The John-Henry Westen Show - Pro-life songwriter explains how prayer helped him create 'Dear Mom,' LifeSite's first music video

00:00:00.000 LifeSite News was so pleased to bring you artworks every once in a while.

00:00:04.280 And just recently, a few months ago, we had an incredibly powerful pro-life song

00:00:08.400 that was seen by thousands of you.

00:00:10.480 We wanted to give you a glimpse into the artist behind the song.

00:00:14.620 He's got an incredible story, a conversion story,

00:00:17.500 a story of his inspiration to bring this great pro-life, inspiring music to us.

00:00:23.380 His name's Paul Lubansky. You're going to want to stay tuned.

00:00:30.000 Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross.

00:00:47.520 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

00:00:53.360 Paul, welcome to the program.

00:00:55.320 Thank you, John Henry. It's an honor.

00:00:57.280 I'm just so happy to be here and to be able to tell you a little bit about the song and my story.

00:01:04.260 That's awesome. We thank you for it. It was a beautiful, beautiful song.

00:01:08.080 We get a lot of stuff sent to us, and sometimes it's good, and sometimes it's great,

00:01:13.380 and yours was really exceptional.

00:01:15.480 I think it moved many, many hearts. Thank you so much for that.

00:01:18.860 Well, you and I talked a little bit before about my background, and it's a deep faith, okay?

00:01:28.180 I was a raised Polish Catholic in a mostly Jewish community, if you can believe that.

00:01:34.780 I was the minority, but created altar boy, all those things.

00:01:40.640 So really connected to my faith, but just like a lot of people, as I got older, I strayed.

00:01:47.700 I strayed a little bit and decided that, wait, maybe there's more to this life,

00:01:54.640 and maybe I need to get back to God and the faith and the Holy Spirit and the power.

00:01:59.020 So I started to do that with the help of my mom before she passed away, and then the music aspect

00:02:07.940 came into my life after my corporate career.

00:02:12.040 So it was just divine intervention.

00:02:14.520 It was like, okay, how can I give back?

00:02:17.620 And this concept of dear mom as I was in prayer and meditation came into my head.

00:02:24.680 I didn't know what it meant, John Henry.

00:02:26.400 There was no plans for any of this, other than the fact that I was getting back to my faith,

00:02:31.080 and I connected the dots.

00:02:32.640 I think that God was asking me to do this, and all power and grace.

00:02:37.460 I'm not taking credit for it because I think you probably agree that,

00:02:44.680 and I know you probably, we all have an ego, but God's gift to you is whatever that gift is,

00:02:50.920 creativity, but your gift back is to use that in a positive way.

00:02:55.920 So dear God came, I mean, dear mom came into my mind, and I'm fortunate to collaborate with some

00:03:02.840 incredibly talented studio musicians who are partners of mine and a team, and it's outside

00:03:08.640 of Atlanta, and we have done a couple songs, and all my songs are meant to be inspirational.

00:03:16.440 It's country accented, by the way.

00:03:18.120 But when I approached, when I had this concept, there's another story in itself, how I connected

00:03:26.320 with these people, because I was just teaching myself how to play, and I always wrote, I have

00:03:33.740 a history of, I've written children's books, et cetera, and I said, I have to try to write

00:03:38.040 these songs.

00:03:38.560 And I ended up connecting with these guys.

00:03:40.720 They are men of faith, as deep as you can be, outside of Atlanta.

00:03:47.720 And so when I introduced the concept that, of course we'll do this, of course we'll do

00:03:53.380 dear mom, and dig this, the person, this beautiful young lady who sings the song is actually the 0.50

00:04:00.820 daughter of my main partner.

00:04:03.000 And she was 19 at the time, when she did the song, and we kept her name out of it, as

00:04:07.960 you can see, we say anonymous.

00:04:10.280 I think, you know, that may change, but it was just out of fear.

00:04:14.060 You know, there's just so much going on in the world.

00:04:16.960 But when the song came to me, and I wrote it in about 10 minutes, but listen to this,

00:04:24.960 it all just happened quickly.

00:04:26.640 Within two weeks, it was written, recorded, and done a couple years ago.

00:04:32.560 And we did receive some attention.

00:04:34.660 You know, I was on National Catholic Radio, et cetera.

00:04:37.980 But for her to sing it the way she did, so beautifully, so eloquently, so, such a young

00:04:48.040 age to get it, you feel it when you hear the song, right?

00:04:51.360 That's her. 0.88

00:04:52.080 And, you know, we did some simple, you know, piano, and then we added the strings later.

00:04:57.840 And everything just fit perfectly.

00:05:00.840 It was just phenomenally.

00:05:02.520 So, dear mom, I don't know.

00:05:05.600 I mean, I hope it's made a difference, and I think it has.

00:05:08.820 I know it has, because it's come to me.

00:05:11.440 And if it's saved one or two lives, you know, how many people can say that?

00:05:15.860 And again, I'm not taking credit.

00:05:17.440 I'm saying, I'm happy that the message came to me, passed through me, and everything was

00:05:23.640 divine intervention after that.

00:05:25.580 Absolutely.

00:05:26.000 Paul, tell us a little bit about your story, where you went to, how you got there.

00:05:30.220 So, you were raised in a devout Polish Catholic home.

00:05:33.940 Where did you go from there, and how'd you come back?

00:05:36.440 Well, you know, as I said, it was really amazing, because it's a Jewish community, right?

00:05:42.280 And it was really diverse.

00:05:43.480 I was very lucky.

00:05:44.120 So, it was 90% Jewish, and then it was very liberal-minded at the time.

00:05:49.520 We were the first community that had busing.

00:05:52.060 You know what busing is, where they, you know, where the government decided that the kids

00:05:56.020 from the inner city would come and go to school with us, which was great.

00:06:00.280 So, I got to meet the African-American kids.

00:06:03.000 We had an Asian community.

00:06:04.040 We had a Middle Eastern community.

00:06:05.480 That's where I grew up, okay?

00:06:06.820 But yeah, this little Polish parish called Our Lady of Fatima is where I went.

00:06:13.180 Altar Boy, everything else.

00:06:14.860 So, I actually married a beautiful Jewish woman.

00:06:20.700 And we were married for 33 years.

00:06:22.920 Three beautiful kids, right?

00:06:24.500 One of my children, one of my youngest sons actually went to College of the Holy Cross

00:06:29.920 in Massachusetts, although he technically was Jewish, because we raised the kids Jewish.

00:06:36.640 If you asked me about how I kind of got away from the Catholic faith, specifically, not

00:06:42.060 from God, but the Catholic faith, and those teachings in general, it's because that's the

00:06:48.420 way it all evolved.

00:06:49.380 But I think it was all done by design.

00:06:52.220 So, what happened was, yeah, I got away from it.

00:06:55.720 I mean, if you don't mind, I can read you something really quickly, and it'll explain.

00:07:01.280 It'll answer your question.

00:07:02.120 It's a new song, but this song is called, Dear Lord, Can We Begin Again?

00:07:09.360 So, just to, if you don't mind, here's how it goes.

00:07:13.080 Okay.

00:07:15.080 Dear Lord, your power and grace, so magnificent, a mere thought can heal the sick and protect

00:07:22.400 the innocent.

00:07:23.100 As a child, I was part of your flock, Catholic school and altar boy around the clock, but

00:07:30.560 I lost my way and strayed as I allowed heretics to have their say. 1.00

00:07:34.520 Now I need to come back home, revert back to your throne.

00:07:38.260 See, my soul longs to share your powerful and loving message, so real, so omnipresent.

00:07:46.180 And now, now I bow on bended knee with clear eyes and a full heart, I humbly offer this

00:07:52.980 refrain that asks you on behalf of billions of mere mortals currently toiling on here on

00:08:00.240 earth's terrain, dear Lord, can we begin again?

00:08:05.160 So, that's kind of the outline.

00:08:07.880 But I also have another song called, God Please, which I had shared before, which I think you

00:08:11.880 would love, it's just, it's again, you know, asking God to come here and heal us.

00:08:19.160 So, Dear Mom was the first, God Please was the second, and these are Christian worship 1.00

00:08:24.200 songs, and the third will be this, this song.

00:08:26.980 And in addition to that, as you may know, I've done probably 28 or other 30 songs that

00:08:31.920 we've released, but they're all positive and inspirational.

00:08:35.920 They're none of the, you know, sort of the crazy stuff you see in the music today.

00:08:40.380 Tell us quickly where people can access what you have, but then I want to pivot back to

00:08:47.560 a little more in depth into your story, just into what actually brought you back.

00:08:52.040 What was the, if you can tell us what the event was that, or the circumstances that brought

00:08:55.760 you back specifically?

00:08:56.760 Well, the, you know, as I told you, I was telling the team that, you know, Dear Mom, I

00:09:04.400 would never profit from, ever.

00:09:07.440 It's too, it's too important and to, you know, such a difficult subject.

00:09:12.580 And, but so, a song like that is on Amazon and iTunes, but you cannot make money today

00:09:19.700 unless you're touring and, you know, whatever, which I would never do.

00:09:23.300 And that's really, I'm not even that good, good enough to do that.

00:09:26.120 My partner sings lead on most of the songs, but I create the songs and music.

00:09:32.040 So on YouTube, just go to the search and anyone can find, they can find God, please.

00:09:38.840 And obviously, Dear Mom can be located on LSN TV and YouTube itself, because we originally

00:09:44.540 did a Dear Mom a couple of years ago.

00:09:46.760 So, and by the way, I think, so to answer your question at YouTube, Paul Lubansky, search

00:09:52.980 all the songs and all the music, but I do believe Dear Mom is being shadow banned.

00:09:57.740 I mean, I just, I absolutely believe that in my heart.

00:10:01.200 You saw all the views in a short period of time that we received, which is fantastic.

00:10:07.100 But it was up before and it got to about 10, 10 or 11,000 in just a week and then stopped.

00:10:13.680 So isn't that, isn't that a little bit strange?

00:10:17.760 You know, you know, I believe that it's being shadow banned.

00:10:23.880 It doesn't go along with, you know, a big tech and what they believe.

00:10:30.200 So, but that's okay.

00:10:32.140 It's not meant to make money.

00:10:33.580 What it's meant is, however, I do want to share it.

00:10:36.220 And I, hopefully it's being shared even more than we know.

00:10:40.120 Right.

00:10:40.640 It is.

00:10:41.660 And I hope this video also leads to that song being shared and, and your other stuff, because

00:10:46.980 I think we are so lacking in really, truly inspirational, but also so professionally and

00:10:54.840 well done music and, and art basically.

00:10:58.740 And so it's a real gift.

00:11:00.700 And I, I pray that all of our viewers will have a look at it and share it with friends

00:11:05.080 and family.

00:11:05.460 Yeah.

00:11:06.300 Well, dear mom and God, please. 0.95

00:11:08.460 And actually a third song is called now I see now I see what the Lord has sent to me.

00:11:14.280 And it's, you're my angel here on it.

00:11:15.880 It's actually a love song.

00:11:17.480 So it's that woman is not in my life right now.

00:11:21.120 I'm, you know, I'm single, but I wrote the song called now I see to hopefully be able to

00:11:25.740 give to someone someday that I have that bond with again.

00:11:29.340 Uh, so three songs are Christian oriented again, dear mom, uh, God, please.

00:11:34.500 And now I see, I do mention God and a lot of the other songs as well.

00:11:38.900 Um, excuse me to answer your question.

00:11:41.280 Yeah.

00:11:41.460 I, it's the process of living John Henry and raising a family and trying to create a corporate

00:11:50.540 career and all of those things.

00:11:52.860 Um, like a lot of people.

00:11:54.280 Yes.

00:11:54.640 I just kind of straight.

00:11:56.080 And, um, as you heard in the song, uh, or in the lyrics, I had written you.

00:12:01.460 So, um, I think it was healing.

00:12:04.920 I went through a tremendous amount of healing and that involved prayer.

00:12:08.740 Um, just like anybody else, I've got songs.

00:12:12.540 John Henry's called, I've got my demons too.

00:12:15.620 So, you know, and it's, you know, one of the lines is, you know, don't put me on no pedestal.

00:12:20.760 You know, I'm fine right here on the ground.

00:12:22.480 Well, I couldn't have done that until I heal, you know, too much ego, too much, um, you know,

00:12:29.000 just trying to enjoy life instead.

00:12:31.600 And, you know, find pleasure on my own versus giving back.

00:12:35.100 And that's where the music came in.

00:12:37.740 So I, it was a healing process.

00:12:39.460 I can tell you, I wasn't into, I was in my fifties, early fifties before I, I healed

00:12:44.440 and started to understand that, um, that framework, that foundation that was given to me,

00:12:51.640 my Polish Catholic upbringing, um, was still in me and it needed to be, it needed to come up.

00:12:58.580 By the way, you told my dad, you know, as I mentioned, I'm not, it's not a braggadocio thing,

00:13:03.500 but incredibly famous and see, he's the role model for me.

00:13:07.020 He never lost his faith with all the fame.

00:13:10.860 This is a guy that knew Sinatra, you know, just, um, everybody knew who he was, but he

00:13:16.900 always had the faith.

00:13:19.100 He gave money that technically should have gone to the family, to the church, to build a

00:13:24.140 new church when it built down, when it burned down.

00:13:26.740 And my mom, the same too, Elizabeth Danielewski, you know, that was her Polish, the woman that

00:13:33.080 he met here in Detroit and raised the family.

00:13:35.740 So, um, I don't know.

00:13:37.680 I think it's healing and praying and just trying to be a good person.

00:13:40.800 But, you know, quite frankly, I've got my demons too.

00:13:43.460 And we all do.

00:13:44.380 And we're all battling them every day.

00:13:46.040 Right.

00:13:46.340 It's a, it's a real note of hope though, that, you know, you were raised by incredibly faithful

00:13:52.140 parents who had the faith and stuck with the faith through hard circumstances and, and

00:13:57.540 perhaps not being so supported, but, um, you know, were your parents alive to see your conversion?

00:14:04.840 Well, yes, my, I mean, my mom, well, my dad passed away in 2010.

00:14:10.400 And, and as a matter of fact, uh, um, and my mom, you know, four, five, four years after,

00:14:17.780 but she saw it, you know, I would spend, it was one of those things where I got back to

00:14:22.620 my parents too.

00:14:23.680 You know, I was in that generation, very rebellious, you know, and, uh, oh, my parents didn't do

00:14:29.440 this or they did this or didn't do that.

00:14:31.940 And, uh, I finally realized after raising my own children, you know, how difficult that

00:14:36.680 was.

00:14:37.120 I had two brothers and two sisters, five kids, you know, that we have five kids in the

00:14:41.540 family and my dad, you know, traveling and this and that, and also battling alcoholism

00:14:47.260 and which also is sort of ran in my family.

00:14:51.080 You know, I, it was very dysfunctional and very difficult.

00:14:54.060 Um, it was my mom.

00:14:55.620 Yes.

00:14:55.840 And she did it.

00:14:56.660 She, she was the one, she gave me some verses, um, that, um, uh, I think, uh, I know

00:15:04.080 I have it here, but she did, she was the one who did it and she did see that and she

00:15:07.760 was very proud of me and happy about that.

00:15:09.720 But, you know, as a child, you know, she took us to the seminary.

00:15:13.080 She wanted us to be priests, John Henry.

00:15:15.060 You know, there's this place called Dunsconis, not far from people, credible seminary, you

00:15:20.040 know?

00:15:20.620 And, um, so she wanted us to be priests.

00:15:23.500 That's what she wanted us to do.

00:15:25.320 Um, and, um, you know, like you said, tons of adversity.

00:15:29.380 My sister died of heroin abuse and I watched that happen, but my parents were right there

00:15:35.680 trying to save her, trying to save her.

00:15:38.240 Never, you know, even my dad had also had his issues, but stopped and he saved lives

00:15:43.700 too.

00:15:44.160 That's another inspiration after his addiction, he fought it and beat it.

00:15:48.480 Um, then he dedicated his life to saving other lives.

00:15:51.440 So that's another huge inspiration, but that was all, um, uh, because of his faith.

00:15:57.180 He never lost it and he always was giving back.

00:16:00.520 And, uh, you know, as famous he was, he didn't have a, uh, an ego like I do.

00:16:05.700 Okay.

00:16:06.440 But, uh, so that's kind of the story.

00:16:09.120 And yes, thank you for asking.

00:16:10.500 Um, my mom was very happy about that, you know?

00:16:13.480 And so, uh, it drove me and she didn't really see the music part.

00:16:17.720 Um, but I know they're looking down.

00:16:19.640 Yeah.

00:16:20.100 It's the greatest, it's the greatest joy, um, to have your children live the faith

00:16:25.300 and have the faith shine in their lives.

00:16:27.160 It's an incredible thing.

00:16:29.160 Give us a last word, Paul, if you could, about living your life for Christ, uh, in the midst

00:16:35.660 of the big business world.

00:16:37.200 Um, and in an industry, in, in the music industry, of course, is not very Catholic or Christian

00:16:42.660 at all.

00:16:43.440 How do you survive?

00:16:44.400 How do you live your faith out there?

00:16:46.860 Well, let me just say this, as far as the music industry, you know, this is a sidelight.

00:16:51.140 I'm into a lot of different things in my life.

00:16:53.580 And, uh, um, so, uh, but I understand where they're coming from.

00:16:57.880 I'm, I'm removed from it.

00:16:59.020 I live in Detroit and I'm, I'm not trying to become, uh, famous or rich.

00:17:03.820 It's, it's, it's impossible, um, uh, to do that.

00:17:06.880 But you asked the question, you know, um, I, there, there is no doubt that unless we, um,

00:17:14.700 as I mean, the, when you ask all these, you need to ask what's going, what's wrong with

00:17:18.560 the world, I I'm one of these guys and I wrote for many years.

00:17:21.520 I was also a coach and, you know, uh, I, so I taught and I taught and I taught in acronyms

00:17:27.400 or to be simple, uh, you know, to try to answer these complex, uh, situations simply so that

00:17:33.540 people can understand.

00:17:34.420 But here's what I would say, unless we, as a human species, as a race, uh, get back to

00:17:43.500 the idea that there is a higher power, that there is this God, this divine creator of creators,

00:17:52.060 and that there is a force far more powerful than us and to, uh, adhere and acquiesce and

00:17:59.900 admit to that so that we have our foundation of our family again, and faith and all those

00:18:05.420 things, which made this wonderful country, the most benevolent in the world, our constitutional

00:18:10.220 liberal republic, so great.

00:18:12.240 So it's, uh, I would say, and so that's what I'm trying to do is just make people aware.

00:18:16.800 I have a great quick thing.

00:18:18.200 I don't know if you know who Max Planck is.

00:18:20.720 Uh, Max Planck was this, uh, German physicist and, you know, uh, won the Nobel Peace Prize

00:18:26.300 in 1918.

00:18:27.800 You talk about the hypocrisy of what's happening.

00:18:30.320 And, and even, he was a quantum physicist.

00:18:33.700 What he did is essentially said that after all my studies and all my years, I have to

00:18:41.060 admit that there's a force, a power greater than what we can understand that moves those

00:18:47.200 atoms, you know, within the cell.

00:18:49.860 Um, however, he was, um, he said there was no God, and especially there isn't a Christian

00:18:56.400 guy.

00:18:56.820 So how do you reconcile that?

00:18:59.420 It's very difficult.

00:19:00.600 And that's what we're up against.

00:19:02.320 How do we, you know, how do we convince people that the jab is, I mean, it's, it's out there

00:19:08.460 and, um, the faith and the proof and look, we live in an incredibly beautiful divine universe.

00:19:15.080 It's perfect.

00:19:16.440 It's perfect nature.

00:19:18.180 I mean, you know, uh, it's absolutely amazing.

00:19:21.220 So I think that we need to get people to understand that, but it starts with acknowledging that there's

00:19:26.460 a force so much greater than us and it's God, it's, it's, um, it was, it's what can guide

00:19:32.820 us and what can lead us to, uh, um, you know, hopefully back to some concept of civilization,

00:19:39.880 no wars.

00:19:41.220 Why do we fight wars?

00:19:42.460 You know, I mean, it's, it's just obscene, uh, what's going on.

00:19:46.380 So this is my little part, um, the music and everything else, but I am very passionate

00:19:50.520 about, about that and so happy that I did come back and yes, there are aspects of, uh,

00:19:56.840 what's going on in the Catholic world that, but in general, the people are good and the

00:20:01.900 people like you and LifeSite News are what, what keeps me going.

00:20:06.360 And I, it's all divine that we connected because I think it's, it's just fantastic.

00:20:10.480 I didn't know that much about it.

00:20:11.900 And now I know what a force you guys are.

00:20:15.340 Awesome, Paul.

00:20:16.060 Well, we will be sure to feature other videos as well, because so inspiring.

00:20:20.820 And, uh, such a great gift.

00:20:22.380 And I, I think, uh, a lot of people have benefited from it.

00:20:25.920 Go check out the comments, uh, under the video, even those few thousand on YouTube, you'll

00:20:29.980 see, um, God bless you, Paul.

00:20:32.440 Thank you for what you do and, uh, keep serving faithfully.

00:20:36.580 And, uh, thank you for joining us on the John Henry West.

00:20:38.620 Thank you.

00:20:39.460 Thank you.

00:20:40.020 Amen.

00:20:40.600 Uh, thank you so much.

00:20:42.780 And God bless all of you.

00:20:44.440 We'll see you next time.

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The John-Henry Westen Show - March 15, 2022

Pro-life songwriter explains how prayer helped him create 'Dear Mom,' LifeSite's first music video

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