Matt Maher - once tuned out, now troubadour for God

Tuning in

It was summer and Maher’s parents had separated. His mother, an American, relocated to Phoenix. On a whim, the 20-year-old jazz piano major accompanied her.

“I wanted to get into movies, particularly film scoring,” he said. “I thought, this is my opportunity to head west.”

In Phoenix, a cousin invited him to Mass. Although a lapsed Catholic at the time, Maher went, thinking, “OK, I guess we go to church here.” He continued going and hanging out with his cousin and her friends who were volunteers with a Charismatic Renewal youth group.

“By summer’s end … I began to feel like maybe the reason I was there was less about my music career and more about my encounter with God,” he recalled.

His feeling was confirmed that November when he was recruited to provide music for a youth retreat. In his mind, he was just jamming and goofing off, much like band leader and fellow Canadian Paul Shaffer. Returning from a cigarette break, Maher caught a skit about a teenager whose heart got broken. Accompanied by an ‘80s pop ballad describing a turbulent relationship that can also be understood as one’s connection with God, Maher broke down.

“All of a sudden it was very apparent to me that God was speaking in the midst of it, saying, ‘Hey, I want to give you a new heart,’” he said. Chuckling, he added: “Now I look back and go, this is very formulaic. But I’d never seen anything like it at the time.”

God spoke to Maher through the music. His conversion was swift and strong.

“I didn’t realize how much God loves me. It’s so beautiful,” Maher said. “I had that encounter and it knocked me over. I immediately had this sense that God was saying, ‘Hey, there’s so much more I want to show you.’ My 21st birthday was that weekend, and then I was just off to the races.”

Communing with God … through song

Intent on realizing his baptismal promises, as he finished his degree at the University of Arizona, Maher played piano and sang at church as a way of tithing his time, talent, and treasure. As he grew in faith, his songwriting reflected the questions he was asking. At the same time, contemporary worship music was coming into its own.

“It wasn’t something I was chasing after, it was what I got led into and fell into,” he said about becoming a troubadour for God.

After graduating in 1999, he moved to Mesa, AZ, where he did fulltime parish work and got involved in youth ministry.

“We’d be on a retreat and would need a song about how God is a family—the Trinity—so I would pray about that, mull that over, and write a song,” he said.

Soon, other churches were using his songs. Eventually, other artists wanted to record them. In 2001 he released the first of three independent albums, “The End and the Beginning,” and his career as a Christian music artist and songwriter was born.

In 2008, his first major-label album, “Empty and Beautiful,” made the Billboard Top 200 secular album chart—a rare achievement for a Christian artist. Since then, his popularity and critical acclaim has grown exponentially. He is a nine-time Grammy nominee and three-time GMA Dove Award winner. He has written or co-written five No. 1 radio singles.

Maher, now 46, is humble about his success.

“I really wasn’t even a singer,” he said, about his pre-conversion musical experience, which included playing keyboards for garage rock bands. “That’s the funniest thing to me. That’s the irony of God, that I would primarily be known for my voice—the thing I was least comfortable with.”

Career highlights have included performing for massive crowds gathered with the last three popes: Pope St. John Paul II at World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, Pope Benedict XVI’s 2008 visit to the United States in Yonkers, NY, and Pope Francis twice—with an estimated 3 million people at World Youth Day 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, and at the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia.

“All of those experiences were amazing. How lucky are we to be alive at a time when we get to have visible examples of this grand enterprise we call the universal Church?” he said.

“These events … remind us of how global the movement of Christ is.”

Profound power of music

He aims to write songs that echo what the Church professes and believes. Arising from his honest pursuit of the truth, his music resonates with others, Catholic or not. In 2005, during a Bible study, Maher was profoundly struck by John 17:21, often called “The High Priestly Prayer of Jesus.” There, Christ prays, “that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”

“Something really broke in my heart for that prayer that hadn’t before, particularly around the unity of Christians,” Maher said. “I realized the way I could comply with Jesus in this prayer is through my music. Music has the ability to create common ground. I realized that’s part of my calling.”

Communion, or unity, is a theme that permeates all of Maher’s life, not the least of which is his marriage. He tied the knot in 2010 with Kristin Fisher, a non-Catholic. Residing in Nashville, the Mahers attend both a Catholic and a nondenominational church but are raising their three children Catholic.
“We’re dedicated to this pursuit of unity and relational reconciliation within the church,” Maher said. “My music is just an extension of that.”

Harmonized priorities

Balancing both a music career that demands touring with raising a family, while challenging, is helped by his faith, which puts things into perspective. The Christian view of life is that of being on pilgrimage from earth to heaven, Maher said. Within that, life is made up of seasons.

“This period of life as a touring artist, singersongwriter, it’s a season. And I hold it very loosely,” he said. “I don’t want to end up in the position of having built a mountain for God at the expense of ignoring my vocation as a husband and father.”

The Scriptures, the sacraments, the rhythm of the liturgical calendar, the rosary, the Ignatian exercises of daily examen and discernment, help keep him grounded.

“The Gospel comes to bring comfort to the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. I hope my music creates an atmosphere for that to happen,” Maher said. “All art has the opportunity to reflect the transcendentals—truth, beauty, and goodness. I hope my music does that.”

Maher is looking forward to the Sept. 16-18 Legatus Summit West in Scottsdale, AZ, where he will share his music and stories about the action of God in his life.

“At gatherings like this God has multiple things He’s doing— He’s changing our hearts and He’s also rallying His followers for multiple purposes,” Maher said. “I hope the weekend helps bring about a change for everyone there.”

ROXANNE KING is a Legatus magazine contributing writer from Denver.