{"id":1049,"date":"2012-04-14T00:00:30","date_gmt":"2012-04-14T04:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/wholenotes\/?p=1049"},"modified":"2012-04-14T00:11:43","modified_gmt":"2012-04-14T04:11:43","slug":"whole-notes-flashback-bear-rinehart-of-needtobreathe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2012\/04\/whole-notes-flashback-bear-rinehart-of-needtobreathe.html","title":{"rendered":"Whole Notes Flashback: Bear Rinehart of needtobreathe"},"content":{"rendered":"

When needtobreathe first hit the scene in 2006, I had the chance to interview lead singer Bear Rinehart about the band’s beginnings and how he and his brother Bo were impacted by their unique childhood experiences. Now, after steadily growing into a general market force, needtobreathe is walking through huge doors that include last year’s touring stint with Taylor Swift and regular television appearances on shows like “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Late Show with David Letterman” and “Conan.”<\/p>\n

But the Christian industry has also embraced this artistically pleasing band from South Carolina with six Dove Awards and three more nominations for 2012. Here’s that 2006 interview with Rinehart:<\/p>\n

Chad Bonham: Tell me about your upbringing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bear Rinehart: Bo and I grew up in the boonies in a town called Possum Kingdom, South Carolina where my parents were the caretakers of a youth camp. So many kids came over the summer. It impacted who we were culturally. Even though we were in the South, kids came from all over to the camp which was a really good influence. It was a very diverse group of kids. It definitely impacted how we saw the world and how we related that to music.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How did being around the youth camp environment impact you?<\/p>\n

Rinehart: It\u2019s such a meaningful time for people. It\u2019s almost like half the people you meet got saved at Christian camp. It was a powerful time to see people\u2019s lives changed in a matter of a couple of days or a week. That was also a positive influence on us.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Talk about your parents\u2019 music background and how that impacted your music.<\/p>\n

Rinehart: My mom was a piano teacher and my dad traveled with country artists and southern gospel artists like Roy Clark, Glen Campbell and the Gaithers. He was actually on the old show \u201cHee Haw.\u201d So music was important. It wasn\u2019t just something you did for entertainment. I think we really learned to appreciate music in that way. We also learned a lot from our dad when we working on getting record deal. He told us we needed to get our degrees before we could go travel full-time.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Tell me about your football playing days at Furman.<\/p>\n

Rinehart: At school there was a big triangle between academics, football and music. Academics definitely took the back seat. I did finish school and everything was fine but we have lots of stories from college. Football had to be my number one priority because it was paying for school but I would leave games sometimes on Saturday and drive three hours to play a show that night. The guys at Furman allowed me some leeway. They were all understanding of the long hair and the way I dressed. Football practice would end around 7:30 p.m. I drove an hour to Seneca to practice with the band. We\u2019d practice from 8:30 until 2 in the morning, then I\u2019d drive back to school, get up for workouts at 5:30 in the morning and then crash before going to classes.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What are your thoughts on the Christian music industry and why did you opt to pursue a mainstream deal?<\/p>\n

Rinehart: We grew up in the Christian market. We have nothing against it. We like it. If anything, I think it was a risk going into the Christian market even though we had a secular deal. We\u2019re just being who we are. We\u2019re all Christian guys. Those kinds of things come across in the songs. Without us having an agenda, I think these songs naturally flow out of us. These are things we really believe. Hopefully those things do come across on the record. The point of this band is not to fulfill some sort of Christian agenda or a sub-culture agenda. That\u2019s not what we\u2019re trying to do. But it doesn\u2019t take very long for people to figure out that something\u2019s different. Hopefully that will be the kind of testimony that this band has. I think that\u2019s the only way to be relevant in the secular market today. A lot of people do want to believe in something but they can smell inconsistency a mile away. They totally see through that.<\/p>\n

Bonham: How does co-writing with your brother make a difference in the final product?<\/p>\n

Rinehart: It\u2019s been a big benefit for us because we\u2019re not soft on the songs. We went into this record with 60 songs and we got it down to 11. It\u2019s a knockdown drag out but usually that\u2019s what separates the good songs from the not-so-great ones. I always tell the band, it\u2019s easy to make a good song great. It\u2019s impossible to make a bad song good. That process is made a lot easier for us because we\u2019re so hard on the songs.<\/p>\n

Bonham: What is the general theme that tends to come out of your music?<\/p>\n

Rinehart: I would say its encouragement. We always feel like one decision can change your life and you can make that decision at any time. It can happen this minute. Everybody makes decisions everyday that affect their life in a negative or positive way. Those decisions really do have big affects even if they feel like their small and now\u2019s the time to make that decision.<\/p>\n

Bonham: Is there any concern that you will get labeled as the \u201cChristian rock guys\u201d out there on the road in the mainstream venues?<\/p>\n

Rinehart: There\u2019s always a more artistic and a smarter version of you that you\u2019re always worried about meeting. All of us are intelligent guys. We didn\u2019t get into this by being idiots. We are cultured. It is a little different when people do get to know us. Hopefully they see that we have thought these things out. Hopefully we\u2019re culturally relevant and we\u2019re not just walking around oblivious to what\u2019s going on in the world and using a bunch of Christian clich\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

Keep up with the latest from needtobreathe by visiting the band’s official website HERE<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When needtobreathe first hit the scene in 2006, I had the chance to interview lead singer Bear Rinehart about the band’s beginnings and how he and his brother Bo were impacted by their unique childhood experiences. Now, after steadily growing into a general market force, needtobreathe is walking through huge doors that include last year’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,120],"tags":[604,605,488,611,606,609,608,610,612,607,486],"class_list":["post-1049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-music","category-qa","tag-bear-rinehart","tag-bo-rinehart","tag-conan-obrien","tag-david-letterman","tag-furman-university","tag-gaithers","tag-glen-campbell","tag-hee-haw","tag-jay-leno","tag-roy-clark","tag-taylor-swift"],"yoast_head":"\nWhole Notes Flashback: Bear Rinehart of needtobreathe - Whole Notes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/2012\/04\/whole-notes-flashback-bear-rinehart-of-needtobreathe.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Whole Notes Flashback: Bear Rinehart of needtobreathe - Whole Notes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When needtobreathe first hit the scene in 2006, I had the chance to interview lead singer Bear Rinehart about the band’s beginnings and how he and his brother Bo were impacted by their unique childhood experiences. 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Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith & Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1049"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1053,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049\/revisions\/1053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/wholenotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}