J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here. 

Here are the stories behind the songs on our 10th single of 2024: 

ALL DEAD AND GONE

ApologetiX has a long history with the Eagles song "Already Gone." From 1992-97, we performed and recorded it as a parody about the Rapture under various titles ("Already Gone," "Already Goin'," "All Ready to Go") with gradually changing lyrics. I was never really satisfied with the results and believed we had taken it to the limit.

However, on July 26, 2019, an idea came to me for something totally different — "All Dead and Gone." I didn't get any other lyrics at the time, but I knew the premise: Throughout history, many notable people have made pronouncements about the meaning or meaningless of life and the afterlife, but only Jesus Christ has come back to prove what He said was true. The rest of them are all dead and gone. 

Or to repurpose a quote Keith and I love from the movie Night of the Living Dead, "Yeah, they're dead. They're ... all messed up.” 

It reminds me a little of this line from Isaiah 8:19: "Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?" Now, in context, that verse was talking about the futility of consulting mediums and spiritists, but it's equally futile to rely on dead-end philosophy when talking about everlasting life. As Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:13, " No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man.” 

Tom Milnes and Tom Tincha shared guitar duties on this recording. Tom M., Rich, and I all gathered together in the studio with Jimmy on May 7, 2024 to record our Eagalitarian vocals.

STUBBORN

Most people — Christians, at least — are familiar with John 3:16, but the verses that immediately follow it are very interesting. In John 3:17-20, Jesus says:

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”

That pretty much sums up what this parody is about. Although the word "stubborn" isn't used in the passage above, it does appear 28 times in the New International Version of the Bible. 

I wanted to focus on our common ground as sinners (Romans 3:10, 23) before moving on to warn those who remain resistant to Christ, so there's a subtle shift from "we" to "you" midway through the second verse. In the third verse, "they'll send you off in peace with flowers" alludes to funerals. The seven drum beats right after that make me think of a coffin lid being nailed shut. 

I got the idea for "Stubborn" on March 9, 2023. Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner is the biggest Kiss fan I know, and he suggested we do the version from the Alive album, which added some cool parts that weren't on the original studio recording.