Roy Tosh: The Man Behind ‘Death Before Love’

“My dad growing up was very distant emotionally. He was always at work. When he came home from work, the only emotion that I saw was anger.” Roy Tosh says that his dad did an incredible job raising him and his siblings, but it wasn’t always easy. He really needed the presence of his father during the difficult high school years, and says that he projected the view of his father towards God, in particular the feeling of the lack of his father’s presence. “Thankfully today we have a great relationship.” In Roy Tosh’s song “Fly” from his 2013 project The Revert, he says…

“I need my daddy, but he’s always working. Wanna hear he’s proud, I just feel forsaken. Pain everywhere I turn what is life all about, tell me what’s my worth.”

The things that he thought would satisfy him did not do so, and after high school, a pastor dared him in an email to get alone and cry out to Jesus. “I knelt beside the computer and I just remember the presence of God overtaking me and His love being so real in that moment. I consider myself [as] the worst of sinners. From that moment on God has faithfully provided mentors to disciple me and it has just been incredible.”

In 2013 Roy Tosh, then known as 737, was hanging out with Andy Mineo and his DJ, as well as musical mentor BenJah after a concert. “I remember Andy and his DJ being like ‘Roy Tosh, Roy Tosh [shouting],’ it was hysterical. We were just clowning, and it really stuck with me.” He decided to stick with the name. Roy is his middle name and Tosh is the end of his last name, McIntosh. His first project under the name Roy Tosh was The Revert, which was released in January 2014.