Exclusive New Interview With Matthew West

Hey guys, it's Gail with Everything Nash here with Matthew West who has a lot to talk about

Good to see you, my friend. Hey, good to see you. Thanks for having me. Of course

You know, we love talking to you. I have notes for you. I don't know why I have notes for you because it's you

But you have a top 20 single right now, sir. Don't Stop Praying. Yes, it's very exciting

It's, you know, I'm singing it live right now every night on the Don't Stop Praying tour

And I don't know that I've ever had a song that felt like it was connecting with an audience

this early this much. So there's something special that seems to be taking place

The message of the song seems to be resonating in a special way

And so I love it, man. I love the song so much and it means a lot when other people love it too, you know

Give me the story behind it. What inspired you to write it

Well, the picture that comes to mind is Greenville, South Carolina. I was on my last tour and I had a husband and wife come up to meet me in a VIP meet

and greet. And they just seemed like they were very happy to be there, but we were going to take a picture

And before we took the picture, they said, hey, would you keep us in your prayers? And I said, sure

What's going on? And they said, well, we're excited to be at your concert here tonight

We were downtown Greenville. And they said, but tomorrow morning, we're going to be down the road at the hospital

And it's because his wife was battling breast cancer and was going in for surgery

And so, I don't know. I just felt the heaviness of that moment, the weight of the fact that like that night

they were at my concert and I was going to get the chance to sing for them

But the next morning, like, I mean, they're going in for the fight of their life, you know

And a lot of times I can be guilty of when somebody says, hey, pray for me

I'll be like, yeah, absolutely. I'll be praying for you. I'll be praying for you

And then you get busy, you go on with life and, you know, you maybe forget to actually

lift up a prayer for that person. And so, I've been trying to get into the habit of just saying, let's do that right now

And so, that's what we did, you know? And there's 100 people in line as I hit the lamp in my hotel room, 100 people in line

behind them. And we just stopped the line and, you know, we bowed our heads and we said a little prayer

in that moment. And that started to happen more and more often

And I started to realize how many people were asking me to pray for them and how many times

I was stopping the line to do it. I got home from Nashville, I got home to Nashville after a tour stop and thought, that feels

like something I need to put into music. Like, I was just inspired by people's determination to pray

No matter what they were going through, they were praying to a God who they believed would

get them through. And I felt like that was a message that would resonate. So that's what made me put pen to paper

Did you ever find out what happened to them? Was their surgery a success

I haven't been in touch with them to find out what, you know, that's the crazy thing

like about our lives. Like we just kind of, you know, we had these one moment of connection and then I don't know

So I continue to pray for them and maybe I'll get to hear from them one of these days

You also have a devotional book coming out, My Story, Your Glory. We sing a song every night as part of our bedtime routine

And I would say three to four nights of the week, that's the song the kids pick. It's a great song

Well, thank you so much. It's, I'm excited. You know, I've had the chance to extend my writing beyond, I thought you were going to

say your kids like to sing Gobble Gobble. Oh, we sing that too

We definitely sing that too. I won't sing it now. There's no devotional book about turkey

But if anybody could write it, it would be you. But actually I'm holding my brand new book in my hands

It's called My Story, Your Glory. It's a 30 day devotional, discovering the journey God has planned for you

And, you know, that song, a lot of my songs are kind of, I feel like every record has

a song that sums up my personal like mission statement, at least for the year, you know

And My Story, Your Glory was definitely that song. The lyrics are, you know, my story, your glory, my pain, your purpose, my mess, your message

in all things I know you're working. One life, one mission, one reason why I'm living all for you, not for me

My story, your glory. That just felt like a mission statement. And, you know, I wanted to unpack that on a deeper level

A lot of times the songs that only let me go so far. So I made a double album, My Story, Your Glory, 22 songs

And as I was making that record, I began to write down different devotional thoughts and

they turned into this 30 day devotional. And each day is a day inviting God to invade your story, to invade a different aspect of

your story. My patience, your glory. My courage, your glory. My thoughts, your glory

My praise, your glory. My giving, your glory. And the list goes on

Essentially saying, did you realize that the God who made you, the God who's writing your

story has a plan to shine through every single aspect. If only you'll stop long enough to invite him in

That's a great story. No pun. So you also have a lot of songwriting credits on a new album that's coming out and Wilson's

What a great album. Oh my gosh. Okay. So I remembered a conversation this morning I had with a publisher in maybe 2010, 2009

And he was telling me that he just discovered this songwriter named Matthew West

Oh, really? Yes. And I don't know why I remembered this 15, 16 years later

But talk about being a songwriter on a project like this, a crossover project that's just

so masterfully done. Well, thank you. I mean, that's all Ann Wilson

She's a, she's an incredible talent with an awesome story and a unique voice and style

And you know, we get the honor of working together. We first wrote together on a song called My Jesus that really like kind of took on this

unbelievable life of its own. And then that was a really, really sweet journey

And, you know, sometimes you just click creatively with people and just felt like every time

we're in the room with just something special, you know, gets written

So as we turned our attention towards her second record, she's only, she just turned

22 and she's putting out this record called Rebel on April 19th

And we just, man, we just put ourselves in the, we put ourselves to work basically

And we wound up writing a bunch of songs. And so she's got a 16 song record and we wrote a lot of those songs together

And it's fun, you know, because I've been in Nashville for a long time

I've written country music, I've written Christian music and Nashville's got, you know, both

of those worlds live in the same city. So this was a beautiful opportunity creatively to kind of blend those two worlds in a unique

way that is, that I think is really unique to Ann Wilson. It's like nobody else is doing it quite like she's doing it

So we're pumped about these songs. Can't wait for the world to hear them all

You have some, there's some collaborations on there that you helped write too, including one with Lainey Wilson

Did you guys actually all sit in the room and write that together? We did. Yeah. Yeah

We got together one day. I've known Lainey for a little bit. She actually came and sang at the Rhyming with me about a year and a half ago

And she loves Ann. And so we kind of joked that they're the Wilson sisters, Ann Wilson and Lainey Wilson

And Lainey brought her good buddy, Tranny Anderson, who she writes a lot with

They wrote Heart Like a Truck together. And then Ann brought her crew, which was me and Jeff Pardo

And we sat down and wrote a song called Praying Woman. Praying Woman that's coming out, man, it is awesome

It's like, it's maybe one of my favorite songs I've ever gotten to be a part of, but, and

then Lainey's featuring on it and she's such a great singer. She's just a powerhouse

So Ann and Lainey together, man, that's pretty, pretty strong. So yeah, it was fun

It was fun to, you know, the record's got some really neat collabs on it

A song we wrote that Chris Tomlin is joining her on, another song that Jordan Davis is

joining on. So I think it's gonna, I think it's gonna be a really special record this year

You're kind of like a Ann Wilson big brother, I feel like

Well, you know, I kind of feel, yeah, I feel a little bit like that, or, you know, I got

daughters, you know. It's kind of, it feels a little like that too, just like, you know, trying to look after

her, you know. I wasn't going to say that because I didn't want to imply that you were old enough to

be Ann Wilson's father. Yeah, we got to look out for her like big brothers for sure

So she's, man, she's, she's awesome, man. It's so cool to see what God's doing through her voice and her platform

Yeah, she's awesome. Okay. So you're on your tour now. What else is happening this year before I let you go

Well, let's see. My book comes out March 18th. I'm going to be releasing some new songs throughout the year

I haven't announced it yet, but I am planning on releasing an album this fall and more touring

throughout the year. So I'm really excited about that. A bunch of shows have been selling out on this Don't Stop Praying tour

So it just feels like some really killer momentum. And I might even have another book coming out this year

So there's a lot going on as we head towards the holidays

That'll be my hint, a little holiday action coming. So yeah, so it's an exciting time

I'm going to be on Fox and Friends on Easter Sunday singing Don't Stop Praying

And so, you know, just feeling very blessed and obviously soaking up family time

It's my daughter's senior year in high school. So that's, that's taken up as a, as a huge priority for me

I've said no to a lot more this year than I normally would. Just making sure that I'm at the, you know, all the special events for my daughter

Is she going to college? Do we know? Yeah, yeah. She hasn't decided where yet, but she's going to college

All right. Matthew, it's always so good to see you. Yeah, likewise

Thank you for the time today. I appreciate you. Enjoy the tour and we'll probably find you somewhere on the road

Good luck with that dinner tonight. Thanks, Matthew. Have a good one. All right