Why that vehicle to tell Donnelly’s story?
Billy: People react to truth, whether it’s in Biblical language or whether it’s wrapped up in someone’s story or whether it’s in a song or poem. Whether people react negatively or positively, they’re reacting to something. They’re reacting to truth in some context. For me, there are certain fundamental ideas that really raise their head in my life over and over and over again and I wanted to convey those things. The only way that I could see doing that was in a narrative. As I wrestled with what it should be, the characters and the theme really began to take shape. It really started writing itself once I began to understand what it needed to be about to be quite honest. I think at the heart of the record is this concept of humility and pride and how they encounter love and mercy. Where I’m getting that at is when a humble heart encounters love and mercy, that heart becomes softer and it can receive that. But when a proud heart encounters love and mercy, it sees it as a weakness and oft
