Sold-out concerts. Gold records. Grammy and Dove Awards.

TobyMac knows a thing or two about success. He and the Diverse City Band serve up a unique blend of pop, rock, hip-hop and funk with powerful songs that strike a nerve in people of all ages. And their track record is impressive:


TobyMac launched his music career with dc Talk way back in 1988, and he went solo 13 years later. He released Momentum in 2001and then followed up with three more amazing top-sellers: Welcome to Diverse City in 2004, Portable Sounds in 2007, and his biggest seller to date—Tonight, which landed in music stores last February.

No doubt, TobyMac has established himself as one of Christian music’s most innovative and influential artists. Yet even though this singer-songwriter proves that hard work, persistence and patience pay off . . . TobyMac says it’s the eternal stuff that happens through his music that truly defines his success.

“I still believe that a song can penetrate a heart,” he explains.

“I believe God can use lyrics to open someone’s mind and heart. Other tunes can drop what I call ‘the joy bomb’ on somebody.

“I fight really hard to [avoid being jaded],” he continues, “to keep believing that you can actually walk into a studio and write a song that breathes life. That’s the hardest fight for a guy who’s been doing this for a while; it’s easy to fall into the trap of just making it your job. But I still believe that songs matter.”

SUSIE Magazine recently interviewed TobyMac during a break from his hectic touring schedule. He sat on a breezy patio at his Franklin, Tenn., home and soaked in some Southern rays as we fired away with questions. Somewhere during our conversation, he diverted a couple of key thoughts right back to the Sisterhood: “Do SUSIE readers know who is driving their dreams? Are they allowing God to drop the ‘joy bomb’ through their lives?”

And then he stressed something we’ve heard him say through the years: “It doesn’t matter if you’re a recording artist or a student, an adult or a teen, popular or shy . . . God wants to use you.”

Great stuff, but exactly how do we get our spiritual lives in tune with Jesus? Glad you asked, because TobyMac has lots of answers! He insists that it all comes down to an intimate connection with God . . . which is the ultimate connection. And it involves fi ve “Forever Truths” that have changed his life. (Maybe they can guide your walk, too.)

FOREVER TRUTH NO 1:
“We all need God . . . right now, this morning, this afternoon— TONIGHT! And we need to seek Him first.”

TobyMac says he strives to connect with Christ and to “live” Him every minute of every day—not only through his art and when he performs on stage but in his private moments as well. And he works hard to make Jesus the first Person he talks to . . . not the last.

“When I first began my music career, God laid a prayer on my heart,” TobyMac says. “It wasn’t that I would rock the world. It wasn’t that I’d win millions of people to Christ through music. It wasn’t any of those things. It was this simple prayer: ‘God, I know things are going to happen. I don’t know what they’re going to be, but I ask that You just surround me with the kind of people I need. Give me friends and family and partners who will hold me accountable; who will love me and who I can love back. Let us serve you together.’ God has been so amazing. And beyond any success in my life, God has been true to that prayer.”

It’s TobyMac’s yearning to make God the foundation of his life that’s at the core of his current title cut, “Tonight.” In the song, he focuses on getting close to God in the moments he is given. (Check out the lyrics at metrolyrics.com.)

FOREVER TRUTH NO 2:
“Family connections are a priority.”

While most people are used to seeing TobyMac jam on stage—or maybe they catch his youthful smile on magazine covers—they often forget that he’s a family man.

In 1994, he married the love of his life, Amanda, who grew up in Jamaica. The busy couple have five kids: 12-year-old Truett — who has appeared on all of TobyMac’s solo albums under the name “TruDog”—adopted twins Moses and Marlee (age 7), Leo (age 6), and preschooler Judah (age 4).

Even though writing songs, touring and recording albums are demanding pursuits, TobyMac makes family time a priority—especially “fun connections.”

“We spend a lot of time in Jamaica,” he says. “All of my wife’s family is there, and those roots are very important to us. Despite the hardships we see on the island, there’s such joy there, too. When we visit, we make time to surf, snorkel, ride go-carts, tube down a river and ride motorcycles.”

And back in Franklin, Tenn., the artist stops work in his recording studio and makes sure he’s home by 6:30 p.m. every night. “We sit around the table and ask everyone to share the best part of their day,” he says. “And then after dinner, we all clean up together. We all have a job and we just have a little party. Most musicians work a lot. But I’m striving to model the closeness I see in my wife’s family and try to be at home at night.”

FOREVER TRUTH NO 3:
“When life gets hard, we need to help each other ‘get back up.’”

TobyMac says he tries to write from personal experiences, which is how he came up with the song “Get Back Up.” This tune also shares some insights on how he tries to live among family and friends by offering forth redemption and love. (Check out the lyrics at metrolyrics.com.)

“This song is about a friend who made some bad decisions and lost his marriage and family as well as his daughters,” TobyMac says. “I wanted him to know that there’s a lot of light left in him even though, at the time, he felt worthless. This song appeals to all of humanity. We all lose our way and make bad decisions. The most important message is to remind people that God is bigger than all of that. Love is calling us. There’s no condemnation.”

FOREVER TRUTH NO 4:
“Eating up the Bible makes us spiritually strong.”

TobyMac says he begins his day with the most important meal of the day: the Bible. “There’s something alive about God’s Word,” he says. “And amazingly, I always seem to get the right thing that I need that day. When I read the Bible, God is always faithful.”

He also listens to music and reads devotionals that are filled with Scripture. “So even when I’m traveling, I’m ‘eating’ God’s Word.” But he admits that these “meals” aren’t always easy to digest. So he often turns to his best friend for encouragement—his wife.

“Amanda is amazing,” TobyMac says. “It’s like, I’m over here eating a sandwich with wheat bread and mustard with a little bit of meat in the middle. But she’s over there chewing on raw meat! She just tears up the Bible and loves it. She spends a lot of time in God’s Word. She truly inspires me—and makes sure that I get a balanced diet.”

It’s hard to imagine a successful, creative guy like TobyMac ever struggling. But, hey, he’s human. And he’s the first to admit that he has to work really hard to make great music.

“I feel like I have to work harder than other people to get there,” he says. “Sometimes I feel like I’m slightly undergifted.”

Yet it’s this feeling, he says, that forces him to lean on and collaborate with others—which is a faith principle that helps him grow spiritually and create great music. “Amazing things happen when one human being sharpens one another. It forces me to depend on God. He knows I can’t do this on my own. It also makes me work harder than the next guy. It pushes me on.”

One of the most heart-penetrating songs on Tonight, the hit “City On Our Knees,” grew out of this kind of collaboration. “That song was written very quickly,” he says. “Normally, it takes two to three months to create a song, but this one came quickly. I wrote it with two friends of mine. I always pray when I go into the studio and ask God to help me get through the things that get in the way: ‘Please breathe something through me.’ I know that God wrote this one through me.”

TobyMac says it’s about us coming together as human beings and recognizing that whatever we are fighting against—regardless of the struggles we face in life—we can start over together and begin moving in a new direction—right here and right now. “We can be one voice together through God—and get to that ‘city on our knees,’” he says.

For TobyMac, this is one of the most important “Forever Truths.”

Michael Ross heads up the book publishing efforts at Back to the Bible where he serves as Senior Writer/Editor. He and his wife, Tiff any, and son, Christopher, live in Lincoln, Neb.