Artical and Inverview completed by Midland Reporter Telegram, Kessly Salinas

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Grammy nominated recording artist Jeremy Camp will perform at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. this Saturday.

Camp is a Christian singer and songwriter from Lafayette, Indiana, and is currently on his Deeper Waters Tour, which includes performances of songs on his newest album, “Deeper Waters.”

Camp started playing guitar when he was 14, but he got his start in the music industry while he was in college. His life and faith have shaped his career by inspiring him to continue making music.

“When I was 18, I went to California and went to Bible College,” Camp told the Reporter-Telegram. “It was a really sweet time of growing spiritually. While I was there, I started playing at the school and at different churches.”

Camp then started playing at many different events around California and started to gain more attention.

Challenges

“I met my first wife, and she was diagnosed with cancer,” Camp said. “I wrote a lot of songs that were kind of birthed from that battle.”

Camp’s wife, Melissa Lynn Henning Camp, passed away three and a half months into their marriage.

“I remember the songs that came out were ‘I Still Believe’ and ‘Walk by Faith’ and all these different songs were the ones that I needed to hear,” Camp said. “It’s actually songs that God was giving me for my own healing and I’m so thankful for that.”

Camp poured his grief into his songwriting and his songs started opening doors for him, leading toward signing with a record label.

“I signed in 2002 and my first album came out that year,” Camp added. “It was really beautiful to see how God used those songs from my pain to comfort other people.”

Since then, Camp has made music full time, leading to the release of 12 albums. Throughout his career, he has amassed 44 No. 1 songs and eight No.1 albums. He has been an ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Award recipient four times, was named Billboard’s No. 2 Christian Artist of the Decade, and was a Grammy nominee.

“All your life, the Grammy Awards are like the big thing,” Camp said of his nomination. “I think that to me, it was a huge recognition of what God has done in my life. People are connecting to the music that has come out of it.”

His story was depicted into a 2020 film called “I Still Believe” by Lionsgate, starring KJ Apa, Britt Robertson, Shania Twain, Melissa Roxburgh and Gary Sinise.

Camp has also faced other challenges. Earlier this year, he had to undergo emergency heart surgery.

“I’ve always tried to be really healthy,” Camp explained. “I even take a Peloton on the road with be to try and be healthy, but there’s just things you can’t control.”

Camp had a heart arrhythmia known as afib, or atrial fibrillation, which is caused by extremely fast and irregular heartbeats.

“It was getting out of control and was at very high rates,” Camp said. “I couldn’t function very well, so I had to go in and get it fixed. It was scary, but I’ve learned that my life is not in my hands, it’s in God’s hands.”

Deeper Waters

Camp’s newest No. 1 album “Deeper Waters” was released on May 17 and topped the Billboard 200 Christian chart. The album was largely inspired by the singer’s life and faith.

Camp said that the past few years have been tough due to health and personal issues.

“I think for me, there was a brokenness because of all that,” Camp added. “In a way, I just cried out through the Lord in a huge way.”

He said that he wanted to dive deeper into his faith.

“The concept of deeper waters in surrender,” Camp explained. “I believe it’s not just like, I give up, for me it’s pressing forward and laying down things before the Lord and saying, ‘I can’t do this, but I take all these things and land at your feet.’”

He added that to him, surrender is to actively pursue a relationship with God.

“In this whole album, I think you can hear the angst of some of the pain of what I’ve been through the past few years, or the beauty of God and being faithful in the midst of that.”

Camp said that he’s excited to make a tour stop in Midland this Saturday.

“I’ve been in Midland and have performed at that theater before,” Camp said. “I’m excited to come back.”

Camp's songs can be streamed on YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify. Tickets to the Deeper Waters Tour can be found on the Wagner Noël’s website. The show starts at 7 p.m. and doors open at 6 p.m. Prices range from $20- $79.95. There will also be a post-show VIP Meet and Greet available for an additional $50.