Nina wrote:A few of years ago while I was living in England, they apparently gave me a signed copy of his book for Christmas. Thankfully, my mom intervened (as she had received one as well) and gave it to the Goodwill.
Back in about 1985, around the time I was way into hardcore punk, my "born again" aunt, uncle and cousins showed up at our house with presents on Christmas Day. Mine turned out to be an album by the band Stryper. I remember sitting there and staring at the album cover for several minutes in utter confusion. It had a painting of the planet Earth viewed from outer space, and there was a big blue hand (presumably the Hand of God) in the foreground, pointing to the globe and directing a salvo of black-and-yellow striped ICBMs toward it.
When I looked up from the album cover, my cousins were staring at me me with these hopeful grins on their faces, and one of them said, "That's a great record. You've got to check out this band." My aunt chimed in, "It's Christian rock music. They listen to that record all the time at our house."
Still perplexed by the picture on the album , I asked, "What is going on here? God is ordering the destruction of the Earth with nuclear missiles?" One of them said something about Armageddon and the other told me to just listen to the record and it will all make sense. I turned the record over and there was a picture of the band. They looked like a cross between Motley Crue and the Mexican Killer Bees from that old SNL skit. A bunch of dudes with Farrah Fawcett-style feathered hair, wearing black and yellow striped leotards. It was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud.
Several months passed before I actually gave the record a spin, and it was the worst poser hair metal bullshit I had ever heard.