Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 973 | Jase Fakes His Guitar Skills Onstage, Phil’s Rock & Roll Roots & ‘Kardashians with Beards’

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

Jase put his guitar "skills" on display, and his fans have never let him live it down, including his friend Mac Powell, formerly of the Christian band Third Day. Mac recounts his appearance on “Duck Dynasty,” and Phil’s rock-and-roll roots formed the basis of his son’s musical education. Al jokingly relates the Robertsons to the Kardashians but with beards and Jesus. Check out Mac Powell’s newest album, “I Love Jesus,” at http://macpowell.com! -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to unashamed. Dad, you're itching to tell us something, Dad. What is it? Well, I was surprised at a guy that he said, I've been waiting on this moment for 45 years. That's when I made the decision. But I'm just now carrying it out. I said, what's that? He said, to be baptized. He said, especially after I just listened to them texts you were given.

So you did your class yesterday. John three. I was there yesterday. And look, what's crazy is I bumped into him post-baptism. Really? Yeah, and he told me the story that you're fixing the tale. And he was gleaming, Phil. Yeah.

Well, you tell the story because I get so many. At this stage, And you hurt your back again, which I haven't heard your back again, which I haven't heard the details on that. And you don't know how you heard it, right? I have no idea. You just woke up? It just started aching when I got up, and I said,

hmm. And it got worse and worse or worse till right now I'm sitting here. I'm perfectly comfortable right now. But if I move my legs to walk over there and get a cup of coffee, I mean, with each step, it's like you got a knife in your back. Yeah. So I will give you credit for it, and you felt this way yesterday, but you still managed to make the drive.

I said, I'll go down to the bad Pismol Poo with you, my man, and that's the best move you ever make. He said, I've been working on it for 45 years. But I got to listen to you all. And he said, I said, you know what? I better move on that. So you witnessed the baptism. I told Jersey Joe, I said, baptized just when I said, because with my back, I do pretty good, but I can't lift a fountain pen.

That's less a man. Well, right. And you don't want him to die and be buried and then not be raised. I'm telling you, I said, that's the smartest move. You know, you read that John 3. I mean, it said, unless a man is born again, of water. and the spirit. He will,

can't see it. Isn't that something how Jesus, I mean, he announces that and everybody's looking around like, what's he talking about? Being born again. I mean, here's the,

here's God in human form introducing this idea of new creation. And he compared the spirit. When you receive the spirit when you're at you, when you're baptized, when he mentions that, people say the spirit like the wind like the wind he says like the wind you don't know where it's

coming from or where it's going it just comes by the wind comes by you know what's crazy is about three or four that's the way the spirit is well that's pretty cool really three or four people at church yesterday asked me they're like we haven't seen you in a while and i said well i'm like the wind you know but i was thinking of that same passage which was kind of funny no that was uh calls for celebration yesterday And good job, even despite your suffering. We were kind of on a high because we went to the Washington School, which Phil, you were a part of at the roots. And I didn't even realize this.

So, Al, they had a 50-year celebration, which I noticed turned into them giving a pitch for the next 50 years. Oh, yeah. So, which was very clever. And it was a very good presentation. And look, you know, usually if I don't like something, I don't talk about it. But I was very impressed because the number one thing that came out of that presentation, which, by the way, Phil, there were hundreds of people there.

And a lot of the original dreamers who started the school in a living room were there. I don't know how old they were. old one of the guys uh j j turner yeah who was part of that original uh him and his wife and then my wife's parents who uh my wife's mom wrote the alma mater song yeah for washtile christian and they started the program with uh coach michael harper who's been there for years James. Your mother-in-law was my teacher because whenever dad talked two years there, and the first year it started, started in 1974. Dad came in 75 as a brand new, dripping wet Christian. And he, but Peggy, your mother-in-law, was one of my teachers.

And not one of my favorites. She is now, but, you know, when you're a kid, just a little different. At the time, they were like children in the city. and seventh grade, you know, just junior high. Yeah. That's about the old as you. We're all them, and I just watched them grow up over the last 40 years. And it's been pretty interesting to watch. You were my, Dad, you were my homeroom teacher in the fifth and sixth grade.

Yeah. You know, so my formative years. It was just funny now my grandson is the same age. And I don't know, you look back, you think, man, what happened to 50 years? Well, it was weird because they asked all the. you know, people who had gone to school there to stand up. Well, I stood up because people didn't realize that I actually went to OCS in the second grade.

And it was a, I think it was at foresight. What they did for the first two or three years is they met at churches. Yeah. And they eventually got the property where they are now. But it was really good. But one of the MCs was Grant Taylor, who we all know, you may not know out of that world. But he worked for Duck Commander and Buck Commander. for years and he's really good with a microphone.

But he made a comment because I noticed, which when Missy reminded me that I had agreed to go to this function, I said, well, whoever scheduled. It doesn't sound like you still were wanting to go to this function when she reminded you. But she was right once again because she's like, no, you agreed to come with a good attitude. It was a groundwork for a school, and they were paying very big books. It's the reason I did it. $500 a month. Oh, yeah, and it's still a problem.

Look, they make half the teachers. 500 a month, I said, hey. Look, you're talking about servants. They make half the money that public schools make. But what I said is why it was so good is they focused on Jesus, and these people are out there, and they try to give these kids a good. Christian education in this world, which seems like genius right now. And it was an awesome event, but I wanted to say something that Grant said, because I leaned

over to Missy, and I was like, well, whoever lined this up on the LSU by week needs a raise. Because I thought they strategically did that. And so Grant made a comment. He's like, I appreciate y'all being here in his opening comments. And he said, and you missing college football? And he said, I'm pretty sure you're not missing much. And so I say that to say this. When we get home, the first thing I do is check all the scores that I missed,

even though LSU wasn't playing. And I looked at my computer and I said, well, this can't be right. It actually has Vanderbilt with a bigger number beside the school than it does Alabama. I was like, there's no way this can be right. There has been some kind of a worm that it's got in the internet. I could not believe what I would see. You couldn't rape your mind around Vanity beating Babel. I clicked on it and they had the highlights.

I thought, I don't believe you. I have to watch the highlights. So I watch the highlight. So I get up and Missy, who is, she's a football fan and we enjoy it together, but she's not hardcore. If it's not something related to Louisiana. but I just had to go tell someone. I mean, it felt like when I realized what I have in Jesus,

you know, when you kind of have that moment where, like, I can't keep this silent. I go in there and I was like, babe, you're not going to believe this. And she's like, what? Because we had just done the OCS thing. And she was thinking it was something spiritual. And I said, Vanderbilt beat Alabama.

And she said, I don't believe you. I was like, no, it's a fact. I've researched it. Well, look, she just exploded. She's not a big college football fan. She just exploded in joy. She's like, woo-hoo. Now we know she's a true LSU fan, that's for sure.

And I said, you know what I have to do in this moment? She said, what? I said, I've got to send Grant Taylor a message because he misspoke when he said, I'm not sure. He said, I'm pretty sure you're not missing much. Yeah. And so I sent him the text and said, you remember when you said you're not missing much. Well, Vanderbilt beat Alabama. And he said, yeah, I just saw that. You have a point. So what's interesting now, I want to finish this story. So then Sunday, we heard a sermon by

Darren Whitehead from Church of the City of Nashville. And that was his opening line because they're in Nashville. Oh, yeah. And he's from Australia. It was really funny. And he's like, look, I don't know if y'all noticed last night, but there were a few thousand, uh, he made some reference to they had probably had a few adult beverages. College kids carrying a goalpost down the middle of downtown Nashville. He said last night, end of the night. And he said, look, being from Australia, when Australians do things like that, they call the police. They're breaking the law.

But nobody seemed to have a problem with it, which they eventually dumped the goalpost in the lake. in the river probably yeah that that's that's how it ended and uh so i i just thought uh back to something that that the famous coach nick sabin had said a couple weeks ago that became bulletin board material and he said it was hard to play in the SEC because every time you're on the road it's difficult to win in the SEC when you're on the road he said except for Vanderbilt. So actually, in a weird way, he actually contributed to that loss. Yeah.

Because it's like, you need to worry when you're on the road in SEC, but not when you go to Vanderbilt. And then it was the first time ever that Vanderbilt had beaten the top five team. So I just had to share that. Well, I'm glad you did because we have one of our favorite people who's going to been on the podcast today. He happens to be a huge Alabama fan if I remember correctly.

So we're going to get his take on that. I'm not so sure about that out. He was born in Alabama. And this will be the riddle if you can figure out who our guest is. He was born in Alabama, if I recall, but he's been living in Georgia for years. Yeah. So I'm not sure where we're at on that. I think you can get the man out of Alabama, but you never get Alabama out of the man.

That's my prediction. So we're going to find out. Let's take a break. we come back. We'll have Jay's introduce one of our favorite people on the planet. And we'll see him after the break. Welcome back to Unashame. We have one of our favorite people, Mack Powell. When we first met Mac, you were a third day back in those days, Mac.

That's right. It was really interesting. So we have confirmed that Mac is an Alabama fan. So we hated that we brought you into the podcast. in such a terrible way by inflicting more pain into the vandy loss. So what were you doing? Were you just in shock like the rest of Bambination watching the game? Well, in a way I was in shock.

In a way I wasn't because I've read this story and seen this story many, many times in the past. You know, even with Nick Saban being the greatest coach of all time, he only, of the 17 years he was Alabama. Only two of the seasons were undefeated. So more than likely, you're going to get a loss sometime. I just wasn't thinking it was going to beat a Vandy. So, yeah, it was tough. It was interesting. And I say this not to make y'all feel bad, but just to kind of give you some insight, yesterday, let's see.

Yeah, yesterday was the one year anniversary of my dad passing away. And he was a huge Alabama fan, and he passed that on to me, unfortunately. But I was getting text all day from people saying, hey, man, just checking in on you, hoping you're okay. And I thought, man, how does everybody remember that's so kind of them? And then I went, oh, they're not checking on me about my daddy. They're checking about the Alabama day. So is your dad, did your parents still stay on in Alabama in, and was it Tilton County? Chilton County, yeah, right in the middle of the state, right between Birmingham and Montgomery.

I tell people when they say, where's Clanton, Alabama? So where people stop to get gas on the way to Florida? But it's, it's a... Well, you're not going to leave this, Mac. So Lisa and I, a month ago, we went and spoke in Clanton, Alabama. And I had no idea you were from there. And so we go there. And so we're coming up from Gulf Shores because we have our southern layer down here

that we stay up part of the time. And so we're driving up there. And I got it on the GPS and where we're going. And we're speaking on behalf of a pregnancy center. Karenet Pregnancy Center, it's their fundraiser. So we get off the interstate, we get off of 65, and we're going and we're driving, and we're getting like, now we're in a pasture. And I'm like, well, there's no way this event can be, I mean, literally I'm on a dirt road

going over a cattle guard. And as soon as we come over the hill, there's this place right out there. It was called the back porch. and some guy has built a little thing, kind of like Jason Missy's thing, where they have events at, and that's where it was. And we parked on the side of a hill at just about a, you know, 90-degree angle. I was afraid my truck was going to roll off down to the woods. It is the most interesting and unique event center I've ever spoken at, but the people were fantastic. So I wish I had known.

I had no idea you were from there because I could have said, hey, I know the most famous person, you know, from Clanton, Alabama. Most of them would have been like, who? Who's that? I actually played Clanton for the first time in my life about a month ago. And it was a men's event. And you all know Rick Burgess, our good friend. Rick Burgess on Rick and Bubba.

He was, well, he wasn't there, but his ministry was doing an event. And I was there to sing. And, man, I was scared to death because I thought, man, I had never done this. I've never sang at home. I don't know if anybody's going to show up. And it was so fun, man, seeing all these people that I went to high school with that are, you know, 50 plus years old now. And I'm looking at them going, do I look that old now?

So, you know, it happens. I was wondering, because, you know, there's a famous verse in the Bible when Jesus went to his hometown. He was like, you know, no prophet. The prophet is not welcome. Yeah, because, I mean, most of the events we've done in our hometowns, I'm not going to lie, it's been crickets. Yeah. Because I think they all know you.

you. Right. So I think. Yeah, they see you at the grocery store. So it's like, what's the big deal? What's a big deal? So I think everybody needs that humble pie from time to time. Fortunately, fortunately wasn't just a show for me.

It was an event. So there were a lot of people there. It was awesome. It was about 500 men just praising the Lord and lifting their hands to the Lord. It was awesome. Well, actually, Mac, the first time that I met you, dad and I were out in Anaheim, California. And Greg Lurie, he had the big. thing at Anaheim Stadium.

They does every year. You guys were singing. How many years are we going back here, Al? We're probably talking 15 maybe. Yeah, at least. Yeah. Something like that. And so we're down,

so you're in the baseball stadium. So we're kind of down on the bowels of the stadium, Jay. So we're down there where the players get dressed and stuff. And they're like, here's these guys third day. And I was, oh, and so we're shaking hands. And Max, like, oh, man, I'm a big fan of the show. And, you know, we appreciate what you guys are doing. And so dad did an interview and I got to pray.

And when I walked out there, because you know, you guys had these experiences, but I, you know, not me. And I walk out on that baseball stadium. There's 45,000 people there.

And they say, you know, Al Robertson, oldest son from Duck Dasty. And everybody, you know, gives a standing ovation. And I'm just doing the prayer.

In California. In California. This is a miracle. It is. It was a miracle. Oh, that's awesome. Well, let me tell you how this got started. I want to apologize because, Matt, we've actually been friends for years,

and we've never had you on the podcast. I was shocked when I heard that. It should have already. And I was actually studying for the podcast, and you know how the little algorithms come up? I was listening to a sermon. And for some reason, the Internet knew me, I guess, better than the podcast people, because it put up, you had a new song on my little algorithm.

And I was like, oh, I've got some new stuff going out. And I listened to one of the songs, and I loved it. And that took me back to how we met because, you know, I struggled when I came to Christ marrying a woman who is very musical. And Missy, I think y'all have done some things at same events and where she sang and y'all sang and we had all this. Well, I was like a deer in the headlights because I was only there to share Jesus and blow duck calls in that order. But I was around y'all, and I remember the day that she said, look, you would like his music.

Because the problem I had with back then, 15, 20 years ago, with contemporary music is I came from Phil's musical acumen, which was Pink Floyd, Leonard Skinner, even though we were in Jesus, Jesus, that's just what he listened to. And when we were in the shop, Bill, and Duck calls, we were listening to Credits Clearwater Revival. Eagles. I finally got out of there after about 30 years. Yeah. Well, yeah, and you were influencing me because when Missy was like, oh, listen, you have all this. I conversed and didn't factor in the bunch you just said, the bunch of the.

No, exactly. And so, and I remember the first time because she's like, she introduced me to third day. and Mac Pound, I listened to it, and I thought, well, where's this been all my Christian life, you know? And, but since I've known you now, it also made me really appreciate what you do because you were true to yourself and it's different in the Christian world. But for people who come out of the world, and especially we qualify that with 10 exclamation points, this was like, okay, this is not cheesy. And I love the vibe. So I think it was a connection there with, you know, from our show with Duck Dynasty, God kind of had an idea that was kind of outside the norm with reaching people with our family.

So that was that instant connection. And so we did a few things back early on. But when I heard that, I want to say this because I, when I saw that new song, I called you up and I was embarrassed because we haven't talked in a couple years. I think I saw you somewhere at an event. We were together. You probably saw him at the K-Level Awards. I don't know if I didn't get to talk to you, Matt, but Jason may have it.

When we got podcasts of the year, this was last year, you were singing, and you were singing, what was the song you sang? New Creation. Yeah. You were the first one up, and Jason Crabb was singing it with you. And I got to say, I mean, there was a lot of great stuff that night. I mean, a lot of great artists. I was in beautiful music. But yours was my favorite.

One is because I love the song and so much what we're about. But just the, you guys had like a little set on stage. You had like, it was a little church setting. You had the people in the pews and you were up front. And so you were singing the song. It's like you're preaching a sermon. And it was just really, really good. So I don't know, Jay's, but you may have saw in there.

I'm not sure. And so before we let you talk, I'm kind of introducing, you know, what you do. really love what you do. But I called you, and you answered, which was shocking. You know, I was going to send you a text. Well, I was, I was reading the word. I'm not lying. I was reading the word. I usually in the morning, I get up, and I walk for about an hour, and I pray during that walk, and then when I get home, I opened the word, and I was about halfway through my time in the word, and you called, and I said, I better get this, because he don't call me often, so I better grab it while I can. I was fixing to share that, and you were reading John 13, and we got into it, you were,

you started preaching on what you were reading, which was awesome, talking about how Jesus being a servant is so contagious in our own lives. And you were just having a realization of that. And really it's the epitome of how our relationship began, because I know you remember this. My son was featured on one of the episodes in Duck Dynasty. and they wanted him to sing, but he didn't have a band. He was just like, he had the ability to sing, and they thought it was a cool idea. And somehow another, y'all on just a fly-by-the-night phone call, drove, I don't know how many hours to Monroe, and y'all acted as his band on, there's an episode of Duck Dynasty, which we thought this will be great for you,

people to see you on this show. And after all the edit, I think that segment, was maybe 10 seconds. Welcome to my world, man. And I felt so horrible. Y'all had been touring somewhere, drove all night to be there, stayed all day to, you know, to do this scene. And it came out to about 10 seconds. And it was like, well, thank you for that.

No, you know what? It was fun to be able to do it anyway. And it's not, sometimes it's not even about doing the event. it's about saying that you've got to do the event. So I've told more people that I got to be on an episode of Duck Dynasty than probably ever saw it. So, you know, what was the thing I remember most about that is we're driving. I don't know, it's, I'm guessing a six or seven hour drive from Atlanta. I've got my band and we're in the van and the trailer and we got all our gear.

And I call Missy to say, hey, you know, tell me a little bit about, can you connect me with whoever's running the sound? so we can, you know, give them some information. And she said, what? And I said, you know, the people who have the sound system. And she said, uh, I thought y'all had that stuff. I said, no, we don't have the sound system. We're a band. We show up and we plug into what's there.

So she said, let me call you right back. So she had to scramble around to find a sound system somewhere. Oh, this is more, this is getting more embarrassing. I have felt terrible. Television, folks. This is national, national. on television. Yeah, so I felt bad about that for years, and I've always loved what y'all do. That's why, so I asked you, I was like, you got a new album. Will you be on our podcast? Because I want

people to hear this. And it was such a transformational moment for me, because it really introduced me into contemporary Christian music, which now I love. Yeah. You know, and I know y'all are doing a tour now, and you've fit this into your busy schedule. And I think it's called, The Awakening Tour. Is that right? That's right. The Awakening Tour, it's an amazing tour. It just started this past week.

We were down in Florida for most of the shows. It's casting crowns, my good friends that are also living in Atlanta, south of Atlanta, a band called We the Kingdom. If you haven't heard We the Kingdom, you've got to go check them out. They're awesome. A bunch of great artists. And man, what an honor to be. Katie Nichols.

Katie Nichols. Katie Nichols. Katie Nicole. Katie Nicole. And, yeah, Katie Nicole, analyst, who else is somebody else? Tarian, I think. Tarian, that's right, who's, you know, Toby Mac has kind of brought her up. She's on Toby's label.

A lot of great artists. And David Leonard, David Leonard, our good friend from, good old boy from Arkansas. Oh, yeah, it's a great night. Yeah, yeah, he's awesome. A great worship leader. And just when you got, for me, I'm still a fan after all these years. I'm a fan of Christian music. When I see people that want to share their faith through music, I mean, it's inspiring.

And so, you know, to be part of a night like that is a beautiful thing. You go out and you see thousands of people lifting their hands, praising the Lord. To me, there's not a lot better than that. People sharing their testimonies on stage, people sharing the word on stage. So it doesn't get a lot better. I love it. No, and you have a lot of fun doing it. there was a moment that happened, went somewhere in the Duck Dynasty years, where you did a

concert actually in our hometown, which was way more well received than our experiences. And I think you had an idea. You're like, why don't you get up on stage and play with us? And I'm like, well, Mac, I don't know how to play a guitar. You know, because I thought you thought, since I'm married to my wife, you must know something about music. But I didn't. And he's like, oh, no, we'll, we'll, we'll. we'll take care of that. We'll just have you unplugged. Yeah.

He's like, you're an actor. You can figure it out. And I was like, I'm really not an actor. So look, through the years, I have had.

This is like a Barney Fife episode, Jace. This is, you remember when Barney was singing and they, they unplugged his mic, so they couldn't hear him. You're Barney Fife now.

I literally was Barney Fife for third day with a guitar. And look, my performance was so believable. Mike, I've never told you. you this. For years in airports, people come up. They talk about the Duck Show and they talk about the podcast. They talk about our family. And then a number of people have said, are you still a third day? One act with me with a guitar that wasn't plugged in and it got on the internet

and somehow another, I've been commenting on how third day is going. man. See, it ain't hard to make it in the music business. It ain't hard. Just go, you think. Catch yourself to some talented people. Yeah, there's that and fake it till you make it. You just get up there with an unplugged guitar. I saw Garth Brooks one time, and he was up there and he was about to do a song by himself and the band left. And he said, I'm going to be honest with y'all. This guitar ain't even plugged in. I just use it to cover up my gut. Oh my goodness. So look, to show you. We played it. We played it. We played it. We played home uh sweet home Alabama i remember that yeah we did and i was like now that i can pan of mine

you know yeah throw sweet home i didn't know you could fake that much material and get away with it you can fake it are you kidding that's jesus whole life the crowd went crazy i mean they went nuts it's like we got mac pal third day all these christian people combined with our duck show playing Sweet Home Alabama in Louisiana, you would have thought that would have never worked. Well, they probably thought, you know, if they're with him, they've got to be great. They're cooler than we thought. Jace can play a guitar. It was so funny.

I kept one of the- You're a little more bold than I am. I never would have got in a situation like that. I just went with it and thought the Lord will work it out. So what's fascinating, and the reason I think that this encounter, you've been on the podcast and the tour that you're doing and your new album, which, I mean, just think about it. The name of it is, I love Jesus, which is why I think it works for you. You know, you have these simple things that are, you know, phrases that we get from the Bible,

but that are really so profound. Let me just think about it. You went new creations and now I love Jesus. Yeah. Okay. That I can understand, rally behind and support 100%. And the new one, good news. I mean, I mean, that's just like so simple and yet so profound.

Exactly. So the day after, Matt, we had that conversation and you agreed to do it, this is, I'm not making this up. I know this seems like a made-up Jay story. My daughter, who is 21, and she's helping lead worship at a church in Nashville for the college age. And I'm just super excited for her faith and the things she's doing. She sends my wife a text because my daughter's unaware that this was going on. And she's like, Mom, you need to listen to this band that is awesome and tell dad about it. I was fixing to say, when we finally leave here, Matt, bring your instruments with you.

But you don't have to give Jason him any instrument. They don't need that. Yeah. Very good advice, Phil. Good advice. So my daughter says the band is called Thursday. day. They're awesome. So come home and

Missy said. Mia just discovered a third day. She's a little late to the party. A little bit late. The band has been broken up for six years now. She's just now figuring it out. It's just like our show because I do events now and these kids come up and they're like the parents will say, yeah, they just started watching

Duck Dynasty and I'm like, well, we've been off the air for seven years. But what happened is when the stuff is good, like what you guys did, like our show, when stuff is good, like, and I mentioned Barney Five when it's, you know, Mayberry and, you know, Andy Griffith show, it can play into generation after generation after generation. And that's the beauty of doing all what we've done for the kingdom is, man, that stuff pays forward. You know, it's going to go generationally, which is a blessing. We just went on vacation with, uh, right when the hurricane hit. We were in

Hilton Head, South Carolina. So we're going through the night when the hurricane comes through. It didn't get really close to us, but it was 70, 70 mile an hour gust on the beach, and the house is just shaking the whole time. But one of the friends, my youngest son, brought a friend with him.

And his name is Brady. So shout out to Brady. He listens to y'all and loves Duck Dynasty. So the whole week he's carrying around, he got an Uncle Si, sweet tea cup, and he's drinking sweet. He drank two gallons of sweet tea in four days. Oh my goodness.

And I saw him yesterday and I said, hey, Brady, you're never going to guess when I'm doing tomorrow. He said, what? I said, I'm going to be on the unashamed podcast. And he, you, y'all, I have won Grammys. I have won Dove Awards. I've done, I've met presidents. I've done all kinds of stuff.

You would have thought it was just the end-all be-all that I'm going to be with y'all on the podcast. You've finally arrived, man. I only made it, y'all. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I did want to say there's something about longevity. And because like a lot of people's perception of us, they only got from our duck show.

And so like most reality shows, they figured that this was going to be a crash and burn type thing they could follow on the internet, you know, after it was so successful. And I think it surprised people that, well, wait a minute, they're still here. They're still doing things. Of course, they figured. it out that, you know, we've got power on loan from a lot more incredible source in our faith on Jesus. We weren't just Kardashians with beards, Jay. So that's what you're saying.

We have a greater purpose and work, you know. It's called the kingdom of God. And so I feel that same vibe with you. You know, I read an interesting quote. And I was just looking at some of the things you've been doing. but in the interview I saw that you said that you had considered yourself a babe in Christ for years when you were starting out. And I wanted to get in to that, you know, just with your life and your ministry.

Because at some point, you know, you did kind of have that catalyst of maturity. And, you know, because I don't know how long you've been doing this. I thought you could talk about that a little bit with where you started and where you've come and maturity. Well, yeah, I grew up in. church in that, in fact, when we talked about Clinton, Alabama earlier where I'm from, you know, I was, I was from 20 minutes outside of Clanton. So I grew up on a dirt road, you know, just kind of in the middle of nowhere. I went to Providence Baptist Church number two. I have no idea where the first one was.

I'm not making it up. I'm not making it up. I'm not making it up. It was almost Providence, but number two. So I grew up there. That's where my dad went to church when he grew up. And, you know, it's the kind of place that if it's a hundred people in there, that's packed out for Christmas and Easter. Real small Baptist Church. And got saved at an early age. I mean, I gave my life.

I heard the simple gospel message, the good news one Sunday morning that, you know, that we're all sinners. That the only way we can be saved is through Jesus and him dying on a cross for us and us receiving that free gift. I realized at eight, nine years old, I was never going to be good enough. I was never going to earn my way to heaven. I was never going to give enough money to charity. I was never going to read the word of God enough. I was never going to pray enough. And that is good news that I don't have to earn it, that Jesus paid that price for me.

And so I got up by myself, walked to aisle, went to the preacher and said, I want this. Got baptized the next week. And I'd like to tell you that everything was great from then on, but I just remained a baby Christian for a long time. I just kind of did my thing. It was kind of that, you know, we call it fire insurance. Everybody in the church that I went to and went, oh, you came forward, you got baptized, you're good. And there was no discipleship. Now, I'm not blaming not all in other people.

It's, you know, partly my fault, too, but I was a kid. And my dad didn't go to church with us, and Mama did what she could. But finally, I still was going to church. And then, you know, I'd get resaved every other year at church camp, stuff like that. And in my senior year, my senior year of high school, I was scared to death because I didn't have any real skills to get a real job after I graduated. I didn't, I wasn't a great student. We didn't really have money for me to go to college anyway. And I'm just sitting on end of my bed just actually praying for the first time and a while going, Lord, I don't know what I'm going to do.

I'm scared. And I remember somebody had said, you at church, they said, you should read the book of Romans. So I went and I got the dust off from my Bible. and I didn't even know where Romans was. I had to look down the index, you know, and I said, Romans, oh, New Testament, all right, turned there, started reading and God's spirit just filled me and reminded me of that promise that I made when I was a child to surrender to Jesus and realized I realized I wasn't surrendered completely to him.

Right then and there, I said, Lord, I need you. I'm giving everything to you. And I was in a little garage band. I'd always wanted to be in a rock band my whole life. My mom and dad sang and play guitar, nothing professional, but just always around the house. And I was in this garage band. I gave my life to the Lord. And I felt like he said, hey, I want you to give up that band.

And we were starting to do shows outside of the state and getting a little bit of, you know, getting some gigs. And I thought, Lord, I've always wanted to do this. Always wanted this. Now I've got it. And you're asking me to give it up. And he said, yep. And I said, you know what? I surrender to you.

So I'm surrendering this to you. and I went to the guy that had started the band with me in high school, and I said, hey, I'm going to quit the band. He said, why? And I said, well, I'm giving my life to Jesus. I've been hanging out in places I don't need to hang out. I've been singing about things I don't want to sing about anymore. And I'm just, the Lord is telling me to quit, so I'm just done.

And he said, well, let's start a Christian band. He had grown up in church, and he knew about Christian music. I didn't know anything about it. never, only Christian music I knew was singing hymns out of the, out of the, you know, the red book. And he started playing some Christian music for me. And I went, you know, it was like modern rock music with gospel message. And I just couldn't believe it. I just thought, I had no idea this was a thing. And so I said, I want to do this. And the Lord took me just, you know, skinny, dumb, 18-year-old kid and started this thing. That garage band became what was known as third day.

Wow. And, you know, we never knew we would have the success that we had. We thought if we get to make a couple of records and cross across the U.S. a couple of times, that would be awesome. Then we'll go get real jobs after that. And there ain't nothing else I know how to do. And I still love doing it. Yeah, it really is. Well, I also wanted to ask you about, because, you know, if you Google Max family, it's more like a lot of our family.

It looks like the United Nations. Yeah. And so I know, you know, the power of adoption, especially when you think about, you know, the Bible and how that compares to how God views us, you know, in Christ. And because you've always come across as a family man and with your kids. And I know your wife had a health scare. What was that four or five years ago? Yeah, four years ago. Yeah. And so I wanted to, wanted you to share about that and how that's growing your faith. Yeah. Well, Amy and I, we dated in high school, and she was what I would not recommend to anybody else, but she was missionary dating me, because as I told you, I wasn't living for the Lord at the time. But she was really strong in her faith, started inviting me back to church, giving me some Christian music to listen to, just to encourage me. And once I surrendered completely

to the Lord, we worked at our church and an after-school program. And it was like you just said, It was United Nations of little kids there. It was Asian, black, white, Hispanic kids. And it was a beautiful thing. And we just thought once you get to a point when you're dating for a while, you start asking those questions, would you like to have kids? All those things. And so we always talked about, you know, we would love to adopt.

We would love for our family to look very different than normal to show that that's what heaven's going to be like. You know, I think a lot of people are going to be a little surprised. when they get to heaven to see what it really looks like and who's there and who's not. And so we had three biological children. And when it got to the point, we started talking about having another child. We said, you know, we always talked about when we were younger about adopting. And so we went through, we had some good friends that had adopted the Nassar family, David Nassar, who's a speaker I'd y'all probably run into before.

They adopted a little boy from Guatemala. And we saw just the phase. and the hope and the love that that adoption, you know, brought about in their family. And we saw it as a beautiful thing. Of course, you read Ephesians chapter one, how God adopts us into his family. We thought, how can we not do this? And so, man, it was a beautiful thing. And then less than a year later, we get a call in the middle of the night about this

little girl that was going to be born. They had no idea where she was going to go live. And we said, well, we got a baby already. We don't have three other kids. I don't know if we can do this. And then we went and saw her in the hospital and just knew right away we saw her and said, that's our baby girl. We brought her home that day.

So we went from three to five in a matter of a year. And it's been awesome. Which is what, you know, we talk a lot on here, Mac, about being pro life. And it's more than just the womb, right? It's, it's all the way through, you know, raising a child and everybody having an opportunity to, to really share that and show that. So I love it when I hear stories like that because it really is the idea

that we're trying to bless people from womb to tomb, you know, and be able to show them Jesus, which is fantastic. Absolutely, absolutely. And when you told your story about me and your wife, you know, isn't that something how, even from the beginning going back to the garden,

I mean, God has the opposite sex for us to complete us. I mean, even with my wife who, if I would have written down, okay, how this is going to work because of all these things we have in common, I just wouldn't have been able to fill that out. But, you know, only our relationship in the Lord is what we had in common at the time. And now I look back on it and thank God thinking, genius. This was the person. But it's so hard to see it in the moment. And that's why I wanted to kind of go through your life because in all these instances,

you see God working his plan, you know, in your life. And I do. No doubt about it. I do think that's why the longevity is there. And there's a piece. You know, every time I see you and the new projects that you're doing and life after third day. And even with us, you know, life after our duck show, God continues to use us as we mature in the faith

and, you know, and get older. And I just think it's a powerful testimony to how God works. Yeah. I think about Moses. You know, there are times when I get older and a lot more grace coming through and I go, Oh, Lord, am I done? But Moses had three different lives, basically. If you think about it, he lived 120.

Now, I'm not going to live to 120. But from when he was born until he was 40, he was a prince of Egypt. So he's got the best of everything, best of food, best of places to live. education, all that stuff. But God was working in his life at that time, even though Moses had no idea. He was preparing Moses for something bigger and better than being a prince of Egypt. So his second part of his life was 40 to 80. Now he goes like the almost the opposite. He thinks, man, I have the best. And now I've got the hardest that anybody can. I'm living in a desert. you know, being a nomad.

But at the same time, Moses, everybody else would look at his life at that time and go, man, that's terrible. But Moses was actually learning even more. And he married his wife and he had his children and had his family. And then he came to faith. And then from 80 to 120, think about this now. 80 to the next third, the last third of his life, even though God was preparing him the whole time and helping him to get trained and ready for what God was going to do.

It wasn't until the last part of his life, the guy go, now you're ready. And so that story of Moses so encourages me to go that there is no retirement in the scriptures. Now, don't get me wrong. There are times of rest. We have to, that's a biblical thing. But there is no retirement when it comes to faith, when it comes to our relationship with God. And so anybody out there listening now, we're seeing this podcast. do not think that God is done with you.

He has never done with us, and he always has something else around the corner. Yeah, that reminds me of that conversation they have, which I've actually pitched this to numerous songwriters and musicians to do a song. So I'm giving you a heads up here. All right. He wants to co-write.

Yeah, let's do some songwriting. Look, there's a conversation when right at the first, Moses said, well, who am I? and God said to him, I am who I am. And when you think about that, I always thought that was fascinating. Because we all feel that way. Well, who am I that you could use me? And he responds back, I am who, which is the reverse order of what he just said.

He dates back to O Adah. This is in all places at Genesis chapter four. I feel a jubal. Yeah, you are. Let's go. gave birth to Jabal. He was the father of all those who live in tents and raise livestock. We've seen them.

His brothers named Jubal was the father of all who played the harp and flute. That's old Matt. That's where a man comes in. Well, now you got you, he just did your act way back. This is ancestry. You got it right there. Jubilee. That's where we get the word Jubilee from.

That's it. Exactly. Well, look. Tell us where, now tell us what we can do in the short term to get the album and to experience the Awakening Tour. Yeah, absolutely. So, Awakening Tour will go all the way through the end of October. And then I'm on a tour with Danny Gokey and Tasha Layton and Sef Schleeder that starts in all of November. So the simple thing is go to MacPowell.com.

It's got all the touring dates. The record, wherever you stream music, go check out the record from MacPowell. I Love Jesus. There's four songs that have been released. So far, the rest will get released October 25th. And then if anybody's interested in getting signed copies and a vinyl CDs or whatever, all that stuff's at macopal.com. Well, Mac, it's always a blessing to get to spend time with you.

You did one of our cruises back in the day. That's right. And did worse. And survived. And survived. 3,000 crazy debt dynasty fans, which by the way, that cruise was easy for me because everybody's looking for y'all, man. I got to get, you know, I got to sneak around.

I wonder if you knew this or not, and you may have, about 300 plus people were baptized on that cruise. And as far as we know, it's the first time they ever baptized people on a carnival cruise. So there's been a few drunks fall in the pool, but we actually baptized them in the purpose. Praise the Lord. You were a part of that as well. Max, always a pleasure, brother. We won't go this long without having you back on sometime again.

I appreciate y'all. Hey, thanks for what y'all are doing. Thanks for getting the word out there. pointing people to Jesus. Thank you, man. Mac Powell, everybody. Check him out. See y'all.

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