The music was pounding, the place was bopping. Bill Dunn had finally made it.
It would not be long before he was a superstar. Yet as he looked across the packed hall of the disco there was
a void and emptiness in his heart.
"Modern music has always had a big influence on my life." says Bill. "From my early years I was giving impressions
of famous stage and film stars, mimicking their songs."
With some friends, he formed a small group and they performed at charity concerts and took part in talent
contests - it was all good fun.
"I was not then aware of the darkening shadows that were to overtake me. Had I known I would have avoided
the pitfalls. But the love of music and its excitement lured me on."
Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley, Little Richard - they had found fame through rock music and they were
his teenage heroes.
By now he was playing guitar for one band and singing for a rock or blues band - burning the candle at both ends. Life was frantic and he turned to alcohol to help him keep up the pace. Many times he went on stage to play or sing blind drunk.
The rock 'n' blues band he was singing for was called the "Gamblers" and they were playing the Top Hat, a disco
in Lisburn, Northern Ireland.
Within a matter of weeks he was to leave the band and his friend Van Morrison was to step into his place.
The band reformed under the name "Them" two months later that group was in the British charts with a number
two, entitled "Here comes the Night". Three months and they were back in the charts with another song "Baby,
please don't go."
"I had left the band and many times over the years I have been asked if I was disappointed. Truthfully, I have no
regrets because I discovered something that neither rock music or even religion could offer me.
"I got converted to Jesus Christ and found life with a capital L! I still sing and record albums, but I sing about
Christ and the things that are important and positive in life."
Bill says things were bad enough when he was rocking it up, but today he thinks the rock scene is worse with its
sex, drugs and the occult. He is also concerned about "backward masking" where a subliminal message is
dropped into a song, to be picked up by the subconscious mind.
"Jesus Christ is the light of the world. Let Him light up the dark side of your life as He did for me," he says. "I can
assure you He will not disappoint you."
Since his conversion Bill has helped hundreds of people to find peace and purpose for living and the assurance
that they will be in heaven for all eternity.
"I had the privilege of sharing Jesus with my old friend from the rock 'n' rolls days - Van Morrison, he says.
"Now a Christian as well. Not long after our conversation, Van released the song with Cliff Richard which went
into the charts called "When God Shines His Light."
"That's what Almighty God did for this world, for you and me, at the Cross."
Bill says that when he took his first "step of faith", the light of God's love and power obliterated his darkest
experiences, his guilt feelings went and the peace of God flooded his life.
Married with a family, he is now minister of a church in Carrick Fergus, Northern Ireland and travels extensively,
telling crowds wherever he goes that what God has done for him, He will do for them.
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