This World is Not his Home

Larry Norman, the quintesential Christian hippie, passed away. His song "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" was a family favorite. "Some Said He was an Outlaw" and "Shot Down" are current favorites. He had a great balance between simple and profound.

I'm posting some quotes below from an interview he had in the 70s with the Door magazine. Enjoy.


I would drop 80% of all the music off all the labels if you want Christian music that represents Christ. In fact, not much music really represents Christ's glory or even His message. But unfortunately, there's a lot of Christians in the record business and they need a lot of artists because they need to sell a bulk of records or the company will go under.

I once got Paul McCartney's autograph. I felt so stupid. It was after we were talking for about twenty minutes and we were having a nice chat. He'd known about some of the music I'd done with my band and he accepted me on a musical level because he liked the record. Then at the last minute, as I realized I was going to go someplace, I thought, "I've got to get his autograph. I just have to. After all, he is a Beatle." So I asked for his autograph and he was very visible disappointed. It was like, "Oh, I thought that we were both people." I was so embarrassed that while he was signing it, I didn't even want it.

Some groups go so fast through their repertoire that there's not much chance for the Holy Spirit to slip in there. And sometimes it is very manipulative. Americans like to be entertained. If I've learned anything from, doing concerts, I've learned that. They don't really want to be reached. The majority of people on the majority of nights don’t want to be reached and they don't want to be touched because that means they'll have to change. There're always those special nights when everybody just wants to fall on their face because God has been there, for some reason, He decided to attend the concert in a mighty way. But most people want a nice time and maybe a little bit of truth and wisdom that they can put in their pocket. When they get bored they can take it out and decide whether or not they want it. But any time you accept truth, you have to change. You have to make room for it and I don't think people like that. I've alienated many an audience by telling them exactly what I knew I had to speak.

I may not know that many of his songs, but I'm starting to become a fan.