The 2025 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 67th GRAMMY Awards, will air live on CBS and Paramount+ on Sunday, Feb. 2. Watch highlights from the 2025 GRAMMYs on live.GRAMMY.com.

The 2025 GRAMMYs telecast will be reimagined to raise funds to support wildfire relief efforts and aid music professionals impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles. Donate to the Recording Academy's and MusiCares' Los Angeles Fire Relief Effort To Support Music Professionals.  

Editor's Note: This interview was conducted before the onset of the wildfires in Los Angeles. The artist has since addressed the situation.

Kirk Franklin has spent three decades redefining the sound of gospel music, crafting a legacy that transcends genres and captivates audiences across generations. From the moment his 1993 debut album, Kirk Franklin & The Family, skyrocketed to No.1 on Billboard's Top Gospel Albums chart, Franklin has seamlessly blended traditional gospel with the electrifying energy of R&B, hip-hop, and pop, creaking a body of work that resonates with music lovers from all walks of life.

A 20-time GRAMMY winner and trailblazer in gospel music, Franklin continues to shatter records — most recently, by spending a record-breaking 100 weeks at No.1 on Billboard's Gospel Songwriters chart. Hits including "Looking for You," "Declaration (This Is It)," "Try Love," and "All Things" (from his GRAMMY-nominated Father’s Day album) further cement his place as a leading contender for Best Gospel Album at the 2025 GRAMMYs.

What sets Franklin apart is more than his accolades or longevity. It’s his relentless drive, heartfelt songwriting, and boundary-pushing artistry that have made him a cornerstone of the gospel genre. At 55, Franklin shows no sign of slowing down.

"I'm still striving to get signed as a brand new artist. That's how I feel because my attitude is that I'm a brand new artist every time. I try to keep that type of posture because that's really important. I'm always looking for what's next, always looking for another moment,” Franklin shared with GRAMMY.com. "That experience hasn't gotten old for me. I don't feel any level of redundancy. I show up wherever I am, and at every moment, I am hungry, just ready to try and be as much as I can. And hopefully, with God's will, brand new." 

This tireless pursuit of innovation has opened the door to collaborations with a diverse array of artists from Chance The Rapper and Justin Bieber to Demi Lovato, Wyclef Jean, and GloRilla. Through it all, Franklin's name remains synonymous with gospel greatness, his influence cemented as a cornerstone of the industry. 

As he prepares for the 2025 GRAMMYs, Franklin reflected on the destruction caused by the recent Los Angeles wildfires. "My heart goes out to all the victims of the wildfires in Los Angeles. With such mass devastation, it's hard to even know where to start to lend a helping hand. My prayer is that God will recover what's been lost and for our people to get the resources they need to start to rebuild and repair," he shared. As Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said, “His unwavering dedication to his craft and his legacy of service embody the very essence of the Black Music Icon Award. We look forward to honoring Kirk for his profound influence on the industry and the countless lives he continues to touch worldwide."

Ahead of Music's Biggest Night, the multi-hyphenate visionary opened up to GRAMMY.com about his career milestones and how his music continues to resonate, redefine, and inspire the contemporary musical landscape. 

You've secured GRAMMY nominations throughout the years, but what does this particular nomination mean to you as an artist?

I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know if anyone will mean as much as last year because last year was number 20. That was just such a milestone. I'm humbled and grateful to be nominated again. Of course, you get nervous. You always deal with nerves, fear, and everything else when you're dealing with all that. I'm still blown away that I’ve been afforded this opportunity. But last year was number 20... and then I also performed, so it's hard to compare.

Now, you've had many career highs, but can you speak to one of your career lows and how it shaped you into the artist you are today?

Oh, man. I've had many career lows. I had seasons where, as the genre or as the industry was changing, I was trying to be able to still follow the sounds and trends. Because of the DNA of gospel music, I was not able to grab hold of every musical trend that would happen because people still come to gospel music for the message; there's this message of hope. They don't necessarily come for production.

When you try to make music that can stand up against any relevant sound that may be happening, you want your music to be as relevant and comfortable. But a lot of times, styles and different things may be a little too trendy for the moment for a message that is still built on these traditional fundamental messages. Those [times] can be some lows. Times when I may have been having problems with different groups that I was working with and not knowing if people still wanted to hear music from me, not knowing if I had a relevant voice because of these challenges. So, all those things can make you question yourself and make you feel irrelevant or unviable. Those are powerful moments for me.

You mentioned being trendy and staying relevant. You were recently featured on rapper GloRilla's debut album, and to some, it seemed like an unlikely pair. How did that collaboration come about? 

It wasn't me. That's my cousin, Ricky Earl. He just got out of jail, so he was not playing [laughs]. Okay. I'll be serious. It just came about. It is just something that I don't know why these people want to work with me. I don't know. But she liked my music, and she helped me out. It's a great honor because she's a very gifted, talented young lady, and she has the ear of millions of people. 

But you're no stranger to working with a variety of artists from different genres, from Chance The Rapper, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, and many more. So, what artists are on your collaborator wishlist? 

I would love to work with Sting. Sting is a monster. There are so many people. Let's see. Maybe Adele and Andrea Bocelli. I'm a fan of this famous classical cello player named Yo-Yo Ma. I would love to work with Yo-Yo Ma.

Nice list! Your music has touched many hearts and brought people closer to their faith. I'm curious. When you're not singing or creating, how do you personally talk to God and nurture that connection? 

I'm a very outdoors person, so it's nothing for me to turn a park or a bench by the river into my sanctuary or turn them into my church. I spend a lot of time outside with my emotions, just communing with God.

Switching gears to your album, Father's Day. You unpacked the complexities of your relationship with your father, both the pain and the pursuit of understanding. How were you able to make room for two truths to coexist, honoring your story while opening up about the wounds of the past?

Well, I think those are the fundamentals of life, which is that life will always be a duality, that all of our existences have this juxtaposition to them, and that is the trademark of a fruitful life. The complexities always follow us, painting and coloring the narrative of our human nature. If you do not have these dual sunshine and rain, joy and pain moments in life, then I suggest you're not living. It is a signature cosign of a fruitful life that tears and sleepless nights are also connected to victories and smiles. They are both necessary.

Your song "Welcome Home" on the album speaks to a profound sense of belonging, acceptance, and spiritual fulfillment. Can you elaborate on what home means to you? And how does this concept of home manifest in your music and your life?

I think that in the narrative of the song, home had to do more with what our ancestors would talk about, what our mothers and fathers would talk about when they talked about going to be with God, going to see him. A light after this, a lightness that has to do with eternity that I think, as people who subscribe to faith, has been the hope we hold onto as we have these trajectories through moments that feel like hell on earth. Those things have been the catalyst of our strength and power to survive these very challenging moments.

And so that's the premise of the "Welcome Home" song. It is those visions that we have, whether they at times can be imaginative or figurative or even literal for those who believe in these literal spaces and places that we read about in the Holy scripture. We use them, apply them, and find comfort in them, knowing that the world we live in is not the only one that exists.

Yes, absolutely. Another eye-opener. And you penned all of the songs on your latest release. What was your most intense writing session on this album?

I think they're all intense. I believe, for me, that songwriting is the most revealing truth that God exists. That's how God has always worked through my life through downloaded songs. It is a supernatural out-of-body experience that happens to me. It's something that I can't even bring language for; I've seen God speak songs out of nothing. That's why I've always found hope in knowing what I believe is actually real. In time and space, it just makes no sense how something can be created from nothing. 

Your Father's Day project transcended the traditional notion of a Father's Day celebration. It dived deep into the themes of family, forgiveness, and reconciliation, not just with your biological father but also with your son and the enduring power of love. With so many emotions, questions, confusion, and also confronting a sense of trauma head-on, can you talk more about the creative process and putting the pieces of this project together?

I think that, once again, it is what speaks to me, the divine hand of God in it, because there was nothing super unique about this that was different than any other project except for the pain that I still had to push through. But I've always had moments in my life where I've had to push through pain when it comes to working on certain projects. Whether it's your very first project you're working on, you have to write through the pain of being broke, homeless, and trying to figure out if anybody will ever listen to your music. So, writing through the pain and tension of life while working on an album is not something foreign to me. Once again, this was very therapeutic for me. Working on the music gave me a way not to have to internalize a lot of the grieving that I was experiencing at the same time. 

Thirteen albums later, your music still speaks to the layered complexities of everyday life for people from all walks of life. Was it always your intention to translate your own experiences and observations into songs that resonate with such a broad audience? Or, like you said, initially looking back, was it a form of therapy for you at the time?

I had no methodical plan for what I was doing [laughs]. I was just trying to find something to say about the hell I felt. That was it. I was not that pragmatic.

And it all worked out for you! We are all just trying to figure it out. That's life.

Yes, we're all trying to figure it out.

Beyond immediate achievements, what lasting change do you hope to create through your artistry?

That there are relevant and tangible conversations. [It is] not just a story about faith, but the real-life experience of a historical Jesus who historically lived and existed so that we could find truth, solace, and hope. Not just the narrative but the truth, whether it's through academia, literature, or history, that we can argue for the belief that what we write about, what we sing about, what we rejoice about when we struggle through the tensions of it is that these are built on foundational principles that are not just folklore or just a story of a legend.

We do this because we believe — whether through our own emotional experiences or the academic, intellectual process of being able to struggle with, question, and even reconstruct or deconstruct these thoughts and ideas — to find them to be fundamental truths that we can hang our lives upon.

Have you ever felt an added pressure to conform to current trends? Or do you prioritize staying true to your artistic voice?

Girl, I struggle with every temptation he ever created for us. Whatever that struggle and temptation is, just because I love Jesus, you think I'm not over here trying to figure out how to make people bob their heads? I'm trying to figure out how to get your attention. I struggle with everything everybody else struggles with. And I'm okay with that.

Thank you for speaking your truth. For decades, your music has been a source of light and hope for countless people, and sometimes, we forget that you're still nurturing your own light during challenging times or at any given moment. 

Isn't that amazing? People think that people who come from this community of faith are just automatically superhuman. It's amazing to me. Listen, most of the time, we can be the most broken. We can be the most messed up. Think about the heart surgeons who have to try and save lives every day. Some [lives] you can. Some [lives] you can't. Can you imagine them just going home, trying to have a cup of tea, and watch Conan O'Brien at night? We underestimate the pressure of those who are constantly trying to do emotional, spiritual, and physical surgery on people's lives every day and what that can do to their own faith. I'm first in line to say, "I need help." That's why I'm a Christian. I'm a Black man who prays and sees a therapist. So there it is.