Posted Jan. 18, 2005--It’s early in the morning on the Friday before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in Houston and Dr. Bobby Jones is set to receive the Legend Award at the Stellar Awards, the bona fide Grammy’s of Gospel, later that afternoon.

As the host of BET’s longest running and highest-rated music show, “Bobby Jones Gospel,” he is used to being interviewed about his albums and shows (he is also the host of Video Gospel on BET), but on this particular day, he sat down with BET Health to talk about a less well known devotion of his: health.

In promoting his latest album “A Gospel Experience,” Jones has collaborated with the American Association of Diabetes to raise consciousness about the effects of diabetes in the Black community; there is even a brief mention about diabetes on the DVD version of his album.  In conjunction with the album, the association has created “A Diabetes Experience,” an outreach campaign to Black churches across the nation.

But, why diabetes (Jones isn’t even affected)? For one, five of Jones’ band members suffer from the disease. He explains more below:

BET.com: Can you tell me a little about the “Gospel Experience” in relation to diabetes?
Dr. Bobby Jones: Because we are interested in the health approach to our ministries we wanted to certainly do everything we could to help to prevent diabetes. For those who already have the disease, [we want] them to know how to take care of themselves and how to live enriched lives. So, therefore my role in that was to bring forth the people who were in that position [my band members] and have them to just dialogue concerning where they are, how they got there, where they’re going and it was really an inspiring and encouraging bit of information.

BET.com: What has been your personal experience with diabetes?
Dr. Bobby Jones: To be honest with you I am really kind of floored at some of the experiences that people go through with diabetes. One of my best friends, who also works with me as my road manager, has the disease and he has problems with varying organs in his body and, from time to time, they tend to break down on him. His feet for example, they get so bad he could barely walk. He lost his eyesight at one time for a few minutes [and] had to pull off of the interstate [until] his eyesight came back. Then he has a sleeping problem. [There are] just a lot of things that have affected him because of diabetes. And my sister has it now, but she’s not at the point where she has to take insulin. But this friend of mine (he’s on the “A Gospel Experience” DVD we taped in Italy) he’s at the stage where he has to give himself shots.

There are five other people within the organization who all have diabetes. They go through some of the similar situations in terms of how they treat themselves or how they take care of themselves.

BET.com: Do you diet and exercise?
Dr. Bobby Jones: I exercise everyday that I can and primarily that’s when I am at home. I use my treadmill 25 to 30 minutes everyday. I stretch a lot everyday. I use my stationary bicycle in my home to build muscles in my legs everyday. And not only do I exercise, but I also get my muscles and my body massaged once a week.

BET.com: Do you have any rules when it comes to dieting. Anything that you stay away from?
Dr. Bobby Jones: Yes. I do. I am very particular about what I eat.  I am not 100 percent perfect, but I am 95 percent away from pork, away from red meat in general, and away from white bread and I don’t do soft drinks.

It’s all about discipline. So, those are my rules. I do like fish and I eat white meat mostly, turkey and a lot of chicken. I also don’t eat a lot of fried foods [but prefer] baked and broiled. I’ve been pretty health conscious as far as my eating is concerned for a long time.

BET.com: How do you mix the message of diabetes awareness and music?
Dr. Bobby Jones: Well actually, we have an opportunity to share with people about what God can do for you and how he will give you strength to overcome certain situations. That’s what our music is really all about, regardless of the title of the song and all of the lyrical content. We go through our repertoire of songs and lead to the fact that God is the answer to all of our problems, even our health problems. But we have to maintain a discipline and religion. Belief in God is a discipline and one must have that in order to function at a really high level in anything they do. So, we take time out in our presentations to talk about health and put it in context to how we deliver our songs. I find it very interesting and very receptive by the people.

BET.com: So this isn’t the first time you’ve taken time out of performances to talk about health issues?
Dr. Bobby Jones: Oh, no, no! I constantly talk about health, especially the foods that we eat and exercise and things that are vital to our well-being