In 1989, Brad graduated from Washington Community High School. After that, he went to Illinois Central College where he spent his time pre-engineering. He was also enrolled in a project called Young American Showcase, which was some sort of touring company out of Florida. Brad moved to Georgia because the music scene there was flourishing. Georgia is where he met his wife Mindi, and the two of them got married the 9th of December, 1995.
Brad and Mindi have four daughters called Chloe, Charis, Chai and Canaan. They adopted Canaan in 2007. The adoption process was Brad's inspiration for the song "Merry Christmas". On this weblog you can read the experiences of the Averys on their trip to China, when they went there to get Canaan.
This is what Brad says about his childhood and early guitar years in an interview with Epiphone:
"I grew up in a musical family and I was a pastor's kid so I was on stage playing and singing in church from an early age. My dad plays guitar among other instruments so he kind of got me started on guitar. When I was about five he showed me some chords and stuff, but the bug hit me when I was around twelve. I asked for and got an electric guitar that Christmas and that's really when I started getting serious about playing. I listened to the music that my older brothers were listening to. This was back in the early 80's so most of what was on the radio then was an influence on me. Really, all of it. Not just hair rock but 80's rock and pop in general. One guy that I listened to during that time had a huge impact on me was George Lynch of Dokken. He was such a good player and a great lead player and had all these incredible voicings, riffs and runs. I played in church a lot but I never really played in bands or anything in high school. I was kind of a closet musician playing guitar in my room, you know. At the time I was too intimidated to play lead guitar so I determined that I was just going to be a rhythm player."
Brad has been in some small bands before he was with Third Day. You can read more about Brad being in bands before Third Day in this post. This is what he tells about his first experiences with being in a band:
"I didn't jump imto my first band until my freshman year of college when I did some touring with a company out of Florida. We did assemblies in schools using pop music to promote self esteem and stay away from drugs and alcohol themes. That's where I really cut my teeth. I was forced to learn pop music and how to play leads since I was the only guitarist in the band and that forced me to start developing my own style and my own voice on guitar. I did it for 2 years and it was grueling! Basically we did three shows a day. We'd set up in the morning at a school, do a show, tear down and go to the next school for an after lunch show, then do another one that night! We did about 500 shows per year for 2 years so it was a lot of playing, travling and little sleep! It taught me a lot, including how to get along with people since we were a bunch of guys from all different backgrounds. During my second year, not only was I a performer but a performing manager as well so I learned a lot about PR. That allowed me to kind of get my head around the business side of things too."
Brad grew up in Illinois. He moved to the South because he knew a couple guys down there doing music, and the scene there seemed like the place to be instead of the ultra competitive L.A., New York, or Nashville. Being there, he did some shows, and Third Day saw him playing in one of those shows. Because they were looking for someone to fill in Billy Wilkins's place, their keyboard player who had left the band, they decided to ask Brad to join their band. When Mark asks Brad what his intitial impression of Third Day was, and why he decided to join the band, this was Brad's reply:"Initially, I felt like Mac was a good song writer but the band needed to rock more for my taste. The first practice was a nightmare for me, but my girlfriend (now wife Mindi) encouraged me to give it another try. After woodshedding guitar parts for Consuming Fire and Blackbird and jamming with the guys at practice #2, I (we) knew it was a match.
Brad has been with Third Day for 13 years. He is playing for North Point Community Church nowadays. In April 2015, he became co-founder and COO for a company called Honeycomb Cargo.
