Husband. He’s been married to Debbie for 17 years.

Father. He’s got five kids.

Musician. He sings and plays the keyboard and guitar.

Friend. Well, you know his motto: “Friends are Friends Forever.”

Grammy Award-winner. There are two of these babies sitting on the bookshelf in his great room.

CEO. He owns Rocketown Records.

Dove Award-winner. He’s been recognized 11 times.

Author. With his latest Your Place In This World, he’s got four books under his belt.

It’s this list that ran through my mind as I stepped into Rocketown Records with 1998 Brio Girl Autumn Alcott a few months ago. The studio walls, covered with gold albums and photos of Smitty and his friends, people such as former President George Bush, reinforced the titles I’d already pinned on him.

But soon after meeting Michael face to face and spending a few hours with him, I was convinced of another title to add to his roster of identities — one that may sometimes go unnoticed: Servant.

Servin’ His Neighbors
One glimpse of Michael’s immense love for people came when we left his studio and loaded into his Ford Expedition. “Would y’all mind if we stop by Sonic on the way to my house?” he asked.

“I’ve been there the last three days, and there’s a girl working there who recognized me. I’ve got a picture I signed for her.” A few minutes later we pulled into Sonic and Michael humbly bestowed his gift to the hamburger-joint employee.

Servin’ His Family
As we headed on to Smitty’s home, he phoned his kids and, playfully speaking with a British accent, made sure they’d have the great room in order for us. Then he popped in his latest CD, Christmastime. He selected a specific song, cranked it up as we made our way along the country road and said, “Check this one out.”

“Right before we left the house for my oldest son’s eighth-grade graduation, he said something about me playing at the ceremony,” Smitty said. “I’d totally forgotten and didn’t have time to practice anything before we got there. As the kids were walking in, I was just making things up. Then, at the end, when everybody’d filed out, I stayed a while longer to play ’cause I really liked the melody I’d come up with. I thought, This sounds like Christmas. So now it’s on the album.”

Servin’ the Body of Christ
After lunch, our next stop was the Smiths’ farm. We passed ponds and drove by horses and then pulled up to a barn, which is actually used to house people, not animals. It has lots of bedrooms, a kitchen and living room and serves as a meeting place for various groups. There’s often a roomful of people hanging out here for a night of praise and worship.

“I have a personality that loves to be with people,” Michael says. “If I’m in a group or with a youth group and I find out who the underdog is, you’ll find me sitting with that underdog. I feel like I have the gift of encouragement, and I think that spills out of my personality.”

Serve One Another in Love
As we sat in the living room, Autumn and I fired question after question at Michael. We found out things like what his middle initial stands for. Have a guess? Well, it’s Whitaker, an old family name that he hated as a kid but actually likes now.

And did you know that his favorite song he’s ever recorded is “All Is Well” from his first Christmas album? If you want to learn more, keep reading. Michael’s got a lot to say about his family, ministry, Rocketown — the club — Compassion International and life in general. Through it all, you’ll get a glimpse of the fast-paced life of a guy who has a heart for reaching out to people, serving them and showing them the love of Christ.

What kind of Christmas traditions does your family have?
Each year we invite a lot of single people over. They help us put up our Christmas tree. We usually get about a 15-foot tree, which takes two or three people to bring in. We’ll spend the whole evening putting the Christmas tree up and listening to Christmas music. Then we usually dance at the end to Charlie Brown’s Christmas record. It’s a great time.

As a family, we open one present every Christmas Eve. And then on Christmas Day, Mom and Dad come over and make oyster soup for breakfast — which I still don’t eat. Deb and my mom and her mom and her grandmother all make an incredible dinner. It’s a feast!

What's the most memorable gift you've ever given someone?
It’s probably as a family when we’ve gone to the nursing home and visited people there who really don’t have any family. I’ll never forget the year that the prayer group Deb and I are in visited a nursing home. We just poured our hearts out to all these old people. You could tell that nobody’d come and done that for them in a long time.

How much do you get to see your family when you’re on tour?
I come home every day that I’m off. A lot of times, I’ll do a show, walk off the stage, get on a plane, go home and be driving the carpool the next day. But I’m not always on tour. This year I’ve been home quite a bit.

You really help carpool?
Yeah, I do. I might be a bit of a zombie when I’m driving ’cause I’m so tired, but I take advantage of every moment I can to be with my kids, especially when I’m on tour.

Do you have family devotions?
We do — we’re most consistent with them when school’s in because we’re on a schedule. Around bedtime, we all pile in a circle in someone’s room, usually Whitney’s or Anna’s, and go through a really great Bible story.

In the past we’ve used devotional books, but sometimes we’ll venture off and talk about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and usually once a year I’ll do the Prodigal Son ’cause it’s probably my favorite story in the Bible.

Why do you continue in the area of music — what’s your motivation?
I’ve just been called to do it. I’ll switch and do something else if I feel I’m called to do something else. I guess the older you get, you think, How much longer am I supposed to do this? There’s a part of me that feels like I could do it for the rest of my life. At the same time, I’ve always wanted to act. I’ve had a chance to act and be in some movies, but I’ve never felt like that’s what I was supposed to do.

This year I’ve been at different functions and have had people come up and tell me “You know what? You changed my life. That song changed my life.” At times like those I think, Why would I want to do something else when people’s lives are being affected by what I’m doing?

What movies have you had a chance to be in?
I’ve been sent some scripts and actually had a chance to read for the leading male role in Hope Floats with Sandra Bullock. The script ended up changing and it seemed that there might be a love scene in the movie. I just wasn’t sure that I should go read for it. I sure didn’t want to read for it and have to turn it down if I got the part. I just felt like it wasn’t something I was suppose to do. I was thrilled to be asked to read for it, though.

How are you involved in your church and in your community?
Deb and I are in a prayer group with friends from church, and I sometimes lead worship at church. And there’s Rocketown the club, which we’re real excited about. We lost our lease, so we’re still trying to figure out where to meet. We’re thinking about going mobile.

What does that mean?
Well, we’d actually put it on like a rave. [An all-night party.] We’ve had so many kids who’ve come to know the Lord at Rocketown. Now they’re counselors, leading their friends to the Lord. These kids need a place.

So your goal for Rocketown is to offer non-Christians a nonthreatening, fun environment to hang out in?
It’s definitely an outreach to non-Christians. We used to be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. On Friday nights, 95 percent of the kids who’d be there weren’t saved.

Some of them were high on drugs, and they had a million earrings and a million tattoos. I loved it. I absolutely loved it ’cause we’ve got the right staff that knows how to minister to those kind of people. The church doesn’t minister to those folks. It doesn’t know how — so there’s nobody meeting their needs.

Most of these kids are from dysfunctional families. They came to Rocketown and found a home. I think it’s very, very vital. Hopefully, facility-wise, we’ll get it back up and running. For now, our staff’s meeting with kids and discipling them at coffee shops all the time.

How many children do you sponsor through Compassion International?
Compassion is still just really one of my favorite things I’m involved in. We’ve had three, but we might only have two now because one’s getting married. They’re from Haiti, Ecuador and Guatemala.

Why is sponsorship important to you and your family?
I’ve gone firsthand and have seen how vital it is and how powerful it is — especially in meeting spiritual needs. Just for example, Gavi, my sponsored daughter in Ecuador, met the Lord through Compassion. Her grandmother came to know the Lord because she was blown away by how much this man from the United States loved her granddaughter.

When I visited, she said through the interpreter, “If that man loves my granddaughter so much, I want to serve the God he serves.” She was crying and I started crying. Oh, it was heart-wrenching!

In light of your recent album title, Live the Life, how do you live out your commitment to Christ?
I think the best thing that I can do is love my wife and love my kids well. I know people have been affected by my music, but a lot of times I think, You know, my ministry’s driving my kids to school, loving my wife and loving my kids. I’ve never been able to separate church and state, you know, the sacred and the secular.

I’m a Christian talking to the gas station attendant as much as I am singing on stage. So that’s what Live the Life is all about. Let’s quit talking so much and start living it out. I believe there’s always time to share your faith. But most of the time you just love people. We need to be involved in the community and reaching out. We’ve gotta get out there and let the world know what it’s all about.

If you could sit down with each girl who reads Brio, what would you say to her?
I would say to each one of you: You’re awesome. You’re incredible. And God thinks you’re just absolutely amazing. You’ve got a great future. If you put your future in the Lord’s hands and put Him first in everything, He’ll give you the desires of your heart. And you’ll have a fruitful life.

A to Z with MWS
How many Albums have you recorded?
Twelve.

What Book have you read most recently?
Ragamuffin Gospel . It’s incredible!

How old were you when you accepted Christ?
I was 10 years old.

What’s the best Devotional book you’ve used?
My Utmost for His Highest.

How often do you Exercise?
Three or four times a week.

What do you like to do for Fun?
Ride in the country in my Jeep.

What Game are you best at?
Golf!

Who are your Heroes?
My dad and Billy Graham.

What’s your favorite Ice cream flavor?
Vanilla, believe it or not. I’m just Plain Jane — just a vanilla/chocolate kinda guy.

What kind of Jobs did you have before your music career?
I’ve had a lot of different jobs. I’ve bagged groceries, waited on tables, moved furniture and planted shrubs.

Name your Kids and their ages.
Okay. Ryan’s 14, Whitney’s 12, Tyler’s 10, Anna’s 8 and Emily’s 6.

Do you ever help out with your family’s Laundry?
No, but I end up doing my own laundry sometimes. Deb will love that one! If I’ve got things I want to get washed, I’d rather just go do it myself so Deb can do something else.

What’s your Mailing address?
Michael’s Best Friend P.O. Box 1341 Franklin, TN 37065

Name something that you’d Never do.
I’d never do an intimate scene in a movie if I had a chance to act in one.

Describe the most Outrageous Outfit you’ve ever worn on stage.
The multicolored Willy Wear outfit I wore on the Friends Tour! It was purple, red and yellow. Really bizarre.

What’s one of your Pet Peeves?
People who talk too much and want to have the floor all the time.

Is there anything that makes you Queasy?
Probably applesauce. Weird, isn’t it? My mom made me eat applesauce one time and I threw up, so ever since then I haven’t been able to eat it.

When in your life have you hit Rock bottom?
Well, obviously a long time ago when I walked away from God, but just in terms of the spiritual rock bottom it was in ’94 which was the inspiration for the I’ll Lead You Home record.

Where do you like to Shop?
If I was sayin’ cities it would be New York City. If I was sayin’ stores it would be U.S. Male or any kind of snowboarding shop.

Which flavor of Twizzlers do you like best?
Strawberry ’cause it’s what my kids eat. They make me eat ‘em. I’m not a big Twizzlers fan, but if I have to eat ’em I’d go with strawberry.

Have you ever been an Usher in church?
I don’t think I ever have.

If you could Vacation anywhere where would you go?
Colorado.

What’s the coolest thing about your Wife, Debbie?
She’s extremely patient with me.

When was the last time you had X-rays taken?
About six months ago at the Cooper Clinic.

Have you ever had a Yard sale?
Yes we have. It was a long time ago.

Tell me something you’re Zealous about.
What am I zealous about? I think I’m zealous about my walk with God.