We recently connected with Jon Terwilliger and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

One of the things that keeps coming to mind when I hear this question is they have always supported me in my aspirations. Even before guitar became an opportunity for me to make a living, they still opened up doors for me to continually keep learning and growing in my craft! The other thing that I am forever thankful for, was that they realized the importance of instilling in me a good work ethic which I have benefitted from in my career a thousand times over! I could go on for the rest of this forum about my parents, and how thankful I am for them.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I was born and raised in a very small town in Southeast Michigan. For reference, my hometown literally only had one hardware store, a gas station, and a single blinking traffic light. My family is very tightly-knit, and my siblings and I were all homeschooled growing up. I’ve dreamt my whole life of being a guitarist.  I got my very first acoustic guitar for Christmas when I was 7 years old; and I had been playing the air guitar in the backseat of the car long before that!
Being homeschooled allowed me to finish my school on my own schedule, and left me with enough time to focus heavily on my guitar every day. When I turned 16, I started working in the family business, and took a job with an industrial supply company called “Sourced Materials” that my parents founded in 2002. Working that job taught me so much about the ins and outs of how to properly and successfully manage a business,and looking back on it now, allowed me to learn how to properly diversify my time between schoolwork, work hours, and playing guitar.

As I got older, my interest in the guitar and the music industry grew exponentially. I started to entertain the thought that I might be able to make a living out of playing my guitar. The pressure of graduating high school and establishing a plan for college was a scary reality, but I kept coming back to the same dream of playing guitar full-time someday. Around this time, I had the opportunity to attend a music camp in Nashville with my best friend, and it ended up changing my life and everything I had planned up until that point.
The camp was hosted by Toby Mac, and was designed specifically for aspiring musicians and creatives who wanted to pursue the music industry professionally. I loved my time at camp and it became an annual tradition for me throughout high school. Each year, I expanded on my knowledge from the year before, and had opportunities to network and build relationships with people already in the industry.

After so many years at camp, the relationships I had created with established industry professionals started to lead to professional opportunities that allowed me to kickstart my own career. In the Spring of 2018, I put my name in the running for a guitar position on a CCM tour. This was my first true audition process with an established Nashville-based artist, and led me down a path that can only be explained by the Lord opening up door after door for me. Through a series of events following that initial audition, I was offered my first crew position with Sanctus Real. Eager to learn, I jumped at the opportunity to work as a backline tech for them, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my whole life. One tour turned into a few tours, and because of them, a door was opened for me to learn so much about the touring industry and how much is involved in putting on live music events. This position led to an offer to run lighting for a Canada based band, which was yet another position I had no experience in. With the same attitude as before, I said I was willing to learn and work hard at it! My run with them ended on a WinterJam Tour, one of the largest tours in the Christian music industry, and was a full-circle experience coming from my music camp days to working on a tour with some of my closest friends and mentors from that chapter in my life.

One thing I have learned in my career so far is that hard work and a willingness to learn can open up just as many opportunities that any level of professional training or qualification can, which is something that continued to prove itself to me as my next gig offer presented itself. In my spare time on WinterJam, I lent a helping hand to Mandisa’s crew and helped load their trailer every night, which turned into an opportunity to tour with Mandisa as her second lighting operator. With the Mandisa team, I was working under a lighting director named Chris Spears, who has taught me so much about the touring world and every stage crew position out there. I’ve worked with him now on multiple tours and with multiple artists, in most recent years in positions with Newsboys. He and the rest of the crew have walked me through each role every step of the way, teaching me how to LED tech, operate lighting professionally, stage manage, and work backline on a major tour.

My opportunities to work as part of the crew team for all of these artists are opportunities that I’m so grateful to have had, and as I’ve climbed the ‘crew ladder’ and found my place with each artist’s teams, I’ve not lost sight of my dream and goal of playing guitar full time. Each door that has opened has led to learning something new, and just this past year, I officially made Nashville home and have landed in a consistent role with Newsboys as their backline tech. Over the last year, I’ve developed a relationship with Adam Agee, a musician and speaker who has been on the last few Newsboys tours, and I’ve had the chance to join him as his guitar player for the last two tours that we have been on.

Words don’t do it justice, but I am beyond thankful to be on the road playing guitar each night with friends and mentors that I have looked up to throughout my entire musical journey. It’s very surreal to look back and see just how far I have come from just being a kid playing guitar in his bedroom with a dream, to being able to play guitar professionally in arenas and theaters! It is so crazy, but I am very thankful for the opportunities and blessings that have been presented to me over the years!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Networking is key! Most of my audience and presence on social media and in life have all come from networking! Whether it’s grabbing coffee or lunch with a colleague you just met, or something as simple as dropping a like and comment on someone’s latest social media post, it all turns into an audience. All of those simple “little” things can be so beneficial in leading to future career opportunities, but have also led me to building friendships rooted in a bond between shared passions, which is really cool.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I would have to say that there is just something about being able to go out and express who you are through music, and to see people respond to it in such a positive way! People often look up to people who are on a platform, and I think it’s a really great opportunity to be able to really pour into people and just encourage them in their life. It’s so surreal to be able to explore and travel across the country with some of my closest friends, and get paid to do what I have always dreamed of doing. I will forever be thankful for this opportunity!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonterwilligermusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JonTerwilligerofficial
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUjgr9ZPvsh0ZqTOyTXS05A

Image Credits
Caleb Cook Sidney Wagner