Praise the Lord. Praise God. Praise Jesus. Man, I love seein' you guys in here so bold, you know, for the Lord? You know, I go around a lot, and I run into a lot of people that have been raised in the church, or this and that. And they just don't know where they are, or where they're goin'. And sometimes, I'll be honest with you, I think it is an advantage to come out of darkness. Because we can look back and see where we've been. And yet, we can see where we are in our hearts today with the Lord. Jesus said He's the Prince of Peace. Some people have misinterpreted that, to think that He's the Prince of Peace, and that He brings peace to the earth. Jesus said, No, I've not come to bring peace to the earth, but the sword. The Prince of Peace, He gives us the peace that comes into our heart, that people cannot understand. I was just upstairs with Ricky Smith. Ricky said for me to send his regards to you men here. Praise the Lord. And, you know, he's been set free by the power of the blood. He's been set free by Jesus. The same Jesus that set me free. How many of you are free in the Lord Jesus Christ? Praise God. Song: Goin' Up Yonder

Praise God. Isn't it good to get rowdy without the drugs? I don't need drugs any more. Praise God, I've been delivered. I know where I'm goin'. Two days ago, I was on an airplane that we thought was gonna crash. The man next to me was drunk. And he started freakin' out. He looked over to me; and said, 'This is very serious, what's happenin' up here.' And I said, 'Yeah, but I'm a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian. For me, sudden death, sudden glory.' Praise the Lord.

Praise Jesus. Praise the Lord. Praise God. The bottom line is this, all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everybody that calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Nobody can go to far away from God. We're on television, so I'm gonna try to tone some of this down, a little bit. But I was into the occult. I was into demonology, summoning demons and all this garbage that was goin' on in my life. And I really didn't even know what I was doin'. I thought that I was prayin' to some kind of powers out there. Yeah, I was. And there were powers that were comin' on me. The devil has some power, that's true. But Jesus, all authority is given to Jesus, in heaven and in earth. There are people who are afraid to even look, or hear about anything spiritual; because they've seen a demon. There are people that have felt the sting of the devil in their lives, like I did. And they get to the point that they don't want to hear about Jesus; they don't want to hear about the devil; they don't want to hear about anythin'. And yet, they are bein' bound up by demons. All that they need to find out is, greater is He that is in us [Jesus], then he that is in the world. And Jesus can set the captive free. Praise the Lord God.

I used to play Jesus Christ Superstar. I want you to know, I've been in rock bands. In 1985, I was asked to sing lead for Black Sabbath, and sang with the group for six months. I'd made a heavy metal tour just before that, where two of the people that went out on the road with us: my bass player and producer friend, and my drummer were both murdered on the tour. Yeah, we come out of some tough territory; but, I'll tell you right now, I'm not singin' for anybody but Jesus. I'm not doin' anymore heavy metal tours; I'm not makin' anymore secular albums. You know why? Because you're more important than a Rolls Royce. The Word of God says, What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul. What I wanted as a kid was, I wanted wealth. I wanted to be long haired; I want to be rowdy; I wanted to be radical. I hated the world. I stood on the altar in a Catholic church when there was nobody in there, once. Stood on the altar, as a young man, and gave the finger to God, and cursed Him. And I said, what you normally say when you give somebody the finger. And I said, 'This is what I think of You, God.' I cursed Him. And yet God's mercy is so strong, and so deep. His grace is sufficient for us. And Jesus said, While you were yet a sinner, I died for you. You know, Jesus saw me doin' that, and He still went to the cross for me. If I'd have been the only one that had ever gotten saved, Jesus still would have gone to the cross. If you'd have been the only one that ever gave your heart to Jesus Christ, Jesus still would have gone to the cross. Praise the Lord God.

I went into the rock'n'roll scene when I was about twelve years old, but I went in professionally at fifteen. Got my first hit record called, Goin' Too Far. It was a Blues song. I was into like B. G., and H. W. and all these guys. I mean, some of these other bands were singin' about like ah ,'Oh, but love grows where my Rosemarie goes.' I thought, ???? Then there was H. W., and he was singin', 'How many more years are you gonna dog me around?' See and I thought, 'I can relate to that one, you know what I mean?' :) As a kid, I had been in and out of jail since I was twelve years old. And my own mother had put me in there. That's a heavy one. When you find out that your father's a drunk; and your mother doesn't want you anymore, you can get very hardened in your heart. And I just knew that I didn't want to wind up in the gutter. I had friends that were havin' terrible problems in their lives, and I felt that these guys, this was goin' nowhere here. And there was somethin' in me that said, I want to be rich; I want to make it in rock'n'roll; I don't want to have to sleep with rats; I want to get out and I want to make it. And I got my first hit at fifteen, like I said. Then my second hit followed called A Thousand Devils. At sixteen years old I was already singin', 'A thousand devils are chasin' me.' And I'm not so sure that was wrong either, you know what I mean? :) We started doin' a lot of drugs. Then I got into Jesus Christ Superstar.

Now, this is what I want to talk about. We're here tonight, because Jesus has set us free. And if there are men in this place who have never given your heart to Jesus, today is the day of salvation. We don't think about what the Lord is doin', but I'll tell you right now as I'm speakin' every man in this place is havin' a part in witnessing to people worldwide. People are seein' this message, and they're bein' touched by the power of the Holy Ghost. Not by me, but by Jesus and by the witness that you men are given by standin' strong for the Lord Jesus Christ. Every man that believes in Jesus point to Him right now. Praise God, this is a witness to the world. Praise the Lord.

I want to speak to you for a minute about when I was doin' Jesus. I went out and started singin', did a rock tour. The album Jesus Christ Superstar sold 15,000,000 double copies. They put me on the cover of Time Magazine. I bought a big, huge house. It was worth about $3,000,000, paid it off. Moved into this place in this rich section of town. My whole life changed. Signed management to the first manager who became a billionaire in the music industry. His name is Robert Stigwood. As I went on to Broadway, and open in Jesus Christ Superstar, I didn't want to know about God. I didn't know about Jesus. The only time I had ever gone into a church, I got kicked out, man. They kicked me out. :) The preacher looked at me; and said, 'Get out of here man. You look like a girl.' :) I stood up and I looked at him; I said, 'I look like a girl? If I look like a girl to you, man, then you've been hangin' with some real ugly women, you know that?' :)

And I didn't like Christians. I was very class oriented, if you want. I was very into power to the people, and all this stuff. And I thought, Christians are out in the suburbs. It's basically white people, I mean I don't hate white people or anything, but it's like white people out in the suburbs that have been raised good, you know what I mean? And they don't know anything about me. I mean, if I threw up on them once they would never talk to me again, you know what I mean? They're not one of the guys, you know. And when I was doin' Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway, all of a sudden I found myself havin' to act out the part. Now, I wasn't really into actin'. But my management explained to me how much money could be earned by goin' on Broadway. So I said, 'OK, I'll act. I'll do it. Whatever.' :) So every night I would stand back stage, and I would get, that Martel Cognac, you know. Or I'd get that Chevas Regale. Then I'd smoke a joint, or I'd snort a little cocaine, but the cocaine would dry my voice out some. So I'd do different drugs, and I'd eat some yeast so I'd have a lot of energy when I was out there. And I would go out, and I would be playing the part of Jesus. And I'd come walkin' out, and I'd go, 'What should you want to know, don't you mind about the future.' And somebody would be lookin' at me weird in the eyes, and I'd go, [spit]. :) 'Don't you try to think ahead.' See, I'm playin' Jesus, you know. And there out there. And I'm puttin' my hand up, 'Yes, save tomorrow for tomorrow.' See. 'Think about today instead.' Everythin' against what the Bible tells us. The Bible tells us, Take no thought of today [really] because if God takes care [I'm not a theologian, so I'm paraphrasing here], if God can take care of the sparrow, He can take care of us.

I'm gonna go back to Manson for a minute. Manson said, 'I can have anybody killed, I want killed in a minute, New York minute. I know who you are, I know where you live, I can have anybody killed.' I looked at him; and I said, 'Hey dude, I'm not worried about who can kill the flesh, man, I worried about who can kill the soul.' Jesus created me. God created me. He's the one I fear, but I fear Him with love. Like a child fears his father, you don't fear Him like [screech], least you're not suppose to. I used to fear mine, but he wasn't serving the Lord. But I'm talkin' about with Love.

So, I would go out there every night, and blaspheme the name of the Lord. People would ask me, 'What do you think of Christians?' I'd say, 'Pure, Grade A, triple pork. Man, Christians, I ain't into Christians. You know? Leave me alone. Talk to me about somethin' else. I don't want to hear about Christians.' They'd say, 'What do you think about the devil?' I'd say, 'They devil, he don't exist. The devil's nothin'. Leave me alone, you know.' I had Antone LeVey come back stage one time. He's the head of the Satanic church in America. He came backstage; and he said that he wanted me to become a part his movement, or his satanic thing. He had his head shaved; he was wearin' the black cap, and all this garbage. I looked at him; and I said, 'Man, you look like a nuclear missile. Get out of here.' :) I had a guru come backstage, the Beatles' guru. Because my manager managed the Beatles. And the Beatles' guru comes back, wearin' all this orange, flowin' gowns. He had a beard that hung down, and this long hair. There were women goin' behind him; and they were all carryin' flowers, and everythin'. He comes backstage; and he says, 'Follow me.' [effeminately] And I said, 'Why, dude, should I follow you?' :) He said, 'Because I can show you a state of total peace, a state of nothingness.' :) I said, 'Let me get this straight, dude.' I went over a took another shot of wiskey. 'Let me see. You're sayin', That if I follow you, I can get to a state of nothingness, dude? :) I would rather worship a Hormel Ham than worship you. You understand?' Then Oral Roberts came backstage. God had put it on his heart to witness to me. He comes backstage, and wanted to see me. I said, 'Get him out of here, man. I don't want to talk to him.' We threw him out. Apparently he did talk to the guy that was playin' Judas [Ben Vereen], but I wouldn't talk to him. I was on the show with Richard Roberts, and Richard reminded me of that. And I said to him, 'Oh, yeah, I remember your daddy came to witness to me.' I said, and I thought real fast; and I said, 'But he planted a seed.' :) Yeah, I mean, I didn't know what to say, you know what I mean? :) But you know seriously, in all fairness, if he was prayin' for me, there was battle goin' on in the heavenlies. You don't know how many people I've run into that said, 'I was prayin' for you. I was prayin' for you.'

You'd be surprised how many grandmas are prayin' for you men, right here. There are some very rowdy Christians out there, some very spiritually violent Chrisitans out there. And let me tell you somethin'. Most of them are grandmas. :) There are a lot of wild grandmas out there. My best friend, one of my best friends got saved through the witness of a grandma. Great big guy, used to witness right here with us. Six foot eight, four hundred pounds, his name was Big Chick. Before he was saved, he tore a man's ears off. I said, 'You ripped this dude's ear off?' He used to be Madonna's bodyguard, Prince's bodyguard. Tore a guy's ear off. I said, 'You tore the guy's ear off, man?' He said, 'Yeah.' I said, 'That's incredible.' He said, 'No it ain't incredible. They come off easy. It ain't nothin'.' :) He got saved through the witness of a grandma. How many of you got grandmas prayin' for you? Praise the Lord Jesus. Wave to the grandmas. Hey, grandma! Praise the Lord. This grandma went up and witnessed to Big Chick. She said, 'Sonny, you're gonna need Jesus someday. You're gonna call on the name of the Lord.' Chick told me, 'If anybody else would have said that to me, I would have wooped them. But how are you gonna woop a little old lady? :) So, she prayed for him. A couple of weeks later, he gave his heart to the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Big Chick, one of the last, the last conversation I ever had with him, here's what he told me. He said, 'I'm so big. Nobody has ever hugged me in my whole life. Nobody can hug me, I'm too big. I was prayin' the other day. Jesus spoke to me; and said, gave me a vision. I saw myself walkin' through the gates into glory. There were streets of gold. As I went walkin' through them gates, I looked up and there was Jesus. Jesus put his arms out; and said, Come here, big fella, I'm gonna give you a hug. He gave me a big hug.' He dropped dead, bum, just like that, a few weeks later, went on to be with the Lord Jesus.

You know, we're not guaranteed anythin' in this life time. We're not gauranteed to draw another breath. Every place I go, every city I go into there are people who want to kill me. Fortunately, many of those pastors are resigning. :) You know what happened to me in Africa? I was suppose to go into Pretoria prison, and the prison in Cape Town. The two biggest prisons in Africa. It had been approved by the government, approved by all the red tape, all the stuff for me to go in and witness. And they had promised me that they were goin' to film it, and the prisons I couldn't go into, they were gonna deliever tapes all throughout the country. You know what happened? A minister went and stopped us. I'm not tryin' to bring glory to men, necessarily; but, I'll tell you right now, I've only met Pastor Jim for a few minutes. But, I praise God for a man that loves the Lord, and who loves you men. Too many times we get stopped, because of men, or because of religion. Part of the reason I love bein' in this place tonight, and I know this is no big deal. I mean you guys sayin', 'What are you doin', tryin' to look cool to us?' No, I'm not tryin' to look cool. But, I was invited to go out deep sea fishin' today. And I like to fish. I was workin' steady; and a guy called me. And said, 'I got a boat. Let's go in the ocean and deep sea fish.' And it happened exactly the same time that I got invited to come in here. And I said, 'No, are you kiddin' me. I'm goin' in where we can be fishers of men, fishers of men. I want to do Hosanna [675k .wav file, 32 sec.]. I've got the joy of the Lord. I feel good. I 'm glad I'm here. Praise God! I could dance! Lord have mercy. Praise you, Jesus. Praise you, my Jesus. [tongues] Holy Spirit we welcome you in this place. A lot of you men haven't heard me sing like this before. You're used to hearin' me sing [screech]; see, God's changed my heart. Praise you, Jesus!

My Deepest Love,
Jeff
Texas State Prison, Winter, 1992