I always seemed to suffer from stage fright when I performed live as a teen. I called a good friend and spoke to him about it. He told me not to worry but, to start performing and call him after I had done it a hundred times. Now, I needed to start traveling around the country and wanted to do a good job with it all. 

With a clear mind, I thought to myself what can get me over this fear of performance, then I knew what I had to do, I decided I must rehearse the material until I could play it in my sleep! I did just that and that was the end of stage fright, from that point forward wherever I went, I had no fear of performance. As always, God played a very BIG role in all of that. 

One night I was playing in Los Angelos in a very sketchy part of town, as I usually was but, in such a huge city it was a little scary lugging in the gear off the street. When I showed up at reception they told me they didn’t know anything about me coming that night, which was typical. I explained that I had come all across the country just to be there, which I had. A big gruff man exasperated, told me to sit down. Twenty minutes went by, then he told me to drag all my stuff down the stairs into a large dark cold windowless basement. When I got down there it was packed with guys off the street milling around, many foreign. I started getting cat calls and whistles but, I went on with what I was there to do and set up as quickly as I could. When the performance was finished the lights came on and every man there lined up before I left to give me hug. Each one explained me how much it all meant to them. That was crazy, but God was always doing for me what I could not…ALWAYS!  

I discovered over time and experience, that intimidation was usually a sign that I would soon see a small miracle. I did that night and so many others. I was always being amazed, no matter where I went, by the kindness of God. I went on to perform fifteen hundred times over the next twenty years. I wish I could still do it, but after the throat cancer and my ongoing loss of energy, unfortunately for me, it just won’t work. So instead, I get down on my knees each day in gratitude and thank God I am still alive and I can do what I can! 

AMEN