Four years ago Jacob was excommunicated from the Jehovah’s Witness’ faith and disowned by his family because of his sexuality. In the painful years following that experience, Jacob wrote the songs on “The Afflicted” as he struggled with drugs, thoughts of suicide, self-acceptance and the death of his estranged father to colon cancer. Jacob's songs are about his recovery from this experience but have a universal appeal with themes of rejection, loss, love and the strength and determination of the human spirit.
Two of Jacob's songs have been recognized by the Vh1 Song of the Year songwriting competition. "To Be Me" a song about self-acceptance was named a winner in July 2005, and "Don't Drink the Water" a satirical take on political and religious homophobia was a top 5 finalist in April 2006. With his music and web site, www.jacobgrenz.com, Jacob hopes to inspire others who are facing similar life experiences and help the public to understand life and love from a different perspective.

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.

Come on and make me cry
So I know I’m alive
Come on and make me bleed
So I know that I’m real
That I feel anything at all
Come and make me human again
“Human Again”

Jacob was raised in a very strict religious household and was struggling to accept his sexuality. “At that time 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.

You’ll never know
You’ll never see
Never try to know what it means
You’ll shake your head and say some were born bad
This little boy that you raised
The only child that you couldn’t save
Will fade from your memory
A silly mistake
“Storm”

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.”

The years that I spent
Denying this gift
And all the rejection
He makes it all worth it
And I know I’m ok
God doesn’t make mistakes
“To Be Me”

Jacob currently works as a model for Donna Baldwin Talent in Denver, Colorado. (www.donnabaldwin.com.) 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.

“For so many years I tried to convince myself that I wasn’t gay, but what I came to realize is that there was never a choice for me to be gay or not. The choice came when I had to choose to be myself, or to live a lie. In the end I chose ‘To Be Me.’”