Mat Kearney - Won't Back Down

Mat was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon with his two brothers. Both of Mat's parents were quite spiritual. In high school, Mat devoted much of his time to soccer, poetry, and music, though he wasn't playing music at the time. His favorite artists growing up ranged from A Tribe Called Quest all the way to Bob Dylan. Though Mat was a great athlete and student in high school, he rebelled against his parents' beliefs and was known for selling weed by fellow peers.

He attended California State University, Chico in Chico, California where he majored in literature and played soccer until his junior year. It was also at this time when Mat picked up a guitar for the first time. Using a roommate's guitar, he tried covering other songs. Realizing he wasn't too good at it, he began writing his own. Though things were going well for Kearney at school, Chico caught up to him. A school known for its partying, Mat fit right in. In an interview with Christianity Today, Mat said, "I guess I lived it up and did what everyone said you should do in college. I discovered the depth of depravity, the bleakness of that lifestyle. It just wasn’t working. I finally started understanding there must be more to life." Mat continued, "God found me when I was at my lowest point. That was the first time in my life when I really felt like I understood who Jesus was- it was more than knowing about Him, I felt like He met me in that time and place."

Soon after Mat made the decision to turn his life around, he began focusing on music. Fusing guitar with spoken word, or rap, he started to play at coffee shops and soon began to make small amounts of money. At this time, Mat had met friend and future producer, Robert Marvin. The two began to make music together, but Marvin had plans to move to Nashville, Tennessee. Marvin asked Kearney to help the move and Mat accepted the journey. Kearney says, "I helped him pack up his trailer and we put a mattress on the back of his truck. We basically drove cross-country and slept in the back. When we pulled into Nashville we slept in a school parking lot for three days until we finally rented this apartment where the roof was caving in and mice were crawling all over." Mat decided to stay in Nashville to record a few demos with Marvin and after a few months, Mat had no plans on returning. "By the end of the summer, we had three or four songs and I realized this is what I wanted to do. It just clicked. So I called home to my parents in Oregon and said, ‘I’m not coming back’ and I never left Nashville."