Hardcore musician and devotee Don Foose played at a venue near New Vrindaban on Saturday, April 10, along with other hardcore bands from West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

“I played to packed houses in Wheeling with my former band, Run Devil Run, during the 90’s. It feels good to coming back.” Foose has just returned from a two-week tour in Europe. He has two more European tours scheduled this year in July and October.

Foose, a practicing Hare Krishna, credits his success to the positive spiritual messages in his lyrics. “God, Krishna, is the center of my life. I believe there is a spiritual world full of bliss, and I try to convey this message through my music.”

During his performances, Foose wears tilak, the clay markings which identify him as a Hare Krishna devotee. Throughout his concerts, he incorporates the Hare Krishna maha-mantra: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare. Foose also sets up a table with books by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (the Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness) at every event. “I feel like I am one of Krishna’s representatives in the music industry. This is the reason I am a musician. I almost quit the music business to become a full time Hare Krishna monk, but a senior devotee told me about the Beatles’ George Harrison, who was also a devotee. George made Krishna and the maha-mantra famous through his music.”

Foose first met the Hare Krishnas in 1994, when members of another hardcore band took Foose to the temple. “Every question I ever had about life was answered – why do bad things happen to good people; why am I unhappy? They gave me practical knowledge, not just pat answers like ‘These things are simply unknowable.’”

Foose, along with his wife, runs the Hare Krishna center in Cleveland, Ohio. He has visited New Vrindaban Community in West Virginia over two hundred times. “New Vrindaban is a spiritual oasis. I feel like I am in God’s country every time I visit there.”