Relentless Hope with John O'Leary

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This week on Relentless Hope, we dive into the remarkable life of John O'Leary. At age nine, John O’Leary was burned on 100% of his body in a horrific accident. Given a 1% chance to live, he underwent months of surgeries and years of healing—but chose life. From that defining moment, John learned three truths that would shape everything: life is a sacred gift, we always have a choice in how we respond, and every one of us has the power to change our world.

Learn to love your life, lead with purpose and leave a legacy of helping others with Relentless Hope. The Relentless Hope Podcast gives hope a voice by sharing stories from the world’s most passionate leaders.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello, my friends. My name is John O'Leary, and
when I was nine years old, I was burned on
one hundred percent of my body. Eighty seven percent of
those burns were third degree. Given no chance of survival,
I decided that first day in hospital, and then each
day afterwards for five and a half months, to take
the hand of God, to walk the journey with him,

(00:21):
and to fight like I never fought before. It did
not make the journey easy, what would. But I think
that decision as a kid made the journey possible. And
yet when I came home, my goal in life was
not to stand out and shine reflect his mercies. My
goal was to fade. So that's what I did. For
decades after being burned. I covered up the scars. I

(00:44):
hid from the struggle. I'm turned toward addictive behavior. And
when my life truly was transformed was not at age nine.
It was at age twenty eight, in a church service
in the back row, arms crossed, looking down when the
pastor said, and for those of you who feel as
if God has blessed you with no talent, not five,

(01:04):
not two, not even one, but none, listen to me.
Your life is a precious gift, you got one job,
say yes to be in us for good. Well, I
wrote that down. In the following day, I was invited
by a group of girl Scouts to speak at the troup.
I never told anybody how I was burned. I never
showed anybody my scars. But on that day, on the

(01:24):
heels of that message, I said yes. That yes has
led to twenty seven hundred additional speeches around the world.
It has led to two bestselling books, and now it
leads to a forthcoming major motion film released by Sonya
Firm October tenth, called Soul on Fire. The best thing
about this film is it's not about a kid who

(01:45):
got burned who figured out, ultimately by the end of it,
how God was using his story. Now this is a
film ultimately about heroes. It's a film about love. It's
a film about family and faith and what can happen
when we recognize God used all all people and all
experiences for his perfect purposes. My friends, I hope you
will join me October tenth and afterwards in theaters around

(02:08):
the country to take in, be inspired by and transformed
through the film Soul on Fire.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
John is the two time national best selling author of
on Fire and in Awe. He's a world class inspirational speaker,
the host of the Live Inspired podcast, and he's the
real life inspiration behind the major motion picture Soul on Fire.
Each week, John interviews extraordinary individuals about their life stories

(02:35):
so you can more fully live your life story. Here's
your host, John O'Leary.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well, hello, my friends. In today's episode, we have an
empowering voice from the series of Soul on Fire. Why
is he so empowered, Well, he is indeed the voice
of the song Soul on Fire. There's a band out there.
Some of you may know, it's called Third Day. If
you don't, they have won four Grammy's twenty five of Awards,
sold millions of albums, packed countless stadiums, and they've got

(03:05):
an incredible song called Soul on Fire. When you listen
to this conversation today with my friend Mac Pole, you're
gonna hear a little bit of the origin story for
the movie title Soul on Fire. You'll hear also the
origin story for his career, for his voice, for his passion,
for his faith, for his family, and ultimately today, why

(03:26):
you will leave this episode with your soul on Fire.
It's an amazing conversation with a remarkable man, a great
lead singer, a phenomenal singer, songwriter, and an awesome human being.
His name is Mac Powell. So, my friends, what I
want you to do right now is grab your nearest
ben a popcorn, tall soda. Get ready to dim the lights.

(03:49):
The action's about to pop you ready for it? Without
further ado, my friend now yours his name, Mac Powell.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
Man, great to be here, Thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
You and I were talking before I hit record officially
that occasionally you'll bump into people on airports and they'll
say what do you do? And you have to answer
that When I ask you the question, Mac, what do
you do?

Speaker 3 (04:10):
How do you answer that?

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Today?

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Man, I've been doing this for thirty years and I
don't know if I still have an answer. But I'm
a musician that writes Christian songs. It's categorized in the
CCM Contemporary Christian Music. But you know, I like to
throw a little bit of rock and country and pop
all mixed together, that stuff that I grew up listening to.

(04:34):
So I can't help but be infected and affected by
that stuff that I grew up listening to and all
comes throughout my music voices that I listened to growing up,
whether it was Johnny Cash or Willie Nelson or John
Fogerty and James Taylor, Nelton John and Lionel Ritchie and
Michael Jackson, and I could go on down the list
to you know, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney,

(04:58):
and it's like there's a long list of once is
I'm giving you too long of an answer, John, I'm sorry,
but all of that stuff kind of wrapped up with me.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
It's a long flight, man, take your time. We're belted
in next to each other.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, sharing my faith in my lyrics through that contemporary
music rock, slash country, slash pop, whatever you want to
call it. And I've been very fortunate to get to
do this for thirty years and be able to kind
of go across the US many many times over and
around the world to share my faith through my music
and to hopefully celebrate with people life.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah. So when people come to the arena, they know
what they're signing up for, and they know the songs.
Usually they're able to sing it back with you. That's
a remarkable feat. We'll talk about the journey toward that.
But when you're at Atlanta Airport, I would imagine that's
the one you're flying out the most frequently, and you
say to them, I'm a Christian artist. How often do
people lean in and say, man, tell me more about that.

(05:52):
And how often did they begin stiff arming you and
magazine and start reading.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
It's a little bit of both. I mean there's a
little bit of like, oh, that's interesting. And sometimes you
get my cousin is in a Christian man or something
like that, or I grew up listening to, you know whatever,
some group and they try to make a connection. And
then a lot of other times it's like you said,
it's like oh okay, and then they pick up the
magazine or whatever their phone and it's so interesting and

(06:20):
it doesn't grow old being able to share about what
I get to do now. It's definitely not my first agenda.
I mean, there's a lot of people who are really
excited about meeting new people and stories they're going to hear,
and I just get on. I want to close my
eyes and take a nap. So I'm usually the one
praying Lord, let me just sit down and get rest here.

(06:43):
But there are so many great stories through the years
of that not happening, and I go, oh, man, what
was I thinking? This is this story and hearing this
person's story me being able to share mine is so
much better than that, you know, thirty minute nap I
might have had.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
So I like you, and my audiences aren't quite the
size of your stadiums, but I'm a speaker on the
road quite a bit, and my hope is always to
if I'm not at home with my wife and kids,
let me work, like, let me just put my fead
down and get the thing done until I'm able to
go home. And yet when I'm able to be open
to the interruptions of the person next to me, it's
like them, not me. Some of the stories that I've

(07:19):
grown out of that make all of the travel worthwhile.
In fact, sometimes it's like, that's why I'm on the
plane today this conversation. Is there one that you've had
over the last thirty years of traveling for work that
comes to mind first for you today?

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Well, the first one of many that kind of pops
into my head is I got on a flight and
I don't even remember where I was going to. And
what's interesting is I said that little prayer. Lord, let
me just get on here and close my eyes and
not have to talk to anybody. I'm tired. Had to
get up way early. And what's funny is the guy

(07:53):
who I sat down beside later on, he told me
he had been praying, Hey, God, give me a chance
to talk to somebody. So we had players prayers, and
so we know who's closer to God because we ended
up talking. And so I came home with my guitar,
put my guitar, you know, overhead, sit down and he said,

(08:15):
uh oh, he played guitar and I said yeah, and
then we kind of started talking about that. I'm like,
thinking of my mind. Here we go. I don't want
to get into all of this. And after a while
I just started asking him about him and what he does,
and pretty soon I was like, man, this guy's really
this is a really cool dude. I'm enjoying our conversation.
And then eventually he said, so, tell me about your music,

(08:35):
and I told him and I said, well, I'm a
I'm at the time, I was in a band called
Third Day and he said shut up. I said yeah,
And so then I thought, okay, maybe he's heard of
my band. He gets out his phone and this is
I think it's like August or September. Gets out his phone,
goes to his last play playlist he was playing and
it was our Christmas record and he said, I was

(08:57):
listening to your Christmas record like a couple of days ago,
and it's in August or September or whatever. He says.
That shows you how much of a fan I am.
But it was one of those things that once again
I didn't want to talk to anybody. I didn't want
to I just wanted to be by myself. And here
I am. This opportunity opens up, and this guy, Keith
is a mentor of mine now and a great friend.

(09:18):
We ended up writing a book together. He works in
publishing in Indianapolis, and he's one of my best friends now.
So that's the kind of opportunities that we close ourself
to when we're not willing to just have a conversation
with somebody beside us.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Well, you mentioned Keith, and the last time I was
in Clanton, Alabama, was with a friend of mine named Keith.
Keith gets in with Alabama Power had an opportunity of
speaking with a couple dozen of his linemen outside of Clanton, Alabama.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah, my hometown.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
You know better than I do, man, So tell me
about growing up in Clanton.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
What's interesting. My dad was in the Army when I
was basically from when I was born to about four
or five years old. He grew up in Clanton, and
so when he got out of the army, we ended
up in Birmingham, Alabama, went to first grade there, and
then we ended up moving to Clanton a year later.
So a lot of moving around when I was a kid,

(10:13):
Lots of different places, New Jersey, El Paso, we lived
in Taiwan, Kentucky, just all over the place. And then
then it went from constantly moving every few months to
I was stayed in one spot from first grade through
basically ninth grade, never went anywhere, never did anything, just

(10:34):
stayed in Clinton, but was always around music. Both my
dad and my mom played guitar and sang. Nothing professionally,
but just whenever there was any kind of family event,
our friends would come over the house, there was always music.
My dad had this amazing record collection of all this
stuff from the sixties and seventies, and as I told

(10:56):
you earlier, that was such a big influence on me.
So it is not only his love and my mom's
love for music, but them performing music around the house.
So I was I'm actually writing a song right now.
It talks about people are always asking me how long
have you been singing? And I don't remember a time
not singing. I was singing before I could speak. That
was just life for me. And then I ended up

(11:18):
singing at school, you know, at different little choirs and
things like that. I grew up in church singing a choir,
started an eighth grade playing trumpet, so that was life.
Then from eighth grade on it was like marching band.
That's what I wanted to do. That was my people,
the band nerds. And I ended up having to move
my ninth grade year two Atlanta. I went to three

(11:41):
different high schools in four years, which is not fun,
and yet I learned a lesson each time I had
to leave it somehow always got better. I didn't want
to leave Clanton, that was where all my family and
friends were. I end up in Atlanta, and I was
only in Atlanta for maybe two months and went, oh,
what was I thinking? This is great? Is great? There's
so much more stuff here to do, so many more

(12:02):
people went to a much bigger high school and just
things to do. And then it ended up staying in
the same city but going to a different school, and
I went, why do I have to do this again?
I finally made all these new friends. I'm in the
marching band and all this stuff I want to do.
And then when I moved to my last high school,
I met Mark Lee. He was in the marching band,

(12:23):
and we started a band together that ended up becoming
Third Day, the band that I was in for twenty
five years. I met my wife. We were high school sweethearts.
So things got better every time I had to leave something.
And I've kind of found that in life that whenever
God has us leave of place, he has something else
for us. And it may not be bigger and better,
and it may not be like if your job means

(12:45):
you have to change, it may not need more money
or more opportunities, but there's something always better. There's something
always for us in a different place. And so that
was a lesson that I learned early on. And then so, yeah,
but Clinton is is. It's interesting because I played it
really for the first time, like a full band gig
this past summer, and the first time I've ever played

(13:05):
in Clanton. It was cool to get to go back,
and I played this festival and I was on the
basically at the park where I played baseball growing up,
and I'm looking around and seeing all these fields, all
these memories come back people that I want.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
To each water tower.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I saw a beach WaterTower, which there's
only three in all of the US, and one of
them is in Clanton.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
So you said something about the lessons and leaving, and
I heard that almost like as a song title. Do
you almost as you experienced life? Do you almost experience
it like looking for the next lyric in the next song.
Is it just always like stirring within you, this opportunity
to take something that you are experiencing or witnessing and
turn this into music that the rest of us can
sing out.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yeah, oh definitely. I'm a big fan of art of paintings,
and in fact, the book that Keith and I wrote
was about four famous painters. And so in the same
way that I think a painter is constantly seeing things
and seeing images and wondering how they can capture that,

(14:09):
I'm constantly reading things and hearing things that people say,
and even seeing things written on billboards or in commercials,
or hear them preached in sermons and going, how can
I take this word or this phrase or this title
and give it some life and give it to let
it be something that people can sing along to and

(14:30):
that it can encourage them with. Yes, it's hard, it's
hard to turn that off. And it comes in seasons.
I think there's definitely seasons where I'm not even thinking
about a new song, but it's usually when it's I'm
in a season right now where I've written a song
almost every day or now maybe not complete song, but
an idea every day for the past two or three weeks.

(14:50):
And so that's a fun time, but it's also a
frustrating time because you can't just get it done right away.
It's a process, all right.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
So you named God a couple names. I'm gonna pull
him back up and we'll spend some time with both,
just a minute on the first, and then we'll spend
we'll bring her back near the end. But Amy, you
met her in high school. You were high school Sweetheart's
momentary pause before she came back into your life, and
you hers, what was it about Amy that you realized
there's something really remarkable here.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
Oh Man, Well, she was very strong in her faith
at an early age when I was in a place
in high school where that just I didn't care anything
about that. I was kind of doing my own thing,
and I still I grew up in church, and so
I believed in God, but I didn't really. I was like,
he's up there, I'm down here, and I'll try to
be kind to people and we'll get along fine. I'll

(15:41):
read my Bible every once in a while, I'll say
a prayer, and me and the big man upstairs will
be on good terms. And Amy kind of opened up
my eyes, even at a young age, junior year, a
senior year of high school, about how much more faith
can be, and how much more a direction my life,
how much better it would be to pursue that and

(16:02):
pursue a stronger faith. And so I'm very thankful for
her now. Of course I tell people when I talk
about our relationship, she was doing something that I would
not recommend to my daughter. She was missionary dating me.
I wouldn't want my daughters to be doing that, but
for some reason it worked out for us, and I'm
very thankful. But she's an amazing woman. I told her yesterday,
She's the most amazing woman that I've ever met in

(16:25):
my life. And we just celebrated twenty nine years of
marriage and looking forward to the next twenty nine.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Mike, I promise you some of our listeners do not
know what missionary dating means, so tell us what that is.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Well, it means that in high school, she was really
strong in her faith, and she went to church a lot,
and she was a leader of the Christian club at school,
and I was I had nothing to do with that.
So she kind of went outside of her comfort zone.
And I think she was drawn to me at least
a little bit, but I was probably not the person
she needed to be hanging out with. And yet she

(16:58):
showed me kind and goodness and really invited me in
to invite me to church, invited me to hang out
with her friends who were strong in their faith, and
so it really was a great influence on me.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
You met another person in high school that had a
pretty profound influence on you, and you on him, Mark Lee.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
Yeah. The first year that I went to school at
m Keitcheren High School in Cobb County, right outside of Atlanta,
he had gone through a tragedy, he'd lost his father,
and so I didn't really know him my junior I
started my junior year at that school, but I had
met him, but he originally was in the marching band,
but wasn't that year because of going through those circumstances.

(17:40):
So my senior year we met and we kind of
hung out at all the pre practices for marching band
before school starts, and then I sang at a senior
assembly the very first couple of days of our senior
year of high school, and I knew he was in
a band and played guitar. He had told me about it,
and I'd always wanted to be in a band. I

(18:01):
always wanted to be I was in the marching band.
I wasn't cool enough to be in a rock band,
but I'd always wanted to, and my dad would tell
me stories about how he was in these different rock
bands when he was in high school, in college age.
He didn't go to college but college age, and I
just always thought that was the coolest thing. I wanted
to do that, but I never was around people who
were in, you know, rock bands. So I sang at

(18:22):
this assembly and Mark comes up to me and says,
man I didn't know you could sing. You should try
to come sing for our band. I was like, what,
He's like, Yeah, we need a singer. We don't really
have a lead singer. Come try out one day. So
I went, and you know, that kind of changed my
life because that really opened up my eyes to what
life could be like. I wanted to be in a band,
and here I am this dream that I always had

(18:43):
and now it was finally happening. And we were terrible.
The name of our band was Nuclear Hodown. It was
a terrible, terrible band. But we thought we were great
and we were going to overtake the world. But God
had other plans. And towards the very end of my
senior year and Mark's senior year, God really got a
hold of my heart. I really I was scared about life.

(19:05):
I was scared about going into the real world and
graduating in high school and having to be an adult.
I just didn't I didn't really have any real skills
outside of singing a little bit. I just didn't know.
My dad was in the military. I knew I wasn't
cut out for that. I didn't make good enough grades
to go to college, and we really didn't have money
for me to go to college anyway. So I just
I was like, I got to get a real job,
and I have no idea what I'm going to do,

(19:27):
and fear of not knowing what the future would be
like really kind of brought me back to God. And
I started praying and reading the Bible looking for direction.
I just need a direction and guidance. And as I said,
Amy and her friends were a big influence on me
of that time. I was like, man, they have something
that I don't have. They have this hope and this

(19:47):
faith and this drive that I don't have. I need
some of that. So I started praying, read the Bible,
and as I said, God just got a hold in
my heart. I knew I wanted to surrender to him.
And I went to Mark and I said, hey, Mark
the band, and he said why. And it was so
weird because, as I told you, it was this thing
I always wanted my whole life, and now I finally

(20:08):
have it, and I feel like I have to let
go of it. I said, Man, I'm just I'm hanging
out in places I don't need to be hanging out.
I'm singing about things I don't I shouldn't be singing
about my life is not on a good direction being
in this band. So I'm going to quit and I'm
just going to really start living my life for God.
That's what I told Mark. And Mark grew up in church,

(20:29):
and as I told you, he'd lost his father and
so that kind of brought him back to God in
his faith. And he said, well, let's start a Christian band,
and I said, cool, what's that. I had no idea.
I didn't know anything about Christian music, didn't know it
was a thing. I mean, I'd heard about Amy Grant
and Michael W. Smith pop radio, but that was like
someone had said, yeah, they're Christian music artists, and I

(20:50):
just didn't know what that meant. I mean, I grew
up a church who sang hymns that was Christian music,
and so he said yeah. He started playing some music
for me, and Amy started sharing some of her music
with me, and I thought, I had no idea that
this was a thing, and so I was just set
a place where I wanted to share that and share
my story and share about my faith through the music.
And that turned into Third Day.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
Tell me about the group name Third Day.

Speaker 3 (21:14):
Yeah. We were actually at Amy's eighteenth birthday party, and
we had been throwing around different names, and Mark and
I was It really started out just an acoustic thing,
just he and I and we had a friend that
would play keyboards every once in a while, but we
didn't have a full band yet, and every time we
would go to do an event, they would say, what's
the name of the band we go? We don't know,
we'd make up something, and we just had terrible We

(21:37):
had listen and listen and lists of all these terrible names,
and finally, at her eighteenth birthday party, I said, oh,
what about what about three days? Our third day or
something like that, And everybody looked at me and said, nah,
keep trying. But we said, well, the next thing we do,
if we don't have a name, we'll use third Day.
And then it just kind of stuck. And I'm so
glad because it was. It was the name of our

(21:58):
band now for thirty We disbanded in twenty eighteen. I
became a solo artist. I did country music for about
three years and then I started doing my first solo
Christian record in twenty twenty one. I've done two of
those and we just announced even though it's been ten
years since the whole band played music together. We're going

(22:19):
to go on a spring tour and so it'll be
the thirty year anniversary, thirty years since our first record
was released, So we're excited about that.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
When did you and Mark look at each other while
you were performing, whether you were recording for later on
or actually performing in front of a live audience, and
almost give each other that look like, dude, I think
we can make a go out of this.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
We naively always thought we felt confident in our abilities
and in our drive and in our really more than
those things, more than any kind of talent that we had,
or more than any kind of drive that we had,
it was wanting to play music for a living and

(23:00):
wanting to share our faith. And so we thought, if
this is what we want to do, we got to
work hard and do everything that we can to try
to make this happen. Now, it's also you also know,
it's like you know, winning the lottery, It's the odds
are against us, right, and but we just we felt
like every time we played somewhere, even if it was

(23:20):
for a Sunday school class or a talent show or
a birthday party or whatever, it would be there just
always seemed to be a next Someone would be at
that event and say, oh, well, this thing's happening, why
don't you guys come play this? And so there was
just always connections being made, and we felt like, not
necessarily because of our talent or our drive or anything else,

(23:42):
but we just saw the doors were being opened for us,
and we knew it was more than just ourselves.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
I think your first album sold two thousand copies. Maybe
maybe over time and out of the back of the trunk.
Is there is there a time where you recognize that
this was the turning point, this one show, this one connection,
this one chance occurrence, When did you finally recognize, man,

(24:10):
we're full throttle forward.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
Well, there's there's quite a few of those through the years,
but one thing that really sticks out in my mind
actually happened in Saint Louis. We were playing for this
youth event, a bunch of youth groups from a lot
of different churches. We were stuck in this independent deal
record deal where basically we were selling more records out
of the back of our van than they were selling.

(24:33):
We just felt like stuck. We couldn't move on and
go to bigger and better things, and they were threatening
to sue us and all this stuff was happening, and
we were kind of down playing this youth pastor at
the event, and Saint Louis came up to us and said,
what do you guys want to do? And I said,
I want to be on Reunion Records because Reunion Records
had all these great artists that I love, like Rich

(24:54):
Mullens and West King and Michael W. Smith and you
know if you don't know that those are you know
ccmr that. I just really loved what they were doing.
I loved what the label was doing. So I said,
that's what I want to do, but we're stuck in
this bad deal with this independent label and we can't
there's nothing we can do, and they're making us do
this and we're not making any money and all this stuff.
He said, all right, we're going to pray for a

(25:14):
breakthrough right now and that you're going to be on
Reunion Records, And I just I loved that this guy
had faith to do that. But I also was like,
that's I'm a little Baptist boy. We don't name it
and claim it, we don't do that. We just you know, Lord,
your will be done, and so I was just afraid
to pray that prayer. But this guy's leading the prayer,
this youth pastor from Sainte Us. I'm like, okay, I'll

(25:36):
join in. I'll aimen to that. And a week later
we get a call from Reunion Records, and that was
kind of the turning point for us. That was going
from Okay, we probably have to quit this to we're
going to be on the label that we want to
be on. We're going to be able to get our
music out to a lot more people and be able
to perform in front of a lot more people. So
that was a big deal.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
You have such a distinct voice. Was that always just
inside you? Or have you formed that over the years.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
Oh, it definitely formed over the years. When I listened
to our first album even and especially stuff before that,
I could keep a tune, but I didn't have a
good voice. I loved singing. It's interesting my dad, I
asked him. He passed away in the fall of twenty three,
so a couple of years now, and I remember a
few months before he passed, I said, Hey, did you

(26:27):
always see the talent in me? Or you know? Was
I was? I not as good as I thought I was,
or was it always really good singer since he was like,
now you are all right, and so I just kind
of realizing that and understanding that, not just through him

(26:47):
saying that, but other things too. Listening to old stuff.
It definitely was something that grows, and I've seen it.
I won't name names at all, but artists that I
know and love their music. You would see them and
meet them. They just got signed to a label, and
you go, I mean, they can sing pretty good, but
this is not great by any means. They go out
and tour and do it over and they're like Malcolm

(27:08):
Gladwell talks about the ten thousand hours as you have
done in speaking, and the more you do it, the
more comfortable you get, the better you're at it. And
so that definitely happened to my voice. It was just
singing over and over and over for many years and
just learning to find and fine tune that tone that
you want.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
So you and I touchd earlier about seeing lyrics out
there and wanting to share them them with the world
in darkness, Will you take me through your writing process?

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Every song's different. There are two or three ways that
I like to write, but Usually it starts with a melody.
Usually there's this a song that pops in my head
and it's so cool. My son is sixteen and he's
starting to sing more now, and I see him walking
around the house with just this random he's making up.
They're not even real words, just singing a melody, and

(27:54):
every once in a while a word will pop out.
And then for me, I explain to people's like a crossword.
When you're doing a crossword puzzle, you have one work,
you get your clue and you go, oh, well, I
know what this word is. Let's say it's boat. Whatever
boat is for a cross So I've got to B
A and a T, and I know I've got to
use one of those letters in the letter going down

(28:14):
in the word going down. And so you somehow use
that one word or that one phrase that you have.
What else fits, what else makes sense going around that?
So I try to explain that to people. I'm not
sure if it makes sense. It makes sense to me,
but it really starts with a melody, sometimes with a
word with that melody, and you try to see what
fits around all of that. You fill in the blanks.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
So I'm going to lay out a few of the
songs that I loved from you and third day and
I either share with me the origin story or what
that song means to you.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
One of the butter be sould on fire.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
We'll find out. Man, stay tuned, don't go to your audience.
We'll go to a commercial break right now, All right,
now we're back here we go cry out to Jesus.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
Yeah. That came from being on the road and we
would try our best. It wasn't one hundred percent, but
we would try our best on the road before every
show to get together as brothers and just kind of
pray for each other, read a little bit of the word,
and just spend some time, you know, in communion together.
And that song came from two things, from us sharing

(29:21):
each other's burdens and the things that not only we
were going through, but family members were going through and
close friends were going through having those prayer requests with
one another. And then specifically what brought it all out
was there was a family that they were friends of friends.
We didn't know them directly in Marietta, where I live
in Georgia. They had lost their son and their son

(29:44):
was I think he was five or six at the
time an accident happened on It was either the day
before Christmas or Christmas Day, and I remember just hearing
about them through our mutual friend and what they went through,
and as a father hearing that story and thinking about
my faith and thinking about if that happened to me,
how would I respond. Would it be something that made

(30:08):
me mad at God and went, I can't deal with
you anymore? Or would it be something that brought me
closer to God and needing his help through that circumstance.
And so that tragedy, along with those prayer requests and
sharing all these different things that we and our friends
had gone through together came about in the song cry

(30:28):
out to Jesus.

Speaker 4 (30:29):
And there is helpful, the heapness yes, and the brook cant,
and there is craz and forgiveness. Lucy hand here He'll
meet you here, tsa Jesus.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
And I'm finding as I get older, I am becoming
an easier and easier to cry.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
Oh gosh, I just I hear you.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
Telling that story, and I think about my buddies who've
lost friends along the way and children along the way,
and then to put myself in their shoes, And which
way do you cry out to Jesus. Is it one
of surrender or one of anger? And I can imagine
singing that song in both ways.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
Yeah, absolutely, And I've been there, you know, I've been
there in both spots, and I just hope and pray
that I can continue to be a person that learned.
It's interesting. I'm just my wife. I'm just now slowly.
I've seen bits of the Chosen, but I've never sat
down and watched it from beginning to end. And I'm
only in like the second season now, but every single

(31:38):
night we watch it, I'm crying and I'm seeing not
only the love that his disciples and people that are
following him half one, but also the anger and why
are you doing it this way? And why would you
say that? And it's like I go, oh, man, I'm
the same way. So I don't feel so bad, you know,
seeing that I'm not the only one, and you know
that's through the psalms, through the scripture. Is like David

(32:00):
or whoever else will write the songs. There's a lot
of times where someone's crying out to God. Not crying
to God saying I need you, but going why and anger,
and I think God's not afraid of that.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
I was in Australia at a speaking event in a
town called Broom, which is on the far northwest side.
I doubt you've been there, man. There's eight people there
in fifty kangaroos, like there's nothing there. It was a
leadership conference for a bunch of business owners, most of
them agnostic, you know, or seeking or who knows. But
there was an astronomer who was pointing out the stars

(32:35):
to them and when it went totally blank, he played
the song God of Wonders.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
Well man, and I'm telling you, dude.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Like so, this was not a church gathering, trust me.
And yet there's just something about that song and where
we were in the heavens above. So tell me about
the song God of Wonders.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Yeah, that's a special song to me. And I think
a lot of people, because I'm a songwriter, people assume
I wrote that song and I didn't. It was part
of a project called City on a Hill and I
got invited by the guys who wrote the song and
were producing it to be part of the record and
I heard the song. Shows how much I don't know
about music, because they sent me a demo of the

(33:12):
song and said Hey, we'd love for you to sing
on this song. And I heard it and went, yeah,
it's okay, it's all right. Do you have a song
called City on a Hill? And they said no, we don't.
I said, that's the name of the record. You got
to have a song called City on the Hill. I said,
I'm going to write that song. And in my mind,
I didn't say this out of pride. I said, it's
going to be so much better than that song they

(33:33):
sent me. And spoiler alert, it was not We go
in the studio, and right before we go in the studio,
they come down to Atlanta. And you gotta remember, I
was they were in a band called The Choir, and
I loved the Choir. It was one of the first
Christian alternative rock bands, and maybe it was the first
one I ever heard. So their music like really opened
up my eyes to help me to know what I

(33:54):
wanted to do. So I'm a fan of Theirs. And
so my manager had said, Hey, they're gonna want you
to sing, you know, record your song City on a Hill.
They're also going to try to grab you to be
on a verse of God of Wonders. He said, don't
do it. You've already got a song on the radio
and another one coming up. We're going to release this thing.
We don't need you oversaturating the market with your music,
so don't sing on God of Wonders. I went, gotcha.

(34:15):
So they come to Atlanta, we get done with a
recording city on a hill. I'm walking out the door
and they said, hey, real quick, before you leave, will
you sing a verse song God of Wonders? I went absolutely,
of course I will. And in my mind I was thinking, okay,
I'll let I'll let my manager fight them and tell
them that they can't use it. I can't bear to
say no to them, and so I recorded it, went home.

(34:38):
My manager found out I sang on it, and he
was so mad. And then he heard the song and
he went, Mac, that's a hit song. I went, really,
He said, yeah, that's going to be a hit. I went, okay, whatever,
and it became a hit once again showed me how
much I don't know about music. It's probably the song
that I've sang most in my life. I mean, it's
hardly ever been an event that I've done without singing

(35:01):
that song, and so it's special to me and it
doesn't grow old. I love singing that song. However, it's
humbling because I know I didn't write it.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
So I have like eleven songs in front of me
to choose from, and I recognize we will will run
out of time and put an audience to sleep if
we go.

Speaker 3 (35:16):
Through them all.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
Just two more? How about born again? When I'm depleted? Yeah,
just frequent, man, in my life, whether it's you mentioned
losing your dad two years ago. I lost my dad
two months ago. So I'm depleted. I'm marrying, and I
can be tiring. Sometimes it's just hard. Sometimes raising four
kids can be hard. Sometimes being on the road can
be hard. Sometimes dealing with physical stress can be hard. Sometimes,

(35:41):
tell me what born again means to you?

Speaker 3 (35:45):
Man? That's a lot. I was talking earlier about words
or singing. There are times where I've seen something on
a billboard and I went ooh, I want to use
that word or that phrase and wrote songs from it.
And I sometimes I try to rethink something that's commonplace
to us. And so if someone is a church goer,
you know, a Christian, we hear that term born again

(36:07):
a lot. And so that really was from me going, Okay,
born again, what does that mean? What did that come from?
What's the story? Why is this just kind of a
commonplace throwaway word or phrase that we use as Christians?
And so I started really digging deeper into that and
what that means and where it came from, and really

(36:28):
what that means to me personally. And so that's one
of my favorite things is trying to relook at things
that we sometimes forget about it because it's commonplace to
us and we've heard it so many times. And that's
where that song came from.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
Well, you brought it up, so we mss we'll go there.
You apparently I don't know about it, but apparently you
have a song called Soul on Fire. Tell me the
org and story or what soul on Fire means to you?

Speaker 3 (36:54):
Yeah, another song that I ended up co writing on it,
but it didn't come from me. And we were in
the studio make an album called Lead Us Back, and
I had written every sing Usually I wrote the majority
of the third Day songs. Every once in a while,
Mark Lee would write a big hit. You know that
I'm talking about Mark that we went to school together
and started the band. He wrote some good songs, but
I wrote the majority of the songs and then sometimes

(37:16):
we would find a song that we loved, like Michael W.
Smith had recorded a song called Agnew's Day, and so
we recorded that, And there were two or three other
Rich Mullins who I loved his music. We ended up
doing a cover of one of his songs. So but
through the years, I would say the vast majority of
ninety percent of the things that you hear from Third
Day and on records I wrote. And so this record

(37:37):
lead us back. I'd written everything. We're literally in the
last day of the studio recorded the last song and
one of the producers said, Mac, we really all of
this because it's a worship record is kind of slow
songs and mid tempo songs, like we really need an
upbeat song. And I said, tough, that's the record. I
gave you all the songs. That's everything. And he said

(37:58):
and he had played guitar for an artist Brenton Brown,
and Britain's from South Africa and lived in California at
the time, and he said, there's a song that Brenton
wrote that is called sol On Fires, really great, but
he never released it, never really recorded it. I just
have a work tape from him singing acoustic on his
guitar on the phone. He said, will you listen to it?
And I said, no, nope, not interested because I know

(38:21):
if I know Brenton, I know his music, and if
I hear it, I'm going to like the song and
we're done. No, I don't want to hear it. He said,
come on, just listen to it. I went, okay, play
the song and he played it and I went, man,
this course is great, but I don't like the verse.
The verse is very minor sounding, and it's like the
chorus is so happy, I want to stay there in
the verses. And I said, I'm not this guy, because
a lot of there are artists who hear a great

(38:43):
song and they go, okay, I'm going to rewrite this
one line so i can be a writer on the song.
So I didn't want to be that guy. But I said,
ask Brenton if he doesn't mind me writing a new verse,
we'll consider recording it. And so's he called Brenton. Brenton's like, yeah,
go for it. A few days later, I go to
Europe and we're playing in England at this big festival
called Big Church Day Out and a good friend of mine,

(39:04):
Matt Maher, was there. Matt's a great singer songwriter. And
Matt comes in. We had just flown overnight. It's got
a few hours of sleep. I said, Matt, I want
you to hear the song. So I played him the
version of the little phone tape of it and he said, oh, man,
that's a great chorus, but that verse is weird. I said,
I said the same thing. I said, what are you
doing right now? He said, I don't know, I'm just

(39:25):
hanging out. I said, let's write the verse right now
on the bridge, and so we sat down in less
than an hour and had it done, sent the new
idea back to Britain. He gave us the thumbs up,
and then we went in the studio and recorded and
became one of the biggest songs that we'd ever recorded.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
So I wrote a book eight years ago called on Fire,
and over the eight years subsequent to that, we've had
folks trying to turn that into a film. We've been
tripping our way forward, man, but it's been moving forward
the entire time. It gets shot in Saint Louis, it
gets edited, it gets picked up by Sonya firm, and
then they realized a film came out recently called on Fire,

(40:01):
so we've got to retitle it. And they're like, everybody,
come up with your idea, So what the title of
the film should now be. And there was a song
that was playing on JOYFM. You've been in their studio
million times up here in Saint Louis, and it's a
song I love. I've been listening to it for as
long as you've had it out called so on fire,
just changing one word to the title of our film.
So I put that in front of Sean McNamara, our director,

(40:23):
and he said, I love it. Sends it on to Sony.
They love it, they go with it. And then I
follow up that email and I'm like, hey, guys, there's
a song that probably should go with a film now.
And they're like, what's the song? Because they already had it.
They already knew the song that it should end with.
So I sent them your song and they're like, you're right,
that's exactly how this film should end. And truly, the

(40:43):
climax of the film is a moment when love appears
man and that song starts playing and it is so
powerful and it's such a god thing. Because none of
us had this in plan, none of it. It should not
have happened, but it has perfectly. Now you and I
are having this conversation.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
I love that. God.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
I'm running for your house.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
I'm running for your home till.

Speaker 4 (41:21):
I am a soul long five good.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
I'm longing for your wage. I'm waiting for the tea.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Well, i am a soup on five see, I am
a soap.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
O five God, I'm running for your house. I'm running
for your home.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
Sell. I am a soul long five good.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
I'm longing for your ways.

Speaker 4 (42:02):
Yeah, I'm a sol onside, I'm a solid love me.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Well. Thanks for pushing our song. I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
It's all about Third Day as reunion man, the whole film,
the whole process. Now it's just about bumping up Third Day.
I hope we did our party.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
Hey, God was working behind the scenes before any of
us knew any of this stuff. I'm excited about the
reunion tour. It starts in March and goes through May.
We have thirty dates that we're doing, and like I
told it, we actually tomorrow night you're getting I'm giving
you some news that nobody knows. Tomorrow Night is the
first rehearsal that we'll do. And we've got some things

(42:45):
on Wednesday and Thursday where we're doing some acoustic songs
for some radio stations and things like that. So we're
kind of nervous but really excited. And so the four
of us who started the band, as I told you
earlier time, in ten years that we'll be playing music together,
so we're really excited about it.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
Do you get nervous before you go back on the
road and as you age things change with energy and
voice and everything else. Do you get the butterflies again
as you get ready to go back out on the
stadium tour.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
Yeah, I've discovered that the butterflies is not nervousness. It's excitement.
It's contained excitement about it. You know what's interesting is
I get more nervous. I don't know if you're like
this as a speaker, but I've seen a couple of
videos where you're speaking to really really large crowds and
real small ones. If I have to go in front
of like a Sunday school class of middle school students, yes,

(43:38):
I'm shaking in my because that's not you know, I'm like,
these kids don't know who I am. The union. It
can be hard to impress them. That makes me nervous
being in front of a stadium full of people, with
thousands of people, that's not a big deal. I've done that,
so I still get nervous, but it's not for the
things you would think.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
So I'm going to take you back in time just
a little bit before you needed the reunion tour because
you were still with your bandmates, sold out venues, you're
crushing the awards, You're on top of the world. You've
got a wife and three kids. Seems like the perfect
time to adopt another child into your life.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
We've had some conversations in the past on our podcast
about folks who've chosen adoption and transformed their family and
their world in a very positive way through that. But man,
it is a journey for everybody. What was that process
like for you?

Speaker 3 (44:28):
Yeah, it started Amy and I when we were in
high school together in dating. We both worked in an
after school program at the church we were going to
and it was a huge church and big after school program,
and it was a beautiful thing. Because I took care.
I would go to college and take a couple of classes,
then I would drive every day after class to watch

(44:49):
these kids for a couple hours, three hours, and as
we're outside looking around at all the kids playing. There
were Asian kids and white kids, and black kids and
Hispanic kids, and it really was kind of a united
nations right here on the playground. And Amy and I
when we had gotten to that place when you're dating
someone and then you start talking about the future. All right,

(45:11):
So if you were to get married, do you want kids?
All those things? We talked about adoption because we would
see these kids that we just loved so much, and
we thought, Okay, what would it be like to have
a child, to adopt a child that wasn't the same
skin color as us? What if that was the case,
would you do that? Would you be against that? What's
your family gonna think about? All those questions? And so

(45:33):
when we got married, we had talked about adoption. We
had three biological children and had grown up a little bit.
Our youngest was I think around five or six. When
we started. We had some friends who had adopted. Stephen
curs Chapman, David Nasser and his family adopted, and so
we just saw the beauty and adoption and we were

(45:55):
reminded of it, and so we started having conversations saying hmm,
maybe you know, let's just be are we open to this?
And we went through about a year and a half
of not being on the same page. There would be
a couple of months where I'm like, let's do this,
I'm ready, let's go, and Amy would say no, I
don't think so. And then there'd be times where she
would say, okay, I'm ready now, and I'd go, well,

(46:17):
I got this tour coming up, maybe we can't do
it now. And so when we finally got to a
place after about a year and a half of going
back and forth like that, we went to Bethany Christian Services,
amazing ministry for adoption and started just having conversations with
them and going to meetings and learning more about adoption,
and all of a sudden, nine months later, we have
a little baby boy and just rocked my world in

(46:40):
a great way. And then not even a year later,
a week before his first birthday, we get a call
in the middle of the night saying, hey, there's a
little girl and we weren't even trying to adopt again,
there's a little girl that's about to be born. We
don't know what to do with her. Would you adopt her?
And we said no, no, no, no. We've got four kids.
One of them's just now turning. Next week, we'll turn
a year year old. And then as we're saying that,

(47:02):
he crawls into the room and looks up at me
and stairs at me, and I go, oh, he has
brought us such joy. How can we not do this again?
And so went the next day and saw Bertie Claire,
my little girl, and we took her home. And so
we went from three to five within a year period
of time. It was just an amazing story. And you know,
adoption is not for everyone. It's definitely you have to

(47:25):
be called to it. But I think everyone is called
to not adopt. What everybody's called to adoption to help.
So whether you have friends that have adopted, you can
help babysit, or maybe you have finances where you can
help a family because it's not cheap, you can help
a family adopt. So I just encourage people, you know,

(47:46):
think about, pray about what your place is in the
role of adoption.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
Man, you've been doing this work for a long time,
not just in your family, but in families around the
country and around the world. I'm gonna ask you a
hard question but I'm sure you and asked it before.
Just I'd love your answer to it. So many nights
on the road, so many moments at home you missed
because you were working. Is there a story though, from
all those nights, all those venues, all those concerts that

(48:14):
one person came up to you shared with you one thing,
and you're like, man, if it was only for this
more moment in time, it was all worth it.

Speaker 3 (48:21):
Yeah. Man, Well, there's many, many great stories. The one
that sticks out to me we were playing it to
some music park in New Jersey and you asked me
earlier about the song cry Out to Jesus, and it
had been out for a couple of years at that point,
and we had some friends that had come and they
were out in the audience and they were coming backstage
after the show, and as they came back, they said, Hey,

(48:42):
we met this couple who have an amazing story. Do
you mind us bringing them for you to hear the story.
So they came back and they had shared the story
that their son, he was older in his mid twenties,
had been dealing with depression his whole life. His name
was Mark, and Mark decided one day he just had

(49:02):
had enough, and so he was he was going to
take his life. And so he decided he found this
little road that went into the woods, like off the interstate,
and he was going to drive back and take his life.
And he drove back and he tried to turn on
the radio to hear some music because he was a
huge music fan, but he couldn't pick up any stations
except one, and that was the Christian music station, and

(49:25):
he was mad about it. But he listened to the
song that was on the radio at the time, the
only thing he could hear that it was Cryos of Jesus,
and he did just that. He said a prayer and
asked God to help him and he decided not to
end his life. And as they shared that story with us,
it just shows you the power of music, shows you

(49:46):
the power of faith, and it was just a great
reminder of why we do what we do. And I'm
so thankful to be able to hear a lot of
stories like that through the years, and it helped me.
It helps my wife Amy to know that I'm not
just going out having a good time, partying up and
making music for a living, that there's more to it

(50:07):
than that, and it helps her to know, it helps
me to it. It reminds me this isn't just about music.
Music is just the tool to be able to reach
hearts and hopefully encourage people. And so that's the story
that I love to share my Paul.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
As we get ready to wrap up our conversation, we
have seven questions that tether every guest together, quick fire questions.
They're called the Live Inspired Seven. But before I get
into those seven, for the person listening to our conversation
right now, who is in that car by themselves, they
didn't even find the Christian radio station. They got stuck
with the O'Leary podcast. But they're listening to this right now.

(50:42):
And what's the encouragement you might share with them?

Speaker 3 (50:46):
Yeah, I think that what I want to always encourage
people is if you've got breath in your lungs and
you're breathing, no matter what your situation is, there is
a reason that you're here. You've been created with a purpose.
And when we live live in that purpose, and we
live in that reason that we've been put here, man,
it brings so much more life to us. For me,

(51:07):
as a person of faith, Jesus said something that really
sticks out to me he said, I've come to this
world to give you life and to give it to
you abundantly. And so I think so many people miss out.
They have life, but they miss out on the abundant life.
And so my encouragement to the listeners out there is like,
there is so much more for you. There's so many
more people to reach and to encourage and to help

(51:29):
bring joy into their lives. And going back to our
original conversation about being on the plane and talking to somebody,
when we close ourselves up like I did, and like
I do so often still, and like, let me just
keep to myself and let me just do what I
want to do, we're not going to really get a
lot from that. But when we die to ourselves and
we live for other people and we try to hear

(51:52):
people's story and encourage them and see where they are
and help in their lives, man, that's going to return
tenfold on us. So's I know that's a long answer
to you short question, but I'll keep the rest of
them short, I promise.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Perfect. So here we go, my friend, into the live
inspired seven. You and I are hand in hands. What's
the best most impactful book you've ever read? Oh?

Speaker 3 (52:16):
Well, I got to say the Bible. Of course, that's
changed my life. But I'm assuming you're going to meet
out outside of the Bible. I'm going to have to
say with fiction book To Kill a Mockingbird. My kids
are reading it now in school, and we rewatched the
movie the other night, and that there's such a power
in that story of back to what we were just

(52:37):
talking about about dying to ourselves and serving others. And
so that's a lot of what that book is about.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
What's one positive characteristic or one beautiful trait that you
possess as a little boy in Alabama that you wish
you exhibited as brilliantly today.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
Oh goodness, that's a great question. I've always had this fervor,
this excitement. I was always the cheerleader, you know. I
remember going to like the middle school basketball games and
things like. I was always the loudest and the older
that I've gotten, I've lost some of that, and I
wish that I had maybe a more rained, in more

(53:13):
mature way of sharing that enthusiasm. It comes out in
Alabama football games, I'll tell you that it comes in
a bad way.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
At Saint Louis Cardinal baseball games. We'll save that for
our next podcast.

Speaker 3 (53:24):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
If you're home caught fire and all living things are up,
but you have an opportunity of running back in and
grabbing one item. What's that one physical thing you would grab?

Speaker 3 (53:34):
Oo? Man, the first thing that I don't know if
this is true, but the first thing that pops into
my head is my wife and I have this thick,
thick photo album of our wedding, so it would probably
be that. It would probably be you know, or maybe
a computer that has all these old pictures on it.
Something like that.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
If you could sit on a bench on a gorgeous
day and have a long conversation with anyone living or deceased,
would you like see it next to you?

Speaker 3 (54:01):
Oh? Man, I mean you're giving me, You're teaming me
up for the for the spiritual answers. Is Jesus, especially
now watching The Chosen and it's really good perspective that
they have and story that they weave, and some of it,
you know, they as artists, they take license with it.
But I love that. I love just having a different perspective,
maybe than what I would get from reading the Bible myself.

(54:23):
But yeah, Jesus, and if we go outside of him. Gosh,
there's a lot of musicians I would like to talk to,
But let's say Abraham Lincoln. That's a good answer a lot.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
What's the best advice Lincoln or anyone else ever gave you? So,
the best advice mac Powell ever has received.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
Is, oh Man, the best advice that I think I've
received is just too is that is to dit of
yourself and try to love your neighbor as yourself, and
to serve others.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
What would you tell your twenty year old self.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
It's gonna be okay, you're gonna worry. You're gonna worry
way too much about stuff you don't need to worry
about it. And I would probably say save a lot
more money than you've been saving, so that those two things,
like the whole worry thing like there's there's so when
you're that young, you worry about so many things that
you don't need to worry about.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
The mac pile. It has been said that all great
people can have their lives summed up in one sentence.
How would you like yours to read?

Speaker 3 (55:28):
Man? That's a tough one. Gosh, John, you got to
send these things to me and give me a look
at my heads up. I'm not smart enough to come
up with a great answer.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
That's the idea. I can always tell when people have
pre programmed their answers versus just coming from gosh.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
I definitely don't have this one pre grown. I think.
I love when I'm on the road, I love to
go to cemeteries. I know that sounds weird and strange,
but I love walking through cemeteries because it really kind
of puts into perspective life and death and faith, and
you see families that are represented there and you think
about the stories of those families and so and it's

(56:05):
usually pretty quiet in a cemetery. So I love to
get away and go to the cemetery and it's so interesting.
And from doing that, I've often thought, what is it
I want to put on my tombstone? What is it
I want people to know about me who are randomly
walking through the cemetery and look at a tombstone a gravestone,
And so, I don't know. I'll have to come back
to you on that one.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
I'm going to force the issue. Listen, ride it in pencil. Well,
I'll come back later on in chisel it when you
call me back. But give me something put on pencil
on that tombstone right now?

Speaker 3 (56:35):
Yeah, So what is that?

Speaker 1 (56:37):
What's the one sentence that defines in your mind your
life as it reads today.

Speaker 3 (56:41):
I just think I want people to know he was
a man of faith, may have had, may have messed up,
but continued to try to follow God and to love
others with all that he had.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Mike Pole was indeed a man of faith who may
have tripped his way forward from time to time, but
tried to love his family, try to love the audiences
in front of him, and try to reveal to the
rest of us that there's reason for hope, that God
is so God, and the best is you have to
come Mac. I appreciate your music, I appreciate you setting
us on fire with hope, and I appreciate you being
my friend.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
Oh John Man, what an honor to be here with you.
I hope you having back sometime. And I don't know
if my tours coming through Saint Louis, but if we
go closer there, I hope to see you.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Well. Let me tell you, dude, I do know it's
coming to Saint Louis. I know exactly where playing. You're
playing at my old school Saint Louis University at Schaffit Center.
Eleven thousand folks will be singing back the worst with
me and it's going to be an awesome time. So
if you've ever seen Third Day in concert, and that
might be you, I encourage you to check it out.
It's a phenomenal band, it's an incredible lead singer in

(57:44):
front of it. But I think it's a message within
his words and songs that will not only move you
that night, but maybe change your entire life. My friends,
that's Mac Powell. I'm John O'Leary. Today is your day
live inspire? Well, my friends, I told you on the
front side of this episd so that you were going
to love it, and you did because how could you
not love the voice and the humanity and the faithfulness

(58:07):
the joy of Mac Powell. What a great voice from
the film Soul on Fire to bring to bear today.
You know, I've been getting a lot of emails recently
over earliery, how do we get tickets for this film?
How do we share it with our audiences that we
work with, that we worship, with the schools where my
kids go, the coaching organization that I'm part of on

(58:28):
and on and on. Well, let me give you some
insight right now into that do not delay. Yes, we
have several weeks before the film is officially out there
in the world, but date you know you can reserve
theaters beforehand. If you want to learn about reserving theaters
for your community, for your school, for your church, for
your business, for your family, for your friends, for the

(58:50):
folks you party with. Awesome, do me a favor right
now and journey with me over to the website Soul
on firemovie dot com. That soul on firemovie dot com.
And once you're there you can learn a little bit
more about the film awesome, about the cast, phenomenal, about

(59:12):
the trailer beautiful. It will inspire you Awesome, a little
bit about the music, but now you already know about
the music. What I want to draw your attention toward
is how you can reserve entire theaters. My friends, we're
making a movement for good. Together. We're reminding individuals around
the country and around the world that in spite of
the struggles we face, there is reason for hope. The
foundation is firm, and the best is you have to come.

(59:35):
You can do your part alongside with me to remind
your friends and family of that truth in their lives.
So join me in theaters around the country and around
the world. Learn more at www dot sol on firemovie
dot com. The film rolls out October tenth, but you
don't need to wait that long. We can open up
the theaters even before. My friends, I will be back

(59:57):
next week with yet another voice from Soul on Fire,
part of the series that we're bringing your way right now,
the great actors and leaders who brought this film to life.
So for this time and until next time, my name
is John O'Leary. Today is our day. What a gift
to live with your Soul on Fire. See you next week. Well,

(01:00:19):
my friends, I'm John O'Leary, and if you like me,
ever tire of seeing Hollywood portray heroes as people who
wear tights and capes and soar through the air to
save the day, join me in theaters around the country
at Soul on Fire. It is a true story about
heroes showing up for a little boy. The love they gave,

(01:00:41):
the mercies they showed, the example they were, How it
changed that little boy's life after he got burned on
one hundred percent of his body, and what it means
for you and me today, as we step forward as
heroes for others. You can learn more about that at
soul on firemovie dot com