God Only Knows

Recently Joel and Luke Smallbone were thrust into the spotlight when they sang “God Only Knows” with Dolly Parton at the Country Music Awards. But who are Joel and Luke Smallbone? The Christian duo from down under is known as For King & County.

Joel and Luke Smallbone were both born in Sydney, to David and Helen Smallbone, they moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1991 after their father’s job relocation. Their father was a music promoter which impacted their decision to get into the music industry. They are the younger brothers of Christian recording artist and speaker Rebecca St. James. Their brother in law is Jacob Fink, former bassist for the band Foster the People. They have four other siblings, Libby, Ben, Dan, and Josh.

Joel is also an actor, his movie roles include The Book of Esther, Like a Country Song and Priceless where he played the role of James Stevens in 2016. Luke has also acted alongside his brother in a number of their band’s music videos.

Luke is married to Courtney and they have three children. Joel is married to Mariah Peters, who is also a recording artist. The brothers have dual citizenship, in Australia and the United States, and live in Nashville.  

After singing background vocals for their sister, Rebecca St. James, and various bands in America, they decided to strike out on their own. In 2007, they formed a band and started performing with the name of “Austoville”. They signed on with Warner Music Group in 2009, with Ben Glover as their producer.

It was at this time that they changed their name to “For King & Country”. They wanted a name that carried more meaning, their producer came up with the name after hearing a conversation between band members while recording their debut record. “For King and Country was the battle cry of English soldiers willing to lay down their lives for their king and country. This was meaningful as it has become their mission to lay down their lives for their King, Jesus, and their country.

Since then the band released its first single, “Busted Heart” in 2011, which did very well as the fastest rising single at that time. With three albums that followed, with “Crave” being released in 2012, “Run Wild. Live Free. Love Strong.” being released in 2014, and “Burn the Ships” which was released in 2018.

After releasing their second album, Joel and Luke focused much of their efforts on the feature film Priceless. Priceless stars Joel in a story about human trafficking, which is a subject that has touched their hearts deeply in the last few years or so. The brothers wrote several songs for the film, which was part of the reason it took them so long to release their next studio album. They also wrote the song “Ceasefire” which was accompanied by a music video and was adapted for the 2016 film, Ben-Hur.  In 2017 they released “Christmas: Live from Pheonix”, and shortly after began “A Glorious Christmas” tour with Casting Crowns.

Currently, this brings us to “Burn the Ships” and the release of two hit songs. “Joy” was nominated for the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song as well as Best Contemporary Christian Music Album. The 62^ndAnnual Grammy Awards will air on January 2nd, 2020. But it is their first-ever American Music Award® nomination that has them so excited. The 2019 American Music Awards will broadcast live on Sunday, November 24 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC. They are in the category of Favorite Artist – Contemporary Inspirational.

Voting is open for all AMA categories. Fans can access the official voting ballot for the AMAs directly by visiting goo.gle/AMAsVote or by going to Google.com and using the search terms “AMAs Vote” or “[Nominee Name] AMAs Vote.” Fans can submit up to 30 votes per category per day per Google account while voting is open. Voting will close on Wednesday, November 20, 2019, at 11:59:59 p.m. PT.