Darrell Mansfield
Genre: Pop/Blues
Official Web Site
Darrell Mansfield Bibliography: (click on each album cover to view tracks and Darrell Mansfield lyrics)
Darrell Mansfield Biography Over the years, Darrell Mansfield has touched tens of thousands of people with his music and has seen many changed lives as a result of his ministry. People have responded to and have identified with what Darrell's music has to say, because he knows where they're coming from--he's been there. For Darrell, "passing from death unto life" in coming to God was in a nearly literal sense.
In his high school years, Darrell showed an avid interest in music and was keenly affected by it, being very much involved in the sixties' music of the Beatle's, The Rolling Stones, and the Cream. He was totally immersed in the counter-culture social structure of that time, and its philosophy of disillusionment with the world.
He learned to play guitar, but his chief interest was in singing. To put himself through college, where he was pursuing a degree in Art, Darrell took a job in the school cafeteria. To help pass the time, he would sing aloud all the rock and roll songs he knew. It was here that Darrell was noticed by a musician, who offered him a gig as lead singer with his band. Thus began Darrell's life long career in music.
Instead of this being the start of a brand new life for Darrell. however, it was at this time that his personal life began falling apart. First of all, his parents divorced. Then his girlfriend--the one person he had left to lean on--deserted him. These things, plus the general state of disharmony that permeated the youth of America during Viet Nam days, were all impetuses to his growing despair. One by one, stones in the foundation of his life were falling away, leaving behind a crumbling and fragile spirit. Unable to understand any longer, Darrell made the decision to end it all by totally giving himself to God in the only way he knew how: to take his life. Slitting his wrists on the alter of a church (a place he considered appropriate for this "spiritual" act), he waited while each minute ebbed away the life that was left in him.
But God had a better plan for using Darrell's total gift of himself. Having been found and rushed to a hospital, He sent people into Darrell's life in the ensuing weeks that were paving the way for his ultimate meeting with Him. Once recovered, Darrell once again surrounded himself with music, joining a rock band, finding it at least a temporary balm and soother for his soul.
But what happened next is truly supernatural. Darrell Mansfield was about to met the creator of the universe-- face to face--through a friend's mother. One evening he was invited to the home of this friend, and upon entering the house he was astonished to see this mother praying with a small boy.
Surmising that some tragedy must have struck the family, he was again surprised to see her look up to greet them, smiling. When she greeted Darrell in her genuine, friendly way and looked at him intently with warm, piercing eyes, Darrell recalls, "I knew at that moment that this woman would somehow change my life."
Later that day, Darrell had another disarming experience. Having wandered into a Christian bookstore by chance with his band members, a woman suddenly approached him and gave him a book. He reluctantly accepted it, puzzled that she would single him out from all the others in this way. Later that evening, he read curiously about the book's author, Jerome Hines--a famous opera singer who had found a personal relationship with God. This was totally new to Darrell. He couldn't put the book down, and upon finishing, contacted his friend's mother to see if she knew anything about it. She reassured him that finding a personal relationship with God WAS a real thing, and told him she had prayed that we would come to know God in this way. Once again, Darrell was amazed by this woman, who cared enough to pray for him.
What followed was a gradual but definite change in Darrell's openness to God, and after several weeks of immersing himself in Bible study, he met Christ in a personal way. Then came a definite call into a ministry.
In 1974, he joined the band "Gentle Faith" as lead vocalist and two years later they released their first album, "Gentle Faith". In 1977 he formed the "Darrell Mansfield Band" which released four albums: "High Power"; "Get Ready"; "Darrell Mansfield Band Live"; and "Vision". That was only the beginning. Over the years Darrell has performed on so many projects that he himself finds it hard to count them all. Darrell continues to tour the U.S. , Europe, Israel, Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. It is clearly a labor of love. Because he has met the "Source" of music, his real talents are a living, breathing testimony to the power of the Almighty God.
His performances are more powerful now in the '90's than at any other time in his music ministry, as his purpose is now settled. Darrell Mansfield longs to give something back to a world that reflects the neediness and hunger that drove him to the "Bread of Life." Darrell Mansfield currently lives in Auburn, California with his wife, Cheryl and seven children.
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