TobyMac

TobyMac and his wife Amanda are married since 1994. She is from Jamaica, and Toby regularly visits her hometown. His love for Jamaican music has been reflected in a few of his songs. The couple currently lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with their five children.

TobyMac was born on October 22, 1964, in the suburbs of Virginia, to devout Christian parents. Toby discovered his love for contemporary music very early in life and listened to everything from rap to hip-hop to rock music. At the age of 13, he went to a church camp where he was inspired by words from the ‘Bible.’ Very few musicians apart from him have combined biblical words with music.

His real inspiration came from the singer Sting, whom he saw leading his band, ‘The Police,’ in 1983. He immediately fell in love with the music and the fact that music could be beautiful and provocative at the same time. After graduating from a local high school, he became serious about a career in music and started looking for like-minded individuals to begin his career with.

Toby went to high school with Michael Tait, and in 1987, their common love for music had them forming a duo called ‘DC Talk.’ They both attended ‘Liberty University,’ where they met Kevin Max Smith, and when Kevin joined them, things finally started falling into place.

The trio released their first album, ‘DC Talk,’ in 1989, and following its success, they embarked on a nationwide tour. This earned them further mainstream exposure. Riding high on the success of their debut effort, they released their second album, ‘Nu Thang,’ in 1990. The sophomore effort surpassed ‘DC Talk’ in terms of success and achieved the “gold” certification from the ‘Recording Industry Association of America’ (RIAA.)

Their success streak continued with their third album, ‘Free at Last,’ which surpassed ‘Nu Thang’ in terms of success. The album was later certified “platinum” by the ‘RIAA.’ Their mainstream success had them appearing on ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,’ making them household names in America. Their music presented soulful and fresh sounds resulting from a complex mixture of grunge, contemporary Christian music, and rap.

They were at the peak of their careers, with the release of their 1995 album ‘Jesus Freak.’ The album was tagged as “double-platinum” and was followed by the grand ‘Jesus Freak Tour.’ In 1998, the trio released their last full-fledged album, titled ‘Supernatural,’ which was another pleasant success story.

In 2002, ‘DC Talk’ was named “the most popular overtly Christian act of all time” by ‘The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music.’ Barring ‘DC Talk’ and ‘Supernatural,’ all their albums have been honored with at least one ‘Grammy’ award.

In the early 2000s, before the trio parted ways, they released an EP named ‘Solo, which contained two new songs from each of their solo ventures. By that time, all three had started working seriously on their solo projects.