Business Meeting Gives Music Exec New Lease on Life

“At twelve years old my parents took me to a concert,” says Jason. “It was in a big arena, and I was this boy that was not validated. I did not feel accepted. I did not feel noticed. And here was this guy on stage in front of 20,000 people, in a sense being worshipped. And loved.”

Jason Davis started writing songs and performing them with his friend Chris. By high school, Jason knew where he was headed.

“And I sold probably 1,000 or 1,500 cassette tapes just in my school over a couple years period. And I realized in high school, I was like, ‘This is what I love, this is what I want to do.’”

After high school, Jason got a day job and continued writing and selling his songs. Then at 23, he wrote his first big hit, Captured.

“It shot up the charts and became a really big Christian hit song. I made enough money off the song to where I was able to quit my job and really spend a solid year just focusing on music and trying to go after it. But I didn’t know God at all.”

Jason used that one hit as his calling card in the music business. Within eight years, he had climbed his way to the top.

“I was taking meetings with Dr. Dre’s people, Eminem’s people. I worked with the band Sugar Ray, Snoop Dogg. I used to have tons of meetings with Jay Z. And I was developing artists that were getting multi-million dollar record deals. Had all the money that I could ever ask for. Had everything that I dreamed of, everything. And it was the most empty and miserable I had ever been in my entire life. Because I realized that I had gotten everything that I wanted and I still did not feel loved, I still did not feel like I had love in my life.

“And when there was nothing left to buy, and nothing left to distract me, I got to the point where I said if this is it, if this is what years and years of killing myself produces, if this is what making it looks like, I don’t want to be here anymore. And the next day, I went out and I bought three bottles of sleeping pills. I checked myself into the Ritz Carlton, and I was committed that I was not going to check out.”

As Jason started to take the pills, his cell phone rang. His business partner asked if he was available to meet with a client the next day.

“And I hung up the phone and said what am I going to do? I just told somebody to book their flight, so I said you know what I’m goint to do, I’m going to check out, I’ll take this meeting tomorrow, and then I’ll just check back in. And I’ll finish it. The next day, at the meeting, this guy asks me if I know Jesus Christ. And no one in my life, I was 33 years old, no one in my life had ever asked me that before.”

They talked for hours, and Jason learned about Jesus Christ for the first time. The next morning, he went to the beach near his house.

“I was looking at the dark, deep body of water on the ocean. And I was noticing how wide and vast the darkness of that water was. And I was tracing this narrow path of light back and it hit me that the light source was called the sun. I closed my eyes in that moment and I saw the brightest white light. I saw the face of Jesus and bright white light. And I knew for the first time in my life that Jesus was God and this was real, it was the most impactful moment I’ve ever had in my life. It was the most beautiful moment I’ve ever had in my life.”

Jason asked Jesus Christ into his heart.

“I started reading what Jesus said in the Bible. How He said to live your life. I hurt a lot of people in my childhood, a lot of people in my teenage years, and a lot of people in my in my 20s. And to know that I was actually loved and forgiven despite all that drew me to God in a way that He had my heart.

“And that’s when I noticed my life changing. A 180 degree change. My thoughts started changing, my heart started changing. My view of people started changing.”

Jason doesn’t write much these days, but still works in the music industry. Now married, he and his wife Heather manage several musicians and performing artists.

“I love Christian music personally. But I also love helping people with the dream that God planted in them. My work is no longer about me getting gratification or getting satisfaction. It’s about me pouring into others, loving others, caring and fighting for others. And that is a radical change from where I was and the only thing that changed was Jesus.”