Nigerian musician, Spyro has spoken out about his relationship with religion, in an exclusive interview with Emmanuel Taymesan for the Tea with Tay Podcast.
He talked about his childhood in the Lagos neighbourhood of Mushin and the difficulties he had as a pastor’s child.
Spyro reflected on his strict childhood and said that his father was a pastor and followed the stringent rules that religious leaders usually followed when raising their children.
He confirmed the widespread belief that children of pastors are frequently subjected to harsher regulations. He also said that he experienced pressure during that time, which resulted in a phase during which he “hated God” due to the influence of his father.
Opening up about the intense environment created by his father’s religious values, Spyro shared,
“My father was quite strict and he’s a pastor so you know the way pastors are with their kids. They’re really strict because they have this ideology that their children are the ones that…” after which Taymesan chimed in saying, “Na we dey spoil pass,” and he nodded in agreement.
“The pressure is not good, I must say. But I didn’t even know God through my dad, even though I was right in front of the Bible. Every morning we’d wake up to the Bible, I was forced to do it so I didn’t know who God was. In fact, my dad made me hate God, the personality of God,” he added.
Spyro noted that he had grown up with a bad opinion of religion because of his father’s ministry, but that he had since developed a genuine appreciation for religion on his own terms, apart from the daily pattern of early morning fellowship and continual exposure to the Bible.
