Q&A with St. Louis-based Worship Artist and Songwriter, Lloyd Nicks '14

Published: May 22, 2024

Lloyd Nicks is a 2014 graduate of Greenville College, now Greenville University. He is a St. Louis-based Worship Leader and Songwriter bridging the gaps between Gospel, Contemporary Worship, and Pop music. He has been a prominent voice in Christian music in St. Louis for the past seven years.

Lloyd returned to campus recently as the guest worship leader for the semester's last TWE (The Wednesday Experience). TWE brings together the entire campus community for a time of worship and teaching in H.J. Long Gymnasium. Following the morning gathering, Paul Sunderland, Chair of the Music Department, invited this Music Department alum to come to Whitlock Music Center to speak to the current music students.

Professor Sunderland: “Today is such a joyful day for me. I’m so proud of Lloyd Nicks. What I want each of you students to know is that he was once in your shoes. He worked hard in the music program here. He sat here for recitals. He spent nights in the practice room. So I’m going to invite Lloyd to simply share his story and his journey with us.

Lloyd: First of all, I am a husband to my beautiful wife Ashley and father to Zoey who just turned one. I’m originally from East Saint Louis – Cahokia, Illinois. I did not come here to GC first. I lost two years trying to figure out where I was supposed to be. We all have a calling to spread the gospel. My calling was to be here.

I didn’t grow up in church. I grew up in a non-Christian home with an abusive stepfather. My biological father was a drug addict who is still in prison to this day. There was lots of family trauma in my home. I was sexually molested at a young age by an older cousin, which led to depression and self-hatred. My stepdad was extremely abusive as a result of his own background.

I came to know Jesus when I was 14. I had an uncle who came out of drug use and became a Jesus follower. This uncle had sons my age. I asked if I could go with him for the weekend to get away from my stepfather. He attended an old-school Pentecostal church. Everything was different there those weekends. The way my uncle treated my aunt and the people loved one another. Here I was a kid my family called “oh that’s just Lloyd” all the time, plopped right in the middle of a Pentecostal church and I would just tried to go to sleep in the back of the church, which is laughable now that I slept through that.

One Sunday, a girl my age and from my school showed up at the church. It was the summer before my freshman year, and I was going to be a football player at the high school and reinvent myself. I was flirting! Then, in the middle of the service, this girl said, “Thank you, Jesus.” When I heard his name, I knew instantly when I heard that name I knew I was being seen, known, and heard. I began sobbing uncontrollably. Jesus found me in that moment. It completely changed the trajectory of my whole entire life. I left that day with this deep sense of wanting to know him. I would lock myself in a room and play a song by Fred Hammond that talked about Blind Bartimaeus called “Please Don’t Pass Me By”. My mom would hear me play this song and thought something was wrong with me.

So, I made it through high school. I was newly churched and plopped here in Greenville to study music. I didn’t know how to sight-read music. I just knew God called me to do music. I knew music was my gift. I never had a “plan B.” He called me to make music for Him. God was teaching me how to always take the back seat and let him take control.

I got really interested in songwriting when Gary took us to Nashville for a 3-week course at CMC. We’d write and record. I was lazy because I was depressed. I didn’t think I could do this.

I wrote my first album while in college. It was horrible. I did it because it was a way for me to hone my skills. I just kept writing and kept going. I learned and grew here at GC. I graduated and went home.

GC had been my safe place. I had life-giving friendships. Then I returned to an abusive household, and all of the old feelings of inadequacy snuck in. A year or two later, my mom died - on my birthday. Everything that could wrong did go wrong.

God was setting me up for a narrative. I had to go through pain to see God get the glory for bringing me through it. His glory has to be greater than the pain. He’s taken pain, hurt, messiness and the realness of what life is.

Today, I am focused on humility. People see the glory—the lights and the stage—but they don’t see the pain that it took to get there, and they don’t see why I sing.

I want to raise a little girl and give her something I never had. I can give her the constant of Jesus. I have been faithful in a few things, and God has given me rule over many.

Professor Sunderland: What would you say to current students who see you doing what they want to do?

Lloyd: Be all in. Don’t half the experience. Stop being so future-minded. There’s a lesson in where you on now. Go through it – not around it. Feel what you feel. Feel the aches of what it means to be human. See the glory that comes in the midnight. Feel what you are feeling, but do it with Jesus because he will minister to you. It will be lessons you don’t even understand. The clarity may not come until 10 – 15 years later.

Obedience to Christ does not depend on your knowing the ending or every detail. Obedience may only cause you to know the half or even just the light right in front of your feet. He may just illuminate the path enough for you to take one more step and trust in Him.

Professor Sunderland: All of the areas Lloyd represents to students here – recording, worship, songwriting, performing. You keep referring to relationships. You’ve said to be good to people. Don’t expect the big platform to matter.

Lloyd: Understand that relationships mean more than what you take on. Some of my most holy relationships – iron sharpening iron – might be people that I don’t necessarily get along with. God is calling you into community with them to help you grow.

Professor Sunderland: What comes to mind in career development that sticks out to you right now?

Lloyd: What comes to mind is just being present in every situation. It’s so easy to see the checks come in and grow and the streams go up that you miss out on the human interactions God has blessed you with. I love Nashville, but all you hear in the coffee shop is about the new deal somebody got. Is that all your life is about? I just want to do my thing and go. I want to be present and not looking at my life for my gift.

I want to be present in the moment with you. There’s a thin line between being present and knowing how to say the right thing but being completely detached. People look straight through you right through to the opportunities they may be able to get out of you.

I look at each interaction with the gratitude that I get to be in a space with a person who is an image-bearer of Christ. I’m not going to worry about what I gain from this. I’m going to think about the pureness of who they are. When I treat those connections as Holy, friendships are what produce everything I have achieved. If I’ve ever tried to be “network,” I’ve achieved nothing. It’s not me pursuing anything. It’s me honoring the relationships God has given me.

Questions from the crowd:

Q: When you’re songwriting, what is your process?

It changes every time. Some songs come as an inspiration of what God is speaking to me in a season. Sometimes it’s just an idea that stays in my brain. Today I do a lot of co-writing that comes from sitting down and testifying from the goodness of Jesus and what he’s doing in our lives.

Q: Do you ever feel pressure to create or push out a product, and does that hinder creativity?

There is pressure because it is a music business. It’s when you don’t have inspiration, and God shows up. When it’s a burden to write and it’s not flowing out...it was one of the worst writes I’ve ever had. There’s something about the seasons you don’t feel anything. Don’t stop. Go with your spiritual resume and write what you know. God is still good.

Q: I want to ask about the process of being an artist and evaluating your artistry based on how many are listening to your music. If you have a low number of streams, how do you overcome the self-worth of wondering if your artistry is going to impact somebody? Do you wonder if you are even supposed to be doing this?

Lloyd: Ask yourself curious questions. Hmmm. I got 100 streams. If 100 people wanted to walk in and listen to your music right now, how would you react? What a slap in the face it is to those who want to enjoy your music to dwell on the 1,000 streams from others. My focus has been on the people. Be faithful in a few things; he’ll make you ruler of many.

During Covid, I was in a very dry season. Yet, I remained faithful and trusted Jesus. I released “Never Fail”. It changed the trajectory of my career. Keep Jesus first. Be faithful in a few things and God will make you ruler of many.

Q: What is your favorite thing about worship leading, and how do you keep encouraged?

The older people get, the harder it is to get them to go in the same direction. They fight about whether God is really “wreckless.” My favorite thing is the people, but it’s also the thing that causes the most heartache.

Generous donors who give to the RISE UP Campaign make experiences like the interview with Lloyd Nicks available through the Experiential Learning Fund at Greenville University.