Phil Keaggy talks Jesus Music roots, Guns N’ Roses riff, 'Reagan' director's cut: ‘Our main mission’ was the Gospel
After more than five decades of recording music and more than 60 albums, legendary guitarist Phil Keaggy experienced something new when he sat in a movie theater and heard his guitar playing on the big screen.
Keaggy’s rendition of the iconic guitar riff from Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” is featured in “Reagan,” the Dennis Quaid-led biographical drama currently playing in theaters in a director’s cut.
“It’s the first time in my entire long life that I heard my guitar playing in a movie featured on a big giant screen,” the 75-year-old two-time Grammy nominee told The Christian Post. “I just couldn’t believe it. I got goosebumps.”
The Nashville resident, who was inducted into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2007, said his involvement in the film grew out of his friendship with “Reagan” producer Mark Joseph, whom he met after endorsing one of Joseph’s books exploring rock ’n’ roll and faith.
Joseph eventually approached the “County Down” artist about recording the famous Guns N’ Roses riff for the film.
“He said, ‘Hey, you know this song, 'Sweet Child O’ Mine'? Love to have you playing that riff,’” Keaggy recalled.
Though familiar with the song, Keaggy went back and studied it closely before heading into his home studio with a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, the model famously associated with Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash.
“I got the lick down, I got the sound down,” he said.
Keaggy created a drum and bass track to accompany the guitar and initially recorded about a minute of music. Roughly a year later, Joseph asked him to add another 25 seconds.
The finished recording accompanies the fall of the Berlin Wall, a key sequence in the film, which follows Reagan from his childhood through Hollywood and politics to his two terms as the 40th president of the United States.
Keaggy called the Berlin Wall sequence “a peak moment in the film,” adding: “The good news is what works in freedom. I’m grateful to be associated with that story with just my guitar playing.”
For the famed musician, his work's appearance in the film is another milestone in a career that stretches back to the formative years of Christian rock.
A husband, father and grandfather, Keaggy reflected on how he rose to prominence as a member of the rock band Glass Harp before establishing himself as one of Christian music’s most influential guitarists. He became a Christian in 1970, when the Jesus Movement was giving rise to a new generation of artists combining rock with evangelism.
“Those were my favorite years. … There was no CCM so-called industry at the time,” he said. “This was still called Jesus Music.”
Keaggy recalled developing friendships with artists including Love Song, Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill and Paul Clark and performing alongside them at concerts where the focus was purely on evangelism.
“We weren’t guaranteed a paycheck necessarily,” he said. “Our main mission was to just, with our generation, share the Gospel, the good news of Jesus.”
Keaggy recorded his first solo album, What a Day, in January 1973, a project that remains particularly meaningful to him because of the testimonies he has heard from listeners over the decades.
“I feel, even to this day, it’s probably the album I’ve done that I feel has God’s anointing on it because people have gotten saved through that record,” he said.
Keaggy also toured with Love Song in 1973 and later recorded with 2nd Chapter of Acts and Matthew Ward. In November 1971, Glass Harp opened for the Kinks at Carnegie Hall, where Keaggy publicly proclaimed his faith before a sold-out audience.
During another tour that year, Keaggy said he encountered a man working as a master of ceremonies at a venue where Glass Harp was performing. The man turned out to be a drug dealer, and the two began talking privately during a break. Keaggy shared his testimony with him, and the man began to weep. Later, he became a pastor, and the two remained friends decades later.
“We were so alive in those days,” he said.
Since then, the Christian music landscape has changed considerably. But the veteran musician stressed that the movement's evangelistic emphasis has disappeared entirely.
Keaggy praised artists including Lauren Daigle, Michael W. Smith and for KING & COUNTRY, among others, for continuing to stand for Jesus and encourage others to follow Him boldly.
“I think that we’re getting back to what’s most important, though, in these times,” he said. “I think there’s also a real hunger among young people to get into the Bible.”
“The Bible is God’s love story to us,” he continued. “It’s factual, it’s historical, it’s real, it’s not slick and clean. … It’s the power of the Spirit behind the words that convicts the heart and shows a person who is lost that they can be found."
Keaggy has operated largely outside the Christian music industry for more than two decades, becoming an independent artist in 2002. Still, he continues to record and produce music from his own studio, though he no longer has the touring schedule of his younger years.
“I don’t sell gold records. I don’t sell thousands of records,” he said. “I sell to, thank God, maybe a few hundred, but that makes me happy, … just to be able to share my music and still make the kind of music that I hope touches people’s hearts.”
His recent work includes the vocal album Things of Heaven and Super Sessions. Keaggy said he also recently contributed guitar to Rick Lee James’ song “Heaven Is Full of Criminals.”
Keaggy, whom Rolling Stone named among the “25 Most Underrated Guitarists,” estimated he has recorded more than 60 albums over his career, roughly half in his own studio.
Despite his reputation as a guitarist, Keaggy has tried throughout his career not to let acclaim for his musicianship overshadow its purpose.
When Keaggy was a 12-year-old aspiring guitarist, his father gave him advice: “Now, son, remember, guitar players are a dime a dozen.”
“I never forgot that,” the artist said, adding that after becoming a Christian, that advice took on a whole new meaning.
“I just didn’t want to have a big head about being a guitar player,” he said. “I just wanted to communicate God’s love and the enjoyment of music and the sweetness of melody.”
More than five decades later, Keaggy said he remains grateful that people are still listening and for what God has done through his art.
“I just feel humbled that I’ve been recognized to a certain extent,” he said. “And that makes me feel very grateful.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
