Kevin Max – ’00-Kevin’

CCM: You also covered “Red Letters” [dc Talk], which is akin to “Creed.” Was there any intention to the correlation of both of those songs being on the same album?
KM: Very cool. Yeah, Dan [Pitts] and I talked about it. I said, “Man, wouldn’t it be great for me to do a dc Talk song on this thing?” He asked, “Which one are you performing on your solo set on the cruise?” I said, “I’m not really doing any because the band is doing all the great songs.” I thought about it…. Then was like, “Which song would I want to do if I had the chance to do it?” It came down to “Red Letters” because that was one of those songs that I felt like really never got as big of a listen from the Supernatural (buy) as some of the other songs. I love the musicality of “Red Letters,” as well as the lyrics. We thought, “Hey, let’s tackle this. Let’s try to make it sound like a James Bond soundtrack.” That’s what came out.

CCM: We’d love to know, from one of the sources, the genesis behind the whole cruise-thing…
KM: [The idea] was told to me after it had come up through Toby and management and a few other people. They asked Michael and I what we thought. At the time, and I still do, I think it’s brilliant because it’s a great way to be able to come back after a long period of time and not have to throw a bunch of pressure on ourselves to come up with a full show, production, new album and everything.

The cruise scenarios are great because the production is limited. It’s very intimate. The sound quality is always great. It’s just a great place to entertain and put a package together. When I saw everybody [posting on social media, etc.] immediately responding with, “Oh, man, this is going to be the only thing they ever do…this stinks.” I kind-of wanted to respond with, “Hey, you guys have to realize, you’ve been waiting for fifteen years. At least this is the beginning of something, as opposed to nothing at all.”

I joked around on social media a little bit because I got why people were frustrated, but from my point of view, it’s literally an opening door. Since talk of this started, I have always thought that it would be the catalyst that could open the doors for other things. I’ve always been really hopeful about it. We’ll see what happens after this. It’s got to start somewhere. Why not out on the sea in the Bahamas? Maybe we’ll hit the Bermuda Triangle and never be heard of again [laughs]. Who knows?

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