Pastor Greg Locke’s Son Evan Dies Of Drug Overdose
Evan Roberts Locke, middle son of controversial Tennessee preacher Greg Locke, died of a drug overdose on Friday. He was 20 years old.
Greg Locke announced his son’s death on social media.
“A few hours ago we received the most earth-shattering news,” he wrote at 8 p.m. “Today, words fail us.”
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The elder Locke said his son’s heart stopped due to a drug overdose and he couldn’t be revived. Greg Locke said his child struggled very publicly with addiction for several years.
“It was used as a warning to many, a punchline to the haters but an overall reminder that even in our deepest pain, the grace of Jesus will sustain us,” he wrote.
Evan Locke posted a video online last August thanking God for four months of sobriety. He said that with God’s help, he was turning his life around.
“Man, I was broken. I was lost,” he said. “And it’s been rough. But I just want to let you all know that, man, God can set you free, man. I’m the total walking testimony about it, he can set you free. You got to get on your knees. You got to give it all to him, man.”
The younger Locke said he had recently moved to Florida, planned to learn welding and hoped to get a job working for the state. He thanked his father and mother, Melissa, for their continued support.
“I’m just truly, truly, truly blessed, what God is doing in my life,” said Evan Locke, who had “Jesus Is King” tattooed on his chest. “I just want to thank every single one of y’all for praying for me.”
Evangelist Jon Groves, a Locke family friend, wrote that he recently tried to get Evan Locke into a Teen Challenge rehab program, trying to pressure him into a year-long commitment to sobriety. Groves said that while preaching on Friday night, he pictured his troubled friend’s face and then found out when he got home that Evan Locke was dead.
“I witnessed the Holy Spirit at work in and through Evan as a boy,” Groves wrote on Facebook. “When I’d find out he was using … I’d pray for him every day. I’d text him … facebook message him … and I’d look forward to the regular ‘sup bro it’s evan’ texts when he’d inevitably lose his phone and get a new number every few months.”
Drugs said to be demonic
Former members of Greg Locke’s church, Global Vision Bible Church, in Lebanon, Tennessee, have frequently criticized Locke for his children’s behavior, specifically pointing to the pastor’s apparent tolerance of drug use. Some previously told The Roys Report that when the church held revival meetings in a tent, clouds of marijuana smoke would drift over from the Lockes’ nearby home.
Justin and Kasey Greenwell called it another example of Locke’s hypocrisy in their self-published book on their time in the church, “Pulpit of Leaves: Deception in Plain Sight.”
Locke got famous preaching against COVID-19 vaccines, the Greenwells said, and routinely condemned medicine and all drugs as demonic, saying they were possessed by “the spirit of Pharmakeia.”
Locke also regularly urged congregants to take care of their families and “get your house in order,” while his own seemed to be spinning out of control.
“The standards preached from the pulpit did not apply behind the scenes,” the Greenwells wrote. “While the congregation was warned that drug use in the home ‘invited devils,’ the wolf’s own son openly used drugs in their house, overdosed and entered rehab multiple times. Another son actively used and sold drugs on church property.”
As TRR previously reported, Locke’s stepson Caden McGee got involved in a conflict in 2024 that resulted in a man firing 67 bullets into the family’s home. Locke claimed the attack was evidence of his bold, biblical preaching, but a Wilson County Sheriff’s Office investigation found no evidence the attacker knew anything about Locke’s sermons. The attack was targeted at the teenage boy and his friends, according to the state prosecutor.
Locke’s former head of security told TRR that Taisha Locke, Greg Locke’s second wife, yelled at Canden McGee the night of the shooting, “You got to stop this lifestyle.” He understood that to refer to drug usage.
Opioid deaths in Tennessee
Tennessee has been one of the places hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, according to state officials. The number of overdose deaths in the state has declined recently, but more than 2,000 people died from drugs in 2025. More than 70% of overdose deaths are linked to fentanyl.
Locke’s church has promoted testimonies of recovery and encouraged people to pray for spiritual deliverance from drugs. Taisha Locke, for example, has testified that she was addicted to prescription pills until God set her free.
“God has brought me from a ditch to a pastor’s wife through the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony,” she said in a 2019 video. “It doesn’t matter where you are in your life, there’s power in the name of Jesus to break strongholds.”
Former members who have fought with Greg and Taisha Locke said they were nonetheless heartbroken by the news of Evan Locke’s death.
One critic, Jen Rockwell, wrote a tribute to the 20-year-old and posted it on social media: “Evan was an incredible young man with a sweet gentle heart. He loved people. He wanted to live. He wanted to beat the addiction. … A piece of my heart died today.”
Wanted to please father
Rockwell said that Evan Locke hoped to become a preacher like his father and wanted, more than anything else, to make his father happy.
Family friend Jon Groves remembered that, too.
“Evan’s primary goal for the majority of his years was to make his dad proud. His dad was his hero. He often said it,” Groves wrote. “I think Evan inspired a lot of things in his dad. Evan was probably the first one among our little group to explore christian rap music … which we all said was carnal … until even his dad was writing raps.”
Evan Locke is survived by his father and mother, brothers Hudson and Malachi, sister Destiny, as well as stepsiblings Caden and Chiara.
This article was originally published at The Roys Report.
Daniel Silliman is senior reporter/editor at The Roys Report. He began his two decades in journalism covering crime in Atlanta and has since led major investigations into abuse and misconduct in Christian contexts. Daniel and his wife live in Johnson City, Tennessee.