Richard Mendoza:  

I was born in 1961 in Fitzimins Army Hospital, South East Denver Colorado. We live on the AFB until 1969 when we move to Joan Dr. just east of Conifer Dr, which was west of I-25 & 84th Av. (actual 80th Ave but there was not exit there). We moved 722 W 80th Ave on the west side of Conifer Dr on top a large hill near the big water tank. I attended Western Hills Elementary, John Dewey Junior High, and Mapleton HS. Friends were Johnny Gomez, Ron Ormsbee Rayland, David Ortiz, Richard Padillia, Gene and Russel Brozovich, Randy, Ed, and Stan Robinson. I was on the football team in junior high as a volunteer and play on 5th string (when the bus was loading from a game they would let us on the field for a quarter). After having to get in the "cage" with David Cortez (the famous running back)and having to battle to get the ball to see which of us would be on first string, I had second thoughts about playing. When I went to Mapleton I saw how the other guys had grown and that I was still a stick man I did not even try out. I had started smoking pot at 13 and got into other drugs when I went to Mapleton. I then entered the rivalry of the jock and the hoods. I really began to change for the worse. As my hair got longer my dad's face became more like cement because my attitude was becoming more rebellious. He tried to put the brakes on but there was no competition when I spent most of my time with my drug friends and only minimum time with my dad. This was not good and now 35 years latter I wish I would have got to know my dad like I should have but its too late he passed away from cancer. In Junior High, at the age of 13, I met a girl who had just moved in across the street. Her brother played the drums and I had started to play the guitar. So we became friends, but I was more interested in his sister who was 14 and about to enter High School. I thought once she went there she would have plenty of guys interested in her and I would not stand a chance. So, I asked her to be my girlfriend about two weeks before school started. She said no at first but a week later she decided to change her mind. On day she asked me if I smoked pot. I lied and told her I did, though I never had seen the stuff. I was afraid I would lose her as my girlfriend if I didn¿t say yes. She now said ¿let¿s get high.¿ Now I had to prove it to her. I obtained so pot from my brother and sister¿s friend. So began my lifestyle of drugs,alcohol, and rock-n-roll. A vital lesson I have learned from this one experience is that it is never wise to do something because you want someone else to like you. It was during this time I began listening to my brother and sister¿s music; Elton John, Chicago, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, etc. and the wide variety of the music of the ¿70's. When I attended Mapleton High School in 1975 I became more and more involved with drugs, dealing, and Acid Rock/Heavy Metal Music. At 16 I obtained my brother¿s ¿65 Mustang Street Rod-475 hp 289, tunnel ram duel quads, 4.56 rear end gears, which turned 11 sec. in a quarter mile. I began cruising on Federal Blvd. And the Scotchman¿s drive through restaurant, go to more parties. My hair grew longer, my clothes changed, my grades dropped, and so did my parents countenances. Then I joined a rock band who got rid of me before my senior year was through because I wasn¿t good enough. But I started guitar lessons and was determined to be a Rock Star. It was here that I met Rick Mazack, at substitute teacher for my computer science class. He shared his experience of when he used to be in a rock band,he showed us a picture of how he used to look, and we couldn¿t believe it. He invited us to his church, the Berean Church. So some of the band members and myself went a few times. When we were there we noticed a lot of ¿old¿ people. The music, well it was quite boring as were the Sunday School and the church services for us who were living the fasted paced life of rock-n-rollers. This did not last long at all. Only now I realize the problem was not with the old people or the hymns they sang but with my heart. The were as sheep eating the grass of the Lord¿s pasture and we were as wolves who only had an appetite for flesh food. I graduated in 1979 and got a job a Fire Sprinkler fabrication shop, where I earned enough money to buy a Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar and a Yamaha 410 amp. I rejoined a rock band with Gene Brozovich and Randy Robinson after graduation became more serious about this. We started to practice often and began to play parties, getting more involved in drugs; acid,speed, hash, pot, alcohol, etc. We practiced in a part of inner city of Denver called Globeville. It was a rough drug and gang infested neighborhood on the south-east side of I-25 and I-70. Our band was Voyager and the members were Gene Brozovich-lead guitar, Randy Robinson-drum, Richard Mendoza-rhythm guitar, Andy Gentile-key boards, Carl Durant-vocals, and various bass players, Tom Sims ran the sound board and Gordon Lawrence the lights. We spent a lot of money on our band and promotion. We had six band members; two guitarists, a bass play, lead singer,keyboard man, and a drummer. Most of us could read and write music, besides play by ear. Things began to happen for us and we felt we were really going places. We played our first concert at the Northglenn Community Center on November 30,1981, where we sold out 300 seats, which had never be done before, (the tickets were only $1.50 each). We met at Randy's house in Nrothglenn east of 104th and Washington to practice and play at different parties around Denver. We also played a few night clubs. A lot of the party girls just liked you for what you could provide for them, if you could get them into a party or concert, or pay for their beer, or give them a ride in you street rod. I remember talk with some of them and all they could say was "wow I'm really waisted" or things like that. This now seem so shallow to me. It that all there is to her personality? It that all their is to life and relationships? It seemed so very empty and this bothered me. I did not want to be like that anymore. I notice the guys were pretty much after one thing. The guys would get competitive when a pretty face came around. There were all kinds of girls they would use for their own selfishness, they would lie and deceive to get what they wanted. When they would get girls pregnant they would then dump them and make them feel worthless like grease rage from an auto shop. This started to really bother me. There has to be more to life than being a party animal. About one year later, around August of 1982, the sound man gave me two tapes called ¿Rock-A-Bye-Bye-Baby¿ from a Christian ministry and said something sarcastic like ¿listen to this stuff.¿ He never knew what influence that would have on me and on his future. The tapes had samples of some of my very favorite groups and exposed the subliminal and backward masked messages in the music. The most convincing was the all-time hit Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. I was convinced there was really a Satan and there really was a God who was trying to save me from such things. But I was serving the Devil by songs such as ¿Saints in Hell¿ by Judas Priest, ¿Highway to Hell,¿ ¿Running with the Devil,¿ ¿Sympathy for the Devil,¿ ¿Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,¿ and many other songs of the same. I shared the tapes with some of the other band members who were convicted, (an evidence of the working of the Holy Spirit-John 16:8), as I was, that we had come to a fork in the road of our lives and that we needed to make a choice for God or Satan. All the band members did not have the chance to hear what we had heard. A couple of us decided we had no choice but to quit. We called a special meeting with the band members and all our technicians...Expand for more