Daniel Caesar’s been known to bare his soul onstage, but on his recent pop-up tour, he’s been opening up in a new way—talking honestly about faith, loss, and the complicated love between fathers and sons.
“My dad wanted to share God with me—that was the most important thing to him,” Caesar told the crowd. “I kind of went through a period where I rejected God and I rejected my father. And I needed them both for very similar reasons… they both kind of operate as your protector and your lover—your lover of your soul.”
His father, Norwill Simmons, was a Jamaican gospel singer and pastor who shaped Caesar’s earliest understanding of faith. But after years of tension and distance, it’s music that’s helping him reconnect to both God and his dad.
“It’s like I was drawing myself a roadmap back to God,” he said of his latest album Son of Spurgy. “And almost like a roadmap back to the thing that connected me and my father as well… making this record was very healing for our relationship.”
He even used an image of his dad for the cover of the album.
“A lot of people think the person on the cover is me,” he said. “But we just look alike. Because he’s my dad. This is the son of Spurgy, bro.”
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Later in the show, Caesar shared the verse that’s been grounding him lately: Jeremiah 29:11.
“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord…‘plans to give you hope and a future,’” he recalled. “It’s really good. I like it. It’s beautiful.”