Matt West

Christian singer Matthew West was born in the suburbs of Chicago to a preacher father who would occasionally let Matthew and his brothers call in sick to school so they all could catch the first pitch at Wrigley. West originally wanted to join the Cubs, but junior-high and high-school music teachers took more notice of the boy's talents than athletic coaches did. Losing a karaoke contest at Chuck E. Cheese gave him his first taste of rejection but West persisted, keeping up with his music courses and writing his own songs during his college years. A couple weeks after college graduation he signed a songwriting deal at Word Music, the Christian music division of the Warner Music Group. He would have preferred to sing his own music, but there were two big benefits from the deal: writing for others made him more versatile and Word Music was located in the musically fertile town of Nashville. Jump5, Rachael Lampa, and Salvador all recorded West songs, and the writer took to booking his own shows at colleges and churches, satisfying his own need to perform. In hopes of securing a record deal he continued to shop his demo, and in July of 2002 Universal South expressed interest. On the way to a meeting with the label, West locked himself out of his house. He tried to open a window to get back in but his hand slipped, the glass shattered, and West started bleeding heavily, quickly entering a state of shock. Passers-by noticed that West -- now collapsed on his neighbor's lawn -- was in trouble and got him to the hospital. He woke up five days later and endured three months of therapy without his guitar, since doctors felt he would never play again. He did play again, recovering faster than anyone expected, and even more surprising for West, the offer with Universal South was...