We had the good fortune of connecting with James Parks Ii and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi JAMES, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
When I was 20 years old in January of 1991, I was working a Brown & Root job in Ashdown, Arkansas at a Georgia Pacific paper mill. Brown & Root was the industrial contractor and I had been working with them since I turned 18 in 1988. My long time brother Keith Sipes and I worked this particular job together in the pipe department and we were staying in an old box train car that someone had converted into living quarters. My now ex-wife and our children and I lived in Stonewall, Louisiana wild Keith lived in Crossett, Arkansas. We were renting that box train car to work the job together. The work shift changed from 5 10s to 7 12s which means 7 days a wweek12 hours a day and we were ready to make that overtime because that’s 44 hours of time and a half! After about a week and a half into this long shift, Keith caught pneumonia and was medically released. And I could not afford to pay both my home bills and that box train car rent and bills so I asked Keith if I could use his 1978 Monte Carlo to continue to work the shutdown which is what it’s called when you’re working 7 12s because a portion of that paper mill is shut down so it can be demolished and rebuilt better than it was before with whatever upgrades. My family and I only had one vehicle and Keith was still living with his mom and dad so he was kind enough to allow me to use his ’78 Monte Carlo so I could leave my 1970 Nova for my family to use. I only lasted one week driving two and a half hours from home to work, working 12 hours, then driving another two and a half hours back home. It was a Saturday morning between 5:00 and 5:30 a.m. and I was driving to work on a two-lane highway in the middle of nowhere in the woods with nothing but pine trees on both sides of the highway. I fell asleep while driving and I actually seen what I was going to hit but it was like I was seeing it in a dream. I saw four concrete columns coming up from the ground and the next thing I remember is being woke up by an elderly man. He must have heard the crash and came to see what happened. I had the driver side window down because as I was driving I would hold my head out the window to try to stay awake but that didn’t work obviously. The next thing I remember is sitting on the floor of an ambulance with my feet on the ground and police officers and EMTs standing in like a half moon around me and one police officer asked me three questions three times, my name, my address, and my phone number. I found out later the reason why he was asking me the same questions so many times is to make sure I didn’t have any damage to my brain, at least first check on scene anyway. The police estimated my speed between 90 and 95 mph because the damage to that 1978 Monte Carlo was severe. All four motor mounts broke and the engine and transmission had been moved back approximately 8 in. My head hit the windshield and knocked the entire windshield out. This was before the seat belt law so I was not wearing my seat belt and the only reason I didn’t fly out of the car is because I had the tilt steering tilted all the way down so the steering wheel kept me inside the car and I had a steering wheel bruise on my chest and my stomach and my knees hit the dash and were cut up and bloody and they had to use the jaws of life to cut me out of the car. I don’t remember any of that. I must have been in and out of consciousness. I was in a coma for 3 days but I had no broken bones and no scars! There is no doubt in my mind the only reason I wasn’t completely liquid and bones shattered is because our Heavenly Father, God Almighty, put his hand in front of me saying no, it is not your time and you are not to be harmed from this accident. After I was released from the hospital I went back to work and finished the job although I had medical restrictions such as not being able to climb higher than 6 ft because I had a severe head injury and the doctors didn’t want me to become so dizzy I would fall from a letter or whatever. That was my Awakening! I started to read my King James Holy Bible and I went to the book of Revelations and began to read and that’s where I first discovered the word PROPHECY! I had always been an aspiring musician as far back as I can remember! I felt from that point on, I’m on a mission, I’m on a mission to spread God’s words of love through my music! That’s when I created my band, PROPHECY! And I had the conceptual design idea of the logo in my head and I explained it to my old school brother and our other guitar player, Mike Wilson because he was also an amazing artist! That boy could draw! Haha! Mike drew exactly what I had pictured in my head regarding the logo and that’s exactly what we used from 1991 to 1997 and then had it upgraded or modified to reflect the change in our music from Old School thrash speed metal to Texas Death Metal and that metamorphosis began when I met Joe “Boogie” Dunlap in 1995 while living in Shreveport, Louisiana right next door to me! And Boogie introduced me to my lifelong blood brother, Phil Holland and that’s when the real metamorphosis truly began! Within about the first decade my dad asked me, son, why do you play the kind of music that you play? And I said, dad, if you really want to reach the people that need to be reached, you have to get down in the gutter! Over the years I know I have reached people because I have had people contact me in the early days before the internet, with actual handwritten letters, thanking me for being so open and honest about my faith because they were, and I quote, “on the fence”! I will continue doing the best I can to spread our Heavenly Father’s words of love in every way our Heavenly Father blesses me with until I am called home to Heaven!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My passion for music began the first time I heard it as a child and when my older sister was playing AC/DC “Back in Black” on her 8-track, that changed my life forever! That’s what started me on the road of metal music! Before that my first instrument was a King brand Trumpet! And I played it during my middle school years and even in marching School bands and became First Chair Trumpet player! Then I heard “Something in the air Tonight” by Phil Collins and immediately wanted to learn how to play drums so I asked a friend if I could use his pair of drumsticks and I began to teach myself using my Mama’s old blue chair as the drum kit! Haha! The next song I learned how to play drums on is, “I’ll Wait” by Van Halen! And it didn’t take me very long at all to seriously get interested in Eddie’s playing! So during the summer of 1983 while I was still 12, I went to stay two weeks with my older brother and sister-in-law and I worked one week with my brother and one week with my sister-in-law and made $350 which was more than enough back then for me to buy my first guitar and a little Crate practice amp, a strap, a cord, and some guitar picks! Everyday after school I would come home and try to figure out songs from all kinds of different bands like Boston which my older brother had first introduced to me and it was their debut release which in my opinion is their best that I’m aware of anyway ha! Other bands such as Motley Crue, Ratt, Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, and of course AC/DC! I was training my ear! Then one day while at school and in the restroom, and old friend of mine came up and put on a set of headphones on my ears, from his Sony Walkman and that was another turning point for me because it was Metallica Ride the lightning! From that point on I cut my teeth on Metallica! I learned every song 100% by ear! All those years passed with me playing thrash speed metal music and of course I had that accident that left me in a coma for 3 days and was completely awakened! That’s when I started my band, PROPHECY in 1991! Then in 1995 I met Joe “Boogie” Dunlap and he was the one who first turned me on to Death Metal! The first song him and I learned together was, “Pull the Plug” by the band Death and then Sepultura, Suffocation, Dying Fetus and so many more! I love many different genres of music such as some old country and western that I grew up listening to with Mama and Daddy and my sister Cheryl! My favorite composer of classical music is Mozart! That man defines musical genius in so many ways! Our world is full of inspiring musicians! I am a man who is continually blessed in so many ways every day and I am so thankful to our Heavenly Father for everything everyday forever!!!!!!! I have always been driven by truly feeling my purpose which is one of God’s Messengers!!!!!!!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Of course we would go to Haltom Theater in Haltom City, Texas because that is the home of Metal in the DFW area! If they wanted to get a tattoo I would take them to my old school brother and former vocalist, Jeramy Kitchens at his main tattoo parlor, Sleepy Hollow Tattoos near downtown Fort Worth! Of course if they wanted to go to a zoo or an aquarium, DFW has them! And obviously everyone knows where our president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was assassinated by the grassy knoll shooter, so we could go to Dallas if they wanted to. I personally prefer less huge crowds but if they wanted to go to six flags over Texas it’s right there in Arlington! Or better yet, we could go to see the world champion Texas Rangers play a game!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
OUR SAVIOR, LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THE KING JAMES HOLY BIBLE!!!!!!! 💕🙏🏼💕🙏🏼💕🙏🏼💕

Website: https://www.prophecystore.com

Instagram: PROPHECYTXOFFICIAL

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PROPHECY.TEXAS

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/JamesofPROPHECY

Image Credits
James Parks II, Paul McGuire

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