Danny Liston: A Southern rocker delivered from alcohol abuse

Wednesday 5th November 2008

Mike Rimmer spoke to DANNY LISTON, once a member of the mainstream Mama's Pride and who now sings of God restoring hope



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He continues, "I went back to work and I felt a little better; you know, it was like, 'Well I talked to God. I haven't done that in a long time.' So I went home and my wife had started going to this non-denominational church which didn't sit well with me. I mean, I was the guy that went to the seminary, you know? But I went with her that night. She always liked to sit in the second row and I've got this huge afro! Whenever I went with her I always tried to make the preacher uncomfortable. I'd scowl at him and pull my shirt up where he could see my tattoos and I'd growl 'what an idiot!' So the guy comes out to the end of the platform that night and he goes, 'Before we get started here, God's got something he wants to tell somebody. I'm not going to embarrass you but it's in this group of people here,' and he makes a circular motion with his hands. 'Somebody in this group of people prayed about your drug and alcohol addiction and you told God you don't see a way out.' Well by this time he's got my attention! He says, 'God says if you'll trust him he'll show you a way out.'"

Had he told anybody about his little prayer session? "No," he says emphatically, "it's like, can you imagine coming home from work and going, 'So kids, how was school? Great! Little homework? That's wonderful. And honey, how was your work?' Then telling her, 'For me, well I was praying about my addictions on a rooftop today!' So no. The thing with an addict is, as long as no-one talks to you about it; you may know they know but as long as nobody's talkin' it's all good. My wife had said it enough and she'd become mature enough in the Lord where it was like, she told me one day, she said, 'I'm done. I've given you over to God.' And that was really what did the trick. Her badgering, all it did was justify my abuse."

Danny Liston: A Southern rocker delivered from alcohol abuse

So, there he is, Danny Liston sitting in church and God has his attention and speaks directly to him. He's prayed and God has responded to him and reassured him that things will be all right. Amazing eh? So this is the point where his life turns around, right? Well, no actually! Liston explains, "I came back to my bar, I drank 13 beers - why that number I don't know but I remember it being 13 beers to prove that it wasn't me God was talking to."

Astonishingly, despite his spectacular epiphany, Danny didn't respond to God. I'm so shocked by what he's telling me that I can't help verbalising what I'm thinking. "You idiot!" The words are out of my mouth and Danny laughs. "Thank you! You know what? I have waited for somebody to say what they're really thinking and you're the first honest guy I've met! Thank you so much, that was so refreshing!"

But as others have found, running away from God is far from easy. Two years later in 1987, he finally gave in to the Lord. Remembers Danny, "I came home and told my wife, I said, 'I can't do it anymore. I've got to trust God with this or I'm not gonna make it.' And the amazing thing is; I lost my desire for alcohol! There were times I was tempted, I mean soooo tempted that I would tell my wife, 'I'm going home and I'm going to bed. I don't care what time of day, what time of night; if I'm asleep I can't get in trouble.' So it wasn't like miraculously I never felt the need to drink again. But it hasn't occupied my time for a long time. The first four years were probably the toughest but I relied on God's grace. A lot of times you hear people talk about, 'Oh yeah, God's grace; it's like God's unmerited favour,' and the thing I like to encourage people with is: The Word says that God is no respecter of persons, and the loss of hope, the loss of dignity. . . I mean that can be in anything, it doesn't have to be substance abuse. It can be in anything. God is a great restorer. He's in the 'Re' business; REpent, REstore, REdeem, you know."

So let's recap. We've discovered that Danny Liston is an idiot but not such an idiot that he held out against God permanently. His solo music reflects his faith. I ask him to explain what he is trying to communicate. "I feel like with God everything is an ongoing process. I think the worst thing that can happen to somebody is that they be honest about what they're dealing with and get shunned by brothers and sisters. I don't mind putting myself on 'Front Street' and going, 'This is what I was like. This is what I did.' I mean there's a lot of stuff that goes behind the scenes with my marriage; just bad stuff that happened; and I'm not shy about telling people. It's like: You may like me now; you wouldn't have liked me before. And you may not even have liked me when I got saved because it was a process of changing my thought patterns, changing my habits. It wasn't an overnight deal. That's what I tell people; somebody gets saved and they go, 'Can you believe he was back in the bar drinking?!' It's like, 'Give him a chance! Let's carry him along not dig the grave for him and kick him in it!'"

His debut Christian album 'No Other Name', on St Louis-based Above Entertainment and distributed by Koch International, is a powerful set of songs about God's ability to restore hope. Danny is passionate about the topic. He says, "People go, 'Okay, what else is it about?' It's like, 'Do you get what I'm talking about?' When you've lost hope, I mean that causes you to lose the desire to live. How effective are you going to be in your life if you have no hope for YOU? So if your hope can be restored then all of a sudden you feel like reaching out to people. That's what happened to me; God restored my hope. He restored my dream."

He isn't sure whether he'll return to music full time. The release of 'No Other Name' is really his opportunity to test the water. "I would love for it to be what I do full time but the reality of it is, when I leave here I go back to painting houses. But you know what? That's okay. Because as long as I know that I'm where God wants me to be I'm cool with it. If I can do records and have results, I'll be happy. To test this record we took it to a biker bar and I played live at this biker bar to see how, musically, it would be received. Ultimately, it's what I do. I can't be who these other guys are. I can't fit into the niche of the others. And it's not knocking them; that's who God created them to be. But I felt like God was like, 'I want you to use what I've made you to be. What's the biggest thing I've done in your life?' It was like, 'God, you've restored my hope.'"

The album was recorded at the famous Ardent Studios in Memphis with producer Jim Gaines whose credentials include working with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santana, John Lee Hooker and Journey. Liston explains, "He's a blues-rock guy and one of the nicest people. So I called him and said, 'Would you do this record?' He goes, 'Well, I don't really have any experience doing Christian records.' I said, 'That's why I want you! I want a great record! I'll bring the Christian part, you bring the record.' So he goes, 'Well what do you think about recording in Ardent?' I said, 'It's a white boy's dream come true!'"

While he was there Liston got to paint the studio. I wondered whether that was how he paid for studio time but he explains, "I hate mixing. I absolutely hate mixing a record; so they're in the studio mixing and it was their 40th anniversary and their interns were trying to paint. Well they don't paint! It was taking them forever and they were getting it everywhere and I said, 'Here, I'll make you a deal; go up to the paint store, get me a 3½ inch cut brush, I'll paint this whole atrium for you while they're mixing my record and you go do whatever it is you need to do because I hate mixing that bad!' So in three days they mixed my record and I painted their atrium. Felt it was a pretty fair trade off. I still had to pay them for it! But it gave me something to do. It was occupation for my mind, you know, therapy!"

The result of course is that the Ardent studios now look spick and span and Liston has an excellent debut album. Though I do think he should have got a discount for all that hard work. Ultimately though the idiot did have the sense to allow God to restore his hope and though he took is time, late is always going to be better than never! CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.
About Mike Rimmer
Mike RimmerMike Rimmer is a broadcaster and journalist based in Birmingham.


 
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Reader Comments

Posted by Lyn-Anne in Hawkesbury, N.S.W. Australia @ 05:48 on Mar 16 2015

This is truly the best album I've ever heard. Danny is his track "I want to change the world" has in my opinion done just that. I heard it first about a year ago on a program in Australia named Studio B, but I didn't go looking for it. I heard it again on Studio B again about a week ago and got it from iTunes. This album, Danny and his wife are a true blessing. I wish he'd do more of this stuff. I've been looking for God Used Mississippi but with no luck. I love his voice, the style of music and I can relate to the lyrics better than anything I've ever heard. I listen to it every morning when I walk my dogs. It has changed my world by giving me an insight formGod in every day. I love Amazing Grace. I love most I Want to Change the World. God bless Danny, his wife Pam and his family, and any animals they have for ever. Cheers Lyn-Anne



Posted by david taylor in town creek al @ 11:16 on Dec 12 2008

i bout got your cd learned! let me know when you need a bass player to do a show! i wont let you down. dt



Posted by Victoria Cruse in Granite City, IL @ 03:09 on Dec 11 2008

Danny,
I just bought your CD this past Saturday. I have listend to it everyday at work since. I love the whole CD and you really blew me away the way you did Amazing Grace. I had a girl that I work with come over to my desk yesterday to listen to it. She loved it as well. The article was also get and I am so proud of you. Thank the Lord and your wife for hanging in there. Although the Lord never leaves us and he never left you as you now know. You have always be a kind soul and thank you for signing my CD on Saturday as well.

Thank you and God Bless,
Victoria



Posted by Al @ 16:35 on Nov 7 2008

'Give him a chance! Let's carry him along not dig the grave for him and kick him in it!'"

This sums up this whole article for me. However long it takes you to find God, or more accurately, however long it takes you to listen AFTER you've found God, there is always the pressure of that feeling that you MUST change NOW! IMMEDIATELY!

God has been there a long time and articles like this show that not only must we be patient with ourselves as we journey on God's path, but that God has time to watch, encourage, restore and wait on YOU getting yourself in tune to Him. He WILL be there to pick you up. If need be He'll be there over and over again. Amazingly, when you realise this then the old cynical chestnut of just continually asking forgiveness becomes moot because by then something has sunk in and you DO find youself in tune with Him; and you DO find yourself changing, ever so slowly.

One of my friends recently said to me, "The old Al wouldn't have done that, he'd just've said sod them". I asked if I'd changed, believing I hadn't. His answer was that yes I had.

Thanks for this article.



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