Chords for Dan Peek (America) Profile

[Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ The [Em] band with the name America [D] actually [Em] got its start in London.
Dan Peake's [Bm] dad was stationed in the UK, [Em] so were the fathers of his classmates, [Bm] who would
soon [Em] become his bandmates.
Did you know [Bm] you had [D] something when you got [Em] together and began to play and sing?
We were sitting in there around one acoustic guitar and as we [Bm] began to sing and our voices
sort [Em] of combined in this little space, it [A] was like [Em] something happened.
I think all of us just sort of looked at each other and [D] went, we got something special here.
[Em] Dan Peake recorded his [F#m] breakthrough album with America [Em] shortly after graduating high school.
When A Horse With No Name hit, and it hit big, I mean did it become a number one record?
[F#] Yeah, A Horse With [E] No Name [Em] had gone to the top of the charts, just [G#] saturated the airwaves.
What did [E] it do to you mentally and in every way?
The rocket took off so quick and was followed by hit after hit after hit _ that we were just
running so hard to keep up with the success that had been generated by that first record.
It's like being a kid in a candy store with a sweet tooth.
We went from not having anything we wanted materially to suddenly having whatever we
wanted materially, socially.
_ _ _ _ And it was really in some ways, I think it was too much.
At what point _ did America go to America?
We came back to the States and we made our second album, [G] _ Homecoming, _ which [A] had Venture Highway.
We're _ [D]
the [G] days are long, the nights are strong.
[F#m] America took home the Grammy for Best New Artist in [Bm] 1972, and by then, Dan Peake was
fully immersed in the rock and roll [F#m] lifestyle.
_ _ [B] People sending [E] the limos and flying here and doing this and doing that.
And it was overwhelming.
And I got to admit, I tried everything.
I tasted every possible thing.
I had had a background.
_ _ I had _ a spiritual compass, but I abandoned it completely.
I knew what was right and I knew what was wrong, but I decided to just taste all the
fruits that the world had to offer.
And you took _ another road at that point.
Absolutely.
I did a 180, went the other way.
I became the biggest rebel in the band.
I became the bad boy.
I did everything.
Drugs?
Drugs, rock and roll, you name it, it was all there.
Sex, drugs, rock and roll.
Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
It was the whole cornucopia of fleshly, material, carnal stuff.
And I tried to fill what was now just an empty hole because I had really walked away from
_ _ my relationship with the Lord.
What did all of this success and the attainment of great fame, notoriety, all of it, do among
_ the other members of the group?
We became way too competitive.
I remember one time George Martin, who produced five of our albums, Beatles producer, legendary
talent guy, used to talk about with the Beatles, he thought it was a very healthy competition
between John and Paul and George and Ringo as well.
But there was a lot of competition.
And I think competition sometimes is not healthy.
And it built up for you.
_ What juncture?
Were you standing on a stage?
Were you in a recording studio or what?
You said, _ _ this is it.
I've had it.
I don't even want to do this anymore.
I would come back after, say, an eight-week tour where we maybe had two nights off out
of eight weeks, and I would want to destroy [Fm] my musical stuff.
I didn't want to look at anything that had to do with music.
I didn't want to hear music.
I wanted to take all my guitars and smash them.
I got to a point where I really wanted to change.
It was very unhealthy.
And I realized I couldn't do it within the context of the band.
And really then what changed was I got right with God.
I had reached a point really where I was so strung out on cocaine and smoking dope and anything.
I'd lay my hands on Quaaludes, whatever.
I was just a total trash dump of chemicals.
So was there a moment where you were in a hotel room somewhere and say, Jesus, you know,
or God, I made a commitment?
It was actually at home.
I was in my million-dollar house overlooking the sea in Malibu on a 200-knot weave Persian
rug and I went, I am empty.
I am at the end of my rope, God.
I've done everything I can think of to try to _ make myself satisfied.
I've got everything that's supposed to make me happy and I'm miserable.
And I got on my knees and I repented and I said, Lord, all I need is you.
I don't need any of this stuff.
This is not doing it.
It's not filling the bill.
All I need is you.
_ And he took me at my word.
And didn't he take all that stuff?
Within about two months, pretty much everything was gone.
The house was destroyed in a forest fire.
_ I left the band.
We went into, it was like a divorce.
Everything was just sort of ripped out of all of our hands for a while.
It was just the greatest debacle I've ever lived through in my life.
I didn't think I was going to make it.
But God, on a day-by-day-by-day basis, brought me through it.
You walked away from the whole deal?
The whole deal.
All of it.
Didn't you even leave the United States for a period of time?
Yeah.
My wife and I moved to the Caribbean for 15 years and I began being basically [D] a carpenter
and started rehabbing an old [G] house.
And it was a labor of love.
And I spent about [Em] four or [G] five hours a day reading the Bible.
And I got closer to the Lord during that [A] period.
[G] _ Jesus, [Em] _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ Jesus, _ [G] you're with [D] me everywhere [Em] I go.
[C] Dan Peek went on [G] to record several Christian albums.
And most recently, he set out to tell the America story in a unique way.
It gave me the opportunity to not only tell the story [E] of the band and the incredible and
crazy and wild and wacky things that happened, but also to present in a very clear way the gospel.
To be able to just sit down and write how God met me and found me and picked me up and
cleaned me off and made me whole again.
And he doesn't just fix the broken things, he makes you new.
He makes a new thing.
He doesn't just take the old stuff and dust it off.
He makes you a new creature. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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