Background

Mike Donehey was born on September 30, 2019, in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, as Michael Morgan Donehey. His family later lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia and West Palm Beach, Florida. He is one of the five children of Dan and Sharon Donehey. He grew up in a Christian home.

Mike was rebellious as a child and enjoyed soccer and other sports.

Education

Mike Donehey attended Fredericksburg Christian School in Fredericksburg, Virginia. During his senior year in high school, Donehey got in a car accident. The injuries experienced were tremendous; not only did he fracture his skull and vertebrae, but Mike needed 96 stitches. After 5 days in intensive care, he was told he would never walk again. Two months after the crash, Mike was up and moving, eager to play in the school’s soccer championships. While recovering from the crash, Mike picked up the guitar and chose to express himself through music.

At college, he experienced a lot of frustration because things weren’t working out the way they were supposed to with his acting. After constantly taking second place at auditions, he met fellow musicians Brian Homan and Jason Jamison, who he admired because they sang about just wanting to be with Jesus. Soon after, at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida the band Fraggle Rock was formed and later changed to Tenth Avenue North.

Career

Mike Donehey is a guitarist and singer in Christian rock band Tenth Avenue North since 2000. The band also includes Jeff Owen on electric guitar and backup vocals and Ruben Juarez III on bass guitar and backup vocals. Tenth Avenue North released three independent albums and an EP before its major-label debut.

They released their acclaimed national debut, Over and Underneath, in 2008. They quickly won fans’ allegiance with radio staples. The group gained further momentum with 5 full-length records that spawned hits that have led to selling in excess of one million albums to date. Tenth Avenue North is one of the few debut bands that has experienced enough momentum to headline its own tour, the "Inside and In Between" Tour, with only one album under its belt.

The band gained further momentum with 2010's "The Light Meets the Dark," and "The Struggle" in 2012, which continued to populate radio and the church with such songs as "Healing Begins," "You Are More," "Losing" and "Worn." In 2011, the band released Tenth Avenue North Live: Inside and In Between - The Shows, The Songs, The Story, a live album featuring video footage of concerts, video journals about the message behind the music, and live recordings of six of the band's biggest hits. Mike Donehey collaborated with members of the band Hawk Nelson on the 2013 track Through the Fire.

In November 2014, the band released its fourth studio project, "Cathedrals," with the first radio single "No Man Is An Island." Their most recent project, "Followers," has produced the No. 1 singles "What You Want," "I Have This Hope" and "Control." In 2017, Tenth Avenue North debuted a Christmas project, "Decade The Halls Vol. 1."

In May 2018 the drummer Jason Jamison left the band. The band's EP, The Things We've Been Afraid to Say, was released on October 19, 2018. Mike Donehey said it was the band's first collection of songs of lament covering topics of casual sex, pornography, political outrage, hatred, shame, secrets, fear, and sexual abuse. In December 2018 Brendon Shirley, the band's keyboardist also left the band. The new album No Shame is expected in August 2019. The same month Mike Donehey publishes his book Finding God's Life for My Will: His Presence Is the Plan.

Achievements

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  Tenth Avenue North's debut CD Over and Underneath crossed the 200,000 marks in total album sales and skyrocketed the group to headliner status among concert-goers and music lovers. They garnered a Dove Award in 2009 for Best New Artist of the Year, as well as a 2010 Dove Award for Song of the Year for "By Your Side", and in 2012 for Short Form Music Video of the Year for "You Are More". The band received 9th Annual Listener Choice awards (a.k.a. the Sandy Awards). They were nominated for the 2010 Group of the Year Dove Award as well.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Finding God's Life for My Will: His Presence Is the Plan

    ("Perhaps God isn't giving me the plan because He wants to...)

    2019

• music

  • The Things We've Been Afraid to Say

    (The Things We’ve Been Afraid to Say EP is a collection of...)

    2018
  • No Shame

    (No Shame is an album by the American contemporary Christi...)

    2019
  • The Light Meets The Dark

    (The Light Meets the Dark is the second major-label studio...)

    2010
  • The Struggle

    (The Struggle is the third studio album from the American ...)

    2012
  • Over And Underneath

    (Over and Underneath is the first major-label studio album...)

    2008
  • Followers

    (Followers is an album by the American contemporary Christ...)

    2016
  • Cathedrals

    (Cathedrals is the fourth major studio album from Tenth Av...)

    2014

Politics

Mike Donehey criticizes Donald Trump's racism and intolerance.

Views

Donehey said that the band chose to name their album The Struggle because God’s grace gives freedom to people struggling to be free from their sin, but also because grace means that Christians are free to struggle and fail with the assurance that God will always forgive them. With his songs, Donehey and the band want to change people’s lives while also giving listeners a foot-tapping beat and melody they can easily sing.

Quotations: "Truth without emotion is cruel, and emotion without truth is just sentimental. When I write it’s a collision of what God says and what my heart feels. Our hearts are a deep reservoir of untapped resources. We should not be afraid to explore it, but at the same time, the heart can be deceitful. You need a lantern to guide you, and we hope to be that guide. And I want to be that guide into my own heart too."

"I don’t get on stage to prove that I’m a great musician. I do it to show people truth and beauty. As a musician, I don’t lose my sense of identity if I screw up. My identity is because of what God has done. My identity is never in danger of being lost because of God."

"God's nature is love because God is a relationship."

"Let yourself go. Let others in. This is the essence of being made in God's image."

"When we ask God to draw near, what we're really asking is for Him to make us aware of Him."

"There is no longer a fight between the secular and the sacred. If the Spirit dwells in us, then whether it be school or Starbucks, we make the world sacred, just by walking through the door. It's all sacred. It's all holy."

"We do battle with our minds and deceptive hearts, that we may lay our souls down upon the grace of God."

Personality

Mike Donehey has dreamed many dreams. His first dream was to be a great hockey player, but that dream ended when he got into a car accident and broke his back in two places. Another dream was to be a famous actor, but throughout college, no roles came his way and so that dream also went nowhere. However, during his pursuit of these dreams, Mike had been preparing for his future career as a singer, a dream he hadn't realized was his future yet.

Connections

Mike Donehey is married to Kelly Donehey. They have four daughters.

Wife:

Kelly Donehey

Daughter:

Eisley Donehey

Daughter:

Nora Donehey

Daughter:

June Donehey

Daughter:

Margot Lawrence Donehey