Carey (HM): So, back in the day, I used to play in a Christian rock band, and I guess one of the things we had to deal with over time was deciding, “How serious are we about this?” and “What’s the purpose of this band?” Here you guys are quite a few years into it and several albums into it. What’s your commitment right now to Pillar?

Rob: Well, realistically, For the Love of the Game for us is not necessarily sport-oriented. It kind of came up as a metaphor from the sport world, but, realistically, it’s kind of two-fold. And the first one is the exact answer to that question. We’ve been doing this now for 10 years, and I’ve been fortunate enough, that for about nine of those years, that’s all I’ve done. This has been my career, my lifestyle, you know, this is how I provide for my family. This is what I know, and as a man, as the head of a household, you always look for ways to be successful at providing for your family. Like, it’s kind of instilled within us as men to make sure we’re providing for our families. So, this far into my career, for me to wake up in the mornings and say, “I get to do this,” instead of, “I have to do this,” is huge. It keeps my mind, body and soul in check. It gives me my own accountability for me to say, “You know what? I need to wake up and say, “I get to do this. I get to play rock & roll for a living, and I get to change people’s lives through music.” There’s not a whole lot of other things in this world that’s as cool-sounding as that to me. Usually the grass is always greener. It’s like, man, and you can sit there and complain about it to somebody, and they’re, “Aw, man, I wish I was in a band.” And you’re like, “Oh, man, you don’t want to do it. It’s so much work." And you can sit there and talk yourself out of it. But at the end of the day, I get to do this. And this late in your career, it’s easy to just hang ‘em up, if you really want to. You’re like, “Ah, I did all I can do,” or, “blah, blah, blah.” I haven’t even begun to reach the full potential, I feel like, of what I’m personally capable of, what our band is capable of. And so, For the Love of the Game is our love and passion for what we do.

Now, to take that one step further into the spiritual realm of For the Love of the Game, it’s not just the game of us playing music and traveling all over the place and getting to write and record and play concerts. That’s one side of it—that’s our love and passion for, you know, playing the music. On the spiritual side, the reason we went with the title is because of what the song really means. At first glance, or when you first hear it, you’re like, “Oh, ‘For the Love of the Game,’ that’s awesome! Pillar loves what they do; they enjoy being where they’re at.” And that’s kind of what we want people to think. But then, the song itself is about Paul’s metaphor of the pursuit of Christ being like a race. Keep your eyes on the prize, you know; keep your head about you. All these things. My metaphor alongside that metaphor is “Keep your head in the game.” It’s win or lose; you don’t get second chances. This is a one-time deal, that you either win or lose. It’s heaven or hell. It’s that cut and dried.