Sid: I’ve got another Jewish person on the telephone; I’m speaking to her at her home in Nashville, Tennessee Jennifer Goetz. We learned on Monday and Tuesday about her husband but Jennifer comes from a conservative Jewish background in New York. Your dad was an actor; your mom an opera singer. And you began singing in clubs in New York Jennifer and you met a guy who then became involved in the music group of Bob Dylan. That must have been exciting times for you and you traveled with him.
Jennifer: Oh yeah, yeah actually it was my boyfriend who he was a boyfriend of mine and he was in a band with my cousin and my brother and Tony Bennett’s sons. I was in a club in New York City and on the stage were these musicians and I was with a friend of mine. And this friend says “See those fellows on stage?” And I said, “Yes.” He said “They’re going to be Bob Dylan’s backup band on some concerts that he’s going to be doing.” And I said “If I bring David down will you introduce him because I think that he’d be perfect for those guys.” And the next night I brought David down and he kind of auditioned for them and he was invited to go on something that was called “The Rolling Thunder Review” back in 1975. And it was Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez and oh my goodness Alan Ginsberg the poet; Roger McGowan who is now a believer and has been for many years.
Sid: But at the time this was all going on being a believer was probably pretty far from your thoughts; but it must have been a pretty exciting life.
Jennifer: It was very exciting and when it was over however, I feel into what I would say a depression because it was everything I had everything that the world said would make you happy. I had a good career, I had a catering business, I had a boyfriend, I traveled with the people who were in a sense my idols. Joni Mitchell, I was in love with her music, and when it was all over I still had that place inside of me that was not satisfied was not fulfilled was longing for something. And I didn’t know it was God; but yes it was exciting and it was also very sad too on the other hand.
Sid: It’s kind of hard for someone on the outside looking in here you are with these famous famous people jet setting if you will with everything Hollywood says is so satisfying and yet you felt so dissatisfied.
Jennifer: Empty yeah, yeah. After being, I went… in 1975 we toured the United States and in 1976 we toured the United States again. Then in 1978 I was invited to go to Europe for 6 weeks with Bob Dylan and my boyfriend and all these people. Not the same group of musicians but another tour. Actually I contracted something called Bell’s Palsy.
Sid: Oh, that’s a tough disease.
Jennifer: Yeah, well I woke up; actually I was catering a concert one night and when I went to bed and I swished the water in my mouth around after I brushed my teeth it came shooting out one side of my mouth. I lived alone and I thought “Uh oh what is going on?” And the next morning I woke up and half of my face was paralyzed. So we were catering another concert at the Universal Amphitheater in California and it was a Bob Dylan concert. My boyfriend has asked me if I wanted to go to Europe but I said not unless I get better. Bob took me into his trailer and he had a woman a physic healer woman; and I allowed to mention names?
Sid: Well, better not.
Jennifer: Well anyway she prayed for me and she had me envision colors and I closed my eyes and it was rather silly to me. But then when she was finished Bob’s girlfriend grabbed my hand and prayed over me in the Name of Jesus. And afterwards I was just kind of stunned. And the next day I started getting better; the Bells Palsy started going away and I did I went to Europe. When that was all over because that was truly a trip of a lifetime. You know we had own private train that took us from one country to the other and just stayed in the best hotels. But when it was over I was… we came back and I started getting hives. And I said to David, I said “Something’s after me and I have got to find out what it is. And I went to a physic nutritionist and she told me eat green beans and to drink orange juice and baked potatoes. And yes the hives went away. And in my search I did this thing called insight training; it’s a New Age thing. And it cost $250 and when it’s all over you put your $50 down to do the advanced training which is $650 and of course you put your money down because you’re very excited. But as I thought about it and I thought “This can’t be right the truth has to be available to everybody. And what about people who can’t afford that money.” And then I thought about people who are in wheelchairs or people who have lives and this where the whole exciting touring thing got me thinking. People who had what looked like who had rather mundane lives people who were housekeepers or you know washed dishes or they had to have the same reason to live then these people who are so talented and rich and famous. There had to be… I had this sense that there had to be something available to everybody that made life worth living. So I was in New York with my brother; well visiting my family from California and I was driving cross country with my brother and I dropped him off in Austin, Texas to visit my cousin. I went on to Fort Worth, Texas and I went to visit a friend of mine. And while I was there I had horrible dreams and she told me the next morning she said “Ask Jesus to take away your dreams.” And so that night I had the same horrible dream, I dreamed I was being murdered and I woke up barely enough to say “Jesus please take away these dreams.” And I slept soundly, and before I left her house she gave me C.S. Lewis’ book “Mere Christianity.” And I started reading it and I got saved reading it. And he made a great statement he said “Jesus was either who He claimed to be which was God walking this earth in the flesh, or He was a ravaging lunatic a crazy as a poached egg. But there’s no place to call Him a good man or a prophet or a good teacher. Because if He wasn’t God then He was a meg lo maniac.” And as a Jewish person growing up I was taught to believe that Jesus was actually a good man kind of like Moses. And C.S. Lewis just blew that out of the water and the scales just fell off my eyes; I was stunned. I just knew that I knew and I just devoured that book. And when I got back to California my friend took me to the Vineyard Christian Fellowship. And as I’m leaving who’s there in the back of the church but Bob Dylan and his girlfriend Mary Alice. And I said to her because when I had gotten back to California I had called her and I said “You didn’t return my phone calls Mary Alice. She said “I didn’t want you to drag me down” because she had rededicated her life to the Lord in that couple of weeks that I was in New York City. And she said to me “You’ve got to go to discipleship school.” And I said “Mary-Alice I need to find a job.”
Sid: That must have been an exciting experience being discipled with people like people like Bob Dylan in your class. But I want to go to something far more exciting a selection from your husband’s CD and it’s called “Sanctuary.” And there really is a place that you can find rest, and peace in the arms of the Messiah.
Marty Goetz singing an excerpt called Sanctuary
Sid: That was Marty Goetz singing “Sanctuary.” You know when I think about Marty Jennifer I think about how David would play the harp before King Saul and that was the only thing that would bring peace to King Saul. Do you get reports of people having supernatural peace when…
Jennifer: All the time oh, all the time people tell us that it brought them through such a very hard time in their lives. It brings tremendous comfort to people; I’ve had people who’ve lost children who have told me that it was the only thing that they could listen to night and day.
Sid: Oh, we’re out of time.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth