Bob Ayala

Bob Ayala is one of the pioneers of early Jesus Music and performed in Southern California at the time as a solo artist with an acoustic guitar. He was born in 1951 with a genetic defect in his retina that left him legally blind. He first began performing at the “Salt Company” the first Christian coffee house that was started in L.A. at Hollywood Presbyterian in 1969 as a reaction to the hippie influence. The “Salt Company” inspired hundreds if not thousands of Christian coffee houses around the Western World featuring what was first called “Jesus Music” or “Jesus Rock.” The “Agape Inn Coffee House” that I was co-emcee of with George Shearer hosted Bob Ayala on Many occasions.

 

https://www.crescentavalleyweekly.com/religion/05/12/2016/recapturing-magic-salt-company/

 

Ayala got married to his wife Pam that he had been performing with as a duo since 1969 in 1972. I met and talked to Bob many times and even photographed him one time when he played at the church in 1976 when I was producing Friday night “Jesus Music” concerts at the Highland Park Neighborhood Foursquare church on the corner of Avenue 56 and York Blvd in the Highland Park District of Los Angeles. George Shearer was helping out and introduced Bob Ayala at this particular concert. This is a link to his 1976 album “Joy By Surprise” on Youtube.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgtgBglMi-g

 

By the middle of the 1970’s Bob Ayala began touring with other gospel artists like Andre` Crouch and even Keith Green before his tragic plane crash in 1982. Ayala became part of Green’s “Last Days Ministries” and later moved to the East Coast. He was signed as a songwriter for Integrity Music in the 1990’s. He was the minister of worship at a church in New Hampshire until Pam’s death in 2008. Now he lives in Texas with one of his sons.

 

The last time that I was Bob Ayala perform was in 1977 at Angelus Temple in the Echo Park District of Los Angeles when I was attending LIFE Bible College my senior year. I was sitting in a row close to the front and when his performance ended and people were leaving I was talking to someone and they said something funny and I began to laugh. Bob Ayala who was still on the stage suddenly called my name and said “Bob Gersztyn, I would know your laugh anywhere.” The last time that I talked to him on the phone was in 2010 when I had to get his permission to use his photo for my book “Jesus Rocks The World” that was published in 2012 and that this blog is named after. This year is the fifty-year anniversary of the Jesus Movement just as 2017 was the “Summer of Love.” However, because of COVID19 the celebrations and events that were planned have all been canceled.