The Oprah Winfrey Network's (OWN) far reaching media spotlight shines this week on a special online profile "innerview" (www.oprah.com/own) ) with Regie Hamm—posing the question “What Caused Your Life To Shift?” The interview is part of OWN's new programming, "The Shift."
The remarkable answer to the question can be found in Hamm’s forever life-changing connection with American Idol. It can also be seen in the beaming face online at the Oprah site of the Hamm's 8 year old adopted daughter, Isabella, and is being revealed in the pages of Regie Hamm' inspiring new book, Angels & Idols—which hits national bookstores from Tate Publishing on June 15th.
A hit artist, producer, and songwriter, Regie Hamm has penned over 20 #1 hits, many of them in the Christian market with major artists such as Point of Grace, Bob Carlisle, and Clay Crosse. He hit the Top 20 as an artist on the pop charts with his song, "Babies."He saw his self-penned song, “Time Of My Life,” recorded by American Idols’ David Cook stayed at #1 for four months on the pop charts in 2008 and 2009.. Oprah called the song “the theme song of the 2008 Summer Olympics, and it would go on to win “Song Of The Year” at the New York presentation of the SESAC Awards in 2009..
Having seemingly scaled to the ultimate pinnacle of success on Nashville’s Music Row throughout the mid and late 90’s, complete with the heady accomplishment of having been named SESAC “Songwriter of the Year,” four times, Angels and Idols reveals a very different reality in Regie Hamm's life over the past few years.
In the midst of his ascension to the top in the music world, in 2003, with the release of a critically acclaimed pop CD and a hit single climbing the charts, Regie and his wife Yolanda flew to China for their much anticipated adoption of an orphaned baby girl. What should’ve been the happiest moment in their lives quickly spiraled into an experience they could've never anticipated. Once back in the U.S. the Hamms discovered their baby, Isabella, had a severe, mysterious disability that no medical specialist could seemingly pinpoint. Through a labyrinth of medical mis-diagnoses and unable to get insurance for their baby, the years that followed would be years of confusion, round-the-clock care giving, life-altering sleep deprivation, crushing medical bills, a career in music that was now quickly unraveling, and ultimately, financial ruin.
As revealed in the pages of Angels & Idols, his was a life that had hit the depths when in the spring of 2008, Yolanda encouraged Regie to write ‘one more song’ and enter it into the American Idol songwriting contest. With a family near the absolute end of their financial rope, and one week left to the contest deadline, he penned the words, “I’ll taste every moment and live it out loud…this the time of my life…the rest, as they say, became musical history.
The book offers the story of Regie & Yolanda Hamm’s amazing journey from the high rolling years of success in the music industry to the edge of superstardom—from the incredible and heartbreaking fall into abject despair and anonymity, and ultimately the purest redemption that would come from the most unlikely of places. Along the way came the revelation that their adored baby girl suffered from Angelman Syndrome—a rare, still incurable ‘missing gene’ disorder for which Regie now tirelessly campaigns to raise much needed funds and awareness through the FAST Foundation, a national organization for whom he now serves as a board member. Additionally, he’s created and hosts an annual benefit music concert in Nashville named for daughter Isabella, now 8—“The Bella Bash”—to support research for Angelman Syndrome.
Running as a thread through the Angels & Idols is the indelible portrait of a man and his family who overcame the most challenging of obstacles on a journey that would test not only the reality of their love and commitment for each other and a tiny orphan girl from China, but their faith in God. It’s an inspirational story of a creative life focused through the graduated lenses of pride, brokenness, doubt and faith, forgiveness, heartbreak and ultimately surrender to God’s will on the road to a new rebirth. Most of all, it’s a story of triumph and a life filled will renewed focus.
On the heels of the release of his new book, June 22nd will mark the release of a much anticipated collection of new music written and produced by Regie Hamm—Set It On Fire—reaching retail nationally from Tate Music Group. The CD set includes the title radio single currently hitting Christian AC formats, Set It On Fire, as well as Time of My Life and a full collection of new songs from the gifted pen of Regie Hamm.
In support of the new book and music, Regie Hamm will be doing a round of national media. A media/industry launch party for the new book and music will be held at the Nashville Music Row offices of SESAC on June 10th. He will be in Atlanta June 18th for a performance at “Atlanta Fest," and has been announced as the keynote speaker at the 2010 annual Southeastern Autism Symposium being held at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee on June 24th.
