Was A Member Of Color Me Badd Really Possessed By The Devil?
The Lord may work in mysterious ways, but the the way the devil works is obviously just plain strange. For example, God has been known to communicate to we humans through burning bushes, the angel Gabriel and his son, Jesus Christ. And beezlebub? Well, apparently, he’s been sending us messages through the song “I Adore (Mi Amor).”
Moline’s I Wireless Center will be home for the I Love The 90’s Tour this Saturday. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. and go till 10:30 p.m. and you can get tickets here for the show featuring Salt-N-Pepa with DJ Spinderella, Kid N Play, Rob Base, All 4 One, Color Me Badd, Coolio, Tone Loc, Bryan Abrams, Vanilla Ice, Kool Moe Dee, and Young MC.
But while the i-wi may be the home of the ‘90s, one of the musicians playing there Saturday was once allegedly home to the devil.
Yes, Bob Larson, an alleged exorcist, claims that one of the people he exorcised was Kevin Thornton — a singer with the group Color Me Badd.
I’m not kidding.
For those of you who don’t remember which member was which in Color Me Badd (and that’s likely most of you), Thornton isn’t the lead singer with the bad facial hair who kind of looked like the devil — that is, if the devil used a lot of styling gel. Thornton is the African-American guy with the dreads, the cheesy moustache and the flamboyant, “devil-made-me-wear-it” fashion sense.
Recently, on the radio show Coast To Coast AM, Larson talked about his encounter with Thornton, claiming that he didn’t even know he was a singer in a band until he talked with “K.T.” after the ministry shindig/demon-casting-out-soiree. After describing the event, Larson played a tape of the demon speaking through Thornton. The voice was cold and gutteral, and the wicked words it growled kind of sounded like this: “Tick-tock, you don’t stop-stop, to my heart/Tick-tock, you don’t stop-stop, to my heart/Oooo-oooh-oooh-oooh-oooh-oooh-oooh/I Wanna Seee-exx You Up…”
Now I’m kidding. Seriously though, when I first heard this news, it was a real shock. Before, I just thought the “Badd” in Color Me Badd was a description of the group’s music, but now, I guess it was supposed to mean bad in the evil sense. I’m assuming the second “d” was added as initialed props to the devil. And to think, some religious types only accused groups like KISS (Knights In Satan’s Service), AC/DC (Against Christ/Destroy Christ) and Black Sabbath (Black Sabbath) of having wicked messages hidden in their names.
Other evidence of diabolical powers at work: Color Me Badd backwards is “Ddab ’em, Roloc!,” which sounds like something very wrong that might happen in a Turkish bath house.
Of course, this could all be bogus. “K.T.” could just be the victim of a hoax, or a co-conspirator in the perpetration of one. CMB hasn’t exactly burned up the charts in about, oh, two decades. Maybe this is a publicity stunt, or maybe Kevin needed to pay some bills, so he took a job playing the part of a demon-possessed person so Larson could publicly “heal” him. After all, the source for all of this is highly dubious. Larson is a televangelist of the Benny Hinn persuasion, best known for his weekly Trinity Broadcasting TV show and his appearances on such revered daytime programs as “Montel” and “Sally Jesse Raphael.”
During his time on Coast to Coast, and for days afterward, visitors to the message board ripped into Larson, calling him a charlatan at best and a grifter at worst. However, nobody really said anything about “K.T.’s” role in the whole enchilada. So, I checked out the official Color Me Badd website, to see if, by chance, it could shed some light on the facts of the situation. I thought that maybe Thornton’s bio would include an entry saying, “Kevin’s career as a singer in Color Me Badd was cut tragically short when he was possessed by a gravelly-voiced demon in 1995. While the physical symptoms of the infestation gave his live performances a new energy — who could forget the time he spun his head around completely during an encore in Dallas! — his new, ragged vocal style left him unable to hit those high notes anymore. His former bandmates wish him all the best!” Alas, there was nothing of the sort on Kevin’s personal webpage. All it said was that his favorite food is chicken, his most embarrassing moment was when he fell on stage during a routine, his car is a red Jeep Renegade and his favorite colors are black and red. Hmmm. A RED Jeep Renegade? Favorite colors of black and red? Maybe there’s something to this after all…
