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Singer gave
up drinking
for success
Jay Simmons from Mount Airy, N. C., will be at Gid Brown Bible Church on Sunday, Jan. 18, at 10 a.m. to give testimony about his recovery from alcoholism.
Mr. Simmons was on the professional gospel quartet circuit for 23 years, singing with some of the nation’s better groups - the Plainsmen of Wichita, Kan., the Prophets of Knoxville and the Sego Brothers and Naomi of Nashville. His work made him friends with many famous entertainers as he worked with former Louisiana Gov. Jimmy Davis and country singing stars Roy Clark, Hank Snow, Jack Green and Faron Young.
Despite his fame in the music world as “one of the best in the business,” according to the late James Sego and other gospel music leaders, Simmons was an alcoholic. “I craved a drink,” he says now. “I had to have my bottle. It didn’t matter who I was singing with, whether they approved or not, I had to have my liquor. If I was working with a group that didn’t approve of drinking (most didn’t approve), I would sneak off and drink. I’d get a motel room by myself and a bottle as soon as we hit town.”
Simmons says he didn’t get to be a drunk overnight. He worked at it religiously, starting at age 13.
After many years with various groups, Simmons says singing was no longer fun, the fame didn’t seem important any more. Something had to be done to change his life, he added. His wife Kay had faithfully
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