Thirty years ago, Jonathan Boast was living the rock’n’roll lifestyle working on tour with the Rolling Stones, but fast forward and he has accepted a call from God.
After finishing his degree in the 1990s, Boast’s first job was a “lugger” setting up stages for the band during a tour of Germany.
He later pursued his passion for art and photography as a career, but about 15 years ago he started to feel a call toward the church.
As the feeling persisted, he followed it and, on Saturday, Boast, 52, was ordained as a deacon in Suffolk, which he described as a “blessing”.
“I was living in Germany after my degree, exhibiting and had a studio,” Boast, who is from Bury St Edmunds, told BBC Radio Suffolk’s Sarah Lilley of his early 20s.
“One of my friends said, ‘There’s some work helping out, carrying stuff, you’re quite big — you can carry stuff’,” he said.
“I said ‘yes, of course that sounds like fun’, and you went around Germany as they were doing different gigs.
“Then when they went into a different country you picked up another tour and did that.”