In unforeseen circumstances, when Norman Gentles experienced a health scare it gave birth to his music career.

Gentles shared with the Jamaica Observer that God led him to pick up a guitar one day while he was going through one of the lowest points in his life. He went on to teaching himself how to play it, and then to singing and releasing his first official music single.

The single is what Gentles described as an inspirational gospel song titled Your Mercy Oh God.

The video of his debut single has reached some 80,000 views on YouTube since its release on June 10 this year.

“About two years ago I had a health scare. There was a lot of stuff of going on and I guess having gone through this health scare and reaching out to my faith I saw a different side of life. You see your health fading and you realise that you have a life span. We all want to live forever, but there are certain obstacles that get in your way. I was at a low ebb health-wise and I reached out to God. My faith helped me through that period of time,” Gentles told the Jamaica Observer.

He continued: “One of my sons had a guitar and he had actually moved out of the house and he left the guitar in the room. I saw it and, for some reason, I started humming a melody. I had to find out how to bring that melody to life and the only way I could do that was by strumming the guitar. I went online and taught myself a couple of chords and I found myself being inspired. The words of the song just came to me. I said, ‘Your mercy, oh God, is all I need,’ and that helped me through my hard times. When I sang the song to a few of my friends they said I had to put it out because it would help other people as well.

Gentles has been a music journalist for over 40 years. Over that period he has always dreamt of becoming a singer and musician, but cold feet prevented him from doing so.

Now that he has crossed a major hurdle, and has released his first official piece of work, his aim is for it to reach the ears and hearts of as many people as it can across the world. His message goes out to individuals who are afraid of pursuing their dreams.

“I had encouragement from friends here in the UK, such as Mafia and Fluxy. This particular song, the rhythm was built by a good friend of mine from St Elizabeth. He encouraged me and said this thing is really good and that I needed to put it out. I formed Musical Heatwave Records and the rest was history. I created a video and it has garnered over 80, 000 views which was quite surprising for me,” Gentles said.

“After years of basically interviewing artistes and being on the other side of the microphone, I have always been a frustrated singer in terms of wanting to sing. As early as I can remember my first venture into music was in primary school doing the old Festival end-of-term dances and stuff when we would sing the Jamaican folk songs.

“My hope is for the song to reach as much folks as possible and that whoever is listening to the song will be inspired. It is about inspiring people and basically showing that there is hope. The lyrics of the song, the first line says, ‘In the darkest night when I couldn’t see, you were there and you rescued me.’ The main thing is don’t give up. That is the message I would like to give to anybody that’s out there who is thinking about approaching something in their later life. It’s never too late.”

Back in the day, Gentles wrote for the UK Gleaner and worked with numerous entities as a radio engineer, presenter and broadcaster. He told the Observer that he interviewed many of the top foundation artistes of Jamaican music

“I presented an entertainment TV show in London for over 10 years. I also worked for the first multi-cultural radio station here in London for 10 years presenting a Caribbean entertainment music magazine show. That I did until recently, when I started my own radio station, Musical Heatwave Radio, which is an Internet station. It is broadcast live to the UK through Radio RJR on the FM band, plus it is also broadcast in the tri-state and via various other Internet stations throughout the world.”