One of the most popular contemporary Christian rock groups of the new millennia, Third Day has released over a dozen albums, won several Grammy and Dove Awards, and was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
The band started in 1991 with Mac Powell and Mark Lee in Powder Springs, while the two were still attending McEachern High School. During their senior year the band, then called Nuclear Hoedown, played in small venues throughout Cobb County. At one performance Powell and Lee played with another group, consisting of Tai Anderson, David Carr, and Billy Wilkens. After being asked to pose together for a photograph, the two groups decided to reform as one band, Third Day, a name taken from biblical accounts of Jesus’s resurrection on the third day following crucifixion.
Third Day recorded their first demo in lieu of payment for a performance and then quickly recorded their first album, Contagious (1994), which was well received locally. Billy Wilkens left the band during recording, however, and the group replaced him with Brad Avery, who brought more of a rock-and-roll sound to their music. Third Day’s first big success came with their self-titled album, which was released in 1996. Critics had trouble categorizing their sound, labeling it as a mixture of southern rock, gospel, and pop music. At the same time the band’s positive, biblically based message established them as Christian music role models.
Due in part to constant regional touring, the band gathered a sizeable audience and was able to launch a cross-country tour. Their next two albums, Conspiracy No. 5 (1997) and Time (1999) were nominated for Grammy Awards, and the tours that followed were consistently well attended. In 2000 Third Day released Offerings: A Worship Album, which was not expected to be as commercially successful as their earlier albums but far surpassed expectations. Powell lent his voice to the song “God of Wonders” on the compilation album City on a Hill in 2000, and the group also contributed a song to the album.
In spring 2001 the band gave a homecoming concert at HiFi-Buys Amphitheatre in Atlanta, where a crowd of 15,000 fans welcomed them. The band released an interactive DVD of the concert, the first of its kind for Christian music. Offerings II: All I Have to Give was released in early 2003.
In 2004 Third Day released their seventh studio album Wire and a live recorded version, Live Wire, later that year. They also contributed to a companion album to the film The Passion of the Christ, which won both Grammy and Dove awards in 2005. Their eighth studio album Wherever You Are was released in 2005, which earned the group another Grammy Award.
The group released a Christmas album in 2006 and Chronology, their first compilation of hits, in 2007. In 2008 the band announced the departure of guitarist Avery but the group continued recording and touring until 2018.
In August 2024 Third Day released a twenty-fifth anniversary deluxe version of their third studio album, Time.
