tobyMac’s new record Tonight released February 9, 2010 and is the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling album Portable Sounds.

Continuing Toby’s unique ability to blend musical influences, Tonight has an amazing mix of rock, pop, urban and hip hop sounds and styles. It features the smash hit single “City On Our Knees,” which has topped the radio airplay and digital single charts faster than any other tobyMac single. “'City on our Knees' is really about a moment,” says Toby. “A moment that we all come together to a place where there’s no judgment but really love. And we choose to recognize one God together. It’s really a reminder that that moment could be right now, tonight. And in that moment judgment falls by the wayside, we choose to step across the line, whatever side we’re on. Love fills in the cracks and makes up the difference.”

I got the amazing opportunity to interview Toby about title track, “Tonight,” featuring John Cooper of Skillet.

Please tell me the personal story behind writing this song.

It was the last song I wrote for the record. It was almost finished, but I felt I needed to write something else that reflected the ebb and flow of my ongoing pursuit of holiness. I continue to think about how long I’ll keep taking one step forward and two steps back. It has to start somewhere, so let’s start tonight to really commit to my pursuit of holiness! I’ve been doing this long enough to know that it’s not going to stop, but those moments of recommitment are crucial to our relationship with God.

Please tell me about any Bible verses you used to write the song.

A bible passage that is very important to me Psalm 49:18-20: Though while he lived he counted himself blessed-—and men praise you when you prosper--he will join the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light of life. A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

What do you consider to be the take-away message for listeners.

The song moves from personal application to action-oriented for the masses. I can’t help but think of songs in a concert setting, and so much of my focus is around the nighttime. I had already written “City On Our Knees” with the chorus “tonight’s the night.” My prayer is that everyone who comes to my show and hears these songs is ready to make that same commitment to God. The personal message becomes a movement that I want us all to think about relative to our pursuit of holiness.

Here are the lyrics:

Hey!
Every time I try to go it alone
I get shut down
Locked up and held captive in the clutches of my doubt
We go back
We go forth
We go back
I’m sick with vertigo
Weary of my ways
My days
My ebbs and flows
So

I wanna feel a new day
(There’s gotta be more than this)
I wanna live a new way
(There’s gotta be more)
I wanna feel a new day
(There’s gotta be more than this)
I wanna live a new way
(There’s just gotta be more)

Right here, right now
Under the stars
I promise You my heart
‘Cause it starts tonight

We wanna rise
We wanna touch the other side
(It starts tonight)
We wanna soar
We wanna reach right out for more
(‘Cause it starts tonight)

Tonight

Can’t feel like any night before
Under a sky full of stars
With hearts that want more (Tonight)
Like a river no dam can hold
Being driven by a source overflowin’ our souls (Tonight)
Won’t be like any night we’ve seen
It changes everything
Everything

Under a sky full of stars
With hearts that want more (Tonight)

So let us seize this night
Let us make our play
It’s on like the break of dawn
Come what may, let us

Tonight
(‘Cause it starts tonight)
I wanna feel the new day
I wanna live a new way
(‘Cause it starts tonight)

We want more tonight
We want you tonight
Tonight

This song really does make me think about making that recommitment to God daily, today, tonight and every night. God wants us to be His faithful followers and “not perish.” God wants to pour out blessing on those of us who call out to Him in prayer. As Toby said in our discussion “where there is no vision, the people will perish.” The vision for your life is crucial, if you are not putting all of your faith, hope and trust in Jesus, then “tonight’s the night.”

You can watch the video of the song here.