My dad was a good man but an emotionally absent father, and so I had to look for that male attention somewhere else, and found it in a brother-in-law. He just happened to be an alcoholic.

I have no clue who that old Jim was. God has certainly transformed me into a different Jim.

I ended up getting on my knees right there in my bedroom. I didn't have a tract that had, you know, 'here's how you pray to receive Christ' on it. I had never seen a tract in my life. I had never read a Bible.

Memory calls us back, Mystery draws us forward.

My life and my plan wasn't very good, but at least it was my plan. It got to that point that I just couldn't stand it any more.

I was trying my best not to drink. I'd go a day or two, and I just couldn't stand it. It kinda got around that 'Hamilton got religion.' So for about a year, it was the most miserable time of my life because I was secretly still drinking. One night I came home, after about a year of this, and I woke up the next day and the desire was gone.

My dad was a good man but an emotionally absent father, and so I had to look for that male attention somewhere else, and found it in a brother-in-law. He just happened to be an alcoholic.