This is Your Time (CD)

Anna (video)

This Is Your Time (video)

PARABLE.COM: You are in the spotlight a lot as a Christian "star." How do you stay humble in the midst of that?

MICHAEL: I think it really kind of comes down to accountability - somebody that you invite into your life. My wife's the best one who does that for me. I also have a great prayer group of guys. We've been together for about 8 years so they have pretty much been invited into my life to speak the truth and to just really be honest with me. And if they feel like I’m wandering off the path, then they’re gonna have the honesty to tell me. I think you gotta have that, especially when you have people that continually tell you how great you are and lift you up all the time and if you don’t watch it you start believing it. And I really know who I am. I’m a weak man who needs God desperately in my life.

PARABLE.COM: Tell me about the new album. Will it have a new sound? Any new influences? Which song, or songs, are you the most excited about?

MICHAEL: The next record comes out November 23 by the grace of God. You know, it's a pop record but I think hopefully there are some different things on there than the last. God laid the cornerstone of the next album with a song I wrote about Cassie Bernall. She's the girl at Columbine High School who said she believed in God and she lost her life over it. The song is called This is Your Time and as far as I'm concerned that's the title of the album. I think it's really the pinnacle of the whole record. Although all the songs really don't hold together in terms of one piece of work, that's the cornerstone song of the record. I'm so excited about that song that in fact, if it was the only song that I had for this record, I would have put it on there and release it by itself. And I'm gonna do that song tonight, too, so I'm pretty excited about it.

PARABLE.COM: I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the Internet. With all the technology, are we missing the mission of telling people about meeting the Lord?

MICHAEL: You know what I think? I’m sure we are missing the mark some. To me, it all comes down to what's the intent of the mark, the individual. I think if an artist is getting lost in the shuffle of all the stuff that's going on, then we've got a problem. There are two things that we need to change. I think we need more pastors for musicians on the road, for all these people traveling on the weekend. They are not plugged into a church because they are singing every weekend. And I think that, in my opinion, the industry itself, the people who work with the record companies in the industry, need to be held accountable just as much as the artists do. So you know what, we just need to raise the level of what God is expecting from us. He's expecting men and women to seek him with all their heart. You know what? There is nothing wrong with Christian music to me and I think it’s even healthy for it to be a bit competitive. But when it consumes you and you’re trying to be number one and everything, then you got a problem because we are supposed to be working together.

PARABLE.COM: How does that effect your family life?

MICHAEL: It effects it greatly, that’s why I’m not doing as much. My oldest two are now 13 and 15 and I honestly don’t want to go anywhere. As a matter of fact, I have my two oldest, Ryan and Lydia, here with me tonight. So I’m excited about that, and Ryan’s actually playing on stage with me. Now I really feel old, but it’s pretty exciting.

PARABLE.COM: What does the future hold for your career and your ministry?

MICHAEL: Well, I’m gonna write another book. I still can’t believe I’m writing books, but I am. But I’m excited about this one because it’s gonna be called "Never Been Unloved" and I have a lot to say about that, just because so many people continue to beat themselves up and don’t feel like God loves them. It’s hard to believe it’s really true. I’m having a blast running Rocketown Records, I could stay till the sun goes down. And you know what I think? I will continue to work with Billy Graham doing crusades. You know, that’s really the highlight of my year, being able to do things like that. About traveling, I have to be honest. Nowadays I don’t really want to go anywhere and so I think I’m really checking my heart so when I actually do show up and I have to leave town, it is a direct role from God that I am supposed to go out. So I guess I’m tired of going out and really trying to support a record. I just want, "God, if you want me to go minister to people….. If that’s what you want me to do, then I’ll go." But there’s a real check on my heart about what I want to do in the future. I got to be honest, I’m just trying to make sure that every one of my kids, and that’s five right now, grow up as God fearing men and women. That’s my priority.

PARABLE.COM: I hear you’re also very involved in the details of your record label, Rocketown.

MICHAEL: It’s extremely gratifying, I just got to make sure I don’t touch the glory. But to me it’s a natural progression for me because I’ve been doing this for a long time and I feel like I’m in some sort of fathering role a little bit. I almost hate to use ‘fathering role,’ a mentoring role, and I love mentoring people. I had so many people help me, why not take what I’ve learned and start a record company like Rocketown and have a Chris Rice and Watermark and the list goes on. And I love it. It’s absolutely a real joy in my life.

PARABLE.COM: Do you have anything new planned for the label?

MICHAEL: Well, there are a lot more artists, I can tell you that. You know what I think? If there’s one thing I can point out, we’ve gotten a lot better at what we do. And it’s nice to see because you know, for a long time I didn’t think that was happening. But I think we are really making some strides and it’s nice to have somebody who has a really good ear, maybe from the mainstream, who hears one of these records that comes out of our market place and says, "You know what? That’s a great record!" I mean for example right now, and I’m not just saying this because Ginny’s on Rocketown Records, but we have a 24 year old girl who’s blind. She’s been blind since she was 2 years old, she’s a new artist in Rocketown and we’ve got everybody in New York in Epic system on the mainstream side saying literally, "This is the best record out of the Epic system the whole year long and we just got to break this girl mainstream," and they love her, they absolutely love her and she is glorifying God. But that’s what we want, it’s just so awesome. Those are the neat things that are happening. I think that we didn’t have those kinds of opportunities 15 years ago.

PARABLE.COM: What’s your favorite pastime with your family?

MICHAEL: You know what I think? The thing we like to do more than anything is go to our little second home that we have in Colorado to be discreet. I would live in Colorado because I love it that much, and so my family, every time we talk about maybe not going there anymore, my kids are going, "Dad you’re breaking our hearts! We want to keep going to Colorado; that’s really our favorite pastime." I think it’s being able to go out there and taking a lot of our friends and … in the mountains and …

PARABLE.COM: In terms of credibility, some artists have placed themselves under the authority of a church. What do you think about that?

MICHAEL: I think that’s a great idea. I think whatever it takes to make sure your credibility stays in check. You know, you lose your credibility and things start getting out of hand. You know what, you really don’t have a whole lot of business being on stage. I’ve always told a bunch of kids, you know, when I speak to young bands and artists, "You know what, guys? You don’t need a long leash--you need a short leash and you need somebody to help you do that. And if you’re not plugged into a church and you’re not covered, do what ever you got to do to be covered by a prayer group." My suggestion, and I’m just gonna go on record and say it, maybe I’ll get in trouble, I really don’t care, but I personally believe that the record company needs to hire a pastor and put him on staff, and all that pastor does is travel with these bands. He takes a different weekend up with a different band. I really think that is a great idea personally and you know, I think that’s what we gotta do. We’ve gotta step up to the plate and help these artists. We all sign them and give them money, they go out, and tell them we believe in them and we send them out and nobody ever checks on them. And then they’re susceptible to temptation because they don’t have any covering. I really believe we need to make a big move there.

PARABLE.COM: You’ve been doing this for 15 years now. How do you find the motivation to keep going to the next album and the next tour?

MICHAEL: Well you know what? I don’t think it’s always easy. I think sometimes I worry about it, but I think, you know what? This is ultimately what I felt like God wanted me to do. And what if I wake up one day and the Lord tells me that he wants me to do something else? Then I’m gonna do something else. And I think your priorities really change as you get older, too. And you know I’m real devoted to my kids and they become a real part of everything, especially when you have teenagers, so things kind of change.

PARABLE.COM: What is God teaching you right now?

MICHAEL: I kind of hit another snag at trying to get an album out and I’m somewhat killing myself to meet a deadline and I’ve never been very good at deadlines. And that’s when you get real frustrated cause when you really get tired you start questioning, "Gosh, you know what? I wanted to stay home!" But ultimately I’m doing this because I think that God’s put a call on my life to do this.

PARABLE.COM: You spend a lot of time with Rocketown. Have you learned something different being on the other side of a microphone?

MICHAEL: Well, I think I’ve learned how hard it can be to even keep your priorities straight and try to not be always trying to be in the number one spot with your artists. See, I always thought, from the artist's perspective, [to the music companies] "Come on, guys! Get along! We’re all in this thing together." Then all of a sudden you get in and you’ve got your artists and you think, "Oh I want to protect my artists" and you find out they have almost the same struggles that I do in terms of trying to be number one and trying to, you know, stay at number one for five weeks in the sales.
And you sit there and you finally go, "You know what? This is not what it’s all about." And I think I’ve been wanting to be able to go to the evening staff meetings with all my staff. We’re different, we’re not gonna be like everybody else, not that everybody else is not strong enough, but we’ve got to be separate and we’ve got to keep our priorities straight. We’re in this thing cause God called us to do this and it’s not about being number one. It’s really interesting to be on this side and it’s kind of a rude awakening,

PARABLE.COM: So I just got your mother’s new cookbook (titled "Cooking With Smitty's Mom" from Thomas Nelson Publishers). Tell me a little about that.

MICHAEL: She’s a great cook, she’s a great mom. She has had a huge impact on my life. She’s my biggest fan. We just started talking about this idea for a book and we got her a great deal with Thomas Nelson and spent some time doing interviews for the book. It was just so great to spend time talking about something besides myself. I was there supporting her. And it’s not just a cookbook. There are a lot of stories in there and pictures. You know, she’s had some tough times in her life and she feels like that whole cookbook is a real ministry. It is a real call to bring families back. What happened to families sitting around the table at dinner? Nowadays everybody’s running off to Burger King or to the mall food court and they don’t sit around with their family and have family dinners. I think her book is a real inspiration for moms, or for wives and they can say, "You know, I can cook this and it is going to be incredible and its not that hard."

PARABLE.COM: Do you have any specific traditions that keep some continuity in your family?

MICHAEL: Well, really the time we are together is when we eat. We aren’t the steadfast, totally together family. It’s like pulling teeth just to get people to get to the table. Ryan on the phone, Whitney’s doing this, and then you sit there and the food starts getting cold and Dad starts getting frustrated and we finally get together and then it’s awesome. So you know, obviously I think that’s the one thing we could do.

"For everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. . ."

As difficult as it is to accept, time marches on and history unfolds in our lives with very little concern for our feelings. That's the lesson that struck the heart of Reunion recording artist Michael W. Smith when, like the rest of the nation, he found himself watching in stunned disbelief as news reports from Colorado brought a shocking and terrible story to the world.

Most artists never expect to find themselves participating in the throes of a national trauma, but for Michael, the shooting tragedy at Columbine High School last April rocketed the artist into a worldwide spotlight. His participation in the widely telecast memorial service found him in the company of senators, governors, the vice-president, General Colin Powell, Franklin Graham and fellow Christian artists. "All of a sudden you're just thrown into it and wondering, 'What am I doing here?'" he recalls of that day. "You begin thinking ‘I'm inadequate, I can't do this,’ and all these things start going through your head. But in the end I believe I was there because God called me to be there."

While participating musically in the healing process for the families, the students and an entire mourning country, Michael was particularly touched by the surfacing story of one of the massacre's victims, Cassie Bernall. Bernall was a 17-year-old student of Columbine who, during the unfolding drama in the school's library, was asked by the gunmen if she believed in God. Her answer? She said yes--and was immediately gunned down, becoming one of 15 to die that day.

That riveting scene became the touchstone for Michael's 13^th album, This Is Your Time, which was already in progress. Shaken but also inspired, Michael heard a new voice and saw a new vision emerging for what he wanted to say on this record. Inviting friend and songwriter Wes King to collaborate with him on a song he was working on, the two ended up penning the title cut. Michael calls King's contribution "the lyric of a lifetime" and believes that the song is even more than a tribute to a brave young girl. "I believe there will be many people who come to the Lord through 'This Is Your Time,'" he says emphatically. "I don't say that too often. I'm very careful about saying that. But I think it is definitely a God thing and He is going to use it."

His passion for This Is Your Time and its subject is enthralling. He refers to the day of the video shoot as one of the most emotional he's ever experienced. Filmed by directors Ben Pearson and Brandon Dickerson, the video is a haunting tribute to Bernall and a deliberate call to believers everywhere to live their faith. That call permeates the album via songs that run the gamut from anthemic challenges to soul-searching cries of the heart. Michael has always looked to other wordsmiths to bring life to his musical compositions, but This Is Your Time marks the first time an album project boasts a different lyricist for every song. Such a breadth of talent "brought the best out in everyone" and yields a surprisingly cohesive project. Contributors include artists such as Wes King on the title cut, Cindy Morgan on "I Will Be Your Friend," Chris Rice with "Everybody Free" and Ginny Owens on "I'm Gone." Award-winning songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman ("This Kiss,") helped craft "She Walks With Me," a father's sweet nod to Michael's oldest daughter Whitney, and the equally awarded Wayne Kirkpatrick ("Change The World") lent words of wonder to "Anna," a tune written over six years ago for one of Michael's daughters, which finally found its way onto an album.

Keeping things "all in the family," Michael joined with wife Debbie (and Tim Putnam) to write "Worth It All." The husband-wife duo has often collaborated in the past--with memorable results. The two Smiths wrote Michael's mega-hit, "Friends," a song that was named the number one song in Christian musician CCM Magazine's 1999 Top 100 Songs poll. European pop star Nik Kershaw, a hero of Michael's through the years, also brought his lyrical talents to the table. (He wrote "Let Me Show You The Way" with Michael for his last album.) The love song "Hey You It's Me" had been bouncing around Michael's head as a title and a melody--just waiting for the right words to come along. "I always knew it was about Debbie," he says, "and Nik ended up bringing in a very interesting lyric for it."

As the 1999 Dove Awards Producer of the Year, Michael paired up once again with Bryan Lenox, who last worked with Michael on his gold-selling album, Go West Young Man. Together, the two cooked up a musical smorgasbord of sound with all the quirks and moments fans have come to love and expect from Michael W. Smith. "Hopefully," he says of the album, "it's another sign of growth. That's what you always want. You hope somebody says, 'Man, he's getting better.'" Always reaching higher has been a way of life for this artist, and that kind of expectation both from his fans and from himself can be as much of a burden as an inspiration. "I've been doing this a long time," he reflects, "and some days I do wake up and go, 'Gosh, what can I do next?'" That question is hard for anyone to answer. But imagine you are 17 years into a career which began as Amy Grant's keyboard player, and you have 23 #1 songs, 1 platinum record, 6 gold records, two Grammy awards and 22 Dove awards. This year also saw Michael walk away with the prestigious Dove Award for Artist of the Year. His successes in the pop music field (which began with his top five hit "Place in This World" and the number one hit, "I Will Be Here For You) continues with his recent Jim Brickman duet, "Love of My Life." Add to all that his recent coup as the first Christian artist to ever receive the ASCAP "Golden Note" Award for lifetime achievement in songwriting (which puts him in the same company as Stevie Wonder and Elton John) and you have to wonder if it's all downhill from here.

Not a chance. Not when you're Michael W. Smith. The awards are nice, he admits, and the work is of course rewarding, but success brings options. For Michael that means an opportunity to explore other creative ventures. He's already launched a successful business with his own label, Rocketown Records. His hands are in several ministries, not the least of which is the Rocketown Club, a youth haven that offers help and hope to searching teenagers. Right now, Michael's even dreaming of the small screen and the big screen! He dabbled in acting some years ago with guest appearances on television shows, but the bug never really bit until recently. "I'd love to do a film," he says, "and I think I have a gift for it; I've just never had the time to nurture it." For a man with so little time on his hands for extra pursuits, you'd think his plate would already be filled to overflowing, but that didn't stop Michael and his wife Debbie from fulfilling another dream --- starting a new church community. "Are we crazy or what?!" he laughs. "But it's a wonderful thing. I just felt like God laid it on my heart that we needed to create a place for our family and other families that really was a true community --- an Acts church."

The church, which gathers in the Smith's barn, often finds Smitty leading the worship and, on occasion, preaching and teaching. But both in his "work" at church and in the work of crafting songs, Michael is adamant about one thing. "I have to say that as lessons go, or as songs go, I find I'm often writing them first for me, and then for everybody else." A lifelong learner, Michael has come to accept that sometimes the message laid on his heart to share with the world is often the very lesson God wants him to learn. Embracing the mysteries of life and celebrating the whys and hows of daily living have always influenced his words and music, but now Michael admits he's finding the greatest pleasure in turning inward. "There are a lot of ways and places I've got to get to, to die to myself," he muses. "To me, that's what the Christian life is all about - it's to serve people."

Whether he's serving people through his church, the ministry of Rocketown, his music heard on radios and in concerts or in his own home with his five children and wife of eighteen years, one thing is certain: there is truly a time for everything. And right now with This Is Your Time, he has given listeners a time to reflect, to celebrate, to remember and to rediscover the freshness of our faith. Even though the project was born through a season of sadness and loss, the hope-laden songs triumph and create what may even be a time to dance.

Ask Smitty what's next and he'll probably not be able to answer you. After all, faith is meant to be an adventure, and at this point in his journey, even though he's not sure exactly what's around the next corner, Michael W. Smith is still having the time of his life.

"Rince Dé" is Gaelic Irish and it's this jig. I mean I wrote this song literally two and a half weeks before the record was totally done. I just came into the studio one day and got thinking about it and said, you know this would be great to open the record with. The challenge was trying to find a title. And so we talked to Maire Brennan, Jimmy Abegg and Ben Pearson and all these people who've spent a lot of time in Ireland. Finally, we found this phrase called "Rince Dé" that means "God's Dance" and is pronounced "Rinkuh J," which I think is really cool.

Nik Kershaw is a European star and he has had a tremendous influence on me musically. He is extremely talented and I am honored to work with him. We wrote "Let Me Show You the Way" together for the last album, and I loved the opportunity to write with him again. "Hey You It’s Me was actually one of the first songs I had written music for on this new album. I had a feeling the whole time that this song was about my wife. It was my title, which kind of handcuffed a lyric writer like Nik, but I just said I really feel strongly that this is what it needs to be called. We talked a lot and he locked himself up in a hotel room and came up with what I think is a very interesting lyric. I really love it.

Debbie and I wrote this song for Kanakuk, a Christian sports camp I'm involved in. I write a theme song for the camp every year. For the album, we changed the verse and some of the lyrics a little bit so it wouldn't feel too "campy."

I picked up my guitar and wrote the music and title in five minutes. It was just one of those things that happens so fast! From the beginning I really knew it needed to be called "I Will Be Your Friend." I had this gut feeling to call Cindy Morgan for the lyrics on the song, so I did! And she did a great job.

"This Is Your Time" is, I think, the cornerstone of the whole record. I was in the middle of recording this album when the whole Columbine tragedy happened. Being invited to play at the memorial service was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I just couldn’t imagine how I could offer any comfort to anyone. But after hearing the stories about Cassie Bernall, I was really struck with the need to say something about her through my music. Wes King wrote the lyric and we hashed it out quite a bit to make sure it was right. But I believe he wrote what I would call the lyric of a lifetime.

I wrote "She Walks With Me" for my daughter Whitney. I just believe it is a crucial time for her as she’s growing up more each day. I mean, she just deserves a song on this record and I wrote one for her! It is the first time I've written with Beth Nielsen Chapman and we went through a lot of rewrites because, being that the song was for my daughter, I became somewhat of a perfectionist. But she was so cool with it cause she knew what it meant to me and wanted it to be right.

"I’m Gone" is the story of how I met my wife, a little bit. It's just a bizarre thing—it was another one of those songs that I immediately knew I had a title for. It ended up going through five or six writers and finally, Rocketown’s Ginny Owens comes up with the winner! I’ve always known she was a gifted songwriter, but I was amazed at how a young girl, who is also single and blind, is able to put my thoughts and feelings about my wife into such an incredible song.

"Reach Out to Me" is just a desperate cry of the heart. And many times I find myself feeling exactly what is said in the song. It's probably one of the most vulnerable songs I’ve done. As you get older, you just have to say this is the way I feel and I think it's important. I really believe that when people hear the record that I'm going to have a lot of people come up and talk about this song and say, "man that's exactly the way that I feel."

"Anna" was written six years ago with Wayne Kirkpatrick for my daughter Anna. Oftentimes, Anna would dance around the house, but one day, she must have changed outfits three times! I started playing music for her to dance to and I've always loved the song. We recorded it for I'll Lead You Home and it didn't make it and we recorded it for Live The Life and it didn't make the record. The third time it made it! And of all the ones I’ve recorded, I believe this is the best production. It belonged on this record. This is proof that I never write a song off—if it doesn't make it on one record, you never know if it might show up on another.

In a genre not known for creating megastars, Michael W. Smith is definitely at the top of the Christian music game. And on this sweltering August day, the star is not happy.

Smith is stressed and cranky. This Is Your Time is more than two months overdue, and the artist known for pushing deadlines beyond the breaking point is being pressured to turn in a finished product. Engineers in two Franklin, Tenn., studios are frantically working overtime trying to meet a final deadline.

In the midst of this pot-boiler, Smith woke up with a "killer jig" in his head. Deadline, schmedline, he wants it on the new record. You could hear the hair being pulled all the way up in Nashville.

"I'm tired, my voice is tired, and I can't wait to just go play golf and go to a movie with my kids," a clearly frayed-around-the-edges Smith confesses. He isn't complaining, not by a long shot, but he is a testament that being a superstar isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Anyone who's followed Christian music for even the shortest amount of time is familiar with the Michael W. Smith juggernaut: platinum-selling recording artist, producer, songwriter, author, record company executive, Christian dance club owner--the list goes on. Getting a handle on Michael W. Smith is a little like observing a glutton at the all-you-can-eat buffet: You're in awe of all he's got on his plate, and even more amazed that he manages to actually lick the thing clean.

With that in mind, This Is Your Time could very well be a benchmark record for Smith. Its late-November release ultimately broke the record for first-week sales of a Christian album, shattering previous records set by Kirk Franklin and dc Talk. For a pop artist releasing his 13th album, it's a surprising display of longevity. Shouldn't he be relegated to the has-been pile by now?

"I just remember Michael's first two records [Michael W. Smith Project and Michael W. Smith 2]. They really spoke to me," says Wes King, who wrote the lyrics to the current project's cornerstone song, "This Is Your Time."

"This stuff really reminds me of his old stuf--it doesn't sound like it, but whatever those first two records had, this record has. I just got fired up listening to it! I really don't listen to a lot of Christian music, but this music really moved me. To know Michael can have a batch of songs like this in him, with this kind of passion and freshness, I was just so inspired."

Indeed, that Smith can still find his own creative wellspring, let alone inspire colleagues, probably says more about him than all of his awards and platinum records. After all, 1999 was the year of his famous Dove Award acceptance speech ("If I have to work as hard as I did this year, I don't want another one"). It was also the year of a much-publicized dispute between his record company and the musicians union which, the media's best efforts to the contrary, Smith tried his hardest to stay out of. "I think they tried to pull me in and use me," he says. "I think they wanted me to come in and save the day or something. All I knew is that Reunion was not signing with the union, and I couldn't use the people I wanted to use. So my only thing was, You guys are big boys, figure it ou--because right now, I feel like to some extent you guys are in breach of contract because I can't do the job that I really need to do 'cause you guys haven't settled this thing with the union. It was extremely frustrating."

Smith could have "pulled a Garth"--in other words, followed the path of country superstar Garth Brooks, who forced a management shakeup at his record label when things didn't happen to his liking. Today, it's almost expected for the biggest name on the roster to throw his weight around. That, however, isn't Smith's style.

"That's not his personality type," says Don Donahue, president of Rocketown Records, the label he and Smith opened in 1996. "I've never seen him throw a tantrum. He's really calm and peaceful--he's intense, but calm and peaceful."

"The thing about Michael that is so cool is that he is so much about the music," observes Cindy Morgan, who has co-written several songs with Smith and is also the flagship artist on his new Rocketown Management roster. "He is not at all about trying to put out this kind of superstar vibe, he is just all about doing good music. He tries his best to make you feel comfortable. If he thinks you're at all nervous, he'll go out of his way to make you comfortable."

Indeed, though he's just 41, Smith is regarded as something of a father figure in the industry. Smith has nurtured quite a few talents over the years; his excitement over his latest find, a young writer named Eric Laughlin, is palpable. Smith nabbed Laughlin to write the lyrics for "I Will Carry You," a gentle ballad that appears on This Is Your Time.

For Laughlin, working with a legend like Smith your first time out of the box must have been nerve-racking. "I was very nervous," he says of writing with Smith. "There were four or five rewrites. It went through a lot of middle people before it got to him."

When the two finally did meet face-to-face, Smith instantly put him at ease. "He's a very gracious guy and very down to earth, to where it's like you're talking to your best friend. I sang him the song the way I heard it, and he went in and recorded it the next night."

Says Wes King, "I think that's a real gift of Michael's, to bring out the best in others."

It's clear that when Smith does use his influence, it's to help the next generation of Christian artists, not to inflate his own ego. A case in point is Rocketown Records; no vanity imprint here, Smith's label is a viable enterprise that has launched some promising careers: Chris Rice, Ginny Owens and Wilshire, to name a few.

Smith is as involved in the label as he can be, which means he has final say over who gets signed, but he leaves the day-to-day operation to Don Donahue and staff.

"When Rocketown started, a lot of people thought Smitty was going to do something progressive and cutting-edge, and we were actually talking about doing that, looking at a few acts like that." Donahue recalls. "But I had known about Chris Rice for a while and when I heard his tape, I took it straight to Michael. It took one listen and Michael was jumping up and down going, We've got to make a record on this guy!"

"For Chris, we never knew if this thing would fly," Smith recalls. "This guy sounds like James Taylor--this isn't Jars of Clay or dc Talk. And when it did fly, we all just sat back and pinched ourselves. Everybody thought we were brilliant. We didn't do anything! We just went with our gut, which is what I've always done: Go with your gut, go with what you feel is right inside your heart."

The other side of Michael W. Smith, of course, is family man. He and wife Deborah have five children. When Smith was asked to participate in the Columbine memorial service last Apri--which would eventually inspire the song "This Is Your Time"--one of his biggest conflicts was that it coincided with son Tyler's 11th birthday.

"We don't miss birthdays in our family. I don't. I talked to [Tyler] about it, and he was cool. He said in so many words, Dad, you need to go. For 11 years old, I thought it was pretty cool."

Smith's kids are all creative, he says. Oldest son Ryan, who's 16 now, "is just like me, although he's a lot smarter than I was at his age." Ryan wants to be a film director, and Smith and Deborah are encouraging and supportive. Ryan even went, alone, to summer film school in Los Angeles last year, where he directed his first short film.

Smith is probably more involved in home and family than most artists at his level. Yes, he attends school meetings and sporting events; yes, he and Deborah started a church fellowship a year-and-a-half ago with two other couples. It's now grown to a group of 125 who meet at the Smith farm every week.

Smith manages to do it all by maintaining a healthy sense of priorities. And then there's the occasional time when he'll go AWOL--turn off the cell phone and golf nine holes.

"I think I can shut down and chill--probably sometimes when I don't need to chill--and all of a sudden my assistant is freaking out trying to find me," he laughs. "But that's how I survive. You set up priorities and you stick to 'em."

It clearly isn't easy. The hardest thing about being Michael W. Smith these days, he says, is managing all the new demands his ascent has created. As his star continues to rise, more is expected, and people can be less understanding when he says no.

"How do you control a career where everybody's pulling on you and everybody wants you to do something?" he asks. "Everybody wants a fund-raiser, and everybody wants a piece of you, you know?"

Smith isn't complaining, but it's easy to see the pressure does get to him. He jokes about this being his "mid-life crisis, which, by the way, I don't believe in."

It's clear some changes will have to take place down the road--if nothing else, he'll address the deadline pressure he felt to finish This Is Your Time.

Such is the balancing act that is Michael W. Smith these days. No, being a superstar isn't all it's cracked up to be. But even Smith has to admit, this is definitely his time.