As a young boy in Illinois, he dreamed of someday playing a starring role for his beloved Chicago Cubs, yet – if you could drop in on him at work today – you’d probably discover a guitar and a microphone in place of a baseball glove.
We head out on our latest edition of On the Road today, and discover the journey of an award winning, chart topping musician for whom his songs have become opportunities to share real stories of real people facing life’s challenges head on – and finding redemption and hope for the future.
Matthew West just released his fifth studio album, , this spring – of which, CCM Magazine declares – it’s his best performance to date!
It’s a refreshing discovery of the great faith, musical legacy & heart for telling great stories that’s behind one of Christian’s music’s most successful recording artists.
To hear our full chat with the music maker, you can skip ahead to the bottom of this post. Otherwise, here are some tremendous highlights first.
Great stories can be told so powerfully through music. This truth can be rediscovered when listening to Matthew’s hit songs. So what was it that caused him to develop such a passion for telling them?
Matthew’s song “ ” is spinning on radio stations around the country right now. He takes us behind the inspiration for the song, a story of new beginnings that originated right here in the Upper Midwest – in Worthington, Minnesota.
In the time after Matthew graduated college and signed with a record label, he lived the persistent life of an independent artist. Were there ever moments along the road to shows in his green Honda Civic where he considered giving up his dream of making music for a living? Matthew shares how God used that time to reshape his concept of what was really important.
“It really became a beautiful learning process for me – to get to a point where, you know what, at the end of my life if people don’t remember my name, but yet some of the messages in the songs brought them closer to Christ… you know what I’m ok with that. I’m ok with that legacy!”
And now our full conversation with Matthew West! Hear much more about what drives him, why he goes to great lengths to make his concerts a joyful – darewesay goofy – experience, and what it’s like to have young people look up to him in the same way he looked up to dctalk & Steven Curtis Chapman.
