Messiah/The Final Warning

 In 1981 I moved back to Detroit, Michigan and had given up the notion of ever playing in a band again!  Instead, I felt I had to get right with God and I walked to 8am daily Mass every morning, praying all the way there and back to find purpose in my new life! Around this same time, I was trying to organize another bus trip to Bayside, NY as I had the urge to go back there! (I will tell this part of the story in the "The Private Untold Story Of Charles Michael" section-this will be the second time the Holy spirit  touched me)  Also around this same time my brother in law, Ritchie was putting together a hall party for Halloween and wanted me to sing a few songs. I really didn't want too, but he was persistent. So, I started rehearsing with my younger brother Glen, who was in a little three piece band at the time.  My brother played drums, Larry played guitar, and Chris played bass guitar.  They were pretty good but, the sound was empty and we needed a keyboard player (which was almost impossible to find) or another guitar player. Soon after, my brother introduced me to Scott Wood (guitarist) and we started rehearsing for the Halloween party. My brother picked Scott up and brought him to rehearsal and took him home afterward, I  had to get home and sleep because rehearsal ended at 10p.m. or later and I had to get up for 8am Mass (yes I'm still walking to 8am Mass and back everyday!) One day my brother had something going on after practice, so he asked me if I would drive Scott home. Little did I know that this was the beginning of a close long lasting friendship that would lead to the reformation of  the band Messiah.

       The above two photographs are taken from a live performance, Scott Wood on guitar and myself, Charles Michael on vocals!                                                     LakePointe Inn - Detroit, MI.  10/31/1984

 Messiah was again conceived and brought back to life in late 1982, right after we returned from a trip I organized to Bayside, NY. -  Scott, my brother Glen, and my sister Patricia, filled in 3 empty seats due to a cancellation. When we returned, Scott started putting pressure on me to get a band together. He started going to Mass with me every morning and started helping me with the Rock Seminars that I was presenting at Catholic Churches and Schools surrounding The  Metro Detroit area! ( more on the Holy Spirit inspired Rock Seminars in the "Private Untold Story of Charles Michael" section). We found drummer Keith and bass player John and started rehearsal in a band house, as we called it, down the street from where I lived at the time. This house was vacant, and the lady - Pauline - who owned it, was a passenger on the most recent Bayside, NY. trip. She was worried about the vacant property being vandalized, so offered the house to us to occupy until she sold it. This became known as the Band House! Here Scott, Keith, John and I played together for months getting tight and forming our sound, attitude, look, and even starting to write original material. During this period Scott and I continued daily Mass at 8a.m. or 4 p.m. or 7p.m.  someplace in Metro Detroit at one of the Catholic Churches. Two young long haired musicians caught the peoples eye and we became popular around the church circuit. Soon prayer groups sought us out to join, and I knew they're motivation was to attract young people by letting it be known that two young rockers were in the prayer group! We met on Thursday twice a month and through prayer my intentions became known that I was praying for financial assistance to help get the group going (we needed equipment), so we could spread the word of God to the young people!  Soon money started showing up in envelopes, in our door, mail box, under the windshield wiper blades - and no one in the band knew anything about it!  The cash did help us update our equipment enough that we were able to play once in a while a Friday and Saturday night at a corner bar to learn how to work an audience and get tight musically. It was at one of these events that we were approached by a man and woman who wanted to have a meeting with the band about possibly financing the group to put out and album! I recognized the woman Jan, from our prayer group, but I'd never seen her husband Tom before. At this meeting Shepherd Productions was born! The first order of business was to get Messiah in the recording studio to do an album!

The above two photographs,  (taken in Polaris recording studio), are of Scott and Keith working on 8th notes and chops + resting after a Hard Days Night in the studio!

Charles Michael along with Shepherd Productions took the band Messiah to Canada to record "The Final Warning" album.  I had a cousin George, who owned Polaris Recording studio in Windsor, Canada and I had done some previous work there with my very 1st band "Total Energy" in the late 1960's. George was a lot of fun and I felt comfortable there.  We recorded almost everyday for over 3 months laying down the tracks to the 9 tunes  that would make up Messiah's first album. John, the bass player, seemed to have trouble fitting into the image Messiah was trying to present, and before we got into full production we decided to switch bass players and add a keyboard player to give Messiah that Heavenly Metal sound. Pete became the bass player and Dan became the keyboard player and we rehearsed right there in the studio with our new band getting ready to record the album. Once we started recording the album management bought Pete a new bass guitar and things seemed to be going well, until Pete decided this isn't what he wanted to do as a musician, and quit!  I picked up the bass guitar and finished the parts on album - as I had played bass guitar for many years in the past. When the session was over we gave the new bass guitar to Pete for the tracks he'd done before he left the band! Once the album was finished we begin searching for a new bass player and that is when Dave Johnson walked into Messiahs' life. Dave was young, good looking, and very talented. He fit Messiah Perfectly. Shepherd productions bought a house for the band to rehearse at. Eventually Dave and Dan became permanent residents. The Keith moved in, and Scott and I spent lots of time there. Soon management hired my sister Pat, to cook for the band and buy groceries, keep the house stocked!

  It was here at the band house where 90% of Messiah's music was written, it was a guy hang out and we felt comfortable there. Dave had to learn all the songs from the soon to be released Messiah Album - The Final Warning! He did this in lightening speed because he was that good. When the album arrived Tom made arrangements to have the album shopped to the major recording labels. One by one they turned us down because they said there was no market for a Heavy Metal Christian Band, or radio stations wouldn't play the music because it was religious, or people would never buy it!

  Management decided we should release a 5 song EP and write songs that kept the message but in a hidden fashion. So through the frustration and let down by the major recording labels I proceeded to write Going Insane, which became the title track for the EP.  Other songs we wrote were: Evil Lies - Where are you (remake) - We Will Rock - and Heavenly Metal (remake). We felt the lyrics to these songs had Christian overtones but they weren't obvious. Maybe record companies would take an interest in the band now.  We even switched recording studios and did the Ep at GM recording studio (Bob Seger had recorded there, so we felt it was probably a good place). While we were recording at the studio, we entered a radio station contest where a local band with new original material was pitted against 2 national recording artists with new music. Through a phone call, in Messiah overwhelmingly won the evening with our song "Where Are You".  Evidently the song wasn't too Christian for the Detroit audience that night! Nor, for the radio station to consider playing it. We're talking about a local popular rock station, not a Christian radio station. Not long afterward the radio station offered us a position to play all the radio station promoted concerts around town. Our band name would be all over the radio playing all these summer concerts promoted by the most popular rock station in Metro Detroit. Our management company declined the offer! They didn't want the band associated with night clubs, alcohol, and drugs. But, I thought that was the people our message was suppose to reach. They agreed but only through records not live shows!  

 While the Going Insane Ep was being pressed, we were writing music for our next full length album. Tom had put us in a small recording studio to make a demo of these new songs. The studio was called Cloud Born. I liked the name and thought it would make a great title to our next album! During this period my brother and the band Sabotage were in the Polaris recording studio in Canada and I was producing the album for Shepherd Productions. Larry (Guitarist, Singer and Song Writer) and Chris (Bass Guitar and Song Writer) and Doug (Keyboards, Singer and Song Writer) and Glen (Drummer and Co-Song Writer) were the band Sabotage!

 I was juggling rehearsal with Messiah, and recording with Sabotage for about the next 4 months. One day I came back from Canada to find our keyboard player Dan had quit for personal reasons. Instead of trying to find a replacement, we decided that Dave would play keyboards with bass pedals along with bass guitar. This guy undertook the project to learn all of Dans keyboard parts and back up vocals parts, along with the bass guitar parts he already played! Dave was an amazing musician. Messiah now became a 4 piece band, that sounded like a 5 piece band!  Scott, Keith, Dave and myself, Charles Michael became the perfect 4 some. Musically we were ment to be together. In the little more than 4 years that the band was together, 30 songs were written and performed by Messiah. All of the songs except for 7 were recorded for and Album or an Ep or recorded as a Demo.

As far as the band was concerned, we were working towards playing live performances. That is what all the rehearsal was about. We recorded all our music for an Album and an Ep, so we obviously knew the songs. We spent months building our stage and props, hiring sound and light crews, even road guys to set up everything, and tear it down at the end of the night! Now for management to tell us we were not ment to play out live, just be a recording band - studio musicians - this was an insult! I personally had enough. Our albums just sat in a warehouse, there was no distribution.     Even if record companies were afraid to sign a Christian Heavy Metal band, our management could have had our albums distributed locally to music stores. They could have allowed us to play out and build a reputation locally and sold a some albums. Bob Seger had a million seller album without leaving the Detroit, Michigan area. It wasn't until much later that he went National, Who's to say it couldn't have been that way with us? But, we weren't going to be given the chance! I held a private band meeting with both Messiah and Sabotage and we all came to the same conclusion - Tom & Jan (Shepherd Productions) were holding us back! Both bands requested a meeting with Shepherd Productions and came prepared to hand in our resignations if we couldn't convince Tom what he wanted was wrong! After hearing both bands points of view, he still wouldn't change his mind.  One by one we stood up and handed in our resignations, but when it was my turn I went over the table after Tom. I was enraged, I wasn't getting any younger and to waste almost 5 years of all our lives for nothing infuriated me. I saw red, and don't remember much that happened! But they told me later that it took 6 guys to hold me back from giving Tom  what I felt was long overdue. Tom and I had friction between us for most of the 5 years he managed both bands.  His wife had a crush on me that I was unaware of in the beginning. Both bands knew it, but I must have been blind! ( I will talked more about this matter in the last chapter -  the Private Untold Story Of Charles Michael) The steam had been knocked out of me, and I guess my band mates knew it because it wasn't long afterward they asked me to step aside and manage the band, while they found a new and younger singer. I quit and walked away. Over 20 years have passed, but I guess God still isn't done with me yet, because in 2010, the music of Messiah is getting new life from RetroActive Records!  More to come....we're not done yet - Please stay tuned in because as release dates become available I will post them to my web site - God wants the message out, and it looks like it finally is going to happen again!