Biography: the "high" priest
Note: Vance A. Johnson just hates writing about himself in the third person, but since he is the Webmaster, and there is nobody else here that can do it for him, here goes anyway (VAJ):
From a very early age, Vance Anthony Johnson has had three powerful callings on his life: Music, Ministry, and the Sea.
Born October 25th, 1945, at the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, California, the first two callings became apparent by the age of only four, in the Children's Choir of the First Christian Church of Oakland, California. By 1950, Vance was a soloist and lead soprano in the children's choir. He had his first public singing performances in church that year. He had also begun studying piano at age four.
Vance also began to express his childhood dream of Deep-Sea Diving at that early age, after seeing the John Wayne film: "In the Wake of the Red Witch".
Vance's father, Glen D. Johnson, a U.S. Navy Chief Fire Controlman, had left the family within a year after the end of World War II. His mother, "Lee" N. Kellar, remarried in 1951. Vance's new stepfather was George W. Silva, the founder and president of West Transportation, Inc. of Emeryville, California.
In 1955, Vance was baptised in the church.
Thanks to the movie: "The Blackboard Jungle", Vance had also become aware of "Bill Haley and the Comets", and the beginnings of Rock and Roll.
In 1956, Vance's family moved from Oakland to a new home in Hayward, California. The eleven-year old, taken away from his home church, was soon drawn away from all church activities, overwhelmed by the growing phenomenon of Rock and Roll, and the advent of it's "king", Elvis Presley.
Vance has been singing and playing Rock and Roll; Blues; Rhythm and Blues; Gospel; Soul and Funk; Country and Western; Country Rock; Jazz and Standards ever since, both "in the world", and in the churches.
Late in 1957, George W. Silva, was fatally injured in an automobile accident. The trucker had failed to adopt his stepson, but he had left Vance with a little sister, Georgia Lee, and an unborn baby brother, George W. Silva, Jr. Their mother never remarried after her loss.
In 1961, at age 15, Vance became a certified SCUBA diver, and also had his first trial dive in a USN MarkV hard-hat diving suit at the Coastal School of Diving in Oakland, California.
Vance was a real all-American kid in high school. He was an honor student; played football and other sports, and had a high school sweetheart named "Susie". He wrote the script, and acted and sang in his senior class show at Mt. Eden High School (class of '63).
Vance successfully competed in NROTC testing, but subsequently failed several colorblindness tests. Because of his very high score on the aptitude tests, he was offered a full scholorship contingent upon his acceptance of a commission as a supply officer. Because this meant he could never command any ship in the navy (let alone a submarine), he refused the offer, and then enlisted in the Navy Reserves. (Vance mysteriously passed the colorblindness test here, when the corpsman who gave the test found his name on a list.)
Vance had been encouraged by recruiters to believe that he had hope of qualifying for the Navy Diving School, Seals, or UDT's; ... even to petition to Annapolis, without having to face any further eye examinations. But, each of these courses were later denied to him also, once again because of colorblindness tests.
In the meantime, Vance was invited to compete in the honors program at Cal-State, Hayward, his local college.
For a short time, Vance transferred out of the Navy Reserves to join the USMC Platoon Leader's Class, a Marine Officer's Training Program. In the PLC, colorblindness was actually considered an advantage for recon operations, because of a natural ability of the colorblind to "see through" camouflage.
After just one year of college, Vance dropped out of school and joined his uncle Bill Oxford's band: the "Spyders".
Vance was honorably discharged from the Navy for medical reasons in 1965.
Vance Johnson and Bill Oxford still perform together quite often, as they have off and on for the past 50+ years! (see: pnwbands.com/hotspice.html)
In 1967, while on a band tour which had brought him back once again to his hometown of Oakland, California, Vance married his first ex-wife (Sue #2) Susan Hudson was a good-looking, hard-drinking Montana cowgirl the singer had met while appearing earlier on the road in Great Falls.
The couple had parted almost as soon as they had met, but they kept in touch, while "Tony Vance" and "the RB Project" continued on the road, and Sue moved on to San Francisco, where she became a "flower child" in Haight Ashbury. There, the couple eventually met again, and were soon married.
Vance's new touring band, "Tony Vance and the Progress Hornsby Four" (also with "Uncle Rock-a-Billy" Oxford, lower left) broke up unexpectedly in Modesto, California, shortly after the couple were married.
Vance and Sue returned to Spokane for a short time in '67 and '68. During this time, Vance began to explore the power of suggestion, and developed skills in stage hypnosis and hypnotherapy. At that point, Vance had begun a long descent into pure sorcery. "Jesus" very politely moved outside the door of his heart, but was there all the time, still knocking, and still protecting the young man.
In the summer of 1968, Vance returned to Oakland again, this time to attend the Coastal School of Diving.
After Graduation, Vance left Susan in California, while he rode his 250 Suzuki motorcycle all the way from Oakland to New Orleans (a not-so easy ride!). There the singer began to live out his childhood dream of deep-sea diving.
He was hired on (over the telephone) in October, 1968, as a "tender" (diver's helper/apprentice), by the "Packer Diving and Salvage Company", a small diving company in Morgan City, Louisiana, owned by three football players of the very first (and second!) World Champion Green Bay Packers.
Vance was almost immediately sent offshore into the Gulf of Mexico. But first, he had to wait for nearly seven hours for that first call-out from Packer Divers. Alone in room number seven of the Tulane Motel in New Orleans, he patiently sat by the phone. Coincidentally, you may recall that Brother Jimmy Swaggart got himself into trouble in that same room some years later.
Vance was completely broke, and his little motorcycle was nearly out of gas, as he waited. When the call finally came, Vance rode on to Morgan City, and caught that first crewboat ride in the middle of the night of October 21, 1968. The boat came up the Bayou directly behind the Packer Divers Yard, pulled in and picked up one diver, Mr. Calvin Solar, and his brand new "green" tender, Vance Johnson. Vance was offshore nearly a month on that first trip, and was allowed to make several unpaid "experience" dives to inspect "The 'Gator", Packer Divers patented jet-propelled pipeline burying machine.
One of Vance's first experiences upon returning to the "beach" was watching the "Easy Rider" film crew, and it's stars, drive by the Packer Divers shop on Highway 90 East at least six times, in both directions, filming the motorcycle riders, and offshore oilrig platforms under construction in the background. There is "Easy Rider" cutting room floor footage of Vance Johnson shoveling and raking shells in the Packer Divers yard, as Hopper, Fonda, and Nicholson rode by, again and again. (There is very little gravel for driveways or parking lots in South Louisiana, but lots and lots of little shells!)
The first Mrs. Johnson soon joined her husband in Louisiana, but Vance was offshore tending divers in the Oilpatch for over 250 days that first year, and nearly as many in the next. Their marriage did not survive for long after that. They separated and were finally divorced in 1973.
In late summer, 1969, Vance's experimentations in sorcery, - which included the use of fasting; LSD; Peyote; and "magic" mushrooms; as well as crystal gazing; Ouija; autosuggestion; hypnosis; hypnotic "past-life" regressions, and psychic "testing"; even successful telepathic hypnosis, and surreptitious trance inductions of unwilling "subjects" - led him into deep trouble.
This finally culminated in a psychotic episode wherein the young singer/diver, under the influence of Louisiana White Lightnin', and "Strawberry Alarm" LSD, found himself onstage at the 1969 New Orleans Pop Festival. He was dirty, shirtless and shoeless, and wearing only a pair of black and white striped bell-bottom jeans. He had short, greasy, and messy hair, and hadn't shaved. His eyes were glazed over.
Vance was simply attempting to "sit in" with the "Jefferson Airplane", some of whose members he had once been briefly introduced to in San Francisco. No one had in any way impeded his ascent to center stage. It was as if he had been invisible up to that point. But then, as Vance strutted up and reached for the center microphone, the crowd of 40,000 let out a huge roar of laughter and applause, and he suddenly came part-way to his senses when he realized that this really wasn't his show; that there was no microphone in Grace Slick's mic stand (She had it in her hand, for some reason!); and that he really didn't know much more of the song the band was playing than:
"When the truth is shown, to be lies ...".
It also helped that two big security guards were carrying him backstage, where they gently deposited him behind the huge see-through lightshow screen, which was just too groovy!
"Steppenwolf", Vance's by then very well-known Norwegian Elkhound/Beagle/Coyote, ignoring the hundreds of echoing calls of the huge crowd, found and guided his adled master back to his comrades.
Somewhere, there is probably film footage of this foolishness.
Note: The author reluctantly includes this embarrassing episode in order to warn his readers, again, against the dangers of sorcery. Don't try this at home kids! (VAJ)
After some further experimentation with sleep and sensory deprivation, Vance finally sought help in God, and in rest and relaxation at the Eastern Louisiana State Hospital. (Yeah, the "Cuckoo's Nest"; the "Funny Farm".)
After a short but difficult recovery, with several "flashback" relapses, Vance abandoned his flirtations with psychedelia and the powers of sorcery, embraced Yahshvah, and got on with living his childhood dream of deep-sea diving. He "broke out" as a full-time commercial oilfield diver by Christmas of 1969.
In 1970, Vance broke his left hand in a diving accident, during a wild ride on a "Jury-rigged" "Gator" jet machine, which had pulled off the pipeline under pressure, and took off like a rocket.
He rehabilitated his fingers painfully, through two reconstructive surgeries, by playing the bass guitar. He still has two stainless steel pins in his left index finger, which form a cross that really looks interesting in an X-Ray.
This same machine later took the life of one of Vance's best friends, Dave McCallister, when a 6" hammer union blew off the "'Gator" under pressure, and struck the diver's headgear.
In 1972, Vance went overseas as a Free-Lance diver to Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. He had been called there as a replacement for another good friend, Harold Conover, who had been carried off in the jaws of a giant "Jew-fish", never to be seen again. The fish was later killed, filleted and frozen, and pieces of it were continuously added to a fish stew that remained simmering in the kettle for a solid month. Another smaller Jew-fish showed up at the jobsite to harass the divers, and it was dispatched as well.
"Jew fish Attack" - a watercolor sketch by Vance A. Johnson
Vance was later joined in Trinidad by his new sweetheart, a beautiful gal from South Louisiana: Suzanne Martin, and her baby girl, Dawn Light Martin, whose birth Vance had witnessed as a proud "surrogate" father.
Suzanne was Sue-y #3 ... what a sap for "Sues" he had become. She later became Vance's second ex-wife, and last Sue! But first, she was the mother of his darling step-daughter (Delta) Dawn Light (and, ... 4 years later, his only son, Eli A. Johnson).
After almost a year in the Trinidadian Tropical Paradise, the diver had spent only two months actually working offshore in deep water, and the rest of the time partying; happily exploring the island on a 250 Bultaco; body surfing (sometimes nude on deserted north-coast beaches!); sailing; spearfishing, and diving for lobsters.
In the meantime, the company he dived for: Offshore Services Limited, of Port Of Spain, somehow managed to sink their main Salvage vessel on top of a rich wreck they were working in Costa Rica. One of the directors, sent to finance the salvage of the salvage ship, financed a gambling trip to Barbados instead.
Late in 1973, Vance, Suzanne, and Dawn Light returned to Louisiana. The couple were married shortly thereafter.
Upon returning to the States, Vance immediately went back to work offshore for J and J Marine Diving Company, of Pasadena, Texas. He worked out of their brand-new Morgan City, Louisiana branch office, first as a Free-Lance diver ("Free-Lance Vance"), and then as Lead Diver, Mixed-Gas Manifold Operator, Diving Supervisor, Underwater Welder, and Explosives Expert. He even painted their new sign for them:
In 1975, Vance began the first of several quests for the real goal of his earlier childhood dreams: Treasure! Never one to think small, he spent the next five years trying to mount an expedition to recover the "Greatest Treasure in the Seas".
Vance organized "Lorli Ltd., Mermen" in Hong Kong;
Singapore; Okayama, Japan; and Louisiana, specifically for this
effort. His Japanese business partner, Isamu Katayama ("Sam
Kat"), had a real tough time with the business
name: "Ror-ri Rimited".
At one point, Vance did research on some 20,000 shipwrecks at the Public Library in Chicago, and other sources. He boiled his list of "targets" down to 20 fabulously rich possibilities, of which only a few remain unrecovered today.
On one expedition, while traveling on the way to Cape Cod, Vance and his partner were arrested for playing "Johnny Potseed" on the New Jersey Turnpike. After paying misdemeanor fines, they went on to the targeted wrecksite, only to discover that the ship, which was supposed to have been loaded with tons of "pigs" of alloyed copper, had actually carried zinc instead. The zinc had of course by then corroded into worthless zinc-oxide.
Another expedition "went South" when amateur divers beat Vance and his crew, by just three weeks, to a $4,000,000 trove of copper and silver ingots in Lake Huron.
In 1975, Vance received training with the advanced "Innerspace Systems" "Porpoise-Pack 1" Closed-Circuit Mixed-Gas Underwater Breathing Apparatus. The PP-1 was a commercial modification of the Westinghouse CCR-1000 rebreather, which allows a self-contained diver up to six hours of breathing time at any depth.
In 1977, Vance underwent a spinal fusion operation which effectively ended his in-water Commercial Diving career. This necessarily forced him to become a part-time offshore Diving Supervisor; a Mixed-Gas Manifold operator; a Demolitions Expert; and a full-time salaried desk jockey, as the first Safety Director for "International Oilfield Divers, Inc." (IOD)
In 1978, while enroute to yet another abortive treasure expedition in the Florida Keys, Vance visited Tarpon Springs Florida, and he acquired the one certification he is proudest of.
About this time, Vance also began the in-depth studies which eventually led him to the lost truths about the Holy Name; the Sabbath; the Feasts; the Law of God; and the true history of the Church, ... truths which are not taught by the churches of mainstream Christianity.
In 1980, the treasure of the "Admiral Nahkimov" was recovered by the infamous Mr. Ryoichi Sasagawa, and his rival Japanese group. Mr. Sasagawa, a 90 year-old billionaire, had spent millions gearing up to beat the "American Divers", and Lorli Ltd. to the treasure.
That year, Vance also started the "Yahshvah's Soul Church", in the front room of the solar home he was building in Bayou L'Ourse, Louisiana.
The first services consisted of Friday evening bible studies, prayer, off-beat "Communions", and the playing of loud music with divers and tenders who were also musicians. Suzanne did not appreciate any of this at all, and never willingly took part.
In 1981, The "Yahshvah's Soul Church" was formally incorporated in Louisiana.
About this time, Vance also lost another good diver friend, Terry Griggs, to an explosion. Terry had been ordered to burn into a supposedly "purged" natural gas wellhead.
Another good friend, Gene Hemme, whom Vance had worked with in Trinidad, was lost in a helicopter crash offshore.
Vance soon incorporated "Sub-Ocean Safety, Inc." ("S.O.S."), as a consultant to Lloyd's of London. He was also a stipulated Expert Witness in diving safety, often testifying in diving accident litigation.
Vance also began to organize "Solpower, Incorporated" in Liverpool, Louisiana, where he owned a beautiful piece of land on a crystal clear stream. Solpower, Inc. was dedicated to producing high purity hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis, using alternate energy sources to power the equipment. Although wholesale buyers had signed letters of intent to buy the gases, Solpower never made it into the production stage.
In '81, Vance left IOD to become Louisiana Gulf Coast Operations Manager for "Ocean-Tec, Inc." of Freeport, Texas.
In '82, Vance was briefly medically recertified to dive for "Santa Fe International"; only to be "beached" again, this time for good, when it was discovered that he had a spot of Dysbaric Bone Necrosis in his left shoulder.
A small part of his flesh was already dead because of his childhood dream. During his nine year diving career, Vance had spent nearly a year of his life underwater, and another six months or so in deck decompression chambers. Vance still suffers from the residual effects of 13 cases of decompression sickness (including two CNS "hits" with paralysis), and two embolisms over the course of his career.
During this troubling time, his "sweet, innocent" little Suzanne (... boy, did she have him fooled!) frizzed out her strawberry blond hair, caked on the kohl; slipped into her disco dress, and disappeared into the night. She needed "space". Suzanne had chewed Vance up for ten years, and finally spit him out. That "Looziana" gal had been more than his match from the beginning, but he didn't recognize that fact until after she was long gone.
All three of the "high" priest's "Susies" would probably love to chew Vance up today, if you asked them. (Deservedly so, ... but not entirely.)
Big, tough, 36 year-old deep-sea diver Vance was devastated. He turned into a "jellyfish", and proceeded to quickly self-destruct, and lose it all in "Loosiana". Finally, in July, 1982, defeated and depressed, he decided to return to Spokane, Washington in a beat-up pickup truck, loaded with just a few belongings (including a Baldwin Electro-Pro piano), and his five-year old son. He had managed to obtain legal separation papers; and a temporary custody order.
Suzanne never contested that order, and Vance raised his son in Spokane, while allowing Suzanne to share custody from time to time. They were divorced in December, 1983.
One of Vance's greatest regrets in life is that he had failed to formally adopt his step-daughter, Dawn, and was forced to leave the nine-year-old girl behind with her mother. He did not see her again for five years.
Upon returning to Spokane, Vance established AAME: All-American Male Enterprises.
He also started "Vaya"; the "Yahshvah's Soul Church Choir and Orchestra", with his brother, George W. Silva, II, who became the second "high" priest of the 'Soul Church. These enterprises, and the 'Soul Church, dedicated to the glory of Yahshvah, have continued to this day.
George W. Silva, III, Vance's nephew, is also a successful musician and singer. ( ... in the "world" - "Five Foot Thick")
Also in 1983, Vance and his cousin Louise "Tonie" Swindle entered into a "Common-Law"; "One Flesh Covenant" (Marriage between cousins is not allowed in Washington State.)
Note: Vance and Tonie thank God for cousins Isaac and Rebekah; and cousins Israel and Leah, and their "Seed", our beloved Yahshvah, Who has " ... bruised the head of the serpent." (Gen. 3:15)
Their union has continued through over 20 years of good times and hard times; ... including a short stint, together with other 'Soul Church members, in a coed Federal Work-Release Prison, for the terrible crime of "Manufacturing Marijuana".
Though the cousins have no children together, they have helped eachother to raise six adult children by their previous marriages, and have nine grandchildren between them.
Vance's time in the laughable "Club Fed West" (Geiger Corrections Center) afforded him the opportunity to rewrite, make "corrections" and complete his three screenplays, and "Yahshvah's Soul", as well as outlines for several more screen projects, including a comedy about the coed institution.
Vance was also blessed during this time when his house caught on fire, and the Federal Work Release Program allowed him to repair and remodel the home as his own contractor, nearly doubling his available living space. This also allowed him to spend time at home working every weekday.
He was also allowed to continue playing and singing in clubs as a professional musician while he served his sentence. (See: pnwbands.com/tommyandvance.html
During this time, Vance reluctantly became the "clean and sober" priest. However, he secretly conducted Sabbath services, and High Holy Feast Day services for the other incarcerated members of the Yahshvah's Soul Church. He was even able to smuggle Passover wine into the facility, and to conduct a surreptitious "foot washing" ceremony.
Vance was also allowed by the facility to bring in his band equipment, and do a special Holiday Season performance for the entire prison population in 1992.
Today, the "high" priest is involved in several ministries besides the 'Soul Church. "Renaissance Vance" is also a writer and screenwriter; an entrepeneur; a consultant; a ("starving") artist; a singer/songwriter and musician; a part-time commercial telephone technician and computer network wiring technician; a certified Freon recycler and refrigeration technician; and a budding webmaster and publisher.
He no longer practises hypnosis, but still relies on the power of suggestion, through the Word of God and prayer.
He rarely uses marijuana, and then usually as just one ingredient of the healing "Chrism", the anointing oil. Yet, the "high" priest remains a staunch advocate for the legalization of most "natural" medicines.
These pages are the result of nearly 28 years of study, and the good guidance of Yahshvah Himself, who has preserved his precious child through 59 years, so far, - and in spite of himself, - for these purposes, and this present work, to the glory of His Holy Name.
For you see, the first "high" priest of the 'Soul Church may be an eccentric; a funny guy; and a pretty fart smella, uh ... smart fella; - but Vance A. Johnson is really just an everyday nobody, and somewhat of a loveable loser in himself, as you have seen. - But in Yahshvah, Vance is completely "unvanceable"! (He has even walked on water from time to time, always with his eyes on "Jesus".)
In Yahshvah, all of us become invincible, for our Savior has already won the Victory! for us.
Halleluyah!
"What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." (William Shakespeare)
It is interesting that throughout the Bible, names are very important and full of meaning. In many Eastern cultures, both ancient and modern, and in African and Native American societies, the choosing of a name for a person, place or thing is somehow connected to and descriptive of its essence and/or personality. This is especially true in the case of individuals whose names are changed to reflect a change in nature, status, or personality. Thus Ish ("the man") became "Adam"; "Abram" became "Abraham"; "Sarai" became "Sarah"; "Jacob" became "Israel"; "Simon" became "Peter"; and "Saul" of Tarsus became "Paul"; even so YHVH Himself has become YHSHVH!
When I was a child, I hated my given name because it was uncommon; and my surname because it was too common. This is one reason why I later became "Tony Vance" as an entertainer. I have since learned the meanings of my names, and I have come to accept them, perhaps even with a hint of pride! (for shame!):
1. Vance (Latin: the "conqueror"; the "victor". - From the Indo-European root, "Van": the "one"; the "first"; A vane or fan; the "wind" {I'm a windy "blowhard", alright}; the "vine", or the "wine"; A "ban", or "bane"; and lastly, the mythical "Pan".) 2. Anthony (Latin: "Antony": of "inestimable strength") 3. Johnson (Anglicized Hebrew; "Barjonah": "son of the gracious gift of God") (... also the surname of both the Apostle: Simon "Peter" Barjonah; and the Magician: Simon "Pater" "Magus" Barjonah) 4. Silva (Latin: tree; trees; forest.) - My legal alias, from my stepfather's; mother's; and sibling's surname.
Interestingly, an ancestor, General Flavius Silva, was the destroyer of the Temple in Jerusalem, and also the stronghold of Masada, in 70AD, under the command of Emperor Titus.
(VAJ) - 3/13/'03
Note: This page is dedicated to the memory of Dave McCallister; Harold Conover; Terry Griggs; and Gene Hemme.