My Path into Music

At six years old, I was introduced to playing music. I started out playing the cymbals and then moved to the drums. We were poor, so I did not have a standard set of drums, instead, I had bongo drums, but I played them like they were real drums.

My Dad was a minister and singer, so I got my start playing in his services. After the cymbals and drums, I learned the piano from my mom as she played a little piano and my dad was pretty good on the guitar. Later, I was able to study the mandolin and banjo. As a teenager, I played in several groups, and through the years, I have worked with many groups and bands, including mine.

At the age of 14, myself, David Yopp, Raymond Weeks, a great guitar player formed a little group called “The Local Band” and played at nursing homes, homes for the elderly, and other small venues.

Eventually, I started playing full time for ministers such as Daniel Gallimore, A. A. Allen, H. Richard Hall, William Podaras, Harry Hampel, and many others. In 1972, while I was playing for Bill Podaras in Memphis, Tn at a crusade, I met Jo Ann Worley (from Laughin TV Show) at the Holiday Inn. She was performing her comedy show and asked me to play the Hammond Organ between her sets.

In those early days, I had limited knowledge of music because I was young and immature and had only been exposed to gospel and country music. I had not learned the full concept of music yet.

One of the most profound and impacting moments came when I was 13. I attended A. A. Allen’s tent meeting in Winston Salem, NC. {1966,67} David Davis was playing the Hammond Organ with 2 Leslie speakers. I was overwhelmed!! It was so good and powerful!! People were dancing and praising God before the service even began! I made up my mind that I was going to play the organ just like that! I was blessed to meet David Davis a few years later. He will never know how much he impacted me, a life-changing moment. David Davis and A A Allen asked me to play in their day services a few days in 1971 and 72.

I dreamed of the day I would play well enough that people would be praising before the service even began because the music was so moving. I was able to see that come into existence in 1967 at a tent meeting in Pembrook, Va in service with Jackie Benten and Charlie Mitchel. When I played music for Bill Podaras, at his church, it happened many times. It was thrilling to me and always brought a smile to my face because it was always something I wanted to take part in.

After a while, I hit a block, like most musicians, poets, and writers experience. My music did not inspire me anymore. For six months, I continued to play music, and while everyone else enjoyed it, I did not feel anything. Eventually, I left Bill Podaras and played for other ministers such as Bill Bowman. I tried to make my living playing music, sometimes it was good, and other times it was not.

In 1971 when I began studying at the United Christian Bible Institute, I also played regularly in a crusade with H. Richard Hall and Don Warren.

1972 came in with what seemed to be a tremendous offer. I went to Conway, Arkansas, to play for Harry Hampel. He offered me $125.00 a week to run the music at his church. It made me happy because it was a great deal of money to me. Also, it would be steady income, and although I had made more at other venues, the fact that it was a steady income seemed promising. After I arrived, I discovered he did not plan to pay me anything. Instead, he wanted me to work at a company that made Boat oars while I worked for him for nothing.

I was extremely disappointed. It was not that I refused to work a job, but Harry had me come to Conway, Arkansas by deceiving me with the promise of steady income for playing music, which was my vocation. After three months, I returned to North Carolina and worked for Bill Podaras for a while. During this time, I knew God was working on me because the music started going down, and it did not inspire me anymore.

I went on a fast before God, to find His will on what to do about starting my ministry. At the beginning of my ministry, I had the reputation of being an organist. I knew I had to break that mold because if not, no one would ever invite me to preach. Instead, they would only invite me to play music. Still, in the early days of my ministry, it happened often.

For example, Ted Lewis in Lima, Ohio, said he wanted me to preach, but I knew the real reason he contacted me. He had coveted my organ music when he visited Bill Podaras’ church. Therefore, for ten years, I did not play any instruments. I willingly gave it up and dedicated everything to preaching. Until that time, it was not my goal to preach, I never wanted to be a minister. I wanted to play gospel music for ministers and let them worry about preaching.

I trained others to play the organ – just enough to get by for the crusades I held. I hired Bo Smeton from Baltimore, Maryland, to play a few times. Recently, he thanked me because, in 1968, he saw me playing the organ at my dad’s church as a teenager, which inspired him to become one as well.

After ten years, I had set up my ministry. I had a singing group called 8^th Day. Although they were good, I have been the type of minister to insist that my musicians must dedicate themselves to the message just like everyone else in the church. It did not matter if a professional musician attended my church if they did not dedicate themselves. I refused to let them play on my stage. After a while, I discovered that most did not dedicate themselves, so one weekend, I dismissed everyone, and I alone played the music.

The next weekend, I traded some instruments and gathered as much money as possible and bought a Hammond Organ. Going forward, I played the music myself. I could not move around while playing so I had others to do it. I believe God started allowing me to return to music because I proved that I would give it up to preach the gospel. I knew I had dedicated myself, so God blessed me to play more. The music suffered a little not having a group, however it came around.

A few years later, I suddenly came upon another mental block because I found my music boring. I came to dislike it because, as the Ethiopian eunuch said, without a teacher, you can only take yourself so far. During that time, I am thankful that my path crossed with Billy Preston. He helped me out tremendously by showing me a few finger positions. He also had a song titled, “I Have Been Born Again.” I liked the song and wanted to play it. However, to play it, I had to learn new finger positions and cord structures, which forced me to learn something new.

During that time in my life, Carly Simons non-gospel music inspired me. I liked some of her songs and desired to play them, so I had to learn more. Even after learning from David Davis, and Billy Preston, I eventually reached a place where I could not get over the hump. Sometime around 1980, I went to a nearby hotel called the Econo Lodge and shut myself away fasting hoping to get reinspired. I had Buddy Farthing take over the services until I returned. I thought I was going for spiritual reasons to get God’s mind on the ministry, other preaching, and sermons. I fasted for three days.

One night, I needed water, so I went to the front desk to get some. There, I heard music coming from a night club within the hotel. It sounded like a big band playing. There was brass, organ, piano, guitar, and drums. I thought the music sounded great, so I went in to look. To my surprise, there was one man playing drums, one guitar player, and one man on the keyboard. I learned that most of the sound came from his keyboard, I listened for a while and loved it. The man’s name was Blain Cuban. As I listened, I thought that if he can do it, I can do it too. I left feeling inspired because I did not know anything about synthesizers and keyboard that overlaid sounds.

At that time I only had an organ to work with, but before I could do anything, I had a back operation, which left me in the hospital for forty days. After leaving the hospital, my first stop even before going home was Music Land and met Joe the owner. I bought what I thought was a synthesizer keyboard – a Roland Juno 60. I later found out it was not a midi keyboard.

Nevertheless, I could get many different sounds from it – brass, trumpet, and guitar, I played it along with the organ. Then, one day I discovered the Midi Keyboard, which can link several keyboards together. Today, they link sound modules and play from one control keyboard. Next, I bought a Roland Juno 106. That is when I discovered that the Juno 60 and 106 were not compatible because the 106 was a Midi, but the 60 was not. Joe at Music Land found a midi interface that made the Juno 60 compatible with the Juno 106. From there, it exploded into more. I credit Blain Cuban for reigniting my enthusiasm for music.

The chance of Blaine Cuban and I meeting was slim to none because he was only there for one weekend, and I usually preach during that time. However, he was there the weekend I chose to go, but for a different reason. We became friends and hung out often. For a while, he stayed at my home, and I had him play music at my church a couple of times. I used to go to many places with him playing music as he continued his night club circuit. Later, I discovered he had spiritual aspirations, and he is now preaching.

Therefore, I attribute my renewed enthusiasm for music to David Davis, Bill Preston, Carly Simon (I did meet her once, but I did not play music with her), and Blain Cuban. Now, I play the Hammond Organ and use it as a controller because I have a sound module with 7,000 different sounds. I also have another keyboard that allows me to record my music and replay it when I choose. In 2010, I started playing the guitar again, which used to be my best instrument, and I believe I am better at it than anything else now. Even though I have not practiced with the mandolin much I can still play it. While I attribute my renewed enthusiasm to David Davis, Bill Preston, Carly Simon, and Blain Cuban, some of my all-time favorite guitar players are Gary Moore, Joe Walsh, Joe Bonamassa, and Prince.

I have written several songs like ‘Child of the Day. ( That particular song was recorded by another singing group from Richmond, Va.)

Now, I get to preach the gospel and play music professionally. The gifts of God are without repentance, so I do not believe God will ever take the gift of music away from me. I can play many instruments, but this caused me to spread myself thin. In doing so, I can play a little on a lot of instruments, but had I concentrated only on the guitar and organ, I would be much better than I am now.

It is what I am concentrating on now, but it is almost too late. They say old dogs cannot learn new tricks. I say old dogs do not need new tricks. We have it going on anyway! (LOL) Young dogs need new tricks. I thank God for the musical ability he gave me.

Over the past few years, God has allowed me to write some new songs that I compiled in the following CD’s, “Live and in Living Sound”, “I Wanna Go Sailing”, and “The Mood” and I believe that if I were to turn them over to certain people, they would be successful. Right now, they are just for us or me. I thank God that he has allowed music to come back to me. It was a long, hard path.