By Morgan Mizell

NATCHEZ — Life can change in an instant and former Framing the Red lead guitar player Jamie Welch can testify to that fact.

“Just a few months ago I was playing on a stage in front of 80,000 people, and today, I was putting a roof on a house,” Welch said. “You just never really know what life has in store for you.”

Welch said he had a rough childhood. He grew up with his grandparents and brother while his parents went about their way.

“I was never made to go to church, but I remember going to church, and there were times I would even walk to church,” Welch said. “I eventually ended up playing drums in the church.”

Eventually, Welch would lose the people in his life who represented stability in a roughly two-year time period. He began to indulge in a life he felt was hypocritical to the one he presented on Sunday morning.

“I started getting into playing music on Friday and Saturday nights in a bar, and then play drums on Sunday morning with a hangover which was the worst feelings ever,” Welch said. “I eventually dropped out all together.”

For years, Welch was in and out of bands; however he played in a band, In Red Letters, for several years. As the band had some success, some members did not agree about going further. Welch and another band member contacted another group, Stillframe, and eventually took their singer and bass player. Thus, the band Framing the Red was born.

As quickly as the band formed, they encountered success. They played events without much original material and eventually wrote an album. Everything was somewhat of a whirlwind for the group, and Welch said their song, “Country Band Man,” took them all across the country.

Extended tours took Welch away from his children for as long as six months at a time. The separation wore on him as did the exposure to the lifestyle that accompanies the rock and roll culture.

“I was writing songs about doing drugs and all, but I was not a part of that life and the longer I stayed the more I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb,” Welch said. “I was watching the lifestyle take over other people and the more I thought about it, the less I could justify what I was doing.”

After a disagreement with a band member, Welch agreed to leave the group after the last “Hometown Throwdown” in February of this year.

“We had been doing these fundraisers for a few years for needy families in our area and I agreed to stay to see the project through,” Welch said. “But the night I walked off that stage I went to work for another group in a different capacity.”

Not long after leaving his band, and starting work for the group Drowning Pool, Welch said his daughter suggested they go to church.

“I grudgingly went to church with her and when I got there, they were showing a video,” Welch said. “It was like the guy in that video was speaking directly to me. I felt convicted.”

Welch said in that moment his life was changed.

Welch started a booking company for bands as well as a roofing business with a childhood friend. He also goes on the road, for much shorter time periods, with Drowning Pool to do stage set-up.

When he publicly announced the life change, Welch said he was confronted with some negativity. Some of the people closest to him were the ones who had the harshest things to say.

“Even more than the negative things, I look at the positive feedback,” Welch said. “I have had numerous people contact me and tell me how the changes I have made in my life has helped them.”

Welch said the change in his life is crazy but it has been for the best. His days, while different, are rewarding and he enjoys being close to his kids.

“I am the happiest I have been since my kids were born,” Welch said. “I just plan to work and make up a lot of time I have missed with my kids.

Future plans include playing drums in his church, Christ Life at the River in Natchez and working on a solo album.

“The album is not all about church, but 90 percent will be Christian based,” Welch said. “It is going to have a lot to do with overcoming my childhood and it will just have a really positive message. I will write the music and the lyrics.”

While life has definitely changed for Welch, he said he feels good about the changes.

“I have played some amazing shows, including shows with Shinedown, Lynyrd Skynyrd, John Fogerty and Motley Crue,” Welch said. “I have lived a life I dreamed of and that is pretty amazing.”

For now, Welch said he is totally dedicated to his church and building his business.

He encourages anyone who is facing hard times or uncertainty to find a church home and seek God for answers and work on finding better solutions to their problems.