Michael Franzese

When Michael Franzese left the mob, hardly anyone thought he would survive. After all, he was one of the most notorious mob bosses in the 1980s — and who has ever left the mafia without witness protection and lived? As it turns out, Michael did. And after 10 years in prison, he began his journey of telling as many people as possible about how God transformed his life and set him free.

Michael is still on that journey as he shares his story of redemption and transformation on notable television shows like TODAY, NBC Nightly News and The 700 Club as well as in his books. In today's interview, Michael shares what new things God is beginning to stir up in his life — and what spiritual resources are fueling his faith as he takes this next step.

The following is a transcript of a live interview. Responses have been edited and condensed for brevity and clarity.

QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT

There’s much more to a meal than palate and preference. How does your go-to order at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, and that was certainly my home at one point in time — because my family was there. For me, anywhere my family is, that’s where my home is. And I’ve been out in Southern California now for about 35 years. We live in Orange County. Other than two daughters, who both still live in New York, my whole family is out here, all within five miles of me. And we love eating together. We spend Sundays and holidays and every opportunity that we can together — my kids, my grandkids, my wife, obviously. So, for me, food represents just being with my loved ones.

We’re a food family. It’s a major part of our lives. We do everything around food. For example, for some reason, my kids love Halloween. I don’t enjoy that holiday and have never really indulged in it. But my family, they love to get together and act a little silly and dress up and stuff like that. And now they’re planning a big meal around it. So everything is around a meal. Food brings my family together, and that’s important to me.

I’m Italian. I’m sorry, but that’s where my heart is. So my favorite food is pasta. I can eat it every day. I love it. It’s comfort food to me. That’s my number one. My wife, though, is Mexican-American. I never ate Mexican food back in New York. I didn’t eat it until I met her out here. But I love it too. So that would probably be second because it’s comfort food too. I like any kind of home-style cooking.

QUESTION #2: REVEAL

We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests, but we tend to hide them. What do you love doing that might surprise (or shock) people?

I love to play golf with my two boys. We really enjoy it. I love it because it’s bonding time for us, and I always look forward to that. We try to do it at least once a week. It’s brought us a lot closer. Another thing we love to do is to go up to the Napa Valley. I enjoy it because my family enjoys it so much. We go up there quite a bit. We enjoy good food — and I’m Italian, so we enjoy a good glass of wine too.

People ask me about my tastes in movies all the time. They think that I must love mob-related movies. And I watch them and enjoy them. I’ve reviewed lots of the best mob movies on my YouTube channel. But honestly, I love musicals. You know, one of my favorite movies of all time is “The Sound of Music.” I just love to sit back and watch a good musical — that kind of takes me to another place in my life.

So those are three things that I would say I can identify with and really enjoy.

QUESTION #3: CONFESS

Every superhero has a weakness. Every human too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So, what’s your kryptonite and how do you hide it?

This is kind of a hard question for me. It’s not that I’m ashamed of talking about anything. I just don’t know what that weakness would be — other than, you know, my love for my children. If anything were to happen to one of my children, that would bring me to my knees.

Exodus and Numbers, the books of the Bible, talk about the sins of fathers being visited on their children to the third and fourth generations. And I obviously had a lot of sins in my past life. So my prayer has been, Lord, please don’t ever let my children suffer for anything that I did. I think about that often.

I have a daughter who is 33 and was just diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She’s actually going under the knife very soon. The prognosis is good. I hate to say it this way, but it’s been relayed to me that if you’re going to have cancer, it’s probably the best form — the most treatable and something you can live with for a long time. But it’s still very scary. It’s one of my children. So I think that’s my weakness — the fear that something could happen to one of my children. I pray against that constantly, and God has honored those prayers in a big way. I’m very thankful for that.

My family — meaning my mother, father, brothers and sisters — was devastated as a result of my dad’s involvement in the mafia life. One of my sisters died of an overdose of drugs. My brother was a drug addict for 25 years of his life. He went through a lot of pain and anguish. My youngest sister died of cancer at a young age. My mother and father’s relationship grew very, very ugly throughout the years that he was in prison and they were separated, and she blamed him for everything that went wrong in life. So when I met my wife, I realized that, if I was going to marry her and have a family with her, it wasn’t right for me to put her through that, because the same things would have inevitably happened to me in some way, shape or form — and to her and the kids.

That was the motivation for me to move away from that life. It wasn’t because I was mad at anybody or anything like that. I just put my family first, and then God got hold of me, and he became my prime motivation also.

QUESTION #4: FIRE UP

Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your obsession? And why should it be ours?

For the last 24 years, I have been sharing the Gospel through my testimony all over America. And in the last several years, throughout the world. I’ve been all over.

It’s very encouraging to see the responses that I’ve gotten consistently over the years, and that’s certainly my motivation. When you realize that your stories are having an impact, bringing people to the Lord, and that people are experiencing the same kind of transformation that I experienced in my life, it’s extremely encouraging and motivating. And this past year, with the onset of COVID-19, all my speaking engagements were postponed until next year. But I’ve had the opportunity to do something I’ve wanted to do, but just never had the time. I’m a pretty prolific speaker. I speak 40 weeks out of the year. So it’s kind of hard to do other things when you’re traveling. But just this year, I started engaging in life coaching, leadership coaching and business coaching. We created a whole platform. And in the last three months, we’ve brought on a lot of people, and I’m engaging with them personally. I also created a community of almost 6,000 people, and they are connecting and encouraging one another. I certainly contribute content too. And it’s been very rewarding to see how people are reacting to all of it.

I don’t want to seem callous when I say this, because I know how much suffering COVID-19 has brought into the world. But to me, this time has given me an opportunity to stay home and to do some things that I’ve wanted to do. And they’re working out. I look at that success as a blessing. God, for some reason, has had his hand on me in many ways. And this is just another way that he’s shown me — this is the direction I want you going. We invite people to join the platform. It’s MichaelFranzese.com. I’m on all the social media platforms too. It’s very easy to find me.

QUESTION #5: BOOST

Cashiers, CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it's God when it happens?

You know it’s God from the reaction of people. You know it’s him when the testimony resonates with people, when they can relate to it. And you know, I’ve found that it doesn’t matter the background. My background is obviously unique. Most people weren’t involved in that. But when your life is transformed by Christ, it doesn’t matter where you came from. People see a transformation. You could have other struggles and challenges in your life. You could be an executive in a major company, or you could be a person struggling with a drug problem on the street, but when transformation happens, it happens. So for me, the encouragement and motivation are that I get to see how people are impacted. I get wonderful emails and messages posted online. And that just lets me know that I am moving in the right direction.

I also have to say that one of the most impactful scenes in the Bible for me was when people approached the Lord and told him of all the great things they did in his name. And Jesus turned to them and said, “I never knew you.” That’s from Matthew 7:22,23. It makes me wonder, Am I doing what I’m doing for the Lord? Or am I doing it for myself? The way I check that is by giving my wonderful wife permission to keep me grounded and accountable. Because of her, I know that everything I do — it’s all for God. It’s important to have people around you like that because we are all vulnerable Any one of us can be here one minute and gone the next.

QUESTION #6: inspire

Some people divide things sacred and things secular. But you know, God can surprise us in unlikely places. How do you find spiritual renewal in so-called “nonspiritual” activities?

You can’t compartmentalize God for Sunday mornings. And the only way that you can envision him throughout the day and realize that in whatever you’re doing, God exists, is really to just start off your day or end your evening with a Bible reading — something to prepare you for the day so that you don’t get distracted and say, “Well, God is not here today.” No, he’s there. You have to remind yourself of that. Not only in my own life but so many people that I know, people that I speak to, can bring God into almost every sentence — even when they’re talking about something else. It doesn’t have to be that we’re talking ministry. We can be talking about a business situation and, all of a sudden, someone will bring up God. It becomes natural. But you have to nurture that. You have to be in the Word. You have to be surrounded by people who think like you in that regard. And if they’re not with you, then you need to nourish yourself. That’s the only way.

I tell people, “You can take the boy out of Brooklyn, but you can’t take Brooklyn out of the boy” — meaning there are times during the day when things might happen and I might react the wrong way. But I’m so engaged in the Word that I’ve developed a kind of God conscience that it comes into my head. It says, “Wait, wait. That’s not you anymore. You can’t do things that way.” But that develops over time, it develops by constant nourishment in the Word. And when I say constant, I don’t mean you have to be in it all day. But with a 10-minute Bible reading in the morning, the Holy Spirit will stick with you for the rest of the day. That’s how I see it. We have so many distractions in this world. I tell young kids, “You have more distractions at your fingertips on your phone than I ever had as a kid growing up.” And if we’re not constantly nourished, we’re going to get lost in that. And to me, that’s the only way to deal with it. It’s constant nourishment. And then the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

Personally, I try to spend time in the Word every morning, even if it’s five minutes. Or, if I’ve got to do something early in the morning, I’ll go to bed with it. My wife and I will do something together that in that regard. We will say a prayer together. And just that little bit prepares you for the rest of the day. I’m always surprised how it sticks with me during the day because the Holy Spirit stays there. He doesn’t run away. When you get him in your head early, he’ll stay with you for the rest of the day.

QUESTION #7: FOCUS

Our email subscribers get free ebooks featuring our favorite resources — lots of things that have truly impacted our faith. But you know about some really great stuff too. What are three of your favorite resources?

I’m a little unique in that regard. Hopefully, people don’t have to go through what I went through. But I did time in prison. I did five years and then was released on parole for 13 months, and then I violated parole and went back to prison for another three years. And the first night that I was in, they put me in lockdown. I was actually in lockdown for almost the whole three years. But that first night I was in lockdown was just the worst night of my life. The government had told me I would never see the street again. They were very upset with me because I wasn’t cooperating with them. And it was just a very bad night. But that night, a prison guard handed me a Bible and I started reading the book of Proverbs, and it had a tremendous impact on me. By chance that night, the book just fell open to Proverbs. It wasn’t a coincidence, of course — it was the perfect book for me. I’m a very analytical guy. I’m not a guy that takes things easy. You’ve got to prove things to me. You’ve got to show me. It’s just how I grew up and the life that I was in. The Holy Spirit led me to that book because he knew it was going to impact me right away. And from that point on, I read that Bible every day for 29 months and seven days religiously. I read it in and out and upside down. My prison Bibles have more notes than they do Scripture.

While I was in prison, I had my wife send me a lot of books on all different faiths because, for me, it was the search for the truth at that point. And I came out of prison believing that the Bible was God’s Word and that Jesus was my risen Savior. Since then, one special moment really had an impact on me. It was when I had just started my speaking ministry. I was in a hotel room one night, and I turned on the television. I was in the Midwest, and they didn’t have many stations. But an old Billy Graham event came on. He was in London and I watched Billy for the first time in my life. And when he was done, I watched probably 30,000 people walk down to the stage and accept Christ. And I said to myself, man, I have a story of redemption, from the mob to the ministry. But Billy is just straight Jesus — and look at the impact that he's having on people. It wasn’t that he had a transformation story. He just proclaimed Jesus from start to finish. And it was so motivating to me that I said, “Boy, if I can accomplish 1% of what Billy Graham did, the Lord would look favorably upon me.” So that had a major, major impact on me.

And the last thing I’d say is that I love to hear a good message from a pastor. I go to church and listen intently to the message because it always has an impact. It doesn’t matter how much you are in the Word or how much you are in the Spirit. When you hear a good message from a pastor, it resonates and it’s important. And again, that’s part of that nourishment.

So for me, it’s those three things. It’s that prison Bible. It’s Billy Graham. And it’s just being in church, which I really miss. We watch it online, and it’s great. But for me, there’s nothing like being in the presence of the Lord in his house with somebody preaching the Word.

We all have things we cling to in order to survive (or thrive) in tough times. Name one resource you’ve found indispensable in this current season — and tell us what it's done for you.

It’s always Bible reading for me. That’s my go-to resource. I’m a huge lover of the book of Proverbs. In my daily life, Proverbs is such a great guide, because it’s so brilliant. Solomon was the most brilliant person that ever walked the face of the earth except Jesus. And I apply his teachings to my everyday life. So I try to read a verse from Proverbs every day.

But it’s online church too. Pastor Greg Laurie, who is the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, and Pastor Gene Appel, who is the senior pastor of Eastside Christian Church, are dear friends, and I attend their churches. I watch their messages online. Steven Furtick too. I spoke at his church, Elevation Church, and he is just brilliant. I love his sermons. My wife and I watch them all. It’s nourishment, and we need it during these times. We need to be encouraged. We need to realize that throughout all of this, God is still in control.

We’ve got to remember that God never promised us Heaven on Earth. He promised us Heaven in Heaven, but he also promised us that he would be beside us throughout all of the pain and suffering and struggles that we are going to experience on Earth. So we have to stand up and be strong. This is not for the faint of heart. It’s hard. It really is. But that’s life. We’ve got to deal with it.

QUESTION #8: dream

God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So, give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?

Well, I just pray that God has his hand in all the endeavors that I’m involved in. I’ve been extremely fortunate that I have a new television series coming out. I closed a deal with a major production company, probably the biggest independent in the business. We are going to be doing a TV series based on my life. I’ll be the narrator and was insistent that my faith would be a part of it. And they agreed to that because they wanted to tell the story the real way. So I’m pretty confident it’s going to come out that way. Obviously, I don’t have total control. But I have enough control to make sure that that does happen. And we’ll probably have a big announcement about that series in the coming months.

I’m also writing a new book. It’s called “A Mafia Democracy.” What I’m trying to do in this book is enlighten people as to the dangerous position I believe our government is in. When you accept sinful things in people who are leading you, it’s very dangerous. I get emails and texts all the time. People are disgusted with the government today, and they say, the mob should be running the country. We would be in better shape. And my answer is “No, you do not want the mob running the country.” But unfortunately, our government is becoming very Machiavellian, very mob-like, in the way they act. They lie to us with no recourse. We keep putting people back in office that are telling us mistruths. But we can’t be so accepting of that. We all suffer as a result of it. People have to be honest with us. Our leaders have to be honest with us.

Maybe I was brought up in a different way. In my former life, when you lied to people and it was found out, you paid a price for that. In my family, my father never accepted lying. He said “I don’t care what you did. I’m your father, and I will never turn my back on you. But I won’t accept the lies.”

Our country was founded on Christian principles, and we have to stick to them. My book isn’t about Republicans and Democrats. It’s about the operation of government. I just have a different perspective, because I grew up on the street. I know how to mislead people and to act in a Machiavellian way. So I’m writing the book right now, and it’ll be out early next year.

I like to think of myself as a sheep in wolf’s clothing. People are following me because of all the mob stuff. They’re all attracted by that. But sooner or later, they’re going to hear about Jesus. And, hopefully, that’s what they’re going to align themselves with. In everything I do, I look at it that way. I put the mob stuff out front, but then Jesus comes into it. And I just hope people realize that this transformation is real and it’s from God — that I never would have been able to do it alone. Then, hopefully, they’ll come aboard.

Did you know that only about 35% of Christians read their Bibles on a weekly basis? A recent Barna Group study reveals that another 35% of self-proclaimed Christians never read the Bible. Don’t get me wrong — reading the Bible every week or even daily won’t get you into Heaven. God won’t — and can’t — love you any more or any less because of your Bible-reading habits. He loves you unconditionally just as you are. But as Michael pointed out, reading the Word of God opens our hearts to receive from God all day long. There are few practices as powerful as reading the Bible regularly with a humble and open heart. If we want to bring Holy Spirit into every facet of our lives and if we want to radiate his glory to everyone we encounter, it has to start with absorbing his Word. So my question to you is: How will you prioritize the Bible so you can deepen your intimacy with the Father? If a former mob boss can do it, so can you!