A new programme on BBC Radio 3 though it doesn't say when the interview was recorded.

Gavin Bryars : @ ~10:08
",,,I imagined that it may be from some maybe gospel tradition or maybe something in Southern States of America or even Salvation Army but I didn't know it so it meant that it was in a sense was historically neutral as far as I was concerned in some of the source material.
When I joined Schotts as my publisher in 'ninetyfour they of course had to establish things like copyright; who [they] would have to acknowledge; and so on and they employed some specialist in church music to track this down. But every piece of research they followed always led back to my setting of it. They could find no independent setting and so ultimately the decision that they took was 'the man made it up'. It does seem that there is something a little bit like it in a 19th century hymn and it may be that he's half remembering that but he did improvise it. And ironically that gives me the copyright which does seem a bit of cheat really."
(using notepad 'speech to text' - my punctuation)

Never Failed Me Yet - April 2024
BBC Radio3 - Sunday Feature
The story of an old man's voice on a discarded spool of tape and Gavin Bryars' iconic composition Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet.
Gavin shares the story of Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet through the original vinyl recording on Brian Eno's Obscure label and the Mercury Prize-nominated CD version featuring Tom Waits to the adoption of the piece by the homeless community.
With Vince, Dee and Brian from the homeless choirs Streetwise Opera and Choir With No Name, Pam Orchard of The Connection At St Martin's, composer Jocelyn Pook and Revd Richard Carter from St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square.
44 minutes
Produced by Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio Three
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001y2j5