#WEN2022 Performer: Byron Cage

Foxy 107.1-104.3 Featured Video

Source: C/O Radio One / R1

Cage’s evolved perspective on the power of praise dates back to his youth. Born in Grand Rapids, MI – the second of three children – he was friendly with the DeBarge R&B singing family and his uncle Bishop James Abney taught him choir conducting at an early age. Cage’s father was a director of Veteran Affairs for the State of Michigan and his mother was a trainer for Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Cage’s mother and the Motor City provided a rich musical outlet for Cage. He started playing the sax but switched to the piano. “My mom and I were at a funeral home waiting for a wake to start and she was back there talking to someone and I got up on the organ and started playing,” he says. “She asked me when I learned to play the organ. I said it was something I learned in school. So there was a piano in the fellowship hall at church and I was always on that playing so my mom finally got me an upright piano when I was 13.” He basically taught himself to play by mimicking his favorite records and learning by ear. Cage also had a string of mentors who would become famous in their own rights such as Thomas “Maestro” Whitfield who took Cage under his wings. “When he moved to Detroit Donald Vails was my minister of music [at Greater Grace Temple on Seven Mile & Schaffer Streets],” Cage adds. “Fred Hammond played bass guitar, Charles Ellis who was is now Bishop Ellis was on drums. Mitch Jones from Commissioned was in the choir. I played the organ, directed and sang. It was a wonderful and enriching experience for me.”

With solid musical training under his belt, Cage moved to Atlanta to attend Morehouse College and began to assist the music departments of various ministries before launching his recording career with AIR Records in 1994. Although, those early CDs performed well, it wasn’t until the new millennium that Cage became a household name in black church circles with hits such as “The Presence of the Lord,” “Royalty,” “Broken, But I’m Healed” and “I Will Bless the Lord.” In his latest abum, “Isolation” Cage garnered two singles that hit #1 on Billboard: “I Can’t Give Up” and “You Are”! After a path that has had its share of twists and turns, Cage feels he’s where God meant for him to be. “The most rewarding thing to me, no matter where I go in the world, is to have people approach me and begin to talk about the songs… All the awards on my mantle are great but those things are just trophies. What really matters is when I leave this earth was there anything that I did that was impactful enough to give God the type of glory to point people to Him? Did the songs bring hope to hopeless situations? If so, then I know I’ve done what God called me to do.”

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