This is New Wisco Weekend, and I'm Lisa Hale.
If you have a hobby, we've shared why you probably have to have some passion around
it.
But when it becomes your purpose, you're taking that hobby to a whole new level.
And Chris Hendrix understands using his passion to tell some incredible stories through
his songs.
And yes, it's now his purpose.
He recently joined the Mino in the Mayor's Show.
Here's a part of that interview and some music from the Chris Hendrix experience.
I have been singing since I was four years old.
You know, ever since I was a kid, I wanted to use music to amplify the voices of people
that have to wear their scars on the outside.
So for those of you who can't see me right now is diagnosed with something called cerebral
palsy.
When I was four right around the time I started singing, and it's been a beautiful marriage
ever since, because I've always used songs to sort of share my story and connect people
at the same time.
And I started doing music professionally right around the time I was a senior in college.
And I got really, really lucky early on.
Things kind of just took off, and I went from playing in coffee shops to traveling around
from all over my home state in North Carolina to New York and Los Angeles and Canada and
a little bit of Europe.
And I probably one of my luckiest breaks is one of the songs that I wrote got to be the
theme song of the Carolina hurricane.
Of the NHL.
Of the NHL for a couple of years, 2012 and 2013 season.
And it was really magical.
I had a very charming, very charismatic, very driven manager at the time who basically
walked in to the office without permission and threw our album down on the table and said,
there's two songs on here that'll blow your mind and are perfect for your team.
You don't like it, throw it out.
Wow.
That's awesome.
Okay, he got a call and they said, congratulations, you were absolutely right.
And here we are.
I've been using that open door to spread this message of positivity and possibility ever
since.
If you don't mind me hitting on that a little bit, I can't even imagine being four or five
years old and you're getting that diagnosis, of course, and it's good to be a lifetime
thing.
Would have been easy to just kind of the woe is me kind of thing.
And you went just the opposite way.
Tell me where that came from.
I got to give my mother also a ton of credit, right?
So I had, you know, doctors and nurses early on in my life telling me how hard things were
going to be.
And yeah, it's it's cliche to go sort of the inspirational route, but I'm going to take
a little bit of a left turn here and just say not necessarily inspiration, but there are
so many gifts that come along with wearing your scars on the outside that are not often
showcased that goes way beyond like better parking.
Like I will always park closer than you ever will no matter who you are.
And but, but, you know, beyond that, you know, the music industry is a jungle and you
got to cut through so much BS in the industry.
And one way to cut through that is to, you know, be memorable whether you like it or not,
right?
And, you know, when I show up in a room, whether I wanted attention or not, I always sort
of had this magnetic scar, right?
That sort of drew people's eyes in my direction.
And if I wanted to sing and tell my story anyway, the combination of those two things,
you know, led to a sense of passion and purpose.
And so it was this beautiful conglomeration of everything I always wanted to do and be.
And I would not have had any of that had I not been been born this way.
Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Hendrick's band, Hike's Pub and Parlor Music City.
All right, y'all, this is my life story in three minutes.
It's called Affliction.
I hope you like it.
Come here, what's bothering you?
I ain't said no, mom and no, won't you leave me be she's since son?
You know better than the light of me, didn't they hurt you, boy?
No, no, no, no, didn't they hurt you, boy?
No, no, no, didn't they mock you, boy?
No, no, no, no, no, what's that problem there?
Well, my it's gotta be mine.
Affliction.
Let's rewind the clock, maybe eight months ago, when the tracks in my tears were begging for us to know.
My angel, my angel, what are you doing this for?
And she said, I don't know, baby, I don't love you no more.
It's the way you dress, oh why, oh why, it's the way you dance.
Oh why, oh why, it's the way you move, oh why, oh why, doesn't matter so much.
Well, yeah, it's gotta be mine.
Affliction.
The devil that you once told me, might stop this message, son, I said, didn't you hear it?
Thank you for being a part of New Wisco Weekend, the DIY hobbies and crafts issue.
New Wisco Weekend is produced and written by Terry Barr and Lisa Hale.
Our executive producer is Todd Michaels, directed by Lisa Hale.
Our lead correspondent is Terry Barr, with features from Conrad Krieger, Brittany Murlow,
Pete Schwabba and our commentator Amanda Nimmer, special assistance this week by John Kramer.
If you have a story you'd like to hear covered, please feel free to email me anytime,
Lisa.Hale at civicmedia.us.
I'm civic media Northeast Wisconsin Bureau Chief Lisa Hale for WISS and WGBW News.
The Unstoppable.
