Stumbling On Open Ground to be published Jan. 15

STUMBLING ON OPEN GROUND REVEALS

MUSIC INDUSTRY ICON’S FAITH IN THE FACE OF CANCER

NASHVILLE, Tenn.— GRAMMY® Award-winning former Beatles executive and music industry icon Ken Mansfield chronicles a deeply personal journey of faith and struggle in his highly-anticipated fourth title, Stumbling on Open Ground: Love, God, Cancer, and Rock ‘n’ Roll (Thomas Nelson, January 15).

Revealing ongoing trials with two bouts of cancer, Mansfield’s memoir thoughtfully frames his spiritual struggle and physical pain in the light of ultimate healing and triumph. Sharing personal prayers and honest insight alongside remarkable moments from his storied music career, he confronts his failing body, a faith that both falters and soars, and the questions that aren’t supposed to be asked—but need to be answered.

Stumbling on Open Ground also features contributions from Mansfield’s wife of 25-years, Connie. Offering a candid glimpse into a marriage facing one of life’s greatest challenges, the couple trace the work of an extraordinary God who has transformed them both in the process.

 

“Dealing with cancer is not as linear as most books describe the ordeal,” Mansfield shares. “Going into it, going through it, and coming out of cancer is not that orderly. The battle is more of a hanging on, a falling apart, a sense of loss, and a lot of lonely flailing among the rubble.”

“This is a quest for deeper comprehension, a desire to dip beneath the opaque surface,” he adds. “As a child, I would ask my earthly father how to do things. As a child of God, I am asking my heavenly Father how this all works between Him and me.”

Ken Mansfield’s legendary career in the music industry includes tenures as the U.S. manager of the Beatles’ Apple Records, an executive at Capitol Records, a vice president at MGM Records, and president of Andy Williams’ Barnaby Records (CBS Records), among numerous influential roles. He has worked with such artists as the Beach Boys, James Taylor, Roy Orbison, Glen Campbell and Lou Rawls.

Instrumental in launching country music’s “Outlaw” movement in the 1970s, Mansfield was involved in the careers of Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, among others. He produced Colter's #1 hit "I'm Not Lisa," as well as Jennings’ 1975 landmark recording, Are You Ready For The Country. He also produced the Gaither Vocal Band’s GRAMMY® Award-winning 1991 Homecoming album. The seminal release precipitated the resurgence of Southern Gospel music and the Gaither Homecoming series of recordings, videos and concerts.    

Since devoting his life to Christ more than two decades ago, Mansfield is now an ordained minister and sought-after speaker. He appears at churches, special events and colleges across the nation and has authored The Beatles, The Bible and Bodega Bay (B&H); The White Book: The Beatles, the Bands, the Biz: An Insiders Look at an Era (Thomas Nelson); and Between Wyomings (Thomas Nelson).

Stumbling on Open Ground: Love, God, Cancer, and Rock ‘n’ Roll ($15.99), a 256-page trade paper title, will be available January 15 from Thomas Nelson.

For further information, visit www.thomasnelson.com or www.turningpointpr.com.

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Stumbling on Open Ground by Ken Mansfield

Rock and Roll, Cancer, and God’s Love Collide at the Crossroads of Doubt and Faith

Stumbling on Open Ground is a story of private trial and faith like those found in the books of Esther and Job. Punctuated with stories from Mansfield’s years in the music business—working with George Harrison and Waylon Jennings, among others—Stumbling on Open Ground is a private dialogue between a charismatic man, his loving wife, and the extraordinary God who transformed them both in the middle of a heartbreaking disease.

“Dealing with cancer is not as linear as most books describe the ordeal. Going into it, going through it, and coming out of cancer is not that orderly. The battle is more of a hanging on, a falling apart, a sense of loss, and a lot of lonely flailing among the rubble.”

                                                                                    —Ken Mansfield

Ken’s story is told in tandem with his wife, Connie. She is the enduring comforter, a co-victim of cancer whose capacity for selfless, empathetic eros comprises the human counterpart to God’s agape. This is the consummate love story of two people on a journey with God to the edge and back.

Stumbling on Open Ground is a must-read for anyone who has ever needed strength in moments of trial and doubt.  

Ken Mansfield is the former US manager of the Beatles’ Apple Record Company and an award-winning producer. Ken is an ordained minister and public speaker who appears at churches, colleges, and events across the nation.

Steve and Barbara McQueen, circa 1978.

Barbara Minty McQueen, alongside the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), will speak at the U.S. House of Representatives staff briefing, “Asbestos: Environmental and Occupational Exposure Continues” in Washington, D.C. on July 24th to discuss how asbestos took the life of her husband, actor Steve McQueen, and why the U.S. should ban asbestos.

On July 25^th, ADAO is hosting a press conference where McQueen will discuss her late husband’s December 1979 diagnosis as well as the physical and emotional pain he endured as a result of trying to find mesothelioma treatment in the U.S. and Mexico. McQueen, author/photographer and former model, will unveil her newly published Steve McQueen: TheLast Mile…Revisited, which details her life with her husband, the late silver screen icon, Steve McQueen - including his battle with mesothelioma. Linda Reinstein, ADAO Co-Founder, will discuss the consumer, environmental, and occupational exposure in USA.

“Mesothelioma is a horrible disease. It robbed me of my life and future with Steve and took away an icon beloved by millions around the world,” said Barbara McQueen. “Most people think that asbestos is banned in America but that’s not true. I want to ask President Obama and Congress to get off the bench, get in the game, and immediately ban the importation and use of asbestos,” stated McQueen. “By coming to Washington, D.C., I want to bring awareness that asbestos is still legal in the U.S. and continues to kill. It can kill a movie star, a musician or a construction worker. It takes no prisoners.”

Known as cinema’s ‘King of Cool,’ Steve McQueen was a proud veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps from 1947 to 1950. He believed he contracted mesothelioma as a result of removing asbestos-filled insulation from the massive pipes in a ship’s hold while working in the Washington, D.C. Navy Yard. It is also possible the actor and racing enthusiast was exposed to significant amounts of asbestos on New York and Hollywood sound stages or in his protective racing suits and helmets.

“Tragically, Steve McQueen, an American legend, lost his life at age 50 to a preventable asbestos-caused disease. The facts are irrefutable and the United States Surgeon General, Environmental Protection Agency, the World Health Organization, and International Labour Organization agree, asbestos is a human carcinogen and there is no safe level of exposure,” said Linda Reinstein, ADAO Co-Founder. “History is a great teacher to those who listen. Asbestos is still legal and lethal in the United States. Although asbestos has not been mined in the United States since 2002, the United States imported 1,100 tons of chrysotile asbestos to “meet manufacturing needs” just through July 2011. Presently, the only two ways to eliminate environmental and occupational asbestos-caused diseases are prevention and a cure. One life lost to an asbestos disease is tragic; hundreds of thousands of lives lost is unconscionable.”

More than 30 years ago, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declared asbestos to be a human carcinogen. The World Health Organization estimates the mineral, regardless of the type, causes 107,000 preventable deaths each year around the world.

'King of Cool' lecture at ASU on April 7

Arizona State University Welcomes Steve McQueen's Widow and Marshall Terrill

By Jeremy Roberts
Steve McQueen Examiner

Steve McQueen's widow and his biographer, Marshall Terrill, are coming to Arizona State University's Downtown Phoenix campus to discuss and celebrate the life of the ‘King of Cool’ as part of a popular lecture series. This will mark the inaugural occasion Terrill has done an actual McQueen lecture at a college, and it is Barbara McQueen's first time back to a campus in almost forty years.

They will appear at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 7, 2011, at ASU’s College of Nursing and Health Innovation Building Two, 550 N. Third St., Phoenix, Innovation Auditorium, Room 110. The two will co-present, “Steve McQueen: A Tribute to the King of Cool,” answer questions, and sign copies of Terrill’s two new books Steve McQueen: The Life and Legend of a Hollywood Icon and Steve McQueen: A Tribute to the King of Cool as well as McQueen’s 2007 photo book Steve McQueen: The Last Mile.

The spring 2011 Humanities Lecture series is sponsored by ASU’s School of Letters and Sciences and University College. The event is free and open to the public.

“What does Steve McQueen have to do with the humanities?” asks Terrill, who has written four books on the cinematic icon. “In breaking down McQueen’s life, one can learn about history, human behavior, psychology, triumph and tragedy, and several invaluable life lessons.”

McQueen, known for his ultra cool and nonconformist movie persona, started out life in rural Indiana. Born to a young, alcoholic mother and abandoned by his father, McQueen was left in the care of his grandparents and other relatives when he was a toddler.

Reunited with his mother at age eight, he was introduced to a series of strange men and a violent stepfather. Compounding McQueen’s problems were his partial deafness from a childhood ear infection and his dyslexia, making adjustment to his new life and schooling particularly challenging.

McQueen frequently got into trouble and soon found himself remanded to Boys Republic, a home for troubled teenage boys in Chino, California. Following that, he joined the U.S. Marines for a three-year stint and afterward used the G.I. bill to study acting in New York in the early 1950s.
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There his rebellious angst and good looks helped him become a fixture of the emerging Method theater scene, competing with the likes of James Dean and Paul Newman, with television and movie success just around the corner.

Terrill will provide a narrative spanning McQueen’s spectacular career, his greatest films (including The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Sand Pebbles, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway, Papillon and The Towering Inferno), his personal flaws and defeats, and his hard-fought battle with terminal cancer at a controversial clinic in Mexico.

Barbara McQueen will present a more human side to her husband in rare photos she took from 1977 to 1980. They record a behind-the-scenes look at personal pleasures enjoyed near the end of the actor’s life: hitting the road in his vintage pickup trucks, driving 700 miles for a rare World War I motorcycle, flying antique planes in rural California, and generally ducking out of Hollywood life.

The pictures also capture McQueen on the sets of his last two films, Tom Horn and The Hunter.

“It’s very strange when people say, ‘Oh, you were married to Steve McQueen?’” said Barbara McQueen. “He was such a normal guy and unlike most Hollywood stars that I often say, ‘I could have just as easily been married to a plumber or electrician.’”

For directions, visit http://nursingandhealthasu.edu/contact/nursing-buildings.htm. For parking information, visit http://nursingandhealth.asu.edu/contact/parking/htm. For more information, call Mirna Lattouf, series lecture organizer, at (602) 496-0638 or visit http://sls.asu.edu/news.html.