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| During a four-decade career Billy Joe Thomas (BJ Thomas) has endured, en route to selling an amazing 70 million records. His signature song, Raindrops keep falling on my head, spent 4 weeks as the nations top single in 1970. A decade later he had a number one Christian hit for four weeks in a row, Jesus on my Mind. He went on to win five Grammys, collect 11 gold and two platinum records and have 15 top 40 pop/rock hits. He remains the only artist to ever have a Song of the Year on pop, country and gospel charts. In a conversation with Pentecostal-Evangel B.J. stated that he the same problems that a lot of people deal with growing up. Some people succumb to them worse that others do. My dad had some problems in the area of drugs and depression, and as I grew up I had personal trials with them, too. The music business amplified the problem. This is a business where you don't have to be sober to do what people are asking you to do. I asked Christ to become my Savior when I was 13, but I never allowed Christ to become my Lord. At 33, I asked the Lord to come into my heart and make me new. That decision brought me back from some really tough times of drug addiction and alcoholism. "B.J. survived a decade of addiction to cocaine, Valium and amphetamines. During a nearly yearlong marital separation, his wife, Gloria, became a Christian. After B.J. subsequently accepted Christ as his Savior, he quit drugs cold turkey and had no withdrawal symptoms". After conversion, BJ began to record gospel music, which featured the same natural, relaxed sound that had led to secular music popularity. But during the early 1980s some Christians walked out of concerts, complaining that Thomas should sing only songs about faith. BJ stated when he began making music with Christian messages the sound was just like the songs I had been singing before. Some of it was pop, some of it was rock and roll, some of it was country. It was a new thing for gospel, and we were misunderstood. Anytime something new comes along in a field as traditional as gospel music, it's looked on as a threat or something that's just not right. There was a resistance to what we were doing. But he felt like this was a harbinger of a new way to do that kind of music, a way to reach more people and have a deeper meaning to it. There was a lot of heartbreak, but it turned out well. That was a long time ago. The whole experience helped crystallize and define Gloria's and BJ's spirituality. Stating they don't have any negative feelings as they look back on all of it. |
          
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