of this is a far cry from being given a prognosis of an early death. Wow. You and I are both walking miracles.
[ Tim ] Let’ s go. Let’ s go. We woke up again. I’ ll just say this. As you said, that something just sparked in my heart that when I gave up working for God, and I think this was really helpful. I hang out with so many worship leaders. I go on walks up almost every morning with guys. I don’ t do many meals with people. I just go on walks with guys. And my encouragement is for all of us that are trying to write songs and do cool things for God. Again, the second that I said,“ Jesus, I’ m done working for you. If I’ m supposed to just work at Starbucks for the rest of my life and that’ s what’ s best for Your kingdom, then open those doors and I will walk through that.”
So, the song“ Even If,” I had written years ago with Crystal Lewis. Crystal and I had written that song in my house in Irvine, and she didn’ t want it for her record. And so I went to Sony, my record label, and I’ m like,“ You guys, this song is so good.” And it’ s like this is my heart cry. I had just had a rough cancer appointment and then writing“ Even If” was like,“ This is it.” And they’ re like,“ It’ s not that good.” I’ m like,“ You guys, that’ s actually really good.” My thing is, I will join you Jesus in whatever you open.
So, a little later, I just let that be a prayer that I had in my own heart. And then later, I had the sense that the song was for Bart. Bart Millard is the lead singer of the band Mercy Me and one of my best friends, but I would never go to Bart and say,“ Hey man, I got a song I think you should cut.”
So Bart’ s sitting right here, and he came in from a hard appointment with his son with diabetes, and he said the chorus of a song he’ d never heard before, almost verbatim.
And I’ m sitting here going,“ Jesus, that’ s crazy.
You told me not to say anything, not to do anything, but that if it was for you, that you’ d open those doors.”
So, I ended up sharing that chorus with them and we ended up rewriting the song, and then I’ m sitting at the Grammys, and then I’ m sitting here on this with you, Alex, with a whole movie about my life. And the joy is not that I did anything awesome to get my way or to climb up the ladder. Actually, I did the opposite and I’ m so grateful that Jesus keeps inviting me to do the opposite. Just do the opposite. Put other people first. I get a whole movie about my life. It’ s not like everybody’ s going to get that, but it’ s way more fun to let him open the cool doors and we love who’ s in front of us right now. Worship leaders, I know that heart so well. And that would be my encouragement. Whoever’ s in front of you right now, jump in.
[ WM ] That movie wouldn’ t exist without your story. The sequel would not exist because that’ s the most important part of that story.
So anyway, so what’ s your greatest hopes for your story? How would you like for us to pray for you and the impact that your book and the film will have upon readers and movie viewers and tour guests?
[ Tim ] Yeah, thank you. I think on my tombstone, I want“ disruptor” and“ inviter,” both of those words. Jesus disrupts me every day. With political things that I see on the internet, it’ s like Jesus is disrupting me when I’ m calling out somebody else. Look at how lame. It’ s like, nope. Tim, what do you got here? You got a big old log stuck in your eye. I want“ disruptor” and“ inviter” on my tombstone. And I think the thing to pray for is I just keep saying,“ Jesus, open doors so that I get to disrupt the church and invite the church into looking more like you.” Because if we had more people that looked like Jesus... people that looked, acted and actually smelled like, and were representers of the heart of Jesus... they’ d hate us for loving people so well. We’ ll be persecuted all day long. Persecute me, kill me, whatever, if it’ s because I’ m looking more like Jesus. So my hope is that this part of my cancer is more like a Trojan horse, to be honest. It lets me inside the walls of the church to just invite and be a part of it, saying, Let’ s do this together. Let’ s join Jesus. So that’ s my greatest prayer.
[ WM ] That’ s wonderful. Well, last question, what’ s your guitar of choice?
[ Tim ] I’ m an acoustic nerd and acoustic electric guitars. I just have tried every possible system. I think the LR Baggs Anthem was my favorite for years because I’ ve tried every other one, literally. But I am a sucker for a Maton, M-A-T-O-N. It’ s an Australian company. Guys, they’ re actually kind of cheap. The low end Maton is what I tour with. And I’ ve never heard a guitar sound more like not just a little wooden box, but a guitar with cojones. It’ s Spanish. And I use an LR Baggs preamp and the Maton guitar, you guys, the sonics of this thing, electric, are just insane. I get a lot of compliments about my sound. I also use a Boss Pedal, like an octaver. So it’ s the only octover that actually works as the Boss OC3 or five, and I can just set it up.
My E flat on my A string down is triggering an octave. So, when I’ m just playing solo, it’ s just huge. I do a lot of alternate tuning, stuff like that. But a Maton guitar, I’ m telling you, check it out, you guys. It’ s the best 808 model.
[ WM ] Well, that’ s all I got for today, at least for the interview, but it sure has been a delight.
[ Tim ] Thank you. So good to be with you.
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