Memories page 4

I first saw Mylon & Broken Heart when they played Wright Auditorium at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, in the early ’80’s. I was totally blowed away both with the music and the intensity of his testimony about Jesus Christ. At the time I was part of a local Christian rock band called Life Lite. Just as the concert started I was surprised to hear someone exclaim “Man, they are rocking just like Life Lite!”. From that concert on we decided to pattern ourselves as best we could after Broken Heart. Eventually we had the chance to see Mylon & Broken Heart three times, and opened for former guitarist David Payton once in Georgia and once in NC. Mylon and Broken Heart remain both my musical inspiration and my favorite band to this very day. My thanks and my prayers go with him always.

Charles Latham
Washington, NC

I became a Christian in 1983. I was overdosing on drugs in the floor of my dorm room. I was drowning in my own vomit. I had been raised in church so I called out to God. I knew that if he did not help me I would die a slow miserable death. After calling out to him, he spoke to me and said “I will save you but I want you to turn your life over to me completely”. I said okay, I will. I was immediately able to set up and breath. I cupped my face in my hands and said out loud “Oh my God, what a trip. I thought I heard God”. In 2 seconds, I was down on the floor again and God said “I am real and I want all or nothing”. I got off the floor that day with a fire in my heart. I was totally sold out. I took all my music and threw it away and went down stairs to rummage through the lobby to find a Bible.

After that, I couldn’t get enough of God’s word. The first CD I purchased was Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing. Morning Star is a song that I still sing when I worship God and enter into the Holy of Holies and bow down at His feet. Thank you for your ministry. It changed my life.

In Christ’s Love,
Mary J. Schoendorfer

PS: The first time I saw you was in Bluefield, WV and your equipment wouldn’t fit on stage!

My name is Jeff Edwards and I live in Marietta Ga. I was a teenager when I found the Lord at one of your concerts at Mt. Paran. You were an unbelievable influence on me in some of the most difficult years of my life! Your kind words backstage, your ministry, and most of all, your music! You personally helped guide me to the Lord and through the years, your music has stayed with me. I am now 46 years of age, I have been married to my best friend (Sally) for 16 years and I just want to say thank you!!! You are still “The Man”!!!

Love you brother,
Jeff Edwards

Mylon, and broken heart was one of the very first Christian concerts i went to when i was in junior high school and i went with my youth group and he was performing in Pittsburgh PA. at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and that was in the mid 80’s and boy was he good.  i have gotten probably all of his albums

Wendy and George Sprock

In the early 1980’s I had just become a Christian. I was watching Jim Bakker’s PTL Club on TV. Jim had Mylon’s grandmother on the show. In the middle of Jim’s interview with her, she announced that her grandson had returned to the fold and was sold out for Jesus!!! She was dressed very conservatively in what I thought was ‘old lady clothes’ with black shoes.

Lo and behold, she says that he consented to come on the show and here he is. The curtain parted and there was this ‘hard rocker’ with long, wild hair and black leather clothes, twanging on the guitar with his band mates!!!! I LOVED IT!!!

I was a young woman (32) and happy to see a little wildness for Jesus!!! Plus I was so touched by how very proud she was of him….hands clutched across her chest as she beamed at him. It was a beautiful moment!! I’ve never forgotten it.

Thanks for giving me a venue to write about this.

Kathy Dean
Melbourne FL.

Hi! Love the site!!  In 1983 I was invited to attend a concert in Grand Rapids, Michigan.   I was young teen and a Christian but was never really into the Christian music scene and had recently discovered the Imperials and Petra.  Little did I know that night I would be introduced to Mylon & Broken Heart.  They came walking from the back of the auditorium with guitars a blazing as they took the stage.  As the saying goes first impressions usually make a lasting impression and here I am 30 years later telling you about it.  But that wasn’t what impressed me most about Mylon.

After the show he was standing up on the mezzanine and chatting with some of the fans who wanted to meet him.  I waited my turn because I wanted to get his autograph.  He took my magazine and proceeded to sign an illegible autograph followed by a clearly written “Jesus is Lord!”   He handed it back to me and asked me, “Do you know Him?” to which I responded yes and then he said, “Good I’m glad, take care little brother.”

I have never forgotten that short encounter and have been listening to his music ever since.  After the concert I went out and purchased the “More” LP which is still one of my favorites to this day.  “The Warrior” is my personal favorite Mylon song.  What a message of hope!  May God bless you and Mylon and all who read.

Gary Farnquist

We had lost our 24 yr old son to cancer. The song “Without Him” continues to speak to how I feel about the Lord.

Thank you Mylon

Marge Blankenship
Alaska

I was just sitting here this Sunday morning listening to Mylon on Spotify as my CD’s are currently packed away. I was searching for any of the great VHS concerts that may have made it to DVD and found your website. WHAT a great website thank you for that.

Ok on to my two concert experiences.

The first time I saw Mylon was back home in New Orleans, he had one of our local Allen Toussaint open for him. What a great double bill that was. This was on the Sheep In Wolves Clothing tour. Fantastic show and so many times you felt the Holy Spirit was there. Great band and his voice was as superb. Truly one of the greatest nights of my life. Sitting this morning reliving those songs gave me goosebumps and brought me right back to that night.

The second time we took a trip from Slidell, LA to Houston, TX for another great show, we had the weekend at Astroworld. The highlight for me of course was knowing I was getting to see Mylon again. The amazing show we witnessed was started off with some guy I had never heard of walking up on stage with a yellow t-shirt on that said Rich Mullins, we are all looking at each other and saying WHO is this guy? Little did we know, but he blew me away to start the show. In fact, I had to buy that first album as soon as I returned home.

Next up was GLAD. It was truly an amazing show from them. Then Russ Taff…. not a big fan but he had a great show. Then time for Mylon. Now this would have been right as Look Up was coming out. Some different band members than I had seen him with before but still one awesome show! I remember buying a great t-shirt and button that night. Of course, that shirt was worn out long ago and I know I wouldn’t fit in it now even if I had it.

Mylon if you see this, years later I saw you preach in a church in Farmers Branch and spoke with you afterwards. I also still have a cassette of you preaching at Pastor Green’s church back home in New Orleans that I pull out from time to time. GOD truly blessed us with all his talents. I still can step away awhile and then turn on his music and as this morning the goose bumps start again.

Praise the LORD for Mylon and all he has done!

Chris G

The most interesting part about reading the memories is that they are all post 1980. I know Mylon says he really starting walking the Christian way and turned himself over to Christ in 1980 but that does not diminish in any way the importance and strength of his early rock and roll music. It is his first record as a rock n roller from 1970 and the two that followed that have spoken to me through all of these decades. Those songs help bring my eyes and heart back to Jesus if I stray and give me strength. I am a serious fan of all kinds of music but to me I am most struck by his 1970s music.

I know for him he was in a pit that grew deeper with the more drugs he used but the music and message was still good and solid: Sunday School Blues, Searching for Reality, Peace Begins Within, Hitchhike, Gospel Ship, Way maker, He’s Not Just A Soldier (and his two great Dylan covers stand up as some of the best) are just some of the great and meaningful songs he has sung. I know my older brother would agree because he introduced me to Mylon’s music when I was a teen-ager in Greensboro, Georgia. My brother has been influenced by Mylon and writes beautiful songs about the love and forgiveness of Jesus.

I just bought Mylon’s book, Live Forever and I love and respect that Mylon doesn’t try to ignore that period of his life and seems very kind, thoughtful, and insightful about how to present it in the backdrop of his whole musical life. He is someone who seems to take the loving and forgiving approach and looks at his own shortcomings and relates them rather than first focusing on another’s shortcomings. This is why I am now beginning to listen to his preaching. So, I sense that reading his book is the beginning of something new for me.

Nancy

I was honored to be the lead guitarist during the “meteoric rise” to the top of the Contemporary Christian Music scene. We did hundreds of shows for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people.  It never got old.  It never got routine.  We literally prayed for every single person that ever heard us play.  It was a real ministry, not just a business. We got to share the stage and hang out with the biggest and the best, but that gangly kid on the 12th row was just as important to us as any celebrity or record company exec.  Actually, more so.

This band, as imperfect as we were, never lost sight of the incredible calling and responsibility God had laid on our shoulders.  Sure, we wanted to blow people away musically, and yes, even sell a lot of tickets & CDs.  But the number one thing that Broken Heart wanted was to lead people to the arms of Jesus.  We would much prefer that people leave our concerts saying, “Wow, Jesus is AMAZING!” than any accolades about us.

Almost 30 years later, I can confidently say that Mylon & Broken Heart was trying most of all to be a group of evangelists and preachers far more than Christian “rock stars”.  Our music was just a tool to earn the respect and attention of our audience so we could clearly communicate the love of Christ with power and authority.

I thank God for the opportunities we had as a band (ministry), and the many opportunities that I’ve had since leaving Broken Heart in my own ministries to lead thousands more to the Lord.  There is nothing in the universe more important!

I love you all!

David Payton

In April of 1988, I saw Mylon and Broken Heart at the Fox Theatre in Hutchinson, KS. The concert was sponsored by the Abundant Life Church. I had a blast and will never forget it!

Dwayne Gobin

Well, I remember seeing MF at Mount Paran COG back when it was Airborne Ministries (late 70’s/early 80ish) with parachutes all over the ceiling.  I had just turned 16 years old when we stumbled into the gymnasium.  What an incredible experience.  Huge countdown on the video screen and they simply cranked into my most memorable song…FREEDOM!   Talking about being the epicenter of Christian Contemporary Movement, Mylon was shaking the East Coast.

I must have seen these guys a 100 times over the years.  You have folks like Stan Coates, John Hampton, Dean (mega vortex steel string maestro) Harrington and Kenny Bentley (who was quite a bass player’s inspiration).  It was truly divine intervention being my evening hours diversion centered around a Mylon LeFevre Concert with biblical plugs in between wide open rocking songs as a teenager.  Music is a powerful delivery system and MF’s cut deep into many lives sewing tons of mustard seeds.  Bunch of Jesus Freaks (HA)!

David Brown

I have a bit of a different perspective on Mylon and Broken Heart.  I was one of the youth ministers at Mount Paran Church of God in Atlanta when Mylon made Jesus his Lord back in 1980.  I was also the staff member responsible for the Family Life Center there.  So when Dr. Walker gave Mylon a job as a janitor at the Family Life Center so he could hang out there during the day instead of hanging with some of his old crowd I was actually his boss.  I know that Mylon loves to tell the story about his time as a janitor, but if the truth were told he wasn’t a very good janitor…..lol.

It was there that Mylon met Dean Harrington, who had been my roommate for a number of years, and who was playing with The Gathering Ground Band for our youth meetings there.  Mylon started jamming with those guys, and they eventually became Mylon’s first Christian rock band.  There was Dean, Mike Milsaps, Kim Klaudt, Don Woods, and Mike Adams.

Back then they were known as Air Born and they played every Monday night in the gym.  Clay Burdette and I were actually the ones who hung all of the big parachutes in the gym to cut down on the reverberation of Mylon’s music.  I remember Mylon’s first live concert in the gym after he left secular rock and roll.  The place was packed with a lot of people from the Atlanta music scene who wanted to see what Mylon was doing.  For that first concert Mylon and all of the band members came out in these really spacey astronaut outfits.  When they started playing every Monday at the gym, honing their act before they hit the big time, I got to do the “Countdown to Blastoff” before every concert, and I can even say that I was a member of Mylon’s first Christian rock band.  There was a song they did…..”Gonna be there, gonna meet Him in the air and be Air Born!”……that had an air raid siren solo in the middle of it.  For 15 seconds I jumped up on stage and cranked up the air raid siren!

I remember when Mylon was ready to release Brand New Start and start to tour again.  He ran into a problem because the name Air Born was licensed to a competitor at the time to UPS and FedEx, and it would cost too much to buy them out for the name.  We used to have a Bible study with Mylon and the band and the youth staff at Mount Paran each week.  About that time Mylon came in excited about something new in the Word he had found that he thought was just “killer”.  It was the verse where it says that God will not despise a broken and humble heart.  I believe that was the seed that God planted in Mylon’s heart that grew into the ministry of Broken Heart.

During those first few years as Mylon’s mind and body were being renewed from the years of drugs and the rock and roll lifestyle he had lived he was still on what we used to call MST, or Mylon Standard Time.  He was used to staying up all night and sleeping most of the day.  During that time, I would sometimes drive to Mylon’s house around midnight because I knew he would be up and might want to have someone to hang out with.

I remember one night we were just hanging out and Mylon went into a lot of detail telling me about his life growing up, how he got into rock and roll, and what those years had been like.  I had known bits and pieces of his testimony, but this time I got the whole picture.  What surprised me was how much I related to the feelings and struggles he was sharing with me, even though my life had been nothing like his on the surface.

I left Mylon’s house about 3 in the morning and was driving home on the interstate thinking about everything he had shared with me…..what it had been like for him all those years.  Out of nowhere a thought came to me……and then another one.  They were thoughts about what he had just shared with me, and I knew I had to write them down and share them with him.

I knew that if I didn’t write them down right then I might not remember them, so I pulled off on the side of the interstate, found a pen and an old Wendy’s paper bag (Don’t ask me why it was still in the car!), and wrote the two thoughts down that seemed to capture what Mylon had felt all those years.

“My mind has been a battlefield where many wars were fought.  My soul has been a marketplace where others sold and bought.”

When I got home the rest of the two verses just flowed out.  They were literally written as fast as I could write…..they were just there.  The next time I saw Mylon I gave him the two verses.  I didn’t think of them as a song.  They were just a poem about Mylon and what the Lord had done in his life.  You can imagine my surprise a few week later when Mylon told me I was now a songwriter and he was recording my song on the “More” album.

So, I was there at the beginning and have followed Mylon’s life ever since.  I even had Mylon’s daughter, Summer, in my middle school discipleship group – The White Horse Riders.  Through it all I can say that Mylon is without a doubt one of the most uniquely called servants of God that I have ever known or seen.  It has been truly awesome to watch God’s good and perfect plan for his life unfold, first through his rock and roll ministry and then through his ministry as an anointed minister of the Word of God.

I had the opportunity to see and hear Mylon for the first time in 7 years last week at a church north of Atlanta, and he just continues to grow in the Lord.  I thought his rock and roll ministry was powerful, but those were just lyrics that Mylon wrote about what God had done and was doing in his life back then.   Now I was hearing Mylon talking about the very words of God Himself and how alive they were today, and his message was more powerful than the most rocking song that Mylon and Broken Heart ever played.  His stage is bigger now.

God has continued to call Mylon to the special plans that He began in him back in 1980, and the plans just keep getting bigger.  I marveled at the ministry of Broken Heart in the 80s and early 90s.  I am in awe of Mylon’s ministry of the Word of God now.  I used to say, “Rock on, Mylon!”  Now I have to say, “Preach it, Brother!”

Your brother and friend…..forever…..in Christ!
Bill Morris

I’ve been following Mylon since I was 19 (I’m 62 now!). I saw him perform first at nearby DeKalb Community College (Clarkston GA) during a ‘Spring Fling’. I loved his message and Testimony that day. I fell to my knees during the show (my Friend thought I was going crazy). I found out his Church was Mt. Paran Church of God, where I attended service there a few times.

I ran into him one day in the Church’s library! They had some of his preaching/talks on cassettes there, and he saw me picking some out, and he asked me some questions about my interest in him. I blabbered on about my entire life to date. And then he said, ‘Let’s pray together’. And I haven’t been the same since. I bought all his Studio albums on cassette and the CD. I went a few times to the Broken heart studios in Marietta. And he’s always approached me, if he sees me, and we talk to Jesus together. He invited me to his huge home in Atlanta once, and I drove down the driveway, but somebody told me he had been called away for something.  But that was OK. You know just being near his home just brought such peace around me!

I’ve had some ‘hic ups’ in my spiritual walk, more often than not, in my life. But Jesus always takes me back. During one ‘troublesome day’ I just decided to listen to some of Mylon’s

Music in my car …. In particular – ‘For My growing’ and it enlightened me so much, that I just broke down and cried to Jesus asking simply that throughout the day that he place in me the best understanding of his will for me. On the drive home I was never at so much peace in my life. And I remember Mylon telling me to keep my nose in the Bible. I truly believe Mylon’s music and teachings lift me up and very often are an unshakable foundation for my walk with Jesus. Even today, sometimes when I stray and I can’t wait for that experience again and get no definite indication I actually repeat this measure (Listening to Mylon) several times.

I’ve seen EVERY Mylon and/or Broken Heart Concert he has played in Atlanta. I make an effort to go see Mylon preach every time he is near me in the Georgia area and sometimes I’ll go to nearby South Eastern States.

Thank you Mylon for being a part in my walk and my talk with Jesus… and you don’t even know it.

Your’s In Jesus,
Warren Hewetson (Actually a Contributor to this Site. Album Artwork)
Atlanta GA

**That’s correct, Warren has sent me some scans on some of Mylon’s hard to find LP’s. Thanks so much for your contribution brother. You are really appreciated!

What really left an impact on me was during those days many people were saying, “God is cool.” Mylon looked at me and with his deep voice said, “God’s not cool, God is holy.” I have such great admiration for him, his story and commitment to the Lord. Although I consider him a great rocker, he certainly has his priorities straight, proclaiming, “Jesus Christ as Lord” and a heart for bringing many souls into the kingdom.

Some of my favorite songs are “My Heart Belongs to Him”; “More (Of Jesus)”; “The Power”; “The Warrior”; “He Is Strong”; “Morning Star” and “Crack the Sky” and “The Name Of The Lord”. They definitely encouraged me in my worship of the Lord Jesus. Thank you Mylon.

God bless you Mylon, your family and ministry.
Sincerely,
David Goodwin

I only saw you perform twice live. Once was the Sheep In Wolves Clothing tour in my home town of New Orleans. Great show with Allen Toussaint opening the night. Then I would see you again in Houston (where I now live) on the show at Six Flags which was when Look Up had been released. With Russ Taff, GLAD and a then unknown guy name of Rich Mullins. He blew me away as well and I went right back to my local Christian book store where i bought all my music for you and so many others and bought that album. Both times were such great nights. Thank you for those memories. and moments.

Chris Goodwin

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