Memphis man inspires the city through music and testimony
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – As we look forward to a new year a lot of people will reset their focus to achieve personal goals while also looking for a more positive overall year.
A Memphis man says he wants to inspire the entire city to be better through his testimony and music.
Trusting the process is something Sherman Brown knows a lot about.
“I was wearing the same clothes over and over again, couldn’t get my haircut. So I was the class clown to get the eyes off of me and go to class, to class,” Brown said.
Brown says he grew up in Memphis in a tough South Memphis neighborhood and managed to survive to tell his story today.
“And by me, forgiving and loving God changed my life around.”
As a teen Brown says he dropped out of high school. One day after dropping out Brown says his life changed forever.
“I dropped out of school and met a friend and became best friends and went over to an apartment to play with a gun. And I’m sitting there shot in the mouth with the gun,” Brown said.
That bullet remains in him today.
It inspired him to write a book about the near-death experience in hopes to inspire others not to let one bad decision ruin your life.
“So the bullet in me is a key that’s broken. Mom and Dad done crack cocaine. Dad was incarcerated like 80% of my life,” Brown said.
Brown says since the pandemic he, like a lot of people, have seen Memphis become too violent to stay silent.
“I just want to change the narrative with energy and hopefully that right there will escalate to something bigger. And people live as a survivor and talk about the good things,” Brown said.
Two years ago in the wake of Young Dolph’s death, Brown spoke with FOX13 at Makeda’s Cookies, where Dolph was killed. He said he wanted to inspire through the saying live and die in Memphis.
That quickly changed.
“What about living? Survive. So you actually name the song, right? But I think when I was going to live and die still is not what I wanted to give. Right. But you just changed the narrative, gave a new energy to the ideas that I had. You told me so. You did name the song Live and Survive. I thank you for that,” Brown said.
With “Live and Survive in Memphis” he’s created a song that he’s been asked to sing at several events in the city.
His hopes are the song and his story will inspire a change from the record breaking year of homicides in the city he’s still in love with.
“I think 2024 hopefully be a foundational year where people understand what they are. We want to go give positive energy,” Brown said.
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