Christian Music News: Artist Announcements and Insights

Higher Rock: First, of course, I want to thank you so much for taking the time out of your schedule, because I'm sure you’re very busy. 

Jon Brennan: I'm glad to be here. Thanks for asking me.

Higher Rock Music: We’re glad to have you and I'm excited. 

Now, when did you, because we all know John Brennan and we all know that you're a Christian, but when did you first accept Christ into your life?

Jon Brennan: I was a very small boy. 

Higher Rock Music: Oh wow, okay. 

Jon Brennan: I was 5 years old. I thought I was 8 years old, but I found my baptism certificate many years ago and realized I was five. We lived in Phoenix, Arizona at the time. Even though I'm from Kentucky, I say, I'm from Kentucky, but, We moved around a lot when I was young. I was actually born in Wisconsin, lived in Phoenix, Arizona and Baltimore and then Kentucky, but I got saved as a small child in Phoenix, Arizona.

Higher Rock Music: Now, were you born in a Christian home? 

Jon Brennan: I was.

Higher Rock Music:  I accepted Christ through actually a drummer in a band. He ministered to me about Jesus, and I was more in my early 30s when I got saved. 

Jon Brennan: Awesome!!! Well, that's a story you don't hear often. That's great. A drummer in a band. 

No, my mom and dad took us to church and, you know, in children's church we were coloring something and they were telling us the Gospel story and you know, I told my mom, I wanted Jesus in my heart. So Yeah, I remember it and I got baptized in the church and continued to grow in that decision and was discipled very well as a teenager and youth group at church and then I became a youth pastor for a while. 

Higher Rock Music: Wow. Now, after all this moving from place to place, you went to Nashville, and you attended Belmont for a period of time.

Jon Brennan: Right. A short period 

Higher Rock Music: I don't know how long. I mean, I don't know how long the schooling is, you know, it's a year or 2 years, but you went there for whatever amount of time.

Jon Brennan: Well. Yeah, I graduated high school in 1992 in Kentucky, just 2 hours north of Nashville.  I came down to Nashville to Belmont University. It was the 1st year it was Belmont University, before that it was Belmont College and they had a really good internship program, which put the students right into the music business, and I thought, you know, that's how I'm going to make it as a Country star, through this internship program at Belmont University. After one semester of college. That's when I got approached by MTV to go do the “Real World”.

Higher Rock Music: Yeah, that was my next question, like, how did that occur? I mean, was there auditions and you auditioned? Were they just walking in the University and said, “You know what?, You look like someone who we need for this part”. 

Jon Brennan: Well, it was neither of those, but it was more like the latter portion. They did have auditions, but I I did not audition. They wanted a Country music singer because in 1992, that’s when this was the 1st season of which I did not see, that they started casting for the 2nd version, which would be in Los Angeles, but they decided, you know, Country music is at the peak of popularity right now. So Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Vince Gil, Travis Tritt, and these big stars had really taken over and people that didn't even like Country music were all of a sudden big country fans. So MTV said, “Let’s get a country guy. Let's get a country music singer on the show”. So they came to Nashville and I just happened to be at a television taping for NBC. It was a primetime special called the Countdown at the Neon Armadillo, which is not a real place. It was the basement of the old convention center and they told everybody at Belmont, “Hey come over here and make this crowd of a 100 look like a crowd of, you know, 4000 so it makes it look like we're in this huge nightclub called the Neon Armadillo. We need you to stand around and clap and cheer and. we’ll make it look like there's a lot of people here”,  so they got Belmont students to come do that. So in between takes, when the big stars were singing their hits for this taping on NBC,  you know, they're giving away CDs, they're giving away stuff just to keep the crowd entertained and keep the crowd there present. So they said, “Hey, who's a singer?” And I raised my hand, they said, “Here, sing us a song”.

So they handed me the microphone and I sang something acappella, and soon as I was done, everybody was clapping, and, you know, we're waiting for the next big star to come out and do his taping, but this was just spontaneous entertainment. So then a guy walked up to me and said, “Hey, I'm working on this show here, but I also work for MTV and we're looking for somebody just like you for the Real World” and told me all about it. So I said, “Look man, I'm not interested in that. I'm going to stay here in Nashville” and he said, “No, No, No!! We're really looking for somebody just like you, an unknown young person”. You know, I told him I was from Kentucky, and so he thought, well, he'd never left the state of Kentucky in his life, probably pretty naive, and I was just exactly what they were looking for, and I told him no a 1000 times that I wasn't interested in moving to Los Angeles to be on a network that my mom had blocked from our cable box. And uh, he just laughed. 
He said, “Well, you're perfect”. I said “Why am I perfect?”. He said, “Well you’re stubborn, youre a little bit obnoxious and you're very opinionated”. I said, “Well, thank you”. He said, “Thats exactly what we're looking for for our show”, and I told him “No”. 

Then you know, my phone rang, my landline phone rang in my dorm at Belmont a day or 2 later and it was a lady named Mary-Ellis Bunim , who is the creator of Reality TV along with Jonathan Murray, and Bunim & Murray Productions and they created Reality TV and they created the Real World. 

Higher Rock Music: Oh, OK. 

Jon Brennan: So she called me and said, “John, if I fly to Nashville, would you let me buy you lunch”?  
MI said, “Well, I'll let you buy me lunch, but I'm not gonna be on your silly show”. So Mary-Ellis Bunim came and she flew to Nashville and another MTV Executive came with her and they took me to lunch and charmed me and convinced me that being on this show would really be a lot of publicity and helped me get my 15 minutes of fame, which would actually be about 15 years of fame and it would really help my music career and talked me out of Belmont Algebra. So I called my mom and dad and told them I was leaving the college they sacrificed to get me into to go join the circus in Los Angeles.

Higher Rock Music: The station they blocked. 

Jon Brennan: They were very supportive. Yeah, the station that they blocked on the cable box, but you know, I didn't listen to the music MTV was playing. Of course, I was a teenager, so I had grown up watching MTV and I heard all the music that was being played, at the pools, the mall and everywhere you went in public, but I was a Country Music Singer. I was a misfit on that show, and that's why they cast me, and what I realized is that, I was estranged to those roommates, as they were to me.They had never met a Country singer from Kentucky before and they had sure not met a Christian that was young and devout. 

So I did not get cast because of my faith. I got cast because I wore a cowboy hat and Garth Brooks was the biggest star on the planet at the time, but they very quickly realized that I was very devout in my faith. 

Higher Rock Music: Yeah. That's kind of my next question. Was it hard being a part of MTV’s Real World and being a devout Christian? I mean, because a lot of people will debate you on things or mock you or, you know, judge you and stuff like that. So was it hard at times for you?

Jon Brennan: Yeah, It was hard all the time. It wasn't just hard at times. It was very stressful because, you know, you realized you're in this very strange situation with strangers and you're being videotaped on television. and then in the back of your mind, you realize this is MTV, which at the time was the coolest outlet on the planet. 

Higher Rock Music: Right. 

Jon Brennan: and they're going to make me look, you know, bad, how's this going to come across? Am I going to look like a dork? You know, the word canceled had not really been invented yet, but, you know, am I going to be well liked?, or are they going to make me look silly any editing process? Am I going to say the wrong thing? There's a whole lot of stress involved in how's this really going to look when it comes out on MTV?

Higher Rock Music: Right.

Jon Brennan: So it was very, very hard. We had the 1st open lesbian on the show, before Ellen DeGeneres and before everybody else. We had 2 ladies named Beth, Beth A, was the 1st openly gay female on television and I had an alcoholic I lived with. I had a roommate that became pregnant and had an abortion, which was documented on the show, that had never been shown on television before, that had never been documented, a young person going through, you know, that dramatic experience. And, you know, “John, what do you think of your roommate's abortion?” And I'm like, well, I mean, You know, from Southern Baptist Christian, morals and background. I was very opinionated about what I thought but at the same time, I wanted to come across loving and I wanted to support my roommate through a very difficult thing she was going through. So it was just a lot of stress. It was a lot of stress and I was representing my state. I was representing the whole south. I was representing Southern Baptist. I was representing Country music. I was representing my family name. I was representing myself. I was representing my hometown. It was just a lot of stress. 

Higher Rock Music: Yeah. It seems like a lot. 

Jon Brennan: It was stressful for everybody. Everybody that lives on a Reality TV show is, you know, under that stress. It's not just the me, you know.

Higher Rock Music: Well, it's so many different people you don't know, with different personalities, all coming together,  you're going to expect some sort of collision here and there.

Jon Brennan: Right.

Higher Rock Music: Now, I want to get into what Jon is doing now. So, you performed at the Grand Ole Opry, which is a very huge and exciting accomplishment. What was it like for you?

Jon Brennan: Yeah, I got to sing with John Connolly, who's a legend and an Opry member. I had remade one of his songs that was a hit back in 1984, number one song. I'm a fan of his and I had gotten to open up a show for him in my hometown and he heard my version of the song that I cut and said, “Well, I really like what he's done with my song”. So the guy that played it for him said, “Well, he's dying to sing this with you at the Grand Ole Opry”. He said, “You tell him to come this weekend. We'll sing it?. 

Higher Rock Music: Oh wow.

Jon Brennan: So I got to sing about half a song and he sang the other half, and I got the 5th in there in the world famous circle, because I said in the dressing room, “John Colley, You think they'll let me stand in the circle” and he goes, “I'll tell you what, I'll just move out of the circle and you come stand there”. So he was very, very, very gracious and kind. He shared his segment of the show that he did not have to do. He did not have to call me out to sing his song with him but he was very gracious, and you know, when I came out, he introduced me, he said, “Y’all welcome John Brennan”.  You know, he wasn't the MTV age of person that watches the Real World so he didn't really know who I was, but he knew I was somebody. 

He said, “John, tell them who you are, because in other words, I'm going to mess it up if I try to say it, you tell him”. So I said, well, before there was Big Brother, before there was Survivor, before there was the Kardashians, there was me on MTVs, the Real World and you could just hear all over the Opry house, people all of a sudden recognized me. They're like, “0h my gosh, that's the guy John, that, we watched him growing up on the Real World and, you know, they didn't recognize me until, I said that, and so, you know, all of a sudden, there was applause and whispers across the Opry house and it's like, “0h my gosh, that's the kid from MTV. He's on the Grand Ole Opry”. 

So it was a great experience. I'd love to return and sing much more than, you know, just one song with John Connolly. I love to come back and well, to be really honest with you, I'd love to sing there so many times that they make me a member of the Grand Ole Opry. A real life goal for me. 

Higher Rock Music: That's amazing. I'm sure you'll get there. I'm sure you can accomplish it. Yes, you got to speak it into existence. I'm sure it's gonna happen.

Jon Brennan: Well, I hope so. I'm running out of time here.

Higher Rock Music: Now, your current single “Tell me that there Ain’t a God”.  Now, how is that single doing? And what inspired you to write that song?

Jon Brennan: Well, I didn't write this song. I did write a song. My 1st comeback song when I decided to come back to Nashville 5 years ago and dedicate my, my full effort to music again was called, “I ain't done singing yet”!  I did write that song with a guy named Aaron Raitier, who's written big, big hits, including the big hit by Riley Green and Ella Langley, “Excuse me, you look like you love me”. I had another song called “True Story”, but this song, to be really honest with you, is a better song than I could have written. 

This current song is called “Tell me that there Ain’t a God”. It was written, cowritten by Greg Barnhill, who wrote “Walk Away Joe” for Tricia Yearwood, Don Henley sang backup on it back in the 90s, a huge, huge monster Country hit, “Walk Away Joe” and he wrote a song called “House of Love” for Amy Grant and Vince Gill which is the song that they collaborated on, and I think that's where they met and fell in love, actually. He wrote this song, “Tell me that there Ain’t a God and Tim McGraw heard it and loved it, and had it on hold for many, many years, meaning no one else can record it. He's probably going to record it and he just never did, but he he loved the song, eventually he gave it back to Greg Barnhill, the songwriter, and just said, “Man, this is a great song, but I'm probably not going to use it”. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on the song and when I heard it, it was exactly what I wanted. It was exactly what I needed. It was exactly what I would love to say to the world and I knew that, that song was written for me to sing.

While I didn't write it, it's exactly what I want to say because it expresses faith, but it's a conversation with 2 people on an airplane that meet and one guy says to the other guy, “Hey man, there's no God”, and he says, “What do you mean?”. He said, “I've never seen any miracles. I don't see any evidence of God”. He goes, “They’re all around you. You just took a breath. That's from God. Your heart just beat in your chest. That's from God. Everywhere you look, it's a miracle. In fact, if you don't believe in miracles, you're sitting right next to one. I'm a miracle”.

So  it's just a great conversation, but it's not preachy and for a doubter or an unbeliever or a skeptic. It's not going to feel like you're being browbeat, you know, with the gospel. It's just a conversation that's friendly and a different perspective and its a great melody. I'm really big on melody. I think it's a beautifully written song. The words are phenomenal. The melody is great. I just feel like the song was made for me to sing. It's a Country music song, but it's a Country music song about faith and it's a Country music song about doubt also. You know, I'm under the impression that you can't have faith unless there's some element of doubt. So it's a song for everybody.

Higher Rock Music: It's a great song.

Jon Brennan: Well, I appreciate you love the song and the video is incredible. 

The video and the song are available for purchase at www.jonbrennan.com, and it's not yet streaming because, just to be honest with you, I'm trying to get people to buy the song from me directly until we get it up on streaming. It just works out better for the artist. So, please purchase it directly from the artist, anyone that's listening to this or reading this. Please go to the websites and support artists directly. 

Higher Rock Music: Absolutely.

Jon Brennan: It will be on the streaming platforms as well, but the video is phenomenal. It has been released to a genre of Country music that we call positive Country music, which is Country music about faith, family, and home. Kind of along the lines of faith Country or we call it positive Country and it was number one on that chart for 6 weeks, and more recently was number one on another Christian Country chart, but, you know, those are great charts, and it's a great genre of music, but I'm going for mainstream country, and so we just launched a major effort to get it on the big boy Country stations. It's been number one song for 3 weeks and now 2 weeks on another chart, We're trying to get it to be heard by the mainstream and so that the masses can hear it. So we're going for the big boy Country stations.

Higher Rock Music: Oh, congratulations on that.

Jon Brennan: Well, thank you very much.

Higher Rock Music: It definitely is good for viewers and fans to purchase your music from you personally, because you get more of the purchases. 

Jon Brennan: Well we get all of it that way, to be honest with you. 

Higher Rock Music: What about apps/streaming?

Jon Brennan; Well, they're getting none, to be really honest with you, they're getting none. I mean, to stream a song from an artist,  unless that artist is getting 10s of 1000000s of and some artists are. Some artists are getting big, big, big streams, but it takes 3 streams to make a penny for an artist on Spotify or
these other streaming apps. So you go to a website or you buy a CD at a concert or you, you know, get a download link from the artist directly. That's really supporting the artist. And I'm not just saying, hey, please do that for me. I'm saying, please do that for all artists that you support. Buy their t-shirt, buy their concert ticket, download their music from the website of the artist because when you stream it, it only helps the streaming platform. It doesn't help the artist at all.

Higher Rock Music: OK, family did you hear that. Support the artist directly from their site. Now, you traveled to many places outside the United States. Which place do you think was one of your favorite places to go to?

Jon Brennan:Well, I've been to 13 different countries for a variety of different reasons. I've been a missionary. I've been in ministry and frankly, the MTV shows have taken me out of the country to wonderful places as well. 
I really, really have grown to love East Africa. I spent a lot of years in Uganda and Kenya and I really, really love East Africa. I've been to Hong Kong, Australia, Central America and Haiti. I love to travel and see new places and do ministry and meet new people and enjoy the culture there. 

You
Thats such a blessing. Yeah, my previous pastors from Haiti, so I know a lot about 

Higher Rock Music: Now you started in 2023 a podcast, with a previous cast member of yours with the “Real World”, Beth S and I'm not even going to try to say her last name because I don't want to mess it up.

Jon Brennan: Well, Beth Stolarczyk, we call her Beth S. She’s still on Reality TV. She's on the Challenge, All-Star version on Paramount+ and MTV but she was my roommate on the Real World 33 years ago.

Higher Rock Music: Yes, I remember. 

Jon Brennan: That's right. 33 years ago, in 1993, we lived in that Real World house in Venice Beach, and
we have a Podcast called “Getting Real with John and Beth”, and we have other Real World cast members from our season, but from all of the seasons. We have people from Big Brother, we have Music industry people. We have people from the Challenge. We have people from, you know, any type of Reality show, but yeah, it's called “Getting Real with John and Beth”.  A quick Google search will bring that up. And we drop a new episode every Monday.

Higher Rock Music: Well, that's what I was going to ask as well, what are some of your topics or did you have other like guests come on, but you did just answer? But how did

Jon Brennan: You know, we have. Well, we talk to people from the Real World. We just had CT, Chris Tamburello, he goes by. He's, won the Traders on NBC Peacock. He just won the Traders. He’s been on the Challenge about 20 times. He originally was introduced to the world through the Real World in Paris. Real World Paris was this season, which was the 13th season of the Real World. We just had him on. That episode is going to actually drop this coming Monday, but we also recorded and is not yet out, Gunner Nelson, from the rock band Nelson, who is the son of Ricky Nelson, the teen idol, and Ozzy and Harriet’s were his grandparents from the Adventures of Ozzy and Harriet. So, Gunner Nelson’s episode is coming soon. That'll be fantastic.

Higher Rock Music: Yes, that's great. Now, how did you come up with a name “Getting Real with Jon & Beth?

Jon Brennan: Well, Beth and I just talked about, “Hey, we can't call it the Real World but you know, we want people to come and be authentic on the Podcast and we want to talk about real life, and let's call it “Getting Real”, you know, it's kind of got the word real there, which is, uh, you know, nostalgic for the Real World, the show that we were known for.

Higher Rock Music: Now, are you doing any shows or touring or anything like that right now?

Jon Brennan: Not yet. I'm trying to get a radio hit with this song, “Tell me that there Ain’t a God”. I got to get some exposure to where there's some demand so people will want to come hear me sing and do a full concert. So right now, I'm doing a lot of writers rounds in Nashville. I'm doing a couple different showcases here and major effort and financial campaign to get my song on the radio but I do want to travel and do concerts, but I have to get the cart before the horse. I was touring, going from state to state, I didn't have a hit song. I was just the guy on the Real World and that eventually fizzled and went away as they made new versions of the Real World and you know, I had the cart before the horse because I was touring with no music and I was singing original material, but it wasn't anything anyone was familiar with. So, I was just the guy from the Reality show. So, you know, really, I need to get things in order and have a hit song and then go tour in support of the music this time and and not get it backwards.

Higher Rock Music: It makes perfect sense. Now, what should we possibly expect to see coming from you in the near future, more shows, more releases? 

Jon Brennan: Well, the  Spotify algorithm is about every 6 weeks they want a new song from you. So
you can expect a new song dropping on digital streaming platforms, hopefully every 6 to 8 weeks.You can expect me probably for the majority of 2026 really pushing this song, “Tell me that there Ain’t a God”, as far as my big radio release, and then I'll be going back into the studio, as hopefully finances allow, and cutting new songs and continuing to release music on the digital streaming platforms, but also releasing songs with an effort to get that played on radio.

Higher Rock Music: Okay. Now, we will have for the viewers, all your different social media platform links so that they can go and support you on all these different ones. That’s really all the questions I have today. I didn't want to take up too much of your time because I can go on forever.

Jon Brennan: Well, I'm, Really thrilled that you had me on. I’m very, very active on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, and my music is on Spotify, Apple Music. It's everywhere, but www.jonbrennan.com is a great place to send people to because there's very quick links to all of those things, including my music, including my social media links, www.jonbrennan.com is a good hub to go to for anything John Brennan. 

Higher Rock Music: Okay, sounds great. Thank you so much, John and I watched your season. That was the best season around. I loved you. I love Beth S. It was just great. 

Thank you so much again, John. I appreciate it. God Bless.