Clancy Wells: Superdad and Mormon musician

Clancy Wells is a dad first, and a musician second. That's how it's always been.

Wells

started performing in the fourth grade — he played the guitar and sang

an Elvis song. Later, in his college years at BYU, he was known as the

"local James Taylor." However, when he started a family, Wells put his

music on hold so he could be as involved as possible in his kids' lives.

Wells

said: "I have college friends who pursued careers in music. Some of

them were on the road 300 days out of the year for many years. When I

got married, I decided that I didn't want to try to raise a family

while I was on the road performing. As the church teaches, 'No other

success can compensate for failure in the home.' So I sold all of my

musical equipment and got a conventional job. For 20 years, I was

generally home for dinner every night, and I took my family to church

every Sunday."

With

his four sons (all Eagle Scouts), the Mormon musician has built 16 pinewood derby

cars. He coached his kids' soccer teams for several seasons and was

very active in their lives.

"This

is the life that I wanted," Wells continued. "Even though some of my

friends have become multimillionaires in the music industry, I have

never regretted my decision to focus on raising my family."

Now

that his children are older, Wells has had more time to record and