There are a lot of people who probably don’t know who this man is (I got his picture
here.) But if you are a Christian and/or if you play or listen to any form of modern Christian music, you owe him a debt of gratitude, because he pretty much started the ball rolling.
I just found out that Larry Norman, the widely acknowledged father of Christian rock, died early Sunday morning at the age of 60. Partly because he was a pioneer, his early Christian rock albums didn’t get a lot of acclaim early on. The mainstream music field didn’t really know what to do with him, and the religious community didn’t like him for obvious reasons. He was never high on the Billboard charts. But there are few musicians from the Jesus movement that would not cite him as a huge influence. Many of his songs, like “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?” and “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” are considered classics.
I didn’t know Larry Norman personally. The closest I got to him was as a teenager when I was working security for a Mylon LeFevre concert at a local amusement park. Larry showed up in the audience, standing toward the back of the crowd, to see Mylon, and I watched as he was escorted backstage to see him. No one thought to introduce me. Oh, well. But even then (1980s) his influence was deeply felt. And likewise, he will be deeply missed. Go to
http://www.larrynorman.com/ to see a goodbye letter he dictated days before his death, as well as links to other information about his life.
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