GENO GARDNER
“Geno”
Bowing to the gods of pop culture is one way to achieve a certain level of success
these days. Many gifted artists have genuflected to the gods of what’s hot now, and
sold their souls for fifteen minutes of fame. Geno Gardner freely admits he could
have fallen into that category. Earning his first professional recording credit while
still in high school (rapping on a song for a local R&B group in his hometown)
could be enough to turn any young man’s head and set his feet on the wrong path.
Geno credits his mother and sister with helping to keep him on the straight and
narrow. A self-professed “pew baby,” Geno’s mother took him to church whenever
the doors were open. But secondhand faith is really no faith at all, and Geno
confessed to living with his feet planted firmly in both worlds. “Teen peer pressure
is tough,” he says. “I did my dirt, my bad stuff, during the week, and on Sunday I
was in church. I followed in my mother’s footsteps, but I had not really committed
my life to God.”
Geno’s moment of truth came while serving on active duty in the U.S. Army in
Korea. “I was 19 years old, and it was my first experience being away from home,”
Geno recalls. “I was in the barracks washing clothes, when a couple of guys came
in, dragging another guy between them. He was drunk and throwing up. It was just
a really pathetic sight. That’s when it all came home to me—that’s what that kind
of lifestyle led to. I did that kind of stuff all through high school. That experience
turned my heart toward God and I made a true commitment of faith.”
From his first experience in a professional recording studio during high school,
through his tour of duty in the U.S. Army that took him across the country and
across the ocean, to his current residence in middle Tennessee, Geno has patiently
cultivated a following of fans who have, in turn, inspired him to grow even more
bold with his Gospel-centric lyrics, resulting in t