A 12-year veteran of the popular Christian band Pillar, Henson has spent much of the last decade on the road. It's a lifestyle the 28-year-old married father of two says "beats you up emotionally, beats you up physically, and teaches you a lot mentally."

But it's a lifestyle Henson, the group's lead guitarist, said he wouldn't trade for the world. Henson now lives near Tulsa, Okla. But he'll be coming home on Oct. 17, when Pillar performs at LifeFest 2009, a Christian music festival to be held at the Koka Booth Amphitheather in Regency Park.

We spoke recently with Henson by phone as the band traveled through the Midwest.

Q: Are you excited about returning to Cary to play for a hometown crowd? Oh man, yeah. We haven't been back to the Raleigh area in three or four years. We've always had good shows when we've been there. It will be a treat to come back.

What's crazy about this trip, too, is that we're playing with [Christian band] Stryper. When I was growing up in North Carolina, I liked bands like Metallica but I missed out on Stryper. It's going to be kind of a cool thing now to actually perform with them.

Q: What kind of relationship do you have with your fellow band members? We have a lot of history together, actually [lead singer] Rob [Beckley] and I are going on nine years together. We're family. We recently acquired two new members and parted with a few old members. We've always had a really strong lineup and brotherhood, but this new lineup is probably the strongest and most purposed lineup we've ever had.

Q: What's it like to be a part of a successful band outside of the mainstream music industry? It's had its ups and downs for sure. We've had some big times and some times where things didn't go as we had planned. And the Christian music industry itself flutters just like the rest of the world. The cool part is that I can say that music with a good message doesn't stray as much from its purpose. And you've always got accountability here, more so than in the mainstream industry. Every day, I wake up amazed that I have the opportunity to do this.

Q: Why did you choose to pursue a career as a professional musician? I've been playing for 16 years now, so about when I turned 12 was when I really got into music. I would get home from school and play guitar for four or five hours a day. Then, I started playing at churches. Music has always been a part of my core. It's basically the one thing that drives me. When people ask me what my hobbies are apart from music, I have to say that I don't really have any. Music is my heart and soul and the blood inside me. It's everything I am.

Q: Did anyone inspire you in your initial pursuit of a music career? Well, there's kind of a funny story about that. I remember when I went to my high school guidance counselor around graduation time to do this last minute thing where they bring you in to talk about what you want to do with your life. The counselor asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I obviously wanted to play music. Everybody in the school knew I was a musician. I wanted to play rock 'n' roll. She basically said, "OK, Noah, let's be logical, what do you really want to do?"

She said that few make it in the music business. And I was really saddened by that. I thought, "Is it crazy to think that it's a possibility?" People just thought it was more of an unbelievable goal than anything. And the truth is, she was just looking out for my best interest because few people do make it in this business. Still, I said I want to pursue music, and I'm going to make it because that's what I've been called to do.

Q: How would you describe Pillar's music? It's a mixture of hard rock and radio rock, and we have our heavier stuff as well. It's not quite hardcore. Melodic hard rock would be a perfect description.

Q: What do you think sets Pillar's latest album, "Confessions", apart from the band's other albums? This is my fifth studio album with Pillar. Things for us have evolved as music has evolved since our last album. I've kind of grown out of the whole riffy thing. And radio rock, which has been a part of some of our other albums, I wouldn't say is dying but you see a lot less rock radio stations these days.

The songs on this new album are bigger, and they're just straight out rock. The new album, I would say, is in and of itself one of the best if not the best album. It's a stamp, it's a brand, a whole new direction for Pillar.