The group first gained fame for their Christian themes, eventually reaching crossover success.

[3] To date, the band has released ten studio albums: The Feature[4] (2001), Daylight (2006), The Heat (2007), The Outsiders (2009), The Reckoning (2011), Rivers in the Wasteland (2014), HARD LOVE (2016),[5] Out of Body (2020), Into the Mystery (2021), and Caves (2023); six of those albums have reached No.

[10][11][12] The Rinehart brothers grew up attending a church camp that their father, who was a pastor, ran.

[20] Just prior to their debut release, the band was featured on the cover of CCM Magazine—an unprecedented new artist endorsement by the national publication.

[23] In 2007, the band started a six-month recording period at Rick Beato's Black Dog Studio and at Paul Diaz's Tree Sounds in Atlanta.

Marisa Brown, writing at AllMusic and Billboard, has referenced this album in helping to "establish the band as one of Christian rock's most successful newcomers.

[29] On December 17, 2013, Eric Ryan Anderson released his film Prove the Poets Wrong, chronicling the band's 2013 tours and revisiting their origins, on YouTube.

[citation needed] In 2014, longstanding conflict between Bear and Bo Rinehart escalated into a fistfight that sent one of the brothers to the hospital.

[40] On April 1, 2016, the band announced their sixth studio album, HARD LOVE, and its release date of July 15, 2016.

[36] Through April 20–22, 2017, they were the opening act for Faith Hill and Tim McGraw on their Soul2Soul The World Tour 2017.

[42] On August 11, the band released a deluxe edition of Hard Love featuring unreleased recordings of "Cages", "Count on Me", and "Waiting".

As an alternative to the live tour, the band hosted "Celebrating Out of Body", a ticketed livestream concert on the day of the album's release.

[47] Artists featured on the album include Jon Foreman of Switchfoot, Natalie Hemby, and country music superstar Carrie Underwood.

[48] A film chronicling the album's recording process was released on November 3, 2021, for a one-night-only event in US theaters.

[50] Caves features collaborations with artists such as Carly Pearce, Judah & the Lion, Old Dominion, and Foy Vance.

[51] On October 12, 2023, the band released an acoustic version of "Dreams", as well as a remix of the same song with Madism.

[52] On November 16, 2023, the band released a second version of "Fall On Me" featuring Maverick City Music.

[54] On December 31, 2023, NEEDTOBREATHE released the non-album single "I Don’t Wanna Worry".

The band experiences success on contemporary hit radio stations, Christian adult contemporary stations, and at the Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, despite releasing a number of songs with no direct mention of their Christian faith.

[56][57] The band has also toured with artists outside of the Christian rock genre, including Train, Taylor Swift, and Tim McGraw.