Those were Toby McKeehan's opening comments to retailers while hosting the Chordant Distribution product presentation during Gospel Music Week in Nashville. The comment was set up to create a laugh from the crowd and succeeded.
"Seriously, though, we are taking a year's sabbatical," said the headman at Gotee Records. "Kevin and Michael are each working on solo projects. I've heard about six songs from Kevin and nine of Michael's project and I'm really excited for each of them."
For McKeehan, he will utilize the sabbatical to develop his work with Gotee. "It is great to work with the Gotee artists. While I go in to work with them, I feel more blessed after I've spent time with them than anything I can do for them."
While the band is taking their time away from being together, there will still be a new dc Talk project in the year 2000.
"We are doing a best-of project to be released in November," he said. "I was playing with my kids and they said WOW-EE and I thought was a great name for a project.
"So, it will be WOW-EE: The Best of dc Talk."
While we're not sure if it will be the name of the project, the new project and announcement of the year's sabbatical still hasn't stopped word that the band is breaking up.
Despite the last several months of rumors and the constant denials of band members and label representatives, industry sources still indicate that there are problems within the group and many suggest that the upcoming fall project will be the group's last.
Those answers are still a year away when the sabbatical is scheduled to come to an end.
During the session, McKeehan also talked about a meeting he had with Dr. Billy Graham.
"Most leaders are not really good listeners," he recalled, "but Dr. Graham invited us up to his house, which is more like a cabin, when he first asked dc Talk to be a part of his crusades. "He insisted that he was just 'Billy' and he expected us to address him that way.
"He and Ruth (Mrs. Graham) asked us questions and listened more than anyone I've ever met.
"He told us that 'I want you to be my interpreters to the younger situation. They won't listen to an old man.'
"When we did the Cleveland crusade, he said 'See, boys! There are 85,000 people here because of dc Talk.'
"We had to tell him we had played Cleveland just a few months earlier and we were lucky to get 8,500. We knew whom they were there to hear.
"I have a youth's pastor's heart and, while I enjoy doing music, I look forward to seeing teens come to Jesus Christ."