MusicCityNashville.net: In Music City Stephen Mason Finds a New Following As Soccer Moses

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In Music City Stephen Mason Finds a New Following As Soccer Moses

by Rich and Laura Lynch

There is something uniquely exquisite about soccer culture and the effect and impact it has on its fans. Teams the world over are known for the colorful characters that emerge to lead the way and rally the troops as their teams battle it out on the pitch. In Nashville, it's no different and the second year and nascent Nashville SC has their own group whose fame is growing by the day including the team sanctioned Tempo, the youthful Goal Zilla and heaven sent Soccer Moses portrayed by the city's already legendary Stephen Mason.

In Music City Stephen Mason Finds a New Following As Soccer Moses

In 2021, Soccer Moses was in the running for favorite mascot in Music City.

It is written that back in 1997, Stephen Mason was in London recording the second album with his multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning rock band, Jars of Clay. The sound engineer for the record had extra tickets to see the famous footballers Arsenal and invited the guitar player to the game. Mason was instantly hooked. Years later as Nashville USL was gaining a foothold in town and Mason was establishing a new identity as a turn of the last century barber known as The Handsomizer a World Cup game was on the television in his shop when Nigeria's Victor Moses scored for the Super Eagles. Mason's customer stood in his chair and shouted "LET MY PEOPLE GOAL" and inspiration arrived like tablets handed down from heaven.

With the impressive and packed Backline a game of "Where's Moses" becomes possible.

Soon after, Mason was acquiring a cloak and beard and a series of Moses related banners he would hold up in the Backline section at Nashville SC home games. He was captured on an ESPN broadcast and soon after he was taking his gospel of goal scoring on the road. For Soccer Moses, the 2021 season has been especially blessed. His worlds collided when the team invited him to perform the Gibson Opening Guitar Riff of the Game earlier in the year in full costume. Late in the campaign the local brewery Yazoo put his image to use on their brand new "Let My People Gold" lager becoming an instant hit of the flavorful kind in Music City.

what in the name of jesus is this MLS pic.twitter.com/EFQXNqi6qk
— ALM (@TheRealALM) July 4, 2021

But, it keeps getting better for Mason. His band Jars of Clay is set to return to the stage for their annual Christmas concert in Franklin with two shows on December 12 after the plague of Covid-19 canceled the 2020 affair. For this writer, I even have had a personal relationship with the man himself as I have seen Jars of Clay in concert (4) times; had my hair cut by The Handsomizer (2) times and met Soccer Moses once (1) for a total of (7) heavenly encounters overall with Stephen Mason aka Soccer Moses. In my book, that's not only lucky - it's might even be Biblical.