NOT TOO LONG AGO, my good friends Dysqo and Rhyno called me, all hyped on a certain DJ they wanted to bring out. He uses a telephone as his headset (the old school kind) and scratches House Music better than any DMC DJ I've ever seen.

Enter Mr. Terrence Parker from Detroit. With over 100 productions under his belt and top 20 hits such as "Love's Got Me High", "The Question" and albums such as Detroit After Dark, he gives us hope that being a successful producer does not mean compromising to the hip and trendy.

He has a fairly young label called Parker Music Works that has churned out 28 releases in just two years. He is one of the true pioneers of Gospel House, and listening to his mixes brought me back to the earlier years of House with big churchy vocals, uplifting piano chords and deep deep basslines. In this day and age when every producer/DJ is screaming "tech", "electro" or "minimal", Terrence's music is timeless.

But more than that, Terrence Parker is an inspiration. After just ten minutes on the phone with him it felt like talking to an old friend. Strongly rooted in his faith, he emanates an energy that was palpable as we talked about losing faith in the music industry, being saved and why even bigtime DJs still need to get a job...

5 Magazine and HouseArrest are bringing Terrence Parker to Zentra this Friday, May 1, 2009. To get on our exclusive guestlist, you can RSVP here or email czarina@5chicago.com.

You took a one year sabbatical from the music industry, can you tell me more about that?

Oh sure. Actually it was needed for a number of reasons. I knew that it was possible for me to have a career on the Hip-hop side but as I got into House Music, I didn't see it so much as a career until I started getting closer to people here in Detroit like Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins, Blake Baxter, Eddie Fowlkes... And looking and watching them really gave me the idea that, hey, I could really make a career out of this!

As I started to get more successful over the years, the business side of it became more and more stressful, to the point where I wasn't enjoying it. The love never died, but I just wasn't getting the same type of satisfaction. The passion was overshadowed by all the politics and business drama that goes along with the music industry. I was really beginning to lose faith in people.

Even beyond that I was going through this whole spiritual thing. I mean I always loved God, I grew up in church and that whole thing, but I hadn't truly made the commitment or the sacrifice of myself. I said I'm going to turn my life over to God because I really wanted a change. So I went through that whole thing of reconnecting with God, being baptized, being saved... the whole nine yards.

Was there something in your life such as a tragedy that triggered it?

Well let's just say that God has a way of getting one's attention! In 2001 when we had the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it was shortly after that that my bookings started to decline. I went from making quite a bit of money to basically nothing. Like no bookings coming in, nothing happening at all. Everything dried up. Things started going down. When you go from making quite a bit of money to not making anything at all... you wake up quick!