Steven "Priest" Johnson was born on December 9, 1976. He was raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, on the notorious west side of town, which was known for its high crime rate. Far from your average ten-year-old kid, Priest was forced to be a leader being that he was the eldest of six children and the son of a single parent. Throughout his life challenges and inner-city struggles, there were pivotal moments in his life where rewriting the lyrics to songs like "The Greatest Love of All" and "That's What Friends Are For" became the fabric of what has driven Priest to become the poetic/ intellectual thinker that he is today. In his late teens, Priest underwent spiritual initiations through the path of studying Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and the I AM teachings of the Ascended Masters. In the midst of it all, poetry became a threshold for success. In 1995, Priest entered a reputable poetry contest and won first place prize at one thousand dollars. This also gave him great exposure and recognition from top poets throughout the Indianapolis area and beyond, which lead Priest to being one of the well-known heavy hitters in the poet world.
