Biography

Mason was born in Joliet, Illinois in 1975, however was brought up from age 8 in Decatur, Illinois where he attended Warrensburg-Latham schools.

Mason joined Jars of Clay as a founding member in 1993 with singer Dan Haseltine and pianist Charlie Lowell while studying at Greenville College in his home state of Illinois. As a submission piece to get into college, Mason wrote an instrumental guitar piece entitled "Frail" which was later recorded and used as the namesake for the group's first demo Frail. The song later had lyrics added by Jars of Clay's lead singer Dan Haseltine for the group's second album Much Afraid.

Growing up in Illinois, Mason is a Chicago Bears football team supporter, but also now supports the Tennessee Titans, who play in his adopted city of Nashville.

In 2014 Stephen qualified as a Master Barber and has started cutting hair at his shop, The Handsomizer.

Personal life

Mason was married on October 24, 2009 to former BBC Radio Producer, Jude Adam.

Guitars, amps, and pedals

Mason uses a range of different guitars for performing with Jars of Clay, both electric and acoustic. Some of them he uses exclusively in the studio and others exclusively for live performances.

• "Grand Auditorium" Taylor twelve string guitar
• Gibson "Tal Farlow" series
• Baby Taylor guitar
• Martin Backpacker travel guitar
• Gibson "Chet Atkins" series
• Fender Telecaster
• Gibson Les Paul
• Matchless Chief Guitar Amp
• Vox AC-30

As for pedals, over the years Mason has been seen using a Boss Tuner, Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde, Swell Pedals G-TOD, Tonephile Puredrive, Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man, DMB Pedals, and a Pedaltrain pedalboard.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]