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Michael Whitaker Smith became one of the most enduringly popular artists in the contemporary Christian music market while also finding brief success as a mainstream artist. The songwriter was born in Kenova, WV, the son of an oil refinery worker and a caterer. He became a devout Christian at age ten and spent his teenage years around a support group of fellow believers who frequently gathered to create music. That support group split up after high school, and Smith turned to alcohol, drugs, and wild times. Meanwhile, he scraped through a couple semesters of college and began honing his songwriting skills, when led to a songwriting company's interest in his music in 1978. He moved to Nashville, where he played with a series of local bands, including Rose. He was still heavily into drugs and continued using until October 1979, when he suffered an emotional mental breakdown that culminated in recommitting to Christ. The next day, he auditioned for a new CCM group, Higher Ground, as a keyb...