GORDON KENNEDY
So that’ s two times we walked away thinking,“ Well, we failed.” You get disappointed, and you feel like you’ ve missed your chance. But sometimes, what looks like failure is just making room for what was truly meant to happen.
My creative partner, Wayne Kirkpatrick, and I had a group we were trying to get signed. Looking back, would I rather have had a hit with our band, or have Eric Clapton record Change the World? We couldn’ t have predicted that out- come. It reminds you that Decca turned down The Beatles. You have to be patient and trust the process. You might think you know exactly what’ s supposed to happen, and it can feel devastating when it doesn’ t. Meanwhile, a greater plan is unfolding. And yeah, that even goes for people like Chet Atkins and Roger Miller! You have to believe that sometimes when you hear“ No,” the Big Man upstairs is just saying,“ Give me a minute; I’ ve got something much better for you.”
Indeed. But this begs the question; how do you know when you’ ve really got a song?
I think you just write the song and let it take its course, then go on to the next thing. If you pause to wait and see what’ s going to happen with one song, you might be waiting for years. The gestation period for Change the World, from the time we demoed it to the time it came out, was four years. If we had just hit the brakes and insisted,“ Hey, listen to this” for four years, think what we would have missed in that window of time.
As a writer, you just keep at it. It’ s like playing guitar. I pick it up every day regardless of whether I have some defined purpose at that moment. I pick it up because I’ m called to do so. Same with writing songs. You can’ t be so hyper-focused on what’ s going to happen to one song that you can’ t see anything else in the periphery. You just go back to work. If you pitch a song and get turned down, do you sit around and sulk, thinking“ I don’ t have what it takes” or have you already written five more songs since that one went out the door? Sometimes it feels like a game. Other
14 | SUMMER 2026