 The Lord carry us through difficult times and places us where we can carry others and share His love, protection, grace, and forgiveness. After being born to parents dealing with addiction, Nathan Sheridan and his sister Sarah were raised by their grandparents in Louisiana. At a young age, Sarah was diagnosed with brain cancer and passed away shortly after. Not knowing where to turn, Nathan enlisted in the U.S. Army at 17, where he was serving in the states and overseas for the next six years. It was during this time he started using music to share his faith and his powerful testimony. This is his story. This is Today's Nashville. This is faith. Nathan, I have heard a lot about you. Welcome to Today's Nashville. I'm so honored to have you on the show. Thank you for inviting me. It's an amazing experience anytime I get to do something like this. So, tell me about your life and how you got into music and where it all started. Where were you born? I was born in Port River, Louisiana. My life story kind of starts off in a kind of a unique way. My parents weren't really the best parents, so to speak. And they weren't really in a position to raise me or my sister due to drug addiction, alcohol, just certain life choices they had made. And it was always this thing back and forth between them and my grandparents, between who was raising us. How old were you at this time? So at this point, this was going on since birth, but at the point it really started to get to a breaking point. I was about four years old. Oh, you were young. Yes, very young. Believe it or not, and I still remember, even though being four years old, I still remember a lot of things from that time. And they took us to Pensacola, Florida for a short time. This was kind of the final straw. Your parents did? Yes, my parents did. And my grandparents really wanted to give them just one more opportunity to raise us and be the parents they were supposed to be. Now, was your sister younger or older? Two years older than me. Okay. So Sarah was two years older than me, and that was really the only person I had ever known. It was Sarah and my grandparents and my parents. So we're in Pensacola, and my mother just starts selling everything in her home basically for drug money. And it got to such a point where she had sold basically everything in her home. I mean, really, I specifically remember walking into our house and seeing that nothing was there. I'm not sure where I was before or what the whole context of it was. But, you know, if you can remember back to when you were that young, it's like you get flashes of things. And I have like this flash in my mind of walking into the trailer we were living in and just everything being gone. And she called my grandparents that night and said, come get the kids. I can't raise them anymore. And, you know, you got to come get them tonight or she was just going to drop us off at the police station. And, you know, they were worried they were never going to get to see us again if that happened. So they rushed down to Pensacola, Florida from Louisiana and got us. And, you know, I didn't see my mother again after that night for over 10 years. Over 10 years. How old were you when your grandparents got you? I was still four years old. Yeah, four years old. And like I said, they were already, you know, such a huge part of my life because they knew my parents had an issue. And it was just one of those things where they were kind of starting all over now as parents. You know, my grandparents now kind of became mom and dad. And they got full custody of us. And that was right around the time my sister started to get sick. And she got really, really sick. They diagnosed her with brain cancer. I believe she was diagnosed at eight years old and passed away at eight years old as well back in 2001. And you can imagine, like that was just a really big blow for me. So you're about six then? Yeah, about six years old at this point. Did you know that this was happening or did you know that she was, I mean, obviously you knew she was sick? I knew she was sick and I didn't understand the gravity of it though. I knew she was sick, but I was in that position. I still had hope she was going to get better. I had an expectation that she would get better because, you know, when I was sick, I always got better. So I didn't understand what she had was something that at that time at least couldn't really be cured with, you know, with medicine at least. So it was just a really, really tragic time. My grandfather had already actually lost a daughter. And so he was kind of going through this all over again with Sarah and my grandmother was just devastated about it. And throughout that whole time, neither my mom or my dad was really a part of that situation. So all that weight really just fell on us, you know, to deal with and all that trauma there was really just, it was just a giant mess really. And when she passed away, I think that was just a really, it just planted kind of like a seed of grief inside me. That took me a really, really long time to get over. And if it weren't for my grandmother, my grandfather just praying for me, taking me to church, really just sowing something better into me that my parents weren't doing. If it weren't for them, like, I really don't know where I'd be, honestly. What were those years, you know, preteen, teenage years like? Were you a believer then? I know they were taking you to church, but did you have a personal relationship with Jesus? Not for a long time, not for a long time really. I mean, I was one of those kids who, you know, my grandma was Christian, my grandfather's Christian. So I think I am one too. I'm always in church. And I just never really got, it took me a while to get to that point where I started to understand the personal relationship with Christ and understand that I had to personally accept him as Savior. And that, yes, I knew of God and I knew Jesus was his son and I knew Jesus was our Savior, but I didn't quite understand that I had to accept him personally and know that, you know, he has redeemed me. You know, not just that I'm part of this family that's, you know, they're all Christians, so I'm one too. So it was a play that I went to called Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames. And then my grandma took me too. And it was like the first time I'd ever really encountered like art before, especially, you know, Christian art in that way. I didn't really have anything going on in my head. I wasn't musical. I wasn't, you know, in theater or anything like that. But I went to this play and just saw the gospel played out literally, you know, before me and just acted out in such a way that I was finally able to understand it in a deeper way and really get to grab hold of that, you know, and just seeing the gospel in art form really just sparked something in me. And I was that really shy kid that just did not have any courage to get up out of his seat and do anything even remotely that courageous, you know, so like getting up out of my seat and going and walking the aisle and accepting Christ as Savior that night was huge for me and a huge step for me. And that's really when everything started to change. I was 14 years old and accepted Christ. And although it didn't necessarily make everything bad in my life go away right then, it just was a, it was finally a turning point for me that I felt like I was starting to just understand who I was just a little bit, you know, after accepting Christ. Did you have any anger towards, you know, your sister dying at that point? Or did the Lord help you through that? I had a lot of anger and a lot of resentment at that point. But even going forward, I think I still had some of that leftover. There was a big healing process that took place between really 14 years old and now where I've really just been discovering identity, discovering, you know, my new story in Christ and discovering healing in the first place, you know, and letting myself be healed from a lot of that anger and resentment I had towards my parents, towards my sister passing away, towards God and just all my circumstances and understanding that, you know, there wasn't just redemption for me, but for my circumstances as well and for my trauma. And God had bigger plans for you at the age of 17 and we're going to talk about it when we come back. Nathan, we were talking about your teen years, getting ready to graduate. What happened after that? So I was really that kid that just didn't really understand my purpose. I didn't really, like I had, at 15 years old, my older sister, T'Neal, and I have another sister from a different marriage from the same father and, you know, she was always a big part of my life, especially growing up. But she ended up buying me a guitar and that was really like the first time I had ever encountered, you know, playing music, especially. Did you want to play or did she just buy it? I did. I just, it was kind of just a random thing that sparked in my mind. I guess in a way it was a God thing because I had never played guitar before. I had listened to music in the car, but I just told her, she asked me what I wanted as a gift and I said, I don't know, a guitar, you know. And she got me one. It was like a $150 guitar from Christie's Music in Slido, Louisiana, went and picked it out together. And I started to play a little bit, started to sing a little bit, even started dabbling and writing a little bit, playing in youth group, things like that. But I never, and I mean, really never saw myself as somebody who's going to get up on stage, play music for a living, get to go around the world ministering or anything like that. I just didn't really, truly believe that's what the Lord had destined for me. Even though they were still kind of like that small voice, it's like, well, you know, you may be able to do it. And for me, I was like, yeah, but I kind of need to do something with my life and I'm about to graduate. And there's no way I can just sit on the front porch singing songs all day. Like I've got to do something. So at 17 years old, my grandparents, you know, let me, they had to let me sign up for the, you know, the Louisiana National Guard, which, you know, was also part of the army. So they let me sign up as soon as I graduated, went to basic training, got out of basic training, went to advanced training at Fort Gordon. And at Fort Gordon, Georgia, there was actually, you know, chapel services on base where soldiers would have to lead their own worship. Essentially, you know, they were just kind of banking on soldiers knowing how to play some songs and taking the charge in that. So I was actually able to pick the guitar back up while I was in advanced training in Georgia and start leading worship for soldiers there. And that was a really just amazing experience, getting to just show up on Sunday not knowing what I was going to play, pick out three songs and play them with a band who I just met and it was always like that. So it was a really, really interesting, just dynamic of getting kind of my feet thrown to the fire. And I finished advanced training and, I mean, as soon as I got home, as soon as they, because whenever, you know, you're in the guard, you get received back to your unit. And once you figure out your unit, they show up to the ceremony and they get to put their, you know, the unit patch on your shoulder. And when he, you know, when he put the patch on my shoulder, he said, oh, and by the way, we're deploying in, you know, just a few months. So get ready, basically. And that kind of just like... Did you know where you were going? I knew I was going to Kuwait. That's the only thing I knew at the time. I didn't understand what the mission was. I didn't understand exactly what base we were going to or anything like that. And for me, it was a big blow because I had all these dreams of college and, you know, finally... Were you scared? I wasn't scared as much as I was just disappointed because I didn't, I truly just didn't know, I didn't understand why I was going to be there. That was the only thing. I knew there was always a possibility that I could get activated by the... They call it big army, you know, and get pulled into a deployment. But I still didn't understand what my purpose would be there. I mean, I knew what my job was as a signal support specialist, but I'm the kind of guy that's like, well, surely there's a deeper meaning to this though. Like, I'm not just going over there to do this little job and then, you know, just maintain a presence in Kuwait or anything like that. Surely there's got to be something for me there. And there definitely was, you know. God deployed to Kuwait and kind of the same story. There was chapel services on base. There was really no, like, infrastructure at all. And I was able to come in, work with the chaplains that were on base and literally start up a whole worship team, get to start leading worship for soldiers. And I mean, just the outpouring that we had, you know, right there, you know, at Camp Aravion Zone 6 Chapel, you know, just soldiers coming and not just getting saved and accepting Christ as Savior, but, you know, coming and getting encouraged and coming... And we were that little glimmer of hope for them because there were so many issues going on back home and just so many things that were going on in the minds of these soldiers and Marines and basically every other branch, you know, that we were able to just kind of be just a light and a dark place for them because being away from your family for nine months to a year at a time... How long were you over there? Nine months. Nine months. So being away from your family, including for me, it was hard. It was really, really difficult being away from family. In a way, it feels like you're just never going to come home. It starts to get to that point so that us getting to be just a light and a dark place and getting to just be that encouragement for soldiers and showing them who Christ is was just a huge turning point for me and I received so much encouragement out of that from my fellow soldiers. Is there anybody that stands out, a soldier that stands out? Everybody. No, I mean, really, it's no one in particular. It's like every single part, you know, Chaplain Morris was a big guy. You know, he always definitely encouraged me in that and it was just an amazing thing. It was like every single person I met from that experience, when they heard my voice and they heard my story and they got to see, I guess, what the Lord was doing in my life, it was always this constant encouragement about, Nathan, you're anointed. Nathan, we believe you could do this. We believe, you know, when you go home, you need to get into the studio. You should move to Nashville, just constant being in my mind and I'm just like, sure, you know, whatever. Like I always kind of brushed it off, but it got to such a point to where I really couldn't ignore it. And when I got home, I was finally able to start chasing that dream a little bit. And you got home after nine months. So then what did you do? I basically immediately started getting into the studio. God just, I mean, orchestrated it. I'm in Louisiana at this point. I'm still in the guard. I'm still in the guard. I got four more years left on my contract at this point, but a good friend of mine, Luke, he got out of a university for audio engineering and he immediately, for some reason, he said, you know, I was at the beach the other day and I thought about you and I think you should come to the studio I'm making and I think you should record some music. And I mean, as soon as I got home, I started getting to the studio recording music and started just developing that. And then God brought you to Nashville. Absolutely. And we're going to talk about it when we come back. Nathan, tell me what happened when you got back? You started recording and God moved you to Nashville. How did you get here? So really and truly, it was my wife, Harley. When we got married, we were... And you got married after you got back from the service? Yeah, because we were together while I was overseas, just boyfriend and girlfriend, but when I got back, you know, it was just amazing. She was just such a supportive person of me and she always knew I could do music and she was another person that was always encouraging me, like big time. And even when I didn't really see it myself and it had gotten to such a point, I had visited Nashville a couple of times, met a few people and I guess at this point, you know, our lease was up on the apartment we were living in back in Louisiana and it was just kind of one of those things where we both felt like a shift was needed and she knew I was already doing music and already writing songs for the people and making connections here. And she says, why don't we just do it now? Why don't we just move to Nashville? You know, that's what you want to do. That's the dream you need to chase. And I was... It took some convincing for me. Let's just put it that way. And she was really the one who just like pushed me, you know, right into it and we came here with little to no money and just, man, looking back, I don't even know how we made it work. It was just a God thing. We were really running on fumes. But right as I moved to Nashville and we took that leap of faith, basically immediately we started getting opportunities. I was getting opportunities to go on tour and just kind of developing myself in a way and chasing that. And when the lease became, you know, it was up on our apartment back in Louisiana, my wife was just so adamant that we just needed to move here. You know, we needed to move to Nashville because she believed in what I was doing even though sometimes it was hard for me to see it and she was so adamant that I could do this. She believed that God had something for me here and sure enough, as soon as we moved here and took that leap of faith, even though we were running on fumes, we had very little money. God just opened doors that I could have never foreseen him opening and she was right. I mean, we started getting on tours, started getting into the studio again, writing songs, started meeting more people that just believed in me and saw something in me. And I met my manager Marcus Rickson pretty early on and he just has a heart for the underdog, I think, and he heard me and heard my story and just immediately, I mean, within a week was like, yeah, we want to work with you, we want to sign you. And he's been a huge factor just in me getting out there, getting out there and really improving myself in a way that I couldn't have done on my own because there's so many different levels to music and production and just songwriting and I can honestly say like the songs I started off writing weren't nearly at the level of the songs I'm writing now and it's just amazing like the growth when I look back, the growth I'm seeing because of the Lord placing people in my life that believe in me. I truly do give credit to the Lord because I know I couldn't have done this on my own and he's just placed so many people in my life, whether it be my wife or my manager or my record label or my producer Jay Spade. If he wasn't placing those people in my life, I really don't know where I'd be. It's like he's always convincing me through other people that Nathan, this is what I have for you, look what I'm providing for you so that you can do this. He's your father. Yes. You know, it's just incredible because I feel like since moving here I've been able to just really just grow as a person and discover who my identity truly is in Christ and I became a father recently. You know, I finally had a baby girl. We always wanted a baby and I never saw myself as somebody that could truly be a dad and I think that comes from a place of just childhood trauma and not really understanding, you know, because my mom and my dad weren't there. It was hard for me to wrap my mind around being able to raise a little girl and getting to break off some of that generational stuff that I believe was there. Don't you love how God restores what was taken away from you as a little boy? Yeah. He has given you back as a man. Yes, absolutely. A family. And that's huge for me. I truly think about that all the time as like, man, I have an opportunity here to totally redeem. So many of these things. All the things that happened to me, I have an opportunity to correct that and just provide a whole different existence, a whole different life, a whole different destiny for my little girl and I truly just, I'm super thankful for that opportunity and it's also great because I feel like music in a way almost takes a little bit of a backseat to just being a good father and getting to grow as a man and grow as a husband. Just all those things. It's just amazing to see that in my personal walk with Christ as well I've grown and it's like all these more personal things and just life things seem to really be what's grown so much versus just the music. Will you play a song for me? Yes. What's the name of this? This one's called Do You Know. It's actually the latest song I just released. Okay. And man, it's just super powerful. Love it, it's beautiful. Thank you. Do You Know. It's really a song about the product of sun but also just reminding people that don't even know the Lord that He truly does love them. For us it's such a cliche concept but I can't imagine going back and telling 4 year old me or 5 year old me that Jesus loves you so much or even 10 year old me, hey Jesus loves you so much. It was a concept that could really wrap my brain around and for so many people they truly just don't know the Lord loves them and for me that's why this song is so powerful. It's just about the prodigal coming home. It is about that but it's also just about showing people who don't know the Lord that, wow, there is redemption for you. Christ loves you so much and this foreign concept to you really is the truth. I mean it's the truth. It's the ultimate truth. Nathan, we have a few minutes left. Where has God taken you now? The past two years have just been like exponential growth not just in my career, my personal life. I mean it's just all around my spiritual journey. It's just been so much growth after growth and discovering my identity in him and really just zoning into that and becoming more mature as a husband, as a father, as a musician and everything else of God going on, just maturing and so I think I'm finally at a place where at least from a career standpoint I feel like I'm finally ready to take on a lot more of those big adventures that are going to come up whether it's bigger songs being on radio or bigger tours, things like that. I think I just have that kind of nudging I feel like from the Lord that some big things are up ahead and right now I'm just in a maturing phase getting ready for that and just kind of preparing myself for that and in the meantime staying in the Word and staying prayed up focusing truly on my relationship with Christ that way whenever these opportunities do come up I'm ready for it mentally and spiritually and it's not going to get to my head and it's not going to mess me up. Nathan, what a blessing you are and I believe that God has been preparing you from the time you were a young boy thanks for being with me today. Thank you so much. My friend, do you know the one that loves you most and knows you best? If you don't, his name is Jesus and he's waiting for you. This is today's Nashville This is Faith.