RADIO

“for King + Country” REVEALS Mission Behind “A Drummer Boy Christmas LIVE" Tour & Movie

Christian band ‪@ForKingAndCountry‬ is now synonymous with the Christmas song "Little Drummer Boy." But it's hard to bring their incredible Christmas concert experience to everyone in America - let alone the world - when the Christmas season is so short. So this year, they've decided to create a virtual tour, called "A Drummer Boy Christmas LIVE | The Cinematic Concert Experience". Brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone join Glenn Beck to explain how the idea came about, how they pulled it off, and why Joel's wife described it to him as "better than your actual live show." Plus, they share the story of how they once worked for Glenn many years ago ...

"A Drummer Boy Christmas LIVE" is in select theaters through December 19th and is also available on DVD at https://www.ForKingAndCountry.com/

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Luke and Joel Smallbone, brothers, from the Smallbone family are with me by now.

Guys, how are you?

VOICE: Well, well, well, from the bowels of an arena in Kansas City, a month or so ago, to -- to your show today, and I want to give a spoiler to the listeners, but to the Grand Ole Opry in a couple of weeks.

GLENN: Yeah. I know. That's crazy. That's crazy.

I can't thank you guys enough for that.

It's nuts. Do you have any -- well, we'll get into it some other time on the air. Or off the air.

Tell me about the -- the film, that you guys have, out in -- in -- what do they call it?

It's not --

VOICE: Yeah, it's actually -- well, first of all, thanks for having us, and loved our time together.

GLENN: Yeah.

VOICE: It's in 1600 theaters across America. So here's the back story, Glenn. We love Christmas. We love Christmas.

It actually will become a hallmark of Luke and my band, for King & Country, particularly this song, the Little Drummer Boy.

We did sort of a very obvious version of it, with Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra never thought of. And that is, we put loaded drums on a song, about a boy playing a drum.

And, I mean, all the TSA agents will come to me. And be like, we -- they would be like, you're part of King & Country. They would be like, you're the drummer boy, right? You know you've made it when an American TSA agent calls it. And but the trouble is, when we do these Christmas tours. You know, it's so short.

So we only did ten or 12 tours every year. So we end that when we announce it. Three-quarters of America and the rest of the world are all just really upset about it, because we can't get to them.

And so this was our attempt, you know, in a holiday, that I feel like we need to be reminded of these great hallmarks of what it means to be human joy and love and peace.

And the redemption that comes through God. We needed to be reminded of this.

So we put a film. We put it in a Toyota center, last year. And captured a cinematic experience for the whole family of our live show.

And my wife literally, Glenn. Turned to me. And he she was like, Joel, I think this is better than your actual live show.

So I was encouraged and insulted all at the same time.

GLENN: Right. I have to tell you, who is -- who is the artistic director of -- of the show?

VOICE: Well, this is Luke here. Well, this is one of the privileges of being able to do work. And I have brothers from the same mother. From the same father. And I have a privilege of working together. Is actually being able to, you know, being able to create these things together.

Our brother Daniel is actually the show designer.

We obviously, we work on this altogether.

So when it comes down to the set lists.

The visuals. The technology.

Yeah. We're involved with all of it.

Because we've actually done this since we were very young boys.

Rebecca saint James. We went on the road with her.

I think I was a lighting director at 14 or 15.

Joel was --

VOICE: That's a nice summary.

VOICE: So, you know, you throw this all together, and you create these shows.

And that's one of the things I love about what we get to do. We get to do it together.

GLENN: I have to tell you, it was -- it was awesome. It's one of the best shows I've seen. You know, I haven't seen the Christmas one, yet. I've heard, you know, the music.

I haven't seen the actual show.

But the -- the -- your music and the staging was -- I mean, I sat there with my wife.

And we were with a bunch of friends.

And I said, this is incredible!

And if you aren't a Christian, you would walk in here, and you would have really not necessarily any idea, if you hadn't really listened to the lyrics.

But you would feel what you're feeling. And it just is such a great experience.

VOICE: That's kind, man. Look, in our interpretation at least, the idea of being a Christian, of being a Jesus follower. It's an invitation, right?

And it's also a pretty enormous claim, that we are in touch with the creator of the universe.

That we're in touch with the creator of creativity. The creator of art. The creator of Sistine chapels. And so on.

And so often, in the modern context, our art feels like second fiddle to pop culture. And yet, you know this, as bit of a historian yourself.

Throughout history, the religious arts have led the way. And so, man, we take it so seriously.

Not for the sake of ego.

You know, at least -- not for the sake of -- not for the sake of self-aggrandizing. But for the sake of people looking at this and going, my goodness.

What a great God, that they must be in touch with, to put on, and to be inspired to do these types of things.

GLENN: So have you guys been tempted at all, to, you know. In the old days.

When you would go to a Christian concert, they would kind of preach at you. And, you know, try to convert.

And what I loved about it, is it was all there. But it was not in your face. It wasn't -- you weren't -- you weren't overtly saying, hey, come to Christ.

And so you -- nobody was. Nobody could possibly be offended. It was just such a great way to present the message.

And have people go, what makes them different. Have you been tempted to do -- be more obvious?

VOICE: Be more obvious. That's an interesting way of putting it. Look, I'm a big, well, I try to be a big historian.

And st. Francis at the CC, was the guy many, many years ago. He had a quote that as a young boy, really affected me.

And he says, preach the gospel. And if necessary, use word.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

VOICE: And look, I think that that statement should poke at a lot of us, as Christians.

Because our lives should be so unbelievably joyful.

Our work should be unbelievable good.

That sometimes, yeah. Sometimes words are required.

But I think that most of the time, they're not.

It's the presence that you bring, that oftentimes, people are left talking about.

So I think for us, man. We tried to take that -- take that statement literally.

You know, hopefully, you feel it.

GLENN: You do. You do.

VOICE: And you kind of know what's going on. That's our hope.

GLENN: So when I saw you in Kansas City.

I had forgotten that we -- I mean, I -- I know the name small bone, obviously.

I know your brother. He worked -- on one of my early book tours.

I've seen your movie of your family and everything else.

But I had forgotten that at one point, you two worked for me. You did a -- I have -- and you reminded me of that. And I'm like, what?

VOICE: What did you do, Luke? You were --

VOICE: Yeah. No. I'm a film director as well.

And I guess somehow we were working together, Glenn, because your team or somebody said, hey, why don't we do a day in the life of Glenn Beck?

And so we started at your house. And we like filmed you walking out. And then we filmed you, as you went to work that day.

But the funny part was, I was there to be like the sound and the audio guy. And before you came out of the door.

The loud mic, that was meant to go on to you. I dropped.

And literally broke it.

And so the rest of the day, I mean, for those of you who are listening. You see those guys are holding those massive mics above people's heads.

You get good audio.

Usually, that's the backup mic.

Well, that day, I made a mistake. So I am having to chase Glenn around all day with this massive mic.

Because I had broken the loud mic. So yes. We worked together, many, many years ago.

It's a small wall, but a crazy story.

GLENN: A crazy story, to look at where you are now. I mean, you're massive worldwide.

Congratulations.

VOICE: Thanks, man. You know this better than anyone. It's a team sport, right? This whole idea of being human. We're never meant to be an individual concept. We were meant to do this together.

And I think that's what King & Country represents, what these live shows represent.

It's collaboration. It's compromise.

It's, you know, creatively putting our minds together. And that's what the Christmas Live, you know, it really represents.

Is we took the same film crew from our movie, unsung heroes. It was released. Basically our parents' story. Our dad in the film, which I dubbed as a very expensive therapy session.

But we put the same -- we put them in that to capture this -- so what I love about this, this concert film.

And what we've gotten to do live, but also what we're getting to do cinematically now.

Is that we're getting to invite people, not only in America. But this film is going up to Canada.

It's going across to the UK. We're playing a few shows at the UK.

It's going down to Australia. It's going to New Zealand

This is the beauty. We know this with radio. Radio?

We're talking right now. There are thousands and thousands of people listening to this.

This is when art and technology come together. You're able to do something really cool.

GLENN: So we're talking to for King & Country. Their Drummer Boy Christmas live, will be available in select theaters, December 5th.

What day is it? Is that today? That's yesterday.

VOICE: Right now. Right now.

GLENN: Wow, through the 19th.

And if you've never seen them, I cannot explain how good they are.

They are really, really great. You want to get into the Christmas mood. I can guarantee, a good time. How do you get tickets?

VOICE: I think if you -- still, we can go to the local theater.

Phantom of -- kind of got all of the theaters. You know, I think if you use the ZIP code.

It would be able to direct you to the place, to kind of go see -- at your local theater.

GLENN: Great. For King&Country.com.

And you can follow them on Twitter. Four. The number four. King & Country.

God bless you, guys, we'll see you soon.
Thank you. Goodbye.

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RADIO

Tim Kennedy Unveils Grim Truth: World Instability and Christian Killings Surge

Former U.S. Army Special Forces Sniper Tim Kennedy joins Glenn to warn that “real instability” is coming across many parts of the world, including the Middle East, Haiti, Congo, and other parts of Africa. And one of the main signs of this is “the killing of Christians” at high levels in those regions. With a civil war brewing in Afghanistan, “genocide” level attacks in regions of Africa, and more trouble on the horizon, predictive models have found that things could very likely boil over soon. But Kennedy details how the Trump administration, especially Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and Pam Bondi, are working overtime to “get ahead of what we know is coming” and keep Americans safe.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: We're talking to Tim Kennedy. Talking to the president about the border, and what's going on with the border this week. And I said, you know, if I were, you know, a Mexican citizen. And knowing that my government was in bed with the cartels. I would be hoping that some special forces just showed up in the middle of the night. And started killing people. In these cartels. And I said, well, that would be news breaking if I said that was a good idea.

You know, I hope it doesn't come to that. It was clear, that that is on the table. I mean, that really has to happen. Does it not?

I mean, that is a collapsed narco state in Mexico. Isn't it?

MATT: Yeah, we -- the rules of war that we'll be experiencing for the next five to ten years are not the traditional maneuver warfare that people remember from Korea and from Vietnam, and from even -- you know, we know who our enemy is. These are going to be businesses.

These are syndicated criminal organizations, that do not fight fair, and the cartel owns both the businesses, the corporations, and the criminal networks that are involved in that.

So, yes. It's absolutely on the table. And a group of people that are sitting on like the go button, are absolute savages, Mr. Beck.

GLENN: They are. I know some of them. I know some of them.

And they're just like -- and they're just -- they're just champing at the bit to go, I know. I know.

TIM: That's the truth.

We're in conversation with the cartels right now. And the cartels are saying, hey, we don't want to die. We don't want to be wiped off the face of the planet, which we know is not going to happen. So, you know, are there other options. Hey, what if we stopped human trafficking?

What if we stopped fentanyl production entirely?

What if -- what if all of that just goes away. What if we stop and seal the border on the south side. What are you -- will we maybe be allowed to transport some cocaine and some marijuana?

I'm totally fine with this. If we stop fentanyl. Human trafficking. Gun smuggling. And we stop the invasion of our border, I'll -- and we don't have to do a while bunch of killing.

You know, whatever.

But they know they're on the brink of --

GLENN: I hope they do.

TIM: Of existence.

GLENN: I hope they do.

You know, when you look at what's happening here.

And what they're bringing over here.

I mean, it has to stop, dead in its tracks.

It has to stop.

And it has to stop soon. The president is dealing with these courts. Which I just think is judicial insurrection as Mike Lee puts it. And it has to stop.

The president has to protect our borders, and has to protect our cities. This is -- you know, this is the opium wars, done to China by the English.

You know, 200 years ago. 150 years ago. And now they're doing it to us.

That's what -- that's what is happening.

TIM: Yeah.

GLENN: Tell me about the Christians and genocide, that you believe is on the horizon.

TIM: Just yesterday.

Back at the White House yesterday.

Listening to some brief about -- there's some brilliant companies that are able to do predictive modeling.

Using literally every public and classified source of information.

And there's these events that are pretty predictable.

You know, they predicted what would happen in Afghanistan. Predicted what would happen in Ukraine.

They see regionally that on the very near horizon, as soon as like late summer.

We are going to see real instability throughout CENTCOM and the Endo-Pacific region.
And some of those things -- some of the catalysts that are -- the data points are what are the killing of Christians.

And it's happening all over CENTCOM.

And --

GLENN: Explain CENTCOM. Explain CENTCOM for anybody who doesn't what CENTCOM means. Explain that.

TIM: Just imagine the Middle East starting kind of in north Africa.

And western Asia. And everything that has lots of deserts. And lots of Muslim countries -- just -- by coincidence, there's also Israel. That's in CENTCOM.

One of the few non-Muslim democracies, in that whole entire region.

Ask, you know, the Houthis and Hamas. And Hezbollah.

And then in former countries, like in Syria and Iraq, Afghanistan, those places, it's just a massacre of Christians, right now.

GLENN: So let me take a one-minute break.

Come back, because I want to talk to you more about that. Because you've been involved. We've been with you with Mercury One, and trying to help. And I know what we're gearing up for.

And I want to see if there's anything that you need and you would recommend, besides told prayers for Christians.

And I want to go deeper into what this predictive model is showing in just a second.

First, let me tell you about Preborn.

You know, if you were in the room with a woman who was thinking about giving up her baby.

What would you say?

If a scared young woman looked you in the eye and said, I don't think I could do this.

I'm alone. I don't know if it's really a baby yet.

What would you do?

Would you yell at her? Would you say, you can't do that! You'll go to hell.

Or would you tell her, you're strong enough. You are. Show her pictures of your kids maybe. Talk about miracles?

Talk about God? Talk about anything?

Anything. We're here for you. Would you just wait.

None of us would show her pictures of an aborted baby. None of us would yell at her.

Okay? The truth is, we'll never be in that room. Most of us. But Preborn will not be in that room. They don't argue or shame.

They do something really simple. It turns out, it's very persuasive. Just offer her a free ultrasound. And when she hears that tiny heartbeat. When she sees the image on the screen, everything changes. More than half the time the mom chooses life, the rest of the time, she's like, I -- I just -- I'm alone. I can't afford.

And that's where they come in, after that. They take care of mom. This saves two lives. This saves the life of torture for that woman, and the baby's life.

Please, donate your best gift today.

Go to #250. Say the key word baby for Preborn. It's #250. Key word baby. You know, just a few bucks pays for an ultrasound, and it just changes lives. Saves lives. Preborn.com/Beck. Sponsored by he Preborn. Preborn.com/Beck. Ten-second station ID.
(music)

GLENN: So, Tim, maybe we'll have you on -- we're doing a big benefit for the Nazarene Fund.

This fall.

I don't even have details on it. I just heard about it yesterday.

What that is, we go and rescue Christians. Or we pay and help people like you, go rescue Christians.

We just empower people like you, to help.

I would love to invite to that. When we get closer, I will.

Tell me about this predictive model. Why is it saying that it's going to get so bad? What's coming our way?

TIM: Yeah.

The Nazarene Fund, and Mercury One, just for -- love you guys.

I don't -- you know, we publicly can't say a lot of the things that we do at save our allies.

But none of it is possible without you, quite frankly.

Like if you look at me, and our team in Afghanistan. Or in Ukraine. Providing humanitarian aid. And pulling people out of the war zones.

Although to the Far East, as far as I possibly can get in far Russia.

Every place that we have been, has been because of you, quite frankly. Mr. Beck.

GLENN: Please. Stop calling me Mr. Beck.

Give credit. This audience is so gracious. They are so gracious.

TIM: Yeah. They just have an understanding.

Samaritan purse. Mercury One. Nazarene Fund.

We see you guys every single place, in the worst, most dire condition. So, you know, Glenn, thank you so much.

To your question, you know, we are -- if you just look in the past month, you know, you can look to Syria. You can look to the -- next to our bill.

You can look to the Congo.

Where you see thousands of Christians being killed.

You see Muslim converts, that were being specifically targeted. Down in Congo just last week.
Another 29 Christians were killed. In 2025, in like the region in Syria. There was like this region of violence. Another thousand were killed.

And so if you take -- if we're going to look for similar areas in the region, and try to predict the instability of a particular administration or government.

There's a whole bunch of -- and we can take historical data from the past 50 years. And start looking at, okay.

Economically, what is happening for instability?

What is happening culturally?

What is happening on -- in the markets?

What's happening in like -- really clear data points. And we have this bell curve of what's normal. And then you have these outliers that are -- that then keep occurring, every time there's a coup. Or every time there's genocide.

Or every time -- and there's enough data now, where we -- especially with AI. And we can scrape all of history.

We can then very accurately start, you know -- all the special operations side. I'm trying to find somebody in space and time.

It's -- that's -- used to be a difficult thing, to predict where a human is going to be.

So I could maybe bring them to justice, and if we look at the first 95 days of the president in office, and our intelligence community specifically, that told them they're going to work. With, you know, Kash Patel, enabling them. Pam Bondi.
45 Americans that have been illegally detained abroad brought home.

You know, we're knocking on the door of 100 radical terrorists, want to do harm to Americans. Dead.

And we are trying to get ahead of what we know is coming. Which is, complete near Civil War in Afghanistan.

Trying to get stability in Congo -- obviously, we see what's happening in Haiti.

And every time one of these places starts becoming less secure and stable, that is the breeding ground for radical adversarial groups, that are funded by our adversaries, like and mine Iran.

To then conduct attacks on Americans.

But they're not doing it direct.

It's like via proxy.

But Haiti, if we don't pay attention to it, China will use it.

Congo will --

GLENN: Yeah, I know.

TIM: And it just keeps happening.

GLENN: Tim, I can't thank you enough for what you do. You're really a remarkable man. It was such an honor to see you at the White House.

And as usual, see you at the White House and you're serving. Serving veterans.

So thank you for everything, Tim.

God bless you.

TIM: Yeah, you're amazing. Always in your corner. Let me know what you need.

GLENN: You've got it. Thank you, Tim Kennedy. US Army Special Forces. He's a sniper. Former UFC fighter, and really a servant to our vets.

Next year, it's going to be a tough year. All the way around us the world.

It's going to be very tough. What he's saying, is coming.

I -- you know, people say, I think Donald Trump will say for a reason, to save the republic. I'm not sure, that we understand God's mind.

It may have just been to postpone and give us more time to prepare. I'm not sure.

I hope we save the republic. But it might be time to prepare. Because things are very, very dicey in the world, and we just need to be prayerful.

Thoughtful. Jesus-like people.