Wes King Interview Transcript

Central Community Church, Wichita, KS

July 12, 1996

by Danl Blackwood

Danl: The first time I heard you in concert a while ago, I realized that if someone really is stuck on an artist's live performance sounding just like their recordings; they may not like your concerts, because it's really a lot different. However, right from the first song, including tonight's performance, I am amazed at your guitar stylings, and am curious as to your influences.

Wes: When I was growing up, my brother played guitar. He was definitely an influence.

Danl: He was older than you?

Wes: Nine years older.

Danl: What's his name?

Wes: Mitch. I started playing when I was fourteen. My dad got me a guitar for my fourteenth birthday. So my brother was my first influence, then I had uncles that played - a lot of music in my family.

Danl: What kind of music?

Wes: Bluegrass, mainly. When I was a kid we used to go to this place called Swanee, in Georgia. These old people, they had a house and a little church off their house, and - I guess they had church in it, but they also had bluegrass music on the weekends. We'd go up there, and - you know - there'd be people playing up on the stage, and there'd be people all around just standing in a circle, just playing their music. If you were a solo guy you might pick with this guy, and just play and learn. I never did that. That was before I started playing, that we would go there.

Danl: But you grew up with that.

Wes: I grew up around a lot of that stuff. But my brothers and sisters listened to Jackson Browne, Dan Fogelberg, Neil Young - especially my brother. My brother also listened to a guy named Pat Terry, who was a pioneer for Christian music. So I grew up listening to that stuff, and grew up on Christian music - Keith Green, Pat Terry, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Mark Heard - guys like that. Phil Keaggy. I had an influence - as of recent, you know - a few years ago, listened to some Michael Hedges. I try to learn from everybody, cause everybody approaches it differently.

Danl: It's also apparent from the liner notes on Common Creed, that well known writers have influenced you. Is that true?

Wes: Yep. Those books are just some of those that I've read. I get a lot of time to read, and I consider that part of my call, as a writer, and as a singer. I think to write, you need to have real life experiences, and you also need to read to fill up that well. If you aren't living and reading, you have nothing to draw from. So those [on Common Creed] are just some of my favorite quotes that influenced those songs, and some of then came after the songs. I felt as I looked back over my notes, I thought, you know this one really would set the song off well if someone read this. I also thought it'd be so great to introduce Christian music listeners to some of these writers, because I think we are a society who has forgotten how to read.

Danl: I have to tell you that when "The Love Of Christ" came out it really struck me right between the eyes. Then I thought to myself, You know, if I could get Michael Card, and Michael W. Smith together and have them help me write a song, I could probably write a great song, too.

Wes: That's right. (laughter) You're right. I mean you're talking about a couple of - in my opinion as far as music goes, Michael Smith is just top of the heap.

Danl: How did that song come together?

Wes: Well, you know, I had the chorus, and I had a basic idea - a structure of the song, and I wanted it to be piano and bass.

Danl: Do you write on guitar?

Wes: Yeah, I write everything on guitar. "The Robe" was such a fun departure, because Phil Naish [on piano] wrote that music. It was really neat for me to have someone else bring a different instrument to what I do, and I wanted to try to do that again with a piano player. I thought, man, it'd be fun to write one with Michael [W. Smith].

Danl: So you contacted him?

Wes: I just called him up, and he said, "Come on over."

Danl: Cool. What's his phone number? (laughter)

Wes: We hammered it out in about - literally thirty minutes - the music - the structure of the song. Then I had the verses and what I wanted to say, but I was stuck. I kinda had the "less than the least", "the broken, the battered and the weak"...

Danl: But it wasn't tied together?

Wes: I just couldn't ... uh, It was just one of those things that I was just ... I can't do this. So I asked Mike [Card], and he said, "Sure." So I gave him the lyrics, and the next morning he had the verses written. I changed a couple things, but he's brilliant. I think Michael [Card] is one of the better lyricists ... you know, I think he's the best lyricist in Christian music. Wayne Kirkpatrick has to be right behind him, but there's some things that Wayne writes lyrically that I just go, "That's good. That's better than most ... but ... you know ..." Ninety percent of the time Wayne Kirkpatrick blows me away, but I think, like, to me he's [Michael Card] the pinnacle. I've never heard a lyric of Mike's that I just go, "Boy. Mike, you really coped out on this one." Everything is just so excellent.

Danl: How much do you get to be involved in your home church?

Wes: Not as much as I'd like to.

Danl: I'm sure that's one of the sacrifices of being on the road.

Wes: I mean every now and then I'll do a special song.

Danl: Where do you go?

Wes: Christ Community [in Nashville].

Danl: You said at the end of the concert, "I'm a singer, not a preacher." I just wanted to share with you that, like you said we all have our struggles, there are times when I find myself trying to hide from God. But when you're a fan of Christian music, and have a great radio station like Light 99, the music is always there - it's always around you - and it's kinda hard to turn it off. There have been times when your songs have cut through and God has used your music to get into that hiding place, and say, "I'm still here." I just wanted to thank you for that.

Wes: Thank you, It's my pleasure.

Danl: So you really are a minister, even though it's mostly music, it enables me, and I'm sure lots of other people to be the minister that God wants us to be.

Wes: I definitely think that we are all members of the same body. We all have different gifts and abilities, and I really think that my strongest gift is as a singer/songwriter. That's what I meant when I said that.

Danl: I understand.

Wes: And I think so often Christian artists have this false obligation they're supposed to preach, too. And sometimes they should just keep their mouths shut, and sing.

Danl: With this whole mainstream cross-over phenomenon thing going on, like with Jars Of Clay and others, I sometimes wonder what music like yours would be like if you started focusing on that. Do you ever think about that?

Wes: You know, I really try not to. First and foremost, I'm trying to love God, while I'm here, cause it's such a short time. Second I'm trying to love my wife - trying to love my friends, and I'm trying to love sinners, and just be a person who's full of the love of Christ. And so, in my pursuit of holiness, and my pursuit of God, sometimes in my retreat, and mostly it's Him pursuing me; there's a deeper knowing of Him, and of experiencing Him. Now what I've been given is I'm a singer/songwriter. That's music, and music, in my opinion, is neither Christian or non-Christian, it's just music. It's either good or it's bad, and if it's good, I think that it gives glory to God, because the Bible says that all good things come from God. So if Don Henley writes a song that is beautiful, and is executed and the song is produced and crafted well, I think that gives glory to God, just as much as my music does. Even though he [Henley] didn't intend that. I think a person that works on a house - is a builder and cusses and spits, but he's excellent at what he does - I think that if it's a beautiful piece of art, then that is going to give glory to God. More so than some guy that's singing Hallelujah, and he does a shoddy job. Cause God is Holy, and all things are of God ... 1st Corinthians ... and, so, I hope that my music is just done well. If it's written well, and executed well ... crafted ... and I am poured out in that, I believe with all my heart, we are creatures of worship. Believers and non-believers alike. Non-believers worship the wrong thing, but we're made to reach out. That's why - I'm a Christian, but there are songs that pagans do, that I just fall on my face before God, because of the truth in that song. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, so if it's truth - it's Him. It's about Him, whether they want it to be or not, you know.

Danl: Right. Did you feel the same thing that I felt when I heard that Bryan Adam's song in Robin Hood?

Wes: Oh Yeah! "Everything I Do, I do For You", that one? So anyway, my answer to that question is I hope that I do it well, and that believers and non-believers alike will look at my lyrics as literature. They may go, "I don't agree with this, but it's good literature, and this is good music." I think that's what Jars Of Clay is doing.

Danl: I agree. Well, the van is leaving. Thanks Wes, for visiting with me. God bless your ministry.