Polk County News
12A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • August 23, 2017
Van Meter uses new lease on life to chase his dream
By Lukas Eggen
The Itemizer-Observer
DALLAS — Kurt Van
Meter counts himself lucky
to be alive.
Van Meter, a Dallas police
officer and country music
artist, who performed Sun-
day in Dallas, responded to a
call of shots fired in Hills-
boro in 2009.
“I got shot at from about 8
feet out by this dude,” he
said. “He had murdered
someone, and we were in
pursuit of him. To this day, I
don’t know how he missed. I
remember seeing the barrel
of the gun and the muzzle
flash. I dove in my patrol car
thinking it was over. I
thought I was dead. I re-
member not seeing Jesus
and thinking, ‘this isn’t
good, I must have really
screwed up.’ Then, I could
smell gun powder and I
could hear dispatch over the
radio.”
The near-death experi-
ence caused Van Meter to
take a chance and follow his
dream.
--
Van Meter can remember
the moment he knew he
wanted to be a singer.
“My brother was giving
me a ride to school — I think
I was a freshman or sopho-
more — and he put in this
CD and told me that I had to
hear this song,” Van Meter
said. “It was ‘Friends in Low
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer
Kurt Van Meter, left, plays with his band on Sunday afternoon during Dallas’ Great American Eclipse celebration.
Places’ by Garth (Brooks). I
was instantly hooked. I was
like, I don’t know what this
is, but whatever it is, I want
to be a part of it.”
But life seemed to take
him in every direction but
music.
Van Meter played football
and became a bull rider at
Oregon State University be-
fore entering the police
force. There, he would sing
in the office — but his
coworkers didn’t seem to
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share in the joy.
“My first gig was marine
patrol and they give you a
partner,” Van Meter said.
“He told me one day, ‘Kurt,
have I ever told you how
much I love your singing?’ I
said no and he goes, ‘then
shut up.’”
Van Meter figured maybe
he wasn’t that good of a
singer, after all.
The first person who told
him he had a good voice —
other than his mom — was
an ex-girlfriend. But music
seemed to be an out-of-
reach dream.
The shooting changed all
of that and, about a year
later, at the age of 33, Van
Meter decided to chase his
dream.
“I realized God gave me a
second chance, so I’m going
to do music,” Van Meter
said. “I’m going to learn how
to play guitar, so I got on
Youtube and started to
learn.”
He also began attending
local jam sessions in Hills-
boro.
“The only way you learn
how to ride a bull is to get on
a freaking bull and ride,” Van
Meter said. “You can watch
all the videos you want. … I
would see each one get up
and play their song. Every
one of them was horrible vo-
cally. But they sung their
hearts out and were having
so much fun and the crowd
was having fun. This truth
dawned on me that nobody
cares, in a good way. They
want you to be successful, so
take all that energy and put it
into a positive feeling and
just go out there and have
fun.”
The next challenge was
finding a way to get his
music heard.
“I asked who puts the
songs on the radio,” Van
Meter said. “People told me
it was the program director. I
said, ‘OK, let me talk to the
program director.’”
Van Meter was put in con-
tact with Scott Mahalick.
“I sit down with him and I
tell him, ‘if you believe in
me, I can be the next Garth
Brooks,’” Van Meter said.
“Do you have any songs?
Nope. Do you have a band?
Nope. Are you playing any-
where? Nope. But if you be-
lieve me, I can do this. ...
Years later, I’m playing at a
show with Little Big Town
and am told Scott is one of
the seven most powerful
guys in country music.”
So powerful, in fact, that
Van Meter came close to
talking to Brooks in 2013.
“I get this call from a
number I don’t recognize,”
Van Meter said. “I don’t an-
swer because that’s the gen-
eral practice from police
work. An hour later, I listen
to it and it’s Scott with Garth
trying to get a hold of me,
and I missed it. I’m still sick
about it.”
But Van Meter’s career
took off relatively quickly. He
opened for country stars like
Montgomery Gentry. In
2013, he committed to music
full-time and played the Bi-
Mart Country Music Festival
in 2014, alongside artists Eric
Church and Blake Shelton.
When he started, Van
Meter said his songs had a
couple hundred streams and
downloads per month. By
2015, those numbers were
up to more than 100,000.
As Van Meter has seen his
popularity rise, he’s quick to
point to his bandmates as
reasons for his success.
“When you have a team as
strong as this one, it’s in
your best interest to get the
hell out of the way,” he said.
“My role is to not forget the
lyrics and not suck.”
Van Meter hopes his kids
– and others — can see his
journey and decide to follow
their passion and to not be
afraid of failure.
“Two things are impor-
tant,” he said. “One is don’t
wait until you’re ready to do
something. If you want to do
it, just go for it. I didn’t know
what I was doing. Some-
times, you just gotta go for it.
The second thing is you’re
never too old. I was 33 when
I learned how to play the
guitar.”
When he took the stage on
Sunday, Van Meter offered a
crowd-pleasing set of songs.
“They take all the emo-
tions they felt when they first
heard it and input it on us.
That’s what they remember.
That’s why we’ve been so
successful,” Van Meter said.