TobyMac will always cherish the last words he exchanged with his son over text.
Before Truett — who was an aspiring rapper — died of an accidental drug overdose at age 21 in 2019, TobyMac told his late son how proud he was of him for chasing his dreams.
“I was telling him, I thought he did a great job at his first concert that he performed. I got to go to it. I changed a flight to get to go to it. He played at a place called The Factory in Franklin,” TobyMac, who released his latest studio album Heaven on My Mind on Friday, March 7, tells PEOPLE.
“And the last text he sent me, I don’t know why this moves me so much, but he’s like, ‘Dad, you’ve always made me feel like a superhero,'” TobyMac, 60, continues. “That moved me to my core, because that’s the way you should make your kid feel. And I’m not giving myself any props. I’m just saying, ‘Thank God I made him feel like that.'”
Reflecting on his character, the “Faithfully” singer says his son was “absolute life” and “the biggest personality in our family.”
“He was always grateful to us, always saw us, never discounted us,” he recalls. “I’m so grateful for that. There wasn’t a distant relationship. Sure, we had rubs, he was a wild child… God loves the wild ones. And I believe that with all my heart.”
On his new album Heaven on My Mind, TobyMac captured “the next phase” after experiencing immense grief from losing his son.
Terry Wyatt/Getty Images
“It’s walking through this and getting to a point where you can breathe again and live again,” he says. “And still grieving deeply, but gaining a footing to where you can throw your fist up in the air and say, ‘I’m going to live. I’m going to live to honor God… and to believe, but also to honor my son.'”
The album follows his 2022 LP Life After Death, where he wrote about the grief he experienced.
“The pain and anguish was just killing us. I never thought I would ever have it together again,” TobyMac previously told PEOPLE. “I want to write songs that resonate. It’s amazing how many people have experienced loss and how a song just loves them well, wherever they are. I’m so grateful for that.”
Days after Truett’s death in 2019, TobyMac paid tribute to his son in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.
“Truett Foster McKeehan had joy that took the room when he entered. He was a magnetic son and brother and friend. If you met him you knew him, you remembered him,” TobyMac wrote. “His smile, his laugh, the encouragement he offered with words or even without. He had an untamable grand personality and dreams to match. And he hated being put in a box.”
