Interview (transcript) with Mitch McVicker, by Bethany Murphy, Operations Director for 91.5 KCFB-FM, St. Cloud, MN

Recorded on March 5, 2001:

Bethany: On the line with me today is Mitch McVicker and he is in Nashville, you said, right?

Mitch: Right.

B: And what’s the weather like in Nashville today, Mitch?

M: Ah, it’s really pleasant. It’s sunny and it’s probably about 50 (degrees). So it’s, you know, it’s a couple of degrees warmer than there.

B: (Laughing) Yea, I think it was about 15 (degrees) this morning. So, It’s about 35 degrees warmer. (Mitch is laughing). But when you come, the last week in March, we are hoping and praying that we are going to have nice weather.

M: Well that would be wonderful. I’m just looking forward to gettin’ there. I really like that little corner of the world.

B: And you have a new CD that’s coming out.

M: Yes, actually tomorrow it’s going to be in stores for the first time (March 6) and it is called, “Chasing the Horizon”.

B: OK, how did you come up with a name like that?

M: Ah, well, for me, it’s just kinda’ a metaphor for our spiritual journey. How we are always trying to progress towards, this end that we never quite get to. Like, if you were chasing the horizon it’s always going to keep moving. Each step you take it will move further away. So, we’re moving forward, but we won’t get there until we have fully reached, you know, this other worldly existence. When we fully enter into the Kingdom of God it’s when we will finally reach the horizon so we will forever be chasing it.

B: When I had heard the name of the CD, I had thought about how you and Brad and Joe travel. (Mitch laughs) How you chase the horizon all the time.

M: Yea, that’s another good one. Because it (the horizon) is always moving as the wheel turns, as our tires turn it’s moving further away.

B: What’s your favorite song on the CD, Mitch? What’s your personal favorite song?

M: Oh gosh, that’s hard for me to pick, I think that there are probably 12 songs on there that are tied for my favorite. (We both laugh.) I like each one of them for a different reason. Each one of them has a different, you know, place in my heart. And uh, I think it’s kinda’ like, I wouldn’t know, but it’s kinda’ like having kids. But if somebody pinned me down, and made me pick my favorite, I would pick a song called “Watch Over Me”. That’s a song that I actually wrote when we were playing at a boys’ home in Kansas. It was, you know, a place where kids that aren’t old enough to go to prison but have committed some very serious offenses go and live and go to school. They’re graded, there’s 6 different levels and this was the level 6. So, there were some kids there that were pretty messed up. And they were just like me; they were just like Brad, just like Joe. They were attention starved and they just wanted to talk with you. They just wanted to hang out. And I just got to thinkin’ about how there’s really not much other than the grace of God that separates me from them and how we are all in need of being taken care of by God. And how it is so very hard for us to put our trust in the fact that God will. And yet God has promised, you know, that God takes care of the flowers of the field and the birds of the air. So why can’t we just simply put our trust in the fact God will watch over us and take care of us?

B: Ok, why don’t we listen to that song. This is Mitch’s favorite song off of his new CD called “Chasing the Horizon”; the song is called “Watch Over Me”.

(Song: “Watch Over Me”)

B: And that was Mitch McVicker singing “Watch Over Me”, his personal favorite, cuz’ we pinned him down. (Mitch laughs.) He said if we pinned him down, he would say that “Watch Over Me” was his favorite song off of his new CD that is actually coming out Tuesday, March 6. And the CD is called, “Chasing the Horizon”.
Mitch, When did you write this album?

M: Probably half of the songs I wrote in the year that I was recovering after the accident that I was in with Rich Mullins. And then the other half was written as we were traveling doing concerts on the road. Certain things would happen and I would begin to piece together these thoughts that have been rolling around in my head for awhile and this melody would come together with this chord progression and there’s never a formula for how a song develops. Half of them developed on the road the other half when I was recovering. And I’m glad that there were enough songs there to put together an album and put it out there. I really believe in what is on there and I am very fortunate to get to communicate with people and present Jesus and expose them to the Kingdom of God as best as I can.

B: Some of these songs that are on the CD you actually sang last year when you were in the St. Cloud (MN) area. (Mitch chuckles.) You sang, “Burning the Fields”, “Upside Down”. And I remember after your concerts people would ask me, “where’s the burning song?” (I was helping with selling the CDs)

M: (chuckling) Yeah, that’s something that I’ve got into a bad habit of to where I will have songs written, new songs written, for a long time before they finally come out on an album. And I just can’t keep myself from not playing them in concert. I get all antsy. Because they’re the new ones to me. They’re the ones that are speaking to me at that time. So I’m thankful that they’re finally out there and I’ve tried to discipline myself over the past year to not write any new ones (songs) so I don’t have that temptation again-until it’s time to do another record. A song like “Burning the Fields” is a song that I just had to do. It’s a song that somehow moves me every time I play it. People think that I’m arrogant when I say this-but a song that I wrote moves me. It’s very true. It’s a deep blessing to get to have it become new every night. Because it is a prayer and it is very meaningful to me to get to sing it to God each night.

B: Well, “Burning the Fields” is one of my favorite songs on here.

M: One of mine too.

B: One of your 12, right?
I’m looking at the liner notes and I’m thinking of some words but I can’t find the song. What song is it that you say, something about, how you’re talking to God-and you say that God knows us, and we that don’t even know what our soul needs. Do you know which one I’m talking about?

M: Yeah, “Anything”.

B: OK, yeah. Those words just really cut to my heart.

M: That was a song lyrically that had changed about 4 or 5 times. Until I finally got around to that point. And when I finally got to that point I was like, wow, I think that maybe this song is finally saying something. And when I got done with it I was like, oh wow, do I really mean that? Because it is kinda’ a bold statement that I mean when I’m at my best. But a lot of times I’m like, wow, would I really be happy with anything; anything that God gives me-because I don’t know what my soul needs? Do with it what You want, God.

B: The words are: “here’s my soul, do with it what You want, because I don’t even know what I need. But I know that there is so much more than I have ever thought of, so I’d be happy with anything.”

M: Yeah. I think that for me I will spend my lifetime trying to get to that point of resignation and trust in God.

B: Can we talk about the song that you wrote for Rich Mullins?

M: Yeah.

B: A lot of people have written songs about him, but I think this one is neat.

M: Well, it’s a song that I started coming up with the music for it when Rich and I were still roommates. He was fond of the melody and he thought it was neat. And so then when I was recovering (from the car accident) I thought, wow, I really want to do something with this song. I really want to try and write a song for Rich, about Rich, to Rich with this. As much as I was thinking about the whole situation, with being in the wreck with Rich, with me being in a bad situation of healing, it didn’t make sense to me. People would talk about missing Rich: what a bummer that was and what a bad deal, what a tragic deal and I would say, yeah, but just I couldn’t get that upset about it because I do believe that Rich got the better end of the deal. In one instant, everything that Rich was striving for was accomplished, was achieved. In the fact that Rich, “blammo” was in the presence of God, was in communion with God. He was whole, complete, and free of what he‘d been struggling against here and there. We all will be free of our struggles, free of the downfall of our souls and there Rich was. So I could not get that upset about things. I tried to put that down into words and music. It’s another one (song) that is very meaningful to me.

B: Some of the words are, “I’m sure you smile a lot more than you ever did before and I can hear you laughing and carrying on from here”. That’s neat.
Speaking of your recovery from your accident, Mitch, how are things going? Are you still having some of the same problems that you had last year, like your seeing double?

M: You know, I consider myself back and healed. I still have a few nagging things but they’re things that I don’t even notice. And I don’t think about it unless I really look at it analytically. I am very thankful to say, yeah, I think that I have been healed.

B: I want to let people now that you have a very cool website. (Mitch laughs.) It’s mitchmcvicker.com. Could we get any simpler than that? That says it all.

M: (Mitch laughing.) That says everything you need to know.

B: There’s a lot of links on there to different websites.

M: Yeah, a man in Wichita Kansas, Danl Blackwood, does a great job with that, works really hard with it.

B: I sent him (Danl) an email and told him that the website was wonderful.

M: Great. Well I can’t take hardly any credit for the website. I agree with you, it is great.

B: Also on there is the lowdown of where you can see Mitch in concert all across the country.
Mitch was kind enough to send the stations some give-away CDs. So I think we should do “Mitch McVicker Trivia” what do you think?

M: (Mitch laughing.)

B: When you go to Mitch’s website, you can learn so much about him, like the fact that he was a basketball star in High School and College.

M: (Laughing) Yeah, that’s funny. It seems like a different life.

B: I would have never thought that you’d play basketball. But, that where actually you were going to college to be a basketball coach, right?

M: Yeah, I figured, you know, as soon as I figured out that I couldn’t actually play professionally (laughing)-because that was my first and foremost goal-then I figured that I would just end up being a coach and a teacher.

B: Like your mom and dad.

M: Yeah.

B: So, did you get your musical ability from your mom, who is a music teacher?

M: I guess so. I don’t know how that all works. My dad says that I got it (musical ability) from him because he doesn’t have any left. I’ve taken it all. My mom always made me sing in church when I was growing up.

B: She made you?

M: Yeah, (laughing) pretty much.

B: Was she the church organist or pianist?

M: She was the church pianist.

B: Then you had to sit up in the front row, next to her.

M: And I could NEVER get in trouble.

B: So now you’re making up for it, on the road with Brad and Joe, right?

M: Yeah. (laughing) And I hope I’m not getting into trouble.

B: No, you’re having good fun. Good, clean fun.

M: (laughing)

B: Mitch, is there anything else that you would like to tell our listeners? Maybe somebody who doesn’t know if they want to go to the concert or not. Why don’t you convince them to come?

M: (chuckles) Well, I guarantee that you won’t see a big flashy concert. We will be up there playing music with all our hearts and talking with you in between songs. It’s a really loose, fun, fun thing. We try to go about it as relaxed and have as much fun as we can. While taking seriously the fact that we get to do this and get to speak. It’s a wonderful blessing to get to speak on behalf of the God of this universe.

B: Mitch, thanks so much for talking to me today. We’re getting ready for the concerts, we’re getting excited and we can’t wait until you get here!

M: Well, I’m getting very excited and thank you Bethany for having me on and thank you listeners for praying for me and for all your support. And Bethany your support means the world to me.