I Grew Up On Rock And I’m Not Hiding It

Forget tidy boxes. I grew up harmonizing to soft rock while training my voice in gospel, and that mix still shapes every note I sing and every song I love. Today I open that door and invite you into the real soundtrack—Queen on the shelf next to Bread and America, melody-led and lyric-first, clean and crafted.

We unpack why people are shocked when a gospel singer loves classic rock, and why that surprise misses the point. Genre is a frame; craft is the picture. I talk through the bands that raised my ear, the records my sister and I wore thin, and the lessons those songs taught me about phrasing, harmony, and restraint. If you care about arrangement, vocal placement, and the kind of writing that lingers without shouting, you’ll hear why “good music” isn’t about labels—it’s about standards.

I also share where we’re headed next: a new year of music stories, guest voices, and playlists that put melody and meaning first. Expect conversations about the art of “clean” production, songs that last across decades, and the practical ways soft rock sensibilities can refine gospel performance. We’ll swap first favorites, pull apart the choices behind timeless choruses, and celebrate artists who keep the heart of a song intact.

If you’ve ever felt torn between the music you make and the music you grew up loving, this is your permission slip to bring it all with you. Press play, then tell me the band that raised you and the track you still can’t skip. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves classic rock or gospel, and leave a review so we can grow this music room together.

Music

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Chapters

• 0:00 Owning A Surprising Musical Past
• 1:28 Rock Bands That Shaped My Ear
• 3:08 Defining Good, Clean Music
• 3:55 A New Year Of Music Conversations
• 4:33 Preparing Listeners For Genre Mix

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:10

You know what's really I'm I I wanna say funny, but I'm not gonna say funny. You know what is strange or I don't even want to say strange. You know what is weird? When I tell people that I grew up listening to rock music, they're like blown backward because it's like you you but you sing gospel and you d I'm a singer, yes. I am a person that interviewed different people from walks of uh life. Um but as a kid, and this take a lot of people by surprise. My sister Laura, my closest sister, and the one that I grew up with, we listen to exclusive rock music. And this kills people when they hear it. What there's not a band that you can not we cannot name, we could have named like I even right now know bands like Bread and It's Heart and all of these great bands. So we grew up on that type of music, listening to it, singing it. So I I don't want people to find it strange now that I still like good music, not a lot of music with Carson and all that stuff in it, but I still like good music. I really do. I still like the bands that I grew up on, like Brad and all the other great bands. I mean I still like it, so I'm not gonna try to conceal that part of my life because I really like it, I still like it. So coming in the new year, I'm going to be talking about it. Maybe I have guests on that talk about their favorite bands and groups and music, just a whole music show is what I'm going to bring you coming in a new year, God's willing. I thought I would say that. So I just want to say that because don't let that take you by surprise if you hear me playing a little bit of um queen or playing some bread or playing some of my favorite songs of Marica. You know, it just is what it is. I know what I like, and I know what I still like. The good, soft, clean music. Yeah, I say clean. That's the kind I grew up like. So coming in the very new future, the Janice Warren Audio Series, Princess. Thanks for listening, guys.