Costco Connection | August | Member Connection | Shown the way
Billy Gaines
© NICOLE TAYLOR
Shown the way
It was a picture-hanging job that led Costco member Billy Gaines to the role of a lifetime.
In 2018 the award-winning gospel singer–songwriter was working for Takl, a firm that connected customers to workers doing small jobs on demand. One day Gaines arrived at a customer’s home and was greeted by Angie McCollum, the wife of Takl’s CEO, who said simply, “I’d like to introduce you to Kathie.” Gaines turned to see Takl spokesperson and former Today show host Kathie Lee Gifford.
“I was in shock,” Gaines recalls.
McCollum, who recognized Gaines from his Dove Award–winning gospel albums, asked, “Don’t you play piano?” Gaines sat down at the grand piano, played and sang. “It wasn’t long before Kathie Lee joined in,” he says. The impromptu singalong led Gaines to the role of Moses in The Way, a film that Gifford wrote and directed, which is set for theater release on September 1 and on DVD afterward. He admits the experience still “feels surreal.”—Audrey T. Hingley
In the studio recording “God of the How and When” for The Way; Gaines and Kathie Lee Gifford on set filming The Way.
© AARON GREEN, SAL OLIVERI
LOSS AND GAINES
Billy Gaines has known hardship, experiencing the loss of both his first and second wives to cancer. Reflecting on his challenges and successes, Gaines says, “God has borne my grief and carried my sorrows. The things God has done in my life, I never really planned. God orchestrated every move.”—ATH
