Amazing Greats shares inspiring Christian testimonies and faith stories from professional athletes, actors, authors, musicians, and other remarkable guests. Each episode explores how Jesus transformed their lives, strengthened their faith, and worked through both success and hardship.
Host Ric Hansen goes beyond careers and accomplishments to uncover the defining moments when faith became real. Every episode explores hope, redemption, purpose, and the remarkable ways God continues to work through ordinary and extraordinary people alike.
Amazing Greats is building one of the largest libraries of modern Christian testimonies from influential people.
•Ric Hansen, Klem Daniels, Joe Michaels, Larry Lomax, Ana Kelly, Kent Phillips, Scott Burns•Season 1
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Basketball, horses and a 6' 9" Dad with a handlebar mustache and a cowboy hat! Learn more about this media giant in a quick glance bonus episode of Amazing Greats. Meet one of our professional broadcast hosts, Klem Daniels, and learn how God has played a role in his life.
"Amazing Greats" is a library of interviews with highly successful people who have amazing career and life stories and who share how God has impacted their journey. Hosted by broadcaster Ric Hansen & produced by Klem Daniels. Available on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Google and our YouTube Channel. Please help us grow our audience by "liking", "subscribing and "Sharing". Thanks so much.
SPEAKER_01
Hi, I'm Clem Daniels, one of the hosts for Amazing Greats.
SPEAKER_00
What was life like growing up for you?
SPEAKER_01
My childhood interests were in sports. For one, I was a basketball player. My dad was 6'9, so naturally it better follow in my genes or his genes. And um my dad also liked horses. So that we moved to Bainbridge Island from Seattle, and and we ended up raising 13 Appalaosas, and we had horse shows every weekend, and I showed a lot. Um, I either did uh confirmation uh a class, which was on the on the horse or or a pleasure class, um, or I did equitation, which was judged on me. Um we had two horses, one was uh a stud that was three years state champion, and a mayor that was also three years state champion. So we were at it a lot. So um I look back on that fondly, and uh people ask, Do you wish you had horses today? You know, I I did it so much that I don't think I ever want to clean out another stall.
SPEAKER_00
Tell us more about your family.
SPEAKER_01
Well, like I said, my dad was 6'9, so that was always an impression that was made wherever he went because he was in cowboy boots and wore a cowboy hat, so he was like seven feet tall, and he had a big handlebar mustache. I mean, he was some people either thought he was weird or he was really cool. Uh so we had that in the house. This this this oversized person, uh the tall-wise, but uh, and it was quite an impression. But uh my mom was uh a great mom. She was a 4-H leader, and I was in 4-H, and she supported all the sports, uh, the sports that I was in, and the rest of our kids. I had a twin sister, so we shared our birthday together. I let her, I let her share it with me, you know. Um, and uh, but she's also older than me by one minute, so she she lets me know that. And I have a younger brother and a sister. So uh, you know, uh kids uh four in the car. It's we're always going someplace doing something, and uh it was always fun-filled.
SPEAKER_00
What led you to a career in media?
SPEAKER_01
Well, I did radio for uh nearly 30 years. Um, I'm a videographer now, and and I also uh still produced produce audio, but um I was at 13 years old, I was I was listening to the radio on a little bit now and then, and a guy in high school said, uh, you want to do you want to win contest on the radio? And I went, Yeah, right. He says, No, this is what you do, and so I did it. And it was to back in the day, if you called into a request line and they took your request and then they hung up and you didn't, you still own the line. So, you know, when the contest came around 10-15 minutes later, I was calling number five, number 10. Hey, who's this? All right, you want like I won a lot, a lot of AW root bear is what I won. So um, I guess when I was in college, I I was taking business and I didn't like it. So my third quarter, my spring quarter, I said, let's thumb through the book and see what uh what interests me. And introduction to radio and television and um journalism and things like that were really things that uh really excited me. So that was the end of that or the beginning of it anyway, the end of business and uh the rest, I guess, is history. Uh, I did like two and a half years, you know. When you're in radio, you've got to get into radio, you just you can't stay in college because otherwise you'll be too old by the time you get you know, get your first station, and then by the time you get to your major market, which um didn't take me too long, but I have a thing called the pukes. I talked uh like a Ronnie radio. Um, I call it the pukes because you're throwing up every word. Hey, uh, I'm a disjuncke on the radio. Hey, uh I'm pretty good, aren't I? Yeah, so I'll just like everybody else on the radio. Well, I didn't sound like anybody on the radio, but except for some guy puking up his word. So um I went to broadcast school and I had took me a month to hear that and then a month to get over it. So I was thankful that I did because otherwise I wouldn't have had a career. But again, 30 years in in radio, so it's been fun.
SPEAKER_00
Have you ever felt starstruck during an interview you've done with someone famous?
SPEAKER_01
Star struck. I suppose um I did a show called Words and Music, and uh I interviewed over a hundred artists: uh Billy Joel, uh Pointer Sisters, Harry Chapin, Captain and Tanil, uh Emerson Lake and Palmer, you know, some really high-profile people. And uh I could have been starstruck with all of them, but I was with him for so long, a full hour. This was not alive on the air, so this show was going to be produced after the fact. So I could ask him anything. I remember asking Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. Now, think about this. If you ask someone like him, what were you like as a kid? When was the last time he was asked that? His, you know, his crew, they don't care. His brothers already know what his childhood was like, and if he was on air, there's no time for a question like that. So I could open up the Pandora's box just because I had an hour-long interview, and I got some really interesting answers from some really interesting people. By the way, they were all great, they were all just super people.
SPEAKER_00
How would you describe your faith journey?
SPEAKER_01
I was an atheist in high school. My sister was not, she was what they would consider a Jesus freak at the time, and she took it so far over the top that I didn't want to have anything to do with it. Uh, it would have taken away all my fun. I wouldn't have been able to do anything, it'd be you know just boring and uh you know, straight-laced. And and I look back on that and go, well, I suppose that wouldn't have been too bad, but um it wasn't that wasn't meant for me at the time and getting to where I was. Um faith. Well, it's been a long process. Um, I wasn't reborn, um, I didn't give my life to God um like a lot of people do. Um, it just happened. I just believed in my heart that Jesus is there. God is there. How did we get to where we are today? I mean, you think about just the earth and how it operates in the universe, and all it's just everything, it's just magical. I mean, um, there had to be something behind that. And um, I have felt God's presence many times. Um, maybe not as much as somebody who is who's who's reborn or and open maybe a little bit more to it on a daily basis. I think you have to have your blinders off and and and let it come to you. But something happened to me. I wanted to do there's a group of um that I attend to uh on a regular basis, it's fellowship. And I said to the person who has put this on for 20, 30 years, I said, how and he came over to me after the meeting, and I don't even know where these words came from. I said, I want to produce your story, I want to tell everyone how this all happened and what's behind it and how it started. And as I'm saying all this stuff, I don't know why I'm saying it, and but I was 100% committed to it. And I walked out of the building and I still felt that way. I felt that way when I got home, saw him two weeks later, said the same thing to him. And while I was doing it for three years of a three-year project, I interviewed 16 different people, but I was 110% into this. And the only reason I feel that I was is because God was guiding me to do that. So I guess that's where my faith lies, is in things like that that that that tell me that okay, you've got somebody watching out for you and helping you. Just stay your take those blinders off and stay open minded and let it happen.
