Steven Curtis Chapman chose to mark his 30th anniversary in the music industry in a couple of ways. First, the Kentucky native, who released his first album in 1987 and went on to become the most awarded artist in Christian music history, decided to write a memoir. Now, he’s getting ready for a solo tour that also takes a look back at his life—through music.
“I’m calling it ‘SCC Solo: A Night of Hits and History,’ ” he explains. “I’m taking people back on a journey over the past 30 years but also going back even further than that. For example, here’s the first song I learned on the guitar: ‘Folsom Prison Blues.’ Johnny Cash. So, I’ll be sharing some of my influences, but also showing how my music tells the story through the years.”
Chapman’s music story began more than five decades ago in his hometown of Paducah.
“I grew up with music as a big, big part of my life,” he says. “It was folk and bluegrass music that I grew up hearing my dad play on weekends with his buddies. The sounds of a banjo and a fiddle and an acoustic guitar. So that music is deep in my veins, runs deep, and it’s been kind of woven into my music over the years.”
Chapman, his older brother, Herbie, and his father all played together in church. After graduating from high school, Chapman ended up getting a summer job with his brother at the former Opryland theme park in Nashville. While it opened some doors for Chapman, even then he felt himself being pulled in a different direction. He wanted to write music about his faith.
“It’s just what flowed out of me most naturally,” he explains.
He recalls having a conversation with his dad, who said that if Chapman was already experiencing opportunities in the country music world, perhaps he might want to continue in that direction. His faith still would be the most important thing in his life, but he might possibly be able to reach more people from a larger mainstream music platform.
“I remember saying, ‘Dad, I’m not opposed to that, but if I do what comes natural, it ends up being this music that’s about my faith,’ ” he says.
Chapman attended Georgetown College as a pre-med student, and then later transferred to Anderson University in Indiana after learning about a music business program there that had been set up with the help of Christian music artists Bill and Gloria Gaither. It was at Anderson that Chapman met a young woman with the same last name, as the two shared a mailbox. Ohio native Mary Beth Chapman later would become his wife.
Chapman took classes at Anderson and continued writing songs on the side. Soon, one of his songs, “Built to Last,” was recorded by the Imperials. He slowly began making inroads in songwriting, and he and Mary Beth eventually moved to Nashville. As he worked on writing songs, he also began pursuing his dream of becoming a recording artist. He ran into some setbacks along the way. As he recounts in his book, Between Heaven and the Real World, he was told more than once he might not have “the voice” for performing. But despite those early rejections, Chapman held fast to the belief that God had given him the songs, the passion and a gift for communicating, so he persevered. Eventually, he got a recording deal.
In the years that followed, Chapman not only would break into the Christian music industry, he would take it by storm. He had a steady stream of hits on the contemporary Christian charts, including “Weak Days,” “His Eyes” and many others, and he soon began getting attention from a more mainstream audience in the 1990s with “Great Adventure,” “Dive” and more, garnering 48 No. 1 hits. Chapman has recorded more than 20 albums over the past three decades with sales totaling more than $11 million. He’s also won an unprecedented 58 Dove Awards, along with five Grammys and an American Music Award.
Even Chapman finds some of his achievements a bit overwhelming. He recalls a trip to New York several years ago. He was there to play Carnegie Hall and if that wasn’t astounding enough, he found himself walking through the city and thinking back some 15 years earlier when he had walked those same streets.
“I had these memories of Ricky Skaggs and me strolling down the street before the Grammy Awards back then. What? I know Ricky Skaggs? He’s a friend of mine?” he recalls. “And then Ricky introducing me to Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers at a local deli. And then I went to Radio City Music Hall and won a Grammy. That’s crazy!”
After a short pause, Chapman continues, “And that’s capped off with tonight, where I’m going to play Carnegie Hall. Who gets to do that? What kid from Paducah, Kentucky, gets to do that? God has really given me some incredible gifts and blessings.”
Chapman says writing his memoir allowed him to go back and relive some of those experiences. The book, co-written with author Ken Abraham and released in March, details many of Chapman’s professional challenges and successes, but also some of his most painful personal experiences. He says he had been approached by publishers to write his story before but wasn’t ready yet.
“I felt like enough time had passed since the tragic loss of our daughter, which is obviously a big part of our story as a family, and my story, and wanting to share that in a way to let people know what the journey has been like,” he explains.
The Chapmans had three biological children—a daughter and two sons—before adopting three daughters from China. In 2008, the youngest child, Maria, was just 5 when she ran, out of the range of sight, into the path of an SUV driven by her 17-year-old brother, Will.
Dad, Herbie, Caleb and Me on Ryman stage
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“My wife wrote a book a few years ago from a very honest, vulnerable place,” Chapman explains. “And I kept hearing people say over and over and over again, ‘Thank your wife for her honesty.’ Her book encouraged so many people, and I thought I wanted to share my story with that kind of honesty.”
His book details his family’s journey through faith through the loss of Maria, as well as the intensely difficult time that followed for Will after the accident.
Chapman also touches on other periods in his life, when he and others turned to faith in the face of tragedy. He describes returning to Paducah in 1997 after 14-year-old gunman Michael Carneal opened fire on a group of students praying at Heath High School. The shooting left three students dead and five others injured, including Missy Jenkins, who was paralyzed from the chest down. As a graduate of the school, Chapman was asked to sing at the combined funeral for the students who died. He says it was one of the most challenging things he’s ever done, but remembers noting the power of God’s promises on display at the service that day.
Musician and fellow Kentuckian Ricky Skaggs describes Chapman as one of his dearest friends and a man who doesn’t just talk about his faith; he lives it.
“He walks his faith out,” Skaggs says, “no matter how many times he’s been knocked down. He’s strong; he’s weak; he’s bold; but he’s humble; and he’s as tough as a boot and loving as he can be.”
Skaggs says he enjoys singing with Chapman every chance he gets and adds that Chapman’s contribution to Christian music is immeasurable.
“I mean his list of songs—the body of work he’s done so far—and there’s still great stuff yet to come from him, but his body of work has been amazing,” Skaggs says.
Close friend and fellow musician Geoff Moore says it’s Chapman’s honesty that has resonated with fans over the years and given him such longevity.
“In every era of his life, he’s been authentic, both in his art and personal life,” Moore says. “So often what I’ve seen cuts artists’ careers short is they have a season where everything’s great or they’re kind of in their sweet spot, but once they move past that, they aren’t necessarily willing to be honest with their audience. I think Steven has constantly made the choice to welcome us into whatever’s going on, the good and the difficult, and in doing that, his music has been a companion for millions of people through their whole lives.”
Moore, who has known Chapman since both arrived in Nashville more than three decades ago and co-wrote a number of songs with him, including “Great Adventure,” adds that Chapman is also “an amazing musician” who continues to work hard at his craft.
He also says, despite Chapman’s many years in Nashville, that Chapman has never strayed far from his Kentucky roots.
“He’s extremely proud of being from Kentucky. He still loves and embraces where he’s from. He’s one of the Bluegrass State’s good ones, I’ll tell you that,” Moore says.
Chapman credits growing up in Paducah with laying the foundation for the man he is today. His parents still live there, and he and his family have a home in Benton.
“I feel so blessed to have grown up in that part of the world,” he says. “There’s an honestly and vulnerability, a friendliness and warmth, and I’m so thankful for that. It’s a wonderful place, my old Kentucky home.”
As he looks back over his career, Chapman remains grateful for what he’s accomplished but says he hopes people will look beyond the awards and instead see the blessings.
“I honestly believe if there’s a reason for any of it, it’s been and will be because people will say this is a guy who didn’t have the most amazing voice, sing the highest notes, or write the greatest songs, but this is a guy they connected with,” he says. “If I can tell you my story, share my victories and successes, my failures and defeats, in my marriage, in my life, in my pain, in my joy, what I hope you hear is that God has been faithful in my life. And be encouraged that He will be as faithful in their life and journey as he has been in mine.”
