As a child, I grew up in Woodville, Florida, attending the Woodville First Baptist Church. In my mid-twenties I went on to serve as their choir director and youth pastor/leader (no official titles back then). Around this time I made the decision to go on the road full time playing music with my band. I had the opportunity to record some songs that I had written in the old RCA Studio B in Nashville, Tennessee. I went on to release these songs on the radio nationwide. So then, I went on the road and that was my first big mistake!
I toured to promote my songs with the band and I actually made it to the top 100 in the nation on the Indie, Billboard and Cash box charts. “David Bruce” was on the move! I was later invited to Nashville to do a writer’s “showcase”. I was even being referred to by a few radio stations as the new underground, “David Allen Coe”. It all went to my head, which was not a good thing!
As time went on, I started to gain steam in bookings and radio play. However, I found that I was extremely miserable with no answer as to why. I had two beautiful children at the time, but I didn’t get to see either of them enough. I was always on the road chasing the dream, or so I thought! My daughter Saleah was only about one and a half, and David was about 9 at that time. Saleah was a smart child and began to talk in full sentences at around one year old. So, she used to call me late at night (more like 2:00 in the morning) after my shows were over. She would just cry and cry on the phone. It just broke my heart and I missed her and my son David so very much. I remember her saying each time that she called how much she missed me and she’d beg me to come home. That was the beginning of my breaking point.
The short story is that I ended up at the wrong end of a .45 pistol in Jesup, Georgia, in February of 1991! I was just as lost as a dog! Nothing compares to how I felt during that time. I was so lonely missing my wife Lanita and the kids. I felt like I could die! But wait, I had records spinning on the radio and I was headed toward being a star. I should have been happy, right? Well no! I wasn’t. So then out came the pistol! I sat on the bed looking down the barrel of my C**t .45 and it looked so big that a train could come out of it. That is when the door flew open and in walked the ex-preacher and he was mad! David Bruce wasn’t on the stage and he came to kick my tail!
Luckily, that guy was a good friend of mine and saw what was really going on in that motel room that night. We had been on the road together for a while at that time and he was a good friend to me. God really knew that I needed one! Michael was the bass guitar player in the band at that time. The following day, after he talked me off the ledge, he began to teach me how to study the Bible. He continued to encourage me to dive into the bible every day and to seek out what the scriptures really meant with a concordance that we bought. Michael Paul had been in the ministry, prior to this time, with Wayne Cochran, the ol “CC Rider” himself in Miami, Florida at the “Voice for Jesus” church. He had a falling out with Wayne over something and said that” he wanted nothing to do with ministry at that time, but he would teach me so that my blood would not be on him”. Those were his words, not mine. Thank god for Mike!
I decided right then and there that I wanted to continue to follow Jesus and about 4-5 months later I was filled with the Holy Ghost watching a christian revival television show in Brooksville, Florida! We were playing at a nightclub there. I was sitting alone, there in my hotel room, when the Holy Ghost came to me and filled me with his spirit! I was literally knocked on the floor and it was awesome! It was such a very special and intimate experience that I had that night with God. I have never looked back to that life since then! I had found the answer!
I came off the road about a year later and quit my own band. I then got involved with a local church in Tallahassee, Florida, called “Faith Assembly of God”. The church was led by Pastor Gary Brady. Over the next 10 years he became a really good friend and mentor to me. I had finally found the family that I had always been searching for! Just a few months later, after coming to this church, I had the chance to travel to Russia. I went with a great team of evangelists and musicians. That is where I ended up meeting and blowing my horn with my good friend Ronald Gray.
I have been on several trips with Ronald Gray to Central America since that first meeting in Russia, but let me share this. I used to tell a story about how Ronald Gray (Piano), my friend Richard Carlton (drums) and I (saxophone), saw the Shekinah or the “Glory of God” while we were worshiping on stage before the event even started! It was awesome. I actually saw the angels! I turned around and Richard was crying just like I was. The Holy Ghost was in the house! Ronald is my big brother and mentor in Christ! I thought it was pretty funny how God had worked all of this out way back then. That was only 4 months after I had left the clubs! He had a plan for my life before I was even born. God is so awesome!
Several years later, I was ordained through the “Abundant Life Fellowship” church in Tallahassee, Florida, by Pastor Larry Millender. I have had the privilege to minister with Pastor Larry from time to time in his church. It is always a wonderful time in the spirit. Since the time that he ordained me, I would like to say that it has been a smooth ride, but that would be a big fat lie. It has been tough through the years, but I will say that it is and has been, a most interesting path that I have traveled!
I have had the privilege to go out and preach in many churches since the “club days,” and I have traveled to different countries since then. I have been able pray over numerous people in my everyday life and I have blown my horn all over the southern United States as well. I have seen people healed, demons flee, hearing given to the deaf and so many other miracles that I can’t count! However, the best thing that I have ever seen is the people being “set free” through the power of Jesus Christ! Amen?
It has always been on my heart to evangelize and blow my horn full time and maybe that will happen someday. For now, I pick up the cross daily and “press on towards the mark of the higher calling”. I want to run the race and finish strong through Christ. I hope and pray that I leave a good legacy behind for my family and friends and that all people can come to the love and the saving grace of Jesus Christ!
I want everyone who reads this to know that God is truly amazing and that he set this wayward son back on the right path a long time ago and he can do it for you if you ask. All those years ago, as I was chasing that dream of a “gold record”, I had that big “hole” in my heart that nothing could fill until Jesus Christ filled it, the night there in Brooksville, Florida, over 27 years ago now. He filled my life and he will fill yours! I sincerely hope that God will use this testimony to spread his message and to “set the captives free”!
So in closing, may God richly bless you and keep you. Always remember that “God is not a respecter of persons”. Meaning, that if did it for me then he will do it for you as well!
Thank you so much for taking the time to share my life story. I have so many stories to fill in the blanks here, but that is for another day!
David “Bruce” Stallings
