BETWEEN THE LINER NOTES
The Very Best of David Meece
By Jennifer E. Jones
CBNmusic Producer
CBN.com
– In February of 2007, Word Records released David Meece: The Definitive Collection, spanning over the legendary Christian artist’s first nine albums. As he looks back over 30 years of music ministry, David can see the faithfulness of God.
Jennifer E. Jones: How does it feel to be celebrated in this way? They obviously don’t do this for everyone.
David Meece: I’m very honored by it. To have some of the songs from the ‘70s and ‘80s available again is pretty exciting. I’ve got kids now, and they’re shocked by some of the stuff we did back in those days. It was indicative of what God was doing in our culture and in our lives. It’s always exciting to look back at it.
Jones: I’m curious when a collection like this comes out since it's put together by someone else. If you had to put together your own personal favorites, which songs would be on your album?
Meece: If I would put the “best of” together, I would include of course “We Are the Reason”. You’d have to put that on there, but also my recording of “One Small Child”. My version wasn’t necessarily a radio hit but the song “Nevertheless” has probably been recorded by almost as many people as “We Are the Reason” as a Christmas song. Other songs [would be] “The Man with the Nail Scars” and “Learning to Trust”, and some of my later tracks would be exciting to put on there. But, it’s very hard because as a songwriter, you look upon every song as their own individual thing. It’s kind of like children. You have a hard time picking one favorite over another, because obviously you like them all or you wouldn’t have had them.
Jones: I’d imagine too that every song has a special memory attached to it.
Meece: I relate back to when I first got the idea for the song or when I first wrote it. It was something specific that God was doing in my life or there was a particular event that triggered the idea for the song. It’s just like if you hear a song, you’re immediately taken back to when you first heard the song. Suddenly you’re 19 again.
Jones: You’ve toured with some really great artists. Are there any particular moments on the road that stood out in your career?
Meece: There are so many. When I was touring with Amy [Grant] and I had my band with me, I remember my drummer couldn’t make it to the concert. I think it was in Lexington, KY. We were doing this big arena. The drummer from Petra at the time was filling in for me. I got such a big kick out of him, because he tended to be in his own world. So it came time to go on stage. They introduced us, and you’ve got 12,000 people out there screaming. We’re ready to run on stage, and I realize my drummer’s not there. We’re looking all over the place for him. All of a sudden, here he comes running up the back stage at a break-neck pace. He runs up, sits down at the drums, and starts counting off. The tempo he counts off is like twice as fast as the song is supposed to be. I remember us trying to perform this song at twice tempo [laughs]. It was so hilarious! I’ll never forget that, because I’ve never tried to sing a song that fast before and just couldn’t quite get it out.
Jones: Christian artists really emphasize the meet’n’greet time. Were there any encounters with fans who told you a story of how your music impacted their lives?
Meece: Thousands. I remember there’s a book out now called 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper. He shared a story with me, and it later ended up in his book about how he was virtually on his deathbed. The song “We Are the Reason” had such an impact on him. It literally caused him to keep going to try to recover. There are countless instances like that. I remember one guy told me he was driving along the road and the song “This Time” came on, which is a song from my Learning to Trust album. He’s driving, but he’s listening to the words of the song. He started being convicted and crying so heavily that he had to pull off to the side of the road. God used it to get through to that person. There are so many that I wouldn’t know where to start. That’s what keeps you going.
Jones: You just celebrated your 30th wedding anniversary. That’s commendable more so than the music. Christians in the music industry certainly aren’t immune to divorce. How have you been able to make 30 years in the business as well as in marriage?
Meece: There are a lot of reasons for it, but I think it’s marrying the right person and being committed to it. It’s a matter of making your mind up that you’re going to work through the problems. People just give up too quickly. People hear something and they react to it or overact to it, and they look around at other possibilities. I don’t know how many people I’ve known who got angry, walked out, got a divorce, and later regretted it. A lot of it is our culture that’s so based on a fast-food, microwave-oven mind set that “if I’m not happy now, then I have to do something immediately to make myself happy again .” We don’t fight for things that should be long lasting.
Jones: That is true. Especially when things get hard, it’s supposed to be about sticking it through.
Meece: I don’t mean to dump on people who have gotten divorced. Everybody has to struggle. It’s a matter of trying to work through those things and deciding that it’s worth it. No matter who you get hooked up with, you’re going to have problems. I don’t care who they are. A lot of it is trying to take your commitment seriously.
David Meece is currently on tour and writing music for his next album.
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