Got into the radio business at the age of sixteen. One day the boss brought me in. I couldn’t make it to work on time on the weekends. I wanted to go to New York to have fun and come back within twenty-four hours to be on the air that morning in Baltimore. Well, that doesn’t work. The guy looked across at me and said, “You are arrogant. You need some humility. I am going to give you some. You’re fired.”
When I got tired of radio I said, “I want to go into records.” The company I wanted to go with was CBS. It was an exciting time to be in New York City. My primary responsibility was to the Jacksons. Michael Jackson was by far the best all-around artist I have ever worked with or that the world has ever seen. When he put on a show, he put on a show.
I was at the top of the ladder in my career. Everything I wanted I had achieved. The first year I was there making a lot of money but there was something missing and I knew there was something missing. It was something inside saying this is it. There is no more. You can make as much money as you like but you still, you’re still not going to be happy.
One morning I woke up and I was finding, trying to find some songs to send to an artist. I went back in and I turned the T.V. on. In the background, it was the 700 Club. I heard someone talking about, “There’s somebody out there and you’re in the record business. You really don’t have the peace that you thought you would have, making all of the money and you won’t find any peace until Christ becomes the center of your life.” That’s when I got on my knees in front of my water bed.
I wasn’t down on my luck. I wasn’t begging for anything but what I did need and what I was begging for was a relationship that I didn’t know that I needed. Only God could give it to me. When I found that relationship everything in me changed.
After I left CBS after they didn’t renew my contract. When I moved here to Chattanooga, before I got here, I needed some money to move. That’s when Jim Sattler said, “Hey look. What are you going to do?” I said, “I don’t know.” He said, “Do you want to work for me?” I said, “Doing what?” He said, “I own a construction company.” I said, “Oh, Okay, yeah.” So I’m thinking Jim knew I was a former Vice President. Surely he is going to give me a job working a cushy office job. He said, “There’s a trailer across from you. You can walk to work since you don’t have a car.” He said, “Just be there at eight-thirty the next day and the guy’s expecting you to be there. Fill out the paperwork and you are good to go.” So, I’m thinking, a trailer, paperwork? Okay. So, I went and a guy walked into the trailer and he said, “Oh, you are the one.” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “There’s a hard hat over in the corner. Pick it up. You need to wear that at all times.” I picked up the hard hat and dirt fell out. I thought, what am I doing here? I used to laugh at guys working in hard hats, working construction or doing any blue collar job. So, I was told what I was going to do and I had to go, they gave me a post hole digger. I had to figure out what a post hole digger was. I didn’t know what a post hole digger was. The man told me to go in the trailer and pick up a post hole digger. I said, “What?” So, I went in the trailer and said, “I don’t see the post hole digger, I don’t know what a post hole digger is. There is no post hole digger in here. So, I was trying to find something that looks like it sounds and I’m looking for a post with a hole in it. He said, “Where are you from?” I said, “New York.” He said, “No wonder. Do they not have post hole diggers in New York?” I said, “I have never handled a post hole digger.” So, he asked one of the other guys to show me what a post hole digger was. It was funny. It was comical. I worked there for almost six months. From June until December. I was out there in all kinds of weather. I learned a lot of humility. I met a lot of people in the process. The same people that I met out there that are some of the same people that are my best friends today.
God called me into the ministry so I decided to go and get my degree in seminary. As a pastor, it’s a high calling. The position that I hold at the church, it’s higher than any president at any record company. It’s a position higher than the President of the United States because the one that I report to is the Author of the Universe. I report directly to Him. All of those other folks, they need people like me in their weakest hour to come alongside them and pray for them. I know that God that they don’t have a relationship with. Personally, I feel much higher in spirit and mentally than I ever did as an executive.
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