For the men of MercyMe—Barry Graul (guitar), Robby Shaffer (drums), Mike Scheuchzer (guitar), Nathan Cochran (bass), Jim Bryson (keys) and Bart Millard (vocals)—worshipping the Lord and leading others in His praise is very much a life-long calling. That commitment has guided the band through the creation of six independent projects and 6 albums as one of the flagship artists of INO Records.
MercyMe’s beginnings can be traced back to Bart Millard’s football-hungry hometown Greenville, Texas. “My dad and my older brother were both football players,” Bart recalls, “so naturally, that’s what I wanted to do as well. But I broke both my ankles in a high school football game and that ended my career. Our football practices took place during the school day—sort of a substitute for Phys. Ed. So since I couldn’t dress out for practice, I had to move into another elective class, and choir was the only thing open at that point in the semester. I reluctantly joined the choir and as it turned out, I had a great choir teacher and also had a very encouraging music minister at my church, who both prodded me to get more involved, do solos and so forth.”
In just a year’s time, MercyMe was attracting the attention of local promoters. An opening stint for an Audio Adrenaline concert led to the band forging a friendship with AA manager Scott Brickell, now also filling that role for MercyMe. Bart says that at Brickell’s encouragement, the band made its next major move—to Nashville. “It took almost a year to get a showcase arranged,” recalls Bart. “When we finally did, we played at a little church for some label representatives and a few hundred kids. We basically played all the songs on our one little album. The kids demanded an encore and since we had been playing praise and worship songs for these youth conventions and camps, we went back and began to worship. As we left the stage a second time with all of them still singing the choruses, I think that was the very first time the band realized how important praise and worship was to us.”
Now with 6 albums and over 13 years after their founding, the guys of MercyMe still find themselves passionate about leading people in worship and hope that their music will continue to direct people to Christ.
