Craig West Is Leaving? For Real?

I generally don’t do news posts because everybody else is already there first, but this is just mind-boggling. Hat tip to Nate Stainbrook for getting the scoop on this by asking Craig personally. I’m in shock. Gold City was just starting to get a little bit of a second wind with Craig’s talent on board.

But after I found out why he was leaving, I got a new respect for him. Let me quote just a bit from Nate’s small interview with him:

Well you see I have never traveled with a Southern Gospel group before, and I have a ten year old at home that has been used to seeing his daddy home every day. At first it was fine as my son thought it was real cool that his dad was a singer; but after awhile it started getting to my son that he only gets to see me maybe two days a week. My wife told me one day that our son was not doing well at all without his dad at home. So I went and talked to my son about it, after some gentle prodding, he told me that really wants me to be home with him again. Well you see I myself had been feeling like I was not putting my family first and then when my son verbalized his feelings to me about the situation which convinced to start really seeking God’s will. One day  while I was running some errands my old boss saw me, and said he wanted to talk to me about something. So we went to lunch where he asked me if I were interested in coming back to his company. After which he told me that God had been impressing it on his heart to talk to me about working for him again. Well I knew then what I had to do. I got ahold of Danny and let him know what was going on.

Wow. You know I can’t really argue with that, as hard of a blow as this is for Gold City. At least this is detailed and specific, so hopefully there won’t be any more rumors. Of course Craig didn’t say anything about what happened with his brother, so I don’t know if that played any role in it as well, but the reason he gave seems to be at least a major consideration. I respect him very much for what sounds like the right decision. The person I really feel terrible for right now is Danny Riley. What is he going to do?
Do I hear any suggestions for him? Any ideas? Actually I’ve already got one: Release the new project with Craig’s vocals on it instead of waiting AGAIN to re-record with whoever they get to replace him.