Worship Musician Magazine April 2022 | Page 70

Williams , who really taught me more about the touring business probably than anybody else . Adam was a Christian vocalist . He had a really dynamic Josh Groban sounding voice and he would tour churches , but he was completely independent . And he showed me really how you can run a ministry . I mean a ministry . To a degree it ' s a business , but he said , " Here ' s how you do it with integrity ”. And that really helped me a lot through that time because it was refreshing . I got out of the session world , got into live music with him , and I still got to do that on the side , but still got to be with my Dad throughout that time .
And I told my Dad when I came on board with him , after he told me one time , he said , " Spence , if you end up taking another job at a better paying dealership somewhere I completely understand ." And I told him , I said , " I ' ll never leave you , unless I ' ve got a guitar in my hand . That ' s the only way I ' ll ever walk out that door ." And I held true to that . He reminded me of that the last day I worked for him .
[ WM ] And then in 2017 you were encouraged to try Nashville . Was that a step of faith or what ? I like that you found a home church before you found a home there . Tell us about that story ?
[ Spence ] In 2013 was my transformation , because that ' s when I really for the first time put together what it meant to confess sin , to repent , and to walk the other direction . And that ' s when I transformed . What I had to do was confess a 24-year addiction to pornography . It was August 8th , 2013 . And my wife and I had begun drifting apart . I just felt the Holy Spirit telling me , “ You need to confess , you need to confess ”. And when I did , it changed our lives forever .
Because in that moment , all the shame and everything that I had felt before was turned into , " I ' ve got to go tell everybody I can about what God ' s done for me ." And I don ' t care if I ' ve got to tell things in front of large groups to people , no matter how embarrassing it is , I ' ve got to tell the message of Jesus .
And that ' s when I started going out and touring on my own with an acoustic guitar , basically doing kind of what Phil Keaggy does in a lot of ways . I take old hymns and make arrangements out of those . And then I wrote some songs for a record , which I put out shortly after . And so that was really sort of the beginning of me moving towards where we are now .
Shortly after 2013 , I came to know a keyboard player in this town named Wil Houchens . Wil has worked for countless artists , but he ' s an angler , he ' s a fisherman . And he said , " I was going down the rabbit hole late one night on
YouTube ." He said , " I came across your fishing video " ( where I was just acting like a complete idiot out on a lake ). And he said , " Well , I got to see if this guy ' s got anything else ." And so he found “ Doxology ” and he goes , " Well , he can actually play ." And so we began a relationship through that crazy video and Wil through the years told me , he said , " You know , you would probably do okay in Nashville ." He said , " You might consider it ." And Misti and I , my wife , we had looked at moving in 2004 , but the time just didn ' t seem right .
But now with all the changes in the car
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