Watch Canton Jones on The Kitchen Sink
by Jenny Bennett
You began singing at a very young age. What is your earliest memory of music?
Probably beating on pots and pans as a little kid. When I was 4 and my sister was 3, we formed a group called The Brother & Sister Stars. At the age of 5 my cousin and I formed a group called Newborn Leaders. My dad sang in a Gospel group so I grew up watching him. Music just came naturally to me.
You’ve been able to cross over into the mainstream world. What has that been like for you as a Christian artist?
I think people appreciate an artist’s general musicianship first. First they get into your craft and then they listen to your lyrics. Like when you’re looking at artwork, for example, first you look at the painting and then you get into the artist’s background and where he’s coming from.
The Bible says we’re supposed to be “wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove.” God’s message has the power regardless, but we should be smart about getting that message to people. If I go into a club, people are first going to notice the beat and the sound of the music. Then if you like what you hear, at the point when I give you Jesus, you’ll receive it.
See I believe Jesus is the door we walk through to get into a very big house. You can’t go through the back window or down the chimney; you have to walk through the door. But once you enter there is so much to explore. God is in our budget, in our diet, in our fashion – even in our sex – I can sing a love song to my wife and that is one way of honoring God. He’s not just in church, and I think we as Christians need to talk about everything. Mainstream stuff only becomes evil or the “devil’s work” if we let it – and we let it by not claiming it as God’s.
Pastor Creflo Dollar is a somewhat controversial figure. What’s your take on his message?
“Give and it shall be given unto you.” It works (for me)! Every time I’ve given something away I’ve received it back, and that is one of the main messages in his sermons. When you look at the money associated with his church, you also have to look at the size of that machine and what it takes just to keep it running. He is a businessman on the side in addition to being a pastor and as a businessman myself, I think that he’s been smart to do that. He’s made his own money for his own life. If you looked at the purchases he’s made, the car, the suits, the plane, and then you looked at the church and nothing that was being promised to that church was happening, then I’d say that something wasn’t right. But for example, there’s a $20 million children’s ministry just beginning in New York and lots of people are getting saved. So you have to look at the whole picture of what his church is doing in people’s lives.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
The highlight for me is just to be able to share God’s message and how big He is, and the gateway for me to do that is through music. God has been blowing my mind lately with the opportunities He has given me. I feel like this is just the beginning. Does that mean I’m going to do only Gospel music? No – but it means I will have the chance to show people who I am and to show them God's love.
