Montell and Kristin Jordan entered into the recording industry as artist and manager with the #1 hit song “This Is How We Do It” which earned a Grammy-nomination.
Less than one year after saying “I do.” The challenges of being married in the music business resulted in an unpredictable story where after two decades of world tours and millions of album sales, they chose marriage over music, faith over fame, and significance over success.
Now, Montell and Kristin Jordan have released a children's book Shilo and the Not-So-Scary Girl Above His Bed (published by David C. Cook). The story flips a classic childhood fear upside down by following Shilo, a little monster who is terrified of the noisy, stomping "creature" sleeping in the room above him—a little human girl. But with help from his mom, Shilo realizes that God is even bigger than his fears.
Montell and Kristin have been pastors, speakers, writers and marriage coaches for man years. They spoke with WBGO's Doug Doyle about the new children's bookKristin Jordan got the idea for the book from her three-year son at the time.
"He was afraid of the little monster underneath his bed and he was not sleeping in his own room. Every single night he was coming into our bedroom. We said we needed to get this kid to sleep in his own bed. I had this idea when I was walking him back to his room. I told him 'Buddy, What if the monster underneath your bed is more afraid of you than you are of him. And, what if all he wants to be is your friend. We started asking him questions about why he was so afraid and where did these thoughts come from. For us we learned to how to challenge the thoughts of being fearful."
During the interview, the Jordans talked about how they've dealt with a major health crisis. Montell was diagnosed in 2024 with prostate cancer. He's now a two-time prostate cancer survivor and admits there's a connection with his health journey and the new children's book.
"My little girl above my bed happened to be cancer. I think I would have chosen the little girl as opposed that battle. The correlation of knowing that fear is going to come in all of our lives, what you do in the face of fear, to be able to take the next brave step, to still be bold and courageous and to do it afraid, that's the journey I was on. That's what we've written about, not even knowing as we were creating Shilo that I would be paralleling a life of a little monster. Just like he is under the bed and afraid, I had to face my fears as well."
Montell says he and Kristin wanted to share their story in order to help other families going through the same situation.
"We're hope dealers. We come to let anybody know that's navigating this journey that you're not alone. We don't want people to isolate because they get a diagnosis. A diagnosis is not a death sentence. A diagnosis is a lease on what's happening in your body that's speaking to us all the time. And we're just actually going to listen and then be obedient and take the action to do the things to help preserve our lives."
Montell stresses early detention is crucial and people need to get checked regularly.
"From the time that I was diagnosed in 2024, I never felt like I had cancer. I never looked like I had cancer. So what are the symptoms? They're pretty much are none. That's why you have to be proactive and intentional about looking to help yourself by getting tested."
You can SEE the entire interview with Montell and Kristin Jordan below:
