Drummer knocked, but no-one answered! He asked the priest to point to the place in the Bible where the pope and other traditions of the Catholic Church are mentioned. The priest's answers didn't satisfy him. Tarole called a Baptist minister, who was too busy to see him, and knocked on the door of a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall, but no one answered. http://journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128768433571 Wednesday, November 30, 2005 Rocker to Rock Minister still able to win over people with his drums, but with new purpose
By Mary Giunca JOURNAL REPORTER
It was 1976, and Tony Tarole was on the cusp of achieving his lifelong dream: fame as a rock 'n' roll drummer.
Girls squealed when he and his band, Equinox, took to the stage. The group had recorded some singles. And a big-time agent was interested in the band's work, he said.
"I was really dedicated and serious," he said. "I wanted to make it. This was my whole life."
But life on the road began to take its toll, and Tarole increasingly felt he was offering his best talents to people who only wanted to get drunk, party and pick each other up. He wondered if there was more to life, he said.
That quest took him on a path that began with reading the Bible between music sets and ended with a career as a minister. Since June, Tarole has been the pastor of the Linville Forest Church of Christ in Winston-Salem.
His rock 'n' roll career helps him relate to all kinds of people, he said. And the drumming makes him popular with younger church members, some of whom take lessons from him.
Chris Jackson has been a member of the church for 13 years and calls Tarole the best drummer he has ever seen. His son takes drum lessons from Tarole.
"I would say he could go up against the best of them," Jackson said, as he described Tarole's style of drumming. "It would go from fast, then he'd play on the rim and make a little rhythm and then come back with the cymbals. It was crazy."
Tarole's search for truth began in smoke-filled clubs and anonymous motel rooms when he was on the road with his band.
He began reading the Bible between sets after a friend recommended that as a way to find answers to life's questions. It took him several months to work his way through.
"When I finished reading the Bible, I knew God was telling me, 'I want all of your life, completely,'" he said.
When his parents visited him in New Jersey at a noisy club with the smell of stale beer in the air, Tarole gestured to the club's patrons.
"Do you see this? I don't want to do this anymore," he said. "I don't want to entertain these people so they can get wasted and party."
His parents thought that he was throwing his life away, Tarole said. So did his fellow band members.
Drumming was the one thing that he had been good at, Tarole said. He had been born with a detached retina in one eye and a partly detached retina in the other eye. He was in special classes in school because he had trouble seeing the blackboard, and his classmates laughed at him for holding books close to his eyes. He was shy and self-conscious until he started playing the drums at the age of 11.
In those days, his idols were Ringo Starr and Jimi Hendrix. While he was still in high school, Tarole began playing in garage bands. After graduating in 1971, he played in 20 different bands over the next five years.
"I wanted to make it great on the drums, to see my name in lights," he said.
After he quit Equinox, he moved back home with his parents in Bethlehem, Pa., and began a spiritual odyssey.
He made an appointment to talk with a Catholic priest, the faith he had been raised in, Tarole said.
He asked the priest to point to the place in the Bible where the pope and other traditions of the Catholic Church are mentioned. The priest's answers didn't satisfy him. Tarole called a Baptist minister, who was too busy to see him, and knocked on the door of a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall, but no one answered.
One day he was walking down a street in Bethlehem, when he saw a sign that read, "Gospel Meeting, the Church of Christ meets here."
He went inside.
He was impressed at how much the people cared about each other, he said, and by the way the Bible backed everything in the sermon up.
He returned to the Church of Christ and began studying the Bible with the minister there. In 1975, he was baptized in that faith.
At the suggestion of that minister, Tarole attended Williamstown Bible College in West Virginia. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in ministry in 1979, and met the woman he would eventually marry.
After he found a church that he felt comfortable in, Tarole said he was dismayed to learn that the Church of Christ doesn't use instruments in its service because the New Testament doesn't mention musical instruments.
"It was a little struggle," he said. "My emotions were wanting to play. Playing the drums was my whole life, but my intellect said, 'This is all right.'"
Tarole sold his drums in 1980 and didn't play for 25 years.
He served in churches in Bethlehem, Pa.; Birmingham, Ala.;West Palm Beach, Fla.; Detroit; and two churches in California near San Francisco and Los Angeles. He and his wife and five daughters moved here in June for his job at Linville Forest.
In 2001, some of his daughters developed an interest in drums. The Taroles were living in California, and a daughter urged him to enter a drum-off competition. He did, and won.
He has since bought a drum set, and often plays along with CDs that he has at home, he said.
"I love the drums, but it's a hard life to live," he said. "I'm thankful for it because it helps me to appreciate the things I have now.
"I love living here and I love the church here."
Ann Ervin, who has been a member of the church since childhood said that Tarole has brought new energy to the church.
"He has a lot of enthusiasm that flows over to everybody there. He could preach for two hours, and I don't think you would realize it," she said. "He moves around a lot. He puts things very simple. There's no misunderstanding."
Tarole's rock 'n' roll experience gives him a different perspective from that of other ministers, Ervin said.
"People who are not living a Christian life and search it out for themselves and find it," she said, "appreciate it a lot more than people who are raised in it."