push it on his kids for fear of us hating it.
When I was thirteen I asked for some drums – that was my first interest in music. It was really cool, he was always a big investor in our dreams as kids, so as soon as I really showed a passion for drums or for music, he got me a drum kit. Then he told me I had two weeks to practice and then I was playing with him at church( laughs). It was a trial by fire, I got just thrown in it. I think that was 7 th grade, and I played drums that Wednesday night. Then I played every Wednesday and Sunday, whenever the doors were open, until I graduated.
I grew up in the church, but I never resented the church. I never had a callous heart toward the church, music or God. I was always proud that my dad was a pastor. I really saw it as a way to marry my passions. I always grew up thinking,“ Maybe I’ ll be a pastor one day, maybe I’ ll be in the ministry in some way …” and when I discovered a passion for music it was like a way for me to do the two things I felt really strongly about and marry them. I was able to play music by being in church and I was able to serve my church by playing music. It just felt like a no brainer to me.
My father and some friends were a part of a youth camp in Dallas that they helped start and attended every year. Youth groups from all over Texas would go to this camp. I’ d say there are 1,500 kids there every summer.
When I was finally old enough to go to camp it was the first year they brought Chris in to lead worship, so no one really knew who he was. He was a young kid, probably twenty-one or twenty-two at the time. I think he had been leading at a church called Breakaway at Texas A & M, which was a big college ministry. So, he came in to lead worship and I didn’ t really think anything of it, it was just like,“ Oh cool there’ s a guy leading worship, and I’ m at camp.” I was just excited to be at camp. All these years I had been at camp because my dad had to be there as a youth pastor, so I was just excited to be going as a student.
Every year Chris was writing more songs, and his songs were ones we would take home and do at our own church, which is essentially what he still does( laughs). His vision, even early on was very singular in that way. Because he and my dad both led music at the camp, they had a lot of mutual friends and he and Chris had some relationship. They weren’ t super close, mainly because my dad was older, so it was kind of like a“ changing of the guards” thing at camp,“ Here comes the new guy Chris!”
So they knew each other, and I think as a proud dad, a couple summers in a row he would be like,“ Hey, so my son’ s playing guitar now and he’ s sounding pretty good. We’ ve got him working with the church and he’ s traveling with me some!” I think that maybe what planted the seed was my dad talking to Chris about me like a proud dad would. I don’ t think he was ever necessarily pitching me, because I was really young, fourteen or fifteen.
By the time I was seventeen or eighteen I was leading worship at my church. Some of the guys from the band came over to see me lead worship for my church group, which was a smaller group out of the big camp thing they were leading. I think they saw that I had a passion for worship and ministry, and I wasn’ t just a guitar player – I was a guitar player with a heart for what they had already been doing. So I think they took me a little more seriously.
At the same time Chris had a guitar player who couldn’ t commit full time anymore, so he had a vacancy in the band. That was the summer
Chris & Daniel
right before my senior year of high school. I had just turned 18 and had no idea where I was going to go to college. I hadn’ t applied to any schools because I didn’ t really want to go. All I really wanted to do was travel and worship and play guitar.
So Chris called my dad. We were in the car on my way to play an event with my dad in Dallas, and of course I didn’ t hear that phone call. This was back when teenagers didn’ t have cell phones( laughs). So he ran everything by my Dad. Chris is funny, he’ s kind of a,“ Let’ s just move forward!” So he was like,“ I want to see if your son can come do some dates for me. Can Daniel come travel with us?” My dad was like,“ Well, you’ ve never actually played with him, you want me to drive down so you can practice together or audition or something? Are you sure you want to commit, what if you don’ t really love what it feels like?” So my dad gets off the phone and goes,“ Oh yeah, that was Chris Tomlin. He wanted to see if you could do some dates with him playing guitar.” I was totally excited of course. I had no idea it would become a full-time thing really, I was just excited!
A couple weeks later we drove down to Houston where Chris was living, and set up in his kitchen. We had the drum kit set up in there, the bass player had his bass rig, and I set up my amps, pedals, and guitar. Chris had a little JBL Eon speaker for his acoustic and vocal. We basically set up like a little four-piece band in his kitchen. I remember the first song that we played was“ Open the Eyes of My Heart”, that
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