An Account of alcohol addiction and deliverance.

Contemporary Christian music-it is the innovation of the hour in our age of church history. It has taken the Bible believing church by storm. When a fundamental church institutes CCM as it's musical style, it always moves into the new evangelical hemisphere. Where CCM comes, new evangelicalism follows, as certainly as the tail follows the dog. Reverent worship disappears, sound doctrine declines, and the holy living is despised. Why does this happen? This wonderfully written book will give you the answer. Missionary Spencer Smith confronts the issues with a loving approach that instructs the reader on public and private Biblical standards concerning music. In his research, he even met many CCM "artists" that reinforce the case being presented and many of those stories are laid out for you. Although our world may be changing and many church services have become similar to that of a circus, God has not left us without a musical blueprint to practice. Although some may attempt to muddy the waters, this book washes away all the filth, so that we might see Jesus. This excellent volume should be read, reread, and applied. Brian R. Jackson, Senior Pastor, Broadway Baptist Church

“Once he met her, it was and always would be Lyla.” They were the gentlemen bad boys of rock. Forming in a garage in a small town in Indiana. Taking their licks on the road. Going balls to the wall until they made their big break. And then Preacher McCade and the Roadmasters redefined rock and roll. Guided by their tortured lead singer and songwriter, the Roadmasters changed the face of music in the 80s and 90s. And on their journey to becoming one of the most enduring bands in history—dogged by rumors and myth and fueled by drugs and booze—the Roadmasters had one touchstone. Lyla. Preacher’s muse, the love of his life, and the band’s moral compass, from the beginning, Lyla is along for the ride. But with fame and acclaim in their grasp, they’ve entered the fast lane. And they didn’t know it, but they were headed for a crash.

A nationally best-selling author and pastor draws lessons of hope and transformation in the perils of excess, the agonies of repentance, and the wonder of redemption found in the life stories of several icons of pop music and rock and roll. From the author of Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon and Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon comes Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus, which traces the journeys, rise, fall, and sometimes the redemption of famous entertainers who were brought to their knees—a great place to look up and finally meet their Maker. Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesusexamines wretched excess, self-absorption and miraculous redemption; the book is a raw, sensitive, and unforgettable journey of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and sweet salvation. Author Greg Laurie traces the lives of rock stars and entertainment figures and legends who wallowed in the decadence of both the high life and low life, as they alternately experienced Heaven and Hell on Earth. He travels with them into their demonic abysses and joyfully chronicles their ultimate ascension to their prodigal moments. Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesuschronicles the birth of rock and roll in the mid-1950s to today, giving the book an all-encompassing study of pop music history. Through his personal memories, coupled with his carefully crafted observational research, Greg Laurie not only looks deeply into the hearts and souls of these unusual people but bids the reader to join him on a spiritual journey down the secluded halls of the music industry with the individuals who crafted modern-day masterpieces. Readers will enjoy never-before-published accounts of the biggest recording artists of our time and hear testimonies from rockers of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and beyond. More importantly, every reader will find a deeper sense of God’s presence, even in times of loneliness and desolation.

Looks at the life and career of the rock and roll legend.

The riveting, untold story of the “Father of Christian Rock” and the conflicts that launched a billion-dollar industry at the dawn of America’s culture wars. In 1969, in Capitol Records' Hollywood studio, a blonde-haired troubadour named Larry Norman laid track for an album that would launch a new genre of music and one of the strangest, most interesting careers in modern rock. Having spent the bulk of the 1960s playing on bills with acts like the Who, Janis Joplin, and the Doors, Norman decided that he wanted to sing about the most countercultural subject of all: Jesus. Billboard called Norman “the most important songwriter since Paul Simon,” and his music would go on to inspire members of bands as diverse as U2, The Pixies, Guns ‘N Roses, and more. To a young generation of Christians who wanted a way to be different in the American cultural scene, Larry was a godsend—spinning songs about one’s eternal soul as deftly as he did ones critiquing consumerism, middle-class values, and the Vietnam War. To the religious establishment, however, he was a thorn in the side; and to secular music fans, he was an enigma, constantly offering up Jesus to problems they didn’t think were problems. Paul McCartney himself once told Larry, “You could be famous if you’d just drop the God stuff,” a statement that would foreshadow Norman’s ultimate demise. In Why Should the Devil Have all the Good Music?, Gregory Alan Thornbury draws on unparalleled access to Norman’s personal papers and archives to narrate the conflicts that defined the singer’s life, as he crisscrossed the developing fault lines between Evangelicals and mainstream American culture—friction that continues to this day. What emerges is a twisting, engrossing story about ambition, art, friendship, betrayal, and the turns one’s life can take when you believe God is on your side.

Each of us experience moments that shift the axis of our lives, nudging us into new perspectives and sometimes altering our course completely. These are thread--threads that seem mundane, silly, or even trite but, woven together over the course of a life, bring us to places we never imagined. Sex, God, and Rock 'n' Roll is a story of such threads in one extraordinary life. Barry Taylor began adulthood on the road with a world-famous rock band, and there he found religion. He then became a theologian, priest, teacher, and a theist-non-theist-post-theist. Some of his stories will shock and others will provoke laughter and tears. Taken together, they will show just how poignantly the sacred moves in all of our lives.