by Cory Woodroof | Mar 7, 2012 | News Slider
This past Friday, Lipscomb students were given a rare treat. Mat Kearney, best known for hit songs “Nothing Left to Lose”, “Undeniable” and more recently, “Ships in the Night” and “Hey Mama”, headlined the free SGA-sponsored spring concert alongside Kiernan McMullan in Alumni Auditorium. Kearney, a resident of Nashville, offered insight into his past, his music, his faith and his love of everything Lipscomb. A native of Eugene, Ore., Kearney’s found his musical influence from A Tribe Called Quest, Bob Dylan and Weezer. Growing up, any sort of hip-hop music caught Kearney’s attention. In college, Kearney started to write his own music. “I would steal my roommate’s guitar and go sit on the front porch, and I was so bad at covering other people’s music that I would just start writing my own songs.” Everything changed when Kearney helped a friend move to Nashville. As a junior soccer player at the University of California State, Chico, Kearney agreed to help a friend drive to Tennessee. “We drove across country in the summer in our un-air-conditioned Chevy S-10 and got to Nashville. And by the end of the summer, I was hanging out at Fido; that was it,” Kearney said. “I was like ‘I’m not going back. I’m not going home’.” Kearney, who had just started to record music here in town, saw that Nashville was the place to be. “I just called home and said ‘I’m moving to Nashville’.” Kearney, a Christian, wants his faith to play a major part his music. “I think my faith is a huge part of what I do,” Kearney said. “Being a Christian,...
