Throughout his entire childhood, Ben Fuller longed to hear his dad say three words: I love you. But the words never came. It made a bigger impression on the Vermont native than he realized, and he turned to drugs and alcohol to fill the hole in his heart.
Growing up, he learned the art of hard work on his family’s dairy farm, but faith was never a part of his upbringing. “Vermont is only, like, two percent Christian,” he shares. “I only knew the name of Jesus as a swear word.”
With a natural bent toward music, Fuller followed his dreams to Nashville in the fall of 2018. He cut his teeth playing country covers on Lower Broadway at legendary honky-tonk Tootsies, a stone’s throw away from the iconic Ryman Auditorium. With his gravelly voice, a love of acoustic instrumentation and a whole “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” vibe, Fuller seemed an easy fit for the country artist he aspired to be.
However, after a local family invited him to church, his ambitions completely changed. “That Sunday morning, I went to [a church] in Franklin, [Tennessee], and I heard the Gospel for the first time,” Fuller remembers. “Jesus came into my life like a wrecking ball and knocked out the old me. I felt, overwhelmingly, like I was going to sing about Jesus for the rest of my life.”
The very first time Fuller darkened the door of a church, he walked the aisle and surrendered his heart to Christ. More then 14 years into an addiction where 15 to 20 beers a night was the norm, the singer-songwriter gradually began to establish better, healthier habits as God changed him from the inside out. “Over the course of the next two months, I stopped drinking. I stopped swearing. I stopped sleeping around — all those things. Everything changed,” Fuller reflects. “I also lost all my friends, and honestly, after giving my life to the Lord, I was lonely for a while.”
Fuller began processing his new relationship with God through song and was soon approached by a Christian record label, who expressed interest in signing him. A record deal was all he ever wanted, yet he never could have imagined partnering with a team dedicated to creating and promoting faith-based music.
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Once he made the commitment to walk the road of both an authentic believer and a Christian recording artist, Fuller says God started opening doors he never could have opened on his own. Invitations began pouring in. Zach Williams, Casting Crowns and Big Daddy Weave all invited him on tour. He’s been featured on recordings with Leanna Crawford, Sidewalk Prophets and We Are Messengers. His debut single, “Who I Am,” went No. 1. He’s rubbed shoulders with some of his country music heroes at the Grand Ole Opry and at CMA Fest. This summer, he’ll perform at Red Rocks Amphitheatre as part of the lineup for “K-LOVE Live at Red Rocks.”
Even though he’s been a Christian for nearly six years, over the course of which he’s also stepped into his professional calling as a musician, Fuller admits it hasn’t come without struggle. “Even amidst all the success and the wonderful things, it’s been really hard,” he says. “It’s just been ridiculously hard to be a disciple of Jesus and to continue to follow the narrow path when everybody’s doing the broad thing.”
In the middle of his musical rise, a breakup caused further complications. About a year ago, a relationship Fuller thought was “the one” ended. “I realized I’d never had my heart broken sober before. I’d always turned to drugs and alcohol or another relationship or something more broken to try to fix what was broken, but it never worked,” he confesses. “I wanted to go back to my old ways, but the Lord — in His kindness — kept me sober and kept me praising Him somehow. I have no idea how He could turn that much pain into praise.”
But He did. In fact, He turned Fuller’s moment of potential relapse, following the demise of the once hopeful relationship, into a song. The first line of that song, “Turn” — his current single — was plucked straight from real life: “I wanted to turn to the bottle. I even drove past the bar.”
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Fuller really did want to turn to the bottle, and he really did drive past the bar. But, thankfully, he kept on driving. At 38, the “If I Got Jesus” singer reveals a strong desire for marriage and a family of his own, which makes the sting of heartbreak all the more potent. At this juncture in life, the breakup left him confused and disappointed in ways he hadn’t felt prior to becoming a Christian. “I didn’t know how I was going to go on in those moments of complete despair, but God reminded me He was with me still,” he says. “This has become my anthem this year when I needed to remember when life gets really hard, I’ve got nowhere to turn but Jesus.”
It’s a relatable truth he often conveys to inmates when he visits prisons to share his personal testimony. “I see these guys who I very well could have traded places with for the things I’ve done, and I realize we are just the same,” Fuller remarks of the time he’s spent with incarcerated men. “To see the freedom in there that they have — even behind bars — has been so incredible.”
On the outset, Fuller may appear a little rough around the edges with sleeves of tattoos running all the way up his neck and a harrowing story that includes his own suicide attempt and a best friend who died from a drug overdose. But a one-on-one conversation with Fuller quickly unearths something that goes far deeper than the darkness that permeates his history or the ink that colors his skin.
The personable, chart-topping artist talks fast. He hugs people he’s just met. He’s instinctively witty. And he’s an obvious all-in, sold-out believer. Despite the initial loneliness he experienced when he distanced himself from old friends who didn’t understand his new lifestyle, Fuller’s found a new family within Nashville’s creative community and a circle of friends within the Church.
“A lot of people see me, and they’re like, ‘He’s saying things about Jesus, but that guy looks like he belongs in prison,’ or ‘that guy looks like he rides a Harley,’ or ‘that guy looks like he’s hurt somebody,’” Fuller shares, a mischievous grin flickering across his face. “But I feel like so many people have just come to embrace me. They see past the tattoos; they see past my past, and they go, ‘He has been changed.’”
This divine transformation is something his family has noticed, too; and Fuller’s newfound faith is rubbing off on those closest to him, little by little. “Eternity is a long time. I want so badly for them to say ‘yes’ to Jesus,” he says of those he loves most. “It’s just something you can’t force.”
Fuller is prepping for a fresh album. His follow-up to 2023’s self-titled LP is slated to release later this year. In the meantime, the charismatic singer will preview new music on “The Jesus Music Tour” with CAIN in April.
Whether he’s performing on a revered stage, sharing his personal story of redemption inside a prison or meeting fans after a show at a church, Fuller’s message is the same. “I just want everybody to know that no matter what you look like or how far gone you are or what you’re into or what you’ve done, none of that matters,” Fuller says. “If you say ‘yes’ to Jesus, if you ask Jesus into your heart, He hears you, and He will absolutely, without a doubt, change your life.”
