Jesus Calling

The original drummer for the Clash was Terry Chimes, who left the band shortly after the first album was recorded because of an overall conflict in outlook with the other members (singer Joe Strummer, guitarist Mick Jones and bassist Paul Simonon). Chimes, who was replaced by Nicky “Topper” Headon, played with several other bands including Billy Idol’s Generation X before briefly rejoining the Clash when Headon was asked to leave due to drug issues. After leaving the band again, Chimes played with Hanoi Rocks and Black Sabbath before making a startling career turn. In 1994, following a lifelong passion for biology, medicine and healing, he began a chiropractic clinic in Essex. Having retired completely from music, he founded a highly successful chain of clinics and also began to give seminars in chiropractic management and alternative medicine. But Chimes was yet to undergo a transformation greater than a mere change of careers. In 2000, while reading the chapter on pride in C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, he had a radical conversion experience: “Everything in my world seemed to be instantly shattered, leaving me feeling tiny, naked and exposed. At the same time I felt the most extraordinarily powerful love. This presence knew everything about me and yet still loved me.”
The words quoted above come from Chimes’s recently published autobiography, The Strange Case of Dr. Terry and Mr. Chimes (Crux Publishing)