He never achieved widespread popular success, but Larry Norman was hailed as the founder of Christian rock. Throughout his career, he stirred controversy and respect. His personal life was met with both adoration and hypocritical scorn.
In the US during the 60s and 70s, there was a derogatory term for young, long-haired Christians. They were called Jesus freaks. Secular rock fans dismissed them as oddballs. So did older mainstream Christians. It was among those outcasts that Larry Norman found his niche.
Norman was born in Texas but raised near San Jose, CA. He learned guitar at an early age to emulate his hero Elvis Presley. By nine, he wrote his own songs.
As a teenager in the mid-60s, he formed a band called People! They had one hit with a Zombies cover tune. People! appeared as the opening act for artists like Moby Grape, Janis Joplin, The Who, and Jimi Hendrix.
The early recordings had no religious lyrics. But in 1968, just as the group was taking off, Norman left the group after a spiritual awakening.
He moved to Los Angeles and turned down a major role in the musical Hair. Instead, he proselytized his religion to passersby on Sunset Boulevard and became a street preacher.
1969: Upon This Rock, Larry Norman’s first solo album, was released. Songs included You Can’t Take Away the Lord, Moses in the Wilderness, and The Last Supper. The album sold poorly, mainstream Christians denounced his music, and his record label dropped him.
Yet his records sold well in Christian stores. Undaunted, Norman formed his own label. In so doing, he practically invented the Christian rock genre.
His songs weren’t always of the bliss-seeking flower people variety. Instead, he wrote some hard-core lyrics like these from Why Don’t You Look Into Jesus:
“You got gonorrhea on Valentine's Day, beat the age
You're still looking for the perfect lay
You think rock and roll will set you free
Oh, you'll be deaf before your thirty three
Shooting junk till your half insane
Broken needle in your purple vein
Why don't you look into Jesus, He's got the answer”
He found a larger audience for his music in England, and often performed onstage with just his acoustic guitar. Critics called him the Bob Dylan of Christian rock. He influenced other musicians, including U2 and virtually every existing Christian musical artist.
He performed to sold out shows at the London Palladium, the Sydney Opera House, the Hollywood Bowl, a stadium in Moscow, and twice at the White House.
Meanwhile, Norman’s personal life had its share of not-so-Christian controversies.
His first wife, Pamela, was rumored to have had sexual encounters at the Playboy mansion and posed nude in a magazine.
Some people who worked and performed with Norman found him to be a control freak. Friendships and working relationships dissolved as a result. Perhaps none more so than Randy Stonehill.
Larry Norman produced Stonehill’s second Christian rock album in 1976. Stonehill considered Norman his mentor.
Stonehill was married to a woman Norman had previously dated. Stonehill’s relationship with Norman collapsed, and he divorced his wife. Norman then married her, leading to speculation that he had ruined Stonehill’s marriage.
By the end of the 20th Century, Norman’s career waned partly due to middle-aged heart disease.
Feb. 2008: Larry Norman died at his home in Salem, Oregon at age 60.
Conflicting biographies cropped up after Norman’s death. One author wrote about him as a righteous yet flawed Christian. Meanwhile, a warts-and-all documentary provided unflattering testimonies by people who knew him, like Stonehill.
Larry Norman might have been a man of contradictions, but he pioneered a musical genre.
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