Red Blanket Prelude - Phil Thompson

So, Imma talk about my dad, my father

Well, let me start off by saying my mom is the most amazing person I know

I just wanna make sure, you know, my dad’s not the one getting all the love

I’m one of eight siblings and we’re all somehow involved in full-time ministry

which is amazing in itself

And I attribute that to my mom

And for my dad’s 70th birthday party

My mom called me and asked me to write a song for my dad

And I remember saying to her, «umm, Mom, writing songs ain’t just that easy»,

you know

So I decided, obviously, I’m gonna sit down and try to do this

And basically all the songs on this project

I wrote them in a very difficult season of my life

So it’s like every song is kinda laced with pain

Or at least written from a painful place

When I said on my piano to write this song

It just came rushing into my head probably faster than any song I’ve ever

written

And this one is also laced with pain

Cause the chorus says

And when times got hard

You taught me how to worship God

I’m talking about my dad

I feel the need to explain

I just feel the need to explain one line in the song so that everyone that

listens isn’t totally lost

There’s a line in the pre-chorus that says

But you placed inside of me

A storm-kit that I’ve held on to

My own proverbial red blanket

When I first sang this song to my siblings, they immediately knew what I was

referring to

When I was little, I remember coming downstairs and, you know, in the middle of

the night to use the bathroom

And I remember seeing my dad in the living room on his knees praying and he

always had this red blanket wrapped around him

He called it his prayer blanket

And I remember him saying to me as a child that the red was for the blood of

Jesus

This song is just an emotional song for me

I remember while I was writing it

Shedding a couple of tears as I was singing it

So I just decided, man, I gotta record this

So here’s Red Blanket/When Times Got Hard