[Part 1]

TobyMac: Hey, what's up? I’m TobyMac, and I want to tell you the story behind my song, "Help Is on the Way (Maybe Midnight)." Year and a half ago, um, I lost my firstborn son, and I wrote a few songs after that—immediately following that—and it was hard. It was hard to think about anything, any promise, anything exciting. And I wrote a lot of songs that were kind of down, um, as you can imagine. I wrote a lot of songs that were deep in the trenches. And then this pandemic hit. And, man, it took me a while to kind of figure out— I was cryin' out to God, goin', you know, "I need something. I need something that I can hold onto." I think we all need something we can hold onto right now. I found in the Psalms a Scripture that said, uh… I don’t know exactly what it said, but the thing that stood out to me was "God is rolling up His sleeves / Help is on the way." It's like the promise of God—the God of all Creation—rolling up His sleeves on my behalf, on our behalf. It felt like promise to me. It felt like something that a big God that I can count on cares about a little me. I started quickly writing. I wrote "May be midnight or mid-day / He's never early, never late / He's gonna stand by what He claims / I've lived enough life to say / "Help is on the way." God has not failed us. God has not failed me.

["Help Is On The Way (Maybe Midnight)" by TobyMac plays]

[Part 2]

TobyMac: Man, the creative process for me this time was tough. It was really walkin' through a dark valley as I lost my firstborn song a couple years ago. First few songs I wrote, man, they were just very sad songs, very difficult songs to write, as you'd imagine. It was a valley, and I was in it. The first time I thought I could write an up-tempo song was when I wrote this song called "Help Is on the Way," and it just reminded me of God's help that’s comin’ for me. I never thought I would write an up song again, honestly—something that had joy in it—until I wrote some words on a piece of paper. I said: "You're still the goodness in my life." And I wrote that to God. And then I wrote this song called "The Goodness." I’m reminded of a quote that pushed me along in the writing process, and the quote is, "A saint is not always someone who is good but someone who experiences the goodness of God." That drove me to write the lyric, and then I had Blessing Offor come. And, uh—I don't know—every time I text Blessing or call Blessing, he was like, "Man, I can't believe I get to do what I do. I can't believe I get to…" If anybody knows the goodness, a blind guy comin’ from Nigeria to make it in music, Blessing knows the goodness. So I'm honored he's on it with me, and I can honestly say that God is still the goodness in my life.

["The Goodness" by TobyMac & Blessing Offor plays]

[Part 3]

TobyMac: The story behind the song "Deeper" starts with a friendship—a friendship of Tauren Wells and I. We've done a lotta life together. We've toured together a lot, even when he was in his former band, Royal Tailor. I walked with him through some things. We text each other often. So, uh, because we did talk about and do talk about the deeper things, I wanted to include him in this song called "Deeper" that I wrote with my friend, Micah. Uh, "Deeper" is a song that… It pushes beyond the surface—conversations that push beyond the surface, that—that move away from social media in sort of imaging ourselves, whether real stuff—this stuff that life is made out of, the things that I feel like we're starting to miss a little bit. I think it's not easy in this day and age to talk about hard things—the things that hurt us or the things that, uh, go beyond the surface. So, when I thought about getting Tauren on there, it was a perfect match to me. So, he came to Nashville the night his bus was going to leave on tour, and he said, "I—I— My plane lands at 9. I have to be on the bus at midnight. I'll come by the studio, and we'll do this." And he came, and he just sang it. And he did what Tauren Wells does, and that is, he crushed it vocally and brought his thing to this track, "Deeper." So, I'm so honored to have him on it, and I'm so proud of this song.

["Deeper" by TobyMac & Tauren Wells plays]

[Part 4]

TobyMac: This is the story behind the song for "Show Up Choose Love." Seems like we've wrestled and wrestled my entire life with race relations. Sometimes it's glowing and big, and other times it's sort of in the shadows. But I've always acknowledged it with my music, 'cause I've always wanted us to be together. I've always wanted us to come together, and maybe people would think, "That's easy for you to say, Toby," and I understand that. The only way we will ever reconcile is—is if we confess and we forgive. It's the only way forward. Without God, I just don't know how that's gonna happen. But there does have to be some action, and showing up is the first action. Show up for people. Show up to talk about it. Show up to have conversations. And then choose to love. Jon Reddick and I, along with a bunch of other writers—including Tommy Sims and some great writers in this town—wrote this song. This song is dear to my soul, because, uh, I've lived my whole life in this. Jon Reddick is a Black man from Memphis, TN. He's seen a lot; he's felt a lot. I'm a white guy from northern Virginia. I've seen a lot; and I've felt a lot. Us choosing to come together—us choosing to show up for each other, in each others' lives, in real community—is the heart of this song.

["Show Up Choose Love" by TobyMac & Jon Reddick plays]

[Part 5]
TobyMac: I wrote the song "Promised Land" with my good friend, Adam Agee, and I think, if we're honest, man, every one of us have wondered at one time or another, "Where's my Promised Land? Where is the blessing for me and my family that I thought would come my way on this Earth if I chose to follow the King of Kings?" I mean, there's Scripture to support that, but is that really the promise of the Promised Land? I shot the video as a coal miner in honor of my granddad, who was a miner from West Virginia. My dad grew up in a mining camp there. It was a hard life—a life where I imagine they musta really wondered, "Where in the world is our Promised Land?" And I know with everything that we're walkin' through these days, man, you might be wonderin' that same thing. "Where's the Promised Land? Can we find a Promised Land on Earth, or is it eternity? Can we find it in our pain and valleys, and maybe even our beautiful days?" This lyric of this song lands exactly where I want my life to land at. It's that our Promised Land is really no land at all but a relationship with the King that loves us deeply. It turns from "Where's my Promised Land?" to "You're my Promised Land." Maybe the Promised Land that we're lookin' for isn't a place at all but a Person named Jesus.

["Promised Land (Collab OG)" by TobyMac & Sheryl Crow plays]

[Part 6]

TobyMac: This is the story behind the song "Everything About You." When I started this record, I was coming off the unbelievable pain of losing my firstborn son, and, um, one of the things that we experienced in our family that was so beautiful was the way our community came around us. They came around us big and just filled our house up. Wouldn't let us be by ourselves. We felt loved, and one of the stories to that was a guy named Jon Reddick, a fellow artist, but really, to me, my friend. He would just come and sit at our piano and play. For the first five days, he just played piano. It just kinda washed over our house, and over our lives, and over our pain. So, when we made it through that immediate season, one of my thoughts was to kinda walk with my daughter, Marlee, and try to sort of walk with her through this grief by writing a song together. We had never written a song together. She had never sang on a song at the studio. But it was what I wanted to do that I thought maybe could begin the process of healing. So, I called Jon Reddick, and I said, "Would you come over and just play piano for us the way you did the first week?" And he came over, and he played. And what came out of that time—two days together—was this song, "Everything About You," that features my daughter, Marlee. And, uh, I couldn't be more proud as her dad, and it's a moment that I will treasure for the rest of my life—writing this song.

["Everything About You" by TobyMac & Marlee plays]

[Part 7]

TobyMac: "Life on It" is the big, big, big proclamation on the record. It's saying that no matter what comes at me, I'm puttin' it all down right here. I will put my life on the fact that I believe in God and His mercy. I'm going down swingin'. Uh, and then the lines go, "No matter what they say / If I ever go M.I.A. / They took my life for it." I w— It's—It's a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek song at times, but I really do feel like as we own our faith in this crazy world, it's gonna cost us something. It might not now, but I believe it will cost us something. Sarah Reeves is undoubtedly one of my favorite vocalists. She has such vocal character and control, so I asked for her to come in and sing on it. And I knew—I knew from the ti— the day I wrote it, I wanted her on it. And she absolutely crushed it. I get back to a little bit of hip-hop with this song, which I love. I came up my whole life rapping. That's how I started this when I—I definitely got back into hip-hop and rapped a little more. Uh, and then we brought this massive horns section in on the end that just sounds like a marching band, uh, that's ready to drop their instruments and throw down on the football field. Uh, "Life on It" is, uh, it's a ride. It's the kinda ride I love.

["Life On It" by TobyMac & Sarah Reeves plays]

[Part 8]

TobyMac: The song "Faithfully" I wrote very early in the process—probably the first song I wrote after my son had passed—and all I can tell you is that God so gently reminded me that He loves me. He so gently reminded me that He's there for me in my darkest, darkest hour. I had to write about it. I had to give Him the glory. I had to recognize His faithfulness. It's a simple song. It's just me. Most of these songs on this record, Life After Death, are collaborations, but I didn't think I could have anybody on this one, 'cause it's so, so personal. The lyric is "When I cried out to You, Jesus / You were there faithfully." It's just raw truth. It's raw goodness of God. It's the kindness of Who He is. In your darkest hour, He will be there.

["Faithfully" by TobyMac plays]

[Part 9]

TobyMac: At the service celebrating my son's life and remembering him, I stood in front of a group of people in a park, and I looked at my family, and I said some words that I don't even know where they came from, but I just looked at my family, and I said, "We—We will build. Moving forward, we will build on The Rock. We won't build on prescription drugs. We won't build on alcohol. We won't build on being a victim. We will build on The Rock. We will build on The Cornerstone." I meant those words from my heart, and when I set out to write a song, it came out this song, "Cornerstone." I asked Zach Williams to come and sing it, 'cause I knew how passionately and how soulfully he sings things. It sounds like it's coming from his inner core, his—his gut, his heart. And Zach came in and did an amazing job, and he took it all the way home. I just remember him walkin' in, took his cowboy hat off, put it on the, uh, chair, stepped up to that mic and crushed it. This song kinda moves into a hymn at the bridge. It just says "You are the only Rock I'll stand on / You're my Cornerstone." "Cornerstone" is a song that hits me deep still, from the day I wrote it to today.
["Cornerstone" by TobyMac featuring Zach Williams plays]

[Part 10]

TobyMac: "Found" is a song that features Terrian and Wande. The message is simple: "I once was lost, but now I'm found." It's the age-old, beautiful message that we need to acknowledge every day. Terrian brings— sings the chorus and brings it. I think it sits so well in her range, and she brought a lot to this song. And then Wande… I've always kinda loved Wande from afar. So, I was so happy that she agreed to be on it, and she came in and knocked out, uh, the second verse and came up with some parts that are really dope. One of the verses talks about a wild one, and my wife, Amanda, works in the Nashville jail. She and her friend, Joanna, have this—a ministry with a lot of other ladies that go in and minister, called The Wild Ones. And I thought, "You know, God loves the wild ones. God doesn't just love the people that are good. Matter of fact, He seeks after the wild ones. He finds them." And they told me a story about a girl, and she hadn't done anything wrong. But the police were looking for her and had flashlights shining through the trees, and she saw this light shining through. And it's where one of the verses comes from. And she realized in that moment… She said, "I have nothing to hide. I'm gonna step out into this light. I have nothing to hide." Obviously, she was in jail—some things went wrong with her life—but she—she remembered that moment, and she said, "That's what God's like. God is searching for you. He's going to find you. All you have to do is just choose to step into His light and accept it."

["Found" by TobyMac, Terrian & Wande plays]

[Part 11]

TobyMac: This is the story behind the song, "Fire's Burnin'." "Fire's Burnin'" started with just a kick drum and a snare. We wanted to write somethin' that grew, but—I don't know—I—I think we were tryin' to sort of, like, almost mesh Petty with Post Malone. But that's kind of the thoughts that were in our head, uh, when Micah and Bryan Fowler and I wrote the song. As I started singing it, it got this really smooth vocal. And then we're like, "Who would be the right guest on this?" And there's—there's one guy in this industry that kinda comes from worship, but he also has never been fearful of a pop melody or a pop track, and that's Cory Asbury, who I think is absolutely amazing. I love his humor. I love the fact that he enjoys life and loves his family—smiles a lot, laughs a lot. He—He came in the studio and just—phew—like a breath of fresh air. And I love the fact that he—that it sort of, like, worship and Christian music coming together, which I think that wall shouldn't be there anyway. So the fact that he steps up and steps across that line… I step across my line. I've always been about that—bringing people together. This song really is a— The heart is "This fire's burnin' for You. I—I will never stop, God. I will not stop. You are what I live for. You are the reason I sit down and write songs. It's the hope that You would choose to use one of 'em to turn someone's eyes to You. This fire is burnin'."

["Fire's Burnin'" by TobyMac & Cory Asbury plays]

[Part 12]

TobyMac: In a former life, I was in a band called DC Talk with two of my best friends outta college. Michael Tait, Kevin Max and I climbed a mountain together. We, uh, did a lotta music together. And we laughed a lot. We fought a lot. We cried a lot. We prayed a lot. It was—It was a lot of things to experience as a young man. But we made some music that impacted people, and it resonated with people, and it—it caught a wave. And we rode it for—I don't know—12 years or so. So, at the end of that, we made a record called Intermission. It was basically a Greatest Hits with a couple extras. Like, we thought, "This is an intermission. We'll take a little break from each other and come back together." But we never really did. We've come back together here and there on a song, but I wanted to do a song that talked about our relationships, that talked about this space between us. Some of my favorite lines in this song are, uh, "Would you step across a party line? / Would you walk into my cold cell? / Can you see me in a different light? / Would you meet me at the well?" I love— Those are some of my favorite lines on the record. "Are you willing to come across something that makes us different from each other because we love each other or because you're willing to put me first?" The song ends with, uh, a cry that's hard to live up to, a statement that's hard to live up to, and that is "Love keeps no record of wrong / Love keeps no record of wrong. How can we hold something against somebody when love keeps no record of wrong? What are we gonna do with this space between us?"

["Space" by TobyMac, DC Talk, Kevin Max & Michael Tait plays]

["21 Years" by TobyMac plays]

["I'm Sorry (a lament)" by TobyMac plays]

[Part 13]
TobyMac: This is the story behind the song "Rest," which is funny, because it wasn't supposed to be a song. It was supposed to be a short interlude just reminding people that taking it easy, even a Sabbath day, is important. So, I did this song on the bus, uh, on tour. My friend, Dave Lubben, came out, and we were working on the bus. And, in that night, we were leaving, and it was the fourth show, uh, on a four-show run. And, that night, I had the verse and the chorus, and that was all it was supposed to be—just an interlude. And then Terrian walked on the bus, and she was just kinda humming the song along, and I'm like, "What if you did a verse too?" And the verse really is just a Scripture. It started as, "This is the Scripture I read this morning," and then I sang this chorus. And then Terrian said—I said, "What would you choose?" And she said, "This is—This is what I read last night," and then she sang the chorus. And then Gabe, uh—who's also my right-hand man on the road, um, GabeReal—we found a verse that he could read. And you guys don't know this, but Gabe has a secret talent of voiceover, and he does a lot of it. He came and read a Scripture at the end. The feeling of what Gabe read and the closing remarks he makes were just unbelievable. I think the whole thing came together really, really great. And, at first, it started as an interlude, and it became this beautiful sort of spoken word song with a chorus on it, just reminding us that sometimes we got to slow down, breathe in, talk to God and let Him talk to us.

["Rest" by TobyMac, Terrian & Gabe Real plays]