Colton Dixon (Top 40 Music Recording Artist) Shares His Process for Writing Music and His Passion for Inspiring Hope in the Lives of Others

Audio Transcription

Two men, 13 multimillion dollar businesses, eight kids, one business coach radio show. It’s the thrive time business coach radio show. Get ready to enter the thrive time show.

Hopefully he picks up or it could be an awkward shell. Oh my goodness. People want to answer your call to answer the first or second reading.

Yes.

Hello. Is this the incredible Colton Dixon?

This. This is a version of Colton Dixon yesterday. What’s going on?

This is a navy and Johnson. No relation to clay Clark. Don’t know who he is. All right. Thrive nation. On today’s show you are in for a special treat, a chupp. I would call this ear candy today show. I would call it today. Show ear candles. Now, on today’s show, we have a top 40 contemporary Christian music artist, Mr Colton Dixon, who is. Who is eye candy. He’s. He’s got incredible hair. We call it the candy man. It’s really not fair. I like it. Throughout Colton’s career, he has been seen on the 11th season of American idol, the Ellen Degeneres show live with Kelly and access Hollywood. He’s been on tour with legendary Christian music artists, toby Mac, and he once gave me a pair of shoes as a gift and now it’s 2019 approaches. Colton Colton is working on some new music that I know his fans and new fans are going to love. Colton, welcome back on the show my friend. How are you doing?

I’m great. That was quite an introduction.

I, that’s the first third. Let me continue. Colton Dixon isn’t. I’m just kidding. Now, now Colton, I want to ask you this. Where are you physically located now? What state are you and you travel around the world quite a bit.

Um, I do. I’m in Nashville, Tennessee. Spent home pretty much since I was born, but I love it here in Tennessee. It’s nice.

Well, if our listeners out there who aren’t super familiar with your music, could you describe, um, the music you’ve written in the past and kind of where that inspiration for the music came from?

Yeah. First of all, I just, I love music and I love that it makes you feel something. Um, so I, um, realized early on that, that I had a gift to sing and play piano and I wanted to use that for, for good. Um, so really my goal and mission is to give people hope through music. So, um, that’s been in the form of a power ballads. It’s been in the form of rock songs. Um, but at the end of the day, uh, I just want to give people hope in a world where I feel like it’s a kind of hard to come by these days. But anyway, what I do

when you write music, I feel like to you it’s, it’s almost like a sixth sense, like in the way that maybe somebody would pull a poor friend aside and could just comfort them and give them hope and, and talk to them. It seems like there’s almost like a sixth sense where it almost just the songs seemed to just pop in your head organically or do you have to work on generating the ideas or where do these ideas for the hopeful music that you create? Where, where does it come from?

Yeah, sometimes it is pretty organic. I’ll either be at church or I’ll be, um, getting to know someone or catching up with a friend or my wife and I will be talking about something and something organically is like, wow, that would be a great song. I haven’t heard that said that way before. Or you kind of just, it feels like blinders are pulled off your eyes and like, oh, I see that a new way. Um, I love songs that come about like that. Um, other times it’s me sitting in front of my recording desk staring at a blank notepad, just praying something

a couple of hours. Let me ask you this. Have you ever written a really dark, negative song where your inspiration came from a shell bathroom?

I can’t say that I have.

It was titled I dropped that transmission on trying to get into the bathroom. Colton, if you ever find yourself out of ideas, I encourage you to go bowling. I’m sure you’re going to get some really good melodies there, but your songs, I mean, you, you, it seems like a, when you hear your music, it all fits together. The melodies, the lyrics, it all is not a one nice cohesive piece and that’s how, you know, the songs are obviously so well received because it all fits together. But do you typically start out writing the melodies or the lyrics or how does the new song typically appear in your cranium?

It’s been kind of everything under the sun that’s, it’s been a little melody. It’s been a single word. It’s been, um, a certain lyric or um, there have been times where an entire course is just kind of, you know, just appears in my brain. I can’t write it fast enough. Those are, those are special. They don’t happen near enough. But um, but yeah, I feel like it’s kind of a little bit of everything. Um, can I, I haven’t really found that one works better over the other. Sometimes a single word will create enough inspiration to just go for hours.

Nope. So once you get an initial inspiration for a song, how long does it take you to typically work at crafted, adjusted, modify it and get it into a finished recorded song?

Again, it kind of depends. It also depends. If I’m working with someone else, I’m a free American idol days. It would take me weeks to get a song to a place where I was comfortable enough to show it to people. Um, with that said, no one’s ever going to hear those songs. But after idol I would work with people and I would go in the studio 10:00 AM and I would leave at 4:00 PM with a song that sounded like it could give us done. It was ready to go on the record. So it’s kinda crazy how fast it’s gotten. But yeah, I think it really depends on how quickly you can. You can write the song,

you know, when you and I, we went to the imagine dragons concert together and we looked around the arena and there was people from all different walks of life there. You know, you had the guy who’s in his late forties behind us who was just feeling it, man, you have a couple in front of us. Uh, he was feeling her man and there was people everywhere. I mean, just having a good time. The kid next to us, we was standing on that ladder, you know, and he had the glow sticks, his parents got him and it was just a magical time. Um, can you explain to the listeners out there, what is your new sound going to be like if you had to maybe contrast it to something people know or we kind of in the vein of the conversation of an imagine dragons. Is it like Elton John on steroids? Is it, is it a what, what, what Kinda what, what? How’s your new music going to sound?

Yeah. It’s always funny because I’ve put out three records now and this will be my fourth and I feel like, um, each record evolves into something new. It depends on what I’m listening to, what I’m feeling inspired by that. I’ve been listening to a ton of imagine dragons lately. I’m really just love how they’ve been able to encapsulate singing about things that they believe in. That means something to them that are, I’m leaving, I’m leaving the world, hopefully a better place rather than a negative place. But um, but they do it with style. I really love that and I think if I could mix up a concoction of imagine dragons and the piano, the piano is something I’m really trying to focus on, um, on this record more so than I have in the past and that doesn’t mean slow songs. It could be a, it could be a rock song, but I want the piano to play a really key role in this new album. Um, but yeah, maybe somewhere in the middle of a Elton John on steroids and imagined

a lot of our listeners out there have heard because obviously you sing the intros for the thrive time show. We appreciate you for doing that in a lot of people have gone and listened to on spotify. They found your album, well, this album fit in the category of a Christian. What fit into the. Are you going to go straight gangster rap? Is that a transition into clean gangster rap? Are you going into like a reggae set? What section of the online? A category where we’re, we know, what genre would this new album be classified as?

That’s a great question. There’s a band called switchfoot and their lead singer got asked this question and, and about why they don’t categorize their music as Christian since they are Christians. And I would kind of have a similar approach. Um, I’m a Christian and my influence is going to be heavily influenced by how I live life and how I see life. And I think that’s normal. I think someone, for example, who has a completely different lifestyle than I who went to the club and parties all the time, they would see life through that lens and they would write about those things. So I’m going to write about faith. Um, however, um, I do see potential with this new album to reach people who may be, don’t ever set foot in the church. And um, I’ve always been open to that, always, always been hoping for that. Um, I don’t think my single goal in life is to preach to the choir. I’m so, I’m really excited about my music getting in front of people who don’t share the same beliefs as I do. But again, my goal is the same and that is to impart some hope. And um, maybe even some wisdom on subjects that I’ve walked through, I’ve seen other people walk through and, and leave them a better person. So

when do you, when do you think we’re going to be able to find new music from you? When are you going to drop some bombs and crashed the Internet with some new music that you really have? Any announcements we need to make on the thrive time? When do you think that’s going to happen? What do you think? It’s gonna be the available for the, for the other humans. They’ll tear of like myself that can’t wait to hear it.

I know it’s going to be. Um, I know it’s going to be next year. We don’t have dates yet. I wish I had.

I know that’s so lame on my end, but I don’t have dates yet. Now you are, are, are a man that does a lot of recording initially. Kind of you sketch it out from your home studio and then you’ll go and do rights with other artists. But for our listeners out there that are really curious about the mechanics of songwriting, you know, the actual equipment, the software, the microphones, like Eric, chuck, maybe, maybe listeners with headphones on right now. Right. Maybe. Maybe listeners. Eric as very good at playing the guitar. He loves playing riffs on the guitar. He had the. What’s the name of your band that you guys do? You guys still get together on Fridays? It’s been awhile. We’ve scheduled changes. Yes. Come on to members of the band. Had to move or move on.

And what are you guys? Van Halen or something? Hagar even better sober. Eric Chubs Band van Hagar and meets the soggy bottom boys. Marshall, Marshall and the smoke town boys. I don’t know. You said something. What, what kind of equipment does the listeners out there and what kind of software would you recommend? What kind of computer? What kind of microphone? Walk us through what they would need to kind of, you know, really I record something on a professional level.

I use something called pro tools. I believe it’s the industry standard. If you’re starting up something like garageband on your computer is great, it will kind of teach you the ins and outs of what recording software looks like and from there you can upgrade to act as a version which is logic. Or like I said, I use pro tools, but there are a few out there. Man, I’m at. There’s a company that I really love. Um, I’m pretty techie or I consider myself to be. There’s a company called, um, steven slate. Um, it’s a guy who owns this company and they make microphones that basically mimic a really expensive microphones at a fraction of the cost. Um, I’m still trying to get my hands on one so I send it to you. Oh. But they’re awesome. Um, my recording desk is also from Steven slate. I used the ravens there. Touchscreen. They’re at a nice angle. Um, yeah. I mean I really love that company. But um, man, honestly with music is art. So, um, you can record something into your iphone if you’re passionate about it and if it’s a good enough song, it’s going to get the point across so you can go as big as you want and you can go as little as you want.

Now what about like the actual song writing process itself? How do you kind of start, you say a minute ago, you, you know, sometimes you find yourself staring at that blank piece of paper, that blank pad. How do, how do, how do you get started? What’s going on in your head?

Yeah. Normally I’ll open approach, so session and if I’m staring at that blank piece of paper, um, I’ll go through some sounds that I have in my sound libraries and I might get inspired that way or I’ll sit at the piano, um, play out a riff or sometimes it’s that one word. There’s a song on my first album, um, that just, I knew that I was going to write a song about it. I didn’t know how I was going to say it, but I knew what it was going to sound like. Some called noise. You hear a word like that and it automatically, you automatically attach certain feeling or sound to a word like that. So we made the song sound. We put car alarms, we put sirens, we put. I’m just New York street sounds within the song

noise noise. We’re drawing a picture of her drawing. No, it’s pretty crazy.

But yes, sometimes just that one word that will inspire a song or an entire record. I’m just kind of depends.

Yeah. One way that I have never actually tried this theory, but I’ll give it to you as ids do and it’s never actually worked. It’s very theoretical. It was kind of like Albert Einstein, theory of relativity really not a lot of value to the average person until they can put into place. But in Colton, this is something you could. You could take this if you want to. I find that the, the, the adrenaline is a big thing for a lot of people. So what all do Colton is all. I’ll drive over there to the, to a local gas station, right. And there’s a little sign that says, don’t make a cell phone call while pumping gas. You know, the static electricity could cause an explosion. Colton, swole, get up there, I’ll pump that gas and I’ll start making a call really, really close to right where the gas is being pumped. And that adrenaline just gets it dented. The only time you smoke cigarettes too.

And lyric and Irish. And again it’s, it’s amazing how in my mind, I’ve seen this process work several times, haven’t done it yet. So if you get stuck and Colton’s method doesn’t work that, that, this could be a. So this is that new song you were telling about explosion in the police grade Taser that I sent to you was a hint that it’s plan b. So I have one more. One more follow up on. Yeah. I have to for you. Um, so in, in your mind when you’re sitting down to do this, does the melody come first or like you said, is it the word or question or like a mixture of the two? Kind of what happens for you or what do you find the best? Like how, how do you feel like you get the best song out of it by starting which way?

I feel like the best song is when you start with the concept. It can be that one word, it could be the phrase, it could be the title, but if you understand where you want the song to go, I feel like it’s. It’s just a matter of finding the best way to say it. Nice. However, I have started songs the opposite where you start with this melody and then you get a lyric attached to it, but then you wind up looking at the song and like, man, I have no clue what I’m trying to say here, where this is going. So it’s definitely better to start when you understand where you want it.

I knew I needed to hear that because I’ll make up a guitar if all the time and then try to put something to it and I have no idea. Dan Dan is now a clay. Steris has a question for you here. It’s going to be tough. He likes to ask politically divisive and religious questions all put up wrapped up together. So clay stairs be nice. Okay. Okay. Very nice. You just brought up a concept that for people that are not necessarily musically inclined, I don’t know that I’ve ever thought about this until you said it just a moment ago when you said that you have like a, a sound file and that you keep not. Are those are those sounds like riffs on a piano or are those, are those sounds like a melody in your head or was it more like a sound file? Like, no, I got a dog barking. I got a squeaky wheel. We’d. What’s that

sound file? That’s, that sounded really cool.

It can honestly be all of the above. I’ve started a track based on a car engine before that rumble and it’s to a certain tempo. You add melody on top of that and it becomes something cool. Um, it can be a voice memo in my phone. Um, I cannot stress the importance of when you have an idea, lay it down in your phone, um, because you’re going to forget it. It’s just the way it works. I can’t tell you the amount of songs I’ve lost because I didn’t either jot it down or record a quick voice memo of me singing it down. Um, but there’s actually a, um, it’s an online based software. It’s called splice. Um, I discovered it just a few months ago. It’s a, it’s a monthly subscription, but it gives you access to thousands, hundreds of thousands of sounds. Instruments, beats, um, you name it. Um, it’s on this, this app that you can install on your computer, um, and that’s really helpful if you’re stuck or direction or if you’re looking for a specific beat or a specific sound, you can type that in and it’ll give that to you. So that’s a really great tool.

Obviously no one’s listening to my advice on the music. Scott. Com, that’s a great tool. SPLICE DOT com. Quick Recap, recap, pro tools industry standard. That’s what he was saying that since that’s Kinda like the, the industry standard for professional musicians, but logic is a step underneath that still very good. And then one step underneath that would be garage band. Am I, am I correct?

Logic is a similar playing field is it’s just different, different interface

and then slate is the microphone that you’d recommend and just so we’re getting some costs out there. We have a lot of our listeners that are action oriented, they have kids that are, they homeschool or kids that they have in school, private school, and they’re thinking, you know, the school system maybe isn’t teaching them all these tools and I want to get them right now. Um, how much would it cost to buy a pro tools system and a slate microphone.

I’m quitting altogether. I’d have to maybe jot it down. The microphone is about a thousand bucks and it’s on sale right now for seven slash 13.

Oh, come on. Where do I have to call you? Right back on.

That’s great. Pro Tools, the yearly subscription, I want to say it’s $200 a year, which is nothing, especially if you’re doing it professionally, you’ll make that back in one track. You’ll need an interface of some kind. Um, interfaces are a wide range. That’s basically just the device where the microphone plugs into and that interface will plug into your computer. So you get sounds, um, those range from 50 all the way up to thousands of dollars. Depends on how much you want to spend. But um, yeah, I would say for 1500 bucks you have a pretty good rig ready to go, um, to start recording at a professional level.

Very cool. Very cool. Well, I wanted to chime in and say that it was very cool here in the parallels from you saying how you, um, jot your ideas down into your phone and you, um, you kind of start with the end in mind when you’re writing a song, you get the concept and that’s what we teach our clients when they’re creating systems for their business. You’ve got to start with the end in mind so that you know where you’re going with a system and then we teach that you need to carry around a clipboard with a to do list at all times and a pen and you’ve got to. Every time these ideas come to you, you’ve got to put them down on your clipboard because you don’t have time during the middle of the day and the burning fires to think about them all the time. So that’s, that’s cool to see those parallels.

Now for the thrivers out there who are just discovering us, uh, uh, Colton, much like a hit record, you know, our, our podcast recently, we’ve moved into the top five on itunes in business, but we’ve been in the top 20 now for awhile for all categories, which is crazy because there’s 530,000 podcasts out there. Um, and there was, I would argue 530,000 music qualified, high quality musicians out there. Maybe millions of them. Yeah. Um, can you describe the feeling you had the first time that you had a top hit on the contemporary Christian music charts when you realized, wow, I just heard my song on the radio or a wow. Was that mean the top five? You’re at a concert singing, right? And people know the lyrics and they’re singing with you. Talking about that Bro, that first time. You just, that feeling of having a hit.

Yeah. It’s um, it’s, it’s kind of indescribable. Honestly. I’m, I’m so glad it worked out this way, but actually the first time I heard my song on the radio, we caught it on film. Um, it’s actually on youtube somewhere. I was listening to a radio station called [inaudible], which is a Christian radio station, but they play some of the more rock stuff and that stuff and we were listening and all of a sudden my song called Eur came on the radio. It was me, a couple of friends of mine who helped me write it and we all freaked out and flipped out. It’s just a little weird but really cool thing.

For listeners out there who aren’t familiar with the melody of that song, do you feel comfortable maybe throwing down and kind of a little course if you are just so we can kind of get a little tickling of your, of your musical capabilities? Is that possible? Is it possible? I thought you were talking to me there.

Yeah. You, um, so you, uh, the song. No, you are, you at? Are you a rule if you need it and you a really simple song, but yeah, that’s it.

I just want to hammer this home. I just want to hammer this home for the listeners out there. I want everyone to get this idea Colton’s telling you if you have an idea that comes into your head and you and I share the same faith, but I believe that an is a gift from God. Bingo. And I believe it’s irresponsible to not save it if possible. So I just want to share with the listeners the next 50 shows real fast. They can now we’ve got a one show called no excuse the centric, always lose. We’ve got one show called beauty and the beast knowing our goals, roles and avoiding the trolls. Nice. We’ve got a show called if the walls could talk. We’ve got a gideon endorses the group interview. We have. There are less interruptions between 3:00 AM, 4:00 AM, 5:00 AM. We have cowboys and idiots.

I’ve got so many shows. I’m just telling you a, do not blame God the economy, your parents or anything for your lack of sales. Southern female retail. I mean, we’ve got all these different, uh, shows coming up and they come to me one by one, they don’t happen at one time and all I do is I write them down and then I don’t know what to do with them. Sometimes Colton and then you work through them and it takes a long time. I think a lot of people don’t realize the work that goes into your, your, your music. And I love for you to, to share with our listeners if you can, um, maybe you know, when you’re not working on your music, what do you, what do you enjoy working on? Or are you working on music 24 slash seven? Just give us a little walk into your, your, your personal life or your world when you’re not on stage.

I think it’s important if you’re passionate about something and whether it’s your, your job or your hobby. Um, I feel like if you want to do it well, you kind of have to invest all of your attention. Um, at least for a season. I’m like, for me, I feel like songwriting comes and goes and seasons you. Obviously you have new albums as an artist, right? So, um, before the album comes out here in the studio all the time and you’re trying to get all of these ideas you’ve had between the last record and this current point. I’m into finished songs and that does take a long time. That’s why a lot of artists kind of go on hiatus and artists like m and M, who we haven’t heard from for a long time. I’m just broke down the doors and dropped in unannounced album, but he was kind of mia for a long time because he was pouring so much of himself into his music.

So it’s very similar with me and what I do. Um, I’ll take several months and a riot and prepare for an album. But, um, but then after the album’s released, it’s a, it’s a chance to kind of look back and, and look at your work and hopefully you love it. Um, I’ve spoke to some artists who don’t always love the finished product and carry, but that’s why it’s important to be invested and to know what you want so that you’re able to articulate that. But apart from music, um, I got married not long ago, I know you guys know that I’m about two and a half years ago, so I’m really enjoying getting to know my wife and getting to, uh, take trips with her and she comes out on the road with me as well. So that’s just been such a treat for us. And, and um, yeah, between marriage and and music, that’s kind of the deal.

I want to ask you now some questions that I don’t appreciate that question and you just hang up. That will be my subtle cue that you’re, you don’t like the questions. So here we go. We’re looking out over and audience. I can relate to this up to thousands but not tens of thousands. Okay. So you’re looking at over the audience. I remember I dj to show many, many years ago and it was in Dallas and we were at a venue that was just a massive venue and it just, we had just thousands of people there. You’re rocking the crowd. The energy’s awesome. It’s an outdoor event. I mean it’s, but everyone knows every song and if you do the perfect mix, people go, oh, and they’re just high fiving each other and it’s just this energy. Can you talk to me about what it feels like when you are performing and people are feeling your lyrics and your singing songs about hope and it’s like that pertinent, a perfect vesica pisces. That intersection of your passion, meaning their interest and their singing along with you. What does that feel like?

Oh man, it’s a good question. I feel like those are the most dangerous moments for us as human beings and the reason I say that, especially in what I do and, and play what you and I believe and I feel like my goal and my mission is to impart something into people. I’m, I’m, I’m there for more than entertainment. I, I’m on a mission and it’s not to preach at people or to tell people that they’re going to hell. It’s none of that. It’s just I want to leave you a better person than you were when you walked in the door. And I, I feel like when there are those moments where fans are losing their minds, so they’re just really loving the show that it can all of a sudden become all about me. And I think it’s just very unhealthy to live that way. You can become very ego driven and, and you see plenty of it. Media.

Can I say this real quick? I think the danger with you in ego is your hair. Oh, my hair. My hair cut. I want you to know that I’m not trying to one up you here. I’m just saying chuck, I am definitely one of the most humble people in the world because of the way that I look. And my hair says I don’t care. You know, my hair says, hey look, look. Don’t point at me. Folks. Don’t get. Don’t get attracted to me here. Now hair is good. Hair. He’s got on me. He’s got fight that

his hair is like a tractor beam. Oh yeah. For two and non dudes. They’re all going, hey, hey there. Can we talk to your hair texture here? There, dude, I mean, people are amazed. Like a tractor beam. You’ve seen star wars, it’s seen his hair. I know what you’re talking about. Getting cannot escape the tractor beam off the of the death star. Your hair is like the death star. Pulling people in. How big flock of seagulls has nothing on Colton? Colton. How do you stay humble with hair like that? I mean, that’s incredible hair.

Wow.

Okay. You use conditioner, conditioner, conditioner. Do you use conditioner made? What are we doing? Everybody wants to know he’s got. If you Google Colton Dixon, I’m telling you, trump has hair where you go. Oh, but it’s his hair. Your hair says, wow. What are you? What are you using? Are you using suave? Swap herbal essence shoulders compound a certain kind of hair product you’re using. Because a lot of us mainly me want to figure it out. How do you. How do you. What kind of product you’re using their colon.

This is awesome. I use a brand called Les, right? It just smells really good. I don’t know if it really is that.

The idea was a gift from God. Put that on the show notes. All right, so now when you step up on the stage, are you ever nervous? I mean, you were thinking yourself, what if I’m not good people paid to see you? I mean, what’s the big tip? Two part question. I don’t like when people put. People typically get the two parts, cause it’s hard to answer the question. What’s the most number of people you’ve performed in front of and have you ever been nervous?

The biggest audience in front of me, um, apart from doing the TV show was about 60,000 people, which is just a lot of people. Um, and this is a funny story actually. That moment was at a passion which is a college Christian conference held in Georgia. They used to hold it at the Georgia Dome, so a huge venue. Um, my one job was to sing. Jesus paid it all and I was so nervous. I forgot the lyrics,

Matzah ball hanging out. Confession. Every time I’ve been in front of a crowd of 60,000 attending a conference or a concert, I mean I’ve, I’ve forgot all the lyrics to every time I’ve been in front of a crowd, I’ve never forgotten even practice up. Like before the concert I listened to all the songs and I’m like, you got this, you’re awesome. It wasn’t middle school and you knew all the lyrics to vanilla ice chips.

Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding. Right? Yep. And then when you get to like the second verse, no one knows. You just keep going and you’re just like waiting for the let’s kick it, you know, your credit you’re trying to get to as part of the song that you know, but that. Okay, so now, now that for the listeners out there, they kind of get a chance to know you a little bit there. They’re out to the side. Okay. I liked this guy. He, this is a guy I can get excited about. Can you talk to us about the Colton Dixon Dot com website and maybe it is there. Is there one particular song, if someone wants to dip their toe into the water of the Colton Dixon Dot com audio experience, they want to learn more about your music. Is there a specific song you would recommend our listeners check out if they want to hear just one song and say, I’m just going to listen to one song, see if I like it. What’s that song?

And so here’s the deal. I don’t have kids yet, but I heard a very wise man say your songs are like your kids to pick just one that’s really difficult. Um, you know, even if they’re ugly, they’re still your,

your kids. Are you sure you don’t have kids or the name of this wise man? I’m gonna. Go find him. I have a favorite kid back to Colton. Sorry.

Oh Man. I would say my most popular song is a song called more of you. Um, it’s a UPTEMPO. It sounded fresh for its time. Gosh, I’m, but I’m still trying to think of a song that I would want you to hear. Um, one of the songs I’m most proud of that probably most of my fans don’t even know is a song called autopsy. Um, it’s very, uh, it’s, it’s piano vocal. Um, I feel like we just took all limits off. I’m creatively and just really went for it. And the whole concept behind the song is we’re more than just skin and bones, you know, our, our spirit is going to live on past these bodies. And um, yeah, we wrote a song about that and that’s called the autopsy kind of dark, really creative. I’m a little eclectic maybe, but that’s just one of the songs I’m probably most proud of.

Little sample of it on the way out. We’ll, you know. Great. So we’ll just play a little, a little sample of them on the way out at the end of post production. We’ll put that on there so listeners can check it out. Uh, Colton, I know you’ve got to go in just a moment of a very busy schedule. So I’m going to let a clay stares ask you one more, uh, question, Eric chopped. One more question, just not often. We get a chance to interview a top 40 a musician who has an album coming out soon. That will also be in the top 40. It’s an honor to have you on the show, so I know Jeff will only ask you something that doesn’t matter and it’s inappropriate. I know clay stairs will only ask you the most repulsive questions. So with clay stairs first, what’s your. What’s your question? For sure. Will knowing just building off what you talked, just a moment. Have

a go about clay with a ideas being divine ideas coming from God. Colton, can you remember? And there may be many times, but I know I. I spent 10 years in ministry and there were many times where I did feel like in the midst of ministry there was a real annointing in the room or a real anointing flowing through me, but there’s like those one or two times where you’re just going, holy cow, this is like, this is like crazy stuff. What is what I feel right now in front of all of these people while I am a while? I’m speaking while I’m singing, while I am ministering. Do you, would you mind sharing with us a time that you remember that that was very powerful in the midst of one of your concerts when you were singing? Were you felt like, man, this, this is, uh, I, I’ve just, I don’t know how this happened, but we just went to another level.

Yeah, I believe I’ve talked about the song on the show. I wrote a song for my last, on this last record called the other side, which was inspired by the death of my brother in law, my wife’s brother and um, we were on a tour called winter jam, which is one of the biggest Christian tours in the spring a couple of years ago. And none of our sound equipment worked. It was only our equipment for some reason wasn’t working. So I had to make the last minute call. We had 15 minutes on this tour. Um, so I made the last minute call that it was just be me and piano for the set. So I was calling audibles left and right. And the album wasn’t out yet, so no one had heard this song called the other side. Um, and, um, it’s, uh, I would say it’s a heavy song, um, but if, if you listen to the song and you get as true meaning, it’s really a freeing healing kind of song.

I’m just springs new revelation on desks and what it means for us as believers and, and men as I was singing that song, I could tangibly feel weight being lifted off as people just to have been burdened with, um, you know, loved ones that they had had, um, go on ahead of them to have an and just feeling that dark cloud as a lot of people do. I’ve had so many people come up to me after shows on this song saying, man, I lost my dad 20 years ago and I just have wrestled with, you know, why would God allow this to happen? Or it was too soon or, or whatever your questions are that aren’t always answered. Um, but they said something about your song just gave me peace and knowing that he’s just, he’s waiting on me and, and I’ll see them again real soon. And, and man, those are the moments that I live for. That makes all of this stuff to so worth it. I’m sorry. It got really serious.

Definitely the moment for me. One thing that you said that impacted me early on, just getting to know you and I went through and kind of a weird creepy way, went through every single song. You have listened to it multiple times and you play them backwards. I’m like, why is he endorsing ice cream? I do hear that. No, but seriously, when you talked about going on ahead, um, that’s the, that’s the approach that I’ve tried to have with my dad, with my dad’s death from als was he went on ahead, you know, he’s a head. He went to heaven ahead of me and I couldn’t quite say it right or paraphrase it right or come up with a little phrase and that’s helped me resolve that. He passed away on the fifth day of September, so this is the two year anniversary of my dad’s going on ahead and that really helped me.

That resonated with me and that’s Kinda been an encouraging thing for me. So I just want to validate that. That’s been a powerful idea. Now you have an opportunity to take the show to a really dark, terrible place. Chop, take us up or in the middle, coming down. Just get lightest politically like you normally do because we’re going deep. Here we go. Now Colton, uh, you’ve been working with clay and kind of getting coaching from him for awhile now and get that. Needed a feedback as you try to create some new music. Um, I wanted to ask you, how has it been kind of working with clay and getting that honest feedback? How has that helped you further your career, where you’re at and move into these new areas? He’s going to boomi.

Oh Man, I could have taken that.

Please do.

Honestly, um, I think regardless of WHO’s in your corner to have someone in your corner who’s going to be honest is the most important thing for anyone regardless of what field you’re going into. Um, I think we need to hear what we need to hear rather than we want to hear and that’s just super important. So for that alone, um, I’ve been super thankful. But um, yeah, I think he’s just really good at pinpointing, um, strengths that I have and helping me overcome some of the weaknesses, whether it’s, I don’t know, a work ethic being in the studio, I’m enough hours in the week or I’m putting practices into place even amongst my guys out on the road or, or, um, yeah, I just, it’s been really good to have someone who is so organized and has so many great practices helping me establish that for my own, my own business, which is really what this is, which can get weird when you tie ministry and business together. But that’s a story for a topic for another time that, uh, it’s just been really good to have someone, um, who, who I would say believes in what I’m doing. Um, and applies all of the experience that he has into. Yeah, it’s, my goal has been really, really good. Yeah.

I will say this, I’m working with Colton, Colton, the one thing that you probably feel this nudge each morning but morning met a time I one hour as I kind of get organized for my day. Um, I, I really do pray for my clients and try to, uh, and I know that I’m a bad prayer, so you probably feel it like God saying to you like somebody praying for you, right is terrible. I don’t even understand what it is. I honestly, I’m, I’m excited about

Colton of exactly like what we do as a magnifier and we work with so many businesses where we help them magnify in music, can touch people in a way that can really move them and Colton’s all about giving hope, putting light into the world of darkness. And Colton, I’m just excited for you man. This is going to be an awesome year for you and I thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be here with us and I apologize for my poor prayers and your direction but God and edits them and then hopefully edits them and before he receives them. So he’s a good, a good editor.

Thanks man. I feel like we just signed each other’s yearbooks at the end of the year with a little heart with an arrow shooting through it and then an inappropriate picture. Someone drew and you have to cross. Well, I just did Colton, Colton. You have a blessed day, my friend. Everybody check out Colton Dixon.com. Colton Dixon.com. If you love your family, America or you have a soul, go to Colton Dixon.com. If you don’t, don’t no big deal. No big deal. Alright Colton, take care of frank’s brother. See you.

Colton Dixon is a guy who is passionate about inspiring the word, uh, the world with music that, uh, provides hope. He really is a ray of light in a world that meant so many ways, could be dark. A lot of the pop music you hear on the radio today is so negative. I mean, there’s, there are some songs that are positive. Uh, Dell has positive songs that I’ve heard that I’m very familiar with. Imagine dragons, they have positive lyrics. I mean, there are groups out there. One Republic has some positive songs, but by and large, most of the music you’re going to hear on the radio today is about sex. Drugs regret a broken relationships and Colton’s about mending relationships, hope or relationship with God. Knowing your purpose, being truly in love, songs that really do resonate with his listeners. So we’re, we’re going to do is I’m going to go ahead and cue up, uh, one of his songs, hear a song called autopsy and I’m going to play this song and then we’re going to break down the lyrics together and figuring out what they mean because Colton writes songs that mean something and I hope that this next song called autopsy by Colton Dixon means something to you or to somebody in your life because his music is written from a sincere place.

And I know he’s, he’s trying to bless you. So then he further ado autopsy by top 40 Christian contemporary music artist Mr Colton Dixon.

And Yeah.

Wow. Wow. And Wow. That right there. My friends is why Colton Dixon is a top 40 music artist recording artist. His, his songs mean something. And I want to take just a moment to marinate on the lyrics. I think a lot of times we hear songs and people listened to the chorus. They don’t know the words are, they just know the chorus, but he writes here, tear apart my heart and soul my every inch. Take it all, but I am more than skin and bones. I am. I am more. Look inside through a different lens seeing my life, but missing the point of it. We’re all one heartbeat from heaven. We’re all one heartbeat from heaven, so tear apart to my heart and soul, my every inch. Take it all, but I am more than skin and bones. I am. I am more life. It takes your breath away and it doesn’t give it back.

Even if you ask, even if you plead, get down on your knees, it’s out of your control. Where are you going to go live? It takes your breath away and doesn’t give it back. Even if you ask. So Tara, my so tear apart my heart and soul, my every inch. Take it all, but I am more than skin and bones. I am. I am more tear apart my heart and soul my every inch. Take it all, but I am more than skin and bones. I am. I am more that right there. I, I don’t know. I mean that is a powerful, a powerful song, powerful lyrics to think that this is going to be over soon, this human experience, and I’ll just ask you today, you know, what have you been putting off with your life? It could be having a better relationship today with your kids.

It can be having a better relationship today with your wife. We talk about the [inaudible] all the time, but I’m not kidding about it. I mean, we might be time for you to improve your, your, your, your relationship with your faith, your family, your finances, your fitness, your friendship, and your fun. I would just encourage you to take his lyrics to heart and just understand that we are, we all, every one of us, you, I, everybody, all of us, we’re all one heartbeat from heaven. We’re all just one heartbeat away from heaven and it’s so important that we, you know, don’t just let life happen to us, but that we actually a live a purposeful life. And we come back from the break. I’m going to another Colton Dixon Song. We’re going to break down the lyrics of that song, but I think they, I think it’s so important that we actually take the time here on the thrive nation to thoughtfully listen to the lyrics of a guy who’s given us his time at his schedule to share with us his journey. So let’s take some time to break down his lyrical miracles. Stay tuned.

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Today’s show. What we’re doing,

we are, uh, taking time out from our normal show format to break down the lyrical miracles of today’s guest. Colton Dixon. Colton Dixon is a recording artist who is a wonderful guy. He’s a top 40 Christian, contemporary Christian recording artists. He’s had songs that have been in the top 40 of Christian music. He’s done really, really well with his career, and he’s a guy who cares. He’s putting music out there that matters to him in a world of darkness. Are Colton Dixon is, is producing music that he hopes to inspire you with, with hope and belief that God does have a plan for you. So we’re gonna. Do is we’re going to go ahead and play a song that Colton Dixon has written and recorded. We’re going to play the song and then we’re going to read the lyrics together and kind of break down what they mean. And again, if you’ve ever been to Colton Dixon Dot com, I encourage you to check it out.

His new album is somewhere between. It’s like one republic meets, uh, uh, I, I would just describe it as this new album he’s working on right now is one republican meets imagine dragons and you’re just going to absolutely love it and it’s coming out here in the next year, probably eight months to nine months from now, but you can check out his current music, his previous [email protected]. This next song is called through all of it. I want you to listen to the lyrics and I know as a culture we’re very busy. A lot of times we don’t think about what the lyrics mean. A lot of times we just listen to the chorus and we never think about what are the lyrics actually mean, but think about what the lyrics mean and then we’ll break them down together and this song is called through

choices. The may got it. See

yet again another lyrical miracle and if you’re out there and you’re going, okay, I was listening to the lyrics, but I’d like to kind of break them down if we could. Well, he says, there are days I’ve taken more than I can give and there are choices that I made that I wouldn’t make. Again, I’ve had my share of laughter, of Tiers in troubled times. This has been the story of my life. I have one and I have lost. I got it right sometimes and, but sometimes I did not. Life’s been a journey. I’ve seen joy and I’ve seen regret. Oh, and you have been my God through all of it. You were there when it all came down on me when I was blinded by fear and I struggled to believe, but in those unclear moments, you are the one keeping me strong. This is how my stories always gone.

I have one and I have lost. I got it right sometimes, but sometimes I did not. Life’s been a journey. I’ve seen joy, I’ve seen regret. Oh, and you have been my God through all of it, through all of it, through all of it. The rest of the lyrics. I’ll make that available for you on the show notes for today, but I would get. I just ask you, where are you at right now with your life? Let’s take out the religious aspects of this first, second, maybe today is a day where you’ve just got to express gratitude for somebody you know. Maybe it’s the day where you’ve been putting off being, being grateful and telling somebody you know what? You’ve been there with me through all of it and what Colton’s point in pointing out as it his God who I share the same belief, I believe in Jesus Christ or God or the Holy Trinity, however you want to put it.

He believes that God’s been with him the whole time and he sent. No matter what I’ve done. Sometimes I’ve had success. Sometimes I haven’t, but you’ve been there with me through all of it. Maybe that’s your spouse today and you just need to give them a call and say thank you. Give him a hug. Maybe I don’t know what you want to do. Maybe maybe you need to hire a Mariachi band to show up in their office like I did a couple weeks ago to show my wife appreciation. I don’t know what you need to do, but I encourage you to take that step. Be a dewar. Be An action person. Be An action oriented person. You know, you know Thomas Edison once wrote that vision without execution is hallucination. Vision without execution is hallucination and you don’t want to be the kind of person who’s hallucinating. No, you want to be the person who is a doer. You have to be the kind of person who says, I’m going to do something, and then you go out there and do it. A Thomas Edison has also said, knowledge without application is meaningless, so I encourage you today, don’t make today, show meaningless. Take Action, take action, whatever that is. Maybe it’s about expressing gratitude. Maybe it’s getting that to do list started. Maybe it’s about making those f six goals, but take action. Today is your day to thrive. I know you have what it takes. State tuned

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On this show, I make it my focus, my obsession to interview top performers when possible, people who have achieved massive success, whether it be a hit, musicians, nfl players, major league baseball players. If you’ve listened to a lot of the shows, you’ll know we’ve had no major league folks. We’ve had NFL players, we’ve had national basketball association players. You’ve had. I mean, think about this. We’ve had David Robinson, NBA Hall of Fame Basketball Player. We’ve had muggsy bogues on the show. We’ve just had a lot of really successful people on the show. We had New York Times best selling authors and I like to get into the minds of super successful people. Musicians, athletes, business coach owners, and I like to figure out what are the practical strategies to move the routines that you and I could implement on a daily basis within our own life and business. And today we have a rare opportunity to interview a top 40 a musician by the name of Colton Dixon.

Uh, he has been featured throughout his career on the ellen degeneres show. I was on American idol a. he’s been a number one contemporary Christian music artist and his newest album he’s working on is going to be a secular album. So it’s an album that, um, you know, if you like, imagine dragons are things that are just encouraging. I know you’re going to like his music now. The previous stuff he’s recorded, his previous music has been recorded it on a Christian label. So it’s a little different. Uh, for those of you out there who aren’t Christians and I’m not asking you to, to switch into, have a religious epiphany on today’s show, but I am going to do is I’m going to ask you to listen to the lyrics of this next song and let’s listen to them together. And then I’ll read them to you and let’s break them down because I think there’s somebody out there that he needs to hear this message of hope and this uplifting message of encouragement and my hope and my prayer is that this song will bless you and the way that Colton Dixon intended.

Justin. Emily,

yeah.

As an entrepreneur and slash or aspiring entrepreneur, you really have to be an optimist. I mean you have to view every adversity as a learning opportunity. Every setback as a set up and I believe you do have to view on, not as an entrepreneur, but as a positive person, you have to view death as a positive thing. Now at the time of this recording, it’s the 14th of September. My Dad died on September fifth of two years ago. September fifth, 2016. My Dad passed away, so two years. The day that this radio show went live, noon to two every day on talk radio. Eleven 70 is the day that my dad passed. I don’t know if that, if that, if the profundity of that idea resonates with you, but here I had a dream forever to have my radio show aired on live radio. Oh, now that our podcast is in the top five in the world, in the business section.

Now that we’re in the top 25 of all podcasts, I’m talking about 530,000 podcasts. We’re here on the top and you know when you’re at the top, you’d like to high fives year dad or celebrate it with your, with your dad. But my dad, the very day that we began the journey of this show was the day that my dad left the stage so to speak. And my dad now has the, the, the box, a suite. You know, he’s got the box seats there. He’s got the skybox, he’s got the great ct can see it from heaven. I believe that that my dad is in a great place and I truly do believe that, but I think a lot of people view death as, as a bad thing. I actually view it. My world is the Judeo Christian is that you get to be with your maker, and so in Colton Dixon wrote this song, he wrote this song because his brother in law died.

His brother in law passed away, you know, a freak accident, something you can’t plan for. He wasn’t sick. They didn’t know was coming. My father died from Lou Gehrig’s disease. We knew it was coming. It was, it was terrible. It was, it was haunting. Both are terrible. Whether you knew, know whether someone’s going to die and you know when they’re going to die or you, you don’t know. It’s just terrible. It’s terrible, um, at the moment because you’re losing that person. But when you have the mindset that they’re going up ahead and they’re on the other side, all of a sudden there’s a, there’s a joy and Colton Dixon rights here so passionately. He writes, everybody’s dressed in black. The preacher saying, life goes too fast. The memories have turned to tears. Think back on all the years. I know that you’re in a better place, but I’m still here missing you today.

It isn’t easy to say goodbye, but I know it’s only for a little while. Run up ahead and I will catch up because I’m going to see you when tomorrow comes on the other side on the other side, I bet you feel you’re finally home running down the streets of gold, the kind of peace you can explain, looking into Jesus’s face. I know that you’re in a better place. I know that, that I’ll be joining you some day. It isn’t easy to say goodbye, but I know it’s only for a little while. Run up ahead and I will catch up because I’m going to see you. When tomorrow comes on the other side

were there are no more goodbyes, no more pain, no more tears left to cry. We will join you with the angels singing their song, praising our savior all the day long. It isn’t easy to say goodbye, but I know it’s only for a little while growing up ahead and I will catch up because I’m going to see you when tomorrow comes on the other side. On the other side, on the other side, on the other side, Colton Dixon, thank you so much for writing those lyrical miracles and for tapping into the creative genius that God above has given you and for writing songs that matter and for inspiring hope, we could not be more excited for your next album and a thrive nation. I encourage you to check out his website [email protected]. As always, as always, want to end the show with a boom, but I would just want to end it with a reverent boom today. If you need to express gratitude or make a serious life change, seize the day. We’re only guaranteed right now. Three, two, one. Boom.