bands/acts that either found or lost religion midway through their career

was thinking of this in the W.A.S.P. thread. Obviously this is a fairly common phenomenon since lots of people find/lose religion late in life, but I'm interested in:

1) examples of religious bands (overt or discreet) where some or all of the members stopped practicing and it had a noticeable effect on their music/lyrics/fanbase/etc

2) examples of secular bands where some or all of the members found religion and it had a noticeable effect on their music/lyrics/fanbase.

for #1, I can think of Pedro the Lion, but they pretty much became extinct after Dave Bazan became disaffected with Christianity, and sly digs at it appeared in some of his lyrics. there's also MxPx, who have largely abandoned religion, but I don't know that it affected their music much, as they weren't big proselytizers. However, their fanbase has been fairly critical of Herrera and company for said abandonment.

I can't really think of many examples where the band's audience largely changed, ie, a band huge in the religious community (think CCM readers for Christianity) left the flock, and as a result, was rejected by that audience and had to re-establish themselves in the secular world and rebuild a fanbase (so this is what I"m interested in examples of).

For #2, I'm largely interested in how the move affects the musician's music after the fact, the fanbase, and if it changes who they are materially to where the core fanbase that initially adored them start to abandon them.

obviously Ma$e is a key example (though I hear he's since left the preacher fold), though I think pop and rap/r&B tend to treat these things as ancillary since a large number of rappers/pop stars/r&b singers are religious but don't make it the cornerstone of their music.

Dave Mustaine's being born-again was another - he barely talks about it in media, though it's well-known, and yet musically, it hasn't made a major impact (I'd argue being off of drugs/booze has had more of an impact). He still has a devoted fanbase, metalheads still buy their shit, but he won't play certain songs live like "The Conjuring" based on his beliefs (whereas most of the classics are fair game). he doesn't mind being profane or being an irascible asshole in interviews.

There's also W.A.S.P., really just Blackie Lawless, who in his case, has actually seen his beliefs seep a bit into his lyrics and thematics for his albums. He, too, won't play certain old classics, though the line drawn is a bit weird (he won't do "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)" presumably because of the misogyny and profanity, but "L.O.V.E. Machine" is ok?). he hasn't won many converts, though - his secular base is still his fanbase, and he still plays mostly what they want to hear live, but cleans up the lyrics.

so...more examples of each, I guess. I always wonder what would happen if a band like DC Talk ever lost their way, cos I can't imagine them catching on outside of their niche base.

r.e.m. duh

walked into that one

someone had to. how does bob dylan fit into this?

Basehead fit no. 2

Cat Stevens

Al Green

Al did a fuckin' awesome version of "Amazing Grace" a few years ago when I saw him at Universal Mardi Gras. 50 minute set, but that was one of the highlights.

can't believe I forgot about Yusuf Islam and his infamous fatwah

Walter Gibbons

Did David Thomas walk away from electric Pere Ubu and further into Jehovah's Witnessism in the mid 80s?
Remember hearing things along those lines at the time where he moved away from electric instrumentation, was playing live with accordinas and things.
But obviously it wasn't permanent since he came back with the late 80s Ubu line ups

Amy Grant is supposedly off the wagon (at least that's what the sponsored-content pop-up teasers tell me)...seems like Prince got kinda religious around the time o' Sign O' The Times...

John McLaughlin

given how shitty the community was to Grant through her career for innocuous things she said in interviews, I wouldn't blame her

do you have any other source? curious about that one (Amy Grant)

Stuart Murdock is getting pretty open about his Christianity now. Were Low ever reticent about being Mormons?

I guess a lot of michelle shocked's audience was alienated by her homophobic outbursts after she became born again

Pretty sure there are a few disco singers that found religion and dropped some of their more sexual material. Can only think of Karen Young off the top of my head, there's a couple of more obvious examples though that are eluding me right now

Oh duh Gloria gaynor

iirc Victor Lewis-Smith's sleeve notes for the Jake Thackray "Jake in a Box" compilation say that Thackray would intermittently go through periods of returning to his catholic faith and consequently renouncing some of his bawdier material

Superdrag

Richard and Linda Thompson, I don't know if there was any general reaction from their audience to them converting to Sufism, though apparently Richard was pretty concerned that he wouldn't be allowed to make music. I think Linda gave up on it after a few years.

dude from Korn found God and left the band right? can't say I know how it affected the music.

Sorry for just listing

Walter Gibbons got into Jesus and stopped playing any records that didn't glorify Him or whatever

John Davis from Superdrag got into Jesus and that's all I know.

A number of bands broke up over a key member's religious conversion: X-Ray Spex, Operation Ivy, Sunny Day Real Estate, etc.

Incredible String Band getting into Scientology

A loto f soul singers started as Gospel singers then went secular.

Chuck Schuldiner (Death) apparently found God between getting diagnosed with cancer and dying from it, but I guess that doesn't found as 'mid career'.

Cedric Bixler-Zavala became a Scientologist. Anthony Kiedis got heavy into commercial Kabbalah a few years ago

have we somehow avoided snoop lion thus far

Leonard Cohen went from Jew to Scientologist to Zen Buddhist

Another major rap example is Mase, who abandoned music entirely to focus on becoming a preacher

Tho he apparently then left being a preacher

Sammy Davis, Jr.'s conversion to Juadism

U2

Dylan hasn't been mentioned?

he was mentioned but his whole Xtian thing is kind of a lark

Philip Glass, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter.
Here's a fascinating blog post on jazz musicians who converted to Islam:

http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2013/12/islam-and-bebop-jazz

Candid Staton found jesus in the 80s and disappointed her disco queen fanbase iirc

Smoking Popes.

Did they stop smoking halfway through their papacy?

I'm not sure anyone cares about this in 2016, but Kansas was born again in the early 80s after their biggest hits and my understanding was that the Christian rock audience did get into the following run of albums.

I totally care about that!

George Harrison

Kerry Livgren came to a Christian youth convention I went to in like 1995 or 1996. He talked specifically about his conversion. I think he said he wrote "Dust in the Wind" while he was still into alternative religion and converted not long after.

I went on a retreat later that year where secular music was banned from the stereo so I bought Leftoverture from a 7-11 and played it and nobody protested it for that reason i guess.

My friend then tried to play Ministry and claim they were Xtian but nobody fell for it.

Has anyone mentioned Vanity? Actually, did Vanity continue to make music after turning to god?

Dio continued to make music after turning into God

Luke Jenner from The Rapture became a Catholic during the period between their 2nd and 3rd albums and the band stopped being fun.

Vincent Furnier returned to religion after sobering up (his father was a preacher).

Sinead O'Connor has embraced and rejected more religions than just about anyone.

I've always thought "Dust in the Wind" was a pretty Christian song for a band that wasn't yet a Christian act.

xxpost but no, Vanity didn't, she cut all ties with that life.

I've always thought "Dust in the Wind" was a pretty Christian song for a band that wasn't yet a Christian act.

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, September 10, 2016 10:19 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah I think Kerry even made a point at the conference to clarify that it was based on Indian poetry despite common conception, it does kind of fit though.

this is way off topic but is anybody here familiar with the ridiculous Christian band Lust Control, who released Condom Nation?

Five Iron Frenzy were a really popular Christian ska band (though they had a lot of secular fans), and the Fundies in my youth group loved them. supposedly many of them left the faith and now some are religious, some aren't, but they aren't a Christian band anymore.

then there was the Gospel Gangstaz, who were all ex-gang members themselves, and had a member (Tikk Tokk) depart the group and get arrested for murder afterwards.

Pete Sandoval of Morbid Angel also became a Christian in 2013 and wound up leaving up the band when his bandmates found him incompatible, but weirdly didn't leave the scene, and continued to play music with Terrorizer, who probably didn't offend his religious sensibilities because their music was mostly political (the old stuff, which is mostly what they play now). He gets clowned a bit for it by people in the scene, but he still gets adulation from fans - I caught his drum stick at the last Terrorizer show I went to and was excited about it.

He also made fun of me the first time I saw Terrorizer so fuck him.

huh, had no idea Alice Cooper was born-again

Wow that it took that many posts for someone to mention George Harrison.

What about Beastie Boys, and MCA in particular? They certainly matured, lyrically.

Re Low - as far as I know they have always been Mormon and never stopped. They do have religious songs that pop up every so often, most explicitly their Christmas album but it's there in their proper stuff too. Then there was the very dark period circa Drums & Guns (watch the documentary if you haven't). Alan was clearly affected by the political climate as well as personal demons. As far as I know he didn't lose religion at that time--but in a way that's what made the music all the more affecting.

Oh another for the list would be Dashboard Confessional, he was part of Further Seems Forever, who were a Christian emo band, before he went solo. But again I don't think he lost religion, he just went for a wider audience that wanted to be anywhere, making out.

Apparently Rick Wakeman was something like born-again sometime in the 80s, and has produced some Christian albums, which I have not heard, because Rick Wakeman has a bajillion solo records and who has time to sort through it all but maybe it's good? I bet Rick Wakeman's Christian records are pretty good.

Christians made some whacked out good music in the 80s sometimes. I remember one of Petra's albums (Not of this World) being trippy assed atmospheric hard rock

huh dashboard confessional isn't christian music??

well I do usually yell "oh my GOOOOOOOD" in rage when they come on

King's X grew less explicity Christian over time until Doug Pinnick finally just said "fuck it!" to all of it, right? Not sure about Ty and Jerry. Can't remember the whole course of events.

Pinnick came out in 1998 so a lot of Xtian chains pulled their albums, and he's an agnostic now

Xpost to Dashboard Confessional/Further Seems Forever: DC isn't particularly Christian though Carrabba definitely is, he thanks God in liner notes etc. FSF wasn't really explicitly Christian in their lyrics, at least not on the first album, but Carrabba is (as noted) and the rest of the band was previously a very Christian hardcore band called Strongarm with a different singer (signed to Tooth & Nail imprint Solid State, along with Norma Jean et c).

Xpost to Superdrag: John Davis, singer/songwriter/guitarist of the band, was in a serious car accident while touring for Last Call For Vitriol, the band's last album. He found God, finished the tour, broke up the band, and released two decent Christian praise albums as a solo artist. It's more interesting that his shoegaze revival band The Lees of Memory, which came about much later than the two solo records, seems to have little Christian input on the lyrics, but it's shoegaze so who knows what the fuck he's saying.

Devil Wears Prada are Christian and I wish they would lose their religion...and their instruments

Jeez, went down a google hole and found out there's pretty much an entire cottage industry that thrives on pointing out how Amy Grant is no more than a tool of Satan.

haha - yeah, there are lots of "End Times" blogs that are very critical of her and other artists any time they do anything human. can't blame them for wanting to leave such a rigid, unforgiving scene.

there are also blogs that point out "Christian Bands who aren't really Christian" cos "the drummer smokes" or some bullshit

Christians made some whacked out good music in the 80s sometimes. I remember one of Petra's albums (Not of this World) being trippy assed atmospheric hard rock

Basically all Petra albums during the Greg X. Volz era are fantastic, but that's a different conversation because Petra have never not been explicitly Xtian Rock.

When Johnny Cash died I remember being surprised at how much the Christian part of the internet wanted to claim him as a "Christian Rock" act, but guess that's a bit more complicated than a conversion story.

Tim Maia's Racional albums were recorded during his time as a member of a religious cult.

http://soundsandcolours.com/articles/brazil/tim-maias-journey-into-rational-culture-884/

Pretty sure there are a few disco singers that found religion and dropped some of their more sexual material. Can only think of Karen Young off the top of my head, there's a couple of more obvious examples though that are eluding me right now

― Rae Kwoniff (NickB), Saturday, September 10, 2016 5:57 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh duh Gloria gaynor

― Rae Kwoniff (NickB), Saturday, September 10, 2016 6:03 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also Donna Summer

Moby stopped advertising his religious views in interviews/writing post-'95 or so, right around the time he became an alcoholic again (his book talks about this in detail). His music retained some religious undercurrents though (e.g. the gospel samples on "Play" and "18") but AFAIK he never renounced Christianity even in his darkest periods and still identifies as Christian, although he's been outspoken against organized religion.

Jim McGuinn changed his name thanks to affiliation with one religious sect. I think he since became a born again Xian.

Pete Townshend with Meher Baba at the turn of the 70s. Not sure when that ended if it did.

Prince Buster converted to Islam after contact with Muhammed Ali. Not sure if he made much music afterwards.

Wasn't Mu's Hawaiian retreat religiously inspired?

Misunderstood lead singer went to India to dodge the draft and wound up a Krsna monk for decades.

Mind Power became rastas after seeing Bob Marley in the late 70s.

Madonna converted to judaism, and Ray of Light is a clear showcase.

the christian sellout police are worse than any punks or metalheads

neal morse of spock's beard found jesus and left the group to do songs about jesus. i can't say how it affected his music or spock's beard because i thought it was fucking awful before he converted, and am not persuaded that the experience would result in an aesthetic improvement.

William Onyeabor

Little Richard became born again and released gospel music for a few years. later became a celebrity minister

Glen Galloway left Trumans Water after returning to christianity and formed Soul-Junk.

I thought Truman's Water were all some form of Xian in the first place.
Not sure how much I liked them after seeing them a couple of times and them seeming to do the same moves at the same times in sets on consecutive nights.

Talk talk/mark Hollis

xpost - Moby put a short essay about his Christianity in the liner notes to Animal Rights, although the essay is mostly about his distaste for the Christian Coalition. That was '96.

Mark Hollis is a good one. The final 3 Talk Talk albums are basically a trilogy about his religious awakening

interesting question buried in here (and with Hollis in particular) about "conversion" and the chicken-or-egg relationship between the discovery and elaboration of an aesthetic sensibility and a religious/spiritual one. or at least i can imagine that it's possible that the pursuit of a certain musical style could inform or create religious belief--rather than the other way around.

I can also see that being the case with Coltrane, whose spiritual and musical pursuits aren't really separable.

Carlos Santana became a disciple of Sri Chinmoy, via John McLaughlin, in 1973 and totally revamped the Santana lineup, made the album Love Devotion Surrender with McLaughlin and Illuminations with Alice Coltrane, and made three more albums - Welcome, Borboletta, and the triple live disc Lotus - that were radically different from everything that had come before (mostly instrumental, for one thing, and a lot more jazz fusion than Latin blues-rock).

Religious "conversion" is not necessarily a straight-line thing, either. Where do we put Marvin Gaye? Where does "Love Me Now Or Love Me Later" sit in relation to "Sexual Healing"? Or for that matter, in relation to "God is Love"?

As for Santana, I love "Lotus", but is it really that different from "Caravanserai"?

As for Santana, I love "Lotus", but is it really that different from "Caravanserai"?

I think so, yeah. Much more aggressive, lots of loud stabbing electronics, hard funk, etc. (I think it's Santana's best record, too, but that's secondary.)

Madonna: not a Jew

mighty baby

Sunny Day Real Estate - I seem to recall the lead singer starting preaching to audience members towards the end of their career which pissed off the other band members?

Salt n Peppa - one of the two found Jesus iirc according to some distant memory via VH1

Madonna: not a Jew

thx I was wary about opening this can of worms

I can't find that tour ad/poster she did that only had nine sephirot on it

Insane Clown Posse

Prince was always religious, but it was only in the late 90s, when Larry Graham introduced him to Jehovah's Witnesses and he became one, that he couldn't accomodate the psychosexual subject matter of his most famous songs with his religious views anymore. AFAIK he didn't play some of the "dirtier" tunes in his catalogue on gigs for years, though his views on the subject seem to have softened towards the end, even though he still remained JW (I think).

Pete Townshend with Meher Baba at the turn of the 70s.

I think he first encountered Baba in 1967 or early '68. Tommy was his first public expression/acknowledgement of his newfound faith.

Not sure when that ended if it did.

In 1992 he wrote about the difficulties of remaining a Baba lover while going through bouts of raging alcoholism, cocaine/heroin addictions, and rampant philandering. He said he'd try to keep quiet about Baba, lest he appear a dilettante or hypocrite.

Then he released Psychoderelict which was lousy with Baba references; the subsequent tour was more a traveling bender than a tour (he played the entire show in Chicago flat on his back).

There's a lot to said about the ins and outs of the Jackson family and the Jehovah's Witnesses too, but not many sources to draw on as they don't seem to talk about it very much. Interesting that the lapsed Jehovah's Witness (MJ) got the cold shoulder from the more recent convert (Prince)

We've forgotten Sananda Maitreya, aka Terence Trent D'arby!

Details on his faith are slim at a glance, but presumably some flavor of Buddhism? I'm sure the name change didn't help his career at all, but clips from that time show him in as fine a form as ever, maybe better even!

Oh yeah and also let's not forget Mike Love

I read Dizzy Gillespie saying in his autobiography To Be Or Not To Bop about conversion to Islam among jazz musicians in pre-civil rights era US. Apparently there was a difference in status which bypassed some aspects of segregation. Need to reread for specifics but that was the gist. I think it became easier if the player appeared to be an exotic foreigner than an American black. Pretty disgusting state of affairs really to have to do that against institutionalised racism.

Good book too.

Yeah, I remember reading about that too... Apparently, if they converted to Islam and changed their name into an arabic one, they could show their papers and people would label them as Middle Eastern, who at the time were considered white. So they could check in at segregated hotels, eat in "for whites only" restaurants, etc. According to Gillespie, this was the main reason why some jazzmen converted. Kinda funny but mostly sad, like you say.

"I read Dizzy Gillespie saying in his autobiography To Be Or Not To Bop about conversion to Islam among jazz musicians in pre-civil rights era US. Apparently there was a difference in status which bypassed some aspects of segregation. Need to reread for specifics but that was the gist. I think it became easier if the player appeared to be an exotic foreigner than an American black. Pretty disgusting state of affairs really to have to do that against institutionalised racism."

korla pandit is a pretty famous example of this (not that he converted to islam, but he got on tv presenting himself as a "mystical easterner").

Wanna mention Princess Superstar and Andrew WK who both went down the self-help/life coach/self-actualization rabbithole so far that it somehow resulted in them losing whatever it was that motivated them to make cool music.

I was curious about this...I know AWK still tours or at least does brief jaunts. What's he playing? All of I Get Wet and a few other songs or what?

Basically just plays his old stuff (half I Get Wet, quite a bit from Close Calls, this and that from whereever else) as a solo artist which is actually pretty good if it's in the right venue. Saw him twice over the last 3 or 4 years - once was great because it was a small club so him with a keyboard and an ipod and either he was in the crowd half the time or the crowd was onstage half the time. It was really fun. The other time was him in a larger venue on a big empty stage and it sucked.

Alternatively he DJs. Or does stunt gigs with his piano or guesting with people and that kind of thing.