“You’re always just one decision away from a completely different life. Your one decision to read your kid a bedtime story every night. Your one decision to coach his or her t-ball teams. We have no idea how momentous the impact of one decision can be in life.”
—Kurtis Parks
Today’s story is from Kurtis Parks.
Meet my dad, Terry Parks. The pastor. The dreamer. The deal maker?
Kurtis and his dad Terry today.
I stared back at him, dumbfounded by the suggestion…I was 11 years old! I shrugged it off. “No thanks, Dad.” Not a chance. Only thing I cared about was how to throw a better curve ball. But dad already knew that…
“Ten bucks a week for an hour of piano every day…deal?” Ten bucks a week?! Whoa. Some serious coin. Visions of gigantic overflowing Slurpees and mountainous stacks of baseball cards encircled my head.
An hour a day? No sweat. I’d fake my way through it. Dad would never know. I took the deal. It was my one decision.
At first…hated it! Chords? Notes? Scales? Ten bucks a week started to feel a bit light for this type of mental labor. Did my own father swindle me?
But I had to bite the bullet. A deal’s a deal. Sixty agonizing minutes a day, seven days a week, for months. And then, one day, it just happened.
Five generations — Kurtis is the baby,
his dad just to the left
A year passed. I began to practice on my own. An hour wasn’t enough. Then two years more. Told dad to keep the money. Music had become my reward.
Wrote my first original song at 13. Joined my first band at 14. Guitar and bass at 15, and mandolin at 17. It was my path…and dad was watching every step of the way.
When I look back now…twelve-hundred original songs penned, Contemporary Christian charts climbed…American Idol, CNN, NBC, Fox Morning Show…
I just think of my dad, and what he must have been thinking when he convinced me to make that one decision.
Based in Washington DC, Kurtis just finished recording his 2nd worship EP with acclaimed Nashville producer and friend, Akil Thompson. He was a finalist in VH1’s Song of the Year competition for his inspirational tune “Everything that You Are.” Kurtis also gained national exposure through American Idol’s fourth season, where he climbed to the top 50 finalists.
After Idol, he joined forces with longtime friend and guitarist Josh Kim to form “the Season.” The Season has been featured nationally on CNN, NBC, and the Fox Morning show, with Kurtis’ song “Forever Changed,” written for the Virginia Tech families that were affected by tragedy of April 16, 2007. The song was one of the first ever to reach 1 on a top 40 radio format from an independent artist, and was the most requested song of the year on Roanoke, VA’s popular K92 Radio.
Kurtis Parks and his wife Sarah on their wedding day,
a joyous decision!