Fort Worth, Texas Lvis Presley Recorded the First Song I Wrote When
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Fort Worth, Texas lvis Presley recorded the first song I When I joined the army, wrote when I was only seventeen. I I was 17 years old, 5'4" tall was stationed at Fort Jackson, South and didn’t even shave. I was Carolina, at the time, and had just finished making $84 a month as a basic training in the Army. My sergeant was private when I got my first an alcoholic, and it was well known that for a check from Elvis’s publishing pint of “Jack Black” whiskey you could get a company. Those checks kept weekend pass. That weekend I hitchhiked to coming every three months. Memphis to meet my parents at the National There came a day when I Quartet Convention where my mother asked sat down to figure things out. me to sing my new song “Without Him”. Elvis My choice was simple: I could was there in a side room recording songs to write another song, or I could consider for his next album. stay in the army for 800 years 3 Vol.48/ No.6 June 00 FOUNDER: Demos Shakarian; OFFICERS: International President, Richard Shakarian; Inter- national Executive Vice-President, John Carrette; USA Executive Vice-President, James Priddy; International Secretary, Kwabena Darko; Assis- tant Secretary, Bruno Caamano PUBLICATIONS: Editor/Communications Manager, Blair Scott; Editor Emeritus, Jerry Jensen, PhD., Litt.D.; Design/Production, Colin Smith; Contributing Writers, Bob Armstrong, Ed Barton and Ken Walker. WHO WE ARE: Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellow- ship International are businessmen, men of high status, as well as ordinary men. Our vision is that the light of Jesus shall shine forth from each of our men into every culture, nation, race, language, and creed. That vision is becoming a reality through the Fellowship’s ministries, now touching 150 nations and transcending denomina- tional, racial and cultural barriers. Men interested in participating in this exciting end-time ministry are invited to write. to earn the same amount of money. It was TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS: If experiencing dif- a career crossroads, and I decided to go for ficulty in receiving Voice, or if receiving more than one the music. copy each month at the same address, or if there is In one year, 126 artists around the world variance in the way your name appears, please return undesired label. If planning to move, send label with your recorded my songs. So I took the money from new address sixty days in advance to the Subscription writing and started a band that later became Department. the Atlanta Rhythm Section. My family were If you have a testimony that will glorify God and bring others to Jesus through Voice, you are invited to request guidelines from the Publications gospel singers and I loved to sing gospel Department. music, but the music I was writing was too VOICE (ISSN0042-8264) is published monthly for $10.00 contemporary for them. per year by FULL GOSPEL BUSINESS MEN’S FELLOWSHIP INTERNATIONAL, Incorporated January 2, 1953, as a Shortly thereafter I got my first car. All of nonprofit religious corporation. Periodicals postage paid a sudden the girls in high school, who would at Irvine, California, and at additional mailing offices. All rights reserved. POSTMASTER: Send address changes never even talk to me before, were available to to Voice, to: me. They still didn’t say much to me, but they 20 Corporate Park Dr, were riding in my new car, if you know what I 3rd Floor, mean. I thought that in life you had to fight for Irvine, CA 92606. USA. what you wanted, and that you only got what (949) 260-0700 www.fgbmfi.org you fought for. I thought it was up to me to get to the top. “Was I ever wrong!” 4 I wanted to be a star more than anything. time they brought me around, In the 70’s I recorded an album with Alvin Lee my brain cells were damaged. from ‘Ten Years After’. Some of the artists It so spaced me out that I on that album were George Harrison from the could not even remember the Beatles, Boz Burrell from Bad Company, Ron words of songs I had written, Wood from the Rolling Stones, Mick Fleetwood much less lead a world tour. from Fleetwood Mac, Steve Winwood from Suddenly it was all over. Traffic, and Ian Wallace from King Crimson. I had wrecked my hopes and We had what they called in the early 70’s, drugged away my dreams. At a “super group”. Between the members of that point I knew I needed the group we had sold more than 400 million God’s help. Opening a Gideon records. Some of the others that I eventually Bible I had picked up some- recorded or toured with were Eric Clapton, Billy where, I lit up the hash I had Joel, Little Richard and the Who, Mountain, ZZ been told would help me with- Top, and Grand Funk Railroad, etc. draw from heroin and began to I was living and recording in England, read. It took seven long years rehearsing for the biggest tour of my life when for me to learn what total com- one night I took too much heroin. When mitment to Jesus really means. they found me, the cigarette I was smoking At that point I still didn’t had burned down between my fingers and into understand that being “born the flesh. They could smell the burning skin again” is quite different than and had come in to check on me. I wasn’t being “caught again”. True breathing. I had been out so long that by the repentance is when you say Rock ‘n’ Roll was my life. We toured around the world. 5 to Jesus, “I have been doing seem to be too happy about God letting me things my way; I want to start in. That building was packed, except around doing things Your way.” where I was sitting. It was 1980 when I finally When I first committed my life to Jesus. I made Jesus my Lord at a went to my pastor and said, “Hey, I don’t know Christian concert by a band anybody who doesn’t get stoned. All my friends called the 2nd Chapter of Acts. stay up all night. I’m in Rock-n-Roll and I have When Buck Herring (who I had contracts to fulfill.” worked with in the past), led He was wise and let God change my friends the people in a prayer at the and me. It was actually a little comical as I end of the concert, I made that helped out around the church. What a change! prayer mine and have never How many janitors do you know who drive been the same since. $100,000 cars? The church paid me $175 a That was on a Saturday week when I was used to making between eight night, and he told me I ought and ten thousand dollars a day. On my way to go to church the next day. to work one day a windshield wiper broke off Well, I had three feet of hair my 930 Turbo Porsche. It cost me $185 to and no tie. They told me that replace it. Christians were a family, but to As you can imagine, I had a bit of a culture be honest, most of them didn’t shock, but I’m so glad that God was ready to Mylon and his Christian band, ‘Broken Heart’, live in concert in the 80s 6 It was obvious to me that if God didn’t do something fast, I would be going to heaven soon. I needed a miracle! In January 1990, my band and I took our previously sched- uled concert tour of the Philip- pines. The doctors told me not to go. I arrived very tired, in a lot of pain, and scared. Wandering around the hotel gift shop in Olongapo, Mylon with Kenneth Copeland and Jerry Saville Northern Luzon, I came across at the Eagle Mountain Motorcycle Rally a book that changed my life. It was entitled, “God’s Medicine” by Kenneth Hagen. When I take me just like I was. At that point, Jesus was tried to buy it the lady said, the only one who wanted my life. “I don’t know where it came The first time I ministered to anyone was from; we don’t sell those here. on an FGBMFI outreach with Jimmy Rogers to You can have it.” the Jackson State Prison in Georgia, where I I read it from cover to cover shared my testimony. Christianity is simple. and then started looking up First, you give Jesus your life and He gives you the Bible verses it quoted. Dur- His. And secondly, we change and grow up in ing that week we saw 10,200 Him by the renewing of our minds. In other kids make a commitment to words, we study His Word and think about Jesus, but I was in pain the what He said until we learn to think, talk, and whole time. Back at home I live like Him. continued to study the Bible Late one night in August 1989, my band, verses from that little book. “Broken Heart”, and I were on our way to a In March 1990, I went down Christian concert in Nebraska when my heart to my brother’s condo in Pan- suddenly hurt so badly that I couldn’t breathe; ama City, Florida, to fast and I couldn’t move.