Jacob Grenz - Biography

At the age of twelve, Jacob began his study of the violin. His restless soul originally found comfort in the richness of classic composers such as Vivaldi and Bach. He started composing orchestral arrangements at age fifteen. Soon Jacob began to take an interest in the piano and without any lessons started writing his first original songs. One of the first songs he wrote was called "Human Again," and it reflected the thoughts and emotions of a very troubled teenager.

Jacob was raised in a very strict religious household and was struggling to accept his sexuality. "I was raised in the Jehovah's Witness' faith and because of what I was taught, to be gay to me meant, in a sense, that I wasn't human. 'Human Again' was my prayer to God to make me normal. I hid that I was gay from everyone around me for so many years because I knew that if I came clean, I would be excommunicated from the church. We weren't allowed to experience anything outside of the church so for me it meant losing a lot." After several years of holding his secret, Jacob knew it couldn't continue. "I was horribly depressed and I had been contemplating suicide, I knew I couldn't keep it a secret any longer." Jacob went to the elders of the congregation to confess, and was excommunicated from the church and cut off from his family and friends.

The evolution of Jacob's songs takes you from "Don't Drink The Water," a song about religious and political homophobia to "The Afflicted," which deals with crystal meth abuse. Jacob was recently recognized as a winner by the Vh1 Song of the Year Songwriting Competition for his song, "To Be Me." "'To Be Me' is about self-acceptance. When I was a teenager, I would pray to God that I could take a magical pill that would make me straight. I think that all gay men and women come to that point in their life when, if a choice were to be offered to be gay or straight, they would choose to be straight because it would be so much easier."

Jacob currently works as a model for Donna Baldwin Talent in Denver, Colorado. He has appeared in major local newspapers such as the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News. He also appears in the opening credits of ABC Family's "Kicked Out" and in ads for American Crew. With his music, he hopes to inspire others who are now in similar situations that he was. "It's hard now for me to imagine that I even thought about ending my life at one point, but when you're a teenager it's hard to see the bigger picture. It can seem like a very hopeless situation and it doesn't have to be.