Losing My Voice to Find It by Mark Stuart

Losing My Voice to Find It

by Mark Stuart

The incredible story of a lead singer's rise to fame and his crushing fall when he lost his singing voice, his career, and his marriage--and then found a new calling more in tune with God than he ever thought possible. 

Mark Stuart was the front man of popular Christian rock band, Audio Adrenaline, at a time when the Christian music scene exploded. Advancing from garage band to global success, the group sold out stadiums all over the world, won Grammy Awards, and even celebrated an album going certified Gold. But after almost twenty years, Mark's voice began to give out. When doctors diagnosed him with a debilitating disease, the career with the band he'd founded and dedicated his life to building was gone. Then to his shock, his wife ended their marriage, and Mark believed he'd lost everything.

Unsure of his future, Mark traveled to Haiti to help with the band's ministry, the Hands and Feet Project. When the devastating 2010 earthquake hit, media learned he was present and sought him out for interviews. Ironically, Mark became the scratchy voice for the struggling Haitians, drawing the world's attention to their dire circumstances. In the process, Mark found a greater purpose than he'd ever known before. In this gripping, compelling new book, Mark Stuart overlays his story with passages from the gospel of John, urging his readers to listen for God's voice and to embrace his big love that calls us into a big life.

Reviewed by Jeff Sexton on

5 of 5 stars

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Underdog With A Mighty Good Leader. Audio Adrenaline was yet another of those groups that provided a voice for an Autistic kid's teenage years as he transitioned from innocent trailer park kid to... not so innocent... young adult that grew up in the American Church. Seeing the story of its founding lead singer was very interesting, as was seeing the stories behind so many of their biggest hits and how so often they came out of what was going on in Stuart's life at the time. With a poetic and evocative prose that displays his songwriting talent well, Stuart lays bare the story of his own life, its tragedies and its moutaintops - and the time the mountaintop literally crumbled before his eyes in Haiti. He speaks seemingly candidly about his struggles in his marriage to TobyMac's sister and how very much TobyMac himself did for Audio Adrenaline over the years, particularly at the beginning. He mentions signing Jennifer Knapp, but only spends a couple of brief paragraphs talking about her debut and Kansas before moving on, gently sideswiping that particular bit of CCM drama over the last decade or so (but which Knapp herself lays bare in her 2014 work Facing The Music). And through it all, we get the story of the rise and fall (and rise again) of Audio Adrenaline, one of the major acts in Christian Music through the 1990s and early 2000s, as seen through the eyes of its lead singer at the time. Great for music fans, great for Audio A fans, and even great for those just looking for a solid story with maybe a bit of hope to it. Very much recommended.

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  • Started reading
  • 25 November, 2019: Finished reading
  • 25 November, 2019: Reviewed