The Profitable Writer Songwriter & Recording Artist Wes King on the Creative Life
This is one of those podcast conversations that’s still a little baffling to me because I’m shocked it actually happened. Let me explain.
When I was a student in college, way back in the dark ages—I mean, the early 1990s—I was introduced to the music of Christian recording artist Wes King. My good friend Jeff Hogan was a guitar player and worship leader, and one day I was in his apartment on campus. He said, “You’ve gotta listen to this guy Wes King. He’s an incredible musician.”
The first song he played for me was Wes’s song “Life on the Vine,” from his album “Sticks and Stones.” I was immediately hooked. From then on, I was a huge Wes King fan.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, Wes released a number of incredible albums, including “The Ultimate Underlying No-Denying Motivation,” the aforementioned “Sticks and Stones,” “The Robe,” “Common Creed,” “A Room Full of Stories,” “What Matters Most,” and “Invention,” a collaboration with fellow guitar virtuosos Scott Dente and Phil Keaggy.
Wes has also written songs with, and collaborated with, many other Christian artists over the years, such as Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Kim Hill, Gordon Kennedy… the list goes on.
He’s known as an insightful, lyrical, and theologically-minded songwriter… not to mention a world-class guitarist. I couldn’t tell you how many hours I’ve devoted over the years to figuring out how to play some of his songs and the crazy tunings they’re in.
So, you can imagine my surprise when, a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Wes in his home in Franklin, TN, to meet him in person and record this interview. This conversation drifted to a range of issues, including his music career, songwriting, the creative life, theology, and much more.
A quick note: we were not in a studio for this conversation. I used a small digital recorder, so it has a different sound than my typical Zoom interviews. But I hope you enjoy it, and much more important, I hope you check out Wes’s music if you’re not already familiar with it. You can also connect with him on Facebook.
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