What do Luciano Pavarotti, Whitney Houston, and singer/songwriter Matthew West in common? They've all professional singers who suffered from vocal-cord polyps, which, if not treated accordingly, can easily sideline an artist's career, and sometimes even end it. For West, the affliction came at the worst imaginable moment—just as he switched record labels, ready to embark on a run of promotional interviews, and preparing to enter the studio to record his fourth album, Something to Say (Sparrow). In this conversation, West chronicles this scary period of his life—a faith crisis of sorts—and whether the whole ordeal influenced his creative process.

You belong to a shortlist of singers who have been affected by nodules on their vocal folds. When did you realize you had them?

Matthew West: That's one list that you're never proud to be on. I certainly didn't strive to be on that one, and I hope I make happier lists. It was back in April 2007. I had just been experiencing some vocal fatigue, feeling like my voice needed life in it. I don't know how else to describe it. I had lost some of my vocal range, staying on higher notes and lower notes. I even began having a hard time speaking.

So I went in for a pretty routine vocal check up, as singers often do—they have doctors and surgeons who deal specifically with that part of the body. They looked at my vocal cords and saw some hemorrhaging caused by some polyps. They felt that since a few weeks had past, surgery was going to be the only option for me. I was pretty devastated by that news, as you can imagine. Knowing that other singers had gone through that was little comfort. The doctors are very realistic in preparing you for the worst saying that even if the surgery is successful, there is no guarantee that your voice is going to sound the way it once did. So I was really fearful: my livelihood was going under the knife.

These symptoms typically occur when you overwork your voice. Was that the case?

West: The doctor let me know that overworking your voice happens in ways that you wouldn't expect. You don't have to be a football coach standing on the sidelines to do some damage. It wasn't just the concerts I was doing, but the songwriting I was doing in between the concerts … and the meet and greets after the concerts … and signing autographs for an hour and a half … and talking with people after singing for an hour … all the things I took for granted, talking to people. They couldn't pinpoint one thing that caused it. These things just happen sometimes. I learned more than ever that my vocal cords are susceptible to injury, just as a hamstring is to an athlete. It's a fragile part of your body, and one that I have to use everyday.

Was it painful?

West: No, it wasn't really painful. It was one of those things that was going on for months without really knowing until it became severe enough to make it impossible to sing. You think your voice is just tired, so you push a little harder to hit the note, and you keep doing that until you end up doing potentially irreparable harm. Fortunately, in my case, I've had past situations that alarmed me enough to where I knew to go get it checked out as soon as something felt wrong. You know most guys don't want to go to the doctor and say, "I'm fine," but when it comes to my vocal cords, I'm the first one on the phone calling the doctor. I don't mess around.

So the doctor told you that surgery and absolute rest was needed. What happened at that point? Tell me a little bit about the surgery and recovery process.

West: Honestly, when they told me I had to have surgery, I was shaking my head in disbelief, because the timing could not have been worse. It was days before GMA Week in Nashville. I had a new record label—Sparrow Records had just brought me over from Universal South. I was going to do interviews morning, noon, and night, plus a lot of performances. So all of a sudden, this surgery immediately shut down all of my plans. I had to cancel about 25 shows, and was basically inactive for six months—off the road, no concerts.

How did you react to the whole thing? What was your biggest fear?

West: I wish I could say I was completely confident the whole time and that I wasn't fearful. But the truth is I was the complete opposite—I was pretty afraid. I just began to face a lot of questions internally. What if I can't do what I do? What if I can't sing anymore? What if my voice sounds different when it comes back and people don't like it? And then bigger life questions like, What if I can't provide for my family? Because the reality is that it's more than just having vocal surgery. It's being unable to earn a living for six months.

What did that do to you?

West: It was just a very uncertain time for me all around—physically, emotionally, spiritually. I was really struggling, because I had found something I was passionate about. I never thought twice about having to do something other than music, and to be quite honest, I don't have a lot of skills beyond music. I know how to play guitar and write songs and that's about it.

So I became fearful of losing this thing that has defined me and being unable to provide for my family. But God used this experience to speak to my heart: "Hey, guess what? You don't provide for your family; God does. You don't use your gift; God uses the gift he's given you." And that message really shook me, but at the same time it brought me great comfort to realize that it's been God who's been providing for my family all along.

Would you say that at your weakest point that your faith was found lacking?

West: At times, yes. I can't tell a lie ore else my nose will grow. I wish I could say that my faith was strong the whole time, but I was pretty discouraged. My wife and anyone else around me during this trial will tell you that there were times I was going to throw in the towel. When you ask some of those questions and you don't get the answers that you're hoping for, it's tough for your faith to be strong. It wasn't long after all this, at some point before I went into surgery, where I felt like I was going to be okay. I just felt like God was going to heal my voice, but most importantly, that he was creating in me this incredible story of his redemption.

You strike me as a talkative person, but had to go through two months without speaking. What was that like?

West: Words are my business. God called me to be a communicator on this earth. So to be rendered silent, I realized just how much we take for granted the everyday things that we are able to do in life. It was a real struggle. I've got lousy handwriting and somebody bought me a dry erase board so that I could communicate with my family. It was frustrating because text messages and dry erase board were my only real means of communication. Even my wife and I had a hard time because there was this barrier between us, unable to communicate like we normally do. I just ended up being by myself a lot because that was the only way I wouldn't be tempted to speak.

How did your wife manage throughout the whole ordeal?

West: I joke about it now. I say that it was the greatest two months of her life because she didn't have to put up with me. But in all seriousness, we already have a little baby to take care of, so during all that, she had to take care of both of us. She was strong through the whole experience. Whenever I've gone through a difficult time, she has been my strongest support, and it was no different this time around.

So how is your voice now? Is your vocal range any different?

West: I had some initial shakiness and had to kind of rebuild my strength. It was like baby steps to recovery, but it was so cool to see my voice come back to the point where it felt like my voice was cleaner and stronger with higher notes than I'd hit in a long time. I was really scared singing on my new record, because the first thing I did after recovering was go right into the recording studio, where any flaw you have in your voice is [magnified]. The camera doesn't lie and neither does the microphone. It was a blessing to walk into the studio for the first time and sing these songs.

What a great life story. I was surprised that none of the songs in particular address that period of silence you went through. Why is that?

West: I'm just as surprised as you are, because typically my creative process goes the way of being inspired by something that happens. But God continued to surprise me this time with how he speaks to me. I went through this incredible creative season before my surgery, writing all these songs. At the time, I don't think I could have told you that I fully understood their meaning, but after I went through the surgery, some of the lyrics from those songs began to resurface in my mind and heart. It was almost like a light went on, and I had finally grasped what I had already written about.

Even the title of my album—people wouldn't believe me if I hadn't told my manager and my record label before the fact that I had already decided to call this album Something to Say months before I found out that I was going to have nothing to say. So when the doctors told me that I would need to go through a season of silence for these songs that were already written, I just saw too much irony to call it a coincidence. I knew God was at work.

That is ironic. Maybe the songs do not address the issue head on, but were more a preamble to what was about to happen later on.

West: In our everyday lives, God sometimes uses experiences to teach us things we wouldn't have understood until we've been through it. I was talking with a pastor friend of mine, sharing with him this unique creative experience I had where instead of feeling the need to write all new songs, I was all the more excited about the songs already written. And he said to me, "When you're in school, you go through the lessons in class and then take your test. You don't always understand the purpose of the lessons until you go through the test, and that's when you're glad you took notes." That's kind of what happened to me.

From listening to your album, you're clearly a pop songwriter at heart. The way your melodies work and the structure of your songs are very catchy and upbeat. The one that stuck out to me most is "Moment of Truth," because it seems like a real life story.

West: It's not my own life story. It's true to life in that, now that I'm married and I have a child of my own, I find myself expanding on the horizon of topics I want to write about. For so long, I've seen families under attack—marriages ending in divorce, fathers leaving their kids and their wives. It just struck me as a topic that's never really written about. That was just a song that came out of that desire to talk about the real life things going on in the world.

Sometimes in the Christian world, we tend to gloss over it, and I didn't want to on this topic. I really wanted to keep it real because Christian families have as many problems with divorce as families outside the church. So it's indirectly inspired by the fact that I'm a dad now, and that no matter what kind of hard times my family might face, I can never imagine walking out on my daughter and my wife.

I guess the song is indirectly steeped in a very personal connection that I have with my own family. Honestly, just about every song I write is—indirectly or directly. Sometimes you write it and don't realize how much a part of your life it really is, but then I draw from my own life as much as possible because that's why I started writing the song in the first place. It was an outlet for communicating what was going on in my heart. "The Moment of Truth" is one of those songs that I hope helps struggling marriages all over the country, to remind them that nothing is worth leaving your family over. God has a plan for every family.

For more about Matthew West, visit our site's artist page, where you'll also find the review of his album Something to Say. Listen to song clips and buy his music at Christianbook.com.

Copyright © Andree Farias subject to licensing agreement with Christian Music Today. Click for reprint information.

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