In this interview, JOY FM Artist, Mac Powell (former lead singer of Third Day), shares his journey into Christian music, his experiences with influential artists like DC Talk and Michael W. Smith, and the impact of Billy Graham on his faith. He also discusses the challenges and blessings of being on the road and the joy of having his children join him in the music industry. Join us for an inspiring conversation with a pioneer of Christian music.
View this video with Mac Powell and other interviews with JOY FM artists videos on the JOY FM YouTube Channel.
Mac Powell Interview Transcript:
Kim:
I get to hang out with Mac Powell all on my own.
Mac Powell:
Do I get to be the co-host?
Kim:
You do get to be the co-host. Mac, thank you and welcome to Joy FM.
Mac Powell:
Thank you so much. I feel very welcomed, Kim.
Kim:
Well, good. I’m a long-time fan of you and of your previous band, Third Day, and I just wanted to maybe talk about that a little bit.
Mac Powell:
Okay, great. Yeah.
Kim:
I remember, I hate saying this, but in the ’90s-
Mac Powell:
Yeah.
Kim:
Yeah. Sorry.
Mac Powell:
They were good times. They were good times.
Kim:
PS, I just found out that I’m 10 days older than Mac.
Mac Powell:
That’s right.
Kim:
We both just had the big 50.
Mac Powell:
That’s right. That’s right. Christmas day for me.
Kim:
Oh, yep. And I’m the 15th. Christmas baby.
Mac Powell:
Yeah, that’s right. You’re 10 days older than me, so nah, nah, nah, nah.
Kim:
So, okay, let’s talk about that for a second.
Mac Powell:
And you seem so much more mature than me.
Kim:
Oh yes, of course. Being a Christmas baby, how was that? That’s got to be challenging.
Mac Powell:
It’s a blessing and a curse. The curse is you only get one present. You don’t get a birthday and a Christmas present. You get one present for both holidays. The good news is that everybody remembers my birthday. If they hear that Christmas is my birthday, they’re not going to forget.
Kim:
That’s true.
Mac Powell:
Back to the bad news. If you’re going to share a birthday with somebody, don’t let it be Jesus. It’s like there’s scripture.
Kim:
That’s right.
Mac Powell:
It’s like glory to God and the highest and on Earth, peace, goodwill toward all men and happy birthday to Mac.
Kim:
Oh, PS, Happy Birthday, Mac.
Mac Powell:
Yeah.
Kim:
It’s not a colossal let-down, but it has its moments.
Mac Powell:
Yeah. Growing up, I never had birthday parties. Everybody was off for Christmas break.
Kim:
Oh. Right.
Mac Powell:
And if I got a birthday cake at all, it was like usually a snowman or Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. I didn’t get a GI Joe cake or something like that, something cool.
Kim:
If only I knew, I would’ve gotten you a GI Joe cake.
Mac Powell:
Never had a GI Joe cake.
Kim:
All right. Now texting your wife for next year.
Mac Powell:
Yes, let her know.
Kim:
51 is the year of GI Joe.
Mac Powell:
That’s right. I’m ready.
Kim:
That’s awesome. So you’ve had such an amazing career. And I remember in the ’90s, I was working at a Christian bookstore and we used to have a poster on the wall that would say, “If you like this artist,” somebody mainstream, “then you’ll like the Christian-“
Mac Powell:
Christian version of that.
Kim:
Yeah. The version of that. I remember when you guys came on the scene and it was like, if you like Hootie and the Blowfish, then you’ll love Third Day.
Mac Powell:
Yeah.
Kim:
I was so excited to be able to share you guys with people because it was just something new that I hadn’t really heard in Christian music before, what you guys were doing.
Mac Powell:
Yeah. We were very fortunate. We came along in a day where the labels were trying something new and they would let some new kind of stuff be on the air and be recorded. And so I think if we’d come along a little bit before that, it would’ve been a lot harder for us. And I tell people all the time, if we were coming out now, I don’t know if we would have the success that we had back then. A lot of it was about the timing of it and being fortunate enough to come in where people were ready to have some new sounds on Christian radio and on their records, yeah.
Kim:
Yeah. I remember reading that one year early on, you did 40 shows and then the next year you did 110. It was just this massive uptick in being on the road, and I’m sure that was challenging for you and for your families as well.
Mac Powell:
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3:
Every time this bell rings, that’s someone else liking this video. Waiting on you. You make the bell ring. Go ahead.
Kim:
Please, go ahead and like it. It’ll help other people find these amazing Joy FM artist interviews.
Mac Powell:
We all, in Third Day, we all started getting married. We all got married within a two-year period.
Kim:
Oh, cool.
Mac Powell:
If somebody got married, somebody else was getting married a few months later and it just went on. And my wife and I, we had dated in high school. We were high school sweethearts. Then we broke up for a couple years and then soon as we got back together, we knew, all right, we’re going to be together forever, so-
Kim:
That’s cool.
Mac Powell:
We got engaged and married in July of ’96. And we went on our honeymoon for about a week, and I came home to start the tour and for the next three and a half to four months I was home, I think, six days.
Kim:
Wow.
Mac Powell:
So yeah, it wasn’t necessarily what she signed up for. It was very different. And then as things went along and everybody got married, we said, “Okay, two weeks will be the longest that we’re gone.” And then after everybody starts having a kid or two, then the two weeks becomes 10 days. 10 days is the max. Then a year later, that turns into a week, seven days.
Kim:
Yeah.
Mac Powell:
And then five days. Now, I’m allowed to be gone for eight hours at a time.
Kim:
We’ve got you just enough time.
Mac Powell:
Right, right.
Kim:
Speaking of kids, I hear you have a daughter that just got married.
Mac Powell:
Yeah.
Kim:
Yes.
Mac Powell:
Yeah, Scout, she’s 23. She got married at the end of September, and she actually plays bass guitar for me when I’m doing band gigs.
Kim:
That’s awesome.
Mac Powell:
And so, yeah, her husband plays drums for me, so we got a little family band. So last summer she played bass, Alec, her husband, played drums. My oldest son, Cash, who’s 21 now, was playing guitar for me at the time, but his last show was around when she got married, around I guess August or September of last year. So I miss him being out on the road with us. But yeah, it’s a little family band.
Kim:
So as a dad, what does that do to your dad heart to have your kids with you?
Mac Powell:
Absolutely love it. Absolutely love it. In fact, one of the producers I ran into, we were all out to lunch yesterday in Atlanta at home, and we ran into this famous producer who did a record of ours way back in the day, and his name is Brendan O’Brien. And Brendan’s done like everything from Stone Temple Pilots to the Black Crows, to Pearl Jam, to Bruce Springsteen, all this big rock stuff. And Third Day, and I ran into him. I hadn’t seen him in years, and I introduced him to Scout, because I said, “Scout, you got to meet this guy.” And I said, “Scout plays bass for me.” And he said, “Oh, you must be really good.” And she’s like, “I’m okay.” I said, “She’s really good.” And I can’t tell you how amazing it is to have her out on the road with me and her husband as well.
Kim:
No kidding. Yeah. Sidebar, I don’t know if you saw, is it Jason from Building 429? His daughter was on American Idol.
Mac Powell:
No, I didn’t know that.
Kim:
He was playing for her audition.
Mac Powell:
No way.
Kim:
And by the end of it, he was just a dripping mess. There’s just something about, I’m sure dads and daughters too, that it’s already a special bond.
Mac Powell:
Oh man.
Kim:
But then to be on the road and share music together.
Mac Powell:
She’s been singing with me since she was a little kid at home.
Kim:
Oh. Cool.
Mac Powell:
And then, every once in a while, she’d come out to a show and sing a song with me. But now to be out on the road and I remember one of my favorite memories from Scout being little is she was about two years old and we were in, I had a small studio in a guest bedroom. And so I had a microphone set up and I was playing through God of Wonders when it first came out.
Kim:
Oh, yeah.
Mac Powell:
So I’m playing through it on my acoustic and she’s singing along. She’s going up to the microphone, she’s standing up on her tiptoes and she’s singing, “Ho-we, ho-we.”
Kim:
That’s so sweet.
Mac Powell:
And so now, at 23, I look over to my left and see her playing bass, singing background, and I’m hoping that she’s not singing, “Ho-we, ho-we.”
Kim:
That’s one of those good wedding stories you tell at her wedding.
Mac Powell:
Absolutely. Yeah, totally.
Kim:
Well, that’s really fun. What an honor to get to do that with your kids.
Mac Powell:
So much.
Kim:
And is your wife also a part of what goes on with your musical family?
Mac Powell:
She’s a great musician herself. She plays a little bit of piano and she’s a great singer, but she stays away from that side of things. She’s a little bit more in the management team now. Not officially, but unofficially. I tell people, with Third Day, people ask all the time questions about Third Day, and they say, “What’s the difference in being a band and not being a band?” I said, “Well, the great thing about being in a band is you’ve got three or four other guys that are there to help you make decisions. And the bad thing about being a band is you got three or four other guys there to help you make decisions.” And so now, I have Amy. I’m able to bring her in a lot more. And so whenever I get an offer to do a concert or go somewhere or whatever, I’ll either show it to her from my phone or copy and paste and send to her, and she approves everything with me.
Kim:
That’s good.
Mac Powell:
We talk about it. So yeah, we weren’t able to do that in the past. You’ve already got enough guys who are voting yes or no.
Kim:
Right.
Mac Powell:
Now, I’m able to include my family a little bit more in those [inaudible 00:09:01]
Kim:
And you’ve got their livelihood attached to that too. All the years that you’ve toured, you’ve toured with a lot of people.
Mac Powell:
I have, yeah.
Kim:
And I would love to hear just some stories maybe from the road or just some thoughts that you have on different people in our industry.
Mac Powell:
Sure. I’m going to say all good things. All good things, all good things.
Kim:
Well, let’s just start with somebody that recently graced your Instagram, Mr. Steven Curtis Chapman.
Mac Powell:
Oh, yeah. He’s the best.
Kim:
Singing I Will Be Here as a duet. That was so fun.
Mac Powell:
That was my wife’s idea. For Valentine’s week, I was doing a love song every day, or trying to, anyway, I’m not very good at keeping up with it, but I was out with Steven doing a show last week and she said, “You should get him to play. I’ll be here and you sing it, and that’ll be your post for the day, for Valentine’s Day or Valentine’s week.” And so I went into where his green room was and asked him real quick, and he said, “Yeah, sit down. Let’s do it.” And I actually got to sing that years ago at the Dev Awards, like a little snippet of it. We were doing a dedication to Steven and Marybeth and I got to sing that.
Kim:
That’s cool. So it sounds like you’ve had a long friendship with Steven.
Mac Powell:
Yeah. What’s interesting is that we had the same management team for a long time, for many years. So the first, I would say 10 or 12 years of anybody knowing who we were, who Third Day was, we never toured with Steven because our management wanted him to go do his tour and wanted us to go do our tour. So we do shows every once in a while, but it was rare. And we were big Steven fans, of course. And finally years later, we had different management and we said, “Why don’t we finally go do a tour together?” And so we did an SCC 3D tour.
Kim:
Cool.
Mac Powell:
Where he was in our band. He played guitar for us.
Kim:
Cool.
Mac Powell:
And then we were his band backing him up for his songs. And so we were out on stage the whole time together. And then not too long after that, I was starting some solo stuff, so he took me out on a tour with him. We’ve done three or four tours together since then. And so whenever I have friends ask me, “Who’s your favorite person in Christian music?” I always say, “Steven Curtis Chapman.”
Kim:
I can absolutely see why.
Mac Powell:
He’s the best.
Kim:
Salt of the earth.
Mac Powell:
Absolutely.
Kim:
That’s so great. That’s one of the reasons why I chose to go to Anderson University because he went there.
Mac Powell:
That’s right.
Kim:
And I’m like, Steven Curtis Chapman went here.
Mac Powell:
It’s got to be good.
Kim:
That’s right. Somebody else you’ve toured with is Toby.
Mac Powell:
Yeah.
Kim:
Toby Mac.
Mac Powell:
Many times.
Kim:
And I would love, what are some of your thoughts and experiences with Toby?
Mac Powell:
Well, of course, I was a big DC Talk fan.
Kim:
Oh yeah.
Mac Powell:
I didn’t know anything about Christian music until I started listening to it. And so the little shameless plug here, my next radio single was called 1991. And that’s the year I was a senior in high school. I was about to graduate, just had all these fears of not knowing what the future held for me. I sat on the edge of my bed and started reading through the Bible. Somebody had said, “Hey, you should read the book of Romans.” I started reading that and God’s spirit just filled my heart, and I just knew I wanted to totally surrender to him. And so I did that. I was in this terrible garage band, and one of the guys that was in the garage band, high school garage band was Mark Lee. And I told him I’m quitting. And he said, “Why?” I said, “Well, I’m giving my life to Jesus and I want to sing about him.” And he said, “Well, let’s start a Christian band.” I was like, “Cool. What’s that?” I had no idea.
Kim:
That’s amazing.
Mac Powell:
I had no idea there was this great music out, modern music out there talking about Jesus. And so as soon as I started making it, I started listening to it and just fell in love with it. And we became big DC Talk fans. I’ve got great stories of seeing them through the years and going to their shows and stuff. But I remember years later when our first record came out, we did a show with them in New Jersey at a festival, and they talked to us, and it was so cool to get to be this fan that now was a peer and got to hang out with them. And Toby, when DC Talk was disbanded, we took him out on his very first Toby Mac tour.
Kim:
Oh. Cool.
Mac Powell:
Was opening for us. And so many great memories of going out and singing songs with him and having him come up and sing songs with us. And just one of the best, really is an amazing man. Many, many times out on the basketball court with him being on his team and not on his team. And let me tell you right now, you want to be on Toby Mac’s team.
Kim:
I remember going to the Michael W. Smith, DC Talk Change Your World Tour, and I was in Indianapolis, and I remember very clearly the Lord, just however he does that, spoke to my heart and just told me you’re going to be in the music industry somehow.
Mac Powell:
Wow.
Kim:
I just knew. And so it was just to now see it come to fruition, being in radio for 15 years and knowing that he doesn’t know it, but God used him. He was a part of God speaking to my heart that night.
Mac Powell:
I still, listen, we’ve talked about this. I just turned 50 and I still feel like a little kid anytime I’m around Toby, anytime I’m around Steven or Michael. I got to do a tour. It was right towards the end of 2020, and the only way we could tour was to do drive-in theaters where people would drive up in their cars.
Kim:
I remember that.
Mac Powell:
We were on stage and they put the video up on the big screen for the drive-in, and I had done many tours with Steven before and many tours with Michael W, but being on stage with them and singing each other’s songs the whole time, of course I knew all their lyrics.
Kim:
Sure.
Mac Powell:
And so I’m still at that time, I was whatever. 47. And I’m looking to my left, I’m going, there’s Michael W. Smith, there’s Steven Curtis Chapman. I still, after knowing them for 20 something years, feel like a little kid.
Kim:
Wow.
Mac Powell:
Feel like that fan. And I don’t think I’ll ever lose that.
Kim:
I think that’s something that’s really great about Christian music is that yes, you can have the fan piece of it, but also knowing that the lyrics are something that actually God uses to change your heart. There’s just so many layers to it, and what a privilege to get to be a part of that.
Mac Powell:
It really is. I tell you I tell people all the time, especially now that Third Day’s been done, goodness, coming up this summer will be, June will be five years of not being in the band, which is kind of strange. Time flies by, but at the same time, it feels right. And I’ve told people this the past couple of years, and I think they think I’m joking when I say this, but I mean it with all my heart, I tell people I’m just happy to be here. I really am. I’m so thankful to get to still sing about Jesus, to be with these wonderful men and women in Christian music on the radio side, the artist side and everything, management, all that stuff, labels. And there’s just some really, really great people that love Jesus and love sharing the message of the gospel through the music, and I’m so glad to be part of it.
Kim:
Well, let’s talk about since the almost five years you’ve had some time in country music, and what was that experience like for you? Hey, if you ever have a question you wish we’d ask Mac Powell, drop it below.
Speaker 3:
Because the next time he stops by, we could be asking him your question.
Mac Powell:
It was a lot of fun. It was something that the Lord had placed on my heart and that I wanted to do towards the end of the last few years of Third Day. I wanted to go do that, but never had the time to. And every once in a while, I would get a couple of months off and I’d go play, get together a band and go play these little clubs.
Kim:
Cool.
Mac Powell:
Go to places where Third Day normally wouldn’t get to play. Hopefully try to reach some people that wouldn’t come to a Third Day show. I really, for that season, I loved doing it and loved making that music and still love country music, but there’s something about being able to sing about Jesus and something about being able to gather together with brothers and sisters and worship God. So I still love country music. I hope I get a chance to do something else down the road, but right now in life, I just really am thankful to get to do this.
Kim:
That’s so awesome. Okay, so Crowder. Crowder is like-
Mac Powell:
He’s a wild man.
Kim:
I was just going to say that. He’s like-
Mac Powell:
He’s a cartoon character. He really is.
Kim:
What is it like being out on the road with David Crowder?
Mac Powell:
Yeah, we took him out. Third Day took him out on a couple of different tours when he was with David Crowder Band, and we’ve done a lot of shows together. We’ve done a couple of Christmas kind of tours, but never like a tour tour since I’ve been a solo artist. So Dave, bring me out on tour with you. I’ll open for you anytime. But we’ve been fortunate enough to do a lot of festivals together and hang out a lot. And he really is a unique dude, loves the Lord, has a different perspective than most on a lot of different things. And I just love his enthusiasm with life and art and music and scriptures, and he’s really, really probably one of the most top five unique people I’ve ever met in my life.
Kim:
Yeah, yeah, I bet. I saw, I don’t know how else to describe it other than like an MTV Cribs type thing, but not MTV. And he was like, “Come on in.” And I was so surprised that was what his house looked like. It was so linear and minimal.
Mac Powell:
Yeah. Well, his wife’s a decorator, so yeah.
Kim:
Okay. I see him as kind of like, woo. That’s funny. So Billy Graham, you had the, I would say probably the honor of being a part of the Billy Graham Crusades when those were going on.
Mac Powell:
Yeah, we did a lot of stuff with the BGA. I don’t know if most people don’t know that they do more than just show up for the Big Crusades. There’s a lot of stuff that happens with churches in the major cities that Billy Graham was going to go speak in months in advance. And so most of the time we got to do some of those smaller things through the years, especially starting out. And then we got to a point where we were able to do some Franklin Graham stuff and they had some other speakers as well. We’d go do events, and then finally we got to do a Billy Graham event in Louisville with him. And it was towards the later years of his life when he was about to retire. And I have this great picture of us, I want to say backstage, but was in the end zone of the stadium.
Kim:
Cool.
Mac Powell:
And someone was driving him around on a golf cart. And he came up to us and shook our hands and gave us a blessing and prayed with us. And what an amazing memory to get to do that. And I have a great story about Billy Graham. When I first, in 1991, I was telling you about my song 1991 of my testimony. So not long after that, I need to look up the date because he spoke in Atlanta at the new Georgia Dome that had been built, the football stadium and DC Talk was going to be there playing it. And I was so excited. I’d first given my life to the Lord and I was so excited. Went down there and Billy Graham, I knew who he was, but I’d never really seen him preach a sermon before. I’d hear little excerpts, but 30 seconds kind of things. He preached. And it was the most simple gospel message I ever heard.
I was like, are you kidding me? He’s going to give this invitation and everybody knows this already. Nobody’s going to come forward and respond to this at all. This is terrible. I can’t believe you got tens of thousands of people here and this is what you’re going to share. And of course, what happens, tens of thousands of people come forward to respond to the gospel. And it really taught me a lesson about it’s not about the show, and it’s not about this clever speaking, it’s about sharing the simplicity of the gospel. And he taught me a lesson that day.
Kim:
I love that. That’s amazing. So you were in the crowd at one point in your life and then not too much longer later you were performing.
Mac Powell:
Yeah, it’s amazing. And it was good. It was a good balance of not being right away. I tell people that we were a five-year overnight success. We had our times of playing for the driving 10 hours through the night to go play for a youth group in Indiana for a love offering and realizing that a youth group doesn’t have a lot of love to offer nobody.
Kim:
No, they don’t.
Mac Powell:
And just being able to have those hard times of driving a lot in the van and trailers being with your brothers, all the sights and the sounds and the smells and all that stuff in a van.
Kim:
Put you guys in a van.
Mac Powell:
And for years. But at the same time, the Lord was always growing it and it didn’t feel like we were spinning our wheels. It felt like, okay, God’s moving here. He’s doing something. And when we first signed, the first record deal we signed was an independent record deal. It was with a real small label, and we didn’t even want to sign it, to be honest with you. We were too busy doing our own thing and got talked into it, and then all of a sudden we were in some trouble with the label just because they weren’t holding up their end of the bargain. All of a sudden, somebody, I’m giving you more information than you need.
Kim:
I love this stuff.
Mac Powell:
I remember this. We were actually here, we were in St. Louis and we were doing this youth event, and this probably is around ’95, and we’re just moping around because we’re like we thought we had to break up for a couple of years to get out of this contract.
Kim:
Wow.
Mac Powell:
With this label, and we thought, what’s going to happen and how can you break up for two years and will we ever come back and all this stuff? And this youth pastor at this thing that we were doing said, “Tell me what’s wrong with you guys. You just moping around.” And we said, “Well, we’re in this terrible situation with this independent label, and we feel like the Lord’s doing some stuff, but we can’t get out of this contract.” He said, “What do you want to do?” And I said, “I want to be on Reunion Records because Rich Mullins is on Reunion Records and Michael W. Smith and all these great people that Wes King was this great singer-songwriter.”
Kim:
Love Wes King.
Mac Powell:
And so he said, “We’re going to pray for that.” I said, “No, that’s not. I’m a little Baptist boy. I’m not a name it, claim it kind of guy.” He said, “No, we’re going to pray for what you want. The Lord wants to bless you.” I’m like, “Okay, whatever.” And I’m rolling my eyes, but we prayed. About a week later, we get a call from Reunion Records.
Kim:
Oh my goodness.
Mac Powell:
They want to come see us play in Tennessee, and then they bought out our contract and the rest is history. So yeah, I don’t even know how I got started on that.
Kim:
Wow. That’s amazing.
Mac Powell:
But St. Louis has always been a big part of Third Day and of my career.
Kim:
Wow.
Mac Powell:
Thank you, St. Louis. To that youth pastor, wherever you are now.
Kim:
That’s incredible. Man. I remember, were you guys on Essential? Was that the same-
Mac Powell:
Yeah. It went from Reunion to Essential.
Kim:
Essential. Yes, I remember that shift. Oh man. Rich Mullins. Did you ever play with him?
Mac Powell:
Yeah, I got a lot of great stories with Rich. He’s my favorite writer of all time. And just as a fan of his, I didn’t get to spend a lot of time. We were probably together about a dozen times, but out of that dozen times, I have so many great memories. I’m so thankful for him.
Kim:
Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah. He definitely led the way in so many ways for our industry.
Mac Powell:
Absolutely. It helped me to know what I wanted to do.
Kim:
Yeah. Showed up in his bare feet and he didn’t care.
Mac Powell:
That’s right.
Kim:
Who was there and who said something about it. I love that. Wow. Well, Mac, thank you for your time.
Mac Powell:
Thank you.
Kim:
And just for this great conversation and allowing the Joy FM listeners to get another look inside of who you are and just your time that you’ve been in this industry. Many people may not understand, the new listeners, maybe who are just finding out Joy within the last couple of years that you and Third Day really have paved the way for so many other artists to be able to sing about Jesus and to be able to do it in a way that is relevant and meaningful and fun.
Mac Powell:
Yeah. Thank you.
Kim:
And thank you for all that you guys have done over the years.
Mac Powell:
I’m just happy to be here.
Kim:
Hey, if you’re still here and loving this conversation, you’re going to love other interviews with Joy FM artists.
Speaker 3:
Just click below to keep it going.
