Stephen Pierce was on a mission. His goal was to become a highly successful musician. He and his group were on their way to fulfilling his dream. But he got off to a wrong note when he was seduced into the dark and destructive world of drugs.
Stephen traveled the world with 9th Creation. However, behind the music, drugs were causing Stephen’s life to hit a low note.
“I was introduced to drugs by different musicians that I was playing with, guys that I was hanging out with. It seemed fun at that time, and so I began to partake of it,” Stephen said.
Yet what started off as fun, soon turned into an obsession.
“I had started off smoking marijuana. Marijuana wasn’t just doing anything for me. And so I ventured off into other drugs.”
Pierce went from marijuana to heroin to cocaine, and as musician had easy access to all the drugs he wanted.
“After the club was over with, the drug dealer that was inside of the club would want to throw a party. And so for him throwing that party, we had all the drugs that we wanted,” Pierce said.
One night while Stephen was performing, a woman named Yvette sat in the front row. There was something about Stephen that really caught her attention.
“I just paused there for a long time,” Yvette said. “It was something was inside me was saying, like, this person needs you.”
Yvette and Stephen got together and began dating. Eventually they moved in together and had a baby. It was then Yvette would come to realize the extent of Stephen’s drug addiction.
“One night he came home after being gone for a very long time,” Yvette said. “ It looked like he, I don’t know, was up like for two to three weeks or so, straggling in. All I could do was put him in the bathtub. I filled it up with water, and I cleaned him. He was sick from being out all night, and he told me he was doing heroin. And it was like the only thing I could do was say, “Oh, my Lord,” I said, “Why are you doing this to yourself?”
Even at his lowest point, Yvette refused to leave him.
“I loved him and I wanted to help him. Basically in my heart and mind was just to stick in there and help this person, because I knew there were things about him that were hidden underneath all this, you know, garbage. So if I stayed in there and helped him get rid of all that garbage, the true essence of who he really was called to be would come out.”
Despite Yvette’s resolve to stay, the years passed by, and Stephen’s habit got worse.
“I was in the streets, playing that music and using those drugs,” Pierce said. “It had me constantly in the streets. The minute I woke up I’m getting high. I mean, no food, no nothing; my food was getting high. Late into the nights, I was getting high.”
Stephen continued to chase his next fix, until one day the high he craved almost cost him his life.
“During that course of the time, I kind of like let go of everything” Pierce said. “But there was one drug I couldn’t let go of, and that was that PCP. I went to my stash, and I took about three good hits of it, and I already felt it taking me into that zone that I wanted to be in.”
Stephen Pierce lay in his bedroom completely high, but then decided to smoke some marijuana a friend gave him earlier. Both drugs immediately created a chemical imbalance.
“The next thing I know, he fell to the ground, and he was sort of like semi-unconscious on the floor. And I was just shaking him. I was calling his name, like, ‘Wake up, wake up,’” Yvette said.
While unconscious, Stephen had a vision.
“He started coming from out of it, and he was crying and saying that he had seen his father. And his father was deceased. And he said his father was telling him, “I told you to get it together, you ain’t gonna have another chance,” Yvette said.
Stephen lay there weeping and crying.
“ I knew at that particular moment that a change had come in my life, and that God had done something in my life,” Pierce said.
“To feel the presence that was in that room,” Yvette said. “I knew for sure he wasn’t going to ever touch drugs again.”
From that day, Stephen lost any desire that he had for drugs.
“I was tired, and I wanted a new life. I knew there was something else out there for me than what I was doing,” Pierce said. “I just didn’t know how to do it on my own until that last nervous breakdown. Then everything just began to ring in my head. I began then to see the picture, the true picture, the true light, and that’s when it all began, the life changing experience for me.”
Another life changing moment came when Stephen’s brother, who had just gotten out of prison, shared the love of Jesus with him.
“My brother was a gangster on the streets, and if the Lord can change his life and turn his life around from robbing and killing and doing all these things that he’s done in his life and even in the penitentiary, I felt in my spirit, if the Lord changed this man, it’s gotta be real,” Pierce said. “And so I checked it out. He led me through the sinner’s prayer, and I received Christ that day.”
Stephen then left his music group and his old friends. Although he didn’t desire his former lifestyle, he was still afraid to be alone, unsure if he could really live drug free. Yet as he studied the Bible he became more confident that he was okay, and that he didn’t have to worry about going back into that type of lifestyle again.
“Jesus helped me by showing me who I was in Him, giving me confidence that he was there,” Pierce said. “According to the Scriptures He said that he would never leave me nor forsake me. So my release came by being confident in Jesus Christ, knowing that He was there for me through whatever situations and trials and tribulations that I would go through, that he would be there.”
Seeing the change in Stephen, Yvette also committed her life to the Lord. Now they share a beautiful relationship as husband and wife.
“I know the Lord put us together, and we have a special relationship because it seems like every moment or every year, it just gets better and better,” Yvette said.
Stephen appreciates the fact that his wife stood by his side through it all.
“She has a heart of gold,” Pierce said. “I couldn’t ask for a better wife than Yvette. Words can’t really explain the type of woman she is, and what she has been for me, and how she has been there for me.”
Stephen has been drug free for 14 years and is singing a new song. His CD, “My Testimony”, shares the story of his battle and victory over drugs. He is currently working on a book called Watch Out For The Trap, and a new CD, The Prodigal Son, to help others who are addicted to drugs.
“It’s time to give it up,” Pierce said. “Because Jesus is the only answer to their problem, and the only way that they can be set free is to release themselves from that addiction that’s causing them to be shackled and chained in their minds. If they turn their lives over to the Lord, God can and will take that addiction away from them.”
