When I heard about Jeff Senour and the extraordinary things he was doing with his life I thought to myself , “ This will be an interesting interview for the magazine ”. Jeff is a pilot of pilots , a professional gigging musician , a songwriter , an author , and he serves on his church ’ s worship team . Here we go …
[ WM ] So first of all , how did you start playing guitar ? And then how ’ d you start being a pilot ? Let ’ s talk about those two topics first .
[ Jeff Senour ] Okay . My story is actually kind of my testimony in the sense that it ’ s a story about people along the way of this journey of life telling you … you can ’ t or shouldn ’ t or don ’ t try that kind of stuff story . My Dad was a private pilot . He was an adventure seeker , he took me on all kinds of adventures . Scuba diving , surfing , skiing , you know , you name it . And then flying was one of ‘ em . He was a private pilot , so at about five years old , he took me for my first airplane ride in a Piper Cub … open window , you know , face in the wind at 60 miles an hour . And I was hooked and probably , to the disagreement of my mom , he took me up anyway .
My Mom was a violinist . She was a musician so that ’ s how I probably got the music gene . But along both those roads … I was told that I probably shouldn ’ t play guitar ‘ cause I was shorter . I didn ’ t have big enough hands . And that was by a guitar teacher years ago . And then Aviation , I wanted to be a fighter pilot . And I went into the recruiter in college , and he told me that I had to have perfect vision . I wore contact lenses . He said , “ No , you can ’ t be a fighter pilot . You must have perfect vision going in ”. Wow . So , both dreams could have been squashed if I had listened to all of that . And I was just determined as a young guy , I ’ m gonna do this , you know ? I don ’ t care what they say . That ’ s kind of how I got started .
[ WM ] Right on . Okay , so when did you start writing songs ?
rock bands , different bands and worship bands throughout college . In high school and college , I was in a rock band . Then once I started pursuing my aviation career , I didn ’ t pursue music real heavily ‘ cause I had to spend so much time getting my ratings and building my experience . I ’ d still play , but I wasn ’ t writing or playing actively in a band .
In late 1999 or so , I decided I ’ m gonna start writing music . I was inspired by the old classic bands , even down to the Beatles and all the classic bands . U2 ’ s Bono was a big inspiration to me . I loved what he wrote about , a deep message but they still touched the masses . I met a group of guys in a worship band that I was playing in at the time in early 2000 . And that ’ s when I just started to start writing . And I formed my band , which is now named Called to Serve or CTS for short .
[ WM ] Gotcha . Now , when you did that , was it a church worship band ? Did you play sometimes on Sundays and do modern worship music ?
[ Jeff ] Yes . It was a fairly large church in Mesa , Arizona . And I was a pretty new Southwest Airlines pilot and getting my wings there . But then I started playing on the worship team at this church . And then I met the original band guys there . And we started , we started CTS and I started writing . What ’ s interesting is once I started writing I found how addictive it is , and really my mission was to get a good message . I wanted to write good , positive message , a Christian message , but not necessarily a worship message . Because I wanted to play in different venues . I wanted to do like Christ did . He got out in the world and talked to everybody , and that ’ s what I wanted to do .
[ WM ] Good . Talking about being a pilot again , when you were dubbed the “ Singing Southwest Pilot ”, what songs did you sing to the people on the plane ?
[ Jeff ] Yes , well it varied . I ’ d kind of pick the mood at the time . And on occasion , I ’ d try to play something I wrote . And usually when you explain to people , “ Hey , life does this , you know , and this inspired this song . And I wrote it and I ’ d like to sing it for you ”. Usually that draws them in . They ’ re like , “ Oh , I gotta hear this . ‘ cause I ’ ve experienced that ”. But on occasion I ’ d throw in like “ Learning to Fly ” by Tom Petty . Things like that , it was fun as the captain of the airplane , you know ?
[ WM ] I like it . So now tell us about this song called “ Angels Watching Over Me ”. All of a sudden , it blows up really big on the mainstream rock charts . Now most musicians would love to just be anywhere near the rock charts . First of all , tell us about the song and then how did it get so many views . What happened there ?
[ Jeff ] Well , what helped obviously was we got signed by Universal Music this year . And that was nothing short of a miracle . You know , getting your foot in the door , it is miraculous . Our booking agent , Rob Montes , knows a guy at Universal Music who ’ s a big wig . His name ’ s Ted Mason . He was in the band , Modern English . So Ted was instrumental in Modern English , they won awards . Well , now he ’ s a VP with Universal . Rob bugged him for eight months to listen to my stuff . And he was like , “ Forget it . I get hit up by artists all the time . That ’ s not gonna happen ”.
And then one day he called and said , “ You know , I listened to his stuff . I think we should talk . It ’ s pretty good . It ’ s produced well . I love his vocals . I love the Message .” And that ’ s where we got signed by Universal . So they took “ Angels Watching Over Me ” and re-released it . And that ’ s where we got a lot of exposure . It got close to two million hits on YouTube !
[ Jeff ] Most of my music journey was in band Jeff Senour - " Angels Watching Over Me "
[ WM ] Yes . That ’ s amazing !
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