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After the miraculous healing of Forrest Frank's broken back and the hit song that came from it, many parody videos popped up. Two of those were made by Christian artists Matthew West and Cory Asbury, who have since apologized to Frank.
In late July, Frank was skateboarding with his son outside his home when he fell and broke his back, including multiple fractures to his L3 and L4 vertebrae. The incident was caught on camera, and Frank initially posted the video to ask people for prayers.
Then something miraculous happened. Just two weeks later, Frank's back was fully healed, proven with a clean scan of what a couple of weeks prior had been broken.
While Frank had been on his back, resting and healing, he also wrote a song that has since gone viral called "God's Got My Back."
Around this same time, Christian artist Crowder broke his leg. As a fellow songwriter, Frank decided to write a quick song for Crowder called "Standing on the Rock." The two collaborated and finished it as well.
Then the parodies of these events started coming fast and strong.
"Not here to throw stones or point fingers, just being honest that it doesn’t feel awesome to see," said Frank on a video on Instagram, addressing Cory Asbury's mock song about getting a vasectomy. "This is super tough. This is like the 10th or 20th post I've seen from another Christian artist making fun of probably the most traumatic moment of my life."
Frank posted this video on his Instagram account to address a few things.
"I can totally understand the fact that you guys are just having fun. You're probably not really thinking that I'm going to see it. To everybody who's making these videos, I'm not telling you to stop. But this raises a really interesting conversation with social media, because there's no seatbelt on social media."
Frank ended the video by asking Asbury to write a song with him, regardless.
Asbury responded with an apology video.
"I saw your video and my phone has been absolutely blowing up," says Asbury in a video. "Let me take this opportunity to say, I apologize, man. I never meant to poke fun at anything you were going through."
Asbury shared that he listened to the song Frank sent him and said it was powerful.
"If I may, I'd like to pull back the curtain just a little bit. I've seen all the comments, 'He's a heretic. He's going to hell. He's a wolf in sheep's clothing.' Maybe that's my fault for never introducing myself to y'all in a deep way. It's not an excuse, but I grew up in a home where there was a lot of screaming and yelling. I use comedy as a way to lighten the load of life."
Asbury talks about living in Nashville and seeing firsthand how many people are one way in public and another behind closed doors. He shares that his aim is to be forthright in what he posts.
"I’m also hopeful because I know God doesn’t waste moments like these," says Asbury. "He can take even our missteps and use them to redirect us, teaching us how to walk in grace and move forward with more wisdom and love."
Another well-known Christian name, Tauren Wells, commented on the post.
"In this interaction, we got to see two REAL MEN. Salute @hiforrest @coryasbury"
Matthew West initially jumped on the parody video train, posting about a bee sting on his pinky finger and writing a song about honey. Frank reached out to him personally to share how it affected him, and West responded by deleting the video.
"He took offence to it, and felt like I was making light of a serious moment in his life," West shared. "And so I respectfully reached right back out to him and apologized, and we actually had a chance to speak directly on the phone. And before I hopped on the phone, I took the video down, like that's not my heart, like I'm about celebrating and cheering on other artists."
West shared that he was having fun and didn't mean to hurt anyone. Yet he could see that it wasn't respectful.
"It felt like we handled it in a biblical way," West said. "I hope we can all celebrate each other, especially when we're out there telling people about Jesus because He's the answer and that's the business we need to be about."
Frank replied to the video, thanking West for his willingness to respond with a gracious attitude.
"Love that you’re clarifying everything to your people, and I totally understand your goofball nature now after our phone call, lol," said Frank. "We landed in a great spot and I’m stoked to give you a big hug the next time I see you."