- Anthony Evans was just 12 years old

when he heard his famousfather, Tony Evans,

addressing a huge crowd at

a Promise Keepers Conference in Texas.

The men were visiblystirred and encouraged,

but Anthony had onlyone overriding thought,

"I can never, ever be him."

Take a look.

(lively pop beat)

- [Narrator] Anthony Evans,son of mega-church pastor

Tony Evans, was already anestablished Christian artist

when he became a contestant

on the hit reality show, The Voice.

Even though he was knockedout of the competition early,

it opened up new opportunities for Anthony

to work alongside famousartists in Hollywood.

He was later hired by TheVoice to help cast new talent.

In his book "Unexpected Places",

Anthony discusses the highs and lows

he experienced on his journey;

including struggling withdepression and doubt,

and what got him throughthose challenging times.

- And please welcome back toThe 700 Club, Anthony Evans.

Anthony, great to see you!

- Hey, great to see you too.- Looking good, my friend.

- Thank you, I appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

- Well first of all, we justwanna say how sorry we are

about the loss of yourcousin, Wynter Evans Pitts.

And just ask you, how youand your family are doing.

- [Anthony] We're good.

(stutters)

Sorry, I wasn't ready totalk about that first.

Just- okay.

- [Host] Right.

- So, it's hard for all of us

to lose a family member suddenly

but I'm actually standing onthe strength of her husband

who's one of my best friends,his name is Jonathan Pitts.

He has just been so strong, and I'm like,

if he can be this strong, I can too.

So I'm actually leaving hereand going to visit him today.

Again, I've been able to just

run back and forth and see him.

So we're doing okaygiven the circumstances.

- [Host] Okay, sorry didn'tmean to put you on the spot.

- [Anthony] No, I mean,

I'm the super emotional one of my family,

so I take things in and then I'm like,

uh-oh, uh-oh, pull up!

(laughs)

Cause I'll just go here-

But it's all good, Iappreciate that so much.

- Well, your family's been in our thoughts

and prayers, so.

- Thank you.

- Well let's go back to thatday when you were 12 years old

in the Texas stadium,and your dad's on stage,

and your just looking up at him like,

"Wow, my dad's a pretty important guy."

What was going throughyour mind at that age?

- You know there was nopressure put on me directly,

but just being in that situation.

My dad never said, "youhave to be me", or like,

"you need to be a preacher",or anything like that.

Just, that was a lot.

His ministry was growingexponentially when I was a child.

So, it's just-

you know there are momentswhere I put the pressure on me,

of, that I'm supposed to bedoing something like this.

You know, it's almost,

I really compare havingmy dad as a father to

literally having a spiritualMichael Jordan as a father.

And people look at me and go,

"hey why can't you dunk from the"

"free throw line like your dad?"

That's not a normal thing to be able to

do something like that.

- [Host] Right.

- Because in my mind, I'mlike, you'll be lucky to get a

lay-up outta me, you know what I mean?

(host laughs)

But he's a- both of myparents are very encouraging

as it relates to my specificcalling, so that helped me.

- And in your new book,"Unexpected Places",

you say that your wholelife has really been about

practice, performance, putting on a show.

How so?

- Well, it's been about making sure

that I don't land at this place where

I am putting on a show all the time.

You know, I've had toget to the point where I-

the book was written outof, off three principles:

honesty, vulnerability, and transparency.

Those are the- that'swhere the book came from.

I had to get to a pointwhere I stripped away

turning on the preacher's kid thing.

Which nobody taught methat, but you live this life

where you know how to walkin, smile, shake hands,

kiss babies, make everybodythink everything's good,

when all the while, I'd bepushing down things internally.

And secrets and all that stuff

just made me sick over time.

- [Host] Yeah, I like that you said-

and it so resonated, this is truth,

you say, "secrets make us sick".

How do secrets make us sick?

And how can we avoid that?

- Yeah, I just think holding anything in

that is not good for you, whatever it is.

Ya know, it's just not goodto have all that stuff inside.

I feel like findingpeople around you who are

a soft place to land.

I always tell my friends, Ihave a gymnast friend of mine

who is an elite gymnast,

and she tries new skills all the time.

And I said, "why are you notscared to try new stuff?"

And she said, "because Ihave a soft place to land."

- [Host] Ooh!

- And I, in my mind, if you are-

set up a scenario aroundyou with good people,

and a good church where you can be

honest, authentic and vulnerable,

it gives you a soft place to land

as you try to get back up on your feet.

- [Host] Were you- whatsecret were you hiding

that you talk about in the book?

- I, a lot of different things.

The pressure that wetalk about in this book

of having to perform and be somebody, that

keeping that inside gotme to a point where I was

literally depressed, likeI was holding all this in

and smiling, acting likeeverything was okay.

But it was that generalthing of, I need to be this

and I don't feel like I'm that.

- [Host] Like, the comparison.

- Yeah.- Mm-hmm.

- Just that comparison.

- When God made you, you know,

you're fearfully and wonderfully made,

and you have unique gifts and talents,

but you have this pressure.

- Yeah, I had a pressure.

And I came to a realization that

God doesn't have grandkids, you know?

So I had to come into myown relationship with Him.

- Okay, let's talk about The Voice.

Well, I know one time you wanted

to be a veterinarian, right?

(laughs)

- Yeah!

- But you ended somehow,singing on The Voice.

- I ended up singing because of my father,

who if he's watching now he would be like,

"Yep, that was because of me."

(Host laughs out)

He loves to say that to all of us,

as it relates to what we're doing;

which most of it's true.

- Sure.

- So yeah, I ended upsinging because of my dad

in general, and then The Voice,

I literally heard a commercialin my sleep about a new show,

I kind of had left the TV on,

and there was a new show coming on NBC.

And a friend of mine was at my house,

his name's Jeremy Camp.

He's a well-known artistand he was just like,

"Yo, just do it, like youhave the freedom right now"

"to just send them a videoand see what happens."

- [Host] He's a great artist.

- Yes, he is.- He's fantastic.

- Yeah.

- Now, you didn't advance tothe later rounds of this show,

what happened instead?

- Well, I was in the battle rounds.

What happened instead is, Igot a call from a producer

right after I left theshow, and they said,

"we're gonna change therules in the next season"

"because of you".

So they added somethingcalled, "Steals" to the show.

Which if you watch it,you're familiar with that,

because of something that happened,

because of that battle round with me

and a guy named Jesse Campbell.

And so, but right when I left the stage

one of the other coaches hired me

to come in and do this Christmas album.

So I went back to Dallasand then turned around,

and went back to LA towork with Celo Green

on his Christmas album.

And that was six years ago,

and since then I've been working in LA.

- [Host] Right, and you workeda lot with Kirk Franklin too.

- Mm-hmm.

- It's funny in the book,

because he's like always calling you,

"are you ready now, are you ready yet?"

(Anthony laughs)

- Yeah, yeah!

- You're like, "not yet!"- Yeah!

- Not yet, Kirk!

But he didn't give up on you.

- No, he hasn't.

He didn't then as a singer andhe hasn't now as a brother.

He's very- that's agreat way of putting it,

he has never given up on me

even in all of our ups and downs,

he's helped me a whole lot.

- You're gonna sing for us,

because you have an album out

as well as a book, well you've been busy.

(laughs)

- Yeah!

- It's called, "Back to Life".

And what's the significanceof this song Anthony,

that you're gonna sing for us?

- "See You Again" is a songwritten by a friend of mine,

Krissy Nordhoff andMichael Neale, and they-

I was tired of always getting on stage

and talking about what God haddone in my life in the past.

I wanted to see Himagain, move fresh and new.

It was a challenge to me,and also all the listeners

to ask God to move againso you can see Him again.

In a lot of those times,it's in unexpected places

that we get to see Him again.

- Wow, well we can't wait to hear it.

I'll let you go ahead andwalk over to our music set.

And, you can find outmore about Anthony's story

in his book, I'm holding it right now.

It's called, "UnexpectedPlaces" and his latest CD

is called, "Back to Life";

both are available where everbooks and music are sold.

You can also hear more fromAnthony on our Facebook page,

just go to Facebookdot com slash 700 Club.

And now, here's Anthony Evanssinging "See You Again".

("See You Again" by Anthony Evans)

♪ I've seen darkness, shattered by light ♪

♪ I've seen joy break, after the night ♪

♪ I want to see it again ♪

♪ I've seen tragic and hopeless days ♪

♪ Turn to stories of amazing grace ♪

♪ I want to see it again ♪

♪ Oh, come Lord like a rushing wind ♪

♪ We are desperate for Your presence ♪

♪ Revive us, by Your Spirit within ♪

♪ We wanna see you again ♪

♪ See you again ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ I've seen laughter, conquer the tears ♪

♪ I've seen strength rise, to persevere ♪

♪ I want to see it again ♪

♪ I've seen bodies ruined and frail ♪

♪ Rise in power ♪

♪ Completely healed ♪

♪ I wanna see it again ♪

♪ Oh come Lord, like a rushing wind ♪

♪ We are desperate for Your presence ♪

♪ Revive us by Your Spirit within ♪

♪ We want to see you again ♪

♪ See you again ♪

♪ Oh come Lord, like a rushing wind ♪

♪ We are desperate for Your, ♪

♪ For Your presence ♪

♪ Revive us, by Your Spirit within ♪

♪ We want to see you again ♪

♪ See you again ♪

♪ Oh we want to see you Jesus ♪

♪ We want to see you again ♪

♪ We remember all the greatthings You have done ♪

♪ We believe the greatestthings are still to come ♪

♪ We remember all the greatthings You have done ♪

♪ We believe the greaterthings are still to come ♪

♪ We remember all the greatthings You have done Jesus ♪

♪ But we believe the greaterthings are still to come ♪

♪ We remember, ♪

♪ We remember all the greatthings You have done ♪