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2002-2003
2003-2004
Testimony of Nashville Fats
One morning in 1993, while reading the morning newspaper, the artist felt what he describes as a "shadow falling over (his) eyes"...as if a curtain was closing." Within seconds, his left eye was completely blind and he was experiencing an excruciating headache. The following day he was unable to walk. A hospital visit confirmed what he and hi wife had suspected -- he was suffering from a debilitating stroke. "I became very paranoid, fearful and angry," the performer notes, folding his large, callused hands and placing them on his lap. " I thought I would go blind in a matter of months, so I sort of panicked. I read everything in site, sold my car so I could buy a piano , and taped pictures of great art all over the wall. My drug use escalated, and I even began carrying a gun. Several months later, while TV channel surfing, the deeply depressed Fats caught the end of a powerful sermon. Deeply moved, the artist began a month-long period of spiritual healing and renewal. He began attending Nashville's Belmont Church, quit drugs, threw away his gun, read the Bible, and opened his home to neighborhood and transient teens. "I went through a major spiritual metamorphosis," the songwriter says with a laugh. "By 1994, I had stepped to the looking glass, and I knew I couldn't go on without the Lord . Once I realized that, I began to be healed, both spiritually and physically." In 1996, the artist considered performing again -- this time with a new emphasis -- to perform heartfelt blues music with a positive message. Thorpe, who considered himself "big, fat and self-conscious," decided to rename himself Nashville Fats. He felt the new stage name would evoke a stronger blues image. He also wanted potential audiences to know he wasn't' the young , good looking , stereo-typical act they were accustomed to seeing.
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