Glenn Schwartz first came to the attention of rock music

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 audiences as the original guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 for The James Gang

James Gang

The James Gang was a rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1966. Though the band was not a huge commercial success, except in the Northeast Ohio area, the fame garnered by guitarist Joe Walsh has since made the group more notable.- History :...

, based in Cleveland.

He left the James Gang in early 1968 when he moved to California. He later joined the Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 based Blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 band Pacific Gas & Electric

Pacific Gas & Electric (band)

Pacific Gas & Electric was an American blues rock band in the late 1960s and early 1970s, led by singer Charlie Allen. Their biggest hit was "Are You Ready?"-Career:...

 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

All Saved Freak Band

The All Saved Freak Band was one of the earliest influences in what has since become a distinct sub-category of Rock and Roll, Contemporary Christian Music...

, 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 it in 1980.

Christian conversion

While in Los Angeles on tour with the James Gang in 1968, Schwartz strolled onto the infamous Sunset Strip and stopped next to a small group of people listening to street preacher Arthur Blessitt

Arthur Blessitt

Arthur Owen Blessitt is a traveling Christian preacher, most known for carrying a cross through every nation of the world.-Early life and career:...

. Some time later he professed conversion to Christianity, saying "I was finally blessed by mercy for I heard the Gospel of Christ."

Following his conversion, his zealous, new-found faith was not accepted well by the band, his family or his friends. "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" he reported. "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.”

See also

• Rock 'n' Roll and the Cleveland Connection, Deanna R. Adams, Kent State University Press, 2002, pgs. 72,73, 136, 138, 142-44, 172, 173, 416