was a collaborative worship album with a lot of different artists , they had sent the song to me to listen to in order to ask us if we would record the song " God of Wonders ," and I said , " Eh , it ' s okay ." I didn ' t really love the song . I thought it was fine . And it goes to show how much I know about music and about song . ( laughs )
And we wrote our own song called “ City on a Hill ” and recorded it , and I thought it was great , and then realized later on that it wasn ' t great . And as I ' m walking out of the studio , Steve said , " Hey , can you sing the second verse on the song ' God of Wonders '?" I said , " Sure . I know the song because you ' d sent it to me a month before that ."
A manager had said in advance , " Don ' t go sing on anything else . They ' re trying to get a lot of different singers on different songs . You ' ve already got a couple of songs on the radio . It ' s going to get oversaturated . So don ' t sing on any of the other songs ." I said , " Sure ." And then when Steve asked me , I was a big fan . I couldn ' t say no . So that was one of those “ it ' s better to get forgiveness than permission ” times . And it ended up being a big hit for us , so the manager ended up being happy . That was a little sidebar , sorry .
I had heard the song , " I Remember You ." I loved it . I thought it was an amazing song . So , when Steve asked me to be part of the second City on a Hill album , I said , " Hey , I ' ve always loved this song . What do you think about recording this ?" And so , he actually brought Gene in ! And I got to meet him and talk to him , and just share with him how much I loved his writing and his music . He had given me , I remember clearly , he had written on a little blue piece of paper his phone number and tore it off the piece of paper , and I folded it up and put it in my wallet to one day call him . And he died one day not too long after that . So , I regret that I never had that chance to connect with him later on . And as a fan of his and his music , I had that great blessing of being able to record my vocal to his song .
[ WM ] That ' s a great story . He was a sweet man . He really was .
[ Mac ] Yes , he was .
[ WM ] Let ’ s talk a bit about your new album release , New Creation . 2nd Corinthians 5:17 is my life verse , as that is what Billy Graham preached on when I visited his Anaheim crusade in October of 1969 . What can you tell us about the inspiration behind the title of your new project , as well as the project itself ? I will ask you about a couple of its individual songs next .
[ Mac ] Sure . Well , " New Creation " is by far one of my favorite songs from the album . There ' s throughout the album … and I ' ll give you a little background . I don ' t know how much information you want or don ' t want , but as you