How to go
What: Steven Curtis Chapman and Third Day in concert
Where: Taft Theatre, Cincinnati
When: 7 p.m. Saturday, May 7
Cost: Tickets range from $23 to $57.50 (plus applicable fees)
More info: www.tafttheatre.org. Also, go online to www.ThirdDay.com and www.StevenCurtisChapman.com.
Cincinnati is one of a handful of cities that will have an opportunity to experience two of Christian music’s top acts together on stage for the first time, as Steven Curtis Chapman and Third Day team up for a “supergroup” tour this spring.
“This was an idea we’ve had for two or three years,” Third Day frontman Mac Powell said.
Steven Curtis Chapman said, “I remember us doing something in North Carolina a few years ago at The Biltmore. I know that was one of the times where we sat around and said, ‘We’ve got to do something together, where we’re on stage together, singing each other’s songs and all of that.’ We’ve talked about it for several years.”
The tour will come to Cincinnati’s Taft Theatre on May 7, a Saturday.
Sharing the stage as one group and performing each other’s hits, Third Day will serve as Chapman’s backup band, and Chapman will act as a member of Third Day.
Both Third Day and Chapman have previously performed in Cincinnati on various tours over the course of their multi-decade careers. Powell says he enjoys the Cincinnati fans and the ribs. “So, pretty much every time we land, we go straight to Montgomery Inn,” Powell said.
For Chapman, a Kentucky native, it’s more of a homecoming, he says, “It feels like home.”
“Going from our home in Nashville to my wife Mary Beth’s hometown of Springfield, Ohio, especially when our kids were younger, we were taking them to grandma and grandpa’s house. It seemed like about every other week we were making the journey” Chapman said.
“It’s really funny that this is the first thought I have when I think of Cincinnati, but I’ve written so many songs driving through Cincinnati. I remember we were on our way to a funeral for one of Mary Beth’s uncles, and I wrote a song called ‘More to This Life,” he said.
Some of Chapman’s lyrics also specifically reference Cincinnati and the traffic issues on occasion, such as the song “I Do Believe.”
“It was literally 11:59 p.m., a minute before midnight, and we were sitting in construction, or in a traffic jam, and the lyric is ‘11:59 p.m. sitting in a traffic jam/just a few miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio,’ ” Chapman said.
“The Great Adventure” and “I Will Be Here,” other Cincinnati-area penned songs by Chapman might be on the tour’s set list, along with Third Day’s “Soul on Fire” and “God of Wonders.”
Collectively, Chapman and Third Day have received nine Grammy Awards and have sold more than 20 million albums.
Third Day’s most recent album, “Lead Us Back: Songs of Worship,” was released in 2015. Chapman’s latest effort and first worship project, “Worship and Believe,” was released in March.
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