Part 2: Audio Adrenaline's Will McInniss I was blessed to be able to start my day off on July 30 with about an hour and a half phone conversation with Will McGinniss, bass player for Audio Adrenaline. Will is a great guy, really down to earth and centered in his life. I hope that you enjoy reading what he had to say as much as I enjoyed hearing it. 
More of this Feature
Kim: I have been really pleased to see "Pierced" moving along so well in the charts. I love that song. You've said on your web site that it's about being pushed to the limit as a Christian. That God's people are at their strongest when they're broken because God can use them and do incredible things when they've given up and said, "I have nothing left to do - all I can do is rely on God." I watch TD Jakes whenever I can on TV and he's preached on the same thing the last two Sunday afternoons. He's taught that the breaking point can actually be a break-through point if you remember to turn to God and rely on Him rather than yourself, your friends or your family. So the question is: have you been to the breaking/break-through point and would you feel comfortable talking about it?
Will: We've definitely all been to it at different times in our lives. For me personally, one time back in college was it. Mark and I went to a small college in Kentucky. I was in my 2nd year of school and the band was already together and playing. I got a phone call that my mom had been diagnosed with Cancer. My younger sister was in school there too and we both felt like we needed to be at home with our mom. So we both dropped out. The band and school got put on hold. We were home with her for ten months. As your mom deteriorates in front of you, you feel like you'd really start to hate God and lose your faith. But for us it was a strengthening point. Mom was such an encouraging point to us - a real light. It made us really dependent on our faith and on each other. My sisters and I weren't close but we came to have a real closeness. At the end my mom said that she was ready to go home to Jesus and I just held on to my faith. It was one of the most blessed times in my life, and it was one of the toughest.
Kim: You've got a heavy touring schedule at the moment and it looks like it's going to stay that way for a while. Since you took about a three year break from touring I have to ask, is it harder to go on the road and back to the whole "life-styles of the bus pass carriers" thing when you've had an extended period of "normalcy?"
Will: You really have to have a strong calling to do this job. The best doctors love helping the sick. The best lawyers love getting in front of a jury and trying a case. When you love your job, you feel that sense of self-worth. We were strongly called to do this. We can't buck this at all. If we didn't do this, we wouldn't be near as happy with our lives.
Kim:When the band started out in '90, you all were fairly young. When you're young, living in the public eye and being on the road doesn't seem like much of a price to pay to get paid to do what you love. Now that you're all older (and wiser as they say), do you ever think "man, I'm too old for this. I want to be like 'normal' people and sleep in my own bed every night?"
Will: The old thing doesn't get us so much. As long as we're connecting with the people and not looking nerdy or sounding nerdy we'll keep doing it. Some bands do get to a point where they're not connecting. For now, we're connecting. God is broadening our audience. We've got fans from 3 to 40. The public eye - that's definitely a tough place. There are times when I think "I can't stand the spotlight for another minute." That's just being selfish though. It's not being a good role model. I want to have a strong sense of values, a strong sense of marriage and of morals, to present to the youth out there. For us, we decided a long time ago to live our lives for God. So our lives aren't ours. We're not looking for the next big thing, or even the next thing, we're just trying to be faithful and walk in God's will. But yeah, we're human and sometimes we feel weary.
Kim: I'm 36 and I like your music. My son's best friend is 16 and he just about lost his mind when he found out I was going to be talking with you. He said that Bloom is his all-time favorite CD. So I'd say you were bridging the age gap really well.
Will: Thanks. That's great.
Kim: You've done Rock the Universe in Orlando before. Did you have time to hang out at the park and do the rides and the whole gambit of foods your mom always told you would make you sick if you ate too much of?
Will: Yeah! Universal is great. They're some of the coolest people we've worked with. They treat us like kings. That's why we keep going back. We're spoiled by those guys. They bring all these Christian bands together and they like going the extra mile to make the show seem like a crazy rock show. They really, even with all of the politics and limits to what they can do, they take it to the extra mile to make the show great. From the people working the show to the guides they assign to take us on tours of the park, they're all great.
Kim: What about this year? You've got a week before your next show in Allentown, PA after RTU. Are you going to stay and play for a while?
Will: We'll spend some time there, either before the show or after the show and take our families.
Kim: I saw in your tour pictures on your site that you had your wives and kids with you. That is awesome. I'm imagine that Tyler's baby isn't that impressed with all of the people and places, but your kids look like they're old enough to really start enjoying it.
Will: Satchell, my oldest, is four years old. It's been great! God extends so much grace. Being away from the family is hard ...harder on my wife than on me to be gone for a long time. She has to cover the bases and do some of the things that I should be doing. I should be being a daddy to my kids and a husband to my wife. This is the best time of my life and I shouldn't be out there just sharing it with my friends. God holds us together with a supernatural glue. You just die inside when you're gone from your family for a long time. Sometimes you feel like such a loser. So it's great having them with us.
Kim: I'll bet the break at Orlando Studios will be great for all of you. Just out of curiosity, how long have you been married?
Will: We've been married ten years this year.
Kim: That's cool. You know, in today's day and age any marriage that survives ten years deserves applause; especially a marriage with so much time spent apart on the road. You guys are an inspiration.
Will: Thanks. I want to be married to one person for the rest of my life. I don't want to be married two or three times.
Kim: What type of venues do you prefer? Huge festivals? Smaller scale festivals? More intimate settings like churches?
Will: Every place has its own plusses and minuses. A lot of churches treat you like you're having a picnic. We love the excitement and the hospitality. You know, home baked meals and stuff. (laughs) There's a lot of time that a theater is great. It doesn't make non-Christians feel less comfortable. It's more like a rock show. Some people think it's weird to rock out in church. Some people won't go to a show if it's at church. And it's really cool to see non-Christians coming to our shows. Last night we did the coolest intimate show at a church. There were only about 600 people and it was crazy. It was one of my favorite shows in a long time. But feeling like you're rocking 65,000 people with God's help is awesome too. When you're getting ready to go out in front of that many people and you're feeling so insecure - so unqualified and so untalented - you have to remember that with God you can do anything.
Kim: Amen to that. What do you pray about before you go on stage?
Will: We've been with each other all day and we know each others places. We know if each other is pumped up and ready to go crazy or down. So we basically ask God to clean us out as vessels. You know, clean out whatever isn't supposed to be there and then we invite His Spirit to come and do powerful things through us. To let us grab someone's heart that doesn't know Him.
Kim: I saw a lot of flour in the Go Show finale pics. Who gets to take credit for that idea?
Will: (laughs) Kutless! It was one of the best pranks ever pulled on us. They took two gallons of water and two bags of flour and dumped them on our heads! It was so nasty! I'm still pulling flour out of my pedal board and Ben still has flour in his drums.
Kim: (laughs) Yeah - but the pictures show that the hair stayed in place, even through the flour and water bath. That hair stuff you use must be awesome. How much of the tube does it take to keep it standing up?
Will: I don't use that anymore. I have switched to Knox Gelatin. It works so good. But it takes forever to get out. Even after I've been in the shower for an hour it's still in there. Right now my hair is down, but there's still clumps of it in there.
Kim: ugh! is it worth it?
Will: It helps to be all things to all people.
A little side note here. The Go Foundation was formed w/ MercyMe to help expose 10 to 15 "under the radar" missions' organizations.
Kim: I know you've probably got a pretty hectic schedule today and we've been on the phone for well over an hour so one last question. The Go Foundation sounds like one of those just really great things. Which missions' are you supporting now?
Will: Thanks. If you go to the links section on our web site you can go to their site and read about the Foundation and the missions. We did the whole tour for it. We needed a reason to go back on the road, a reason for it to make sense. So the whole tour was dedicated to the Go Foundation. About 5000 kids signed up to do missions. You know, to do overseas missions, inter-city missions, just to step out and do something in faith. For us, it blew us away. People just responded and man, it was awesome!
Kim: I'll bet...man. Listen Will, you've been great and it's been a real treat to talk to you today. I really appreciate you taking the time for me. You guys be blessed and keep doing what you're doing. I really respect the fact that you continually stand on your faith and keep doing what God intends for you to do.
Will: Thank you for taking the time for me. I hope to get to talk to you again.
