As a teen, God gave him a gift. As an adult, he returned the favor. In the time between, John Giaier took a trip to Motown, met Aretha Franklin and a man called Shaft, wrote music to stick in the ear and power an industry. And he made money – lots of it. That’s how John Giaier tells his story – a simple guy from “Rock City” who parlayed a gift for catchy tunes into a profitable career, a Grammy nomination and something else – a spiritual enterprise.

Giaier is the co-creator of “The Rosary Tapes,” recordings of the Catholic rosary set to contemporary music. Giaier and his partner Bill Gildenstern created the first recordings of the Catholic prayers and meditations – “The Joyful Mysteries” – in 1992. They completed the most recent recordings – “The Mysteries of Light” – this year.

In the process they spent more than a decade waging a guerilla marketing campaign to sell their product – and wrestling with their own doubts about religion in the process. “The rosary tapes have changed my life,” Giaier says. “I look at life a lot different. I just see beauty in everything. I find myself a little more spiritual than I ever was.” He pauses and then laughs. “Maybe I seem kind of nutty?” Or maybe Giaier has merely come home.

• • • The 56-year-old part-time resident of Newport Beach (he keeps a condo on 16th street when not at home in Troy, Mich.) grew up very, very Catholic. He went to Catholic schools. He went to Catholic church – every day. By eighth grade, Giaier was fed up. “I never consciously rebelled,” Giaier says. “I just thought: ‘Eight years of church – man! I need a breather.’” The ‘breather’ was a cheap Japanese guitar and a rock and roll band Giaier founded when he was 12 years old.