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Saturday, May 10, 1997
By Lisa Peeples With an international audience, John Steed's music is aimed at helping people connect with God. Since John was just a toddler, he has listened to country and gospel music on the radio. Now, Steed is writing, playing and singing some of the Christian country songs that are being heard on the radio. They aren't just being played on the local level either. Some of Steed's songs are being played throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.
Though Steed, also a third-generation barber, has loved Christian country music off and on since he was a small boy, he said it took the loss of a loved one to bring him back to his gospel musical roots. He recently recalled the day that would change his life forever. Steed was only 20 at the time. "On July 8, 1986, my brother Gerald had dropped me off at my parents' house where I was living. We were working together and had just gotten off work. He said, 'I'll see you in the morning,' and that was the last time I was to see him alive," he wrote. "The first ting I did when he dropped me off was to go into my bedroom, pickup the guitar and start playing some God-awful, satanic-type songs, real heavy metal. That is when I got the call that he had been killed in an auto accident," he said. "You see, I had been playing this music and was dabbling in marijuana and stuff at the time. Gerald knew this and was trying to persuade me to get back into church and get away from all of this, which leads you further away from the Lord. "His death drove home a message in my heart and mind. I knew that God didn't take my brother to bring me back, but that he used the circumstance of this death. I believe that he laid it on my brother's heart to tell me this and that he knew his death would bring me back to the Lord," he said. "All of the preaching in the world wouldn't have turned me around. It took his death. That was a hard one, but it makes you realize that family is the most important thing in this world. So now I sing songs about Christian Faith and family," Steed said. Indeed he does. It is one of Steed's Christian family songs that is now being played natinonwide in Canada and Europe. Steed wrote the song Good Hand Now about his brother. "The whole theme of the song is that everybody that loses somebody seems to ask themselves why, and the Lord why. It goes on to say that it doesn't matter how long they have been gone....The pain is still there, like on their birthdays and holidays especially," he said. "Then it says how you wonder what life would be like for them today, and how you wonder if while they are in Heaven do they ever stop and think of you. But, it says, there is comfort knowing that they are in good hands now. This is the only way you can make it through," he said. Steed said the response to Good Hands Now has been phenomenal. "I have had letters from across the United States telling me that this particular song helped me through this particular crisis. I have also actually seen people break down and cry when they hear the song," he said. "It hits everybody, not just religious people, because everybody has lost somebody," he said. "You see, my goal as a Christian country musician is to reach as many people as I can with the Gospel. Whether I do it on a national level or through a radio release. I want to be able to write songs that change people's lives. That is bigger than any music award you could ever get. If you change someones' life with the Gospel, that is the ultimate reward," he said.
Citrus Times 301 W. Main St. Inverness, FL 34450-4743 1-800-333-7505 |
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P.O. Box 59 Edmonton, KY 42129 Phone: 270-432-5555 E-mail: john@johnsteed.cc |
Copyright © 2002-'04 JSM |
Steed, 30, has recorded two albums, with the third one already in the planning stages, and is playing at fairs, churches and other special events throughout Florida. He recently traveled to Nashville to promote a song on a nationwide radio, through the Country Radio Seminar.