More Cowbell Please: CCM Stories

Bob Farrell — one half of the husband-and-wife duo Farrell & Farrell — passed away on July 11, 2026. He was one of Contemporary Christian Music's most gifted and innovative songwriters, leaving behind a catalog that stretches from synth-pop CCM classics like "People in a Box" and "Get Right or Get Left" to songs recorded by Eric Clapton, Amy Grant, Sandi Patty, Wynonna, Michael W. Smith, and dozens more.This is our tribute to Bob — his story, his music, and his faith.We cover:- His upbringing in Lubbock, Texas — down the alley from Buddy Holly- A marriage that nearly ended before it began — and the conversion that changed everything- How Farrell & Farrell pioneered synth-pop in Christian music alongside DeGarmo & Key- The Soviet Union tour — 25,000 people a night in Moscow and Leningrad, one year before the Wall came down- 40+ Sandi Patty cuts, the London Symphony Orchestra, and a rock opera with Eddie DeGarmo- What Bob said he wanted to be remembered for — in his own wordsI had the privilege of having Bob record in my studio around 2003. This one is personal.Rest well, Bob. The seeds you planted are still growing.
0:00 Introduction — The Man Who Almost Wasn't
0:38 Growing Up in Lubbock — Buddy Holly's Neighbor
1:32 The Marriage Crisis & Dallas
1:55 The Kitchen Table Conversion
3:13 Farrell & Farrell — The Sound They Built
3:51 Synth Pop Pioneers — The Thomas Dolby Moment
4:56 People in a Box & The Baskin-Robbins Era of CCM
5:49 The Songwriter Behind a Hundred Songs
7:40 Jesus Christ Superstar, Hero & My Studio Session
8:38 Touring the Soviet Union — Behind the Iron Curtain
10:04 What He Wanted to Be Remembered For
10:39 Jane — The Glue That Held It All Together
11:41 The Legacy
12:28 A Final Word — In Bob's Own Voice━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ More Cowbell Please is a channel dedicated to the stories, artists, and moments that shaped Contemporary Christian Music.New episodes every week.Subscribe → https://www.youtube.com/@morecowbellpleasepodcast?sub_confirmation=1━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#FarrellandFarrell #BobFarrell #CCM #christianmusic ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━SOURCES & FURTHER LISTENINGBob Farrell interviewed on CCM LegacyCAST (2024):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOFkupu-dQMBob Farrell interviewed on Music for the Soul podcast:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyY5QLyrcSEBob Farrell's personal video channel:https://www.youtube.com/@bobfarrell2941Bob Farrell's original YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/@SPARKYNBCBob Farrell's final personal video ("I Will Be"):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GodiVbEWlOAFarrell & Farrell official website:https://www.farrellandfarrell.netCCM Magazine tribute:https://www.ccmmagazine.comCCM Classic — Farrell & Farrell artist page:https://www.ccmclassic.com/artist/farrell-and-farrell━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Get vidIQ to grow your channel faster! 🚀https://vidiq.com/morecowbell

Stacey Wilbur has spent over thirty years in Nashville doing
a job most music fans have never heard of — song plugging.
Her role: find the right song, fight for it, and get it into
the hands of the artist who will make it a hit.

She helped launch Worship Together. She championed Laura
Story's "Blessings" when the label wasn't sure it should
make the record. She worked alongside future stars before
the world knew their names. And today she heads publishing
for TIM — the company founded by Chris Tomlin and Jason
Ingram, two of the most recorded songwriters in Christian
music history.

In this conversation, Stacey takes us from a small town
in Michigan — where a poster of Wynonna Judd on her bedroom
wall sparked a dream — all the way to the rooms where
Christian music's biggest songs are pitched, fought for,
and sometimes saved from the cutting room floor.

She talks about a stranger who prophesied over her in a
restaurant before she was even a Christian. About losing
her job, hearing God say "be still," and what happened
the very next day when she wrote a name on a piece of paper.

She tells us about a CEO who didn't have to say anything —
and chose to anyway.

This is one of the most honest, funny, and quietly
remarkable conversations we've had on More Cowbell Please.

Stacey Wilbur / Head of Publishing, TIM Publishing
Instagram: @staceyswilbur

More Cowbell Please is a podcast exploring the stories,
faith, and people behind Contemporary Christian Music.
Hosted by Grammy-winning mix engineer Ainslie Grosser.

Topics in this episode: Christian music industry, song
plugging, music publishing Nashville, CCM history,
Worship Together, Chris Tomlin, Laura Story Blessings,
Mandisa, TIM Publishing, Brentwood Benson, EMI Christian,
Capitol Christian Music Group, Bill Hearn, Billy Ray Hearn,
Sparrow Records, faith and work, Nashville music careers.

Chapters
0:00 The people behind the songs you love
0:53 Meet Stacey Wilbur
1:35 Small town girl with a big dream
4:51 The prophecy at the restaurant
5:34 October 2nd — getting saved
7:57 615 Music Row — how she got in the door
8:50 The Avalon audition
11:26 Worship Together / Chris Tomlin / Matt Redman
11:46 What is a song plugger?
12:50 The Busby & Daughtry story
15:15 "It's me" — pitching herself to Gary Overton
16:41 Honky Tonk Badonkadonk
17:43 Brentwood Benson — "All the writers say hire you"
19:05 Chris Sligh / Rascal Flatts / Cracker Barrel
22:16 Losing the job — the wilderness season
24:13 Who was Bill Hearn?
25:19 "I know what happened to you. You matter."
25:35 Seth Mosley texts the next day
26:27 The panic attack (and what happened next)
27:01 TIM Publishing — Chris Tomlin's crazy idea
27:52 Steffany Gretzinger walks in
30:09 The Charlie Kirk Memorial
30:34 iTunes Top 10 worldwide — God is moving
33:32 Laura Story "Blessings"
35:41 "I mixed that record"
36:37 Advice — dream big
37:50 Be yourself / the Brian Johnson line
38:50 God's strategies > AI strategies
39:25 The magnificent defeat
40:47 Outro

The Newsboys have filed a sweeping 204-page federal antitrust and defamation lawsuit in Nashville — and the defendant list will stop you in your tracks.

Wes Campbell and the Newsboys are suing The Roys Report, journalist Jessica Morris (a previous guest on this podcast), MercyMe and all five band members individually, Micah Tyler, World Vision, and a Netherlands-based private equity firm called Waterland — along with the three major Christian concert promoters they allegedly acquired to form a monopoly.

I break it down block by block — no opinion, just the facts as alleged in the public filing.

KEY POINTS COVERED:
- Who the plaintiffs are
- All four defendant groups explained in plain English
- The $50 million deal at the center of the antitrust claim
- The three Fargo claims the complaint makes against TRR and Jessica Morris
- Why the timing — 14 days after police closed the Tait criminal case — matters
- Jessica Morris's Instagram response
- What this lawsuit is NOT (it is not a trial of Michael Tait)

Full complaint available at newsboyslawsuit.com and tcalawsuit.com. Case number 3:26-cv-00484, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee.

All information sourced from publicly filed court documents and established reporting. These are allegations. All parties are presumed innocent.

More Cowbell Please covers CCM stories with depth and integrity.

What does it take to mix five number one records on one album — without ever moving to Nashville?Nick Rad has been doing exactly that from Milwaukee, Wisconsin for over two decades.He started as the drummer in Christian punk band Hangnail on Tooth and Nail Records — touring with Stavesacre and Ghoti Hook, recording at the legendary Blasting Room with Bill Stevenson, and watching a young Aaron Sprinkle record what became one of Christian music's most beloved songs at 1:30 in the morning.Then he walked away from being an artist — and built something extraordinary behind the desk instead.8 Grammy nominations. Credits on records by Toby Mac, Skillet, Matthew West, Rachel Platten, Melissa Etheridge, MisterWives, Leanna Crawford and more. Five number one songs on Toby Mac's Life After Death — the most personal record TobyMac has ever made.All from Wisconsin.In this conversation we talk about:→ The Hangnail and Acceptance years on Tooth and Nail→ The session that almost changed everything (and the one he almost missed entirely)→ How he built a world-class mixing career without moving to Music City→ Mixing Toby Mac's grief — and what it means to serve an artist through loss→ His philosophy on mixing, references, and why the word "organic" drives him crazy→ What he'd tell every young engineer coming upThis is one of my favourite conversations I've had on More Cowbell Please. I think you're going to love Nick Rad.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ CHAPTERS0:00 Introduction1:12 How Nick Rad Got Hooked on Music2:24 Forming Hangnail & Getting Signed to Tooth and Nail Records3:49 Touring the Christian Music Festival Circuit5:37 Joining Acceptance & Learning From Aaron Sprinkle8:04 Recording With Rebecca St. James9:51 The End of Acceptance & Finding Faith12:35 Starting a Mixing Career in Milwaukee13:30 Landing First Clients (Including Skillet's Ben Kasica)15:39 Moving to LA — and Moving Back Again17:47 Mixing Melissa Etheridge18:45 Networking & The Fallout Boy Story22:03 Mixing Toby Mac's Life After Death23:29 Working With Skillet24:31 Faith in the Music Industry25:01 Does Location Matter? Milwaukee vs Nashville28:17 Learning the Craft & Hearing Your Mix on the Radio30:54 Revision Counts & Serving the Artist32:26 Nick's Studio Setup & Gear33:42 Plugins, Workflow & Mixing In the Box39:44 How to Get the Best From Your Mix Engineer41:38 Nick Rad's Mixing Philosophy44:45 Mix Prep & The Sonic Revelation That Changed Everything48:15 How to Turn Off the Engineer Brain50:03 Closing Thoughts━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎛️ Find Nick Rad:Website: nickrad.comInstagram: @nicrad and @nickradovanovic━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━More Cowbell Please is positive Christian music stories — for CCM fans and the people who make the music.🎧ALL EPISODES:.https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBt6FZ88v_g64fr3KfLjQgPIM0vUYRZy9PODCAST:Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0v9dEeIH0OeP1chxSfQ7gj?si=d0HmJihHTjGhiEuwP8cYewListen on Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/more-cowbell-please/id1796605641Get vidIQ to grow your channel faster! 🚀https://vidiq.com/morecowbell

(Reposted - spotify issue!)
Was Steve Taylor the greatest lyricist contemporary Christian music ever produced? We think so — and in this episode of More Cowbell Please, we make the case.
We attended a recent Steve Taylor concert and came away convinced this man never got the tribute he deserved. So here it is. From his origins as a preacher's kid in Northglenn, Colorado — forbidden from listening to secular music until his mid-teens — to hearing The Clash at Biola University and changing CCM forever, this is the full Steve Taylor story.

We cover:
✅ His biography and origin story
✅ The songs that rattled the church — Guilty By Association, We Don't Need No Color Code, I Want to Be a Clone, Meltdown at Madame Tussauds, On the Fritz and more
✅ His role shaping the Newsboys' greatest era
✅ Founding Squint Entertainment and launching Sixpence None the Richer
✅ His film career including Blue Like Jazz
✅ The Dead Sea Squirrels — his new animated series with VeggieTales co-creator Mike Nawrocki
✅ Concert footage including the band — Peter Furler (Newsboys), Mark Lee Townsend and John Mark Painter
✅ Why CCM needs more voices like his today

Whether you grew up on 80s Christian music, work in the CCM industry, or you're just discovering Steve Taylor for the first time — this one's for you.
🎵 Songs Featured:Guilty By Association | We Don't Need No Color Code | On the Fritz | Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's | Dead Sea Squirrels Theme

🎸 Band: Steve Taylor | Peter Furler | Mark Lee Townsend | John Mark Painter | Caroline Francis | Kelle | Libby Cates | Kennoniah Dean Bellile
📺
0:00 Cold Open — "We Don't Need No Color Code"
0:26 Introduction
1:21 Origins — Preacher's Kid from Colorado
1:47 Discovering The Clash & New Wave
2:55 The Estes Park Signing
3:28 First Record Release
3:47 CCM in the Early 80s — The Landscape
4:38 "I Want to Be a Clone"
5:14 "This Disco Used to Be a Nice Cathedral"
6:08 "On the Fritz"
6:39 "I Blew Up the Clinic Real Good"
7:15 The Controversy & His Critics
7:32 "Guilty By Association" (Live)
8:50 "We Don't Need No Color Code" (Live)
9:54 "Whatcha Gonna Do When Your Number's Up"
10:22 "Sin for a Season"
10:39 "Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's" (Live)
11:04 The "Some Band" Lineup
11:31 Peter Furler
11:54 Steve Taylor & the Newsboys
12:25 The Iconic Suit & the Museum of CCM
13:10 Chagall Guevara1
3:35 Squint Entertainment1
3:54 Blue Like Jazz & Film Career
14:05 The Dead Sea Squirrels
15:53 The Randy Newman Moment (Live)
16:39 "Hero" & the Woody Allen Story
17:28 Steve Taylor's Legacy
18:04 Where to Find Steve's Music
🎧ALL EPISODES:.https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBt6FZ88v_g64fr3KfLjQgPIM0vUYRZy9PODCAST:Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/0v9dEeIH0OeP1chxSfQ7gj?si=d0HmJihHTjGhiEuwP8cYewListen on Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/more-cowbell-please/id1796605641