I was terrified when my parents picked me up, because I was afraid they were going to be mad at me. I knew, ‘Don’t make a commitment too soon, before you know what you’re doing,’ so on the ride back to the hotel I’m scared to death. I can still feel it. I was terrified, so I start crying. My parents were like, ‘What’s wrong?’ I said, ‘I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry! I asked Jesus into my heart. Eugene did it; I did it.’ Of course, they were thrilled to death. That was when my relationship with Jesus began—it was at the age of seven after Eugene the puppet asked Jesus into his heart.” 

Why Knock Rock

Crowder’s involvement in music started early on as well, after his mom recognized he could bang out recognizable melodies on the piano without any lessons (which soon followed). Later on, it was one of those anti-rock seminars that turned him on to the heavy stuff. It was a video called Hell’s Bells, and the segment about backward masking featured the Queen hit “Another One Bites the Dust” (which it was “surmised” included the message “start to smoke marijuana” in reverse). The riff in that tune and the AC-DC title track were enough to launch his album-buying habit shortly thereafter.

Fast forward several years, and Crowder heads to Waco to join his friend at Baylor University. Even though he was being groomed to take over his dad’s insurance business, he felt called to try his hand at a music degree.

He helps out with music for a Wednesday night youth group service across town for awhile. Then he helps start University Baptist Church become a space where people can feel as free about asking questions without the knee jerk reaction to immediately answer them. At first his help was instrumental accompaniment—and then he started singing. “It was awful at first,” he admits.

His friend and pastor that helped start the church, Chris Seay, groomed Crowder’s musical skills and slowly weaned him from the background to the front of the stage. “We have some early recordings that we don’t talk about,” he laughs. Crowder and his band actually recorded an album around that time. (Apparently, not too long ago all the remaining copies were taken by his wife to an undisclosed dumpster and forever erased from the annals of music history.)

Crowder sees his voice as a “work in progress,” pointing to its development over the course of the last few albums. While that may be true, it’s more likely a humble act of self-deprecation, as no one seems to be complaining about anything that comes from this popular songwriting team. Another example of him reflecting the spotlight away from himself comes when I ask him to share his advice on how to write a good worship song. His response is immediate: “I don’t know, let’s call Chris Tomlin and ask him!”