Still Something to Say: Wayne Watson on his Life, Music and What Comes Next

Welcome to the Wayne Watson Podcast, where Grammy nominee and multiple dub award-winning artist, Wayne Watson, engages in lively conversation with remarkable people from every walk of life. Artists to healthcare professionals, athletes and leaders to everyday believers whose stories reflect the power of faith at work in the world. Join us as we go beyond the spotlight and into the heart of what it means to live with purpose and conviction. Diving into real conversations about the moments that shape us, the faith that sustains us, and the God who inspires it all. Now, here's your host, Wayne Watson. Hi, everybody, and thank you for tuning in again to the podcast. I think the last thing you saw, if you've been following, was my friend John Raley. trial attorney here in Houston who had a fascinating story about one of his clients. So I hope if you haven't had a chance to listen to both of those, you'll go back and check them out. It's been a couple of weeks, and we've had summertime interruptions, so I just thought I would spend some time with you today. The guest today is me. So... I just got a few random things we're going to talk about. And if you have input, comments, questions, you can always email me at wayne at waynewatson.com. And just get to me that way. I read those emails several times a week, try to respond to all of them. Fourteen years ago today, my mother passed away. My mom was a wonderful, wonderful woman. Dad had died in 77 at the age of 70. And a few days before he passed away, he said, you know, your mother's not going to make it a year after I'm gone. And good old mom lasted 15 really good years after dad departed. Yeah. The day that my mom died, she had been going through treatment for kidney failure, and we had encouraged her to do dialysis, and she did several treatments. And... I was standing by her as she was experiencing the third dialysis treatment. And she looked up at me and she said, please stop. Please stop. And so we did. And as she wished, we comforted her and she went into in-hospital hospice care with really nothing but pain relievers and oxygen. Okay. The last conversation I had with my mom, I was sitting by the bed, and she had her little mask on, and she took it off. She said, how did I get so sick? And I said, well, your kidneys failed. And she said, well, if my kidneys failed, I'm not going to make it. And I just sort of shrugged. What do you say, right? She said, how long do I have? And I said, you have as long as you want. She said, have you ever watched anybody die? I said, no ma'am, I have not. And she said, I have. And she said, it takes a while to die. She put her little mask back on for a few seconds and she looked over at me. She said, I saw your daddy today. And I said, you did? Yeah. She said, I saw him through the window. And even now, as I tell that, I get a little chill. I said, how did he look? Oh, he's so handsome. And then she patted me on the hand and put her mask to the side one last time and said, I love you, honey. That's the last thing my mom said to me. She lived through that day, and a friend of mine and I went out to dinner down the road. My brother stayed there with her, and he had fallen asleep in the chair beside the bed. And he had been awakened and called me and said, you need to get back right now. She's really on her way out. So by the time I got back, she had departed. When I left to go out that night for dinner, her face was red and struggling, and her body was striving and just trying to keep it going. And when I got back, her countenance was like a doll, and the color in her face was just porcelain, beautiful. So that was the last night of my mom's life, and that was 14 years ago. Boy, a lot's happened since then. But this day every year always happens. has a little sadness, but mostly good memories, good things. You know, a lot of us go through family stuff that we'd rather forget. I have some of that. But mom was my muse. She was a musician and had graduated from college and had graduated from college. with a music degree and was a wonderful pianist and organist. And she played at our church, and we sat on the third pew so she could play and then come and sit with us. And so that's where music and love of it came to me from my mom. So just a few things I want to talk about today. I have been doing the podcast for a while now. I am in awe of people that populate their podcast with hundreds of episodes of interesting episodes. So I'm trying not to do too many that are just space fillers. Uh, and, uh, hopefully this is not one of those for you. Um, I was thinking today as I was preparing the last couple of days to share some things with you, uh, things are different. Things are different right now. Um, yeah. I find myself paying attention to news because I want to be aware of what's going on in the world, but it seems like every day it's weather, politics, some disruption between parties, something going on around the world, catastrophes. And I asked a friend of mine the other day, I said, do you think the world is groaning? Do you think the earth is groaning? Yeah. with all these natural disasters. I mean, in Colombia, not too many days ago, this horrible earthquake that it looked like a movie set was being destroyed. And it was real life and people not too far away, maybe a hundred feet, a couple hundred feet away from buildings just collapsing. flooding right now as we're speaking in Indiana where dear friends live. My friend Sandy, Patty, and her husband Don live in Indiana. I just checked on them and they're high and dry. Bill Gaither and Gloria, many of you will know that name. They live in Anderson or Alexandria, Indiana, and it's very, very bad there. And so I wonder, is it because we know so much more about weather? Is it because we are constantly bombarded with news that has to fill the time to pay for advertising, to make stories bigger and bigger? bigger and in their case better than if there were no stories. I've shared this before, but I don't think there's any shock to realize that many of the things we see are programmed to make us be either afraid or we have to watch the next segment to find out what the answer is. And I'm not sure what the case is. Social media these days can cause fear. Fear. and also influence how we think, what we consume, what we buy, what we eat. And it's completely unregulated, and there's no accountability there. My little boy is fascinated with E-bikes. He asked somebody, can I have an e-bike? And that's a hard no. When I was a kid, I was fascinated by motorcycles. I wanted a motorcycle. My mom and dad said, don't even think about it. If you see one, look away. Don't touch it. When I turned 30, I bought my first motorcycle. I had never been much of a rebel or an irritator, I don't think. I don't think. But I rode that motorcycle from Houston to my mom and dad's house in Louisiana, and they did not know what to think. But I rode for 20 years or so. I went down twice. Motorcyclists will tell you there are two kinds of riders, those that have been down and those that are going down. And thankfully, I went down twice at a very slow speed and nothing was injured except my pride and my male ego. But... My little boy loves these e-bike things. They're completely unregulated. But these influences of things like that that we think, well, they're doing it. It must be okay. They're eating it. And the one I love the most right now is here's how to lose belly fat. Well, I want to tell you how I've found to lose weight. Stand on one foot, put your finger in your ear, and whistle. Yeah. Mary had a little lamb. That's what works. And, you know, you see stuff on social media that's almost that absurd. I will tell you how I feel like the most efficient way to lose weight, and that's just eat less. If you live in Texas and you go out to eat, That's hard to do. They bring these family-sized platters just for you. So it's an interesting time to live. And I guess I say all that because you've got to be aware as you're watching. If you're watching Gunsmoke or Bonanza or Andy Griffith or Happy Days, you have to be aware that advertising is crafted to just pull you in. And not that it's never going away. It's not necessarily bad. God help me be aware that some of this stuff is not going to be good for me. I was just at a coffee shop, let's call it Goodlux, and I don't go there very often anymore. A few years ago, we realized that coffee was just going through the roof. And we bought a pretty nice coffee maker. So we make really good coffee at home. And I am a Pete's coffee fan. But today I had to go get my car worked on and I went by the Good Lux Starbucks. Oh, Good Lux coffee. And it was $3 and change. And the girl turned the thing around to me. And the tip options were $1, $2, $3 on a $3 cup of coffee. And I just politely declined. We don't have to be manipulated by all this stuff. We don't have to be manipulated. I am in a season right now after... Close to 50 years of touring and doing concerts and all those kind of things that many of you know of me. Since 2003, I've been on three different church staffs. as worship pastor, and it gave me some rest from the road. One, the first one was very kind of a short stint, two or three years. The next one was 12 years, and just recently, after five years at a church here in Houston, staff was cut, and I find myself... in a new season of going back to what I did in the early days, concerts, seminars, conferences, consulting, and all those kind of things. But here we go. That's what we're going to do now. A lot of people that I went to college with day one when they got out of college, there were a lot of engineers where I went to school. I was a music major. I wanted to be a baseball player, but I was about 135 pounds soaking wet, and that didn't cut it on the D1 college baseball field. Most of the people I went to college with that were in engineering, when they got out of school, they got their first job, and they started preparing for retirement that day. Most musicians are not that forward thinking. And we thought, well, this music thing's going to go on forever. And then streaming hit and downloading hit. I'll never forget a concert where a lady, she walked up to me and just as pretty as you please said, hey, I downloaded all your songs last night for free. And now it's kind of gone a different way. And that's okay. I hope you're still able to listen to some of the stuff we used to do and enjoy it. I've been hesitant to say over the course of my life and my work, I've been hesitant to use the words, my ministry. I've really never considered myself a minister. I've never considered myself a minister. But other people have, and to that I say, to God be the glory for that. I've always thought in a concert setting or a worship service, if worship, if ministry takes place, that is way beyond me. And I'm not trying to be falsely humble about, you know, maybe I am. But if ministry takes place almost anywhere, it's at a spirit level that is beyond capacity for a human being to accomplish. I have been a Christian most of my life. I remember as a child, my dad coming into my room and kneeling down by the bed. It was a Sunday morning, and he said, and I quote, Are you ready to join the church today? When the invitation hymn started, my heart was beating out of my chest. And I took a deep breath and I walked down the aisle and joined the church. I'm not sure I knew what that meant at the time. So a few years later, I really came to a place where I knew Jesus and invited him into my life. And that was the beginning of a wonderful, not untroubled, not always smooth, but a wonderful walk through this life. I am a husband and I am a father. That too has some interesting twists and turns. I have two grown sons. I have nine grandchildren. Six from my middle son who he and his wife were told, you cannot have children, and God laughed in their face, and now they have six. So my oldest has three boys. They're pretty much grown, and the empty nest has fallen upon their house. My wife is on the USA track and field staff. She's been around the world with elite athletes and working with them. And she would tell you that most athletes at that level, they really have to specialize. As a musician, I admire other musicians that, not necessarily Christians, but I admire the giftedness of great singers and great guitar players specifically. I really don't want to know everything about them, but I admire their talent because I know where it comes from. And they may not acknowledge where it comes from, but that's between them and God. And I pray for them as they come to mind that God will whisper in their ear how much He loves them and that one day they will realize that their gift is something to be thankful for. But I admire those gifts. But my problem is I like to do a lot of things. I used to play a lot of golf, and I was okay at it. I used to fish a lot and had the time and the opportunities to do that. These musicians I'm talking about and some of these athletes I'm talking about, they don't do much else. They work on their craft. And for some of you, maybe there's some things that I need to carve out of my life, some things you need to carve out of your life to focus on the things that God has put before you to do, the things that you might do the best. I grew up in a little small town, like I said. Mom played the organ. My dad was a Baptist deacon. He did what Baptist deacons did back then. They'd stand out on the front and have a cigarette, and then they'd come in and take up the offering. Dad was World War II Navy, quiet, peaceful man, gentleman, a man of his word, but not unloving. My dad told me he loved me. He told me he was proud of me. He hugged me. But he was World War II Navy of that generation, so mom and dad both. Dad had a tattoo on his forearm of an anchor. We were told to never ask your dad about the tattoo. So, of course, that makes a kid just go crazy in their imagination of, what did dad do to get that tattoo? So we never asked about it. One night, a friend and I were on a motorcycle trip, and we stopped and spent the night at my mom and dad's house. And he didn't know not to ask about the tattoo. So Mr. Watson put his forearm out there on the table and my friend asked him, Mr. Watson, tell me about that tattoo. And we just all froze because we had never heard the story. And there was no story. He just said he always regretted it. I thought Dad might have gone crazy one night and had a tattoo, but it was nothing like that. Dad was a man of his word. Yeah. businessman, a gentleman farmer. I call my dad a Buick farmer because he didn't get up on the tractor and and walk in the dirt as much as he rode around in a very dusty Buick, dusty inside and out, and drove around and evaluated the situation and then dispatched people to take care of it. And that was my dad. He was a CPA. He was an insurance agent. And he wrote policies for the farmers and the homeowners in our little town. He took care of people. Dad would prepare taxes for people around tax season. Some of them would come in with elaborate, beautifully handwritten, by the way, beautiful handwriting. My mom and dad both, beautiful handwriting. Some people would come in with ledgers, with everything perfectly written out, and others would come in in their overalls with a brown paper sack. I was there one day when a farmer came in with a brown paper sack. I said, Charles? Here's my paperwork. It was full of receipts and canceled checks. And that was his method of bookkeeping. And Dad charged the same amount for that old gentleman as he did anybody else. When I got out of college, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I didn't dream big in my little world. I had a very Mayberry-like upbringing, which I still watch today. Even if I'm not paying attention, I put it on. It's like comfort food to me. But we had a very peaceful little town, and I didn't really think about, when I grow up, I'm going to do this or that. I never thought that way. When I got out of college, I wasn't sure. I had a degree in education and in vocal music, and I'd done some conducting. But I never thought I would do what I have done for the last 50 years. I've gotten to see the world for the most part. And somehow the blend of the things I have witnessed from extreme poverty in the Philippines, for instance, in 2009, to extreme excess. Some of the more poignant things I remember though, being in the Philippines, we were with a bunch of radio guys doing programming over there, and I was there to help entertain and share music and worship with these guys. I remember one night they said, tomorrow we're going to a cemetery, and we were in Manila. And I thought the cemetery was probably the expansive military cemetery in Manila. And there is that, and we did go to that, but that's not what they were talking about. We went to a cemetery where people were living. If you can imagine... Countless file cabinets stacked on top of each other to the height of 20 and long rows of file cabinets. These were crypts where people were buried. And not only were the dead there and the bones of the dead there, there were people living and sleeping in those crypts. We literally walked around in ankle-deep water. There had been a heavy rain and flood. We walked around in ankle-deep water. and occasionally would bump into a bone or a skull. And people had taken these crypts and pounded out the front of them, pulled out the contents, and that was their home. And I'm talking about little children and adults. And that was the most shocking thing. The next day we went to a garbage dump for the city of Manila, And there were people who had carved out caves in the piles of garbage. I mean, I'm talking 20, 30 feet high piles of garbage. And they had carved out places to live. And when a garbage truck would come into the dump, they would scurry out like little ants to find anything of value. So whenever we think, I want more, I wish I had this, or I wish I could afford, I have those thoughts. Yeah, I have those thoughts, too. I worry about that. But thank God I saw some things in my life that make me realize that we have it pretty good. Things are not bad here. The first time I went into a recording studio was here in Houston. Years ago, I was living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and I remember thinking, if I could just go and watch a recording session, I just want to sit back and watch. That's all I want to do. I came over to Houston, and there was a studio there, and I just watched a session. And the next thing you know, they asked me to produce some records for some of their clients who were housewives, music ministers, just lay people, not aspiring to be label artists or anything like that. So I did, and I would write everything out, and we hired musicians to come in, and we would do it very quickly. Hopefully the clients were satisfied, but that was my introduction to a studio called Rivendell here in Houston. From there, I went to be part ownership of that studio with several other guys that I knew, and one of them was a guy named Brian Tankersley, He was an engineer and producer there at Rivendell. And Brian and I became very good friends. Back during COVID, if you remember, Brian had moved from Houston back to Nashville. And when Brian lived here in Houston, we saw each other fairly often, but he had moved back to Nashville. I'm sitting out on the playground with my little guy then in 2020. And probably in the fall of 2020, you remember what that was like? And little son of mine was out playing on the playground, and I just had a little urge. And if you get this urge, call somebody. If you get a little nudge in your spirit, call somebody. I called Brian. Brian's a type A plus energizer bunny personality. I remember one time I had a brand new car and we were in a session and we all got in my car to go to dinner. And he pulled the door handle off the back. He said, look, what does this do? Just crazy guy. Great, great guy. But I called him and I talked for a while and I hadn't talked to him sometime. He said, well, man, you called me. What's going on? I said, I just wanted to call. And he was so appreciative. And he said, man, I'm going to come back to Houston. We'll visit, blah, blah, blah. The next thing I know is February of 2021. Brian's in the hospital at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. And he is gone. And I remember thinking, if anybody could beat COVID, If anybody could beat it, it would be him. And by the will of the Lord and the mysteries of life and death, Brian went to be with Jesus in February of 2021. But he produced some records with me. Another guy that was part of the ownership was a guy named Paul Mills. He produced some wonderful stuff with me as well. Paul has gone on to score a lot of the Christian films that you probably have seen. Yeah. And Greg Nelson was the first producer I ever worked with in Nashville. Greg Nelson went to produce many of Sandy Patty's big songs and Steve Green, Larnell Harris of that era. And Greg produced my first album in Nashville. And that was amazing. That was a thrill. By the way, my guest for my next podcast after this will be a guy named Michael Omardian. You might know that name. He is married to Stormy Omardian. and we are going to talk for the next episode. Michael has had such an impact on the music world of Christian music, but mostly in the pop world. He produced, if you remember, Christopher Cross's huge album called Sailing. Michael produced that album, and we're going to talk about it on the podcast coming up next time. So Michael and I have become good friends, and he produced a couple albums with me, and we're going to visit on the next podcast. So this is a new season for me. I am fascinated when I see artists that I've known for decades and followed their music for decades, and I see them come out, and I think, boy, they look old, and they shouldn't wear those leather pants anymore. And I just, I'm entertained. While I am so thankful to have had some success with a handful of songs over my career, I've been so thankful to have had some success with a handful of songs over my career. I have new things to say. I have new desires to express it. And I hope they're worthy of your ear and hope they're worthy of people's attention. I feel strongly about... about doing this still, and I still feel great about it. I feel better than I have about my heart and my position, my security in Christ, and my expression of that. Let me take a little sidebar here, and please don't misunderstand this. Back in the day, many artists, myself included, we would play three and four nights a week, as many as you wanted, really. I never stayed gone very long. I would go out for two or three nights. I'd go home for a while. I realized early on I could not be a good husband or a good father to boys, especially. Boys, you got to look them in the eye. So I would go out and play for two or three nights, and I'd come home. Um... You've probably noticed, but most churches don't do outside concerts anymore. I think there are a couple of reasons. I think some of us, hopefully not myself, but I can't name names. I don't know names. But I think people abused the hospitality of some of the churches and venues that we went into. They became a little bit full of themselves and made demands that were— unreasonable in that genre of music. And maybe we didn't go in with hearts to serve, but rather to be served. And I think that turned a lot of people off. The other thing is church worship teams and leadership has gotten more relevant and And honestly, you don't have to be a very accomplished musician to be a worship leader. Hopefully your heart is in the right place. But I think a lot of churches say, hey, man, our worship band and our team is great. We don't need you. And I understand that. That's valid. But I want to say this, too, about myself and about others of my ilk. I love that word, ilk. Okay. We have a lot of life experience. We have a lot of ups and downs. Our music from then speaks differently now. New music now speaks differently that other people have not experienced. So life experience, perspective, hopefully wisdom, insight from people like myself and others who have spent their lives doing nothing else but this. And thank God for that. I'm so thankful for that. But people who've spent their lives doing this, we have a perspective that a 20-year-old doesn't have. And that's for any field, any business. So consider that. I'm thankful. Back in the day when I started, there were lots of nonprofits. And honestly, I saw a lot of abuse of it. And I didn't want to be affiliated with that. And now I'm affiliated with a organization called ACT International Artist and Christian Testimony International, where people can contribute and further the mission and the vision. And I'll put the graphic up on the screen. ACT International. You can go and be a part of what is going on. And I hope that's something you'll do. Yeah. So let's finish on a little lighter note. This is one of my dearest friends and a lifesaver to me. His name is Dr. Jim Jackson. He was a longtime pastor of Chapelwood Methodist Church here in Houston, and he sends out Jim's Daily Awakenings. If you want to follow him, Jim's Daily Awakenings today was my favorite colloquialisms. That's a word. Here they are. He only drinks on two occasions, when he's alone and when he's with somebody. The lights are on, but the voltage is low. The event had all the sophistication of a middle school car wash. That's a great one. He's been very helpful to me. I often use him as an example of what not to do. Wow. He's hard of hearing. The only thing he can hear is, supper's ready. Here's something else I ran across. I read a lot of news services just to kind of keep in touch. Here's something else I read today. What year was this? 50s, I think, for Southern Airlines requirements for flight attendants. I think they called them stewardesses back then. Number one requirement, single, not engaged. Between the ages of 22 and 28, Between 5'2 and 5'5. Between 100 and 120 pounds. I guess they weighed them. Good eyesight. No glasses. Good teeth. No gold. Good figure. I don't think you get away with that anymore. Slender legs. It says it right here. I don't think you can do that anymore either. Natural hair color. The ability to carry on a lively conversation. Good carriage. What is good carriage? Even tempered. Not easily provoked by the demands of passengers. Willing to transfer. Citizen of the U.S. Excellent health. Clear skin. Nice hands. Yeah. I mean, what has happened to us, man? I don't know. Finally, here's some of my favorite things. Black coffee. They say it's good for you. Sure, it's good for me, I can tell you. Ice cream. I've told people, look, if they ever catch up with me and they send me to death row and they're about to put me down, I don't need a big fancy steak and... baked potato, blah, blah, blah. Just bring me ice cream. Preferably Tillamook from Oregon. Baseball. I love baseball. My son plays, my little guy. He's 12. We went to Cooperstown this past summer, and he had the summer of his life in Cooperstown, New York, playing ball. One of the times I felt most manly in my life was, my friend Tim and I were going to ride. He lived in Denver, and I was on tour, and I had my motorcycle shipped to Denver and delivered to a dealership there where they could tweak it. So we were going to ride, and he had some things come up, and we couldn't do it. But I rode from Denver to Houston by myself, and I took a spill in Santa Fe, New Mexico. And I went through Roswell, New Mexico at sundown. Of course, I'm looking at the sky. I don't know whether to believe all this stuff or not, but they had a lot of signs about aliens. So it's a big sky country. It is not the big sky country, but driving through New Mexico at sundown on a motorcycle, I'm looking at the sky like, that'd be so cool and terrifying. But I got home from a three-day motorcycle ride just by myself, and it felt so good. Okay. Okay. I'll leave it at that. Join me next time for Mr. Michael O'Marty. And here's some other guests that are in the queue, as our ancestors from Great Britain might say. Cue up. My friend Rex Hudler, who is TV commentator for the Kansas City Royals, longtime Major League ballplayer. Charlie Hustle does not even begin to describe Rex Hudler. Mike Moore, who was the number one draft pick in the Major League Baseball draft in 1981. Not first round, first pick. One of the most interesting things about Mike Moore is, I don't know if you remember or not, the World Series where they were in San Francisco when that major earthquake hit in San Francisco. Mike was on the field when all the players and families just went to the center of the field. If you remember, the, things were horrible in San Francisco and around that area. Mike Moore is on that. My former pastor, Reverend Russ Levinson, is in the queue, and he's written some wonderful books, has so many contacts with people that you would know of, and that'll be a great conversation. But anyway, I hope you are having a great day today. I hope you can take a deep breath and thank God. for where you are, and thank you for joining me. and every heart finds its rhythm in the Lord. Until next time, go well, and may you keep walking in step with His song flowing through you.