Christian hip-hop artist Toby McKeehan knows how to keep busy.
If the musician isn’t spending time managing Gotee Records, the label he co-founded, or rehearsing with his touring band Divercity, he’s likely traveling to another city for a performance.
“There’s snow to my left and snow to my right,” said McKeehan, better known as TobyMac, while recently driving through Albany, New York, for his next show.
TobyMac will bring his “Hits Deep Tour” to the Huntington Center on Thursday.
McKeehan has 11 Grammy Awards and has sold more than 11 million albums during his career, which started in the 1980s as a member of the Christian pop group DC Talk.
When the pop group disbanded in 1999, McKeehan continued his musical ambitions with seven full-length solo albums.
He readily admits to being lyrically naive as a young artist and writing rap songs about “ex-girlfriends I was mad at.”
Then something changed. The hip-hop artist references his song, “Love Broke Thru” from his 2015 album This Is Not A Test, in which he sings, “when love broke through, you found me in the darkness, wandering through the desert, I was a hopeless fool, now I’m hopelessly devoted, my chains are broken, and it all began with you.”
The song is about the artist’s acceptance of God at the age of 13.
“They are songs about real life, the struggles, the good, the bad, the ugly of Toby’s life,” he said. “There’s a resolved [matter], usually, because I want my life resolved with my faith in God.”
He said the longer he’s involved in music, the stronger his faith grows. He references his 2015 song “Beyond Me,” in which he sings, “anything that I got the strength to do, in over my head keeps me counting on you.”
“What I’m learning everyday is I’m a needy man, but I have a lot of friends that are strong and I have a God that is the strongest,” he said. “I walk in the studio and say, ‘God breathe something beyond me, something I could never do on my own. In recognizing your needs I think there’s strength in that.’ ”
While McKeehan enjoys performing at churches he prefers to bring his music show to arenas, like the 7,200-seat Huntington Center, where there is a diversity of artists providing entertainment to a large number of people.
“I have no problem playing at a church but I would rather play in an arena where everyone feels welcomed and no one feels apprehensive about going in a certain building,” he said. “I love going to a city and making a statement.”
Thursday’s show is part of the tour’s partnership between K-Love/Air1 Radio Station, Food for the Hungry, and Awakening Events to provide food, shelter, and education and medical treatment to children in need.
“We always want to have a heart for diversity but also to love people and to not forget people who might be fighting for clean water or a place to learn and a place to live,” McKeehan said. We want to be aware of people abroad and for people in the U.S. who might have needs that we don’t experience.”
Tickets cost $15 to $70 and are available at the Huntington Center’s box office or at ticketmaster.com. Opening acts include Matt Maher, Mandisa, Mac Powell, Capital Kings, Hollyn and Ryan Stevenson. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the show starts at 6:30 p.m.
“A lot of times we teach people to look in the mirror and say, ‘You can do it, you can do it,’ ” McKeehan said. “I look in the mirror and say, ‘I can’t do it,’ but with friends that love me well and with faith and a God that is strong, we can get by.”
Contact Geoff Burns at: gburns@theblade.com or 419-724-6110.
First Published April 5, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
