Jonny Lang's "Turn Around" soared to No. 1 last fall on Billboard's Christian album chart. The disc just earned him a Grammy award for best rock or rap gospel album.

But the blues-rock star, who comes to Honolulu for a concert tonight and to the Big Island Saturday, insists it's not a Christian project.

"I know the record lyrically touches on some sort of gospel stuff, but I don't consider it a gospel record," said Lang. "I really don't know what category it is. I guess probably soul music."

While he mentions Jesus, God or "Heavenly Father" on a couple of the 13 songs he co-wrote, his fourth major-label album mostly delivers broader messages of determination, transformation, love and gratitude ("Thankful," a duet with Michael McDonald).

"I think I've changed," he said by phone before a concert in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "Now I'm trying to relate to people with songwriting rather than it being just about this guitar guy at the center of everything."

In short, he wants to "touch people in a positive way."

Probably the most positive tune on the CD is "Anything's Possible," a personal response to naysayers in his past: "It was, 'Jonny, you won't be nothin' unless you do what you're told / Study medicine or study law and please put away the guitar / The best you'll ever be is a local star at the local bar.' "

"I wanted to have an encouraging song, aimed maybe more at young people," said Lang, 26. "I've done so many songs about 'Ooh, baby' and 'I've lost this' and 'I've lost that.' It's easier to write songs about dark topics.

"Sometimes when you have positive lyrics, it's hard to do it without it being cheesy. I've gotten a lot of flak for being cheesy; some people think it's an overly positive record. I totally understand that. For me, it's a good change of pace."

Of course, Lang didn't put away the guitar. He persevered and became a national star at age 16, with a hit single ("Lie to Me") and tours with the Rolling Stones, B.B. King and Aerosmith.

But the wunderkind found himself going down a dark path, drinking alcohol, using drugs and smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.

In 2001, a year after moving to Los Angeles, he turned his life over to Jesus after his girlfriend's father died of cancer, joining her family in a suburban church. He and Haylie Johnson, an actress on "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" and "Caroline in the City," were married later that year.

She sings on "Only a Man" on the new album. Said Lang: "She's painfully shy for how good she is as a singer. She had to be in the back of the studio with all the lights off."

The idea for the album actually came from the head of A&M Records, Ron Fair, who produced Lang's "Long Time Coming" in 2003 as well as hits for Black Eyed Peas and Christina Aguilera. One day in the studio, the executive told Lang to go gospel and "just be who you are."

Even though Lang considers it his most satisfying project, "Turn Around" — a musical mix of 1970s soul, funk, rock, blues, ballads, bluegrass and churchy organ — has turned off some old fans "because it wasn't bluesy enough," he said. However, he's finding new, younger followers at his concerts, probably from the Christian-music community.

This year, Lang will headline several concerts in the United States and abroad, but he also might tour with another act. "We'll try to think of something creative. (But) I don't think I'd go out with a gospel act."