Evangelist Denise Matthews

Matthews became the lead singer of the scantily-clad girl group Prince formed for Warner Bros. Records called Vanity 6, which had the hit song "Nasty Girl" in 1982. After leaving prince's camp in 1983, Matthews went on to record two albums for Motown and starred in movies such as “The Last Dragon”; produced by Motown mogul Berry Gordy; “Action Jackson”; costarring Carl Weathers; and “52 Pickup”; featuring screen legend Ann Margaret.

By the time she was 25, Matthews was using cocaine heavily. “I had found my way into the playground of the pearly white stuff called cocaine. Lifting me higher and dropping me like a steel beam. I'd inhaled enough rock so that by the age of 35, you could light me up, smoke me and stick me in the nearest cold grave. Easily, the devil had won me and readied my tired body for hell.”

As her addiction spiraled out of control, the so-called “Vanity” continued to work in show business and camouflaged her secret pain.

“The reflection in my mirror was well enough destroyed that I covered it up with a little more make-up while the tears streamed down my limp body,” she writes. ”I sank into a depression, all the while wearing it with a smile. Fake ... yes. I was. There seemed to be no end to my demise.”

Matthews hit rock bottom, consumed by her addiction and haunted by demons.

“I'd wept in every corner of my room while the death demon delighted in my misery. I awoke often to see devils crawling onto my bed and strangling me with an uncontrollable force.”

The drug abuse nearly drove Matthews insane and almost claimed her life. Eventually, she had an epiphany and turned her life over to Christ. Having no power, lying lifeless, I wept, crying out for Jesus. My truth had become lies, and Jesus heard my ill-forgotten promises. I had dug my own pit, as the Book of Psalms quotes, and fallen into it,” she writes. “Until one sweet day, Jesus reached down with His long, extended love and pulled my wretched body to the surface. It was then that I was baptized in His name, filled with the Holy Ghost.”