Larry's Biography

It was on Peggy's birthday in 1980 that I found hope. That was the night of my third overdose, my wife left me, and I went to the hospital with a shattered face from passing out face down on concrete. It's also the night I begged God for another chance.

When I was 13 a small group of teens in Florida was invited to a music camp at the University of Miami. Because I had been studying symphonic music, classical music and composition I went. Count Basie was one of those lecturing and performing. When he put together a big band to back his soloists, I was sitting in the trombone section.

When I got home some of the guys in my neighborhood invited me to join their band. That's where I learned how to play music on the guitar. Teaching myself by listening to others play I found my own way on the guitar and went on to form the southern rock band Grinderswitch. We played and toured with the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Marshall Tucker Band, and more.

Drugs and parties have always been a big part of the rock scene and my story is no different. For a year before my last overdose people had been giving me Bibles, but one by one they gave up on me. Except my brother. I remember one night I sat at the kitchen table with Joe English, the drummer for "Wings", both of us high on drugs and reading the Bible. We began in Genesis and after a while Joe asked me "Do you believe in this?" I thought for a minute before I told him, "Yep, And I think we're in trouble"

In an effort to get off of drugs I quit Grinderswitch in 1979 and Peggy and I moved back to Florida where I worked in my father's construction business. Florida is not the place to go to get away from drugs. Soon I was partying just as hard as I had been when I was with the band. On August 20, 1980 Peggy had enough. We fought, I overdosed, and fell face first, shattering my face. When my father told Peggy I was being rushed to a hospital she told him, "If Larry regains consciousness you can tell him I never want to see him again!"

I don't remember anything that happened between overdosing and the hospital. The next thing I knew I was in the corner of the emergency room watching all those medical people working around my body. Suddenly I saw them all stop and walk away. In that instant I remember crying out to God, "If you'll put me back in that body, I'll do what ever you want me to do the rest of my life" The next instant I was on the examining table, completely sober and wide awake

After I was released from the hospital I called my brother to ask if I could visit his church. He had been praying for me, one of the only ones who hadn't given up hope, he came on Friday night to pick me up for Church on Sunday. He knew I might not make it to Sunday. That Sunday I walked to the front of the church to tell God I was serious about making that commitment but I couldn't keep any commitment to anyone as long as I was on drugs - that I needed his help to stay off drugs. And I've been straight ever since.

Peggy and I are together again, but it took a lot of time. She was understandably skeptical but God didn't give up on us. We are married today not because of our own ability, but because of God's persistence.We have three great sons and four grand childern. It's never too late. Any marriage, like any person, no matter how lost, can be redeemed.

The reality of my story is not that I was so stupid that I did the things I did, but that God never gave up on me. Therefore no one is beyond hope or the arm of God. This means that each person should think about someone they think is too far gone and resolve now to revive their prayers and hope for them. God never gives up and neither should we. Giving up on someone is a value judgment we make; fortunately God chooses to never quit. He hangs in there. We have the same choice to hang in with those who so desperately need us and Christ.

The blanket pattern and the chains are symbols of two groups of people we often think of as too far gone, too hardened, beyond hope. The truth is that the Native people and prisoners are hungry for hope and love. My wife Peggy is Cherokee Indian, together we work with the Native people, giving concerts, speaking. With Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship Ministries I tour prisons sometimes giving three concerts a day along with many other fine Christian Musicians. I have been able to perform and visit men on death row and in segregation units all over the United States. I believe that Christian musicians have to give an answer of hope.

Whatever we do for the least of these, we do for Him. God never gives up.