Two Chowchilla police officers took a leap of faith last year when they turned in their badges and guns and picked up a bass and a microphone to pursue musical ministry.
Ex-officers Heath Middleton and Phil Cheatham — joined by Phil’s son Michael and Michael’s friend Justin Webster — took their contemporary Christian band, Driven Cure, on the road.
Together they’ve played in venues across the country and will perform next month at Spirit West Coast — one of the largest Christian music events in the country.
Middleton and the Cheathams led the church band at Passion Driven Ministries in Chowchilla for years before deciding to branch off and become an outreach worship group in 2008.
“We had a vision to go from church to church to teach people what worship is about — and what worship is about is a relationship with God,” Middleton said.
After throwing around names in the police department’s report writing room, Middleton and Cheatham decided on Driven Cure, Cheatham said.
“Jesus is the cure,” he said, to which Webster added, “We are driven to bring people to the cure.”
The group aims to take listeners on a musical and spiritual journey with their progressive rock worship style, band members say.
The band signed with Oklahoma-based label Tate Music Group in January 2009 and released its first album, Astray No More, that fall.
“Lyrically it’s straightforward Christian music that you would hear in church,” said Webster, the band’s lead guitarist. “Heath, the main vocalist, wrote all the songs. We just kind of threw together what we had and got it out there.”
The band took more time to perfect its sophomore album, Message, which will be relased August 9.
“It’s more metaphorical,’ Webster said. “The albums share the same themes, but the second was a collaborative writing effort.”
One of the underlying themes was inspired by a worshiper’s testimony, Paul Cheatham said.
“He said he made a mess out of his life, but God made a message,” he said.
“God can always use what looks like a rough or tough situation and make it into a message that can benefit that person or other people,” Webster added.
Driven Cure spends much of its time touring — as far east as Nashville and as far west as Hawaii — and the remainder of its time serving as the worship band at Good News Ministries in Madera.
“Last April we all resigned from our employments to pursue full-time music ministry,” said Webster, a former construction worker.
Although it has sometimes been difficult adjusting to widely flexible schedules and financial uncertainty — and trying to find a niche in a music industry that is ever evolving — the band members say their passion for music and for God make it all worthwhile.
“We don’t want to be doing anything other than this,” Webster said.
The band books its own tours, and will perform “anywhere they’ll let us,” Paul Cheatham said. “We can call 600 venues and 599 of them might say ‘no’ and one person will say yes and we’ll jump on it.”
“We play everywhere from as tiny as a little 10-people church to coffee shops to music festivals to as big as the main stage at Spirit West Coast,” said Micheal Cheatham, the band’s drummer and a former marketing student at UC Merced.
Spirit West Coast is a big step for the band, members say.
Last year Driven Cure had to “pay to play” at the event, which means their fans had to purchase a certain number of tickets for the group to be able to perform.
“We ended up doing more than $10,000 in ticket sales and they put us on the Air One mainstage,” Webster said.
This year the event’s organizer booked the band to play two concerts at the three-day festival, held at the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey.
The band is also in the midst of the Igniting the Body Tour — a worship tour featuring Driven Cure and Good News Ministries’ pastor Eddie Gallegos. Tour information can be found on the band’s website, DrivenCure.com.
By Farin Montanez
