Singer ‘pulls those scabs’ in new memoir
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Wounds never heal
“It’s very painful to sort of pull those scabs off,” Chapman says. “Time passes and you feel as though some of those wounds may be better, even though they’re never going to heal completely. But to go back there was obviously very difficult. I wanted to be able to put it in print. I remember how important it was for me to have stories of parents struggling with grief and walking through that very, very dark place. Those gave me great comfort at that time.” He worked with a ghost writer, Ken Abraham. Considering that Chapman has written hundreds of songs, that is initially a bit surprising. “For better or worse, I’ve become a bit of a perfectionist in the way I write songs,” he says, laughing. “Every word, every phrase, has to be the best it can be. That’s OK for a song, but for a book? I’m going to capture 50-plus years of life and 30 years of a career: How do I weave that into a book that isn’t 10,000 pages long? I needed a trained professional or it would have never happened.” Writing the book was made easier by the fact that Mary Beth had written her own memoir, “Choosing to See,” which was published in 2011. “She sort of paved the way, talking about her battle with depression,” he says. “She put that out there publicly.”
Timing is everything
He had offers to write his life story before, but always passed. “It never felt like the right time,” he says. “Either I was so busy or I wasn’t at the right place on the journey. Now, I have enough perspective to say, ‘Wow, I can kind of see how connecting all the dots on this journey has brought me to this place.’ And it’s 30 years since my first album (”First Hand”). That’s a bit of a mile marker, you know? I don’t feel like I’m at the finish line by any means, but it’s a good place to get perspective on things.”
At this stage of his career, he also realizes that it’s not easy to get the same attention from radio programmers and audiences that he once did. Chapman, currently headlining the Rock & Worship Roadshow (it plays Phoenix on March 22) deals with that in typically candid fashion.
“Probably for a lot of us in Christian music, we want to talk about how this career is all ultimately for the glory of God, and there’s truth in that,” he says. “But there’s the performer part of us, the part that says, ‘When they applaud, it feels good.’ That’s just human nature. As a Christian, you think, ‘Should I just reject the applause?’ But then, it’s like, ‘God, that’s how you wired me.’
“But then you get to a place where you’re not the shiny new thing. You still feel creative and you still have new things to say, but it’s not received with the same fresh excitement it was maybe five or 10
‘Between Heaven and the Real World: My Story’
Steven Curtis Chapman (Revell, $22.99)
The Rock & Worship Roadshow
What: A festival featuring Steven Curtis Chapman, Francesca Battistelli, Rend Collective, Passion, Family Force 5 and Jordan Feliz . When: 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 22. Where: Grand Canyon University Arena, 3300 W. Camelback Road, Phoenix. Admission: $19-$95. Details: 602-639-8979, gcuarena.com. years ago. That’s part of the journey, too. It’s part of a battle for me, but it really comes down to the word ‘gratitude.’ There’s no way I can look at this journey I’ve had and be anything but incredibly grateful. And if now on my journey it’s about bringing memories back to people, that’s pretty awesome. So if radio doesn’t play my new song as much as they played my song from 10 years ago? Well, they still played the heck out of my songs back then. I’m going to choose to be grateful.”