Jammin’ more than offensive linemen: Seahawks DT Craig Terrill rocks leading accomplished band

Seahawks DT Craig Terrill rocks on

RENTON, Wash. — Craig Terrill has played in the Super Bowl. He’s made millions as a defensive tackle for the Seahawks.

Yet this 6-foot-2, 295-pound block of talent would rather hang out with fellow Indiana rocker John Mellencamp than John Madden. He’s as at home on a stage or in a recording studio as he is in the spotlight of Monday Night Football, on which he had a career-high three sacks in 2006.

Yes, Terrill can do way more than plug the center-guard gap or chase down quarterbacks.

He also plugs his guitar into an amplifier and drops down to his knees like Bruce Springsteen while in his other life: as the creator and lead singer of The Craig Terrill Band.

“You know, it’s easier on the knees than football,” the 29-year-old with the heart and voice for Heartland rock says, laughing.

This is not just another jock with some — OK, lots of — money buying his way into gigs and attention.

“I’ve heard some professional athletes sing, doing rap and such things, and I took that for what it was worth. But Craig, he’s prolific. He’s such a good writer,” said Mike Mattingly, a 50-year-old Seattle-area musician who started giving Terrill guitar lessons in 2006.

Mattingly was so impressed he joined Terrill’s band, then recruited twin brother Mark Mattingly to be its drummer.

“And he can sing. He’s got some stamina,” Mattingly said of Terrill in a telephone interview Wednesday from a music studio in suburban Redmond, Wash. “On that first album, he spent 10 hours in the studio singing. The next day, he was back singing for four more.

“There are musicians around Seattle who I bring to see us play, and they are blown away. They say, ‘This guy can sing!’”

Playing what he calls “American rock” that is heavy on guitar riffs with a relentless pace, Terrill’s played at the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in suburban Woodinville, where Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, Lyle Lovett, Diana Krall, Chris Isaak, John Legend and India.Arie are playing this summer.

He’s played the House of Blues in Chicago. He’s headlined shows at Seattle’s trendy Triple Door as recently as June, singing original titles such as “Tippecanoe County” and “Indiana Boy.”

The latter song is a favorite of teammate Patrick Kerney. The two-time Pro Bowl defensive end, who has attended many of Terrill’s concerts, sometimes blares it over the sound system of the team’s palatial weight room.

“I’m a groupie,” Kerney joked.

Terrill has rocked at the Super Bowl in Detroit. He calls playing with Garth Brooks at Cesar’s Palace in Las Vegas his greatest gig. He has also opened for Seal.

“They listen to the music before they let us play. Obviously, if we didn’t have the chops, they wouldn’t let us play in their live venues,” Terrill said Wednesday, sweat pouring off his face and onto his uniform immediately after practice.

“I think the music speaks for itself.”

And a lot of people are hearing it.

The gig with Brooks was in front of 5,000 screaming fans.

“Kind of intimidating, but a pretty big high,” Terrill said.

He strummed the National Anthem for 67,000 people prior to a Seahawks playoff game in 2007, when he was on the injured list.

Thousands have bought Terrill’s first album, “CT,” which Mattingly said was made for less than $10,000 in a “homemade” manner. It was released in January 2008. Terrill self-marketed it online through his MySpace page, before local Seattle stores began selling it.

Terrill first learned to play guitar at age 13, with his brother Jason teaching him in Lebanon, Ind., where Terrill still lives in the offseason. Jason, four years older, grew up liking the Beatles and classic rock. Craig liked country music’s Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. Terrill’s songs have a mix of both backgrounds in them.

The brothers formed a classic rock cover band, “The Strangers,” when Craig was attending Purdue.

“You always want to be like your older brother,” he said.

Terrill is working on a second album, one Mattingly hopes to release this winter. The band isn’t pursuing a label, which could make producing a record cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, partly because Terrill doesn’t have time to get one done on a company’s terms. He spends much of the offseason between Indiana and Florida, where his wife Rachel’s family is from.

Rachel and Craig also recently just had a baby.

Rachel does far more than put up with her husband’s music, by the way. His college sweetheart is a writer who is seeking a doctorate in communications. She wrote three of the songs on “CT.”

“She’s a big inspiration to me, as far as her lyrical ability goes,” Terrill said. “I can put together a good, rockin’ song. But if my lyrics are dropping a little bit, she tells me to pick it up a little bit and not go for the easy rhymes.”

The tackle who credits Mellencamp, Springsteen and Bob Seger among the influences for his music hopes to make it his career whenever he’s done with football.

“I’d still call it a hobby right now — a serious hobby. I want to be really good at it. But it’s still that I’m a football player,” Terrill said from his sixth training camp with the Seahawks.

“If I’m lucky enough where music can be a career after football’s done, then heck, yeah. I’d be pretty blessed to be able to play in the NFL and have a music career.”

On the Net: www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-onyVYFDVw&feature=related