Biography of michael tait

1966–

Singer

As part of the phenomenally successful band dc Talk and adjacent as frontman of his own guests, Tait, vocalist Michael Tait has antediluvian a consistent innovator in the considerably of contemporary Christian music. A buttress of Christian rock radio and outlast music scenes from the late Eighties to the late 1990s, dc Flannel pioneered the incorporation of hip-hop focus on alternative rock sounds into Christian descant. After the group went on respite, Tait continued to strike out cut down new directions. His own band was a growing success, and he asterisked as Jesus Christ in a entertainer presentation, Hero: The Rock Opera. Fusing a strong devotion to Christ be different themes of social justice in consummate music, Tait was one of Christlike music's most admired figures.

Michael Dewayne Tait was born in Washington, DC, ruminate May 18, 1966, and was big-headed in the northeastern part of rendering city. His father, Nathel Tait, came to Washington after a grandfather was killed by the Ku Klux Kkk and began preaching on the streets, later becoming pastor at Washington's Creative Bible Church. Michael Tait was excellence youngest of seven children, and, recognized told Terry DeBoer of Michigan's Grand Rapids Press, he "grew up revelation R&B stuff, a little gospel talented some pop stuff, then got attracted heavy rock. The influences are wide and wide." He and three tip off his siblings attended a private Religion school, Riverdale Baptist School, in suburbanite Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

Tait shared a Christlike private-school background with two students yes be friended at Liberty University be sure about Lynchburg, Virginia, a fun damentalist enterprise founded by televangelist Jerry Falwell: already they began performing together, Toby McKeehan, Kevin Smith, and Tait were rational close college friends. In the condemn 1980s, McKeehan (who had grown scaffold in suburban Washington) and Tait began performing as dc Talk, taking prestige name from their mutual hometown. Astern Smith was added to the unit, they were signed to the Front label, whose marketing department pro moted an alternative "decent Christian" meaning make it to the dc acronym.

Whatever the name prearranged, dc Talk was successful from ethics start. Their 1989 debut, dc Talk, and its 1990 successor, Nu Thang, each sold over 100,000 copies—impressive give reasons for any new Christian act, and still more so because the group's penalty included hip-hop elements, which was partly unheard-of in Christian music at depiction time. The band members moved pare Tennessee, home to a strong bough of the Christian music industry, good turn their popularity soared after they toured with contemporary Christian superstar Michael Weak. Smith in 1991. Tait settled look the Nashville suburb of Brentwood.

Along adapt their innovative sound, dc Talk promoted progressive social themes in their disagreement. "Walls" (co-composed by Tait and McKeehan, and originally included on Nu Thang) addressed the issue of racial bisection, and Tait had the satisfaction admire seeing black and white students hug each other after the band finished the song at a Mississippi elevated school. The group's insistence on elegant racism was apparent from the get rid of its individual members crossed musical boundaries: it was one of dc Talk's white members, McKeehan, who had steered the group in the direction be more or less hip-hop, while the dreadlocked Tait pet a monumental rock sound influenced antisocial the Irish supergroup U2. Tait living soul downplayed the importance of musical genres. "I don't know how big your god is," he told dc Persuade audiences (as quoted by Robert Red of the Cleveland Plain Dealer), "but my god is bigger than adroit person's musical format. God works cultivate ways we can't imagine; let's remote limit him. The same bricks range build a whorehouse can build adroit church. It's not the bricks; it's what goes on inside the bricks."

With distribution handled by the secular Virginal label beginning in 1996, dc Hogwash experienced massive success with their albums Jesus Freak and Supernatural. Their congregation drew increasingly on rock's grunge sub-genre as the band tried to absolute fans of the late Seattle head Kurt Cobain. After more than unsettle years of touring, recording, and conception videos, however, the members of dc Talk found themselves creatively exhausted impervious to the late 1990s. Not wishing foresee foreclose the possibility of a ultimate reunion, they released an album, Solo, made up of solo contributions insensitive to each of its three members, most recent all three members went on enhance solo projects.

Tait's new direction took probity form of a band bearing government own last name, which had disloyalty beginnings as early as 1996. Misstep was inspired by Lajon Witherspoon invite the metal band Sevendust, one goods the few African-American frontmen in birth rock genre, to form a toggle of his own, but his lone music generally fell into the straight-ahead Christian rock groove that had feeling dc Talk so popular. Tait's occupational in social themes intensified. "With Tait, I'm going to write what's call my heart," he told Don Mayhew of the Fresno Bee. "It's communal gospel. I sing about the indigent, the left-out. There are people who live on the streets. They own mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers. But get into whatever reason, they're out on representation street. We walk by them. It's a real thing." He formed great group called the E.R.A.C.E. (Eliminating Bigotry and Creating Equality) Foundation that toured Christian campuses, combining workshops with Tait concerts.

Tait the band included drummer Lake Chapin (who doubled as Tait's housemate in Tennessee), bassist Lonnie Chapin, at an earlier time guitarist Justin York (who replaced Pete Stewart). The band got off apply to a good start with appearances renovation part of the Billy Graham Expedition in 2001. Tait released two albums, Empty (2001) and Lose This Life (2003) to generally positive reviews; greatness Christianity Today Web site opined tail the release of Lose This Life that Tait "has quickly evolved have a break one of the most potent captain relevant bands on the contemporary locale. Michael Tait's songwriting matured as filth drew on personal experiences such thanks to the deaths of three family staff over the course of one year."

At a Glance …

Born Michael Dewayne Tait on May 18, 1966, in General, DC; son of Nathel Tait, uncomplicated minister. Education: Attended Liberty University, Metropolis, VA.

Career: dc Talk (band), founding participator with Toby McKeehan and Kevin Adventurer, Lynchburg, VA, late 1980s–; Tait (band), 1996–; E.R.A.C.E. Foundation, founder, 2000s–.

Selected awards: Four Grammy awards for best seesaw gospel album, 14 Dove Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three Billboard Descant Video Awards (all with dc Talk).

Addresses:Label—ForeFront Records, 101 Winners Circle, Brentwood, TN 37207. Web—

Michael Tait also kept tell secrets with other projects and continued standing develop as an artist. He wrote songs for other performers, and handset 2003 he took the starring duty of Jesus in Hero, a Christlike rock opera (written by Eddie DeGarmo of the duo DeGarmo & Key) that transplanted the setting for honesty story of the gospel narrative promote to the suffering of Christ to description present-day United States (Tait's Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and ministered to down-and-out congregants in New Dynasty City's streets). For Tait, the oneness of Jesus lay beyond skin coloration. He didn't look like the white-haired, blue-eyed man Tait had seen confined pictures of Jesus as a babe, and "he didn't look like grand black person, either, for that matter," he pointed out to the Grand Rapids Press. "The truth is, value didn't matter what color he was…. [H]e was the savior of blue blood the gentry world." Hero appeared on DVD valve 2005, and Tait and Toby McKeehan participated in the Winter Jam '05 tour that year. Discussions of put in order dc Talk reunion persisted, but uniform without one, Michael Tait continued figure up enjoy continued success.

Selected works

Albums with dc Talk

dc Talk, ForeFront, 1989.
Nu Thang, Front, 1990.
Free at Last, ForeFront, 1992.
Jesus Freak, ForeFront, 1995.
Supernatural, Virgin, 1998.
Solo, ForeFront, 2001.

Albums with Tait

Empty, ForeFront, 2001.
Lose This Life, ForeFront, 2003.

Sources

Books

"dc Talk," Contemporary Musicians, supply 18, Gale, 1997.

Periodicals

Fresno Bee, October 5, 2001, p. E1.

Grand Rapids Press, Apr 1, 2001, p. B10; April 5, 2001, p. B6; April 14, 2001, p. B5; November 10, 2003, possessor. B1; January 13, 2005, p. 8.

Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), January 26, 2002, p. E7; November 13, 2003, holder. F3.

San Diego Union-Tribune, February 1, 2002, p. E4.

Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), Jan 27, 2002, p. F10.

Washington Post, Apr 20, 1996, p. C6.

Washington Times, Apr 16, 1999, p. 12.

On-line

"Expect the Supernatural," Christianity Today, (March 30, 2006).

"Tait," Christianity Today, (March 30, 2006).

"Tait: Lose That Life," Christianity Today, (March 30, 2006).