The name Brian Haley—or his pseudonym, "B. Haley"—might not ring a bell with the average Christian music fan, but chances are, they've been enjoying his contributions for more than a decade. 

 

As a member of tobyMac's Diverse City band, Haley has been keeping the beat as the group's drummer since 2001. 

 

Born and raised in St. Louis, Miss., Haley—the son of a pastor and an evangelist—learned to play drums doing "tent revivals and healing and deliverance services." 

 

A day before his older sister, Denise, passed away, Haley promised that he would "do something with my life musically." He made good on that promise, immediately moving to Nashville with no money, no housing and only a few clothes—and plenty of faith.

 

That move was providential, as Haley quickly made connections, playing for Bobby Jones, Donnie McClurkin, Ben Tankard and CeCe Winans. Those experiences and Haley's positive reputation as a drummer soon found their way to Toby "tobyMac" McKeehan, who was putting together his vision of a "Diverse City" band. 

 

"He gave me a call out of the blue," recalled Haley. "I didn't know who dcTalk was because I grew up on Gospel music and just mainstream pop/R&B music." After a successful audition and persistence by McKeehan, the two struck a deal on the basketball court, and Haley's been beat-making for one of the biggest names in Christian music ever since. 

 

Haley has seen how good art rooted in the message of Jesus can change people's lives, and now he's looking to translate that into the fashion world with a new clothing line, called B Not Of This World (B-NOTW). Haley took some time recently to talk with us about how fashion can be a worship experience, and how the simple one-liners on his shirts reflect his worldview of confidence in Christ.

 

 

Honestly, my job is not as hard as it may look because we actually headline a tour. When they say headline, I'll explain it: That means you play last. So you have 11 bands on Winter Jam. Basically I'm not doing anything besides working out and working on the Designer Clothing line movement. We don't take stage until about 9:30 or 10 o'clock each night. I have like 12 hours before I actually work. It's plenty of time.

 

 

Absolutely. I'm just very inspired. When I wake up I'm in a different city every morning, I go work out, get in my Word, and then I have crazy hours just to be able to envision stuff, and that's how it comes to me. I just walk around and identify problems, and God gives me solutions. That's my whole call.
 

 

I just want to make a difference whether it's apparel, music, whatever it is. I just want to be able to encourage people just to want to live another day and live another day with Christ. That's my calling.
 

 

 

I will say this, because I see this a lot. I'm going to be honest. I'm the real guy, if you ask anybody. If you see Coca-Cola, then normally you have a Coca-Cola Christian shirt, you know what I'm saying? I would encourage my brothers and my sisters, pray and fast and ask God just to give you something cool. He knows what the next hottest thing is. He knows what the next hottest color is. He knows what the next hottest fad is and all that. My advice is just to stay connected to God because once we start trying to copy the world and stuff, it does come off a bit cheesy and unfortunately that's what most Christian apparel is known for.

 

I feel like that's why we're here. We're just here to be able to do something different, that looks different, but the message is powerful. What more of a powerful message than talking about the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords and all of Him and His benefits. It's a huge storyline.

 

 

Three years ago I was a very unhealthy 280 pounds. Today I can say I'm a very healthy 180. To be honest with you, 95 percent of my family is obese. I wanted to stop a generational curse and start a generational blessing.

 

The way the Lord showed me to do that is to conquer your biggest thing and the biggest thing for me was me being healthy. I just took it a day at a time, through Joshua 1:9, where it says to be strong, be courageous. Do not be terrified. Our God is with us wherever we shall go.

 

I took that scripture and I wrote it on my spirit. I would put up pictures of what I wanted to look like—of images in my head—and that was my goal. That's why I love the saying, too, the whole "be not of this world." If you can see it—not with your natural eyes, but with your heart and your spirit—you can be.

 

I want to encourage people that whatever you see—whether spiritually, physically, financially, emotionally—if God put that on your heart, hold onto that dream. The word "be" means just to be able to exist. You fill-in the blank and you can go for that and you can be that because God wants us effective in what we're adamant about. That's how He uses me for the best of His glory.

 

 

Yeah. I had one other line before the B-NOTW, which was B. It Clothing, and that was a hit out of the box. I talked to Aurelio, who is the owner of NOTW. I'm like, "Let's come together as one and let's even come closer and let's call this ‘B-NOTW' because I love this thing of not of this world." 

 

We're not of this world. We're just passing through and that's what God calls us to do. This is just a rehearsal. Our destination is Heaven. I want to encourage people through this line to be not of this world because that's who we are and that's who we're called to be.

 

 

You get that sometimes and I have got that sometimes. My response to that is you can't please everyone and I'm just trying to be all God's created me to be. My journey is not Marcus' journey or Toby's journey. God has a specific journey for me. I just ask people to be patient with me.

 

If it's not for you, that's cool, but there are a lot of people that it is for and it's reaching the hearts and it's penetrating the hearts and you can't deny it especially through the overwhelming response when it comes to sales.

 

That speaks at the end of the day. It is responding. It is connecting to people. That's what I say to them. You can't please everyone. If you let people talk you out of stuff, you let then talk you right out of your blessing. My days of people talking me out of my blessing are over with.
 

 

 

What I'm hearing a lot if testimonials. People are like, "Thank you so much," because people have seen my weight loss and they've seen how I've changed my life around, especially when it comes to business, spiritually, and physically.

 

I'm just seeing the responses and people are buying onto this whether it's you being healthy or you being God's hand of hope, whether it's you being love to someone else. I always like to say if you need a miracle, be a miracle to someone else. 

 

Those are the testimonials I'm hearing.  It's OK to see something, to actually go for the dreams and the goals God has put in each individual's hearts. That's my whole thing. I just want to encourage people. That's my niche.

 

 

We rolled out our first line a little bit more than two months ago. We rolled out four guy's shirts and four girl's shirts. For the guys we have the themes "Live B.I.G.", "B The Freak", "Just B It" and "B Not Of This World." With the girls we have "B Who You Are" and "B Beautiful." I just wanted to empower especially females because like has my wife has shared with me, females deal with a lot of insecurities. So it's good to wear these.

 

The way I like to rock these shirts is that B-NOTW shirt holds me accountable to everything that I said I'm going to be. If I'm rocking a shirt that says, "B Who You Are. B Nice," it's kind of hard for me to yell at somebody that's cutting me off in traffic because the shirt holds me accountable. 

 

If a girl wears stuff and she's having one of those days, you put on that shirt that says, "B Who You Are. B Beautiful," that has a way of jolting you back into who God says you are regardless if you feel that way or not.

 

 

Absolutely. That's it. That's totally it.

 

 

Yeah, he does. We've got several pictures of us on his Facebook, on my Facebook and all that stuff with him. One of his favorites is that green "B not of this world." He loves that shirt.

 

 

It's funny. I think you're a prophet because you just said movies. I'm like, "How did he know that?" I just got offered to do this whole movie thing that's called 777 and actually I'm playing this pastor called Pastor Jones. I'm doing that and then too I have this new movement I'm about to tackle with Toby and we're about to put this new line out. I can't tell you the name exactly yet because we're still trademarking everything, but just keep us in your prayers and all that stuff. It's going to be awesome.

 

I was praying and asking God, "Lord, give me something that's bigger than myself," and God gave it to me. I went on this seven-day fast and He gave it to me. We're excited about it. I shared it with Toby. He's like, "We have to do this. We have to do this together." 

 

I'm excited about the movie and I'm excited about just making God famous in every aspect of my life.

 

 

That's it. If I can do this stuff, anybody can. 
 

 

 

Right.

 

 

There are two things I would like to leave if possible. The first thing is, God has called us with so much more than where we're at. If you say you can, you're right, but by the same token if you say you can't, you're right. God has called us to live this abundant life, have Heaven here on Earth. That's what I want to get out to the people, that you don't walk in a confidence of who you are, but when you walk in the confidence of whose you are, that brings about a certain level of confidence. When you're walking confidently, God has a way of bringing everything to you and that's so attractive to unbelievers. I know that through hands-on experience. 

 

The second thing I would like to leave with people too is about adversity. When adversity comes—and it is always going to come—don't see it as adversity because promotion is right behind adversity, so just hold on. That's something I've been dealing with the past month. Adversity is a good thing. Perspective is everything. I want to encourage people to hold on and be all that God has called you to be, and that's pretty much it.