Remembering Larry Norman

Soon after I became a Christian in 1974, my high school classmate loaned me the album "Only Visiting This Planet." At first, I couldn't stand it. But the message and style grew on me. When we saw Larry Norman in concert later that year at a neighboring High School, I turned into a rabid fan because of his deadpan humor. He was a revolutionary.

Christian music legend Larry Norman died Sunday of heart failure, according to his brother Charles Norman. He was 60.
Norman, a blonde, long-haired rocker who is often called the father of Christian rock music, was a giant in the Christian music industry, said Chris Willman, senior music writer for Entertainment Weekly.
"His influence outweighed his sales so much that it's comical," Willman said. "He certainly had a heart for evangelism — almost to his detriment, I might say. He really could've been a star if he were singing about something other than Jesus."
Norman's 1972 Only Visiting This Planet album is regarded as one of the top contemporary Christian music albums of all time. His many hits were at the cutting edge, said Larry Eskridge, associate director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College.