Formed in 1991, Third Day is a contemporary Christian rock band that has had incredible success by the world’s standards. It was named “one of the best rock bands, period” by Billboard Magazine and has racked up many major awards, had 31 No. 1 hits and has made media appearances on shows such as “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “60 Minutes on CBS News.”
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The band’s message has been the same throughout all those years, no matter who they were speaking to or performing in front of. Recently, Mac Powell, the band’s lead singer and a songwriter and founder of Third Day and self-proclaimed “old man,” went on a deep YouTube dive and watched some old live Third Day footage. He found that he said the same thing in 1996 as he did in 2000, 2005 and 2010.
Consistent message
“For us, there was an important message in the music,” Powell noted. “There were several of them, but the main thing was just to know that God has a great love for every one of us no matter who we are, where we come from, what we’ve done or not done.
“God loves us, and we wanted to encourage people every night and in fact, we still do,” he said.
Third Day is back together for a 30th anniversary tour, All the Hits, celebrating their official, nationwide breakthrough year in 1996. The tour began March 19 in Jacksonville, Florida, and continues until May 10 in Atlanta, with a stop in Birmingham on May 1. Zach Williams is the special guest and opener.
Powell started this journey with Mark Lee, another member of Third Day. But they didn’t start out as a Christian group. They went to high school and were in several bands together during that time, starting with their marching band where Lee played trumpet and Powell played trombone.
Then at the end of his senior year, Powell was having some hard times that renewed his prayer life for the first time since he “was a little kid.” He started reading his Bible, wanting God’s direction for his life. Feeling he shouldn’t play in a rock band anymore, he told Lee he wanted to quit.
“Mark (Lee) said, ‘Why don’t we start a Christian band?’ I had no idea what that was. I’d never heard of Christian music before. So he played me some stuff and my girlfriend at the time, who is now my wife of almost 30 years — she was a strong believer — played me some Christian music that she’d been listening to.
“I was just blown away. I couldn’t believe that people were making this modern-sounding music with a spiritual and Christian message. So I knew that’s what I wanted to try to do with my life,” Powell said.
Although hearing Powell sing in a senior assembly originally led Lee to ask him to try out for his band, Powell is also a songwriter. Sometimes, though, it’s a struggle. He’ll get an idea that he just has to get out. It weighs on him. It’s a “positive irritation” until it’s complete.
“It’s fun on one hand to have that exciting [feeling], that you have a song that you can’t just lay down and let go of but at the same time, it’s irritating,” he said.
No plans for retirement
Powell never really thought about giving up and plans to sing until he can’t sing anymore. Though he’s had recent fleeting thoughts of retiring and can see how nice it would be to not have to get up very early in the morning to fly somewhere, he doesn’t see retirement in his future.
“As long as I’m allowed to sing and the Lord allows me to physically be able to sing, I’ll be singing for little old ladies in a little church somewhere,” he said.
In fact, when Third Day amicably decided to go their separate ways in 2018 — although the other guys in the band were “talented and smart” and went out and got “real jobs” — Powell says he kept singing and songwriting because that was all he knew how to do.
“It was just time to move on and do some other things, and we never knew if we would have the chance to play together like this. It’s been amazing.
“I mean, it’s the biggest and I believe by far the best show we’ve ever done. The response that we’re getting from our fans has just been overwhelming and just amazing,” he said.
Through the 30-plus years of this journey, Powell has learned that God is faithful and that He is good. Although it hasn’t been all smooth sailing — including his wife having a brain aneurysm five years ago where he almost lost her — he felt it was a time of learning to trust even more.
“I found my faith being something that I needed in those hard times — not being something that pushes me away from God but bringing me closer to Him. It’s just His faithfulness, His goodness and the things that we’ve been singing about and talking about for over 30 years now. Those are still true in our lives.”
For more information about Third Day and the 30th anniversary tour, go to https://www.thirdday.com/.
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