Steven Curtis Chapman is not going to retire from playing music—ever. The highly-awarded Christian musician says that he expects to be playing music even when he is 95.
“The idea that I’d ever put my guitar in the case for the last time and go, ‘Well, you know, I’m retired’—I can’t imagine that,” Chapman said in an interview with Christian Headlines.
Steven Curtis Chapman: ‘I Still Love It So Much’
Steven Curtis Chapman, who turns 61 on Nov. 21, has a career spanning over three decades that features collaborations with artists including Amy Grant, MercyMe, Casting Crowns, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, and CeCe Winans.
RELATED: CeCe Winans: This Is How God Led Me and My Husband to Plant a Church
Chapman has won five Grammy Awards and 59 Dove Awards, according to his website. Moreover, he has been nominated for 18 Grammy Awards, won an American Music Award, and has 10 RIAA-certified Gold or Platinum albums. With the release of his song, “Don’t Lose Heart,” Chapman recently celebrated having 50 No. 1 singles in his genre and is the first contemporary Christian artist to accomplish that feat.
“I’m completely blown away by the support for this song and for my music, even after so many years. To ever have a number one song at radio as an artist/songwriter is a dream come true, and to have fifty is simply unbelievable!” said Chapman in a statement. “This only happens because of an amazing team and a community of friends around me who have believed in the unbelievable. I’m grateful and humbled beyond words.”
In March, to celebrate achieving 50 No. 1 singles, Chapman began posting videos of himself on social media singing the choruses of each single, starting with “His Eyes,” his first No. 1 song from his 1988 album, “Real Life Conversations.”
Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth, who recently celebrated 39 years of marriage, have three biological children and three children by adoption. Their daughter, Maria Sue Chunxi, died in 2008, a tragedy Chapman has spoken about publicly. “It’s been 14 years of a journey with my family of grief and questions and confusion and anger and God are we going to survive this?” Chapman said in an “I Am Second” video in 2022. “How are we going to survive this?”
“For a guy who’s a fixer, to ultimately face the most unfixable thing you could ever imagine as a parent, as a husband,” he continued, “How am I going to lead my family through this, knowing that most marriages and families don’t survive the loss of a child because grief and that kind of grief is so devastating?”
The Chapmans are outspoken proponents of adoption. Not only are they adoptive parents but they have also authored several books relating to the topic. In 2003, they founded Show Hope, “a nonprofit organization that helps restore the hope of a family to orphans.”
