About

So… Who’s The Guy Behind iPraises?

Hello friend. My name is Tony Palacio (not to be confused with Tony Palacios, the music producer and guitarist of Guardian). I am a worship leader at Blessed Hope Chapel in Simi Valley, CA. I have been saved by the grace of God since April 1992 and consider myself someone who has been given the gift of music to serve Him, proclaim the Good News, and to edify the body of Christ. I have been happily married to my beautiful wife, Cheryl, since September 26, 1992. (That’s right, I know my anniversary, are you impressed?) I also have a son named Danny and we enjoy playing ice hockey together and attending Los Angeles Kings games! (Do not bring up the Anaheim Ducks to me, I’ll just ignore you!)

My first instrument is the Bible. My second instrument is bass guitar. My third instrument is acoustic/electric guitar. And my fourth instrument is a hockey stick. I am also a singer/songwriter and producer. I have been a part of three CD projects in the last few years, including two projects produced through my home church: Enter In-Live Worship at Blessed Hope Chapel and In Your Presence-Live Worship at Blessed Hope Chapel. I was also in a band called Emmaus Road with my brother, Dean Palacio, and Blessed Hope worship drummer, Robbie Destocki. We released one CD… mainly because we were too lazy to do any more. Haa!!! The CD is called Seven Mile Journey.

To view a list of projects I have been a part of, Visit This Page.

I’ll give you a brief (sort of) history of my background. First off, I’m beginning to think I’m a modern day Benjamin Button. I never seem to age! I was already playing in bars and nightclubs when I was still in high school, which was is in the 1980’s. So… a little math and you’ll come up with a ballpark age.

My brother (that would be Dean) and I played in bars, nightclubs, amusement parks, major hotel chains, etc., just about anywhere our manager and agents could book us for top dollar. I did this for about 11 years in three different bands (Dorian, Carrera, and Mirage).
During the first 5 years of this time I also played in a heavy metal rock band in clubs all over Hollywood. I also went through many different hairstyles along the way. Long, longer, afro, blonde, spiked, and yes, the dreaded mullet.

In 1993, after being a Christian for about a year, I called a band meeting with our band’s manager and gave my notice. I could no longer use my gifts to contribute to sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. No one understood my decision, not even my brother (who was not yet a Christian). For the next year I was no longer a working musician. Instead, I wrote songs in my make-shift home studio on a Yamaha MT120 4-Track Recorder. I also did a lot of singing in my (first) new church, First Landmark Missionary Baptist Church in Lancaster, CA. This is where I was introduced to Southern Gospel and old-time hymnal book songs. I loved to sing. I loved singing with my wife and my father-in-law. It seemed I hardly picked up an instrument back then. All I did was sing. I used to record all sorts of songs, and I would perform all of the harmonies, and give them to my brother, Dean, to listen to (because I knew he was crazy about lots of harmonies). It was after listening to a recording of my version of a Michael English song (His Heart Is Big Enough) that my brother was convicted by the Holy Spirit and became a Christian. (Hey! I thought this biography was about me!)

Okay, with that bit of history out of the way… shortly after my brother became a Christian, we started writing and recording together. Those songs ended up being on our first CD, Celebrate, by the band Mirage (which was really just my brother and I – it was just an “illusion” that there were other band members, hee hee). We kept the same name as our nightclub band because we figured a lot of people knew us by that name, and they would listen to our new music with a new message. Shortly after finishing the Celebrate CD, my wife and I moved back to Moorpark, CA and we began attending Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village, CA (where my brother had been attending). This was a total change from my first church, which was lucky to have 50 people in attendance on any given Sunday. Now we could choose between four different services! Two on Saturday evening or two on Sunday morning.

It didn’t take long before Dean, my wife and I were handling worship once a month at Calvary Community. My brother and I also became heavily involved in other worship services and events put on by the music department there, which was led at the time by David T. Clydesdale, among others. We were not only singing, suddenly we were acting in full production musicals! Talk about nerve-wracking! I’m not an actor! I’m a hack! Haa!!!

My wife and I eventually introduced my brother to Southern Gospel music and he was soon hooked. You got it…because of the harmonies! We formed a Southern Gospel trio and started singing at churches everywhere. It seemed people really liked Southern Gospel, even on the west coast! We were now serving in worship at our home church, playing out as a band serving in worship at other churches, playing concerts featuring our original music from our CD, and singing as a Southern Gospel trio. We had a real identity crisis on our hands. Haa!!!
After about 5 years at Calvary Community Church, including a church move which landed us in a large state-of-the-art facility, my wife and I felt God was calling us to move on. Our season at Calvary Community was up and I soon began attending Sonrise Christian Fellowship in Simi Valley, CA (which was changed to New Hope Christian Fellowship, and then they moved and are now known as Antioch Church…whew! Make up your mind! LOL!) while my wife recovered from an illness that had really taken over her life at the time. I was not involved musically at Sonrise for about 6 months. It was nice to go unnoticed and just feed on the message and the fellowship. It was around that time that my brother was called to move on from Calvary Community, and I suggested he try out Sonrise. He liked it there and soon began playing on the worship team. It didn’t take long before he needed a bass player one Sunday, and so he called on me to fill in. We were soon a regular part of the worship rotation at Sonrise. It is pretty common for churches to be in need of musicians and singers (if anything, to give servants a break once in a while), and we felt called to serve again in worship. Plus, there wasn’t the fear of big musical productions that we might get roped into. We were safe again! Haa!!!

Over the years our band continued to play out at events and various churches when we weren’t booked for worship at our home church. It was at one of these events (a Community Pregnancy Center event we played each year over several years) that a local pastor saw us playing. His worship department was going through a transition and he inquired of a mutual friend of my brother and I about our availability to serve at his church. The pastor? Pastor Joe Schimmel of Blessed Hope Chapel in Simi Valley.

The year was 2001. We were invited to worship at Blessed Hope a few times near the end of that same year and my brother and I were eventually offered to come on staff as the church worship directors in January 2002. I’ve been serving there ever since. Yeah, I know… a pretty anti-climactic way to end my biography. What did you expect? A Hollywood-style dramatic ending?

We DID start a new band during this time (as mentioned early on) called Emmaus Road, which recorded an album and did some traveling (see photo to the left). It was a chance to do some songwriting and play some gigs outside of the church playing our own music. Getting out and meeting people, ministering, encouraging and building up the body of Christ is always a blessing. Sometimes we get caught up in our own little bubbles and forget that there’s a world out there filled with people in need of God’s amazing love. Being able to meet these people, being able to pray with and for them, is an honor and a privilege we should’t take lightly. Not to mention, it was a chance for me to turn up my bass really, REALLY loud. Haaaa!!!

Okay, okay, here’s a *little* bit of excitement to end this biography page – my former band, Emmaus Road, made it to the Finals of a yearly National Christian Music Competition back in 2003. We played on worldwide television on “Exalting Him! 2003” sponsored by Daywind Records, Family Christian Stores, Trinity Broadcasting Network and Salem Music Networks (similar to “American Idol” but for Christian artists). We rose to the Finals out of 1400 original contestants, spanning over 6 months time, in 8 different cities nationwide! Our band came in a close second in the Group Category, with only 2-1/2 points separating us from the winner, StorySideB. (Our band name “Emmaus Road” didn’t exist yet, so we went by the name “The Blessed Hope Chapel Praise Team” at the time while still considering names.)
PS. Sorry for the low quality video.

To view a list of projects I have been a part of, click here.