Excerpts from the featured artist interview
for PCM Magazine.
PCM: Tell us about your ministry.
DANNY: The ministry I have been given has always been and
will continue to be a ministry with one goal: to proclaim the
salvation message through song to everyone/anyone who will listen.
It is my prayer that as people listen to each song that I sing
that the songs will always be more than just words and music.
I want the songs to be a reflection of God's love.
PCM: How did it all start?
DANNY: I actually started in the ministry at the young age of 11!
On Sunday mornings I would assist with teaching children new songs to
sing. I used puppets at the time - I didn't start singing until later.
I performed with my puppets at various functions: churches, benefits,
civic clubs etc. I also performed at three local nursing homes every
Saturday afternoon, which later grew and added a fourth
nursing home. I did that until I was 18.
I did not start singing until I was 15. I remember trying out for the
youth choir at our church, and I had a bad experience with the Music
Director. I went home crying that night. I always dreamed of singing.
I prayed to God almost all night for the opportunity to sing for Him.
I remember praying, "God if you will give me a voice I will
sing for you the rest of my life".
To make a long story short, God answered my prayers and the doors
started to fly open! Right before my 16th birthday, I was given the
opportunity to record my first 45rpm single. It received major
airplay around the state of Florida. A few months after its release
I was doing a guest appearance on a radio show called, "Hour of Love"
hosted by Ralph March. I had brought a friend along with me to sing
that night, her name was Hope Reuben. The radio station’s owner
was in town visiting at the time. He heard us and rushed to the station
to talk to us. He offered us our own radio show, which began about a month
later. We called the show, "Reach Out". The main goal that we envisioned
for "Reach Out" was to have local talent on the show and have a chance
for their respective ministries to grow. Hope and I both co-hosted
the show together for a couple years. We eventually went to pursue separate
goals and I continued to host Reach Out. We had interviews with well-known
gospel artists such as: Amy Grant, Sandi Patty, The Gaithers, The Imperials,
Rex Nelon (of The Nelons), Debby Boone, and many others.
I hosted "Reach Out" for nearly eleven years. It grew from one station
to several stations during its lifespan. Reach Out Ministries
included a telephone hotline after the show, street witnessing,
annual concerts (featuring myself and several guests who had appeared
on the show during the year), and weekly Bible studies, as well as
my own performances and appearances.
At the age of 28 I took time off from radio and music ministry
to pursue other goals in my life.
God had to deal with me in His own way and in His own time.
During the year 2000, a special friend of mine, Cindy Skinner-James,
talked me into re-releasing several of my older recordings onto CD.
She even designed a website for me. She told me that God had given
me a gift and I should be using it for Him instead of ignoring
Him and what He has given me. After much prayer and soul searching,
God started working in my life and, with His help I recorded,
"Old Time Religion", a recording I always dreamed of doing. However,
I was reluctant to promote the CD. I guess it had to be in God's
timing and not my own! I am excited and thankful everyday about
all the new adventures God is bringing into my life.
PCM:Tell us about your CD projects, "Old Time Religion",
"We Will Stand" and “In A Different Light”.
DANNY: I love good ol' country music and my heart always goes
back to the old songs of the church. These writers lived what
they wrote! My favorite part of Fanny Crosby’s "Blessed Assurance"
is, "… Visions of rapture now burst on my sight…" What a glorious
thought – if you aren’t aware, Fanny Crosby was blind and I know
the first face that she saw was the face of Jesus!
I was reluctant to record "We Will Stand". However, God has a
way of having His way sometimes! I dedicated that recording to
the victims of the 9-11-2001 tragedy and their families.
My favorite song on that project is, "God Bless America".
I sang that song with my five-year-old niece, Shayna. I was
surprised that she knew every word! She is anxious to sing
another one with me and I plan to do that again soon.
I am really excited about “In A Different Light”! This is
the first project that features songs that I was blessed
to write. One of the songs is called, "If God Be For Us".
It is a song that I originally composed when I was 18 but
never finished. My friend Terry Lee graciously helped me
complete the song and co-wrote the verses with me.
"If God be for us … who can be against us!" Through this recording,
I pray that people will see God in a different light,
the same way He looks at us, with love and compassion.
PCM: How does being in ministry minister BACK to you?
DANNY: I remember when doing the "Reach Out" radio program,
I would sometimes keep going and going even when I had nothing
left to give. I had to learn to break away and find that quiet
time to be alone with God. HOWEVER, every day I was somehow
ministered back to even when I was exhausted. I still run into
people who listened to the show or saw one of my performances and
learn how God really touched them through my music. That is and
will always be a blessing to me: to know that God made some
kind of impact on someone's life through my ministry.
My father passed away when I was 18. He helped me compile the
songs for the recording, "Come Morning". However, he passed
away before it was released. My Father was not much on church or
religion, but he faithfully listened to each of my radio shows
and attended some of my performances. The greatest way the ministry
has ministered back to me came through something that happened
with my Father. During one of the radio broadcasts, he gave his
life to the Lord! Now, to me, that is the biggest way for any
ministry to minister back to the minister!
I know I'll see my father again one day!
PCM: What about the future? Any long term planning going on?
DANNY: My plans for the future? I usually am not a planner.
I just take one day at a time. Where God leads me I will go and
whatever He has planned for me I will do.
PCM: If you had one chance to tell our readers about the
REAL you, what would you want them to know?
DANNY: The real me? Now that is a scary thought! I would have
to say when all is said and done, as the song Evie sang years ago,
"I want to be remembered as the "boy"
who sang his songs for Jesus Christ."
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