Chris Tomlin was born on May 4th, 1972 in Grand Saline, Texas. When he was 11, Tomlin contracted infectious mononucleosis and was briefly bedridden. His father, Connie, brought him a guitar during this time, and Tomlin told us he learned to play to it by listening to Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Alabama records: "That was my early-early childhood music. I loved it. That's what my dad listened to, I just loved it. And so my first song I learned to play on guitar I think was 'Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,' or 'On the Road Again,' those kind of songs."
Tomlin is a strict Christian and has been a worship leader all his adult life. Tomlin currently works alongside Passion Conferences, a Christian organization founded by Louie Giglio and Jeff Lewis that is "committed to spreading the fame of Jesus Christ to 16+ million college students of the nation and boundless others around the globe."
In 2004, Tomlin released his breakthrough album, Arriving. This record produced four #1 singles: "Indescribable" (written by Laura Story), "Holy Is The Lord," "The Way I Was Made" and "How Great Is Our God." According to Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI), the latter track is the most popular worship song in the US today. In our interview, Tomlin told us he is continually surprised by the song's success: "I had no idea it would become such a song in the church, and a song that finds its way in so many different cultures, different languages. It's so transferable, so accessible. I had no idea that it would ever become that."
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