Prodigal Magazine

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The story of the prodigal is one of the most inspiring stories ever spoken because it gives us all hope that we can turn things around in life, even when they seem to be deteriorating so quickly.  It is a story where the young man focuses on the wrong things and once life begins to fall apart, he turns his focus homeward, to a father who was waiting on him all along.  Dustin Ruth knows this story well.  He has lived it and now, his focus is solely on Christ, using music to share the message of what God has done in the lives of the members of Ruth.

 We caught up with Ruth at a concert on Halloween night in Kernersville, NC.  Behind the scenes, Dustin took some time to give us a glimpse into his life and into what God is doing with their band today.

His Life

Dustin Ruth grew up in Washington state, a place where music flows through the body almost as fluidly as blood flows through the veins.  Many of the great musicians of our time have come from the same area so his pull towards music seemed natural. 

 Q – Can you tell me your testimony?

 “I grew up in a Christian family.  My parents were fairly new to the faith when I was born.  We lived in a rural part of Washington where my dad opened an auto repair shop.  I grew up there, going to church and my parents also put me into a local private school.  It was like a church that had a school there.  I grew up learning things that I think applied more so later on in life.  After I got out of the private school in junior high, I went to a public school and learned a lot about life there, like everyone else in high school.  I moved to LA after high school to pursue music and at that point, I didn’t really get plugged in to a church down there.  It tended to be kind of lonely searching for acceptance. After a year down there, I decided to move home and start a band with a bunch of guys from high school.  None of us went to college; we were all in the same boat.  We started getting into drugs and alcohol and partying; being a rock band.  We did that for a couple of years and we moved into a house that had a basement and we put on shows there.  The house became very messy, there was garbage everywhere, people in and out all of the time, and cops were watching us because they weren’t sure what we were doing there.  What happened was one day I just really, really wanted to get out of that.  I told the guys that I had to quit the band and I was moving out of the house.  None of them were that happy.  It was really hard to do.  I moved in with my parents and started working at my dad’s auto repair shop and then I started praying really hard that the Lord would somehow touch me or give me direction.  I prayed for like a month and a half.   I was really depressed and the Lord answered my prayer.  One day I was out building a fence with my dad and I just felt the Lord answer my prayer. 

There were all these questions in my mind about music and my future and I felt like He answered that through some of the songs I had already written.  There was a song about a girlfriend, a song about money, a song about drugs, and there was a song about leaving my friends and all those were popping into my head.  It was like the Lord was telling me, “You’ve put a lot of emotion and stuff into all these different things, but they’re all going to fail you.”  I kind of got 4excited at that point and some of the memory verses and things I had memorized when I was younger started coming to the forefront of my mind.  The Lord was using that stuff that my parents had invested so long ago.  At that point, it was just some kind of awesome journey.  Now it’s been five years since I’ve done drugs or anything and the Lord has, through that five years, really grown me.  I have hope now.  I have desires He’s put in my heart.”

Q – What is your favorite verse of Scripture?

“One that’s kind of the theme of the new album is the one in Philippians that says, “He who began a good work in you will continue until the day it is finished.”  My mom shared that with me and it’s one of those promises God gives us that like “Look.  I see beginning to end.  I know what you’re supposed to look like.”  He’s got this perfect image of who we are and He’s helping grow us with His Holy Spirit to be that person.”

His Music

Ruth has had the opportunity to share the stage with Switchfoot and others. Their music has found a way to transcend from only reaching one particular group to being able to reach across many generations of listeners.  It comes for hearing from God, whose message is not limited to teens or to the elders.  It is a message that Dustin and the guys love to share.  It has given them a voice to reach a world that is slipping farther away from the truth every second, as if there is no other choice for how to live life.

 Q – Dustin, what inspires you?

“A lot of things inspire me.  A lot of people ask how I write songs and stuff like that but there’s no real formula.  I think there are a lot of things we have equations for, like how we sell a hamburger and make a buck or how we work and make a buck.  The thing about the songs the Lord has blessed me with is that I don’t really feel like there’s an equation for it.  It doesn’t matter who I am, I don’t know how it happens, but I do know that the Lord has a hug part to do with it.  Sometimes, He just makes me feel like picking up a guitar and I do and sometimes something comes.  Sometimes it don’t.  It’s cool.  I do believe that He already knows these songs and already has them picked out.  He gives them to me when I am scratching at the surface for them.”

 What’s it like seeing your music have such a deep impact on people? (Kody)

It’s a blessing, for sure.  It’s a blessing to be able to do music.  I remember a comment we got on one of our pages.  It was from a mom that has a kid that is apparently autistic.  He can’t talk or anything, but he can make noises.  He sits in a wheelchair.  She was saying that they were doing all kinds of training because all his life, he’s being trained to communicate with his parents so they can help him. When she puts on our music, he gets really excited.  She said that he does a lot of things when he listens to our music; he responds in ways that he doesn’t to anything else.  You feel so blessed to be able to do something like that.  Those encouragements from those people, that impact that you’re talking about, is just a reminder that this is beyond me.  This is outside of who I am because I am just a screwed up guy (laughing).”

What is your favorite part about being on tour? (Kolton)

“Well, just growing tighter with the guys in the band.  We kind of look at the band as a ministry within itself.  A lot of these songs are about truths that God has taught us over the past few years.  I like having these guys around to be my brothers in Christ and encourage each other to be better people and try to do the right thing.  Also, I love meeting other bands and getting to learn from them.  We’ve been blessed to go out with some really cool bands.”

 How did you like touring with Switchfoot? (Kody)

“It was amazing!  Sometimes, it was like such a dream come true that a kid will come up to us and say “I saw you at the Switchfoot concert” and it’s like “OK, it happened!  I wasn’t sure if it had happened.”"

 Dustin also talked about the way that Switchfoot had Bible studies while they were on tour and how the guys had been very inspirational and encouraging to Ruth.  It was an opportunity that they were grateful to get and will forever be a memory that they will cherish.

 Q – What do you see when you look out at the crowd?

“A lot of times, the crowd scares me!  Not because the people are scary because I think they’re all cool.  When we were on that tour (with Switchfoot) walking out on stage in Houston, there were 8,000 people, which is the most we’ve ever played for.  Walking out there, I just live a lot inside my head.  You just want to play the best you can and you hope they enjoy it and get something out of it.  A lot of times, I don’t even open my eyes.  I just close my eyes and play.  I feel like I’m just with people, hanging out.”

How did you meet the other guys in the band? (Kanan)

 “I met Nick about three and a half or four years ago.  I met him through a mutual friend.  We were just hanging out and I remember thinking, “Gosh, that guy is so cool.  I wish he played guitar so we could try to play in a band.  It turned out that he did play the guitar.  I talk to him about jammin’ and we jammed with him and it felt great.  The bass player, Bret, worked in Seattle at Tooth and Nail studio, just helping on a ton of projects.  We met him there for our record, Secondhand Dreaming, and he played on that and ended up touring with us after that.  Our drummer just started with us.  His name’s Daniel.  He’s been in a lot of hardcore, heavy bands.  He just accepted Christ like two years ago.  He’s an awesome example to us.  It’s fun to have him in the band now, hanging out with us, coming all the way out here.  His ambition and drive to serve God is awesome.”

Q – What’s your favorite song you’ve written?

“On the new album, there’s one called “Nothing to Hide”.  It’s number eight on the new album.  That one’s up there.  It’d definitely a deep song but also one that I just praise God that He let me be able to write it.  It’s one of those ones that just moves me.  I like “Speechless” and that’s on the new album.  Those are probably two of my favorites.”

Kody and I mentioned how we liked a couple of the songs from the old album.  Kody mentioned the songs “You Are” and “Mr. Turner” as being two of his favorites.  Dustin mentioned that “You Are” came from John 6.  He then gave us some insight on Mr. Turner.

 “That song totally came from a prayer.  That’s about a guy who didn’t really like me a whole lot or the idea of the band.  He had cancer and wasn’t a Christian and his family was getting scared because he was rapidly dying.  He actually accepted Christ two weeks before he died.  He was seventy-four years old.  That song, when I wrote it, I just remember playing the lick and then all those words just came out and I knew what it was about.  I knew it was for him and for his family.  I think that song is so powerful because God was giving the message like no matter how stubborn someone is, how old they are, how rich they are, how drugged up they are or whatever, if you pray that God will save them, He can work in their heart and let them know that they need Him.  That guy was an older guy who had done a lot of great things in his life and didn’t think he needed God (before he realized his need for Christ).  But he definitely accepted Christ.”

 Q – What is the concept of the new album?

 We were watching Trekkies, a Star Trek documentary.  It’s about people who are Star Trek fanatics, who dress up like Star Trek characters, they learn their languages, and go to the conventions and hang out and talk about Star Trek.  In Trekkies 2, there was a British guy who called them Anoraks.  They asked him what he meant and he said they were nerds and outcasts.  I looked it up online and found that it is an arctic jacket but also British people use it as a slang term for someone who is really into something that nobody else really cares about.  We felt like, sometimes as a band, you get a lot of people saying “Are you in a band?”.  The second they learn what you band is about or that your words are about who God is and what He’s done in your life, they don’t really care.  A lot of people in the world don’t really care if you’re into Jesus and I can understand that because some people’s hearts just aren’t open to it.  They see it as foolish to base your whole life off of something that you can see because they don’t understand.  When we used that term on the title of the album, it’s just the idea that we can understand it can seem kind of weird that we write these songs about God that everybody doesn’t believe in.  The cover has Bigfoot on it because we are from the Northwest.  We just thought it would be fun to tie that in to where we are from.”

 Ruth closed with the song “Mr. Turner” that night for me.  It was as if God used that song to refocus me again, thinking about what could be if only I look to Him at all times.  In that song, the words speak to all of us about what could be if only we remain focused on the God of the impossible.  It says, “What if I keep my eyes on you?  Could I sail across the ocean blue?”  Ruth has seen the way God could take a few guys from Washington and send them all over the United States and into Europe with a message of what God has done in their lives.  They now challenge all of us to see what God can do in our lives too, if only we keep our eyes on God.  With God, we will sail across the oceans in front of us.

Check out their music at http://www.myspace.com/ruthrock

By:  Andy Clapp, Kody Black, Kolton Black, and Kanan Black

2009 Tour Info

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