Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / Mercy Me's Mike Scheuchzer Chats It Up With Preston

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Mercy Me's Mike Scheuchzer Chats It Up With Preston · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome the Morning Show with Preston Scott. Great to be
0:02
Speaker 1: with you. Jose running the program over there in Studio
0:04
Speaker 1: one A. I am here sequestered in Studio one B.
0:08
Speaker 1: This is kind of giggle and gush time for me
0:11
Speaker 1: because our guest is Mike Schwitzer from mercy Me. Mike
0:16
Speaker 1: is one of the guitarists with the band, has been
0:19
Speaker 1: with Bart Millard for a long time. We're going to
0:21
Speaker 1: talk about that. What's really exciting. They're coming to town
0:24
Speaker 1: on October eleventh. It's a Friday night at the Tuckers Center.
0:28
Speaker 1: I don't have to tell you what a big deal
0:30
Speaker 1: it is to have a group like mercy Me coming
0:33
Speaker 1: on a Friday. Let's face it, a lot of groups
0:36
Speaker 1: hit Tallahassee on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday on their way
0:40
Speaker 1: to bigger cities on the weekends, and so to have
0:43
Speaker 1: them here is a really big deal. And I think
0:46
Speaker 1: I was the first one to get tickets when this
0:49
Speaker 1: concert was announced. Mike, Welcome to the show. How are you, sir?
0:53
Speaker 2: I'm doing great. Thanks so much for having me on.
0:55
Speaker 1: It is a joy to have you. Give me the
0:59
Speaker 1: thumbnail scaled version. What's your story from a kid to
1:04
Speaker 1: a guy making music in a band like mercy, me
1:08
Speaker 1: take me through how you got there?
1:10
Speaker 2: Wow. So I grew up actually in central Florida, surrounded
1:16
Speaker 2: by Gator fans, and so I am, so I'm not
1:19
Speaker 2: going to do this boy.
1:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, like all the way you talk about having across
1:24
Speaker 1: to bear, I know.
1:26
Speaker 2: Right, it was horrible, horrible. No. I had a great childhood.
1:30
Speaker 2: I was the only child. Mom and dad, you know, just
1:34
Speaker 2: blue collar, but I don't know a lawnmower shop and
1:36
Speaker 2: so I was in there at the age of seven,
1:38
Speaker 2: learning the sharpened blades and and do whatever he needed
1:42
Speaker 2: to help out. My mom worked there too, and then
1:45
Speaker 2: also at the little elementary school I went to just
1:49
Speaker 2: a great childhood, you know, riding bikes until the street
1:52
Speaker 2: lights came on and all that, you know, drinking out
1:54
Speaker 2: of the water hose. And I always had a love
1:57
Speaker 2: of music, and my parents weren't really music, but they
2:00
Speaker 2: always they kind of saw that in me and encouraged it.
2:03
Speaker 2: And you know, my mom fought to make me take
2:05
Speaker 2: piano lessons for a long time and that didn't really stick,
2:10
Speaker 2: but I got inquired in junior high and then had
2:14
Speaker 2: a buddy who what a youth group like weekend trip
2:18
Speaker 2: with my church. Brought his guitar and all the girls
2:22
Speaker 2: loved him, and I thought, man, if I learned guitar,
2:25
Speaker 2: the girls loved me too. Turns out that wasn't why
2:29
Speaker 2: they loved him. But I fell in love with the guitar.
2:32
Speaker 2: You know, I already knew a couple of chords on it,
2:35
Speaker 2: and I kind of pieced together some songs that I
2:37
Speaker 2: really liked and like watching him play, and and that
2:40
Speaker 2: was it. I was hooked from then on. And a
2:43
Speaker 2: few years later, this guy moved from Texas to Florida
2:48
Speaker 2: to become the intern for our youth group, and his
2:50
Speaker 2: name was Bart, and we a few years later, when
2:54
Speaker 2: I graduated high school, I started playing in our Wednesday
2:57
Speaker 2: night worship band, kind of before every church had to
3:00
Speaker 2: worship band. Our youth minister was kind of ahead of
3:02
Speaker 2: the curve on that Bart was singing in it, and
3:05
Speaker 2: we started daydreaming about writing songs together. And that was
3:09
Speaker 2: I graduated in ninety three. We actually officially started the
3:13
Speaker 2: band in ninety four. August twenty eighth of nineteen ninety four,
3:17
Speaker 2: we pulled into Oklahoma City to join up with Jim Brison,
3:22
Speaker 2: our original keyboard player and a couple other guys who
3:24
Speaker 2: were no longer in the band, and yeah, we just
3:29
Speaker 2: kind of threw caution to the wind and went for it.
3:32
Speaker 1: It's worked out pretty well, I think.
3:35
Speaker 2: Now every year I keep thinking, well, maybe this is it,
3:38
Speaker 2: and it just keeps happening. So who knows. All right,
3:41
Speaker 2: it's been a lot of.
3:42
Speaker 1: Fun Separate fact from fiction. A lot of people have
3:45
Speaker 1: seen the movie, So mercy me, where's that come from?
3:52
Speaker 2: The name funny enough when we were still in Florida,
3:56
Speaker 2: but we were really just kind of starting to realistic,
4:00
Speaker 2: but we want to start a band. We were trying
4:02
Speaker 2: to come up with a band name, and there were
4:03
Speaker 2: some really really tolice ones in there. And Bart is
4:09
Speaker 2: literally one of the funniest people I know. And he's
4:11
Speaker 2: a complete smart now, Like well, you know, his father
4:13
Speaker 2: had died in ninety one and his grandmother, who you know,
4:18
Speaker 2: he lived with, she had moved in while his dad
4:20
Speaker 2: was getting sicker to help out, and she would call
4:25
Speaker 2: to check in on Bart and see how he's doing.
4:27
Speaker 2: You know, he's moved all the way to Florida from Texas.
4:29
Speaker 2: And she'd call in, you know, every couple of days
4:31
Speaker 2: and seemed like every time she would call his house
4:34
Speaker 2: because this is this predate cell phones, he would always
4:38
Speaker 2: answer and she's like, Bart, what how came we are
4:41
Speaker 2: always home when I call? And he said, well, you know,
4:45
Speaker 2: just being a smart like my mom, I'm just taking
4:46
Speaker 2: a lot of time off to come up with a
4:48
Speaker 2: good band name. And she said, well, mercy me, Bart,
4:51
Speaker 2: why don't you get a real job. And we're like, okay,
4:55
Speaker 2: let's let's go with that. And to this day, we've
5:00
Speaker 2: still yet to ask to get real jobs. So there's
5:03
Speaker 2: some weird, weird prophetic moment.
5:06
Speaker 1: And some might say, and you've still yet to come
5:08
Speaker 1: up with a name for the band.
5:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was. If anybody has any better suggestions, we're open.
5:15
Speaker 2: We can start a.
5:16
Speaker 1: Sideband as somebody that has virtually no musical skill. I
5:21
Speaker 1: think the Psalms covered it for me when it talks
5:24
Speaker 1: about making a joyful noise. So that's sort of my
5:26
Speaker 1: world that I live in. I am fascinated by how
5:30
Speaker 1: you kind of put together your list for a concert date.
5:34
Speaker 1: For example, I know from from being around music a
5:38
Speaker 1: little bit, that you're going to play the stuff from
5:41
Speaker 1: a new album, any album that's recent. You're gonna be
5:43
Speaker 1: playing that stuff. But your band, Mike is a hit machine.
5:48
Speaker 1: I mean in the secular world, that would be like
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Speaker 1: the underscored statement. You guys just put out one great
5:56
Speaker 1: anointed song after another. So when you're hiling your list
6:00
Speaker 1: for a show like the one coming up in October
6:03
Speaker 1: in Tallahassee, how do you guys sit down and decide
6:08
Speaker 1: what's going to make up that particular concert night.
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Speaker 2: Gosh, we try to. We try to, and on our
6:17
Speaker 2: albums we kind of approach it the same way too.
6:19
Speaker 2: We kind of wanted to be a roller coaster ride,
6:21
Speaker 2: like ups and downs and emotional moments and fun moments,
6:26
Speaker 2: and in a concert, we try to do something for everybody,
6:29
Speaker 2: including ourselves. Like there are gonna be songs in there
6:32
Speaker 2: that we're playing because we just want to play them
6:34
Speaker 2: and hopefully the audience will come along with us for
6:38
Speaker 2: the ride. But we always try to, you know, give
6:40
Speaker 2: the people what they want. Actually got to see Paul
6:42
Speaker 2: McCartney a couple of times, and that was something I
6:45
Speaker 2: really picked up from him, Like he played a couple
6:47
Speaker 2: of songs that were obviously once he wanted to play,
6:50
Speaker 2: but most of the show he's playing beatles songs. He
6:53
Speaker 2: walks out with that you know, that Hoffner bass that
6:55
Speaker 2: he's famous for playing, sure, and he literally just walks
6:57
Speaker 2: across the stage holding it up for the audience to to.
7:01
Speaker 2: You know, it was technical and it was like he
7:03
Speaker 2: knows exactly what the audience wants and he's gonna give
7:06
Speaker 2: it to him. You know. It's like and for us,
7:08
Speaker 2: it's like, these fans have supported us, you know, literally
7:11
Speaker 2: for thirty years now, and you know, why would we
7:14
Speaker 2: not thank them by playing what we think they really
7:18
Speaker 2: want to hear. So, yeah, we try to do a
7:20
Speaker 2: little bit of something for everybody and you know, make
7:24
Speaker 2: it entertainment, but also you know, be able to share
7:26
Speaker 2: our hearts and encourage people because we know that life
7:30
Speaker 2: is not easy.
7:31
Speaker 1: No it's not. And I will get to social media
7:35
Speaker 1: here eventually, because I'm I'm a follower of you on
7:38
Speaker 1: social media and have been for a little bit. Oh no,
7:41
Speaker 1: that's a very good thing, brother, No, it absolutely is.
7:46
Speaker 1: But but on that same line of picking and choosing songs,
7:49
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to ask you to give away
7:51
Speaker 1: anything because I know there's an art to picking the
7:54
Speaker 1: flow of what what you're describing. But for example, you know,
7:58
Speaker 1: maybe the song of songs for you guys is the
8:01
Speaker 1: name of the movie, right, I can only imagine, but
8:05
Speaker 1: I will I will tell you I'm a big fan
8:08
Speaker 1: of the uptempo version that you guys re released in
8:11
Speaker 1: you know, kind of the together with the movie, the
8:14
Speaker 1: movie version, if you will. And so what what determines
8:18
Speaker 1: whether you might play that version or the original version?
8:22
Speaker 2: What scots? Do you want the spoiler or no, I
8:25
Speaker 2: don't know, I don't. I let you be surprised.
8:28
Speaker 1: That's that's fair. But I guess my question is do
8:31
Speaker 1: you do you have to sometimes almost flip a coin
8:34
Speaker 1: in deciding whether you're gonna go this route or this route.
8:40
Speaker 2: Gosh, that's a great question. So obviously we did the
8:43
Speaker 2: original version for decades, and when the movie came out,
8:47
Speaker 2: it was awesome for us to get to to rethake
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Speaker 2: the song and redream it and and the upbeat movie
8:56
Speaker 2: version of it, I guess is what we can call it.
8:58
Speaker 1: Uh.
9:00
Speaker 2: It was almost like a completely different take on the song.
9:02
Speaker 2: You know, before Bart had written it out of losing
9:04
Speaker 2: his dad and just kind of imagining what his dad
9:07
Speaker 2: was experiencing, you know, in heaven. The whole song is
9:10
Speaker 2: just a bunch of questions like what will it be like? Ye,
9:14
Speaker 2: the movie version is almost more like a celebration of like, man,
9:20
Speaker 2: like we have so much to look forward to, you know,
9:23
Speaker 2: for people to trust in Jesus, Like that's our hope,
9:25
Speaker 2: that's our future. It's like death doesn't seem so scary.
9:29
Speaker 2: And so it was kind of like this really joyful
9:32
Speaker 2: twist on it to us, and so we started playing
9:36
Speaker 2: it live all it would be a fun season and
9:38
Speaker 2: it's been awesome, Like the crowd has just been all
9:41
Speaker 2: in on it and it's been a great Like you know,
9:46
Speaker 2: sometimes somebody takes your favorite song, A band will take
9:48
Speaker 2: your favorite song and they want to reimagine it pun intended,
9:52
Speaker 2: and it just ruins it for you. I saw one
9:56
Speaker 2: of my favorite bands as the Food Fighters, and I
9:58
Speaker 2: went to go see him in ever Long as like
9:59
Speaker 2: one of the greatest songs, and Dave Grahl came out
10:02
Speaker 2: and had this really special moment where it was him
10:05
Speaker 2: just playing that song guitar at the edge of the
10:07
Speaker 2: stage by himself. And while that was really neat to
10:09
Speaker 2: get to see, man, I just wanted to see them
10:12
Speaker 2: going off on that song. So it's like it's like
10:14
Speaker 2: It could go either way, and it seems like people
10:16
Speaker 2: have been in on it with us. Now there may
10:20
Speaker 2: be some kind of hybrid version out there that could happen.
10:23
Speaker 2: I don't know where. It's maybe a little bit of
10:24
Speaker 2: the old, a little bit of the new. I guess
10:27
Speaker 2: we'll just have to wait and see.
10:31
Speaker 1: Mike Schweitzer with Me for Mercy Me at the Tuckers
10:34
Speaker 1: Center in Tallahassee on October eleventh. Mike, is there a
10:38
Speaker 1: song that you just you, Mike, really loved to play?
10:42
Speaker 1: You don't play it all the time, but every now
10:45
Speaker 1: and then it gets into the concert and you'll love it.
10:48
Speaker 1: It may be a hit, it may not be a hit.
10:50
Speaker 1: But is there one that really stands out and speaks
10:52
Speaker 1: to you your heart or something you really enjoy musically playing?
10:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. And I would say seasonally are different
11:00
Speaker 2: songs that jump out like that. You know a lot
11:03
Speaker 2: of times it's a new record and a new season,
11:05
Speaker 2: And like even if was that for me for a
11:07
Speaker 2: long time just playing that song live and seeing the
11:10
Speaker 2: response from.
11:11
Speaker 1: The audience love all that song.
11:14
Speaker 2: Well and you can almost see like in somebody's reaction
11:17
Speaker 2: like that God's carrying them through something in some season
11:20
Speaker 2: of life that's probably difficult, and so those songs are
11:23
Speaker 2: really special. But I think if I had to pick
11:25
Speaker 2: one song, it would be the song God with Us
11:29
Speaker 2: from our record All That Is within Me. Just that
11:32
Speaker 2: song I don't even remember. I kind of remember how
11:35
Speaker 2: it started when we started writing it and just feeling
11:37
Speaker 2: like from the get go like I think this song special.
11:40
Speaker 2: And the first time we played it, Bart hadn't even
11:43
Speaker 2: written the second verse yet. We literally we didn't have
11:46
Speaker 2: like PowerPoint or image mag or anything that would have
11:49
Speaker 2: the lyrics up on the screen. He sang the first verse,
11:52
Speaker 2: you know, second verse thing is the first kind of thing.
11:54
Speaker 2: But by the second time we were singing the chorus, the
11:57
Speaker 2: crowd was singing it with us, like they just picked
11:59
Speaker 2: it up, and it was just this really special moment.
12:01
Speaker 2: And I don't know, something about that song has always
12:03
Speaker 2: been special for me personally, And every now and then
12:07
Speaker 2: we'll pull it out on the vault and slip it
12:09
Speaker 2: back into the set, and yeah, it's always it. Always
12:13
Speaker 2: that's my heart.
12:13
Speaker 1: Good songwriting in general, is it lyrics then music, music
12:20
Speaker 1: then lyrics, or do you guys kind of nail that
12:23
Speaker 1: at the same time you kind of get a tune
12:25
Speaker 1: in a melody and you go from there.
12:28
Speaker 2: Gosh, if you could tell us how to do that properly,
12:31
Speaker 2: it would be really helpful.
12:33
Speaker 1: Why do you think I'm asking? I am clueing.
12:35
Speaker 2: Yes, it is different every time. There's a lot of
12:39
Speaker 2: times when when Bart's got a concept that he wants
12:42
Speaker 2: to write, and so the lyrics are kind of already
12:46
Speaker 2: kind of formulating just in his in his head over time,
12:51
Speaker 2: just based on what's going on in life usually, and
12:54
Speaker 2: then you know, sometimes there will be some music that
12:58
Speaker 2: maybe I've started, or very he started, or Nathan or
13:01
Speaker 2: and we'll kind of bring a song start musically to
13:06
Speaker 2: the band and he'll be like, oh, man, I think
13:07
Speaker 2: that would have worked for this lyric idea. Sometimes he's
13:10
Speaker 2: got a lyric idea that he can't let go up,
13:12
Speaker 2: and he'll sit down with you know, the piano and
13:15
Speaker 2: bang out the three courts he knows, so he can
13:16
Speaker 2: work out a melody and he'll bring that to us.
13:18
Speaker 2: We're like, yeah, we got to chase that. I mean,
13:20
Speaker 2: that's how like Word of God Speak started and some
13:23
Speaker 2: some of our bigger moments that that are really connected
13:27
Speaker 2: with people through through just just him, you know, alone
13:34
Speaker 2: and a piano, which is comical to say, because if
13:39
Speaker 2: you know Bart, he can't play anything, any instrument. He's
13:42
Speaker 2: an amazing singer, an amazing writer, and I'm so grateful
13:45
Speaker 2: he can't because it keeps me employed. He can go
13:48
Speaker 2: out on his own, we'd all be in trouble.
13:50
Speaker 1: Hey, make sure if I hear the words, let me
13:53
Speaker 1: see your license. I'll know I've distracted you too much.
13:57
Speaker 2: I know you're good. I'm actually in the BUCkies part
14:00
Speaker 2: be want waiting for my family to clime in the
14:02
Speaker 2: car right now. They're everybody here now.
14:03
Speaker 1: Oh well good if you got them out of the car,
14:06
Speaker 1: out of BUCkies already, that's that's a that's an achievement.
14:11
Speaker 2: It was a pretty quick stop. Don't mind.
14:13
Speaker 1: Did you get the beef brisket? What's your favorite? Do
14:15
Speaker 1: you eat it? BUCkies? Do you ever get food there?
14:19
Speaker 2: I actually I have had the brisket and it's phenomenal.
14:22
Speaker 2: The jerky bar was very simpy. I'm actually currently on
14:26
Speaker 2: like this crazy carnivore diet where all I eat is
14:29
Speaker 2: animal products. Yep. Honestly, the greatest experience of my life
14:33
Speaker 2: is its steak and eggs every day. Okay, but actually
14:37
Speaker 2: I didn't get anything. I'm a little sad. I'm kind
14:40
Speaker 2: of regretting it.
14:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, the beef brisket is is just next level to me.
14:44
Speaker 2: But it's really good. Yeah, And honestly we're here for
14:47
Speaker 2: the bathroom, the cleanest bathroom on the planet.
14:52
Speaker 1: Uh together again again, what's that about?
14:55
Speaker 2: Yes, So we have known David Crowder for oh gosh,
15:03
Speaker 2: it's probably pushing twenty years at this point, and we
15:07
Speaker 2: absolutely love him, love his band, his whole crew, everybody,
15:10
Speaker 2: and so every time it's time to come up with
15:13
Speaker 2: a tour, like there's this list of people who we've
15:15
Speaker 2: toured with if anybody has ever paid attention, we end
15:18
Speaker 2: up touring a lot with the same artists because we
15:20
Speaker 2: just most of your day is backstage hanging out and
15:24
Speaker 2: it's not playing music, and so you want to hang
15:26
Speaker 2: with people who you just love and who feel like family.
15:28
Speaker 2: And I would say the Crowder crew is absolutely the
15:33
Speaker 2: greatest family members we have. We love those guys, and
15:36
Speaker 2: so last fall we did about half of our fall
15:41
Speaker 2: with them, and then half the fall with a tour
15:44
Speaker 2: with Toby Mack and Zach Williams, and it was like
15:49
Speaker 2: one of the greatest falls touring experiences of our lives,
15:52
Speaker 2: like can we repeat this somehow? And so we're doing
15:56
Speaker 2: it again. This is just going into different markets. So
15:59
Speaker 2: the first half is with Prouder again and the last
16:01
Speaker 2: one was called together again because it was like the
16:04
Speaker 2: fourth time leave toward them, and so we're like, let's
16:07
Speaker 2: just call it together again again, and just how many
16:10
Speaker 2: egains can we add? I don't know, but to the
16:12
Speaker 2: third power.
16:13
Speaker 1: You know, it's that the perfect segue to my next question,
16:17
Speaker 1: and that is you as a group, mercy me. You
16:21
Speaker 1: know when I watch your videos and I had a
16:23
Speaker 1: really good time during COVID we were doing the shows.
16:25
Speaker 1: It didn't affect us, but is we're locked in studios,
16:29
Speaker 1: so it you know, we're fine, but you guys kind
16:32
Speaker 1: of you still pushed out content and all that. But
16:37
Speaker 1: it just seems like you all have a genuine not
16:40
Speaker 1: just love because we're commanded to love each other, right,
16:44
Speaker 1: that's a scripture says that. But as a parent, and
16:47
Speaker 1: now for me as a grandparent, I love my kids,
16:50
Speaker 1: I love my grandkids, but I don't always like them,
16:52
Speaker 1: and I would imagine that one of the things that
16:55
Speaker 1: stands out, at least to me, is that you guys
16:59
Speaker 1: seem to not just love each other, but you do
17:01
Speaker 1: seem to like each other a lot.
17:03
Speaker 2: Uh. Yeah, there's no question. It's it's it's gone beyond
17:08
Speaker 2: friendship and then you become like quote unquote family and
17:12
Speaker 2: then like something weird happens after thirty years. I actually
17:15
Speaker 2: often like we'll kind of relate it to the military,
17:18
Speaker 2: and not that we're doing anything as important as those
17:21
Speaker 2: guys or dangerous, but there's this kinship. Like if you're
17:24
Speaker 2: in the military, you have a kinship with other guys
17:27
Speaker 2: in the military, if you're specifically in one branch of
17:29
Speaker 2: the military, you have a tighter knit group. And then
17:32
Speaker 2: when you're actually in a fox hall with somebody, you know,
17:35
Speaker 2: you're lifelong friends. And yeah, it's just kind of in
17:39
Speaker 2: some weird way, that's kind of what it feels like
17:41
Speaker 2: to me. We've just had so many shared experiences, good
17:44
Speaker 2: and bad over the years that it's like there's there's
17:47
Speaker 2: no getting away from each other at this point, Like
17:50
Speaker 2: we're in each other's lives and and and when we're
17:54
Speaker 2: together we laugh ninety percent of the time. Like it's
17:57
Speaker 2: just it's you're we're hanging out with our best friends,
17:59
Speaker 2: you know, obviously, like you said, you always love your
18:04
Speaker 2: kids and all like your kids. There are times, and
18:06
Speaker 2: I would say of anybody in a band like bart
18:09
Speaker 2: and I'll go at it more than anybody, but it's
18:12
Speaker 2: always over in about thirty minutes, and you, like, you
18:15
Speaker 2: just move on, you don't. It's not that important. Nothing
18:18
Speaker 2: that you're upset about is ever as important as as
18:22
Speaker 2: the good times we have. So it's yeah, it's it's been.
18:25
Speaker 2: It's been a crazy thing that I never would have
18:29
Speaker 2: guessed when I was nineteen and we started this band
18:32
Speaker 2: that we would still be together and still be in
18:34
Speaker 2: it and still be loving it and anyone still caring.
18:38
Speaker 2: That's the craziest thing to me. People still show up,
18:41
Speaker 2: and people still you know, send us messages, you know,
18:44
Speaker 2: on social media or whatever about how a song you know,
18:48
Speaker 2: carries them through something. And that's that's honestly why we
18:53
Speaker 2: still do it and why we love doing it and
18:55
Speaker 2: why it kind of feels important.
18:57
Speaker 1: How How did covid hit you? Guys? How weird?
19:01
Speaker 2: Was that? It was just great? It was a great
19:06
Speaker 2: time to be alive, wasn't it. It was? I think
19:10
Speaker 2: we all took it differently, you know, just like everybody
19:13
Speaker 2: everybody you know had different experiences with it. You know,
19:17
Speaker 2: we you know, had massive disagreements of how it should
19:22
Speaker 2: be handled within the five list, and and then again
19:28
Speaker 2: realized that's not really what matters here, That's not the
19:30
Speaker 2: most important thing, and so, uh, yeah, it was it
19:35
Speaker 2: was hard, you know, having the thing that you love
19:39
Speaker 2: doing being taken away from you. Uh and not that
19:43
Speaker 2: it's our only purpose in life, but we do find
19:45
Speaker 2: a lot of purpose in touring and in in that
19:48
Speaker 2: part of being in band. You know, that was really hard.
19:52
Speaker 2: I went through some I would say I dabbled in depression,
19:55
Speaker 2: and that's not really ever been my m o. I'm
19:59
Speaker 2: pretty uppy guy most of the time. But I think
20:01
Speaker 2: I really struggled with it at times. My wife would sad,
20:04
Speaker 2: became a big jerk for a while, for sure. But
20:08
Speaker 2: you know, I think when I could stop and recognize that,
20:12
Speaker 2: you know, we'd never promised an easy road in life,
20:16
Speaker 2: you know, Jesus said there would be suffering, and all
20:20
Speaker 2: we're called to do is perseverance, knowing that we don't
20:23
Speaker 2: go through it alone. And that's I think that's when
20:26
Speaker 2: that really when, when I was reminded of that, it
20:31
Speaker 2: definitely made it a lot easier to get through that weird,
20:36
Speaker 2: weird season.
20:37
Speaker 1: Who came up with the idea of the quarantine grab bag.
20:43
Speaker 2: Probably Bart He's uh, we call him the think tank.
20:46
Speaker 2: He's always come up with ideas. Follow through is not
20:49
Speaker 2: great on all of them, but his ideas are amazing. Yeah,
20:53
Speaker 2: I think that's I think that's where I came from.
20:55
Speaker 2: And you know, Robbie, our drummer, still lives in Dallas.
20:57
Speaker 2: The rest of us are up in the National area,
21:00
Speaker 2: so we were trying to figure out some way to
21:01
Speaker 2: get together, to try to stay connected with our fans
21:06
Speaker 2: and encourage people, and you know, yeah, so we just
21:10
Speaker 2: those were literally like we would all set up our
21:12
Speaker 2: iPhones and put in a click so that we're all
21:16
Speaker 2: playing together and play through the song, and then we
21:20
Speaker 2: send it to our buddy Ryan, who does all of
21:22
Speaker 2: our video concept for live and everything, and we've known
21:25
Speaker 2: him as long as we've been a band almost and
21:28
Speaker 2: he would edit them all together, and we just throw
21:30
Speaker 2: him out there for people, just you know, again, hopefully
21:33
Speaker 2: just put him smile on somebody's faces. It's such a
21:34
Speaker 2: weird time.
21:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it was. It was a crazy time. Same
21:39
Speaker 1: question though, with the cover tune grab bag, and I'll
21:41
Speaker 1: add an addendum to it. Do you collectively decide what
21:46
Speaker 1: songs you're gonna pick? Because you're picking some pretty popular
21:49
Speaker 1: secular stuff. Is it representative of everyone's musical tastes or
21:54
Speaker 1: do y'all like vote? Do you talk about it over
21:56
Speaker 1: lunch or what?
21:57
Speaker 2: No, it's funny. So those started forever ago, and it
22:03
Speaker 2: was it was Phil Wickham's fault. He did some like
22:08
Speaker 2: just just came and a guitar and I think he
22:10
Speaker 2: covered Leonard Cohen Tyler Luja and it was beautiful. He's amazing,
22:16
Speaker 2: like he's got the voice of an angel. And we
22:19
Speaker 2: were all like, oh man, that's so cool. We got
22:21
Speaker 2: to do something like that, I'd be awesome. And so
22:23
Speaker 2: we huddle up in the backgrounds of our bus and
22:26
Speaker 2: it was late after a show, it was probably two
22:28
Speaker 2: in the morning when everything starts getting really goofy, and
22:32
Speaker 2: we were playing through song ideas and what we could do,
22:35
Speaker 2: and we somehow landed on girls just want to have
22:38
Speaker 2: fun and it was the furthest thing from what Phil
22:42
Speaker 2: had done, but we couldn't stop laughing, and so, oh,
22:45
Speaker 2: let's just put it out there. And everybody's like, oh,
22:47
Speaker 2: my gosh, that's really funny. You should do this song.
22:50
Speaker 2: And so we're like, oh, man, Like, people were just
22:53
Speaker 2: flooding us with like song requests for us to cover,
22:57
Speaker 2: and so we kind of just started pulling songs out
22:59
Speaker 2: of that list. And then it just became like whenever
23:02
Speaker 2: we'd get together to rehearse or whatever, we'd be like
23:05
Speaker 2: goofing off playing through a song and be like, oh,
23:07
Speaker 2: we should do that one. And it just became this
23:09
Speaker 2: this thing that got bigger than we ever would have expected,
23:15
Speaker 2: you know, with the I think the Pinnacle was what
23:18
Speaker 2: we did bla Bladah on tour with when we were
23:21
Speaker 2: on a tour called the Rocket Worship Road Show. It
23:24
Speaker 2: probably had fourteen or fifteen artists on it, and we
23:28
Speaker 2: just got in this long hallway backstage at a venue
23:31
Speaker 2: in Presno, California, and videoed us all in a line
23:36
Speaker 2: filling this hallway and it was it was just hysterical
23:39
Speaker 2: and it ended up going viral like La Cree was
23:42
Speaker 2: in it, Jarsa Clay, Guys, Matt Maher and his band,
23:45
Speaker 2: and it was it was just funny and silly and
23:49
Speaker 2: it just kind of took off. And I would like
23:51
Speaker 2: to just say we feel like Jimmy fallon solar idea
23:56
Speaker 2: was his whole little classroom instrument gag he does on
23:59
Speaker 2: this show. I think he stole that from us.
24:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's see, that's the way it works though. See
24:04
Speaker 1: Christians borrow secular artists steel That's perfect, all right. Last question,
24:15
Speaker 1: social media. You're out there a little bit, Mike, And
24:19
Speaker 1: and I don't mean out there as in out there weird.
24:21
Speaker 1: I mean out there. You're out on social media, which
24:24
Speaker 1: is well, it's well, I mean it's a little risky
24:28
Speaker 1: in this day and age because not only are you
24:31
Speaker 1: kind of pushing a little bit against some of the
24:33
Speaker 1: wokeness it's in our culture today, which I think is
24:36
Speaker 1: straight from the pit of Hell, but you're also out
24:40
Speaker 1: there because there are a lot of Christians that are
24:43
Speaker 1: about as judgmental as a lot of illiberals are out there.
24:47
Speaker 1: And how do you kind of walk that tightrope and
24:51
Speaker 1: deciding when and what you're going to post?
24:57
Speaker 2: So there's a backspace, but I usually write a lot
25:02
Speaker 2: of things that I don't need to post, just to
25:05
Speaker 2: just to feel like I did. That's the legally, Okay,
25:09
Speaker 2: don't don't just post. And I've tried to get out
25:11
Speaker 2: of comments sections because it's a dark, dark place. But
25:16
Speaker 2: every now and then there's there is I don't know
25:18
Speaker 2: why I feel like I have to post something like
25:20
Speaker 2: is if my opinion really matters to anybody? And I
25:23
Speaker 2: don't ever expect to change anybody's mind, but some of
25:26
Speaker 2: those like I gotta say it and I don't ever
25:29
Speaker 2: do it. On like official mercy Med accounts, we kind
25:32
Speaker 2: of like as a band just agreed like Nosamo mercy
25:35
Speaker 2: Me is about we're going to be a political as
25:37
Speaker 2: a band, we're gonna be about Jesus and music and enjoy.
25:42
Speaker 2: But each of our own personal accounts like we do
25:45
Speaker 2: whatever we want. And yeah, sometimes late at night, I
25:48
Speaker 2: probably should just not be on my phone, but uh yeah,
25:53
Speaker 2: I just I don't know. I agree with you on
25:56
Speaker 2: on how a lot of the world has gotten just
25:58
Speaker 2: completely insane crazy and critical thinking is out the window
26:03
Speaker 2: and logic is out the window, and and I don't know,
26:07
Speaker 2: I just it's it's hard to stand by and and
26:11
Speaker 2: and let that just be on not speaking against it
26:18
Speaker 2: at all. You know, I feel like we're supposed to
26:20
Speaker 2: speak truth, and you know, I'm not going to get
26:23
Speaker 2: it right all the time. For sure, but I know
26:26
Speaker 2: my wife's over here cringing right now because she's like,
26:28
Speaker 2: I wish you would never be on social media or
26:30
Speaker 2: say anything.
26:33
Speaker 1: Well, here, you can just maybe let your wife know
26:36
Speaker 1: at least you're doing what you're doing and not doing
26:38
Speaker 1: what I'm doing, which causes my wife to duck in
26:40
Speaker 1: public all the time. So uh, it's it's all good, Mike.
26:44
Speaker 1: Safe travel, safe travels to you and your family.
26:48
Speaker 2: Our wives would probably be good friends.
26:50
Speaker 1: Probably, so uh, safe travels to you and your family,
26:53
Speaker 1: and enjoy your time, and I look forward to you,
26:56
Speaker 1: you and the band coming on October eleventh here to Tallahassee.
26:59
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for being generous with your time.
27:01
Speaker 2: Oh man, Thanks so much again for having us and
27:03
Speaker 2: spreading the word about the show. It's been a long
27:05
Speaker 2: time since we played Dallahassee, so I'm pumped to be back.
27:09
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Mike, be well, God bless you.
27:11
Speaker 2: Oh you too, Man, Thanks so much.