Matthew West just released a new version of his recent No. 1 hit, “Me On Your Mind,” this one featuring Anne Wilson! The “My Jesus” singer penned the song with West and songwriter Jeff Pardo.
“I’ve written a lot of songs these past couple of years with my friends Anne Wilson and Jeff Pardo for Anne’s debut record. Together we’ve experienced a special creative connection that’s not always easy to find,” West explains. “I had this idea for a song called ‘Me on Your Mind,’ that was rolling around in my head the whole time we were writing another song one day.
“As we finished that song and Anne began heading for the door, I told them about this other idea,” he continues. “She sat back down and we wrote a song that makes me cry every time I sing it! It was only fitting to put a version out featuring my friend, collaborator, and incredibly talented young artist, Anne Wilson. I am so excited for people to hear her voice on this!”
West previously said that “Me On Your Mind” was written for himself too, and the insecurities he sometimes wrestles with.
“I think a lot of times I sing in a lot of songs and tell people, ‘Hey, God loves you,’ but sometimes what I forget about is this fact that God likes us too,” West tells Everything Nash. “And sometimes I think that’s harder to believe, because a lot of times I look in the mirror and I don’t really like what I see. I think ‘God, are you sure? Are You sure You still love me, and You like me?’ I’m reminded when I open scripture that the Bible says I’m fearfully and wonderfully made that, that God said, ‘I know the plans I have for you.’ I was His idea and I’m on His mind.”
The father of two recently dropped another single, “How Good of God.”
“One day during the height of the pandemic my wife noticed a piece of paper on the nightstand next to my daughter’s bed,” West recalled. “She had written a list of everything that was going wrong in our world at the time. My wife showed the list to me and it broke our hearts to think that our little girl is going to bed with so much bad news on her mind. So, the next day we decided we would sit down together as a family and make a different kind of list.
“We took turns talking about something good in our lives, something we are thankful for, something that brings us joy,” he continued. “The craziest thing happened! That list we made was much longer than the list of troubles. That experience inspired me to sit down and write ‘How Good of God.’”
West is nominated for seven Dove Awards, including as a songwriter for two Song of the Year nominations, both for Wilson’s “My Jesus” and for Tasha Layton’s “Look What You’ve Done.”
West will headline his own A Night of Worship at the Mother Church with Matthew West and Friends at the Ryman Auditorium on August 21. Tickets are available at Ryman.com. Download or stream West and Wilson’s version of “Me On Your Mind” here. All of West’s music and tour dates can be found at MatthewWest.com.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Elicity Public Relations