Lincoln Brewster, The Man and His Music!
Lincoln Brewster Interview ..... by Kathy.
Lincoln's CD us due out July 16th, it's called Amazed.
Make sure you go out and buy it, it's really great.
K- Thanks for doing the interview. We really appreciate it.
L- No problem.
K- Where would you like for to start? Do you want me to ask questions or would you want to tell me alittle bit about yourself?
L- You know what I’ll have you ask me questions.
K- First, I just wanted to ask you are you still 28? How old are you now?
L- I’m No, 30.
K- I wanted to ask you, when did you know you had to make music, when did it become a passion for you?
L- I think when I was real young…. When I was probably, you know, 9 or 10 something like that, is when I really, really enjoyed it.
K- So, what kind of musical influences did you have when you were young?
L- Well, Journey was one of them. …, In fact "Who’s Crying Now" is the first guitar solo I ever learned how to play, and Van Halen was a big one & and then a lot of that kind of early 80's, like Police, oh all the early 80's stuff.
K- Yeah and I noticed you like Sting ….he’s your favorite now?
L- Yes.
K- What draws you to his music?
L- I just think he’s brilliant….love his music , I mean everything….cords, lyrics….sound of his voice. I think he’s is great, just a real classy kind of sound….very ,very good.
K- So, tell me a little bit about your CD that’s coming out. *Amy sent it to me… It’s just amazing.
L- Oh, thank you.
K- We play it all the time around the house.
L- Oh, that’s great , I think it really resonates my heart towards God and where I’m at in my life just feeling amazed.
K- His love is amazing isn’t it?
L- Yeah , absolutely.
K- Absolutely.
K- I noticed that during the songs and the even the titles of the songs, “praise” is really stands out, so you must really love to praise the Lord too?
L- Well, yeah, you know, I think that when you’re when you’re thankful for your life and for the best things that God brings, and all that it just kind of comes out…. I mean, when you’re grateful and thankful, that’s what you do, and I believe it!
K- I can very much relate to that….and could you give us some a testimony on how… and when you became a believer?
L- Yeah, I became a believer at 19. I started dating somebody in high school and they were she was a Christian, and her …whole family was too, & all that stuff…so . I got invited to church a lot, and eventually, you know I, I just remember one day saying, “O oh my gosh, this is true.”
K- It is overwhelming, isn’t it, when you first come to the cross. .?
L- Absolutely.
K- Well, I know the CD is coming out in June of July?
L- July 16th, I just heard.
K- July 16th, great. …. Well, we’ll definitely be turning some people on from the website.
L- Awesome, I appreciate that.
K- How about where can they get it when it comes out? The local Christian bookstores?
L- The local Christian books stores, absolutely, and also from the Integrity Music website.
K- Yeah, I heard about that.
L- And, Vertical Music should have their website up by then so…the Vertical Music website, too.
K- Ok, thanks.
L- And, my website.
K- Right….I’ve been there many a times….
K- I know there’s are a lot more than just you in the band, right? What’s the name of the band , is it just Lincoln Brewster?
L- Yeah, and then I’ve got a couple of guys who play with me most of the time and their they are great… and they live here in Nashville.
K- Now what are you plans after the CD? Touring?
L- Well , yeah we’re going to…right now we’ve got we’re pretty booked up for the whole summer, and then we are basically making plans as to far as what to do once we get to fall time.
K- One of the gals from the message board from Perryville wanted to know how we could get a hold of you or she could get a hold of you to play at her Christian university.
L- If you can go to my website and& click on the booking button.
K- Ok simple as that huh?
L- Yeah, I'll give you a number and it’ll take you to the GOA, it’s the Greg Oliver Agency, and I can give you a phone number its area code 615-790-5540.
L- That’s in Nashville and they do all the booking stuff, and & they’re great.
K- Great well, I know the Dove awards are this week, right?.
L- That’s right.
K- Tomorrow night or tonight. (yawns).
K- Oh, you must be tired..(laughs)
L- I’m exhausted.
K- **Are you up for an award or are you going to be there?
L- No, I’m actually not even going to be there. We’re playing at Ichthus Festival in Kentucky.
L- It’s called Ichthus, I think it’s the name that they call the fish symbol.
K- Ah, I see.
L- It’s called an Ichthus…and so we’re planning on playing up there in Kentucky. They get 20 some odd thousand people there, and we’re playing on Friday. I’m coming home, which would be nice, and then I’ll be home for a few days and & zip back out
and be down in southern Cal for a bit and go up to Canada. Then I’ll be back for a week & and a half or so.
K- What’s the best thing about singing for God?
L- I love the music and I love to play and sing and be with my buddies., Traveling can be great too. I really think the best thing is to you know just to be able to go to bed at night and say going “God, I’m doing my very best to answer your call in my life.”
K- Ah, what an answer…great answer yeah, yeah the peace that passes all understanding right?
L- Yeah, definitely. There’s no amount of success or money or fame or any of that stuff that can bring peace.
K- Yeah, exactly!
L- I believe serving God, doing what He’s calling you to do and knowing that you’re giving Him your all, you know that definitely helps.
K- Absolutely, I can’t understand, but I can appreciate what you are staying because I’m not in the music business. I want to ask you, if somebody has never listened to Christian music and probably is not a Christian why would they listen to your music?
L- You know…..(pause) they probably wouldn’t., You know, obviously they wouldn’t go out and get it, but if they listen to it, what they would hear in it is honesty and that’s the kind of person I believe in being. - A honest person and pouring my heart into the music, and you know that it’s got heart and what you’re listening to, like it or leave it, is at least a genuine and real version of the person whose is singing and playing it!
K- And it’s also, if I may add, the truth.
L- Yeah, yeah exactly.
L- Even if you remove the message and you remove the element of it , if you were to disagree with the message, it’s still an honest…the music is honest…what I’m doing is honest. It’s not fabricated and all that kind of stuff.
K- Right everything that God deams deems respectable.
L- I hope so.
K- I know that you played with Steve, and I’ve actually never…went to a concert when you toured For The Love Of Strange Medicine. I was raising my family at that time, so I never got to a concert, but I’ve definitely seen some footage…and well, that must had been an awesome thing to be able to do?
L- Yeah, there were definitely some moments when I was pretty overwhelmed.
K- How did Steve find you?.
L- Uh, really from like a veteran demo tape I gave to a guy at Sony.
K- Wow, were you pretty overwhelmed when he called you?
L- Yeah, yeah, quite.
K- I can imagine. Now of course your ’re being a Christian at that time, was that easy to go on the road with somebody that was very secular or was that, you know, something that you were kind of torn with?
L- It didn’t bother me really. I mean, I felt fine & about it. It was my job.
L- I didn’t struggle with it on that front really.
K- So you must have had enjoyed recording with him?
L- Mmmmm, I enjoyed playing live probably more than I liked recording…the recording was kind of hard. I wasn’t used to working with a producer and & all that kind of stuff, so it was just how things were.
K- Kind of intense, was it?
L- Yeah, yeah, a lot of pressure.
K- We heard that Steve’s pretty much of a perfectionist when it comes to the music?
L- Yeah, that is pretty true.
L- It’s, well, a different kind of perfection….that but it yeah, he’s definitely very involved and has definite thoughts about what he’s looking for.
K- I guess that’s why he’s good at what he does?
L- That’s right.
K- Do you have any funny stories you care to share with us during that time?
L- Um…let’s see uh…..well, there’s some funny studio…..we used to have good laughs, quite a bit, and I’m trying to think.
K- We hear he has a pretty good sense of humor.
L- He does. we….uh…we I can remember one time he came in and & he was talking about “time is money, come on guys, let's keep moving,” you know, kind of one of those things…. He took a $20 bill, and he drew a clock on it and & he taped it up on the mixing console…and he left it up there for, you know, two 2 months or something. We got this idea one day that we were, like man, there’s 20 bucks sitting up there. We could use it. So we took the 20 and & photo copied it.
We cut it out and & then we were trying to make it look like a real piece of money, because obviously it was just black and & white. , And we took it outside, we rubbed it in the dirt. We crumpled it up and & then the keyboard player, Paul, found that if you took some cappuccino foam & and spread it on it, it kind of completed the picture. So, we got it about as close as we could and & we taped it back up there and we took the 20 bucks and & went and had lunch. (laughs) Steve ended up coming back, gosh, it probably took him about a month, and he was sitting at the mixing console one day, and he’s looking at it and he kind of got this puzzled look on his face and then he grabs it and & turns it over and & he’s like what’s the deal! We just cracked up it was pretty funny.
(Kathy laughs)
K- Would you like to work with Steve in the future or do you think that time has kind of ended & you’re on to your own kind of thing?
L- Boy, I don’t know, probably the latter….I don’t know…,it would really depend on what it was.
K- Circumstances, huh?
L- Yeah, absolutely, I mean if it was, “ Hey, you want to go play a couple of dates somewhere, you know, for as a fun little reunion, and let’s just go out and have a good time” or something like that, I might be open to something. like. It would really depend on exactly what it was and when it was taking place and if it conflicted with schedules and those kinds of things.
K- Oh, have you heard….do you know who David Pack is?
L- Yeah.
K- Well, from what we hear, Steve’s been writing with him so it’s due out…his CD, David’s is due out sometime in the near future so that will be interesting.
L- Cool.
K- Do you have you had any involvement with him since the tour?
L- No, the last time I talked with him was last spring when I was out with Third Day. I called him from one of the venues just to say "hi", so that was just that., we haven’t really been in touch a whole lot.
K- What was your favorite song to perform when you were doing the tour?
L- That’s a tough one…a lot of them were a lot of fun…. I don’t know, I don’t think I have one…. I like different parts of different songs …….I really liked playing like "Girl Can’t Help It" just because it was really hard to sing the background part and play in time, & so when I finally could do it, it was really cool, and I felt like I was accomplishing something, and I really liked that song. I loved playing "I’ll Be Alright Without You" because I worked really hard to learn the guitar solo.
K- Which I think you did an amazing job cause you know Neal is an excellent guitarist.
L- He’s a monster, yeah….it was not easy. "Anyway You Want It" was fun because it was, man, I loved that song growing up, and I'm trying to think what other ones were really fun…."Separate Ways" was great & and "Don’t Stop Believin" both are great.
K- Yeah, all monster hits you know.
L- Faithfully was great , now some of my favorites we didn’t do on the tour, but we rehearsed them , we rehearsed "Keep On Running", "Still They Ride" and what else did we rehearse? We only played "Stone in Love" one time on the tour, that was the first night.
K- Ah that’s one of my favorites.
L- Yeah, most of the band were Journey fans. We learned a bunch of songs we wanted to hear Steve to sing (laughs) for the tour, so while he was out doing the promo tour, we learned about 40 songs, and when he came back in, we would go, “Come on, sing this one” & and he would go, “ I hate that song.” we would go, “ Oh come on, play it for us, okay?”.
K- (Kathy laughs) He hates it! Oh oh!
L- So, he would he would humor us.
K- Do it for you, heh?
L- Yeah, well I think he was just blown away that we were so excited about any of the songs, and enough so to learn them and learn all the background vocals. He was like blown away and he was like, “ Man, you guys really learned this one didn’t you?” , and so then I think, you know, he felt bad, so then he went on & and sang it.
K- You know Steve has kind of this reputation of being a very much a control freak.
K- Would you say that’s true? Well, and not in a disparaging way, & you know he controls because he knows what he wants.
L- Yeah…..the likelihood of what you heard of being true is probably pretty good. I would say that.
K- You know who Herbie Herbert is of course?
L- Oh, yeah.
K- The ex-manager of Journey… He has done a really awful… interview that sheds such a horrible light on Steve. Everything I’ve ever read…. about him, of course I don’t know the man himself. He’s a man just like everybody else who has human emotions but he can’t be as bad as Herbie says. Is there anyway you know , if there is anything you could give the fans to say you know what he’s really not at he’s been portrayed as such a bad guy, cause some of it is really lousy?
L- Well, I would just say this. I mean…..you know, you get into the heat of things with people, and you know I haven’t been around Steve in a long time. , I watched the BTM, and I was pretty amazed at how much stuff (obviously they couldn’t cover everything over the time spectrum), but how… but in, in spite of that, how complete that picture was….
K- You’re saying that was pretty true….everything in BTM?
L- I thought it was very well done. Yeah, I watched it and …you know…of the things that I saw, I thought that it ended … it’s each guy saying, “ You know, they didn’t put words into anybody’s mouth.”
K- Right.
L- You heard everything for yourself.
K- Yeah, everybody’s side, kind of, huh?
L- You heard everybody’s side & and you heard it from their own mouth, and then you’re able at the end of it to draw a conclusion. I felt that was a fair way to do it - was to let everyone share their heart and at the end of the program, you kind of, you know, get a picture, and so for me, it was like, you know, that seems pretty close. I will tell you this…..Steve is a really fun guy.…., He’s got a great sense of humor, and when things are clicking, he’s great…, You know,… we went and did some fun things together. He took me to see Barbra Streisand. ,It was great, we had a great time., You know, from time to time we used to go do stuff together. I remember one time he goes, “ Hey, do you want to go to Disneyland?” And we went to Disneyland and had a great time, hung out all day.
K- Really, cool!
L- Yeah, yeah, & he can be great fun.
K- I’m sure he is…multi- talented and a…. multi personality kind of guy , you know, facets to your personality kind of thing.
L- Yeah, & and I think all to a certain degree, we are all there are products of our environments from growing up.
K- Oh yeah.
L- You know, as believers, you know we are taught to compliment & and encourage the positive aspects of people & and to extend grace to them, & and like you said ….. …you spoke it well earlier, he is a human being like anybody else. He has this thing where you go, “Hey, that drives me crazy.” & And you have this thing where you go, “ Hey, I love this guy, and and he’s great.” I was grateful…the reason I called him while I was out with Third Day. was I just wanted to say, say “thank you” to him for the opportunity. And I was singing and doing my own thing, and a lot of the singing stuff I learned from him and gained strength in my voice from the vocal coaches that he sent us to. I was really grateful that he did that. I was having trouble with my voice that day, and I had learned some things from the vocal coach and from watching Steve on tour about how to take care of my voice to get me through the day, so I was thinking about him….and so, you know, it was neat to be able to say, ”Hey, I appreciate that.”, you know.
K- I’m sure he appreciated that.
L- I hope so…..I couldn’t tell.
K- My final couple questions here…do you think he’s maybe a Christian?
L- I was told be by a really reliable source that he is.
K- Awesome!
L- I wasn’t sure & and the guy started telling me about some of his & and Steve’s conversations about it. Some of the things he said Steve had said, only somebody who knew Steve pretty well would know that Steve would say something like that. I was like man he must of.
K- It’s wonderful.
L- Yes… I didn’t really have time to ask tell him that day that I talked to him, so I couldn’t say for sure, but that’s what I’ve been told.
K- Well, I sure appreciate your time, Lincoln…
L- My pleasure.
K- I want to ask, too, if it’s ok to use a couple of pictures from your site to use on Perryville?
L- Yeah, absolutely.
K- I kind of titled the interview “Lincoln Brewster The Man & His Music”.
L- Oh, I appreciate it.
K- I know you’re a recent daddy….congratulations!
L- Thank you.
K- He’s a real sweetie.
L- Yeah, thank you.
K- I love the one picture of you & and him. It looks like you’re laying there beside him.
L- He’s great and we’re going to post a new picture soon., Of course, he’s grown a lot since then, but he’s beautiful … he’s doing great.
K- I don’t know if you want me to send you the final thing before it goes up on the website?
L- Go ahead & send it to *Amy would probably want to read through.
K- Thank you Lincoln, again.
L- You’re welcome.
Lincoln Brewster Website!
*Amy is part of his management agency.
**This interview was on in April before the Dove Awards.
Lincoln's CD us is due out July 16th, it's called Amazed. Don't miss it!!
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