During one of the most poignant speeches in cinema history, Tim Robbins turns to Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption and says, “Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” That powerful prison yard scene could very well be an outtake from Orange County singer/songwriter Stephen Wesley’s life.
In 1997, a group of Stephen’s friends nearly went on trial for armed robbery, and for reasons known only to himself, Stephen offered himself up as the culprit and took their punishment-a prison term of 8 years. At only 18 years old, Stephen Wesley found himself behind bars, seemingly at rock bottom and with no future or hope for personal deliverance. It was a chance encounter with a prison chaplain that started Stephen down a musical path he says turned his life around.
“I was sittin’ out in the yard, and I was teaching myself to play guitar and I was singing along,” Stephen says, recalling the moment his troubled life changed for the better. “The chaplain heard me and he came up and he said, ‘Hey, would you like to be in my choir and go out into town, and I’ll take you around with the choir? You have a beautiful voice and I would just love for everybody to hear it.”
Stephen says his first choir gig outside of prison was one of those pivotal life moments most musicians experience.
“Everyone lined up to ask for my autograph… young kids and older people; several hundred of them, all asking for my signature while I was in my prison uniform,” he says. “Right then, it dawned on me.”
Long before Stephen found musical salvation in prison he grew up in a very talented family.
“My father was literally the best guitar player I’d ever heard in my life,” Stephen says, “and my mother was an amazing singer.”
Except for being a fan of music on the radio and appreciating his parent’s musical talents, Stephen leaned more toward sports than music. He and his brother played nearly every sport they could sign up for. One school activity Stephen didn’t sign up for was choir-that was his mother’s doing.
“I hated it at first, but my mom kept telling me it was what I needed to be doing and that it was in my blood.” It also helped as Stephen got older when he realized that choir is where all the girls were. “I kept at it, and found that I loved it. I loved the singing, and people liked hearing me sing.”
While still a young child, Stephen’s parents split up, with Stephen and his three siblings moving with mom. Stephen says his sister served as a second mom while their mother worked to support the family of four. He credits his sister’s vast music library with inspiring his wide range of musical styles.
“One day she’s playing Metallica, and the next she’s playing old rap and R&B. Living in the projects in Texas and Indiana and moving around so much… putting on headphones and listening to music was the only way to get comfortable,” he says.
The family had just settled into what he calls “a great life in California with money and a new stepfather” when his grandmother back in Indiana fell gravely ill with little time to live. The family returned to Indiana, where Stephen found dealing with her approaching death to be “one of the hardest days of my life.”
Stephen’s older sister suggested an outing to the park to get away for a little while. While there, she played “Under the Bridge” by Red Hot Chili Peppers, a song that touched Stephen’s heart and soul.
“Even though that song had nothing to do with my life, the lyrics were like a culmination of my few short years, and I understood everything at that point,” he says. “I understood the difference between life and death, and how things work and how you move on from there and how you become a better person.”
With family tragedy, constant moving from state to state, and bad neighborhoods bearing down on him, Stephen says music became “a getaway to a safe, comforting place.”
“No matter where we lived at… gunshots, the rundown neighborhood, the gangs, the crime, everything that I was involved in… music was always the way to get into my comfort zone.”
Stephen couldn’t always avoid the gangs and the crime growing up, a fact that eventually led him to the prison sentence he says he took in place of his friends. You would think that the experience made him bitter, or that he would at least have regrets.
“No way. That made me the person that I am, and I’m very proud of who I am, because I’ve come a long way.”
One of those prison gigs caught the eye of a representative for Christian recording Phil Driscoll. A couple of phone calls later, Phil and his son Jamie were present at the next prison choir show, and even joined Stephen and the band to sing several songs.
Prison is where Stephen says he got an education, became a better person, and where he grew from a child into a responsible adult. It is also where he got back on track with his mother’s musical prodding and guidance.
Stephen’s next big musical break followed a year-long stint in the review show Beacher’s Madhouse at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. Paris Hilton saw one of Stephen’s shows and asked him to play at her cd release event and the private after-party.
With countless shows played together with a group of hired musicians named “The Remedy”, Stephen runs through a host of original and cover songs during his live set.
Among the songs in his arsenal, “Feels Good to Me” stands out as a funky, acoustic/electric country rocker about “barely getting by but getting along.” The soulful, lilting “Soft Shoulder” features Stephen’s impressive vocal range that swings smoothly from restrained R&B crooning to a new country sound that’s sure to be loved. Stephen shines on “All Night Long,” a fun, melodic groove that will take you straight to vacation while you sing along with every word.
“Whiskey Creek Saloon” shows Stephen’s hard rock and classic influences and his love for heavy guitars and rock-star attitude, while “I Like Cowgirls” and “She’s Acting Up Again” proves he can rock out just as easily and expertly as he can pull off soft and soulful.
Stephen says his ability to blend so many musical genres into his writing is no accident and why he’s been able to work with some of the biggest names in music, such as Slash (Guns N Roses), BC Jean (Beyonce), Marc Jordan (The Cult, Velvet Revolver, Jane’s Addiction) and many, many more.
“I have fun stuff and I have really sexy stuff, and I have stuff that will just grab your heart and make you want to hold on to the person you love most or your children,” he says. “I want my songs to transcend any one genre or category of music. Most of what I do is pop music, but “pop” to me stands for popular, and that has everything in it, country, rock, pop, you name it. It’s all right there inside these songs… whether it’s sadness or happiness, love or joy or confusion or any emotions we all share, I try put it down in a way so that everybody can relate to it.”