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.In 1963, piano player Larry Hill was working as a street worker for Dave Wilkerson's Teen Challenge ministry in Chicago.  On the corner of Southport and Waveland on Chicago's north side, Larry led 15 year old Joe Markko to Christ. Five years later these two would reunite, Larry on piano and Joe on guitar, to form what would later be known as The All Saved Freak Band. The first collaborative effort to find its way to the public ear was "There is still hope in Jesus"  written as the closing theme song for a Saturday night radio broadcast on a local rock station in Ashtabula, Ohio: "Time for the Risen Christ."

Randy Markko then joined as the first of three people to play bass. There was no intention to form a musical group.  It was just a couple of friends and "brothers" enjoying what God was bringing. A next door neighbor, Dana Vandernic, was a professional drummer for jazz groups between Cleveland and Ashtabula and provided percussion during those early days. The group began playing under the name of  "Preacher and the Witness."  Playing on street corners, coffee houses and churches the band began to gain notoriety in northeast Ohio. Over time the following individuals played with ASFB. Those names with an asterisk played for only a short period of time.

The band ministered throughout north America in venues as diverse as Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the Summer Olympics in Montreal, spring break in Florida, television, radio, colleges, churches and any place else crowds gathered. The band started as a tool for evangelism and never lost its focus in that regard. 

During the eleven year history of the group the band paid a tremendous price to carry the good news.  Three members of the band lost their lives in service to the Kingdom. Tom Miller, one of the Kent 25, and Randy Markko died on the way to witness at a rock festival in Bull Island, Illinois. Tom designed many of the graphics used in the Freedom Bell newspapers the band created and distributed by the 10's of thousands.  He was also shown in a photograph in Life Magazine jumping in a pool of blood during the Kent State shootings.

Brett Hill, Larry's son and percussionist, was killed on the way home from a New Year's Eve concert/service in Kent. The car door opened and he fell out of the vehicle, rolling under the wheels. 

Glenn Schwartz was kidnapped by a "cult deprogrammer." Eventually, Glenn  was committed to a mental institution by a family embarrassed and confused by his new experience. During that period of time the band carried on with a substitute guitarist by the name of Phil Keaggy. He  filled in for Glenn at Sunday afternoon services held in JB's Bar on Water Street in Kent.  ASFB played there every Sunday afternoon. Drawing crowds from the street, the group used those services to launch a local church called  the Kent New Generation Church. This fellowship became a  " daughter church" of the Church of the Risen Christ and many of the people who lived at the CRC [Church of the Risen Christ] Farm came from this group.

Following his brother Randy's death Joe Markko was electrocuted with 27,000 volts of electricity. While he lost his hands and thus the ability to play musical instruments he continued to serve as writer, singer and arranger of much of the band's material.  After leaving the band late in 1979 his oldest child was shot to death by a careless hunter and died in his arms.

The departure of Joe Markko was soon followed by others in the group so that the original All Saved Freak Band was no more.  Larry, Ed and the Massmann sisters continued in their efforts but the group God brought together ended by the beginning of 1980. The history of ASFB covers eleven years. 

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