Larry Norman album cover

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO (ANS) -- Contemporary Christian music pioneer Larry Norman’s Sunday death after battling a long history of heart problems brought a lot of e-mail reaction from Assist News readers.

Janice Nikkel said that her first memory of Norman was as a teen attending the GreenFest outdoor Christian music festival held at Bingemans Park in Kitchener, Ontario in the mid-1980's. Having heard about Norman, she said she though it would be worthwhile to attend one of his music workshops.

Nikkel said she wasn’t disappointed. She wrote, “I remember sitting on the edge of a bench as he sat by a fire pit strumming his guitar and just talking about what mattered to him. This was my first real introduction to this father of Christian rock’ n’roll.”

In 1995, Nikkel said, her husband filmed a video about Norman’s life called “Larry Norman, Live and Kicking.” That experience, Nikkel said, gave them both “further insight into the inner workings of this somewhat eccentric musician.”

However, Nikkel concluded, the final impact of Norman on her life was a simple line from one of his songs. During a rocky season in her marriage, Nikkel said Norman’s words gave her the courage to press on. He sang, “You can either kiss your past or your future goodbye.”

Nikkel said, “I kissed the past goodbye, and have embraced a wonderful future with my husband.”

Bill McKay, who in the late summer of 1974 was producing Praise 74 at the Orange County Fairgrounds, and an event at which Norman headlined, said that Norman was “for many, a righteous version of a hippie culture that was spinning out of control ... Larry, at the time, was at the top of this sub culture revolution. He was saying, and doing, things that many Christians dared not think or do. He was a free spirit and fully avant garde. He was shaking things up with his voice and his rhythms.”

However, a dinner meeting that McKay had with Norman prior to the event disappointed him. McKay said, “There (Norman) was with his signature long blonde hair talking about subject matters that were substantially less than revolutionary. As I recall, he talked a great deal about the business side of the music world and other non counter culture issues. I am not entirely sure what I had expected in this one and only meeting with Larry, but to see him eating the finer things, typically associated with the establishment, was not one of them.”

However, McKay said he realized over the years that perception doesn’t always match reality. But that notwithstanding, McKay said, one thing was clear about Norman.

“As a distant observer of his life, he genuinely loved our Lord and stepped out courageously to a set of sounds and rhythms all his own. He clearly owned his own signature and, in many ways, left behind a real mark for the generations to come. Most of us who pass through this life will leave it relatively unchanged. This will not be said of Larry. He sought change and achieved it.”

McKay said he is looking forward to a future “dinner meeting” with Norman.

He wrote, “It will be most interesting to meet Larry again at the ‘Supper of the Lamb,’ and pick up from where we left off. In that dinner meeting to come, undoubtedly, my perception and his reality will be wholly sync.”

Aimee Herd, from Breaking Christian News, once had the opportunity while working at a radio station in Albany, Oregon, to interview Norman.

She wrote, “He was extremely gracious and very humble, as he described various experiences he'd had during his long music career and ministry. Toward the end of the interview, I asked him if he had a favorite song out of all of those he'd written. He responded that it was, ‘I Wish We'd All Been Ready,’ and promptly began to play it on his guitar.”

Herd said, “Even after the many times I'd heard that remarkable song, to have Larry—with his one-of-a-kind voice—sing it that day, with all the meaning it's always carried, was one of the most moving experiences I've ever had.”

Herd added, “May we all be ready as he was.”

George Verwer, founder of Operation Mobilization, said that he was a great fan of Norman’s. They ministered together in the 1970's. He wrote, “(Norman) was a great pioneer, and not afraid to stick his neck out for God. He ran the race well. We will miss him, but his legacy will go on and on.”

Australian Kevin Cooper, who organized several of Norman’s Australian tours and had him stay as a guest in his home, said although he knew Norman had been ill for a long time, his death was still a shock.

Cooper helped Norman through a health issue back in 1989. Norman had been ill, so Cooper took him to the hospital. He said that once the doctors examined Norman and prescribed the correct medicine he was apparently okay, but Cooper was still concerned at one point about whether the tour could continue.

Norman was performing at the Jam ’89 Festival, held in the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens. Cooper said that Norman “collapsed on the stage mid-song, and most of the audience thought that he was playing around. When I called out from the back that he needed help, the stage crew and other artists were quick to get to him with some drinking water and they were able to revive him. He was never well on that tour, and on that very hot day, I think he had heat exhaustion to contend with, on top of his other health issues.”

Cooper said that Norman’s legacy will live on. “He has left us so much music, and so many albums, with many of them worthy of top industry and consumer accolades, had they enjoyed mainstream distribution and marketing exposure. I am also amazed at how Larry's music (like the Beatles) has transcended several generations now, and my own children can attest to that.”

Cooper said in recent years he kept track of Norman’s health problems and prayed for his healing. He added, “I guess he now has the ultimate healing, as he runs freely in heaven without pain or discomfort, with his Lord and Savior.”

Steve Goddard, co-editor of www.shipoffools.com, said that Norman was the only Christian artist of the early 1970's whose music “sent a shiver down my spine. He may only have visited this planet - but his footprints are all over it.”

An interview by Drew Marshall with Norman will be re-played this Saturday. It can be heard at www.drewmarshall.ca/listen2006.html#060930

For more information about Norman go to www.larrynorman.com 
 

Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org or http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "Homeless in the City: A Call to Service." Additional details about "Homeless" are available at http://www.HomelessBook.com He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net. Tel: (505) 877-6967 or (505) 400-7145. Note: A higher resolution JPEG picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com.