broke for a lifetime.
Yes. another golden truth, yes, that's
All of
our musical friends who have collections of the instruments they love.
yeah, I, I re I remember, you know, I, I I tell my own stories to my
family
about you know My old music days and making lots of money when I was younger and all those kinds of things And
the number
one question is, dad, where did that money go? Well, of course it went into better instruments and better horns and better sound.
And I mean, isn't, that's how you do
it, right.
well, yeah. And especially because you're the money you make from being a musician. Most
of us probably represents about
4 percent of your
total
need. So
why not spend it all on the instruments? Yeah. Yeah.
so, so, folks, this guy is more than just a bass player who slips in the back of the room and, uh, and lays down a groove with a drummer. Uh, this is Rick Kua. uh, one of the early, early, uh, contemporary Christian music
artists. And,
uh, Rick, you started out in, in, uh, secular music. I mean, I know the Syracuse story.
I know some of the stuff you were doing back in Western New York. Um, but, but at some point you joined a pretty huge major rock and roll band.
I did.
I was really, you
know, the short story there is I
was playing four nights a week
in a Chinese restaurant and I had a great
little band and we would play there and we were making a, you know, a week's wage and it was
enough to support my family.
And after years of really wanting a record deal and wanting to have more success, I finally settled in my heart on I'm a musician.
I'm a working
musician. I'm
making a living. And
I was so
content. But it wasn't long after that, that the floodgates kind of opened. And I got offered a
chance
to audition for a band called The Outlaws. It was a southern rock band. They were on Aristar Records. Clive Davis had
signed them Uh, they were a pretty popular band and I,
Yeah, for sure.
yeah, and I prayed about it and I went down to Tampa,
Florida and I
learned five rock songs real well, um, played them over and over again until everybody that was in the room with me was sick of hearing it.
But
I went down,
I auditioned, got the
gig. By the
time I flew
back, I had a message on our answering machine.
Tampa in three days
to rehearse. You got the gig.
Wow, That's so
cool.
and there was a great, great bunch of guys. And, uh, that was, that was my, um, real experience on what we would call the big
stage,
you know, the, the arenas, the, you know,
all, all of that touring stuff that
you had when
you, toured with
other big bands and had, you know, five, 10,
000
people in the audience.
It was a
lot
of fun.
A lot of did
that until, and I was a believer then I, um,
got saved. Let me see. I joined the
outlaws in 1980. I, I got saved in
77.
My wife got saved in
72.
So it took this hard headed Italian American to five years to finally get where God gripped me
and
just save me. And I knew this was the life I needed.
I love Jesus and I wanted to go forward with him. So eventually after maybe a year and
a half
in the outlaws. I got a Christian music deal and I was so excited about it and all the outlaw guys, all my secular guys played
on the first record and
it was, it was really a blessing.
But then I knew
it was time to leave the band and go
and do
ministry full time.
And from that point
on, it was all about music for, for ministry. That would have been, I left the outlaws in the middle of 83
and from then
until present. It's just using music for ministry.
you had, uh, I,
I
seem to remember you telling me
a story. Was there
not an opportunity for you at one point with Spiral Jower, the Jazz Fusion Band.
There was an opportunity to audition with them. Um, Chet Cotella was one of,
was
the guitar player in the
band, and
he'd come to some of the local places
in Rochester,
New York or Syracuse that we
played, and he'd jam with us all the
time, and we would have the best time, and literally we would close those clubs.
They'd have to flash
the lights.
You know, my, even our sound man said, Rick, even a train stops, but we keep playing and chatted, be smoking on that guitar. And we became great friends. And he said,
listen, we need a bass player. You need to
audition.
So I wound up auditioning. I think I was at, uh, I think it was a Chuck man, Jones house, either Chuck or gap, his brother.
But I went in auditioned. It felt great. Their bass player had just left. But shortly after I and other people auditioned, their original guy came
back.
And so that, was, um, that's where that went. But it was just, it was a thrill to be able to audition for those guys. with the possibility of
maybe joining that great
band.
Yeah. That, that could have been really fun. I love those guys.
So
you, so you, you found your, you found Christ, you
know, you're
you're with the Outlaws, you're transitioning now over into Christian music. What, what was that like? What, what was, what was happening inside your head? And, what were you hoping for at that, at that time?
Yeah. Um, I just, I wanted to serve the Lord. You know, my wife Diana and I now we're finally on the same page faith wise. And I thought if I have 90 minutes, with
an audience.
This point going forward, I want to leave them with the hope of Christ, not just
entertain them.
We entertain incredibly with the outlaws.
And I brought that whole thing into Christian
music where
they were having a ball, but the message in every song was was the thing that could stick with them and they could take that forward. So that's where I was. And it was difficult
in the, in
the early years. Um, financially, certainly also when we were doing Christian Rock, I mean, they were boycotting
concerts.
Um, not all the
churches would even let you come in.
Uh, if a radio station, wind up playing your big song.
You know,
some of them would literally edit out the
guitar solo because the guitar was,
it was too much.
The drums
were too loud. It was crazy. Not like today.
Everything has changed. But back then it
was difficult.
And there were times where
I just,
you know, we had recently
moved, we moved to
Nashville in
1984.
Our daughters were nine and thirteen, and it wasn't easy, it was hard.
And we had probably a couple years where we knew
we were
supposed to be there. Uh,
but also there were times where we'd sit down on the couch at the end of the night, and Diana and I would look at each other saying, Should we go back,
you know? but gratefully and thankfully we never did. And it's
been, it's been amazing.
Oh, that's so
cool. You know, there is one thing worse than a guitar player for some churches, you know.
I,
When I, my first time I ever set foot
in a, uh,
in a church, um, they, they knew me in my, it was, this was in my hometown back in Jamestown. And, um, when I came in, everybody kind of knew me because I'd grown up musically in that, in that small town.
And, uh, the, one of the first people I met that day was the head of the music committee. And she told me that, uh, she said, I know, I know you're wanting to play your saxophone in this church. But she said the saxophone is an evil instrument, and so you're
not going to be able to, you
won't honor God.
So yeah, so sax players, it took a while for us to get, uh,
get welcomed back in.
Yeah.
that is amazing. That
is one
step beyond
the evil
electric guitar.
Exactly. Yeah, I, yeah, it sure is. So, so brother, you, um,
obviously you,
you've been so successful, um, you've, you've ministered to people all over the world. Um, when you were doing the Christian rock thing in the earlier days, I mean, you're your audience was young adults and teens and I mean, you were so impactful.
I know so many kids. from back up where you and I used to hang out together, who are, who are still serving the Lord, who came to know Jesus at a, at a Rikua concert. And it's just, it's amazing.
But, uh,
before we get more into Jesus stuff, um, you, as, as you have grown older and, and you're still playing, um, but you've, you've kind of moved on, uh, to some different, different type of music lately.
What are you, what are you doing now? Or what have you been doing?
Yeah, I've been
doing, you
know, I mean, even with my, my records
over the years, Scott, some of them, uh, hard rock was basically
big rock anthems. That was, where I started and I
still love those
and still like to write them. But it became a little more,
almost, um,
in a rock sense, more pop, you know? Um, and, um, of course I love playing jazz and I love, um, playing worship as well.
I'm in rotation at our church and we play all the modern worship songs and I love. playing my instrument underneath that beautiful music. So it's been a variety of things, but
I think where
I'm most known, um, is the rock scene. And then of course,
because of my
time at EMI working with, at Worship Together, uh, worship music as well.
You,
uh, Is is Blues Council still playing?
Yeah, blues consoles. Well, we don't play a ton. We live in, uh,
six different, four different states and it's just
hard to wrangle everybody, but. We have a, our latest release was called, uh, Best of
the Decade
from
09 to 19. And in those 10 years, we made six records. Most of them are on Spotify, or you could buy them at my website.
And every time I might listen back, I just love what we do with that band. And we're going to record again in January.
So again, it's hard to, um, if we all lived in the same state, We could go play local gigs, drive to those gigs, make a few bucks and just have fun, but because we're
all over the place,
New Jersey, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, it's just, it gets
expensive. And nobody wants
to pay the bill for that
to be honest, you know.
Yep.
Yep.
Are you,
uh, Phil, Phil Keggy used to sit in with you guys a lot, didn't he?
Oh yeah, we love, Phil is great, he, we made some records together, um, I played on a couple of his early records as well as toured with him. That was my first Christian tour, uh, when I moved from Syracuse to Tennessee was with Phil Keggy.
Um, I came back here
and we wound up. Me and Phil, Joe English, the drummer who was with
Paul McCartney's band Wings, and also a Rochester guy that I had played with many times prior to that.
It was the three of us with Amy
Grant and
we did the open
to the first,
televised Dove Awards show.
that's where we met each other and then eventually got to know each other. feel better. And he offered me a
tour
and to
record records
with him. And we're great friends to this day.
Yeah, that's great. He's a good guy. I've gotten to hang out with him, uh, a bit myself. In
fact, I
got to see him, And Randy Stonehill a few
months ago. I
think it's probably going to be their last
time together Uh for a while.
So, uh, that was a, it was great to be with those guys.
All right. let's talk about the world that we're living in today here, man.
um, so. When I was thinking
about what
kind of things could you
and I talk about
that might be encouraging or helpful to our audience,
obviously
I wanted to catch up and, you know, get to, uh, get, you know, have everybody have an opportunity to get to know you a little bit more or be reminded. Um, but, but what I will always remember about you besides being a great musician, a great friend, all those kinds of things is this encouragement.
side of you. Um, when I think of people who most remind me of Jesus, you are one of the top, top of my list. And there's something about you
that just values
people, encourages people, and lifts them up. And I thought it'd be, cool I thought it'd be helpful encouraging because, because we're kind of living in a, In some ways it feels like a divided nation, a divided country,
a divided
world.
Um, you know, we, we don't know who's, what side we're on, who we like, you know, who there's, hatred has become to a certain degree normalized. I love to talk about kindness.
When
you, when you hear the word kindness, um, or you think about how to express kindness
to somebody, what
comes to your
mind?
Yeah. It's, um, that's
kind of a big thing for me. And I, I think, you know, uh, what I love when people are kind, I, I want to be with them. I want to hang with them. Um, I hang on every word, you know, and because I, I react so much
to that.
Um, I think I want to give it out to others
and no matter what happens, I always want to be kind.
I mean, we could
do,
we could be doing a gig. And the sound is not good and, and you know, the guy, the tech guys are just not nice or whatever it is. And I always, we
always
are kind and
loving because we realize we're
representing Christ.
It's not about us. It's not about, yes, we want things to be done right, of course, because we want to be, give people excellence, God's excellence.
But at the end of the day,
when the bottom
falls out. We're going to be kind to everyone
because it's important.
And
you know, the other thing that
I would
share often is the kindness, speaking for myself, and I know many others, you included the kindness
that
we pour out to others. We
do,
we have no ulterior motive.
We do it from our heart
because we want
to
love them. It's one of the
fruit of
the spirit.
You know, and we want to love people. But then I think of God's Word, and
He says we're
going to reap what we sow. And you know, out on the street they might say, what goes around, comes around.
that's right.
It's not about, the motive
is pure.
But God says, I believe. Well done, but just know you're going
to reap what you sow.
Maybe not in that moment. Maybe not in that week. It could be years later.
Something's going to come
your way. Because you lived your life being loving and kind to others.
Yeah. That's so good.
You know, I, I think about, um,
you know, I think for
some
of us, every once in a while, it is easy to lose our bearings when life is confusing and, and the thing that, that
has been
always my true north,
If I,
if I ever get confused if
if it's, if it by a sermon or scripture or what's happening around me.
Um, I, I go back to Jesus, you know, we've built one collective, you know, just, just exclusively around the ways, the life, the teachings of Jesus. And, And the beauty of that for us, Rick, has been
that, um, we probably have
three or four hundred different denominations represented in our ministry, but we don't argue about those things.
You know, we, we just. Focus around him and the cross and and all those kind of things and you know I'll tell people sometimes, you know, if you if you ever get confused about who God is look at Jesus Jesus was God and His best sermon in all likelihood, you know, here's his best parable was when he was being
tested
on, you know, you know, how do I have to get into heaven?
You know, what I have to do? The guy says, and Jesus says, look, dude, you already know, you know, love God, love your neighbor. He says, I've done those things, but he says, but who is my neighbor? And then Jesus lays out, you know, the parable of the good Samaritan, which ultimately comes down to two things.
He says
love God and love your neighbor.
What, does that mean to you to love your neighbor?
Yeah, um, first of all, the two greatest commandments I just love. And there's a part that sometimes we leave
off. And that
is on the second greatest commandment, which is
like the first. As you
just mentioned, love
your neighbor
as you love
Yourself.
yourself.
Yep.
Sometimes we think that's being selfish. Or we think, no,
it's not
about me.
It's about them. Well, and you're right. It is about them, but we can't love people well, unless we're happy with ourselves,
you know? So there's all this stuff that sometimes we, um, we want to avoid some of these
things because
we don't want anybody
to think, no,
I just do it because of
me or. No,
I'm okay, but I, they're hurting.
I get it.
Love your neighbor, but don't forget the part that says, as you love yourself. And if you don't
love yourself, figure it out,
because God loves you. God created you And you may have
some stuff in your life that you need to have somebody help you drill down
deep.
and see what all that's about.
Things from your family of origin, relationships, trauma, in the past, uh, there's ways to, uh, you know, um, get that out of the,
the mud in your way down in your life and deal with it.
You know, you can look at that, that, that part of that, that verse, you know, love, love as you know, love, love your neighbor. Just as you love yourself, and and you can go, there's, there seems to be about three ways you can go. You, you can. You can wrestle with because of all the self hatred or the pain or whatever to do that But you can also love yourself too much in a in a wrong way, right?
You know in a in a very selfish way. So so what does that middle ground look like? What do you think that that looks like?
I think for all
of us, if we are close
to Christ and we have the Holy Spirit, you know, you, you're saved, you got them all.
you got the Trinity,
right?
Right.
When
I, I would say the Holy Spirit, um, has me on a short leash
because
when, when my mind
gets a
little off target,
I am
convicted by it. And I think I've not a hundred percent, none of us are perfect,
but I think I've learned to
identify
when the Holy Spirit
is saying,
Um, you're, uh, you're on a slippery slope, you need to
come back here,
or when the enemy is trying to, uh, convict me of
something, because he knows that maybe I'm concerned about it. In other words, if all of a sudden I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I am, am I thinking, am I loving myself too much, doing
too many nice things
for me and not
others?
The enemy
sniffs that out, and he comes to us and
says, Well, yeah, you are. And even worse than
you think.
You know, it's, we've got to look to God every day. We've got to, and through the day. The Word says, pray without ceasing. What does that look like? It's just
commuting with God all day. It doesn't mean on your knees in your prayer closet 24 7.
No, it's not
that. It's like being
in an attitude of prayer.
and when God is
there deep, in you regularly, like a well worn path between you and God, you know, then if you get a little off
center,
the Holy Spirit will say gently in love, you need to back it, back it down a little
bit.
Yeah Yeah, it makes great sense.
You know, I've, I've stumbled onto something, um, Gosh, maybe six, six years ago, probably, you know, um, and I wasn't even thinking about this idea of
praying without ceasing, but I, I, I just came under this conviction.
I
thought, you know, every time I talk to the Lord about something I've done wrong, I'll often say, Well, you know, I was tired, you know, uh, you know, I, it was okay to eat that steak, you know, you know, I should have had green beans,
but you know, I've been
tired and, and, and I, it, it just occurred to me that, So many of my prayers had a, had, had a, uh, a rationalization
tacked on.
In other words, I I know I did this Lord, but you know,
you know,
it's okay. It's kind of okay. Cause
you know, I was
tired or whatever
whatever it might have been. And at some point I just thought to myself, you know, he knows every stinking thing about me inside, outside, everything.
Everything, everything.
Why in the world would I ever try to rationalize, um, with Jesus?
You know, why, why would I do that? He already knows. He knows everything. The minute I start to think I can pull the wool over his eyes, he already knows. So, where that led me was so fascinating because,
um,
What I found is that
I
kind of went into like a 24 7, 365 day a year conversation with Jesus. In other words, there was no real beginning and there was no real end.
I didn't need to bow my head or close my eyes
or kneel or whatever.
I was just like,
Yeah, let's
talk about that one,
Lord,
because that just popped into my head and we, and I
might be
driving and that, you know, like, I don't know if that's what Paul meant, you know, pray without ceasing. But what I will tell you is transform my, my journey with Jesus, because there's nothing we don't talk
about,
and there's no posture that I have to get into to talk
to him.
It's just like, Driving in the car. I'm gonna stop that song because we're gonna talk about something. And it's been,
it's been so
beautiful for me. And I don't know if other people do that or have experienced that, but for me, it has really made, made my intimacy with him just a very, very beautiful thing more than ever.
I, I, love that, and I relate
to that. There have been so many times, listen, there there have been plenty of seasons where I'm not in the Word,
I'm not praying as much
as I should, I'm just so on task checking my list off, and then you get, and then you get back, you know what I mean? But there have been so many times where I'm listening to the most amazing song, and a thought comes into my mind.
and I
gotta pause
it. And my flesh wants to say, God, I really love this song. Can we wait till the next one?
But I
pause it anyway.
And if you ever don't do it, man, I
feel, I don't feel
good. I don't feel
right. So I love
what you said.
And listen, um, there's plenty of
books
on prayer that give you practical ways to do it. I, great. I celebrate all that. I think it's great, but I'm just
saying. You and the Lord, me and the Lord, everybody who's watching
this, your relationship
with
Jesus
is your relationship with
Jesus. Don't
think you gotta
do it like the
next guy.
If the next guy
does something that you really relate to and it's worked great for you, awesome!
But don't be under conviction that you've got to color, you know, by the lines, you know, you don't have
to It's you and Jesus,
whatever it
is, Pray with your eyes closed. Pray
with your eyes open, you know, doesn't, I
mean, so many things,
God knows, He loves us, you
Yeah, that's so good. I think, you know, I don't know if this is partly because we're musicians, but, you know, like we
are,
we're creative
and
our minds are always working and they're,
they're not
always flowing in a formula. And so, so much of what can happen in
church is
we're taught lots of formulas to
follow.
And I've never been good with formulas, there's too many things to, to memorize, you know, so, but going with the flow with Jesus has been really cool for me, so, it,
it's really working, it's been beautiful.
I would say years ago, I used to say I love flying by the seat of my pants. But now I say I'm, I'm flying by the
seat of
the Holy
Spirit,
There you go,
It's whatever,
that's a
good way to fly, yep.
what it is. And I know that I am going to get from point A to point B without having to sweat bullets about
it.
It's like if people are going to come over to my house, um, I don't have to plan
a week ahead.
If they knock on the
door and I go, go to the door and there's five people
there,
we're going to come on in. We're going to figure it out,
you know? So, but I have great
respect
for people that have a need
to be more organized
than
that.
yeah, yeah, me too,
No, do it
my way. No, like, you know, Diana, my wife,
she feels
more at peace if she knows what's
going to
happen and prepare.
yeah.
Oh, I do it with her because
I want to love and respect her. But I know at the end of the day, if, if it were just me and who knows, there might be more train
wrecks, but I just
figure it's
the right thing's
going to happen, you know?
All right, let me ask you two, two contrasting questions, sort of jumping into another, another, uh, another place. So you, you're a dad, you're a grandpa, there are people listening to this podcast right now and they're, they're watching their kids. They're watching their grandparent, or they're watching their grandkids.
They're watching their kids and, they're trying to figure out this crazy next generation, you know?
because, you know,
God forbid somebody wants to be a saxophone player or a bass player or be a missionary, you know, um, what would your advice be to to those grandparents to those parents who are Who are they want the best for their kids,
but they
they kind of want to control it a little bit
Yeah. Uh, there's a real balance in all of that. You know, we have two grandchildren right now, our grandson's 17. Our granddaughter's
14.
Um, we have to.
remember.
a couple of things. One, the hip, we have to guide
them.
And if
we see
them going toward a
ditch, we got to do our best,
But at the same time,
they're going to have
to make their own mistakes.
And
the other thing is we have to remember we're the parents, not the, or we're the grandparents, not the parents, you know, and there, there was a time once, and
we have a very close
relationship with our daughter, Nina, who has our grandchildren. She, they live two blocks away.
It's amazing.
So good. There was a time we probably crossed the line a little bit about, you know, doing parent stuff instead of grandparent stuff.
And Nina, with all love in her heart, looked at
us and said,
guys, it's my turn.
You had your turn. This
is my
turn. And I, you know, that really resonated with me. It
doesn't mean we're out of the
picture. Never.
But we have to be discerning.
Yeah,
that's good. That's good
I'll tell you a funny story. So my wife, Diana had an uncle, Tony, uncle Tony went to heaven when he was way in his nineties, but uncle Tony had one
daughter.
And he, she got
married and he would,
um, he would go over their house every Saturday morning with donuts and he had a key to the house and he'd unlock the door, go
in, put the coffee on donuts on
the table.
They're still asleep. Okay. So we would always joke about it, how much he loves his family, but there would be times when I, You know, I'd be, we'd be helping Nina out. She'd be out of town or whatever. And we
go over and
straighten out or bring food over in the fridge. And I can remember one
time I said, Oh, Diana,
man,
I, I don't, I don't want to be uncle
Tony.
And she looked at me and she
said,
then stop making your daughter's bed. You know, I'm talking to
the pillows. So we've had
all
kinds of lessons on this stuff. It's stuff.
That is so great. All right, let me flip the question and then we'll start bringing it in for a landing. Um,
That was about
grandparents and parents.
What's
your message to, somebody in their, 20s today that really wants to make a difference and they're a little afraid to do it? They want to do something big for Jesus, but, there's, some kind of fear holding them back.
Yeah, I think I want to tell them the same thing I would anybody. You can do whatever you put your
mind to.
There's no question. God's equipped you
and, but you have to
know
if it's realistic. In other words,
uh, a young married couple, the
guy wants to be
whatever, a minister
or,
uh, in real estate, but he's making no money His wife is working, killing herself, and they still can't cover the bills. Now I got to say, buddy, you got to go find a job that will
pay the bills.
Don't lose your dream. You have to
provide for
your, that's your responsibility. And we go through this all the time. And even sometimes, you know,
when we would,
You don't want to help people. The church would want to help people, but we realize, um, if the guy was an executive, but just is not, can't get arrested anymore regarding that executive job and they come to us for help,
Mm.
I'm going to tell them who's hiring in the area,
you got to do
something and for the person that you know, pulls
up their bootstraps, And goes to work for whatever,
15, 14, 15, 16, 17 an hour, even if it's not enough, but he's doing it 40 hours a week, we'll help him all day long.
For a guy that's waiting around for the phone to ring, not so much. Now I went a little off. course there.
Regarding somebody
young
that
has a dream and wants to do something
big and important,
something that's on his heart, you need to be in prayer with
God.
stay close to God,
and you're going to know
when that happens and how that happens.
And you
have
to be discerning enough to, um, keep trying, never give up. Again, I can't help it. Not at the expense
of your
family that's waiting for
you to
be the man, be
the
husband, be the dad, and help the household. Does that
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It makes good sense. Okay. One, one last question.
Uh, so I,
I either heard about this or you and I talked about it. You're doing some type of massive big album, like bringing together all your greatest hits and something cool's happening, right?
Yeah,
I think so.
Yeah, this is, I've been
thinking about this for several
years. and kind of
diligently working
on it right now for like almost a year.
It's called
40, the ultimate collection.
And it's two,
two CDs celebrating 40 years
with
40 songs and a 20 page booklet
that has a bunch of pictures. And also it has what I would call a gratitude list.
And obviously There's
going to be people I either don't
remember or forgot, but honestly, there's probably 500 people on that list
because I just, I wanted to
just
say, thank you to somebody that was
walk me down the
road and also somebody that maybe
came in
and moved out, but was part of
my
musical experience.
I just want
to say,
I
recognize you
And everyone, everyone had a big part. And what I, Diana and I together, cause she's joined at the hip with
me in music.
But what I've done over those 40 years, whatever we've done, we want people to know
your presence made a difference.
Either you were an industry
professional, you were a band mate, you were on those 18 records represented, uh, with those 40 songs, or you were an advocate or something.
And then the family
section as well,
because I've never not included that in any of my projects. It's
just, to me it's putting
first things first.
Um, is it overkill? Well,
maybe.
But I'm doing it anyway. So that'll come out early
beautiful
Yeah.
end,
Do you say the end of the year
Early in the new year.
Early in the new year.
Okay. And how how will people get that?
They would go to, uh, they could go to, um, rickkuwa.
com and go to the store and it'll be up online for them to purchase there. And if you have any questions about anything, they could always
send me, you know,
a note at rick
at rickkuwa. com or even,
I'm not great
at Facebook
messenger, but now and then
I'll catch something
on there, but no, so I'm, I'm hopeful.
I'm excited. And it's just bookending the 40 years.
Yeah.
that's so cool. You know, you know, about those 500 people, like one of the greatest things that I was taught as a kid. Was to say thank you and you just can't say thank you enough to the people. I, every single person who's ever, you know, I, we all have stood on the shoulders of people who came before us and I am so grateful for them myself.
And so to say thank you when you have a chance is just a beautiful thing. So. Way to go. And I want to say thank you to you because you're somebody who's made my life better And I love you and appreciate you and you are uh, you're the real deal and i'm so glad we met uh 40 years ago
that was great. And
Scott, I can say the exact thing about
you. Every memory that we
have had made me richer and better. And we had a lot of fun in the process, too.
We had we had so much fun we can't
even talk about all the fun
we had
Right. Thank
God many were saved, many were encouraged to go deeper with the Lord.
God
used it. And for that, I know
we're both
grateful.
real.
Well, thank you. My friend. I appreciate you being on our podcast. I I uh, I I think I just wanted people to to get to hear your heart The love that you have
for people,
even just the idea of saying thank you Um, you know what it is what it looks like to love your neighbor and to and I love that you brought out You know love love your neighbor as you love yourself like clarity to that.
So thank you, my friend. So good to see you. Thanks for contributing and investing in our people.
and once
again, investing in me, love you a bunch.
And love you, and love to listening.
Okay. Thanks, my friend. Okay. Michael, anything you want to do that we missed or should have said, or
Did
did look
at rick
Did you look at our website at all? Okay,
but
I will.
Okay, okay.
yeah
Well, if there's
anything you want to do a little snippet of that will reference that, um, I'd be happy to do that as
well. I'm uh, uh, for
Uh,
the on behalf of the College but um, uh, the Board of Trustees. uh, and the uh, the next uh, uh,
the National uh will present Uh, is the California uh, we're California Association of Creative Social Uh,
Yeah,
be used on that
I made the
statement about one collective being built around the life and teachings of Jesus So there's a there's a little thing in there Yeah Yeah, I think we're good. Do you need me to do a
a,
an ending or are you you good? Yeah, is this going to be collective impact?
Okay.
All right. Well
folks, uh, it has been a great honor for me to be able to share my friend
Rick Kua with you. By the
way, it's Rick, R I C K, Kua, C U A. So if
you're gonna
go check out that, uh, that 40 year project, uh, you get there by going to rickkua. com. And, uh, thanks
for joining in today.
I hope it's been
a blessing
to you, uh, being friends with Rick has been such an encouragement to me and I wanted you guys to meet him and, uh, just, just because he, he shines the love of Jesus and good grief. Can we ever use that today? Right? So, uh, thank you. If you want to know more about
One Collective, you can go to our,
our website, onecollective.
org slash podcast can get you all kinds of extra information. That you might want
but uh,
thanks for your time today, and we'll look forward to the next time we're together Take care everybody.
Bye bye
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