DON FRANCISCO is back in Britain this month. Before he climbed on a plane, he spoke to Dave Massey.

"Well, I've been in groups ever since I was 14. As an adult the first group was called The Bushband, primarily because we smoked a lot of bush."

What is 'bush'?

"Grass - marijuana. I was into sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll -- that was the whole lifestyle. I was living in California by that time, the late 60s, and was involved in the whole hippie thing."

When did all that change?

"It changed when I was 28. I was the leader of this rock 'n' roll band, we were playing round in the South -- that's Georgia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, down To Florida. We were getting our act together, so to speak. We'd done some pretty good sounding demos and record companies were starting to show interest. I was really unhappy. My marriage had broken up even though we were becoming successful. I could tell that that wasn't going to fix anything. I was into eastern meditation, yoga and all that stuff, a vegetarian. I was in my room alone one day, meditating - I was in the full lotus position going through the whole meditation trip and God spoke to me in an audible voice - "Don - my name is Jesus. I love you. Why do you keep running from me?" And at the same time as he said those things he just showed me on the inside what he's like. All my religious upbringing had really given me a twisted idea of what he was like. I didn't have an idea of God as a loving God, just a picture of a very judgmental God who was waiting to punish you the moment you stepped out of line. To hear him say those things right then at that point in my life when I was into more filth and sin than I really care to talk about. But he didn't point to any of that. He said 'I love you'. And that was the first time anyone had really offered that kind of totally performance-free love. Total acceptance right where I was then."

So you hadn't had anybody telling you about Jesus?

"No, all the times that people had tried to tell me about the gospel it was "straight-hen up and live right or else you're gonna go to hell" and I already knew I couldn't straighten up and live right. So I figured either this stuff is trash or I 'm going to hell. Anyway, I don't really care to relate to a God like that. To find out that he was totally different from all my conceptions was a relief and my acceptance of what he was offering was complete and total. I gave the band I was in my resignation the next night - two weeks' notice - I knew I just couldn't' keep living in that world, all those influences that were in that kind of life. I was playing in bars then - bars are completely different from pubs here. It's a much different atmosphere, although I'm sure there are some which are like bars in the States - but the lifestyle there in the States, if you worked in bars, the kind of women that were there were always the wrong kind, there were lots and lots of drugs. People didn't come there just to have a few drinks, they came to get really blasted and there was no real friendship there - It was just noise and sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. So I had to get out of it."

Moving on from that, do you see yourself now as a musician or a minister in the kind of thing that you're doing?

"Minister first. The Lord has called me to preach the gospel - music's simply the vehicle I use to do it. Actually I think that's a mistake a lot of Christian musicians make. Music often comes across as first because it is first - they're musicians first it seems and Christians second or music is first and the gospel is second. And when that's true there's not really an anointing on what they do because Jesus is Lord, he's got to be first and when you have something else that's first it's basically idolatry."

When did you realise this was the kind of thing God wanted you to do? Get out on the road and sing the gospel.

"It was the only thing I knew how to do. I'd already been established. I'd already tried all these other things. But for the first year and a half or so I tried to be a 'stand up preacher' - with the three piece suit because that was the only picture I'd had of Christianity when I was a kid. My dad dressed up in a suit and the preacher always wore a suit and everybody got dressed up in suits to go to a church and it was all very formal. I'd had this experience, this undeniable experience of the Lord and I was absolutely convinced of this. But still, what I knew of Christianity in the past was being dressed up in a suit, so I went out and bought one the next week. I tried to do that, it was awful, just terrible.

"Music is the way I express myself. I can do fairly well talking but I've always had trouble with it. When I was a child up until I was 16 I stuttered so badly that I really barely communicated. In fact I couldn't do what I'm doing now because of the extent of the problem. I remember once I had to read a hand written book of poetry that was half a page long. At the end of a 55-minute class period I had still only read about two lines. So I was basically incoherent as far as talking was concerned. So music has always been the only way I could really express the things most deeply felt."

Tell me a little about your story songs, your Bible narrative songs.

"I've done some albums that haven't had a lot of them. But 'Vision Of The Valley' has some, not so much stories from the scriptures but more like contemporary parables. And the album that was done very recently, The Power', had at least three story songs on it. I'm still doing them. It's really difficult, trying to write what I feel I'm supposed to write as compared to what people's expectations are trying to straddle things - because I don't want to leave my audience behind - then I don't have anybody to sing to and the whole thing's lost its point. But at the same time, ever since I wrote "He's Alive" the industry's waiting for me to write the next story song -- it's the big golden egg. I wasn't trying to write a big hit song, I was simply writing a song that I needed in my concerts because I didn't have one that told the story about the resurrection, I've never tried to write for the industry. I've never tried to write to make hits - I write to communicate the gospel to the people I sing to."

Are you trying to communicate mainly to Christians or non-Christians?

I was raised in a dead church (I'm not sure the pastor was born again) and after that for the next 10 years or so I was kind of on the streets - with druggies and just ordinary people who didn't know a thing about Christianity. I have a real compassion for both kinds of people and churches that have had just a little taste that maybe there's something more - and for people out on the streets who are, as John Lennon put it, "trying to make it through the night." I understand both perspectives so I really write for both but I have a leaning towards Christians more than others. I don't think of myself as an evangelist in the sense that my primary focus is to people who don't know the Lord. I think of myself as singing really to Christians. I think that anyone, whether they're Christians or not, who comes in and listens to how the Lord deals with his own people would want to be included."

Ever wanted to cross over to the secular market - maybe compromise some of your material?

"No, the only time I ever come close to that was when I thought my wife and I were going to have to separate because of her alcoholism and because I'd made such a point of the Lord's attitude towards divorce and I could see that there was no way out for us except that. I was ready to leave the gospel music scene because I knew I couldn't keep on preaching the gospel if my own life couldn't hold up under scrutiny - but the Lord was gracious to us and he set Karen free of alcoholism - that was six and a half years ago. Her being set free from it was just about instantaneous although she did go directly from the experience of being set free from it to a really good alcoholic treatment programme for the next month - had she not done that I think she would have almost definitely gotten back into it. My experience with alcoholism and drugs is that yes you can be set free from the spiritual bondage to it instantly but unless you learn how to re-think all of the lies and denial that you've gotten into - especially the addiction, you will get back into it because you simply don't know how to think any differently. Paul says in Romans "Be renewed by the transforming of your mind." That has to happen and lots of people that do experience that instantaneous spiritual deliverance don't allow themselves to be re-trained. Karen really grabbed onto it with both hands and I have never seen anybody do such a complete turnaround - she's an incredibly wonderful person. I'm proud to be married to her."

Any songs come out of that time of trauma?

"Yeah, a lot of songs came out of that period, a couple that directly came from that - one called "The Storm". Lots of people never did figure what that one was about. One called "Walking Wounded" was about her and one called "Love Is Not A Feeling, It's An Act Of Your Will". That was about the whole situation."

Were people supportive or not?

"Not many people knew. There was only once where Karen was out with me on the road and showed up at a Xion Festival just kind of 'blasted' - the people there were not understanding at all (Tee hee!) but I didn't realise then that she had a problem as it wasn't one where she was really loaded, it was one where she just had alcohol on her breath. It was only much later that she started being out of control and it was obvious to me that I had a serious problem to contend with. Trying to deal with it was very difficult because of what I knew the Lord thought about divorce. There came a point in our relationship where I could tell it was destructive to our son just to grow up there and so I finely reached the point when I was ready to chuck the ministry and say That's it!' I can't live like this anymore."

Ever feel like giving up on God too?

"No I wasn't giving up on God but I knew I couldn't continue the ministry any longer and that was probably the lowest point of my Christian life but that was right before the storm blew over and the sun broke through... It was just a month after that."

Do you enjoy touring?

"I enjoy the concerts, I hate travelling. I hate sleeping in strange beds that are always the wrong kind, either too hard or too soft and the showers don't work right - it's always a little different - you know most of them are made for people that are three foot tall. Or they alternate from hot to cold every 15 seconds. Or the maid comes and knocks on the door at 7am trying to get you out so she can clean the room. Overseas travel is the same... The only bit that I really enjoy is ministering to people both during the concerts and afterwards when there are times when we can pray for people and stuff... I really enjoy doing that, but the rest of it is a pretty tough gig.

Ever take Karen with you?

"Yeah - in fact our son Uri will be 18 in January and he'll be graduating high school so she'll be able to travel with me more 'cos she wont have to stay home and take care of him."