For KING & COUNTRY is going from Christmas to Christmas, and making history along the way.
After stepping back from the touring spotlight for a year of creative rest and renewal, the Grammy-winning duo will return to the stage this December with A Drummer Boy Christmas: The Live Experience, a five-night holiday residency at the Grand Ole Opry House, marking the longest artist residency ever held at the iconic Nashville venue.
The concerts, running Dec. 15–19, will offer fans one of the only opportunities to see the band live this year. And in true for KING & COUNTRY fashion, the evenings will blend their thunderous, cinematic renditions of Christmas classics, like the now-legendary “Little Drummer Boy,” with beloved hits and a few surprises.
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“We’re doing these concerts [in] theaters and amphitheaters,” Joel Smallbone, who fronts the band with his brother, Luke, told The Christian Post in an interview. “Other than the Opry, we usually do these massive, kind of arena, big, bombastic shows. But what we discovered last year at the Beacon Theater in New York and the O2 Theater in London is there’s something doubly impacting about being up-close and personal.”
“We might be adding some brand-new original for KING & COUNTRY songs that we will have never played live before,” the 41-year-old Australian singer added.
The return to the Opry stage comes after a sabbatical for the brothers, who, after a decade of relentless touring, recording and even filmmaking, decided to hit pause.
“We were in London promoting ‘Unsung Hero’ when we said, ‘What if we take a year off touring?’” the singer said. “I said to [Luke] the other day, I think we’re going to look back on this time away and recognize it was one of the most important things we ever did as a duo, just recalibrating.”
According to Smallbone, whose wife, Moriah, is also a singer-songwriter, that recalibration has meant time at home, creative space and the freedom to write without the usual pressure of deadlines and show dates.
“I’m literally in my living room, working on music,” he said. “Usually when we’ve got music, we’re touring, we’re in the middle of everything. So it’s like, ‘Let’s make it up as we go.’ This time, it’s been a full-time job just creating.”
Though the band is keeping details about their fifth studio album and several new film projects under wraps for now, Smallbone promised a “newness” in sound and vision when the time is right to share.
“I’ve discovered things. We’ve discovered things. A newness to where Luke and I are at, even as a duo,” he said.
Still, Smallbone stressed, the heart of A Drummer Boy Christmas remains unchanged: to bring joy, hope and Gospel-centered truth to audiences in a season often marked by both wonder and weariness.
“It’s like this grand reset every year,” he said. “That there is forgiveness, redemption, love, hope, and joy and that there is this baby that literally flips the world on its head … it’s pivotal to our humanity.”
Over the years, the band has become known for their renditions of holiday staples, offering a reimagining of songs like “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and “Silent Night.”
According to Smallbone, this year’s shows promise new production elements, including platforms for each percussionist that move up and down throughout the night. “How do you get eye-level with the third balcony?” he asked. “That’s the goal.”
“Christmas is this one story about Jesus; it’s very clear and narrow,” he said. “And in a way, that limitation is creatively liberating. It’s why the blank page of a new album terrifies me. But Christmas? Christmas has focus.”
The band’s Christmas concerts are designed to be immersive and multigenerational; Smallbone stressed that his father, a former music promoter, always reminded his sons to “be a group that appeals from ages 2 to 82.”
Backstage, Joel says, it’s often full of toys and family. Luke and his wife, Courtney, have four children, and they’re usually part of the traveling crew.
“Some of the greatest art, Pixar films, for instance, reach the whole family, but in different ways,” Smallbone said. “There’s intention. If we can create an environment that kids can come to, and they enjoy it, then I think we’ve done something really right.”
Though an outspoken Christian band, Smallbone emphasized that their Christmas shows are for everyone. They’re a safe space, he said, for those who may not share the same faith.
“This whole idea of what Jesus did, it was always an invitation,” he said. “We’re not trying to create an exclusive environment. We want everyone to feel seen, known and loved. That’s what’s closest to God’s heart.”
Smallbone, with his parents and six siblings, moved from Australia to Nashville, Tennessee, as a child. Growing up in Australia, the brothers’ Christmases looked quite different from the snowy scenes they now sing about, but the memories still inform their music.
“In Australia, Christmas falls in summer. So you’re singing about snow and Winter Wonderlands while having a barbecue on the beach,” he reflected.
“Santa Claus was too exhausted by the time he got to the Southern Hemisphere to bother wrapping presents. So we’d leave a decorated pillowcase at the end of our beds, and he’d fill it in the middle of the night.”
Through their Christmas tour, Smallbone said for KING & COUNTRY aims to do what they’ve always done: unite generations, lift up Christ, and put on an unforgettable show.
“This is not a club. It’s an invitation,” he said. “We’re telling a story that is good news for everyone.”
Tickets for the residency of A Drummer Boy Christmas at the Grand Ole Opry House go on sale July 25 on opry.com.
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
