DRUMMER’S PERSPECTIVE
WITH BETHEL MUSIC’S
DAVID WHITWORTH
By Doug Doppler
We’ve been waiting patiently for the right Asbury, who I’m sure a lot of people know now.
opportunity to interview David Whitworth. So, I joined his team and played with him at IHOP
when our PR friends reached out with interview in Kansas City for about six years.
ops around Bethel Music’s latest release
VICTORY, we seized the chance we’ve been Through doing that we had played conferences
waiting for! In listening to the Bethel catalogue, and a few other things, and that’s how I met
you can hear the huge foundation that David’s the Bethel crew. I met Jeremy Riddle and Brian
parts have provided for the some of the most Johnson when we did an IHOP and Bethel
impactful worship songs of the past decade. worship thing. They were super kind, they
In addition to covering the obligatory gear invited us all out for dinner to get sushi.
questions (and we love those), we’re equally
excited to share David’s perspective on ‘the
From there we kept in touch, and fast forward
why’ behind what he does!
a few years and they asked me if I wanted
The Goat Farm
to move out to Redding and be a part of the
[WM] David, when and why did you make the worship community here and really just pour
pilgrimage out to Bethel in Redding, California? into the young guys and the young drummers
that were here at Bethel. That’s pretty much
[David Whitworth] I grew up in a little town how I got to Redding and Bethel. From goat
outside of Austin, Texas called Bastrop. I grew farming to playing worship music! (laughs)
up on a goat farm, and I used to play drums in
a barn as a kid! Then I went to Kansas City at [WM] What kind of drum kit did you have on
the age of twenty-one. A buddy of mine asked the goat farm?
me to come out for the OneThing conference
by the International House of Prayer, and it
At IHOP
changed my life.
[David] I had an old 1960’s Slingerland. I wish
I still had it, I sold it before I knew what I had.
But yeah, it was awesome, I don’t remember
I thought man, I need to move here to Kansas the sizes on it but it was huge. (laughs) Back
City, so I did! I packed my bags and took a big then I had really big toms, a big kick, and a tiny,
ol’ leap of faith, not really knowing what the tiny snare, like a piccolo or something! (laughs)
next thing was or anything. I just knew that I
loved drumming and I loved worship, and at the [WM] So that gets us to your current setup.
International House of Prayer they do that 24- The most recent photo I saw was a Truth kit, DW
7, nonstop. So, I thought, “Surely I’ll have an hardware, Istanbul cymbals, a Roland SPD-SX,
opportunity somewhere during the day to play!” what I believe is a Novation Launchpad. Can
you run us through some of the specifics?
So that’s how I went out to Kansas City, and
through IHOP I played with a guy named Cory
Headed to Bethel
March 2019
[David] I have a great relationship with
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