{"id":105815,"date":"2023-10-02T21:16:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T21:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/10\/02\/myjoyonline-com-2\/"},"modified":"2023-10-02T21:16:30","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T21:16:30","slug":"myjoyonline-com-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/10\/02\/myjoyonline-com-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2013 MyJoyOnline.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

When Kirk Franklin began working on a new album earlier this year, the\u00a0Grammy-winning musician\u00a0had no idea what was in store.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve had a behind-the-scenes videographer capturing content for the making of a project,\u201d Franklin, 53, says of working on his 13th album. \u201cI recorded the first song in March. Then in April, everything shifted and became something I could have never planned for.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the cameras ended up capturing was an intense, emotional journey the star went on after suddenly learning who his real biological father was. He also saw it as an opportunity to reconnect with his estranged eldest son Kerrion, 35, whom he hadn\u2019t seen in a decade.<\/p>\n

Franklin has compiled the footage from these events into a short documentary streaming on September 15 on his\u00a0YouTube channel\u00a0ahead of the October 6 release of his new album. Both projects are aptly titled\u00a0Father\u2019s Day<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now Franklin is sharing with PEOPLE what all it\u2019s taken to get to this point, along with an exclusive clip of the moment his doctor delivered the news of his biological father\u2019s paternity.<\/p>\n

\"Kirk
Kirk Franklin and Richard Hubbard.\u00a0COURTESY OF FO YO SOUL ENTERTAINMENT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy life before I had a career was horrific,\u201d says Franklin. Long before he became the guiding voice of gospel music, orchestrating decades of hits like \u201cRevolution\u201d and \u201cWanna Be Happy?\u201d, Franklin experienced a tough childhood growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, where he was adopted at age 4 by a woman at his church. <\/p>\n

According to Franklin, his birth mother, then a young teen, was unable to care for him. Though he knew who she was, they rarely connected during his youth and he often felt abandoned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lived being bullied as a kid. I had a learning disorder, I failed out of high school. I got a young lady pregnant when I was 17 and the church crucified me for it,\u201d he says, recalling his early hardships. \u201cIt\u2019s like I never had anybody take up for me or who had my back.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the woman who adopted him, \u201cShe was 64. She was a widow and did the best she could when I was young. She got on government aid and would find money to pay for my piano lessons,\u201d he says. \u201cBut by 12 or 13 I felt abandoned by her because I could tell I became more of an irritant. I wanted to date and go out and I always felt like I was inconveniencing her. It just added to the feeling of displacement.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Franklin was 6 he was introduced to a man his biological mother said was his biological father. \u201cI didn\u2019t see him again until I was 13 and then he started showing up at concerts after my first album came out,\u201d he says. \u201cI was angry at the fact that I did not have a father and he would dare show up once my life seemed to have some sense of order. Same for my biological mother.\u201d Franklin says she, too, began to turn up more as his career took off. \u201cIt was very traumatic for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man Franklin long thought was his biological father died in recent years. But while recording his new album, a singer he had hired from his hometown told him that she\u2019d met a man at a funeral who said he\u2019d once dated Franklin\u2019s mom. <\/p>\n

The man\u2019s name: Richard Hubbard \u2014 and he\u2019s lived in the same neighborhood Franklin grew up in all of his life.<\/p>\n

As rumours swirled that he might in fact be the star\u2019s father, Hubbard submitted a DNA test. The results were a 99.9 per cent match for paternity. \u201cTo live over half a century with somebody who lived in the same city as you\u2026\u201d says Franklin, who is still grappling with the news, \u201cI suffered so much as a young man without guidance. I struggled with love, intimacy, faith, identity. And to know that the answer was less than 10 minutes away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kirk
Richard Hubbard and Kirk Franklin.\u00a0COURTESY OF FO YO SOUL ENTERTAINMENT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The documentary captures an emotional first meeting between the star and Hubbard, who was 14 or 15 when Franklin was born and says he never knew he\u2019d fathered a child at that time. \u201cHe is a great guy,\u201d Franklin says Hubbard, who also has a daughter. \u201cShe\u2019s been honest about how hard this is for her as well, learning not only does she have a brother but that that brother is Kirk Franklin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite finally knowing the truth, Franklin says things aren\u2019t perfect. As shown in the documentary, his biological mother refuses to accept the DNA results, even after a second test was completed. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s just very adamant that this man is not my father,\u201d he says. \u201cI have not heard or talked to her since the second test result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Someone he has reconnected with is his own son, Kerrion. The two have had tension for years and experienced a very public falling out when Kerrion released audio of a heated conversation with his dad in 2021. Prior to the meeting shown in the documentary, it\u2019d been two years since they\u2019d spoken.<\/p>\n

\"Kirk
Kirk and Kerrion Franklin.\u00a0COURTESY OF FO YO SOUL ENTERTAINMENT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy son is a beautiful soul. There are parts of his life that are his to share. I am just very proud that I\u2019m seeing him in his own way,\u201d says Franklin, stopping short of detailing what all plagues their relationship. \u201cHe is beginning to reveal and testify to his struggles, his own battles with certain things that have at times cost him. I know many young Black men struggle with these same things and as he continues to get help and healing he\u2019s going to help so many. He has me and now his grandfather that will be there to help in any way we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kirk
Kirk and Kerrion Franklin.\u00a0COURTESY OF FO YO SOUL ENTERTAINMENT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After all that\u2019s transpired this year, Franklin, who\u2019s also father to daughters Carrington, Kennedy and son Caziah with his wife Tammy, has been reflecting on his own experience as a dad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have fathered out of fear the majority of my parenting life,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause of what I experienced, I was like \u2018I\u2019ll be damned if I let my kids feel that type of pain.\u2019 So a lot of times I over-parented and over-performed, bought too many bicycles, ran off too many boyfriends, just wanting to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to learn,\u201d he adds. \u201cMy children have been the best part of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s folded all of these experiences into his inspirational new gospel album. \u201cThe title\u00a0Father\u2019s Day<\/em>\u00a0has triple meaning,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe logline is, \u2018It\u2019s what I missed, where I am and what has always been.’\u201d And after all he\u2019s been through, \u201ceven when I want to curse the sky,\u201d he says, \u201cI\u2019m still built to believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franklin\u2019s new documentary\u00a0Father\u2019s Day\u00a0is streaming on YouTube.<\/em><\/p>\n

]]><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Kirk Franklin began working on a new album earlier this year, the\u00a0Grammy-winning musician\u00a0had no idea what was in store. \u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve had a behind-the-scenes videographer capturing content for the making of a project,\u201d Franklin, 53, says of working on his 13th album. \u201cI recorded the first song in March. 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