Very Cool

In a recent post I pointed out how Dave Mustaine of Megadeth became a Christian several years ago. A commenter on the post, Ignorance, pointed to a Wikipedia article detailing the surprising influence of Christianity in non-Christian heavy metal. Some of them I'd heard before, like Alice Cooper's conversion, and Ozzy Osbourne's claim to be an Anglican. But most were surprising. For example, Dan Spitz, the guitarist for Anthrax, is a Messianic Jew (a Jewish Christian). One of the more interesting ones was Dave Ellefson, the bass player for Megadeth.

One of the things that helped him to come back to Christ was that he was having children with his wife, and he started to remember how he was brought up, and the appreciation he had for it. He wanted his kids to be brought up in the church, and after several incidents in the studio that he thought was very strange, he felt God was calling him to come back to the church. After calling his wife and telling [her] that, she said, “well, I’m glad this is all happening, because the worship leader was asking if you could come sit in this Sunday because their normal bass player isn’t going to be able to make it this week”. That’s when he decided, “Okay God, I get it”.

So half of the members of Megadeth are committed Christians. That just blows me away.

Another one that amazed me is Nicko McBrain, the drummer for Iron Maiden.

McBrain converted to Christianity in 1999 after an experience in the Spanish River Church, near his Boca Raton, Florida home. His wife Rebecca had been asking him to attend with her, and upon entering the church, McBrain soon found himself crying as he experienced a "calling". Recounting the tale, he said "I just sat there thinking, 'I didn't drink last night…why can't I stand?' I had this love affair with Jesus going on in my heart."
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He was also asked if he shared his religious views with his band mates, and if so, how they felt about it. McBrain responded, “We’ve had some incredibly deep conversations amongst each of us. I can’t say to you that I’m trying to convert all these guys in my band to be Christians. I’m leading them on my route, and if they choose to follow what God’s plan is in the Bible, that’s up to them. I say to them all, you know, look, in my belief, at the moment, if you turn to your saviour Jesus Christ, I’ll have eternal life in Heaven with you! … We don’t talk about it every time we get together, but we’ve had some interesting conversations over the years.”

So, thanks to Ignorance for making my day.