Jimmy Brown II will be on tour with his former band, Deliverance, in Mexico in March. But, before leaving on tour, Brown presented a mini-mini concert for the Brundidge Rotarians at their Wednesday meeting.

Although the Brown performed only two songs, that was all he needed to win over his audience.

“Fantastic” was how Rotarian Jim Medley described Brown’s performance and the other Rotarians stayed around to shake his hand in appreciation.

Brown was the program guest of Rotarian Dixie Shehane and took a few minutes to express his appreciation for Brundidge and the people he now calls friends and neighbors.

Brown and his wife, Helen, live in Troy but work in Brundidge. He is the recording engineer at 3Frogz Studio and she owns and operates Lavender Court Soap Company.

Brown said he was a little hesitant to accept Olaf Lieb’s offer to “come run my studio.”

“But it is an insanely wonderful studio,” Brown said. “It will rival recording studios in Nashville. Olaf has a vision for the studio and the ability to make it happen. We are recording church groups and rappers and it’s exciting to be a part of this state-of-the-art recording studio.”

Brown told the Rotarians that he grew up in Los Angeles, the son of a German father and a Spanish mother, so a lot of languages were going on in his home and music was a part of his life.

“When I was three years old, I was entertaining in my home,” he said. “When I was five, I grabbed a stick and was doing renditions of Elvis. Then, I was into rock ’n roll. In 1979, my family was converted to Christianity. I had not heard gospel music until then.”

Brown said, when he attended a Pentecostal church, he was hooked on the music.

“It was loud, fast and upbeat,” he said. “It was music that I could be passionate about.”

During his “rebellious” years, Brown said he became the Jimmy Swaggart of Heavy Metal and  “scaring people with my music.”

When playing in a bar, he would sometimes, go off stage and deliver a fire and brimstone message and beer bottles would be thrown at him.

“But I got a message from a young man who said the lyrics of my song changed his life and he thanked me,” Brown said and added that he knew then, there was a place and a purpose for his music.

Brown’s band, “Deliverance” made its mark on the Los Angeles club scene during the 1980s and garnered a rather large fan base. The band received significant attention in the Christian metal community with their 1990 release “Weapons of Our Warfare.”’ Deliverance toured around the world for 10 years and released a video on MTV for the title track of Weapons.

Brown has released 10 studio albums as Deliverance as well as featuring on nine compilation albums.

Following Brown’s Rotary concert, Don Dickert, club president, said with appreciation that he didn’t James Brown but he knows Jimmy Brown.