Joel Smallbone is sharing his family’s incredible story. One-half of the For KING & COUNTRY, along with his brother Luke, the talented singer stars in the new movie, Unsung Hero, detailing his family’s unlikely story from success in their native Australia to deep struggles when they relocated to the United States.

“I have to give credit where credit is due,” Smallbone tells Everything Nash of the decision to release Unsung Hero, which he also co-wrote and co-directed alongside Richard Ramsey. “It was actually brother Luke, who makes up the other half of For KING  & COUNTRY. He has told, and we have told this story from stage, about our parents moving from Australia to the United States, and all of the tragedies and triumphs they faced along the way. We’ve told this story from stage, since the beginning of the band, as kind of a pay-it-forward child advocacy part of the show. It’s always been really resonant.”

People suggested writing a book about the story of his family, but Smallbone wanted to make the story come to life in a more powerful way than he could by simply writing it down. In 2020, Smallbone called a producer friend of there’s and asked if they could make their story into a movie, which was the beginning of Unsung Hero.

“Naturally, there have been twists and turns and bumps and, ‘Is it going to happen? Is it not?’ from that day to this,” he admits. “But it was really just this idea of rising up and calling our mom blessed. And also highlighting the power of a family banding together. Highlighting the power of music and miracles and the ’90s, and bringing it to the silver screen.”

 

Smallbone, who is also one of the producers on the project, knew he wanted to play his father, David Smallbone, in Unsung Hero, a role he portrays with remarkable efficiency and believability. For Smallbone, it never occurred to him to have anyone else but him play his hard-working, determined father.

“It’s really interesting, because now the storyline is, ‘You co-wrote it. You co-directed it with Richard Ramsey, and you played your dad,” Smallbone reflects. “‘That was really self-indulgent.’ … The truth is, at the beginning, the only thing I thought, from the moment we started talking about it, was, ‘It would be really interesting for me to play dad.’ I had that thought almost immediately. All of the other things came along with the territory.

“With being a musician as my day job, you have to do all things, all the time,” he continues. “You have to be the writer. You have to be the recorder. You have to be the editor. You have to be the director, the producer, the performer. And so when it came time fo do a movie, it was almost shorthand. It was almost like, ‘We’ll just do that.'”

Unsung Hero shares both the remarkable highs and the devastating lows of his family’s journey, which included going from wealth and financial security to cleaning other people’s houses, and not being able to pay their bills. More than just his family’s story, Unsung Hero highlights the unwavering faith and belief that his mother, Helen, maintained, even against seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

“They were very kind,” Smallbone says, recalling when he shared Unsung Hero with them. “Particularly Mom, and particularly dad. I just found this out a couple of weeks ago, that Dad had never actually read the script. We sent it to him, and he sort of alluded like, ‘Yeah, Mom and me read it,’ but he never actually read the script, because he wanted to protect the project from him having too much of a manipulative voice to the script, which I thought was very courageous.”

 

 

The Smallbone family, after moving to the United States, could barely afford even basic necessities, and relied often on the kindness of others. Although a terrifying time for his parents, Smallbone recalls that chapter in their collective lives as one of joy, not hardship.

“Adventure,” Smallbone says, when asked to share his memories of that season. “It was really interesting, because my childhood memories were like bands coming to Australia, and vinyl 45 records, and Stryper and spandex and Sydney Opera House. Then we came here, and it was like cricket in the house. Raking leaves and mowing lawns and banding together and traveling. It was only got to adulthood, and particularly writing this and then dropping into Dad’s shoes, almost specifically his jacket from 30 years ago, that I went, ‘Oh my goodness.’

“The stress and the strain and the insecurity and the pride and the fear, and everything in between — so much of what he was dealing with, particularly Dad, was really profound,” he remarks. ‘It was a great adventure. I hope people feel that.”

In Unsung Hero, the artists who were part of the Smallbone family’s journey are mentioned by name including Amy Grant, Carmen and Eddie DeGarmo of DeGarmo & Key. Ramsey initially gave the artists fictiious names, until Smallbone insisted on using the artists’ real names.

“He actually renamed everyone, including the family, in the early scripts. And I felt it disenguine,” Smallbone says. “Come hell or high water, I thought the tenets of this story have to be honest, and you have to just tell it as it is. It’s a true story. It’s not based on a true story. It’s not inspired by a true story. It just is a true story, and all of the tenets have to be told. With tact, but also genuinely as it happened.”

As Unsung Hero displays, the Smallbone family survived when the talent of his sister, Rebecca, was discovered. Working under the artist name Rebecca St. James, the Smallbone family overcame what once seemed impossible, working together to help her career succeed.

“I get the sense that the spirit of it, highlighting their journey, highlighting the struggle, highlighting our sister Rebecca, that it was really a very redemptive project overall,” Smallbone shares.

Watch the trailer for Unsung Hero below. Unsung Hero will be in theaters on April 26. Find more information at UnsungHero.movie.