We understood then what was going on and then it was the march of trying to find out what kind of medication you know would stabilize his brain chemistry in a way that he could actually function on a semi-normal level. 'Then when he was twenty-one years old, he had his first psychotic break and he was diagnosed as having Bi-Polar Disorder. 'We just thought that Brennan had behavior problems, but then, as he grew older, his mood swings would go from super volcanic angry to weeping tender when he would say, 'I'm so sorry.' 'At first, we didn't know it,' said Barry. In the 1980s, McGuire left the music industry, and settled for a time in New Zealand with his New Zealand wife Mari (former secretary of McGuire's Agape Force associate, Winkie Pratney).Īnyone who knows Barry McGuire is always struck by his incredible personality and joyful persona but, on this occasion, he shared with me about one of the most difficult periods of his life-when he discovered that his son, Brennan, who was born in Anglesey, North Wales, had Bi-Polar Disorder. He became a born-again Christian in 1971 after a brief encounter with evangelist Arthur Blessitt. (Irvine, CA)-Barry McGuire is an American singer-songwriter best known for the hit song Eve of Destruction, and later as a singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian Music.

His highly gifted son, for whom he wrote the famous song 'Bullfrogs and Butterflies,' is afflicted with the disorder.

Barry mcguire on npr echoes