Musician turned life around through faith

Around the age of 11 or 12, a young Allan Scott enjoyed what he considers a mini-revival of faith.

“I was plugged into my Bible and I was reading devotionals and things were going pretty well,” he said.

But things changed around that time after his mother remarried, causing chaos at home.

“She had been divorced for like three or four years, and during that time, there was a lot of stability raising us as a single mom with no fighting,” he said. “But when she remarried, it was really bad from the first day. Things were very verbally abusive between her and her husband and that transferred into the rest of the household. It created an environment that was out of control.”

Around that same time, Scott felt himself needing more and more approval from others, and acting out to get the attention of classmates. He fell in with negative peers and ultimately went down a path of drug and alcohol addictions that tore apart his life and led to numerous stints at rehab and prison over the course of the next decade.

“I created a lot of wreckage in my life when I was younger. My family life began to get crazy and I ran from God, filling that void with drugs and alcohol. I sold all of my musical equipment to pay for that lifestyle and wound up homeless, looking through trash cans for drugs,” Scott said. “I became a trash can myself — I would put whatever I could into my body to feel better, to dull the emotional pain I was feeling at the time.

“I continued to throw away everything in my life. I considered myself a drug addict, loser and thief. I got to a point where I knew I was going to be that way for the rest of my life. I began to accept that reality.”

One night, while drunk and feeling especially out of control, Scott whispered a simple prayer, asking God for a lifeline.

“Through it all, I always knew God was there, and I was running from Him,” Scott said. “By that time in my life, I had dropped out of high school, dropped out of college and had already been in and out of a drug and alcohol rehab once. I was a mess, and just told Him I needed his help.”

God’s response to Scott’s drunken plea for help came in the form of a jail cell and a guitar.

Through three months in jail, another stint in rehab and a Christian counselor, Scott admitted that God answered his prayers in an unusual, yet powerful, way.

“I wound up being sent to jail. There was an old guitar at the prison, and I started to play,” he said. “I got into rehab and there was a Christian guy there who helped me. That was 18 years ago, and I’ve been free from that lifestyle ever since God put my life back together.

“I had nothing to give God. I was a castoff — a loser — and yet God was there with me,” Scott said. “I had nothing to offer Him — and yet He offered me everything.”

Through a music-based church program, Scott honed his skills and ultimately formed a band that ministers to people who feel they have nowhere else to turn and have fallen too far to have worth.

“My wife is an ex-drug addict who had been in multiple rehabs, and here we are two ex-junkies who have been married for 13 years. We have a beautiful 4-year-old daughter, and I get to travel all over the country with this cool music ministry,” Scott said. “I am not qualified to be up there by the world’s standards. I was a dropout with nothing to my name, and God gave me a life I didn’t deserve. He gave me a family I didn’t deserve.”

The Allan Scott Band performs 110 shows throughout the country each year, including a number of performances for inmates at penitentiaries in Pennsylvania and other states.

“He always seems to have a song that is just what I need just when I need it,” said Marlene Sunderland, of Tyrone, a fan of The Allan Scott Band. “I thank God for him and the rest of the guys every day.”

“It has helped us develop this message we strive to share is that God can restore any situation. He can heal any hurt, he can move any mountain,” Scott said. “No matter what you are facing, nothing is impossible for God. If God can work in the life of this drug addict — this loser — when I had nothing to offer Him, He can do the same for anyone else.”