Phil Wickham Keeps Worship Simple During Upcoming Tour
By Movieguide® Contributor
Worship artist Phil Wickham is gearing up for a tour in 2025 that’ll sound different than most.
He will team up with other artists like Cody Carnes and Kristian Stanfill for his “Singalong” tour, and he’s sticking to simple worship — no backing tracks, no loud vocals, no drums, just Wickham with his guitar.
“There’s something in honesty, and in me not being to hide behind anything — all I’ve got are the chords I’m playing on the acoustic guitar and in my voice,” Wickham told Relevant Magazine. “Something about that I think is like disarming in a room.”
“If I’m at like a worship experience or concert or whatever then I just love taking it all in,” he continued. “I want to see what’s on the video screen. I want to check out what the lighting guy is doing. And then ‘Oh the bass player did something awesome just now’ and their drummer…It’s all awesome and emotional and adds to it, but sometimes I know for me, in those situations [I’m] like, ‘Oh, I forgot to join in. I was so excited about what was happening.'”
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“So sometimes, we need to break it down,” he added. “There’s nothing really worth looking at. There’s just me on stage. Their attention [isn’t] going anywhere else other than these giant lyrics on the back of the screen.”
Wickham went on to describe how special it is when it’s just him, his guitar and thousands of other people worshipping God.
“There’s something kind of shocking to the system when you’re like shoulder to shoulder, standing room only, in this room and all that’s happening is some guy strumming an acoustic guitar and we’re singing out ‘Jesus, the anthem of my heart, Jesus, the anchor of my soul,’ and the only thing to grab your attention is that lyric and that melody,” Wickham said.
The tour kicks off on Jan. 15, 2025, in Houston, Texas, and runs through April 26, wrapping up in San Jose, California.
“The heart of this tour is to create a sacred space where communities gather to encounter Jesus in deep and authentic ways through the collective worship experience. We’d love for you to be a part of it,” Wickham, Stanfill and Carnes shared.