Tripping Larry Norman...

I know this is a long post, but I thought that in light of last weeks close encounter with Leeland, I'd tell you about another encounter that I had with a famous musician. It is also a bit of a tribute...Hope you enjoy.


When I was a teenager, I bought a couple of tapes from an older friend of mine who was selling off his cassette collection to buy CDs. For 5 bucks each I got a couple of Larry Norman albums, "Something New Under the Sun", and "In Another Land". Those albums, although they had been out for decades, changed the way that I viewed Christian music. At the time, I was cutting my teeth on the polished, overproduced sounds of Petra and Whiteheart, but when I heard the raw, honest lyrics, and the creativity that seemed to come from a heart that loved Jesus but was wrestling with real issues, I was floored. I'm even now struggling to find words that can explain how I felt. Here was a man with a perspective that I had never been exposed to. I felt as though this man had real issues, had lived in a real world, and had experienced a real Jesus, and now was bringing a real message to real people. I've only had that feeling once or twice since, the feeling of honor that you get when you know that you are listening to something that is more simple, yet so such more profound than anything you've heard before.

I had a chance to see Larry Norman live in concert in November of 1996. He spent two hours with a nylon stringed guitar in a packed church in Peterborough.
After the concert, he signed autographs in the foyer of the church. There were scores of people crowded around him, and I had worked my way up to him, to the point where he was standing directly in front of me, with his back to me. I remember being so close that I had no other choice but to closely examine the back of his head. I remember thinking that his hair was so light that I wanted to confirm that it was actually blond and not grey. As I was staring at the back of Larry Norman's scalp, he took a step backwards and stepped on my foot. He lost his balance and almost fell to the floor. Luckily he caught himself. I will never forget the glare that he turned and gave me. And I remember thinking, I almost killed the grandfather of contemporary Christian music.

In February, when I heard that Larry died, I felt a deep sense of loss. His music had shaped such a large part of me that I felt like I had lost someone who was close. I remember reading tributes to him and others said that same thing. I was genuinely mourning for him. I know that Larry Norman was a man who had problems in his personal life, but we all are incomplete in some way. We are all people that need God's provisions for us. I see his shortcomings as proof that God uses us not because we are perfect, but because we let him.