Sid Roth

Sid: I have on the telephone Jon Maracle I’m speaking to him at the Tyen-di-naga, oi vei was I close Jon?

Jonathan: Tyendinaga.

Sid: Oh I wasn’t even close territory Ontario, Canada where you were raised. You are a Native American from the Mohawk Tribe. And as a matter of fact you’ve done some pretty serious song writing with the television series “High Way to Heaven” played one of your songs how did they happen to do that?

Jonathan: Well I had written a song before I was a Christian and it was called “Survival in the Streets” and it’s amazing that the TV show “Highway to Heaven” picked it up before I was a Christian.  And it was about in with the in crowd and I wrote the song about the death and the struggle of people in the streets and the pain and the hardship of being on the street as a street way of life.

Sid: How did you end up in that type of a lifestyle coming from a really good Christian family?

Jonathan: Well I guess the thing that really took me in that direction was the hypocrisy in the church.  As I grew up as a young man I was in church most of my life as a young man, and you know I just noticed that people said one thing and did another a lot in church. And unfortunately I did not realize that it was a personal relationship that I needed and that I didn’t need to be looking to see other people and their walk but I needed to focus on my own. And this was when I was young and didn’t really realized that I was supposed to do it that way. So I watched people fall and rise and to me that was like “Well if you’re supposed to be a Christian aren’t you supposed to do things right?”  And so that’s why I left our home when I was 17 and began a career in Rock and Roll that lasted for 13 years.

Sid: We’re you much into drugs?

Jonathan: Oh yeah I did I did my fair share of drugs yeah.

Sid: Have any close calls?

Jonathan: Awe yeah I took enough at times to knock myself right out you know. And oh I spent some awful time drinking. I was so wrapped up in drugs that at the end when I was realizing that something had to change I couldn’t get away from them I had to have them every day and I’d drink, and I just felt life was over I didn’t even care to live any more.

Sid: But your father not only was he a minster he had a miracle ministry. Didn’t that have an impact on you even with the hypocrisies you saw the real thing also?

Jonathan: Yeah it did but you know the way of the world was sweet it seemed to me and I just kind of was wooed by people that were around me by piers and all.  I guess music was really caught my spirit. And I got involved in music you know I was in music in the church and then when I saw the excitement of the music in the world and I tasted and I kept going in that direction for a long time but it was a steady downhill spiral for me in my life.

Sid: What basically caused the difference what was the change besides going downhill and then dying?

Jonathan: Well I was in Hollywood, California and I had left home over 3 years before that and every once in a while I would call home and see if they would send me some money or something to help me out in my plight to become a world famous Rock singer (Laughing) that was my vision.  And I could remember calling home one time and my father I asked him if I could get some money from him and he said…and I hadn’t talked to him in like you know it was about a year from the first time that I had called him because I was arrogant and I didn’t want to have to ask but when I was down on my luck I guess the world would say “I called and I asked and I said “Dad can you help me?” And he said “Son I can’t help you do what I believe your doing is not of God.” He said “I believe God has a calling on your life” he said “And I’ll tell you this God has told me you will never make it in the world” he said “Because God has set you aside for His Kingdom.” And he said “When you turn to God” he said “You’re going to see but he said “Son I’ve got people all over North America that are praying for you every day.” And I got mad at my father on the phone and I swore at him and told him I didn’t want him to have his people praying for me because it was stopping me (Laughing) you know from doing what I wanted to do. So my dad and I didn’t talk for about 2 ½ years after that.  And I was really broken and I was in Hollywood and I had signed with a world record deal and it looked like things were going to start going where they’re getting sales in Germany and Japan and stuff like that through this band that I was joining they had already opened up these markets and I was going to be their lead singer. So I became a part of this band began to write and all and then the record company that picked us up we did a showcase for them and during this showcase I was singing the songs that kind of reflected my native heritage because that’s always been a big part of my life and so I was singing songs like the songs that I have as a Christian “Ride the Wind” And “Fly Like an Eagle” and different songs that reflected my heritage. So I sang these songs at the showcase and at the end my manager came to me after sitting with the producers and the people with the record company and told me they really liked the way you sing, they like your style they really like the band but they said “You don’t have enough connotations of evil and you don’t talk about sex and drugs and those things you need to talk about in your music. They said because that’s what the North America public wants.” And I looked at them and said “I’m native I want to sing about native things” I said “I want to sing about who I am and represent myself that way to the world.” And they basically said “We’re paying the bill so you do it our way or don’t do it at all.” I walked out and I became very very very depressed very broken didn’t really…I’d lost my will to live almost and I went out for a walk and saw some things happen in Hollywood that were just terrible a man got knifed that same day that I was in this terrible depression. The guy who knifed him on a bus jumped off and took off running. Just all of these things just helped to affect my condition that I was in and when I came back to my apartment I was crying and I sat at my desk and I always knew I was songwriter that I wrote my best songs in what emotional state I was in if I was really happy I could write a song that was really up.  If I was really broken I could write a song a tear jerker a bluesy song that was just you know draw people on their emotions. And so I sat down and thought “Well this is going to be a blues song of all blues songs.” And so I sat down and started to write it and as I wrote it I began to cry. Well 3½ years before when I was leaving Canada to go to Hollywood my dad gave me a ride to the bus terminal and as I was getting on the bus the last thing my father said to me and I hadn’t we didn’t talk all the way it was like a 20 minute drive to the bus terminal and I was taking the bus all the way to California. And the last thing he said to me when I got on the bus was “Jonathan when your backs against the wall, when you have nowhere to turn call out on the name of Jesus.” I just kind of looked at him and just kind of fluffed him off because I didn’t figure I needed Jesus I was arrogant, I was strong, I was a good singer, and I didn’t care about that and there was a hardness there. So when I was sitting at that table in Hollywood at my desk and I was writing this song and I began writing it and as I would sing it back to myself it was so depressing it would even make me worse so I was really crying. Right at that last minute I crumpled up the song and threw it in the garbage can and buried my head in my hands and I remembered those words my dad said “Call on the name of Jesus when your back’s against the wall.” Well I knew my back was against the wall and I said “Jesus help me!”  And within 10 minutes the phone rang and it was my father and this was 2½ years, at least 2 years, since I had spoken to my father and the phone rings and he says “Jonnie I’m coming to California to see you.” And I said “Dad” I said “You don’t want to see me here fly into Florida and I’ll come and see you and mom together.”  Because they were staying in a winter home in Florida and so my dad adjusted it so that I could go and stay and be with them and that was like the beginning of my call or…

Sid: You know we’re almost out of time we’ll pick up right here on tomorrows broadcast Mishpochah. I thought when I heard Hebraic Spirit Filled music there could be nothing I’d like as much but I’ve heard Jon your Native American music. Tell me about this selection out of the English “My Father, My Father You are My God.”

Jonathan: Rake’ni:ha means my Father and Ah Ni Io means God. So I say Rake’ni:ha Ah Ni:Io My Father My God My Father and in my heart I’m going my Father you are my God. And you know it’s about a passionate relationship with one who took me and saved me from a suicidal non-caring place and took me from a place where I was doing drugs and I was drinking and couldn’t get away from it and He had such mercy on me.

Jonathan Maracle “Broken Walls”