Matthew West On The Inspiration Behind His Song “Come Home For Christmas”

Matthew West has written songs for Rascal Flatts, Scotty McCreery, Amy Grant, Casting Crowns, and many others. The award-winning Christian artist has also written a number of hit songs for himself such as “Truth Be Told,” “What If,” and “Me On Your Mind.”

His newest single is a song for the holidays called “Come Home for Christmas.” He wrote it after deciding to invite a small group of fans to Franklin, Tennessee, just outside Nashville, to experience an old-fashioned, small-town Christmas.

“I love Christmas,” he explains, “and with so many concerts cancelled over the past couple of years (due to COVID), we wanted to find creative ways to stay connected with the people who listen to my music. I host the annual Christmas tree lighting every year in Franklin and thought, wouldn’t it be cool if fans of my music, who come to see my shows in other cities, could come see how magical my hometown is at Christmas?”

After choosing to call the get together, Come Home for Christmas, he began working on a song to go along with it.

“I had this idea of writing a song about coming home, not just to a physical place, but to a place in our hearts,” West says. “So, I sat down and wrote this song, and lo and behold, I wound up with a theme song for my special Nashville event.”

The song will not only set the tone for his holiday weekend in Tennessee next month, it was also chosen by the Great American Family Network as the cable channel’s theme song for their entire Christmas movie season.

Actress Candace Cameron Bure, who left the Hallmark Channel earlier this year to join the new cable network, says the song, written by West who has been a close friend for years, is a perfect fit.

“Matthew’s one of my favorite songwriters and artists of all time. He captured what we hope everyone will feel when watching the Great American Family Channel this Christmas season. It gives me chills and warms my heart at the same time. I am thankful for Matthew’s creativity, talent, and heart while creating this beautiful song.”

Getting the Christmas song chosen to play throughout the Great American Family Channel’s eight-week holiday movie season is just the latest in a long line of successes for West, this year alone.

His last single “Me On Your Mind” became his 25th No. 1 hit as an artist/songwriter. The multiple ASCAP Christian Music Songwriter/Artist of the year winner saw that song spend six weeks atop the Mediabase Christian Airplay chart, while gracing the top of the Billboard Christian Airplay Chart for 5 weeks.

West was also named NSAI’s 2022 Songwriter-Artist of the Year (National Songwriters Association).

While West grew up around music, he didn’t discover his gift for songwriting until he went off to college. In fact, while growing up, he didn’t think much about music at all. The Illinois-native dreamed of playing baseball, but when he didn’t get any scholarship offers coming out of high school, he found himself unsure about his future.

“When baseball went away, it left me sort of scrambling to figure out how I was going to get to college, let alone what I wanted to do with my life,” West recalls. “Throughout my life people had been encouraging me, telling me I had a gift for music, just a natural ear for it. But when you’re focused on something else, you really don’t pay attention to the encouragement you’re receiving in another lane.”

He says once the baseball blinders were removed, he started thinking about some of the things people had been saying, and he ended up going to college to study music.

Not getting to play baseball turned out to be an important life lesson about the value of rejection.

“You know, we sometimes take rejection for face value and considering it to be nothing more than a closing door. But a huge theme to my whole story is that rejection is never rejection. It’s get ready, stay prepared, it means something bigger and better is around the corner – if you stay ready.

Once he began studying music, his life began moving in an entirely new direction.

“That’s when I began writing my first songs. I made contact with a publisher in Nashville while still a college student, and I was actually offered a songwriting contract two weeks before I got my diploma.”

Soon after arriving in Nashville, he began having success writing songs for other artists. And in time, he would end up with a record deal of his own.

His songs, whether he’s writing for himself or others, always tend to reflect on his strong faith.”

“I’m a storyteller and I write songs about life, about my life, but through a faith perspective. For me, my faith is the lens by which I see the world, so my desire, when I’m telling the story of my life through my songs, is ultimately to tell a story of hope and redemption and inspiration for people.”

His gift for writing extends beyond songs. He’s also the author of six books. His latest, called “The God Who Stays,” came out in September.

“You always want to stretch yourself. So, whether it’s challenging myself with different songwriter endeavors or stripping myself from chords and guitars and melodies and filling the pages of a book, those things are rewarding in their own ways.”

West has also decided to step in the direction of artist management. After two decades in the business, he wants to share some of what he’s learned to help champion young music makers and storytellers. His first signed artist is singer/songwriter, Anne Wilson.

“She’s absolutely on a rocket ship right now,” West says. “She just got nominated for her first American Music Award which was fun because we both got nominated for an AMA this year. She also just won the Dove Award for Best New Artist and is having a ton of success right now.”

Those American Music Awards are set for Sunday, November 20^th on ABC.

West says while he enjoys all of the many different things he’s doing; songwriting remains at the center of it all.

“I’m just driven by a passion for the craft of songwriting, being excited by the uniqueness of the writing rooms I get into, and the way my songs have been able to be heard by the world.”

What makes it so special, he says, is you never know where a song will take you. “Come Home for Christmas” is just the latest in a long list of examples.

“It’s neat how this little idea blew up into this big thing and I’m super excited to share what I hope will be a new Christmas classic with the world. Anything is possible when you’re writing a song, you never know where it might land or who it might reach.”