Travis Greene – Student Becomes The Master

CCM: I’m assuming you’ve had the chance to meet and perform alongside so many of those influences that you had growing up.
TG: Yeah, I know ’em all now, which is crazy. [Laughs]

CCM: Do you remember those moments when you first interacted with them?
TG: Oh, yeah, you’re talking about some of the biggest moments of my life. I mean, there’s salvation, marriage, kids and then this is right up there in the top five for me. I remember every individual encounter very vividly—where I was, how old I was, what I said. Each one of them was a defining moment for me in some way.

What was cool about the majority of them, especially Kirk [Franklin] and John P. Kee specifically, was that they showed me a lot of love before anything took off. They were really supportive and took time to talk to me. They treated me like they really believed I was going somewhere, long before my songs were on the radio or anything like that. So yes, I remember those moments very vividly.

I remember meeting Israel Houghton. We’re really close friends now and we talk often, but I met him when I was a teenager. I was still in college. He came to Savannah, Georgia, and I was a keyboard player for the church that sponsored the concert. I was close with the pastor’s son and the pastor himself is like a dad to me, so they let me hang in the green room. Israel treated me like I was someone, like I was “the man.” He remembered my name after meeting me when I left five-or-ten minutes later, and I’ll always remember that.

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