gary mann's story

PART 1 - God had to save me first!

I moved to Los Angeles from San Diego (where I grew up) in 1978 at age
28. I moved to get a much better job as a computer operator for a large
insurance company, since there were few opportunities in San Diego. I
had 3 years experience, but at a dead-end job going nowhere.

I was NOT a Christian yet at this time, and still single, with a
girlfriend of five years, who remained in SD. So, I was making the trip
back and forth almost every weekend to hang out with her and our wordly
friends, go to the beach, get high, party, etc. About 3 months after the
move (March), I was making the trip when my trusty Datsun pickup started
running awful, almost dying on the freeway. I pulled off at a San
Clemente exit, and coasted to a stop on a residential street, but in
front of a vacant lot.

So, I'm there messing around under the hood, seeing nothing wrong, when
someone appeared and asked me if he could help. At first, I resented it,
since I figured I could fix it myself. Back in the good ol' days, I did
tune-ups and most of the work on my vehicles myself when they were easier
to work on. Anyway, he said he lived just a block away (he was walking
home from a store), and if I could limp the truck over there, we could
work on it. So we sputtered and backfired a short distance to his house,
and the first thing I see are several vehicles with "Jesus" stickers all
over them. I didn't think much of this. I had no bad attitudes or
anything - I just ignored it. I was basically an atheist, not believing
in a God or creation.

Well, we messed around some more, and he suggested running a jumper wire
from the coil to the distributor, in case the wiring was bad, and this
fixed the problem instantly. I could not see how, but it did. He invited
me inside to wash my hands, and invited me to stay for dinner - it was
about 5 PM by now . I declined. I had to get on the road. But I was very
grateful and thanked him a lot.

I think I said, "I don't know how to thank you." (I was basically a nice
guy). He says to me, "Has anyone ever told you about Jesus?" I said no,
since honestly I had never heard "the gospel" before. And I didn't have
any attitudes or anything, and remained very open to what he was saying.
He showed me a tract - the one where you're on the throne of your life,
where God should be - and led me through the basics of salvation. I just
listened and said "uh-huh" a few times. It sort of made sense, but I
wasn't sure why.

He finally asked me if I was ready to "accept Christ", whatever that
was. I said yes, and he just had me read the salvation prayer on the
back of the tract. I'm a sinner, need God's forgiveness, ask Christ into
my life, etc. When I was through, he asked me, "Where is Jesus Christ
right now?" I swear I felt there was someone standing behind me looking
at me, but I don't understand how. I said I don't know, and he said,
"He's in your heart". That's when it happened. I felt a rush of the
presence of God filling my heart. It was very real and overwhelming.
This is sure hard to describe. I have since heard it described as God
filling a God-shaped vacuum we're born with that only He can fill. Well,
this is good enough. I instantly knew God was real, He loved me, He
created me (and everything), and my life would be changed forever. I
know now, of course, that salvation is an act of God solely. God came
into my life by His own good will. I was not "searching", but was
definitely ready, as it turned out.

I did have to leave. After thanking them a lot more, I was back on the
road - to see a spectacular sunset off the California coast. I was
crying a lot, I could barely drive. I knew that it was God who had made
me, and made my eyes to see the absolute beauty of His creation in a
sunset, the birds, the smells of the ocean, the coastal hills shining in
the setting sun.

And he caused a "chance encounter" with someone to get me saved.

P.S. When I took the truck to a mechanic a few days later for them to
check it out, he looked at the wire that had "fixed" the trouble (it
still ran fine), and he says, "What's this wire doing here?". He pulled
it off, and of course the engine still ran just fine without it. I have
to believe God caused a vehicle to break down, for no reason, at a
particular place and time, for one of His willing saints to save a
wretch like me.


PART 2 - Well, I had to meet Monte, didn't I?

So here I was a baby Christian, no bible, no church, and no friends at
all in LA. I went to Guitar Center a few times just to hang out and look
at stuff. One time I was looking at the notices and Monte had posted a
card asking for "Christian" heavy metal musicians. He drew a fancy
border on it, and the writing was cool. Well, I guess I was a Christian
now, and could play metal, so I called him up. Monte was living and
working in an animal hospital in Santa Monica. We talked a little bit
about music, but, once he found out a little about me, he mostly was
concerned about getting me into his church, Grace Community with John
MacArthur, getting me a bible and some books, and for me to start
growing! We went to a Christian bookstore in Westwood, and I bought Hal
Lindsey's "Late, Great Planet Earth", and something by C.S. Lewis I
think. I bought my first bible at Grace Community. MacArthur had (still
does) an active tape ministry, and I started on his Gospel of John
series, probably 30 tapes or more. This was an outstanding beginning to
learn about Christ, and I remember most of it to this day.

On the personal front, I did tell my girlfriend (who was a
sort-of-Catholic, not Christian) that I had gotten "born again". She
said, "Well, you're not going to want to see me anymore." I had no idea
what she meant, and we didn't argue about it. I loved her. Within a few
months, I knew our relationship couldn't continue as it was, and in
December of that year (1978), I drove back to LA one last time after
telling her we were breaking up, and I never saw or heard from her
again. That was one of the toughest nights of my life. Leaving ALL of my
old life, driving away from my hometown, leaving everything behind,
including my best friends. I wouldn't call this a "leap of faith", since
I didn't know what that was yet. I knew we couldn't stay together. I was
definitely changing, and she wasn't.

My life had been turned 180 degrees around. This wasn't a "phase I was
going through", like we see occasionally on some stupid TV sitcom. This
wasn't a struggling, grit-my-teeth decision I made to change my life:
God did it. My life wasn't that bad by worldly standards. I was a "good
person". But now I knew the truth that God had made me, loved me, and
wanted me to have peace and joy, and live a different life with his
guidance. I just knew this inside. God would always be there, in this
life and beyond.

So. back to the band. I started learning Monte's songs: Directory
Assistance, Father of Lies, No More Blues, etc. We needed a name for the
"band". Monte did not have one. I'm pretty sure I came up with Barnabas,
because of it's translation, Son of Encouragement, and also at this
time, the other "rock" bands were called Gentle Faith, Servant, or other
names that were pretty weak sounding for a ROCK band. I wanted a name
with an edge. I don't remember any other considerations.

Somewhere along here, before I met Nancy, I wrote some of my first
attempts: BC, Crucifixion, Star. The latter two intended totally to be
concert songs, with long spaces for guitar jamming, and I wrote that
bass solo in Crucifixion, which I've always played almost exactly the
same way.
Monte was very good at the shorter, radio-playable metal songs with a
great message. I was into Kansas and Yes pretty heavily, and wrote in
that vein. Kerry Livgren was my hero. Sure glad he's a Christian now!
The song Star (written later in Iowa) is directly influenced by Kansas.

By the way, I started piano lessons when I was 9 or 10. My mom figured I
had some musical sense, and got me started. I did pretty good. I hated
practicing, and one time was out flying a kite in the back yard when my
piano teacher showed up. I got called to come inside NOW, and had to
quickly reel in a few hundred feet of string, which became a tangled
mess unusable from then on. I learned my lesson. I can't read music
hardly at all anymore, and play piano totally by ear.
I got a guitar and taught myself starting as a young teen. I switched to
bass in my early 20's.

Part 3

We did find Lance as our first drummer, and the girl singer that he
knew, Carolyn, and David Storrs played a second guitar at that one show
we did in the picture under "History". Monte had gotten married to
Roxanne by this time, and she hand-made the crushed blue velvet pants 
I'm wearing!

Carolyn Joy was one of the most beautiful female singers I'd ever heard.
She could serenade the birds out of the trees just singing solo with her 
acoustic guitar - unfortunately (looking back on it), we didn't include
her doing a solo song in a show, as I recall. I would have loved it. 
The next drummer we met after Lance was actually nicknamed Roy - his
real name was Rojelio. I hope I spelled this right, but I always liked
to say his real name: Ro-HEY-Lee-Oh!

We rented a warehouse-sort-of in a business district to practice at, 
where there weren't any homes around so nobody would complain. We met
Kris (I don't remember how), and he replaced Roy.
Somewhere in here, Nancy Jo answered an ad Monte placed in Recycler I
think? She definitely had a hard-edged, powerful style of singing that
would fit in with a rock band. Nancy had only been a Christian a short
time, after basically miraculously surviving a motorcycle accident which
occurred some time before we met her. She had 2 kids, Richard and Lisa,
who were 5 and 7 at the time, and was living in Huntington Beach (or
Hermosa?).

More to come.