Terry Gene Bollea, better known by his wrestling ring name of the Hulk, was deemed one of the best by the Wrestling federation and World Championship Wrestling. His massive physique, and his trademark blond horseshoe moustache and bandanas, Hogan was widely regarded as the most recognized wrestling star worldwide.
In his prime he was six foot seven inches tall and weighed 302 pounds. The Hulk was a force and dominated the ring.
Beyond that, his proclamation of knowing Jesus Christ as his Savior was by far greater than any feat of strength, he performed in the ring under the bright lights of Hulka mania.
Ozzy, on the other hand, was noted by his son Jack to have known Jesus in his younger years, and towards the end of his life was known to read his Bible and profess God. The Godfather of Heavy Metal was not known, despite his lyrics speaking about the dark side, as a Satanist or Devil Worshipper.
His antics on stage would cause one to believe he was demon possessed, yet he was a performer and did spend many years using drugs and alcohol. It is obvious he was not serving God during those years, but he came back to his faith according to his son Jack.
Ozzy once said, “The thing about life that gets me crazy is that by the time you learn it all, it's too late to deal with it. It should be the other way around. We should be born with all this sense and knowledge and then get stupider as we get older.”
On to reality.
No one knows the heart of a man or woman but God. We can look at a person and the life they lived and come to some spiritual conclusions. It does not matter what someone confesses, professes, declares or decrees, only God knows whether they are saved by grace in trusting the death of Jesus on the Cross. Only God, not a man can be a judge.
Now to the influences.
After my mother died, we moved to Idaho where I tried to continue in high school.
Within two months, my older brother joined the Army as was off to bootcamp.
My older sister moved to live with my aunt in Georgia.
I was left with Daddy and his addiction to alcohol. He was successful in being an electrical engineer, but booze was his escape from reality, because of the loss of his wife of 21 years. He drank before she died, but it became a true addiction afterwards.
My mother died when I was fifteen years old.
I was an addict, using LSD, Meth, and alcohol. Smoking Marijuana and doing everything I could to escape reality.
Two addicts living together. One balding, the other, me, had hair down to the middle of my back. It was the era of 1972,
I tried to go to school, but the addiction and the fact I failed every class, prompted Daddy to move back to Texas by 1973. It was then that I completely dropped out of high school and did my own thing.
Influences. Black Sabbath and the lyrics of one of Ozzy’s songs was very influential to me. It opened the door to Satan in the fact that I allowed it.
Was not Ozzy’s fault, he was an entertainer. I was a dope fiend.
One song, called “Paranoid” was the one that got me started into insanity. It said the following: “Finished with my woman ‘Cause she couldn’t help me with my mind. People think I’m insane, Because I am frowning all the time.
All day long I think of things, but nothing seems to satisfy. Think I’ll-lose-my-mind-if I don’t find something, to pacify. Can you help me Occupy my brain? Oh, yea.”
There might not be actual demons in the lyrics, but I was so vulnerable after mom died that I was searching for something to “Occupy my brain.”
It was true that I was “frowning all the time.”
“Nothing seems to satisfy” is an understatement when a person (me) was trying to fill a void with drugs and every evil thing I could back then.
I played drums in a rock band in Idaho, and Daddy helped us by building a homemade light show that we could use during our performances. We played at the high school auditorium, and the V.F.W. (veterans of foreign wars) as well.
We played each weekend somewhere using other rock band’s songs. Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin were a few that we copied the best we could, and drugs flowed freely in our veins during the sessions.
My daddy’s electrical prowess paid off with his version of a color-filled light show. My buddy Ed used the switches and lights, including a strobe light and black light to bring the full effect of this hard rock musical event. We would later, during a break, go out to the U-Haul truck and sit in the back with the door shut and smoke dope.
I say all of this to make a spiritual point about the ear gate and the eye gate and the paths of life.
Proverbs 4: 14-27. “Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn away from it and pass on. For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.
The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil.”
That was a lot to digest, yet it is the truth that I did not know at 15 years old.
It is an obvious thought and needs no clarification that “I do not blame Ozzy Osbourne and his band for my demise spiritually.” That is ludicrous to believe, and I do not expect those who listen to this kind of music to run out and burn their albums.
Well, cassettes and CD’s burn too, but you get my point.
Do not open the door of your heart by watching, listening and following any demonic music and the lyrics that back up the dark side of life. It is a spiritual thing.
I point to the era after daddy, and I moved back to Texas from Idaho in early 1973.
I quit school and did more drugs. Jimi Hendrix became my new idol, and I listened, played his songs on my drum set, and did more drugs.
I was out of control, and it was just a matter of time that the path I was on was about to become the abyss in my wicked heart.
In late 1974 my father was murdered, and I ended up with my own legal issues by committing two different attempted murders during 1974-1976. I was a demon possessed drug and alcohol addict. An accident waiting to happen.
I continued this path of destruction until my final crime which put me into prison in September of 1976.
Just after we buried my daddy in November of 1974, I decided to go to the local drive-in movie alone.
One year earlier on December 26, 1973, the movie the “Exorcist” was released into theaters.
