I had a debilitating issue that haunted me in grade school, junior high, high school and even a part of college. I was afraid to walk…and I desperately needed someone to teach me how.
Now that seems absurd, right? How can someone teach someone else how to walk? What am I a toddler? Was I in an accident and in need of rehabilitation? Let me explain.
I grew up in a single-parent home with two sisters, raised by a Christian mom. I believe that since I was always surrounded by women, I subconsciously picked up on how they walked around me. I honestly do believe that by beholding we become changed. However, I was being changed without even knowing it. Everywhere I went, people noticed that my walk was…different. “You’re switching! You walk like a girl!!”
I can recall when I was in the second grade, I was in love with (let’s call her) “Kassandra”. I yelled her name across the playground just so she could turn around and look back at me. I wanted to see her beautiful, smiling face. She was tall and thin, with long black hair. She had a smile that would ignite any light-barren sky. The funny thing is I didn’t want anything from her. I just wanted her attention…even just for a millisecond.
One day “Kassandra” noticed me walking in front of her. I guess my walk “inspired” her to break out in song. “You move like the waves of the ocean, the ocean. You move like the waves of the ocean,” she taunted. I was mortified! Even “Kassandra” thought I walked like a girl!!
“You move like the waves of the ocean, the ocean. You move like the waves of the ocean.”
I remember many days of trying to hide my less-than-masculine stroll with a long coat. That worked in cooler weather but was just strange in the summer. I was always just so embarrassed. And I wasn’t the only one affected. It took a toll on my family as well.
Both of my sisters’ unspoken jobs all throughout our growing up years seemed to include: getting good grades, being popular with the boys, braiding hair and defending their brother. And were they great at all of them.
I’m sure my oldest sister may have forgotten this but I appreciated a comment she made to me many years ago. One day at school, a classmate of hers watched me pass by him and made his crazy comment. Without missing a beat, my sister immediately took up for me. Later on that day she said that she didn’t know why everyone kept “trippin’” about the way I walked. She continued to vent by saying that all I was doing was putting one foot in front of the other. I just beamed. I was like…”Yes. That’s all I’m doing!”
My walk in itself didn’t haunt me but the various reactions to it paralyzed me for years. People automatically believed that if you walk like a girl then you have other feminine tendencies. Simply stated, you’re gay.
Thank God I’m over that crazy period in my life. I’ve been delivered from fear and of what people think of me. Baby…you should see me now. I walk as bold as a lion. What happened? I’ve always been a lover of God and I had the good fortune of finding, reading and applying the bible passage that says we are sons and daughters of God, a royal priesthood, an holy nation. And then I went on to read that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: he delights in His ways. Those verses were game changers for me over the upcoming years.
Some years back my mom caught my stride and commented that I had “purpose” in my step. She was right. I really do. I no longer walk like my sisters or my mother. I now realize that I walk like the man who orders or directs not just my walk but every step…my Father.
John Paul Redmon is an American recording artist, a Louis Armstrong impressionist, pianist, singer, composer, arranger, motivational speaker and humanitarian.
In 1994 he became founder, president and CEO of Reaching Records — a Christian, independent record label whose purpose and motto was “to reach and touch hearts around the world”. He was 18 years old.
Over the next 26 years, Redmon produced and released multiple projects on his label that gained national attention and recognition, including: John Redmon & Friends: Faith, Love and Unity, Vol 1 featuring BeBe & CeCe Winans, Crystal Lewis and Patti Labelle and A Woman’s Journey featuring Vickie Winans, Brenda Nicholas and an enlightening testimonial from his mother Cynthia Redmon.
In 2017, in a desperate attempt to come up with a captivating stage routine for his new gig at The Broadmoor’s Golden Bee, Redmon created then sharpened a Louis Armstrong impression. He highlighted the Armstrong classic What a Wonderful World. During each of his performances, he started noticing a trend : a hushed crowd, a silent tear, glistening eyes, gigantic smiles, loud cries, explosive cheers, then emotional, sporadic hugs and testimonials of what Louis or his songs meant to them. “I knew I was on to something” Redmon smiles.
In 2018 Redmon and Thomas J. Dawson, Jr. teamed up to record a fresh and new jazzy version of What a Wonderful World arranged by Dawson. Next, the two went on to shoot a visually stimulating, black and white short-form music video with director Kevin Hu and Moonshine Media. The video received over 1200 views the first week of airing.
Redmon has had a passionate calling and ministry to the senior citizens community. This love was instilled in him by his mother at the tender age of 5. So in 2020 with the help of manager Cynthia Hunt and Fresh Start Baptist Church Male Chorus, he planned an Honoring Louis Armstrong pre-album release tour to visit as many senior facilities within the southern Colorado area presenting this nostalgic album material. He wanted to musically transport them to a place of young glittering hopes and sensational dreams.
Now Redmon is excited to release to the world his first full-length tribute album Honoring Louis Armstrong on his record label, playing a dual role as a Louis Armstrong impressionist and executive producer.