And of course there was the Byrds song, Turn, Turn, Turn, a musical version of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. "It was a song of submission to God," he said. Tambourine Man, written by Bob Dylan, was a song being sung to God, McGuinn said. He said he knew at the time he believed that God was somewhere, that he wanted God in his life, but he "didn't know where to find him."ĭuring this time, his search for God and interest in the spiritual world was apparent in the songs done by the group. McGuinn said he still attributes the success of the Byrds to the book his mother gave him. He developed an attitude that said, "I trust everything will work out all right." "I started turning things around in my head and looking at the positive side," he said. He discarded the religious aspect of Peale's writing but began to apply Peale's principles to his life. While playing music in the early 1960s, before the formation of the Byrds, he said his mother sent him a copy of Norman Vincent Peale's book The Power of Positive Thinking. His spiritual journey later would take him to Eastern religion when he changed his name from Jim McGuinn to Roger McGuinn when an Indonesian guru said changing his name would allow him to "vibrate better with the universe." McGuinn was raised Roman Catholic and later as a teenager, became agnostic. He said he hopes what he does while singing is "positive and uplifting" and that people feel a spiritual benefit from his music. "I felt, stay where you were when you were called. "When I came to the Lord, I felt a sense some people feel they have to stop secular music," he said. Yet his concerts are secular _ and he said he doesn't preach about his religious beliefs on stage. The family tithes at his church _ and McGuinn and his wife have daily morning devotions and read the Bible together. Today, McGuinn and his wife belong to the 8,000-member Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif., led by the Rev. Within several weeks of that incident, he met his wife, Camilla, and they were married. "The biker could tell there was a spiritual change that had occurred," in me, he said. On his way back home after the experience, he said he saw a motorcycle friend who asked him if he wanted to go out and get some drugs and girls. "I felt a lifting of this heaviness and a spiritual enlightenment and peace and warmth," McGuinn said. Then, an inner voice spoke to McGuinn, suggesting that he accept Jesus. It was a crushing sensation like he was being pulled into the floor. Back to Rio and Thunderbird in quality and content. His influence spanned the globe from contemporaries like the Beatles to acolytes like Tom Petty and R.E.M. "It was a heavy feeling coming over me," he said. As the frontman of the Byrds, Roger McGuinn and his trademark 12-string Rickenbacker guitar pioneered folk-rock and, by extension, country-rock.
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