Life After Death

As most of you know, it’s been a hard, hard road for me the last couple of years. I began writing this record right after losing my first born son – the first few songs I wrote, “21 Years,” “Promised Land,” and a song called “Everything About You,” were just really sad songs, lamenting songs, which you kind of would expect. At that point, I was just like, ‘Am I just going to live here? Is this my journey for the rest of my life?,’ and maybe it is sort of, but God began giving me glimpses, starting with “Help Is On the Way,” I started to really stand on that promise, and really believe that help is on the way. Where that journey sort of took me, and what I kind of landed on, was this thought: I wrote on a napkin one day, ‘you’re still the goodness in my life,’ and I started to believe that, and to see how God is good to me. That’s when I wrote “The Goodness,” and it felt like a celebration, because I began to think about how gracious God is, and how He gives us little glimpses of His goodness, even in the valley. Then I read a quote, and it led to a lot of the lyrics in this song, it said, ‘a saint is not someone who is good, but someone who experiences the goodness of God.’ I have experienced the goodness of God my whole life. There is LIFE AFTER DEATH. This record chronicles the journey I have been on over the last 2 years, and somehow through it all, I have experienced the goodness of God.

—via The Media Collective

TobyMac’s work on Life After Death earned him a 2023 GRAMMY nomination for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album. Upon hearing the news, McKeehan shared his gratitude to the organization and his fellow collaborators in a Twitter thread (1, 2, 3):

The Grammy award is one of the most recognized awards around the world from every city to small villages. To think that a record made out of my grief, my journey from devastating loss to leaning into the promise that God would never leave me is striking beyond words.

It is an honor that moves my heart to its core for the purest of reasons.
Im so grateful for the people who came along side me… from the artists to the producers, the co-writers and the entire team.

Thanks from the depths for helping me put words, melodies and musical heart to this journey. I couldn’t have done it without you.

TobyMac released four non-album singles following the 2018 studio release of The Elements before officially announcing his eighth full-length studio album. In the time leading up to the announcement, McKeehan first teased his Hits Deep 2021 Tour personnel concerning his many hours in the studio, working on new music. Releasing a new studio album every two to three years, an eighth album became imminent.

At that time, no official details were shared indicating the nature of McKeehan’s next project except that it will feature the radio single “Help Is On The Way (Maybe Midnight),” which was confirmed via a press release for the single, and was slated for a July 1, 2022 release date, which was just a placeholder date for a summer release.

McKeehan confirmed he was rehearsing new music while touring on August 28, 2021, via Instagram. He also commented “new music coming soon” on his Spotify artist page, which was in reference to “Promised Land.”

Following the last night of The Theater Tour, he shared the following to Instagram as part of his post:

See you next year. I will be in the studio for the couple months asking God for songs that will turn eyes to Him. Blessings to all!!!

On December 21, 2021, he tweeted four photos (1, 2, 3, 4) from a studio with the following caption:

Studio photo dump…
Cookin’.

The first photo shows McKeehan and Tommee Profitt, who is known best for producing NF’s music. McKeehan and Profitt previously collaborated together on “The Elements” (and both its remix and live version), “Starts With Me” and “I’m Sorry (a lament).” His Instagram cross-post features an additional photo and video, the latter featuring McKeehan singing alongside fellow DC Talk alum Michael Tait. It featured the same caption with this at the bottom:

(Not in photo but KM did pop by too) 😏

McKeehan is referring to the third and final member of DC Talk, Kevin Max, hinting at a potential reunion, possibly similar to “Love Feels Like” in 2015.

On January 24, 2022, McKeehan shared an in-studio photo to an Instagram story of a recording setup with the caption “BETWEEN TAKES FEELIN'.”

A few days later, on January 28, McKeehan posted an Instagram reel, sharing that he is in the final stages of the official recording sessions for the album while also rehearsing for the start of the HITS DEEP TOUR 2022. In addition, he name-dropped producers who were helping record—Dave Lubben, Brian Fowler and Micah Kuiper—all of whom he has collaborated with in the past. At the time of the video’s recording, McKeehan was “bouncing from room to room [between the three producers,] trying to tie up all the last-second things […] [on] six or seven songs.” “Help Is on the Way (Maybe Midnight)” played under the video’s audio, again confirming its place on the album.

On April 5, McKeehan posted a photo to Instagram and later to Twitter of himself laying down in the grass with the following caption:

Typical “writing lyrics” posture & position.
For real.
Wha-cha got Lord?

Though humorous, this is further proof that McKeehan wholly relies on God for his musical inspiration.

The album was officially announced alongside the digital single release of “The Goodness” with Blessing Offor. A pre-save link containing an Apple Music album page, among other services, reconfirmed “Help Is On The Way (Maybe Midnight)”’s place on the album alongside “21 Years,” “I’m Sorry (a lament)” and the “Collab OG” version of “Promised Land” with Sheryl Crow. New songs revealed as part of the 15-track album included “Everything About You” with daughter Marlee McKeehan and “Show Up Choose Love” with Gotee Records artist Jon Reddick, singles with July 8 and August 5 release dates respectively.

Life After Death debuted at #34 on the Billboard 200 during the chart week ending of September 3, 2022.

Yes, for the album’s one-year anniversary, a series of videos were shared as a YouTube playlist on August 25, 2023, accounting for various songs, music videos and other aspects of the album. These are the same videos that were shown as part of The Immersive Album Experience (Sponsored by Amazon Music) event the prior year.

Most of these videos and other available behind-the-scenes content can be found on their respective song pages.