#EssenceFest: Artist Ricky Dillard How Gospel Shaped His House Music Journey

Award-winning artist Ricky Dillard’s career has long connected gospel and Chicago house music, a crossover he says happened naturally rather than through a deliberate career shift.

Speaking with InquisitiveCarter.com at the 2026 ESSENCE Festival of Culture, Dillard reflected on blending Gospel with House music and remaining grounded in his faith throughout his career.

“I was always in church,” he said. “Even when I met Frankie Knuckles, Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk and Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley, I was already singing in the choir.”

As a teenager pursuing a recording career, Dillard began buying house records before eventually walking into a Chicago record label and introducing himself.

“I told them I could sing,” he recalled. “From there I ended up meeting people like Frankie Knuckles and Farley, and they invited me into the studio. That’s how my house music career began.”

Even as his profile in house music grew, Dillard says gospel remained the foundation of everything he did.

“I never was outside of gospel,” he said. “Gospel was always there, and that’s why I was able to give house what I gave it, because I had come from church.”

His unique perspective eventually led to Gospel-House collaborations with pioneers like Frankie Knuckles, helping bridge two genres often viewed as separate.

“I’m so thankful to have infiltrated gospel and house together,” he said.

While Dillard acknowledged performing in Chicago clubs during his early house music career, he believes those experiences ultimately strengthened his ministry.

“To be able to have those experiences grounded me,” he said. “It gave me a balance to know what I was singing about when I was doing gospel and why the message was what it was, because I had the experiences.”