2 of 3

What's it like to see them succeed while you sit on the sidelines and watch?

Webb It's definitely humbling, especially since it took me leaving for the band to put out their best record! But I'm happy to have gotten out of their way and to make the records I've made. I'm happy to have played my role in the group, and currently my role is to not be a part of it, except as a fan. I'll try to catch one of their shows if they come near me.

How does it feel to step into such scaled-back settings, playing house concerts instead of enormous halls?

Webb I don't know if things over the last year and a half ended up exactly as what I would have thought, but it has definitely caused me to re-evaluate what I consider great successes and great losses or failures. That brings us back around to the new record, because that's what the title I See Things Upside Down is all about. I realized that playing to 20 people a night in a living room would, in the eyes of an outsider, look like I was taking a huge step down. That probably looks like failure, and I could see people saying, "Well, he's on his way out."

I had a lot of moments where I was tempted to believe that, and I had to realize the fact that God's kingdom does not look like our kingdom here in America. Sometimes real success does look like real failure and sometimes real riches do look like real poverty. I don't think I really understood that before and I realize this is great success for me. I'm doing artistically what I feel like I need to be and want to be doing. So with that in mind, it's been a great success for me.

I'm assuming there's been a natural pay cut. How have you dealt with that?

Webb Here's the bottom line: The Lord has faithfully provided for me over the years, and I've never quite known where the money was going to come from. Publishing is a great mystery to me still! I'm really thankful I'm able to make a living doing what I love to do, doing what I would probably do for free anyway!

When I made this decision, it had to have been under the guidance of my wife [singer/songwriter Sandra McCracken]. She saw that I had a steady job and income with Caedmon's, but that I didn't feel like I was using all my gifts to their fullest potential. She said, "If that means us having to figure out financially how to make that work, then that's fine, because it still seems like a good decision to make." That confidence from my wife—that she would support me and make ends meet—was a big part of it, because I was concerned about what would happen if this completely failed. In fact, it still might fail, and I live every day expecting that the whole thing might be done tomorrow because what I'm doing is not commercially easy. It's hard to make your living doing what I do. It's easier to make your living in pop music. But I've never played music for money and I don't play music for money now.

How does Sandra's work as a recording artist weigh in on the equation?

Webb It's interesting how the Lord kind of worked that out. When Caedmon's and I were making the Back Home record, knowing it would be my last record with the band, we tried to make a record that would be an easy transition—where they wouldn't really need me for the writing or for the tour that would follow. Writing songs in the group had always been my primary income for years, so I was nervous a little bit.

next page... |  2 of 3