Stories Behind Songs: Kylie Small on "Jesus in a Bar"

Kylie Small showed up to our conversation about her latest single “Jesus in a Bar” decked out in cowboy boots and a charm necklace. Her gaze was intense and alive, and she was buzzing with energy; a necessity for being a full-time college student with a part-time job, an internship, and an already booming music career. She released “Jesus in a Bar” after it went viral online.

The single cover for "Jesus in a Bar"

Kylie describes herself as a faith-based country singer. But upon announcing to her church last year that she would be moving to Nashville for college, the response wasn’t positive.

“They were like, ‘Oh, are you going to be playing in bars?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And it was just not the reaction that I think Jesus would have,” Kylie tells me. “I started writing the song ‘Jesus in a Bar’ because I was like, ‘Jesus would go to these places, and Jesus would go and seek out lost people. He wouldn't turn his nose up to them.’”

Before college, Kylie had never been to a bar. But upon moving, she found herself in a pickle, “[I was facing] a lot of temptation I’d never faced before… making the wrong decisions. And I had this moment one night where it was like the Holy Spirit, man, just slapped me in the face and was like, ‘Hey, sister… you feel, right now, so far from God, but he still loves you, and Jesus still wants to have a relationship with you, regardless of… what you have done and what… decisions you're making.’ And that was such an eye-opening moment for me.”

Kylie posted the song on Instagram and TikTok and got extremely positive reactions – over 1.1 million views and 180 thousand likes. However, as with anything where there’s polarization, there was complexity to the responses. Drinking is stigmatized in Christianity, and Christianity is (unfortunately) stigmatized in American politics right now. Kylie gives a reasonable description of her approach to these situations, “I, of course, do have my political beliefs, but I choose to approach it from a biblical standpoint. Always, anytime people ask, like, ‘Oh, how do you feel about this?’ I'm like, ‘Look, this is what Jesus would say. That's what the Bible says.’”

And what does the Bible say? “Jesus says the first commandment… is to love [Him]. The second is to love your neighbors… as you do yourself. So, I think that whenever we approach people with a judgmental standpoint… it doesn't matter what their sin is. Fix yourself first… I didn't party in high school, but a lot of my friends did, and they were so embarrassed and scared to come to church because they didn't want to be judged… Church is supposed to be a hospital… I want to make [that] very clear to people… Jesus came to save sinners. He didn't come to socialize with saints in a little Christian country club.’”

I ask Kylie to read some of her comments to me – one of my favorite pastimes when a friend of mine goes viral. The one that stuck out the most to me was from a non-follower of Jesus, “I'm not religious, but this is beautiful. It carries so much meaning.”

Kylie Small for "Jesus in a Bar"

Kylie and I agree and talk in some depth about the importance of respect between people of different religious beliefs, which I find deeply valuable considering that I identify somewhere between atheist and agnostic. People need to find common ground to get along as a society. Even if I don’t follow any religion, I agree with most of what I know about the moral code of followers of Jesus. Jesus asked followers to spread love, and I believe that such unity is the only way for society to live harmoniously. 

To do this, Kylie and I agree that it’s important to remember that people can put on emotional façades. I ask her to explain a lyric describing bars as “a place for the hurting who don’t even know it”. She says, “People go to bars for all different reasons… people go there to, like, nurse their wounds. But… a lot of bars are, like, really upbeat and really, like, you know, dancing and, like, good time type things, [and] even the people that are in those fun-time bars are still hurting and still struggling with sin… every single person has sinned, and if you say you haven't well… you just lied.” She concludes, “It just kind of puts us all in the same boat.” By acknowledging that we’re all experiencing some level of pain at any given point, we can find common ground, and therefore, unity. 

Kylie looks forward to representing more such communal interpretations of faith soon. She tells me about upcoming plans to release a single and an EP and gushes enthusiastically about all the new doors that have opened with this release. Keep up with her on all platforms at @kyliesmallmusic and listen to “Jesus in A Bar” here.