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When the music of an artist's life intersects with the message in his soul, that collision results in a powerful creative expression. With one listen to Danny Liston's new album, it's obvious the veteran rocker's past and present have melded into a musical tour de force.
Liston's music is a reflection of his powerful testimony. Once heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol, Liston came clean with God's help and found himself singing for the Lord, but what he is doing isn't your ordinary worship music. It's a soulful hybrid of modern worship and edgy Southern rock. It's church meets the "chitlin' circuit," the name Danny gives the venues he played in his early rockin' days. It is uniquely Danny Liston.
"All the pieces that I had been looking for all my life musically came together in one night," Liston recalls of leading worship in his church. "I called my wife on my way home and I told her, 'Tonight the veil has been pulled back. This is what God has created me for-- to usher people into his presence, to convey through song just how much God loves them. Because of what I've been through, I think I'm a pretty good vehicle. I've done so much stupid stuff. I've fallen so short. The only person that has brought me to this place is God and God alone."
The road to this place has been an interesting journey for Liston. At 14 years old, he joined his first band, an outfit called the Soulful Illusions, where he got his first taste of life on stage as a drummer. By high school, he joined a group called the Belltones as a guitarist. However, Liston really hit his stride as a young musician in a group he formed with his brother called Mama's Pride.
The group became one of the seminal bands in the growing Southern rock movement that included Lynyrd Skynyrd, Wet Willie, the Charlie Daniels Band, .38 Special and the Allman Brothers. Tearing up the road, they earned a reputation as one of the hardest working and most musically inventive bands on the scene. Signed to Atlantic Records by the legendary Ahmet Ertegun, Mama's Pride had a devoted legion of fans, among them Skynyrd frontman Ronnie Van Zant, who approached Danny about producing the third Mama's Pride album, and asked the band to tour with Skynyrd on the second leg of the "Street Survivors" tour.
Unfortunately, such collaboration never took place. Just a couple months after Liston and Van Zant discussed working together, Van Zant was killed in the tragic plane crash that nearly silenced the legendary band forever. "When their plane went down, we were sitting in a bar," recalls Liston. "We just felt like there was this dark cloud. We had such a great kinship with all those guys."
Mama's Pride continued recording and touring, including a high-octane trek backing Southern rock legend Gregg Allman. However, years on the road and too many nights partying began taking a toll and Liston decided he wanted a different life. "We just couldn't seem to get out of gear and actually by God's grace, I didn't get out of gear because literally I would have been dead by now," Liston says.
He and his wife opened a restaurant, Seamus McDaniels, which has won rave reviews as one of St. Louis' best restaurants for many years. However, even off the road, Danny's demons plagued him and he continued to abuse drugs and alcohol. One day he got a wake-up call while working on a rooftop in St. Louis. He could see his life flashing before his eyes. "It was like there was this big screen in front of me and I saw all the opportunities I passed up because of my addictions," he says. "I had two sons and another one on the way. My father had passed away from cirrhosis of the liver. He was an alcoholic and I had always sworn that I would never die on my kids the way my dad died on me."
Liston realized he was heading down the same path as his father. "I was starting to close in on the last four or five years of my life," he says. "That obviously got my attention. I didn't know what to do, but it was the first time I ever had to admit to myself that I was out of control. So I got on my knees on this roof top and I told God, 'Lord, I don't know what to do and I don't want to die. You're going to have to show me something.'"
That night Liston reluctantly went to church with his wife. During the service, God reached out to him. He heard the preacher saying, "You know before we get started here, God wants somebody to know something."
Ever skeptical at the time, Liston says he remembers thinking that the preacher was just going to ask for money. Instead he said "One of you people in this crowd today prayed about your drug and alcohol addiction and you told God you don't see a way out, but God wants me to tell you that if you trust him that he'll show you a way out."
Liston was shocked. "I was sitting there thinking, 'This does not happen to a guy like me. This happens on television.' My mind was fighting it as much as it could, but I knew who it was," he says, but he confesses he didn't change his life immediately. "I fought it for two years. I went home that night and drank 13 beers just to prove that it wasn't me. It took two years to finally stop. It was 19 years ago last May 28. I came home and I told my wife, 'You know what? I'm taking God up on what he said, because I can't beat this thing.'"
With God's help, Liston did overcome his addictions. God restored his relationships, and he found a renewed love of music. That joy flows through Liston's new project, released by Above Entertainment. Recorded at Memphis' legendary Ardent Studios, Liston worked with acclaimed producer Jim Gaines (Stevie Ray Vaughn, Santana, John Lee Hooker) and noted engineer John Hampton. The result is an album that combines his rock and blues roots with his passion for serving God. It's an intoxicating blend that's earning Liston a new legion of fans.
I've been to the mountain top," he says matter-of-factly. "When I was with Atlantic, we were flying in jets and riding in limousines and all that stuff, but about a year and a half into it, I remember thinking Is this all there is?' I was so empty..."
These days he's filled with a passion to share the hope that can be found in Jesus Christ, and the songs on the record reflect his vision. "Look What You've Done for Me" is a potent anthem about God's grace. "That song is my testimony," says Liston.
Another powerful track is "God Will Make a Way." "That was actually the first one I ever wrote, and it was one of those songs that just came so quickly," he says. "That song came out of some real, real challenges that my wife and I have been through."
The first single from the album is a song called "Change the World," which Liston wrote for Service International, a relief organization that has aided those in need all over the world from the devastation in Kosovo to flood-ravaged Kentucky to the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. "Service International is an extremely important part of my life and my wife's life," says Liston. "We love being with people and love trying to make a difference in people's lives, and that's what Service International is all about. They preach the gospel in a non-threatening way by loving people and by helping them put their lives back on track. What's cool about SI is they go in and show a community how to utilize all their assets to rebuild the city. SI's main thing is go in, bring what we've got to the table, bring what they've got to the table, pull it all together and then back out gently."
Through his work with Service International and through his music, Danny Liston is all about sharing God's love and mercy. "If I had to sum all my songs up in one word it would be hope," he says. "I know where my source of strength is. That's what I wanted to convey through this record.
"I want to influence a lot of people," Danny continues. "He who has been forgiven much, loves much, and I have been forgiven a truck load and I want to reach people. If God could put me on the front lines to convey these messages to people and assure them that there is hope at the end of the day, it's the greatest gift I could ever ask for." |
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