I Took the Gift and Ran

A miracle. That's how a person could describe my life. It's miraculous that I even survived my first day on earth.

My mother didn't want me so the midwife took and wrapped me in some newspaper and put me outside in the garbage bin. I would have breathed my last there if it hadn't been for a curious next-door neighbor who was watching from her kitchen window. Wondering what was being thrown away, she went to the bin some time later to find a baby thrown away with the garbage.

This woman rescued me and took care of me as her own child. She adopted me, loved me and gave me a home and family. But that didn't keep me from trouble, drugs, and a rough life.

I got into the music scene. Together with my friends, we formed the Native American band known as XIT in late 1969. We played in bars and on college campuses. We did a lot of original rock n roll songs and other cover tunes that most rock bands from that era used to do. One time we got a gig in Bakersfield, California. We went out there playing at this place on Tuesday nights. Some of the guys had never been to Los Angeles. They'd never seen the beach.

When we got through the concert, we would drive down to L.A. for a couple of days and then go home from there. During the week, I would pedal our demos of four songs that I'd put on reel-to-reel tapes. I left the others at the beach and told them I had to drop the tapes off at different recording companies. About a month later, one of them called me and said "Tom, you dropped off a tape."

"Yeah," I said.

"There's a song that Cal David wants to produce on the Jackson Five label."

My response was, "What's keeping him from doing so?"

Basically, that's how I started. All of a sudden, I was making records.

When I was about 19, I started a record label called Lance Records. That was the first label I had. I was selling 45 rpms (records) out of the back of my car and they were rhythm and blues recordings from groups out of New Mexico. I did that for two or three years. I also got involved with some people promoting rock concerts in Albuquerque. From there I went on to artist management and music publishing.

In 1970, I wrote a song that was recorded by the Jackson Five on their Multi-Platinum album that they called "Maybe Tomorrow." My song is called "We've Got Blue Skies," not to be confused with the standard that was written in the 1940s.

The Jackson Five were starting a label called Rare Earth for non-African-American groups so they asked me if we'd like a contract.

"Of course!" I replied.

We got a contract and recorded. It became a monumental, historical record. I wrote the songs "Plight of the Red Man" and "Silent Warrior." Those two albums continued to sell forever.

From the time I was six or seven up until I was a young adult, I stammered profusely. It didn't hurt my singing because for some reason, you don't stutter when you sing. My stuttering gave me low self-esteem. A lot of things go along with that, plus it was just the way my life was in general at that time.

I faced a lot of adversity. Now that I look back, I know God helped me to overcome all that.

I had so many chances to get right with God and didn't take them. I cried out to the Lord and asked Him to take away my stammering. But basically, I lied. I said, "Take this from me and I will serve You." But when He did take it away, I took the gift and ran.

Still the Lord was patient with me and gave me success. I started selling trucks and was really good at it because I sold a lot. I reached as far as I could go in this business-achieving much success. But I felt empty inside. It took me 15 years after that to finally give my life to Jesus.

In 1988, I felt the call back into the music business. I used the two albums, "Plight of the Red Man" and "Silent Warrior" to start Sound of America Records (SOAR). I purchased back the rights. This was unheard of and I believe now that it was God-ordained.

I put these albums in the back of my truck and headed out to the Four Corners area and opened up a counter. I came back and ordered more. And came back again, ordering even more. That's how the company grew. Now we have over 300 titles with a huge Internet mail-order operation.

Even though I was now quite successful again in the music business, I was still empty. My wife, Vicki, started attending several churches looking for the right one. One Sunday, we were coming home from a church and we drove by another church and saw the people coming out. I looked at my wife and said, "Maybe we ought to try this one. We haven't tried this one." Ironically, my son had attended the church the week before. We attended the following Sunday and actually surprised one another. We were there-all three of us.

It was an uplifting service. When the invitation was given, I couldn't resist the tug of the Holy Spirit. I knew it was time to stop fighting. I went forward and accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of my life.

My son and I ended up getting baptized on New Year's Eve. Since then, we have been very active in church. My wife and son are involved in the prison ministry, the evangelistic ministry and other things of this nature. I'm on the pastor's planning committee.

God not only placed me in a church home, He's placed me upright. See, I look back on this whole picture starting from day one-He has a plan for me.

When God has a plan for you, there's no escaping that plan. There's no place you can hide where God can't find you. There's no hiding from Him. People in the Bible tried hiding from God. You can't.

God won't force Himself on you. Unfortunately, we human beings fight God every step of the way.

There were a lot of hurt and wounds to be healed between my son and me. I'm here to say that because of God's grace and mercy, we're on the right path. We now have nothing but love and respect for one another. I attribute all that to our relationship with God.

I have to credit my wife for never giving up on me. But I still take one day at a time, just like a recovering alcoholic, I've got to make it through each day. Satan isn't going to leave us alone just because all of a sudden we accepted Jesus into our lives. That's when He opens the door and brings along six buddies and it's a gang attack!

Every day I wake up in the morning and say, "Lord, I thank You for this day. I don't know what lies ahead for me, but get me through this day." I know that greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.