Tupelo performer overcomes many hardships on the road to a gospel career.
BY M. SCOTT MORRIS

   When Steven Scott sings about redemption, he has a bus load of history to back him up. The Tupelo native battled drug and alcohol addiction for years, and faced possible death on several occasions before his life started to straighten out eight years ago, Now he's a gospel singer trying to "spread the word one song at a time." He recently recorded his first CD. "I Know Who Holds the Future.'' to raise money for a building fund at his church. First Seventh-Day Adventist Church, and he's currently recording a collection of old-time gospel songs dedicated to senior citizens in the area. Throw in a new gospel music TV show with Deloris Adams that runs at 6 p.m. every Friday on Boonevilles Channel 33. and Scott can't help but sing, "The Lord just keeps opening door after door." he said.
Near death
   Looking back. Scott believes the Lord has always been with him. It's been a pretty hard road, nonetheless.
    After a stint in the Marine Corp, he ended up in Wisconsin, where he went into a severe depression. Scott was homeless living in an alley not far from death when something compelled a man to deviate from his usual route to church.
    "Dr. Richard Hands looked down the alley and saw my feet sticking out of a box in 15 degree weather," Scott recalled. "He pulled down my eyelids and said, 'Son, you're very sick and i'm going to help you"

COURTESY PHOTO
Gospel artist Steven Scott performs during a recent trip to Branson, Mo.

"He has had a rough time of it. I'm just so thankful now he has realty turned his life over to the Lord."
Mary Nell Goines
Scott's Mother.

The doctors thought Hands was too late and sent word to Scott's mother, Mary Nell Goines, in Tupelo. Before she reached him, her son had quit breathing for nearly five minutes, but there was no need for a funeral.
   "You just know it had to be the Lord's work," she said. "It couldn't have happened any other way."
Two more chances
   Scott moved back to Mississippi, but it wasn't long until he was in trouble again. He was looking at a possible 53 years in prison for drug-related offenses.
    "The judge said, 'Son, you're a marginal case,'" Scott said, "but he gave me time served and five years probation." Scott stayed clean for a while and moved to Memphis where he became a successful health club manager.

He moved to Georgia and things started looking TOO good.
   "It happens with alcoholics all the time," he said. "You get to thinking you're cured."
    Before long, he was at a drug treatment facility in Wisconsin, where he almost died from an allergic reaction to the methadone used to treat his heroin addiction. He fell into a coma-like state at a time when there shouldn't have been doctors at the facility, but there was a birthday party so six were in attendance.
   "They got a call from someone saying she was my girlfriend, That's why they found me," he said. "Later, my girlfriend said she didn't make the call, I've talked to dozens of people I know and none of I them said they called.
    "Scott said the third time was a charm. He's, sharing his story around the region and is ten- tentatively scheduled to travel to Washington, D.C. in June to help spread the gospel to inner city youth. He's performed in Branson, and he's also a finalist in a gospel music competition.
    The good news keeps coming. No doubt his mother is proud.
    "He has had a rough time of it," she said. "I'm just so thankful now he has really turned his life over to the Lord."
    These days, Scott has a message and a mission, and he's definitely looking up. "God saved me for this ministry and put the words on.my heart in late February to spread the word of God one song at a time," he said, "and for the first time in my life I felt I had a purpose. Today, I am trying with all of my ener gy to do just that."