Yahoo News TikTok pastor says he went to hell and heard demons torturing sinners with Rihanna's 'Umbrella'
A TikTok pastor says that before Rihanna landed her gig as a Super Bowl 2023 halftime show performer, the pop star was headlining in the depths of hell.
Gerald Johnson, a religious figure and leader of the Gerald A. Johnson Ministries in Texas, shared a video on the social media site recalling a 2016 journey to Satan's playground, which occurred after his spirit left his body and traveled to the center of the earth. That's "where hell is," he said in the clip below.
There, he was treated to the perks of the fiery abyss, including what can only be described as a performance art piece involving a man — burned from head to toe — being dog-walked by a demon holding a chain. Then, pardon the pun, all hell broke loose.
"It still baffles me to this day. There's a section in hell where music was playing. It was the same music that we hear on the Earth, but as opposed to entertainers singing it, the music, demons were singing it. It was some of the same lyrics we hear here," he said, adding that when today's musical acts do drugs to explore their craft, they can open a portal to hell so that demons can whisper lyrics that will allow Satan to control humans.
"Here, music is to get over a breakup. 'Don't worry, be happy,' 'I bust the windows out your car,' or, 'under my umbrella,' whatever," he continued, referencing songs by Bob Marley, Jazmine Sullivan, and, of course, Rihanna's 2007 smash "Umbrella," which features Jay-Z.
"Every lyric to every song is to torment you as to the fact that you didn't worship God through music when you were on the Earth. You had a chance to worship him in church and at home and through music, but you chose to worship Satan by repeating the lyrics that he inspired to come into the earth."
Emma McIntyre/Getty A TikTok pastor says he went to hell and heard demons torturing people with Rihanna's 'Umbrella.'
EW has reached out to representatives to Rihanna for comment.
After taking a significant hiatus from music, the 34-year-old singer dropped "Lift Me Up" — her first standalone single as a solo lead artist in six years — in October as the lead preview from the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack. Whether demons assisted in its creation or not, the single was a major comeback for the star, as it reached No. 2 in the United States and scored an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song on Tuesday.
Rihanna is set to perform at the 2023 Super Bowl in Arizona on Sunday, Feb. 12. Watch Johnson discuss his "Umbrella" encounter in hell above.
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