Glenn Schwartz (musician)

Glenn Schwartz first came to the attention of rock music audiences as the original guitarist for The James Gang, based in Cleveland.

While in Los Angeles on tour with the James Gang in 1968, the Schwartz strolled onto the infamous Sunset Strip and stopped next to a small group of people listening to street preacher Arthur Blessitt.Glenn found himself strangely compelled to pay attention to what was being said. Even though the gospel message was wrapped up in drug culture references and bad puns—“You don’t have to drop downers, man. All you got to do is start dropping Matthew and Mark, Luke, or John!”—and presented by a hyper-charismatic hippie and a small group of his team, the truth of forgiveness, love and the chance to start over with a clean slate made perfect sense to Glenn. Stoned or not, to the best of his ability at the time, Glenn made a decision for Christ.Glenn said, “I was finally blessed by mercy for I heard the Gospel of Christ on Sunset Strip as a man of God preached Christ with tears in his eyes. Soon my tears joined his as he gave the invitation to pray, to come forward from the crowd, to accept Jesus, and I did so.”

Arthur Blessitt recalled, “It was in 1968, maybe June or early summer, that Glenn came to Jesus at His Place, my coffee shop. I do know that I prayed with him after one of our team had also talked with him about giving his heart to Jesus. I knew he meant business with Jesus and Jesus changed him from that moment forward. I do remember talking with him about following Jesus and answering questions and his great passion for Jesus and desire to witness to other people in rock bands and bringing them to Jesus.”

Following his conversion, Glenn finished the West Coast James Gang tour and returned to Ohio a born-again Christian. His zealous, newfound faith was not well tolerated by the band, his family or his friends. No one was swayed by his sermons or his testimony. Because Glenn had become a Christian, he was more interested in telling the rock gods of the day about the God he now believed in, but they didn’t want to hear about Jesus.“I had some Christian friends who had some round stickers that read ‘Real Peace Is In Jesus’ and we stuck those all over our clothes,” Glenn said. “We put some on Janis Joplin but she didn’t like it and took them off. I remember she got pretty upset. At the time, the bikers [Hell’s Angels] really liked my music and style of guitar playing because it was so out of control like they were. They didn’t mind I talked about Jesus because they liked the music. But Janis was pretty rude and nasty to them and I know they didn’t like Janis or her music.”

In 1969, Schwartz, left the James Gang to join Los Angeles based Blues band Pacific Gas & Electric, and in 1970, scored a national top 20 hit with the song "Are You Ready?".

Tired of the rock and roll life, he left PG&E to join a pioneering Gospel rock group The All Saved Freak Band, which was the musical evangelistic arm of an Ohio religious group-turned-cult, the Church of the Risen Christ, headed by Larry Hill.

Schwartz recorded four albums with the Freak Band before leaving the group in 1980.

Schwartz plays every Thursday night at Major Hoople's, a rustic, blue-collar sports bar, located on the West Bank of The Flats in Cleveland, Ohio. Glenn's band is called The Schwartz Brothers and consists of Glenn on lead guitar, his brother Gene on bass and two or three different drummers, depending on who is available. Glenn's energetic and enthusiastic performances make him a sight to see. Glenn will often climb on his amp, run the neck of his guitar along the bar's restroom sign or pluck the strings with his teeth (or lack thereof). Schwartz is known to preach in between songs of his apocalyptic visions and views of the modern world.

Talent runs in the Schwartz family. Glen's brother Gene Schwartz played for the blues player, Robert Lockwood, Jr. for 33 years. Lockwood died on November 21 2006. Lockwood stated that Genes brother, Glenn Schwartz, was the only guitarist to take the "blues" to the "next" level. Most likely, for Glenn's ability to melt the styles of Chicago-blues, country-blues, delta-blues, Gospel and swing/jump together to create a sound that can only be identified as his own.

External links

* [http://www.clevescene.com/issues/2004-12-08/news/feature.html Lord of the Strings] "Rock 'n' Roll and the Cleveland Connection" by Deanna R. Adams, Kent State University Press, 2002, pgs. 72,73, 136, 138, 142-44, 172, 173, 416http://www.slapjazz.com/Glenn.htm

[http://www.honeybeeblues.com/glenbio.htm The Schwartz Brothers]