Johnny Van Zant: Everything we have from the day we’re born to the day we die, that plan has been put out in front of us for a long, long time. We’re not as intelligent as we think we are as humans. God’s way more intelligent. I’m just that little, small person on the earth. Who am I to question what God’s plans are? 

Carrying the Torch of Faith Through Music with the Van Zant Brothers and Alexandra Osteen – Episode #447

Narrator: Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. This week, we’ll hear from Johnny and Donnie Van Zant, brothers who share a rich legacy rooted in music, faith, and resilience. Renowned for their roles in the iconic bands Lynyrd Skynyrd and .38 Special, the Van Zant brothers reflect on their humble beginnings shaped by family and music, and how they faced personal and professional challenges, including the tragic plane crash that took the lives of several members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, including their brother, Ronnie Van Zant. 

Later in the episode, we’ll hear from Alexandra Osteen, daughter of Joel and Victoria Osteen and Worship Director at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Growing up surrounded by music and ministry, Alexandra developed a deep passion for inspiring others through worship and storytelling. Now leading Lakewood’s worship team, she uplifts her community with songs that carry messages of hope, faith, and resilience.

Let’s begin with Johnny and Donnie’s story.

Johnny: Hey, I’m Johnny Van Zant.

Donnie: And I’m Donnie Van Zant. 

Johnny: That’s right, and hey, we’re the Van Zant brothers.

Donnie: We were from the west side of Jacksonville, which means the west side was the best side.  

Johnny: Or the bad side. 

Donnie: But we had great parents, you know, that’s where it all came from. They didn’t really care what we did as long as we were happy and we did the best job we could do at whatever we were doing, you know. 

Johnny: We didn’t come from wealth or any of that stuff. We were rich in family, and we never went without. When we were kids, we had four channels, and one of them had Hee Haw on it, the other one had The Ed Sullivan Show, and I think that might have been our introduction into music. Our parents loved country music. And we’d get on the truck with [our dad] and go and listen to country music, and I think that was how it all kind of started for us.  

The Legacy of Ronnie Van Zant

Johnny: Ronnie was a very simple guy. He was like a father figure to the guys in the band, you know. He wrote a song called “Simple Man,” and he sure lived that. God blessed him with the knowledge of how to write a song and how to put it in words. And still today, I mean, Lynyrd Skynyrd music’s four generations deep.

And if you said to Ronnie, “Hey, I love that shirt”—because this happened to me—I’d be like, “Man, that shirt’s cool.” It’d be some band shirt, something that he got off the road. [I would say] “Go find me one.” And he’d take that shirt off and give it to you.

If he wasn’t on stage, you would just think, Well, he was probably a carpenter, a masonry guy or truck driver or something. But he never had that rock star thing, not unless he was on stage. Whenever he was on stage, he commanded it. 

Donnie: And he was, as Johnny says, like a father to the band. He was like a father to me. You know, he was the guy I went to, him and my mother, when I needed help with things I was going through.  

The Tragic Plane Crash That Took Ronnie’s Life

Johnny: This year, 2025, is going to be thirty-seven years. And honestly, it seems like thirty-seven seconds. 

I was seventeen, eighteen years old when the plane crash happened and thought that it was totally over, you know? And ten years later, I get a call from Gary Rossington that says, “Hey, man, can you come out to Bay Meadows here in Jacksonville? We’re having a meeting and we’re doing a tribute tour.”

And so I walked in a room and all the surviving members of that plane crash were in there and they said, “The last thing we did together as Lynyrd Skynyrd was to have a plane crash, and we don’t want it to end that way.” And they asked me to be a part of it. I said, “Well, I’m kind of dumbfounded about that,” you know, because I was a Skynyrd fan too.

Those guys, like Donnie said, he was the father figure to those guys. And they were lost in life without him. I think really, to be honest, till the end of all of their lives, they were still lost after that awful, awful plane crash. 

And I said, “Well, let’s go into rehearsal.” And the very first few chords of rehearsing and watching those guys play, I was like, “I’m all in.” 

Donnie: It about destroyed our family, to be truthful with you. I mean, that was a real hard one there. And it’s taken years. I mean, I still can’t get up, but I think about it right now…

Johnny: Gary passed a few years ago and before he passed, he said, “Charlie’s gone, Gregg is gone, The Allman Brothers, everybody.” He said, “I don’t want this music to end.” And Gary was sick at the time. And I knew what he was saying to me: “Hey, keep doing this. I don’t know how much longer I’ll do it, but everything in my life’s in God’s hands, you know. And He’ll let me know when it’s time.”

Faith Fills the Gaps That Fame Doesn’t

Johnny: I think as entertainers and musicians, you get to that point where you have so many people telling you you’re great that you don’t think about the greatest One. You don’t think about the greatest One. And I turned my back. I went through those stormy seasons, losing a daughter and losing a child. That brought me closer to God because I needed to figure that out. I needed to figure out why. And I still haven’t figured out why. I always say when it’s my last day and I close my eyes, I hope I get to ask a few questions. 

Donnie: I just got sick, you know. I believe in the power of healing and all of that. Johnny actually took me to the hospital. My wife called him up and said, “You need to go by and check your brother out. He’s not looking too good.” And he came by, and that’s exactly what he told me, “You’re not looking too good.” So I went to the hospital, and he was going to park his truck, and by the time he came back in, I was in intensive care. I had five blood clots on my right lung. I just had a lot of people praying for me. And I do believe in the prayer of healing. 

Johnny: Yeah, the power of prayer. Us as a family, we’ve lost a lot.

Donnie: Yes. 

Johnny: And I think the only way that we’ve gotten by is through faith, you know?

The Next Musical Chapter for the Van Zant Brothers

Donnie: We have a bucket list of things we want to do together as brothers. And making a Christian record is right there at the top. So we had a little saying between both of us that if we could just bring one person to Christ, it’d be worth the whole project, you know? So I think we made it. I think we made it for sure. 

Johnny: Doing Always Look Up has been a great journey for us. We’re at an age where I guess we don’t have to make any new music. But you know what? It’s part of our life. And what better way to make music than to sing about Jesus and our good Lord above and our Father in heaven, the Holy Spirit.

“We’re at an age where I guess we don’t have to make any new music. But you know what? It’s part of our life. And what better way to make music than to sing about Jesus and our good Lord above and our Father in heaven, the Holy Spirit.” – Johnny Van Zant

We sunk our teeth into this and God put His blessing on us. And when we started thinking about it, like, Well, what kind of old gospel songs do we want to do? And then we went, “Why don’t we just write new stuff?” And God really poured it all in our heart and soul. And we’re so proud of this. Of all the things that we’ve done in life, I think it is the icing on the cake. It really is. You know, it means that much to us.

We’re really proud to love Jesus. We’re proud to say that we’re Christians. We’re like everybody else, we had our dark sides, our really bad dark sides. But I think as you go through these storms in your life, you know what? You really realize how much you need Jesus. And you really have to lean on that cross. And you know what? He wants us to come to Him. And if you ask, you shall receive.  

“I think as you go through these storms in your life, you really realize how much you need Jesus. And you really have to lean on that cross. He wants us to come to Him. If you ask, you shall receive.” – Johnny Van Zant  

Donnie: You’ve just got to take that step of faith.  

God Listens When We Pray

Johnny: I love devotions and stuff like that. For me, I’m dyslexic, so the Bible’s really hard for me to understand. The Bible’s the one book that you have to keep going back to to understand it. You get something different from it each time you go back to it, and that’s the way I take it.

For anybody who’s looking for something great to think about Jesus, maybe it’s Jesus Listens. No matter what in life, you’re going to have storms and stuff, but if you go to Him, talk to Him, listen to Him, He will come to you. He will definitely come to you and give you great advice, the best advice ever. He’s always calling us. 

Narrator: To learn more about Johnny and Donnie Van Zant, please visit www.vanzantband.com, and be sure to check out their new album, Always Look Up, wherever you get your music. 

Stay tuned to Alexandra Osteen’s story after a brief message.

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Our next guest is Alexandra Osteen, Worship Director at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. From singing at altar calls as a young child to stepping into leadership during the challenges of 2020, Alexandra shares about her music, what worship means to her, and the story behind a new song co-written by none other than her dad, pastor Joel Osteen. 

Alexandra Osteen: Hi, everyone. My name is Alexandra Osteen. I am a worship leader based out of Lakewood Church.

I grew up in the church. I’m a pastor’s kid. And I’ve been singing in church since I was really young, I was like four or five years old. My parents started doing events around the country and my dad had asked me to sing a little song at the altar call at these events, and I said yes—because I was four, and I didn’t know that that was scary or what I was really saying yes to—and I did it. And even from that young age, I really did feel God planted the seed in my heart. 

And then throughout my teenage years, I was leading worship at the church in our youth ministry. When I went to college, I really was open to what God had for me. At that time, I was really just looking to God to direct me. Especially when you’re young, you can just be so unsure. And it’s just so amazing to see how you can feel so unsure, like, Will I know? Is God saying this? Is God speaking to me? I don’t know. And then suddenly it just became clear in my spirit and in my mind that I had peace about going back to the church and living in Houston and sowing into this ministry that God has given our family. 

I became the worship director at Lakewood at the end of 2020. There was just some transition in roles at the church. And now when I look back on that, I just see how God aligned everything for me to be able to step into this position when honestly, I didn’t feel particularly qualified to have it. And we have such an amazing team and such an amazing group of people who help run that department and help run the church. I just could never brag on our team enough. And I say that to say I don’t really even consider myself the worship director. It feels like too big of a title for me sometimes. But I stepped into that role and I’ve just seen how God has carried me through it and developed skills and leadership that I truly never thought that I had in me. And I think that’s just a testament to God’s faithfulness. And through this journey and through this life, it’s just grown me so much closer to God and helped me realize in every aspect how I cannot do this without Him, and how I don’t want to do this without Him. And I feel like God just continued to develop that calling and that passion in my life in a whole new way. 

“Through this journey and through this life, I’ve just grown so much closer to God and I realize, in every aspect, how I cannot do this without Him, and how I don’t want to do this without Him.” – Alexandra Osteen 

For anyone who’s in that season where they don’t feel like they know what God has for them or they don’t feel like they know what career to choose, what school they choose, whatever season you may be in, I just encourage you to lean into your relationship with Jesus. The Scripture says, “Seek first the kingdom and all of these things will be added. [Matthew 6:33]” So I just believe that that’s so true that if we choose to seek God daily, He will align our path. He will make things clear. And don’t get me wrong, that can be a lot easier said than done, but it’s in His words, so we know it’s true. I have always loved that Scripture and it’s brought me so much comfort. 

And I go back to it, there’s another translation that says, “Seek first the kingdom and all of these less important things will be added to you.” And that’s just a reminder to me that that is the most important thing, that we seek after God. You know, our job matters, our career matters, our family matters. But God will align all of those things if we seek first His kingdom.

“Our job matters, our career matters, our family matters. But God will align all of those things if we seek first His kingdom.” – Alexandra Osteen

Worship As An Individual Expression

I love that worship music is just everyone’s individual expression of how they’ve seen God’s goodness. Anytime that someone shares that the songs that we’re able to write impacts them makes me feel grateful. 

We are so excited that we have just released our new album, Oh How Worthy. These songs talk about the different attributes of God, His goodness, His faithfulness, His power, and through all of that, He is so worthy. 

One of my favorite songs on this new album is called “Outnumbered.” I love the message, but I also love the story that comes along with it. If you were to look at the list of writers, you would see a list of really amazing people, including Pastor Steven Furtick and Brandon Lake and Mitch Wong. But you would also see a name that you might not expect to see, and his name is Joel Osteen, also known as my dad, who has never written a song in his life. And with so much love, I say he does not have a musical bone in his body. But to make a long story short, he had this idea for a song and happened to be with Pastor Stephen, and they were able to start this song. And through time and collaboration, it became what it is. So that story is just special to me because I know it comes from my dad’s heart. But also I love the message of this song so much. It was inspired by the story in the Bible of King Jehoshaphat when he was surrounded by an enemy army, and he looked up to the heavens and he said, “Are you not the God who is in heaven? Are you not the God who no one can withstand? We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” And the story goes that the Lord said, “Don’t be afraid. You won’t even have to fight this battle. This battle is not yours. The battle is the Lord’s.” And what’s crazy is I don’t need to know what you’re going through. I don’t need to know what you’re facing to know that because I know who our God is and I know the power that He has. 

“Talk to God Like You’re Talking to a Friend”

What do we have to sustain us through hard times? You take the time to listen for God’s voice and to lean into that relationship and daily choose Him and spend time in His Word. That’s how He’s able to speak to us and make His voice clear, because I would love if God would speak to me audibly. It would be amazing. But I’ve never experienced that and I have just seen when I am consistent in reading my Word, consistent in my time of prayer, how I feel that I hear God so much more and how I see the evidence of His hand at work in my life, guiding me and leading me.  

When I was maybe fourteen or fifteen, someone gave me a Jesus Calling devotional and I started reading it every day, I followed the calendar. I loved it so much. I thought it was just such a beautiful and unique perspective on a devotional, based on His Word and what we know to be true. But it was just such a beautiful thing to be able to read every day and just know this truth about who Jesus is and what He thinks about us and what He believes for our lives and what we can believe about Him. And honestly, I could say that that time in my life was when I really started to take having this personal, daily relationship with God seriously. And I feel like that was such an avenue that helped me see how that was important. And now to this day, you know, life gets busy, but I take my time every day. I really feel like I need it to read my Bible, to pray, to be in the Word, even if it’s just a few minutes. I’ve just seen that I can’t do life without it, that without having—for me, it’s in the morning—that time to reconnect and align with God, I can’t live how God wants me to the rest of my day, the rest of my life. 

I think some people, wherever you are with your faith journey, prayer can feel daunting and it can feel overwhelming. But since I was a young girl, I always heard my dad say, “Talk to God like you’re talking to your friend.” We don’t have to come with this perfect prayer. The Bible says God knows our prayers, even through our mumblings and groaning. So if he knows that, then if you can bring your best offering your prayer to Him, He knows even more than that. I just always know that God knows my heart. So I’m just going to take everything to Him in prayer because it’s truly the most sustaining thing we have here on this earth.

Jesus Listens, June 28th: 

Dear Jesus,

You are the Risen One—my living God. I celebrate the Joy of serving a Savior who is so exuberantly alive! I rejoice also in Your promise to be with me continually—throughout time and eternity. These truths can sustain me through my worst trials and deepest disappointments. So help me to walk boldly with You along the path of Life, trusting confidently that You will never let go of my hand.

I enjoy worshiping You in a variety of ways—singing hymns and praise songs, studying and memorizing Your Word, praying individually and with others, glorying in the wonders of Your creation. Another way I worship You is by serving others and loving them with Your Love. Whatever I do, Lord, I want to do it all for Your Glory!

In Your victorious Name, 

Amen

Narrator: To learn more about Alexandra Osteen, follow her on social media, and be sure to check out the new Lakewood Music album, Oh How Worthy, wherever you get your music.

If you’d like to hear more stories about cultivating hearts of worship, check out our interview with Matt Redman.

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Next week: Steve Moore

Next time on the Jesus Calling Podcast, we’ll hear from Steve Moore, the founder of The Shalom Foundation, a nonprofit that provides medical care to children in Guatemala. Steve shares the story of his first mission trip where his eyes were opened to the level of need in the country, and how he dove in to help without looking back. 

Steve Moore: You know, when you go into a place like that, it moves you in a way you have never been moved before. And I felt the presence of God in that whole trip. I think the Holy Spirit just grabs you and just grips you in a way you’ve never been gripped before. God broke my heart in a million pieces for those kids.