TESTIMONY
Allan Scott: Discovering 'I Am'
By Jonathan Cyprowski and Aaron Little
The 700 Club
CBN.com
– Allan Scott doesn’t just sing about life’s highs and lows... he’s experienced them. He and his younger brother Steve were born on a military base where his parents served in the United States Navy. But the war zone for the Scott family was often at home.
“The marriage was always tumultuous," Allan Scott tells The 700 Club. “I have this real vivid memory at a very young age of my parents fighting."
When Allan’s father was transferred to a base in Pennsylvania, the family hoped for a new beginning, but it didn’t happen.
“It wasn’t too long before everything started getting out of control. I can remember them screaming at each other. It’s a very tore-up, unstable feeling. I remember carrying around rejection all the time. It was the most predominant emotion of my childhood. I never fit in, and I was always trying to get the approval from others."
Four years later, the Scotts' marriage ended in a bitter divorce. The custody battle that ensued was worse than anything the family had experienced before.
"My mom sat me down at one point and said, ‘You’re not gonna go back to see your father.’ I remember freakin’ out. The reason my mom had taken us back was because my father was going to take my brother and I to the west coast. We were going to be out of the picture with my mom.”
For a while they stayed with a family in Pittsburgh. That’s where Allan got his first guitar and discovered his love for music.
“I would play that guitar for five, eight hours a day in the summer. I would just play it and play it and play it.”
Over the next two years Allan’s life became more stable. They moved into an apartment, and his mom began nursing school. But everything changed when she remarried.
“We were afraid. It was about the time between 13 and 15 that I started going crazy. I got involved in drugs and alcohol use. I was going to Christian schools. I took LSD in Bible class. I really started to go bananas. On top of that, I’m feeding this rejection thing.”
Soon Allan was expelled from private school and enrolled in a nearby public school. Drugs, alcohol and playing music with bands became a means of escape. By the time he was 18 years old, Allan had dropped out of school and was in a drug rehab program. After leaving rehab Allan got in serious trouble.
“I stole a bunch of money, drugs, from a drug dealer. Me and a friend took off in the middle of the night, stole a car, drove to Pittsburgh, unloaded the drugs, hopped on a train and went to Dallas. I left everything. I mean really heavy into crystal meth. I sold my guitars. I sold everything, and I had nothing. But I knew at that point that I was never going to accomplish anything. My mindset at the time was, my life is over. I was homeless. I was a bum.”
After six months on the run, Allan decided that enough was enough.
“I was at someone’s house. I was on the steps in the back of that house. I hit my knees and I said, 'God, help me. I can’t get out of this.' I got up, and I walked away.”
Within a few months the police caught up with Allan and arrested him.
“I’m in jail, and I realize I don’t have to live like this anymore. I began to read my Bible. I’d hear the melodies in my head, and I would just write the lyrics down.”
When Allan was released from jail, he was ordered to a rehab facility. Allan’s counselor was a Christian who took him to church.
“I remember one Sunday the Holy Spirit hit me, and I was weeping for 45 minutes after the service. God had done something in me. He had taken me from death and brought me into the life. It says it right in the Bible, before we come to the Lord, we’re dead in transgressions and sins. He took me from that state and took me into life. And it’s like my eyes opened up.”
After rehab Allan rekindled his love for music. This time his music went in a different direction and recently he released a worship album entitled, I Am. He says it’s only natural after what the Lord has done for him.
“The ability to get my screwed-up life on track and take me places I could never imagine, it’s all been because of Him and His ability. There is hope. In Him is true power and in Him is true freedom. Christ set you free once and for all. He is the power to change you permanently to give you real fulfillment and a real peace.”
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