Byron Cage

biography

Byron Cage, often called “Gospel’s Prince Of Praise” is a multi award-winning male vocalist who invites the church and all of God’s people to enter a level of praise and worship to God, both higher and deeper than they’ve ever encountered before.


Over more than 18 years, as the worship leader of two of America’s major mega-churches, Byron has birthed and grown praise and worship music into traditional Gospel churches where it had been previously unheard.


Byron explains his first contact with Praise and Worship music, “I grew up in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the Lord. On Sunday nights, we had what we called Praise Service. We didn't necessarily call the music ‘praise and worship’, but we were singing that type of song. We lifted our hands, we shouted and danced before the Lord. Our Caucasian brothers and sisters, particularly in charismatic churches and the Assemblies of God, had already given it the label ‘praise and worship’. Slowly, black churches began to embrace the concept, but it still wasn't widespread. It was pretty isolated.

“During the late 1980s, I was at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, and it probably had only 400 or 500 members at the time. I went to Bishop Long before I'd even been there a year, and I told him, "I'd like to introduce a new concept here called the Praise Team. I'd like to call it the Praise Company. What we're going to do is we'll come and replace the traditional service opening, where the deacons open the service." You know, down on the chair, singing that old style. Now, I thank God for that, because we always have to remember where we came from. But when we know better, we should want to be better.


“And so what I did is I brought that concept to the church, and it was not received readily at first because it was a traditional Baptist church. But as time went on, I would just teach a couple of new little things for a few seconds and go right into the song. I wanted to help the congregation to understand the importance of why we praise and why we worship. And slowly but surely that thing really, really came around.”


Byron Cage is amazed to see what God is doing culturally through music. “Praise and worship brings people together, people from very different backgrounds. You have folks like Israel Houghton and New Breed. His praise and worship includes everybody. People like Donnie McClurkin, Alvin Slaughter, Judith McAllister, Martha Munizzi. I've even heard that Pastor Rob Parsley sings my song ‘The Presence of the Lord Is Here’ at his church in Columbus. We have different ministries singing each others' songs.


Click here to expand