EXCLUSIVE WITH CLAUDE MCKNIGHT OF TAKE 6! ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY…FROM SEXUAL ADDICTION TO REDEMPTION!
November 25, 2009 by Gerald
Filed under DON'T SLEEP: ARTIST TO WATCH
Claude McKnight is a member of the 10-time Grammy-winning group Take 6, an a capella Christian group who has seen great success as a crossover group on the jazz circuit. Despite his faith and his Seventh Day Adventist upbringing, McKnight – the older brother to R&B crooner Brian McKnight – found himself embroiled in a messy smear campaign by a former lover who was mad about more than just their romance ending.
In an exclusive conversation with DaGospelTruth.com, the forthright and surprisingly candid 47-year-old singer comes clean about what really happened and shared with me what he did to get help for what he describes as an issue bigger than just being a serial dater.
For a recap of the story go to www.dagospeltruth.com/?p=1172
This woman makes some really incredulous allegations against you. Are they true?
There are always three sides to every story; my side, your side and the truth. The truth is generally somewhere in between. I’m 47 now and my entire adult life I have been living way outside of God’s will until now. Within the last eight months or so that’s when all this came to a head. There are things about what’s been going on that are definitely true. Since some time has passed there have been embellishments. So anything you’ve seen or heard is nothing new. But, the Internet has a snowball effect and it becomes this massive thing. I’m not trying to gloss anything over or defend myself, but what I can say is that none of the allegations are true now. Anything anybody says about me today is different than what they could say about me eight months ago or even 20 years ago.
Did you borrow $34,000 and have you paid it back?
Yes, I borrowed the money. We were dating at the time and I needed a favor. There were a couple of projects that came up that were supposed to take care of the money I borrowed right away and that didn’t happen. When we were dating, giving me the money wasn’t a problem. It’s when the relationship ended that things went wrong. Everything is completely taken care of and she has been paid back in full.
So, did the relationship end because you were cheating on her with other women?
Absolutely! She had a reason to be upset with me, I’m not disputing that. Any women from my past probably have a valid reason to be upset with me. That’s why I started off saying, my entire adult life I was living a completely different life than what I was supposed to be living.
Have you spoken with her since everything has hit the fan?
No, I haven’t spoken to her for some time now. Although I know she has every right to be upset, I pray all the time that she will come to some sort of peace and be healed. But the way all this has come out is really illegal. My obligations have been taken care of, but because of how she went out about revealing this story; I have to repair my reputation. This doesn’t only affect me, but it affects my family and my group. Information was emailed to my family and friends that they didn’t need to see, so this wasn’t just about the money.
Do you think she was being vindictive?
I’ll let you answer that. I have to be careful about what I say now because what I’m learning is people’s perspective on things is so different. I could say blue to you and somebody else thought I said green and the next person will swear I said something totally different. I’m not trying to cast dispersions on her, but I have to repair what has gone on. If I say anything, I’m a jerk. If I don’t say anything it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
How has this affected your group Take 6 and has it caused dissension within the group?
They have been incredible. Those are my brothers. The very first thing I did when I found out this had hit the Internet was write a letter of apology to them and my family.
The group has been performing and traveling together for many years. Don’t you think they knew what was going on?
Whether it’s right or wrong, sometimes you tend to leave people alone. Some people look at that and say that’s wrong of your brothers not to bring that to your attention. But when you’re family, and that’s what we are, sometimes you will say something, but ultimately the person has to work it out themselves. What I didn’t know is that for all of these years my brothers had been praying for me. In the midst of all this drama we have become so close and we’ve been able to share things I never knew about them and they never knew about me. So there has been a healing within the group, a very cathartic process for all of us.
Why do you feel like you couldn’t be with one woman? Did you just want sex all the time or was there something else going on?
I travel the world singing for a living and you find out very quickly that it doesn’t matter what kind of music you do. There was never a shortage of women. It was sexual addiction. It was porn, multiple partners and lust in general. I’ve never in my adult life dated one woman. And I’ve never married. I was sexually addicted, but even worse I was a liar. I was insecure with myself. I was sleeping with these women to gratify my ego because I was trying to feed a hole. I wanted to be desired. I wanted to feel like I still had it. But, I’ve had to learn to like myself and realize I don’t have to be out there doing crazy stuff and hurting other people. Ultimately you’re digging yourself so far down you feel like you can’t get out. That’s the attack of the devil.
How have you been getting help with your sexual addiction?
The night of February 20th, that’s the day everything came out this year, I did all the praying I could muster up. I knew I needed to go into some type of damage control mode and that’s when I wrote the apology and the manifesto on my site. I asked the Lord to direct me to counsel where I could get healing. It was almost midnight at the time, but I knew if I didn’t do something at that exact moment, I was going to get up the next day and sweep it under the rug. I got online and looked for sexual addiction therapy in the Nashville area. But, I found a 60-day online course called “The Way of Purity.”
Do you think the public is going to take your recovery serious since it’s an online course?
I’ve already heard the jokes and been scoffed at because it’s an online course. This course has pointed me in the right direction of things I should be doing like reading my Bible, learning new habits and getting rid of triggers. But, it’s not the end all to everything I’m doing to get better. I had never read my Bible before in my life until I started this course. I prayed morning, noon and night saying, “Lord, help me to have a personal relationship with you.” I read my Bible cover to cover in 4 months and now I’m in the middle of reading a new translation. The sexual addiction part has been the easiest part to deal with. It’s the lying part that’s been harder. You find out you have to dig deep to understand why you don’t tell full truths. I’m learning more and more that the truth is the truth. That’s been the real issue that has come to light.
Have you had any relapses such as watching porn or sleeping with different women since you started the course?
There have been times during this period where it has been a struggle. But, EVERY TIME I’m having a weak moment, the Lord will put someone in my path that I need to see or talk to at that very moment. Because the devil will try you!! I have accountability partners now also, within the group and outside of the group. Israel Houghton has been very instrumental in giving it to me straight and really praying for me and being a man of God that I can lean on.
How have the women in your life reacted to all of this?
You really find out who your friends are. And what I mean by that is that this is a friend type changing situation, especially when you talk about women. There are some people who have stood by me and been angry. Some stand on the sidelines and throw rocks. Some I have known forever and they never want to talk to me again. So it’s been all over the place. But, I’ve learned that I don’t necessarily need a whole bunch of friends. I need a core group of people that love and support me spiritually.
Do you think you’ll ever get married?
Absolutely, I think I’ll get married one day.
Are you dating anyone right now?
No, I don’t have a girlfriend. I’m really trying to stay focused on what I would consider the healing process and getting close to the Lord. I want to be the best Claude I can be so I can offer that to someone else. Israel Houghton told me to take my time. I really don’t need to rush into anything. I’ve been learning patience through all of this. That’s been hard too, but I’m getting much better at just waiting.
What have you learned about yourself from this situation and what have you learned about God?
I think the Lord allows things to happen to get our attention. This type of “scandal” happened to me before but not on this scale, but God allowed the full court press to happen this time. Every four or five years my house of cards collapsed and I would repent and slowly go back to my old ways. The devil wanted people to see this 10-time Grammy award winner Christian artist out there and make a fool of me. God allowed this to happen so I could get things right. And I’m almost glad it happened like this because I was at a crossroads and I was forced to make a decision at that very moment. The healing I’m going through and being able to talk publicly about my struggles, this is God’s business now. I can take being crucified by the public, but my walk with the Lord is so important to me now that I don’t want my recovery and my healing to become a joke. God is not to be scoffed or mocked. Every person on this earth is a sinner. And we’ve all been in situations in some form or fashion that we shouldn’t have been. It just so happens that I have been put on blast on the worldwide Internet and people know who I am. I used to be one of those people that said, “Ah man I can’t believe he got caught out there like that.” But you say those things when that’s what you have in you. But I’m finding out now that I have a lot more empathy and sympathy. Not excusing what he/she did, but if you need shoulder to cry on or someone to listen, I’m here for what you’re going through. That’s what I wanted for me and that’s what I’m able to do for other people now. Basically the devil never takes a vacation. And he works on those of us in ministry 20 times harder. The devil wants you to be ashamed and cut yourself off from everyone. But I have to go out and stay focused on what the Lord wants me to do. It’s much easier to sit at home, but that’s not changing any lives. The Lord is saying I’m here if you want Me. Make this a testimony. Some will be healed from your foolishness and some will be turned off. But you don’t worry about those people, I am God and I will work everything out for the good of them that love me.
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Thanks again to Claude McKnight for opening up to DaGospelTruth.com. His story is a testament that God can deliver us from whatever are issues are!
“The devil wanted people to see this 10-time Grammy award winner Christian artist out there and make a fool of me.”
Ok, I see, Mr 10 time grammy winner, so the devil made you do it huh?
Only you can make a fool out of you and you did quite an excellent job of it, I must say!!
Being Vindictive -now that’s funny?? That was not being very vindictive at all…. going out and spreading the God’s honest truth about a lying, cheating, sneaky, pretend religious man is not vindictive.. smashing his car in, now that would be vindictive.
Being conned out of money, conned out of dignity, conned into extreme health dangers, and conned into a relationship that never was for 2.5 years, I would say what was done to him was lucky that it wasn’t worse….. Mr. Claude Mcknight needs is to learn to have R E S P E C T for women, plain and simple!
Scandal?? Why do you refer to this as a scandal? This is more an internet pervert story, not a scandal…
And the devil made you do it huh?
“The devil wanted people to see this 10-time Grammy award winner Christian artist out there and make a fool of me.
Awesome. Indeed with the Lord all things are possible. May you find wholeness, love and strength in your journey with God. Did you say that you’re seven-day advertise? Write to me and share with me about your faith. God bless!
http://www.issuesoflife.wordpress.com
i think that this was a good interview…while i am a female and in no way, shape form or fashion condone what claude has done to these women, i do applaud him for coming out and admitting that he does have a problem and that he is getting help and seeking God for redemption. we all have problems and issues to deal with, and many have this same issue but have not been exposed. i believe that we should keep claude in our prayers and pray that God will deliver him from this problem and not judge him, because nobody is in a position to judge anybody.
When you have been DELIBERATELY conned, you are most certainly in a perfect position to judge! And no-one gets to tell the victim(s) how they are going to react to a DELIBERATE violation, not you, not the conman, not anyone!
As someone who has been in recovery for SEXUAL ADDICTION, I KNOW the struggles and battles of how it controls your life and how most folks don’t want to believe it’s real! Thank you Claude for coming forth and sharing your story….YOUR JOURNEY!! I would LOVE to have you on my radio show, “Dishing Tea” on the Blog Talk Radio Network to talk to THE WORLD about this!
Great interview G! It takes real courage to be open enough to share like this! I applaud him..His story will help someone else..I can guarantee he’s not the only in the industry or period that is dealing with this very same thing…But God can use him to minister to someonelse….
This doesn’t surprise me at all. He & his brothers treat their father like crap. Their dad was anything but a dead beat dad.
Coming to grips with any kind of addiction is difficult for the offenders and the people around them. For those of us that “profess” to be readers, hearers and doers of the word, we have to be careful about the judgment that we pass on others. Jesus forgives for all, so why do we find it so difficult?
P.S. LifesaJourney when you stated “Being Vindictive -now that’s funny?? That was not being very vindictive at all…. going out and spreading the God’s honest truth about a lying, cheating, sneaky, pretend religious man is not vindictive.. smashing his car in, now that would be vindictive.” — Sometimes spreading information about others, albeit true, is rarely appropriate.
I hate the way “Christians” blame the devil for their mess ups. The first step to REAL recovery is admitting YOU did something wrong. Stop blaming others…including the devil. People like this turn me off to Christianity. Who cares if a 10 time Grammy award winning Christian or Joe Blow up the street got caught up in sexual scandal. What difference does it make; Just get healed!
“The devil wanted people to see this 10-time Grammy award winner Christian artist out there and make a fool of me.”
Ok, I see, Mr 10 time grammy winner, so the devil made you do it huh?
Only you can make a fool out of you and you did quite an excellent job of it, I must say!!
Calm down and gather your nerves, this isn’t about you. At least he’s man enough to admit what he’s done. You’re just a typical rightwinger ready to crucify someone and not forgive them. He told his story and if you didn’t like what he said, you could have went to another blog, but don’t come here criticizing anyone because you have no job.
Well, there is one thing that Claude McKnight said that I agree with…”I was sexually addicted, but even worse I was a liar.” “…It’s the lying part that’s been harder. You find out you have to dig deep to understand why you don’t tell full truths.” So, what is truth in this interview, Mr McKnight (self-proclaimed liar)? Lying is an indication of your basic character, whereas sexual addiction is a diagnosable disorder. Illness can be treated, albeit not always successfully, but a persons character remains a constant. A person can only do so much to change their basic values Mr. McKnight takes a small amount of responsibility for his actions. It must be easy to explain away your actions as the work of the devil! So does that mean you can do anything and then say the devil made me do it? Furthermore, why is it a problem that his friends and family found out about him if he’s being so honest? Hopefully this exposure will prevent the misuse and endangerment of hundreds more women in McKnight’s future.
When sinful behavior is brought into the “light” it is the beginning of healing for the sinner, but often the side effects of the sin is the hurt that others feel who have been affected. I am sure this woman has been deeply hurt, and exposing him actually helped him to come to terms with his struggles and brought him to his knees. The motive of the woman, however, seems like it was of a vindictive nature. She needs to let go of that vindictiveness so that she can heal. Taking it any further will bring her to a place where she has her own issues to work out. God commands us to forgive, and sometimes that can be a very difficult thing to do. Reconsiliation, however, is different, and could take years to occur. I think she should ask God to her forgive him so that she can begin to heal herself. The Lord wants to be first and anything further is not blessing Him. We must trust that God will be the ultimate judge, and there should be comfort in that. I am praying for both parties.
instead of pretending like all of you “CHRISTIANS” know what your talking about read John 8:1-11 and put it’s lesson into action.
LOL – really funny
I hereby, calmly give you this…….news flash from Claude Mcknight!!
“The devil wanted people to see this 10-time Grammy award winner Christian artist out there and make a fool of me.” THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT…
oooops, so sorry…. the devil made me do this too… lol,lol…
What the heck does God have to do with this? OMG! – or the devil for that matter… why would this woman need to ask for God to forgive him? WHO CARES if God does or does not? God is not the one that needs to be held accountable here and not the woman either! It is Claude Mcknight himself that needs to be held accountable. That man was warned from the very beginning what would happen to him if he was messing around by at least a couple of these women… he brought this all on himself, not God!! This man Claude Mcknight also was the one that first posted this all public on his very own Take 6 website -not the woman or any of them…. then, when he finally did pay up and it all died down, he brought it up again after a couple of months of quietness and all was forgotten. It is his sick narcissism that this is out there and NO-BODY’s fault but his own! God has nothing to do with this, this woman is not vindictive for wanting to get her money back at all!
private matters should be handled in private, and public matters handled publicly; thats according to the Bible… but of course, no one here would know anything about that!
The women who trashed claude publicly are as guilty as he is! and in “exposing” him have also revealed their own stupidity and lack of character. this was not a “con” it was an exercise in stupidity. nothing more. now, not only do we know of mr mcknights issues,but we also are aware that a multitude of “educated” women “gave up the goods” without one thought. the ONLY difference between claude and a million other men AND women is that he is a celebrity; claude blames the devil and you blame claude…. hypocrisy at its best.
i wonder what would happen if you spent as much time praying for him as you have done trashing him?
for every word, we are held accountable…
peace.
HAHA, why would ANY of these women care what happens to the apparent pervert?hmmm? Pray for him, for what? Why should they care? You can’t tell anyone how they should or should not react -hello?
He is a celebrity of his right hand and that is it- he is no celebrity at all- a has been, yes..and FYI, many of the women had to give nothing up but their time! What’s the matter with you? Claude McNight admitted that he’s a CON and a PERVERT, cant’t you read? He deserves what he got! He needs to learn respect women!
And good for the woman who are guilty of standing up to and teaching this man to learn some respect for women! AWWWWW, don’t tell me you one of those weak ones that chase him around?
Hey rooseveltFranklin – can you not read? Mr Mcknight was the one who brought this public and on the internet HIMSELF, not the women!! He took it to his own website first and then did an interview several months after it had all died down just to bring it all back up again and have the attention onto himself…. he sounds like a HUGE NARCISSIST – Anyone who condones his actions condones men violating and disrespecting women, it is as simple as that.
The issue is “stupidity and lack of character” it applies to all parties concerned, mcknight as well as the women! sorry, thats just how it is. as the old saying goes…” if they were not in the kitchen, they would not be burned” and burned is what they are.
sandy, i find it interesting that you applaude women “standing up to and teaching him to respect women” when those women evidently had no respect for themselves…
and finally, forgive me for not clarifying; im operating from a Christian perspective and in Christianity we are admonished to pray for everyone, even our enemies… oh yeah, forgiveness is a pretty big deal too…. maybe you’ve heard of that concept before??
At issue is the fact that a so called religious man disguised himself as an internet pervert – then splashed himself all about the internet. The issues is not the women. No respect for themselves? Sounds like you have no respect for yourself, since you know nothing about these women but are drawing HUGE conclusions about them and standing up for a known/self admitted pervert and liar.
“Life” ….
take a moment to collect yourself. then actually read my post. then get back to me. in the event that you are unable to do that, ill give you a cliffnotes version now:
all parties are at fault.
no one is in any position to point fingers… not even you.
have a nice day
rooseveltFranklin:
Now calm down, take a deep breath and take a moment and read your post – Here is a newsflash for you, as you seem to need it, or do you need help understanding?
OK, I will spell it out for you –
I or anyone else who wants to point fingers at a sick con and a publicly admitted one at that happens to be a decision that is not yours! You sure have a tough time ingesting that don’t you? Furthermore, you have no right saying ALL parties are at fault either since you don’t know all parties personally. Might be a wise idea for you to remember that don’t you think?
There are always multiple participants in a “con” operation.
A. “con man” the person initiating the “con”… that would be mr mcknight.
B the person(s) falling for the “con” that would be all the women who fell for it.
thats about as simple as i can make it.
There are a million women in this world who could have seen this one coming a mile away. these participant, for whatever reason, did not. lesson learned. The indictment is what it is… all parties, for a variety of reasons you refuse to acknowledge, are at fault.
rooseveltFranklin
There are not multiple participants in a conjob… there is only ONE participant, that would be the one that knows it is going on and sets out to do it – that is why it has the label of con. wow, you must either be 13 or have the mind of one. I can’t believe that needed explaining to you.
Isn’t the story here that a man who was supposed to be in a Christian group has admitted he never read his bible, and essentially spent his entire adult life pretending to be saved to sell records?
Yes, exactly Tiffany! Everything was a lie. His entire life was just a “role” he played, a performance. He is alway seeking an audience to feed his narcissism, to include now. He plays the role so well that some people can’t imagine the truth. He is a self-proclaimed liar, don’t believe the hype. This is just another fake attempt at damage control. This is not about sex, it is much bigger and sicker than that. Those of us that were conned by him knows the little role sex played.
I think it is very unfortunate for all involved. However, I do wonder about the sincerity….does he truly regret or does he just regret that he was exposed. We are imperfect and have come short but self conviction should come before exposure.
Why would you lend that kind of a guy money at all? You set yourself up it sounds like. Did you have an agenda yourself then? That seems dumb, most women would find that as a warning bell and run, ding, ding!!