Larry Norman

Larry David Norman (April 8, 1947 - February 24, 2008) was an enigmatic, iconoclastic, idiosyncratic, and controversial American Christian musician, singer, songwriter, record label owner, record producer, writer, playwright, actor, photographer, and humorist, who is credited as "a key figure in the development of contemporary Christian music" "the most significant artist in the creation of contemporary Christian music (CCM)" the "father of Christian rock music" and in his later years "the Grandfather of Christian rock" "Christianity's first rock star" the "bad boy of Christian music" "the enfant terrible of the Christian subculture he helped create" and "the poet laureate of the Jesus revolution". "By 1970, Norman had the most recognized name (and face) in the Jesus Movement and the Christian music scene" with Time magazine soon describing Norman as "probably the top solo artist in the field" and while Norman had long been associated with the Jesus people and was even described as "the personification of the Jesus Movement of the late ’60s and early ’70s" Norman himself "did not particularly identify himself with the youth-oriented 'Jesus movement' of the time". Norman has been described as having had a significant influence on many artists, secular and religious while others insist that he was delusional and had a "penchant for revisionist history"

In 1966 Norman began recording at the age of 19, and more than 100 of his own albums have been released through such commercial record labels as Capitol, MGM, and Verve, and his own independent labels: One Way Records, Solid Rock Records, Street Level Records, and Phydeaux Records. Norman's first album, I Love You, recorded when he was one of lead singers for the group People!, was released in 1968. The band's cover version of The Zombies song of the same name reached number 14 on Billboard magazine's top twenty list in 1968 as a single. Norman left People! prior to 1969 and subsequently performed as a solo artist, appearing both on mainstream and independent labels. In 1969 Norman recorded Upon This Rock, "the first commercially released Jesus rock album" and in 1972 one of "the most influential Christian rock records of all time", Only Visiting This Planet. Norman's recordings are noted for their Christian and social subject matter, having successfully "wed the rhythms of pop music with the spiritual and social outlook of Christianity to create a kind of flower-power gospel." In 1989 Norman was awarded the Christian Artists' Society Lifetime Achievement Award. On 27 November 2001 Norman was inducted into the Gospel Music Association's Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Ryman Auditorium and was voted into the CCM Hall of Fame in January 2004 by the readers of CCM magazine. In 2007 Norman was inducted into the San Jose Rocks Hall of Fame (San Jose, California), both as a member of People!, and as a solo artist.

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