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By John Cody
Larry Norman’s importance to the fledgling Christian rock music scene is hard to underestimate. In the late sixties and early seventies, as the Jesus People movement brought thousands of young people back to the church, Norman’s music reflected the radical changes taking place.
Pop music had the Beatles, Stones and Dylan; Norman seemed to represent a sanctified version of all three – a ‘righteous rocker,’ to use the title of one of his songs. 1972’s Only Visiting This Planet tops lists as the single best Christian album of all time, and songs like ‘I Wish We’d All Been Ready,’ ‘Why Should The Devil Have All the Good Music’ and ‘Why Don’t You Look Into Jesus’ captured perfectly the fervent, last-generation mindset that typified the times.
When Norman died in early 2008, the tributes were heartfelt. This paper called him “a solid rock in the history of Christian music.”
Fallen Angel: The Outlaw Larry Norman offers a radically different view of the man. It’s a tragic tale, told by dozens who were there - each offering their own take on a life lived at odds with what was preached. Key participants from every phase of Norman’s career offer a remarkably consistent story of questionable behavior - including fathering a child he barely acknowledged, and refused to support.
It is, at times, a scathing indictment of a church’s refusal to confront - and an equally powerful testament to the healing power of forgiveness.
If Norman hadn’t loudly proclaimed himself a Christian, there wouldn’t be a story. “It would be nothing. This is no big deal,” Angel director David Di Sabatino readily admits. Many entertainers live lives far removed from their public image. But the fact he held himself – and others – to a higher standard changes everything.
“We all know of people that are ten times worse than he was. That’s not the point. The interesting thing is the mystique that he spun about himself. He was desperately trying to create this mythology that suggests that he was living this superstar Christian life, that ‘I don’t do anything that’s wrong.’ And he just doesn’t admit to anything. When faced with the challenge that this is your son, he doesn’t admit it.”
Di Sabatino was well qualified to take on this project. He holds degrees from both Eastern Pentecostal Bible College and McMaster Divinity College, and is the author of The Jesus People Movement: An Annotated Bibliography and General Resource (Jester Media); and director of Frisbee: The Life and Times of a Hippie Preacher.
Despite the moral failings, he believes Norman was an effective communicator of Christian story. “He understood the gospel message properly. That’s the thing; when he was lucid, and he was on - and he was having a good day, when the nice Larry was out - he was as good as anybody.
Di Sabatino likens Norman to the Old Testament figure Jacob, a broken man who nevertheless managed to move others towards God.
“Jacob is a good analogy because here’s a guy that’s jukin’ and jivin’ all over the place, and still is the father of Israel - just like Larry was the father of Contemporary Christian Music. But then [Jacob] turns up in his dying days, saying ‘My days are not as long as those of my ancestors, I have had a hard time of it because of my actions’ - something like that. And he realizes that these things that he’s done - jerking his mother around, jerking his father, jerking his brother around - aren’t exactly the way to go. I think that’s the story here.”
By the time Norman joined People - a San Jose sextet who hit the top 40 with a cover of the Zombies’ ‘I Love You’ in the summer of 1968 - his propensity for spinning stories was already in effect.
Band members maintain they were never even aware he was a Christian. They were, however, frustrated by a tendency towards secrecy and self-centeredness, and eventually fired him from the group. Norman turned the incident around, claiming he had quit, forgoing surefire commercial success in order to stand up for his faith.
The following year, he recorded his debut solo release, Upon This Rock. Despite claims to the contrary, it was not the first album of Christian rock music. A number of bands were already playing the style, significantly, Agape, who Norman had seen performing in Hollywood the year before.
Around the same time, he took credit for inventing the One Way sign – a finger pointed toward heaven – and copyrighted the logo before being taken to task by church elders, well aware it was the creation of another member of the same congregation.
Some of Norman’s more fervent fans simply refuse to accept that their hero had feet of clay. “I think for them, truth on first gulp is very difficult.” The fact that those who knew him best - musicians, management, record company staff, ex-finances and wives - all tell the same story, hardly seems to matter.
“They can’t separate the fact that he touched their lives, and yet lied - or did things that were aslant. And we’re not just saying the normal kind of…everybody has crap in their lives. It’s things that make you wonder – the stuff that he’s doing to his best friends, and the fact that he has a child that he neglects.”
Instead, they blame Di Sabatino himself. Some have been particularly hostile. “That has been difficult,” he admits, “to hear total strangers jump in your email box, and they’re swinging from the get-go.”
At one point, he questioned whether it was worth the effort, and sought out Christian broadcaster Rich Buehler for advice.
“I said; “Am I crazy here? I know I’m going to get lambasted, and people aren’t going to like this. Should I even do this?’”
Buehler was unequivocal and to the point.
“He said: ‘David, anything that is going to breathe truth into the Christian church at this time, needs to be done. It doesn’t matter what the cost is. Stand up.’ And that was it, I turned the corner.
“Truth never needs to be defended. I know what my heart has done, and why I did this. I didn’t lie, and I didn’t make any of this stuff up. It’s the truth; deal with it. And if we are people of the truth, then we should be the first ones telling these stories, not covering them up.”
Fallen Angel is Di Sabatino’s second feature. Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher told the story of Lonnie Frisbee, a Jesus Freak evangelist who brought thousands to faith, all the while struggling with his own personal issues. Both films are powerful testimonies to the notion of God using unlikely characters to grow his kingdom.
“I don’t get it,” Di Sabatino admits. “Some of the angriest responses, I was just dumbfounded. I was like; ‘You should be reveling in the fact that God used these guys, and you just can’t see it. You think I’m the enemy because I’m saying it. Yet this resonates with everything that we read in the Bible. How can you be so angry about this?’
“Now, I’m realizing that I’m doing something totally new here. Which is funny; we’re supposed to be truth tellers and all that? I find there’s more BS in the Christian market than anywhere else. I am so horrified that we are the biggest liars on the block. I haven’t spent a lot of time in other communities, but I can’t imagine - I can’t imagine - a more dishonest community. I just don’t get it.”
It’s an all-too familiar story; covering up questionable behavior inside the church to keep up appearances. “The Faustian deal that Christians make is a bad one. They say; ‘As long as people are hearing about the Lord, we don’t care what the guy does.’ And that’s a horrible deal. It’s going to reap havoc every time.
“We’re selling this malarkey to the world that says we’re different, and we’re putting ourselves in a Catch-22 situation, where we say ‘if you just come to Jesus, everything is okay, and your life changes.’”
It makes for a shallow, simplistic gospel. “It’s just nonsense, but it’s what the people want to hear. They want to hear: ‘It’s so wonderful, and if you just listen to this, it will change your life.’ But it’s just not true. It’s not true. Yes, it changes your life, but Welcome To the Jungle. That’s when we should play that song. It’s tough. This is a tough thing to do, and you’re going to fall. You’re going to go back like a dog to its vomit. And you’re going to struggle, and you’re going to do all those things. But we don’t say that. We say it’s all smooth sailing. So when somebody falls...”
Di Sabatino’s disdain for sound bite theology is clear and unabashed. “We don’t even have our own polemic straight. We don’t have a complexified understanding of the faith. We have these little crib notes. And it just doesn’t work. You cannot package it like that. It just won’t work.
“And that’s why I like telling these stories; because - in spite of that - God still works through this guy. Even if he only gave God 10% of his heart - the other 90% is a damn shame - but that 10% does some wonderful things.”
 In many respects, Angel is surprisingly generous towards its subject. “At the Cinequest Film Festival [San Jose], some of the people that had surrounded Larry for the last 15, 20 years of his life came up to me, and apologized. After they saw the film, they said ‘We thought this was going to be an expose where you just lambasted him.’ And I didn’t do that. I could have easily done that - it would have been very, very easy. And there were a lot of voices in my ear that were asking me to do it. But I respected Larry Norman enough, that I believe that at some point he was sincere. And that he lost his way. Something happened, and he lost grip on his first principles, as Randy Stonehill says in the film.”
Norman’s promiscuity, for instance, was never part of the film’s mandate. “I don’t care if he wanted to nail everything that moved. That doesn’t matter to me. If that’s the way you want to live your life, go and live your life that way. Because he was never saying that you shouldn’t do that. I never heard Larry talk about being sexually monogamous, so I’ve got no problem with that. But when you have a kid that you never take care of, that’s way out of line. That’s a problem.
“But there was never any desire or thought on my part, that; ‘We’ve got to fix Larry’s wagon.’ His wagon was fixed by his own actions. I knew that from day one. You can’t live your life like that and not have repercussions. And you feel extremely sorry. I came away finally having my ‘Aha!’ moment, going ‘Okay, I get it; I get why he’s doing this,’ and how sad. Because it’s out of tremendous hurt and pain that he’s lashing out at other people. I can’t even imagine what happened to him, to make him like this. And it made me feel sorry for him. And ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s not this larger-than-life character. it’s this short little Gollum-like man who comes away. And you’re left thinking of what could have been, if he’d only have dealt with this stuff.”
At times, Norman's self-mythologizing bordered on the incredulous. Ironically, one of the most outrageous claims - that he inspired Pete Townsend to write Tommy after the latter heard People perform 'The Epic' - may actually contain some truth. 'There's shards of that that are might be true. One of the guys in People, [bassist] Robbie Levin - who didn't like Larry - says he operated a lodge, and Townsend came to stay once, and he asked him point blank, and Townsend corroborated that it was true.' [Note: in the original version of this piece, 'Epic' co-composer Denny Fridkin was cited rather than Levin. Levin is the correct source. Fridkin - who remained friends with Larry - simply related Levin's story to Di Sabatino].
“That’s the problem with Larry. It’s hard to figure out when he was actually telling the truth, and when he was spinning a story. He’s given you ample opportunity to not believe anything that came out of his mouth, but there were times when he did tell the truth. So on the occasion that he does, you’re sitting around going ‘Yeah, right.’ But some of it’s true. He did have moderate success. There was some talent there. The problem was he tried to magnify it all by himself, and blow it up all by himself.”
Viewing Angel can be a sobering experience for those that bought into Norman’s self-aggrandizing.
“There will be a handful that will always see a conspiracy behind this, and that’s fine. But I think that once people see the movie, they will let it resonate, as hard as it is. Somebody wrote me with a quote from one of the presidents; ‘The truth will set you free, but first it makes you miserable.’ And I think that’s true in this case.”
“I had a guy who was a huge Larry Norman fan, who wrote me and said ‘I hope the movie isn’t about just you bashing Larry…’ After watching the film, he wrote again; “And he just couldn’t get it. He wasn’t necessarily mad at me, he was like, ‘How could Larry have done these things?’ And then I got a letter from his wife, who watched the movie with him, and she said ‘Thank you so much, because he has gone on for years about how wonderful this guy was. And I knew deep down that there was something wrong with him. And your movie really hurt him, and it really has shaken him, but it’s put him in a better place.’”
That’s the point in making these films, he argues. “Because, if our faith is dependent on these guys being larger than life, then it’s good that somebody pulls the rug out from under them, so they can re-evaluate their faith and put it back together again, the right way.”
Di Sabatino started as a fan himself; Norman’s music provided the soundtrack to his early Christian journey. “It hit me young; I was 14. I was a kid, and searching for a voice that resonated with my counter-cultural take on things, knowing that the church quite wasn’t telling me the truth. And it was huge in my life at that time, and rightly so. Because those songs, for the first five or six years of my Christian faith - when I started taking it seriously - that was what it was about. It was about those songs resonating through my brain.”
Eventually, the music lost it’s attraction. “I haven’t been able to listen to his stuff in the same way for a long time. I had my moment in 1990 when I got rid of all my collection.” By then there were just too many discrepancies to ignore. “He ruined it, and I realized. I had a pretty good collection; I sold it for a year’s worth of Seminary, so it was a good deal; I did good there.
“It was only in 2000, that I came back to him. I remember listening to Street Level, and just weeping, because it had been so powerful in my life, but this guy had become so bizarre. And I was always saddened by that, because he started out to be something so larger than life. What in the world happened? The songs were great.”
For an audience eager to hear the gospel message combined with rock sensibilities, the songs were made to order.
“Larry was an assimilator. He was good at looking at the culture and saying ‘What is it that they want? They need a song – an apologetic for Christian rock music.’ Okay: ‘Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music.’ It was a line on the back of a Randy Matthews album. He lifts the line - which is fine - there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m sure that he took a line from here and a line from there. Like all music. He was astute on the rock ‘n’ roll world that borrows. The Rolling Stones and Chess Records, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and Bob Dylan… Larry did the same thing. But he put it together in a way that was amazing, and he had a lot of songs coming out of him.”
 In the early 1970s, Norman set up Street Level Booking Agency and Solid Rock Records. The stable of acts – including Randy Stonehill, Mark Heard, Steve Scott, Tom Howard and the band Daniel Amos - was unequalled on the Christian music scene. With the exception of Heard (who passed away in 1993), all are interviewed for the film, each recounting stories of betrayal, dysfunction and missed opportunities.
In the case of Daniel Amos, Norman delayed the group’s breakthrough, Horrendous Disc, for almost three years, only releasing it after they had left the label. Di Sabatino believes it was shelved for one simple reason – Larry saw them as a threat.
“I think that Larry brought Daniel Amos close, just because they were one of the most popular bands at the time. He brought them in just to derail their careers. Of course, Larry would point to all these things, about how he was trying to help them and all of that; B S; I think Larry Norman was into Larry Norman, and any band that was going to derail him, or take away from his light, was a threat.”
One of the first hard rock bands on the Christian circuit, JC Power Outlet had already released two LPs when they signed with Solid Rock. “Why does he change their name? They were one of the big bands at the time. They were a tracking band, they were good. He brings them close, and he changes their name to Pantano-Salsbury. From JC Power Outlet! So he can say, ‘Well, I was trying to help them.’ And their record didn’t sell.
“There’s stuff going on there that doesn’t make sense until you hear the whole story. And then you go; Oh my God; he was not only sabotaging everybody else’s career, he was sabotaging his own career.”
It’s one thing to see others as a threat - but why destroy his own career? “That’s the million dollar question. I don’t know. I talked with Philip Mangano, who was his manager. He’s a player. He’s a very bright man, and he’s interesting. Philip is a bright guy - this is a bright man.’”
 | | Larry and Philip Mangano |
Today, as the Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Mangano is one of the most powerful voices in Washington. He was more than qualified to bring to fruition the Solid Rock vision of artistic excellence and integrity.
Continue article >>
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“Mangano was like [U2 manager] Paul McGuinnis; he was looking towards creating something like that. He was sending these people out, making money for them, doing what he was supposed to do, with the hopes that eventually, they were going to get to a place where they could then in turn kind of become this larger-than-life company. The problem was, you had Larry, who was actively mucking things up.
“Philip had three book deals for Larry. There was going to be a biography that Word Records was going to publish, a book of photos taken by Larry, and a picture book of pictures of Larry. All of these things were going to come out at the same time. Larry said no to it all. Larry said no. And Mangano is standing there, going; ‘I had all this stuff…’”
Given the level of talent, the Solid Rock roster was cable of far more than was ever realized. “They were good. Let’s be honest; they could have been doing what U2 did. He was an influence on those guys early on. U2 definitely had their radar up - they knew about Larry.”
A crucial distinction being that U2 modeled a far more transparent image, showing their fallible, human side all along. “That’s the difference. Solid Rock was a wonderful idea. It was a great idea of guys coming together. The problem being that the centre didn’t hold, because you had a wonky guy at the center. He just couldn’t get around and realize that it wasn’t just about him. He couldn’t get outside of himself. And that’s the tragedy of it all.”
Mangano and other staff admit to protecting Larry’s public image – spinning stories themselves - in a vain attempt to keep the label’s ideals alive.
Things finally fell apart in 1979, after it was discovered Larry was cheating on his wife – and having an affair with Randy’s wife. An intervention was instigated by the Solid Rock staff and artists. “That meeting was very important. In the aftermath, he spins out. You have to understand, in Larry’s head, he’s got a whole different world going on. He’s so upset that these people that he’s created, given opportunity to, helped establish - that owe their careers to him - now question him. And he doesn’t want any part of that. It’s like ‘You should be thanking me perpetually. I can do whatever I want.’”
Di Sabatino thinks Norman truly believed his own claims. “There’s part of his psyche; that whatever he said, he believed. He buys it himself. So if it’s a story that he tells that isn’t true, or is a half truth, somewhere along the line - ten minutes, an hour, a week, a year - it starts to become the gospel according to Larry Norman. If you question him, he’d look at you like, ‘What are you talking about?’ He’s writing his own history, but he really believes it as he’s telling it.
“Randy says it best; you could see in his life that he had this stuff [issues], that he was capable of this stuff, yet he was somehow holding it back. It was bubbling under the surface, but he was keeping it under wraps. And then, when those people turn on him - in his mind - and ask him questions and ask him to account for his behavior, that’s it. The lid is off. Forever more, he’s constantly caught up in this spin mode, where he has to explain, has to explain, has to explain. To the point of ad nauseum, just, ‘Larry, let it go.’ And part of that was his upbringing, and part of that was his need to be heard.”
A decade later, Norman continued the spin. In a 1989 CCM Magazine interview, he claimed to have stopped his label mates from releasing albums because “all of the artists were leaving their wives.” The magazine issued an apology after a barrage of complaints.
Di Sabatino laughs. “With Larry - to unravel ‘Larrryspeak’ - you have to turn everything around, because he’d turned everything inside out and backwards, and made it about him. He was having marital problems. I don’t know that they were all having marital problems. But he was certainly not the high priest of this place, yet that’s how he acted. Like he was the spiritual father figure, when in reality, he was the worst of the lot.”
As every act left Solid Rock – in many cases going on to far greater success - Larry’s own releases suffered a decided drop in quality. “In 1980, it just stops. He had a ten year prolific period where he’s just writing songs left right and centre - and good songs. And then, nothing. After 1980, he’s nothing. He’s just doing crap out of his garage. He’s not doing anything of merit.”
It only got worse. “By the time you get to the late 80s, early 90s,” Di Sabatino laments, “Larry becomes a cartoon character.” Rather than create new music, he began to re-record the songs that had made him famous. “It became more important for him to spin his story.”
The relationship between Norman and Stonehill is particularly fascinating. Early on, Larry took Randy under his wing, ostensibly protecting him from the shadier side of the music industry – and subsequently took his song publishing.
“You have to understand Randy; he’s a nice guy, but he doesn’t want to confront. I think in the beginning, their relationship was mutually beneficial, but at a certain point, it turned. And Randy didn’t have the capabilities to turn around and say ‘I want what I want.’
When Norman issued Stonehill’s Solid Rock albums on CD, the revised liner notes– crediting himself for photos, concepts, arrangements, even songs - implied Randy was little more than a bystander at his own recording sessions.
“He was always trying to tweak Randy with stuff like that. And Randy - to his credit - just let it go. In my understanding, Randy is a little bit too passive in regards to this. He should have fought Larry; he had every right to do it, and he would have won.”
Describing him as a “hollow man,” who simply didn’t understand intimacy, nor possess the capacity to be a friend, Stonehill claims it’s still hard to talk about Larry, 25 years after their falling out; “How could he have let it go down that road?...Here was a guy who led me to the gates of Heaven…”
He questions a highly publicized on-stage reunion between the two in 2001, speculating whether it was simply a ploy to garner publicity for Norman’s by then waning career.
The most heart-wrenching sequences in Fallen Angel deal with a son born out of wedlock. Di Sabatino claims Daniel Robinson is Larry’s child with Jennifer Wallace, a concert promoter and back-up singer who travelled on an Australian tour in the late 1980s.
Initially, Larry appeared overjoyed at the prospect of being a father. “He kissed her belly on his way out of Australia, and with tears in his eyes, said ‘I’ll see you for when the kid comes.’”
Once the baby arrived, it was a different story. “She didn’t see him for another five years. And he took $27,000 from her; money from a tour that she was then supposed to pay bills with. I think she was a little bit naïve towards Larry and what he would do, and got taken advantage of. But on top of that, he left her with a kid.”
The baby’s precarious health made a bad situation worse. “Daniel was born with medical problems, and Jennifer was desperately trying to get ahold of Larry, because her doctors needed to know about him, they needed to know blood type, medical history, stuff like that. Larry wouldn’t return her calls.”
As the film commenced production, Di Sabatino was aware of the story, and that the boy lived in Australia, but had little more to go on. It appeared to be a dead end, until, during an Australian tour, Randy Stonehill was approached by Daniel himself.
“The kid came up to Randy and started talking to him. I got this postcard the next week,” Di Sabatino recalls, “they said ‘We found the kid, and guess what? He knew your name, and he knew that you were doing the documentary, and he wants to be in it.’ We didn’t know where he was, but he came and found us, because he had heard about this documentary.”
Describing their initial meeting, Stonehill breaks into tears, astonished that Norman could have abandoned both mother and child.
 | | Larry and Daniel |
Photos of Larry kissing Jennifer’s pregnant belly, Larry and Daniel together - including a trip to Disneyland - as well as letters between the two illustrate the tenuous relationship between father and son.
Daniel was on hand when Fallen Angel was featured at the Cinequest Film Festival. “A bunch of people who knew Larry came with questions. After meeting Daniel, and after spending time with him - and of course I didn’t have this perspective, because I never spent a lot of time with Larry – they were saying ‘My God, that’s his son; he looks like him, he acts like him, he’s just got so many characteristics of his.’ And this story just fits.
“There’s emails. There’s also the fact that when Daniel came to visit, he admitted it to one of the guys in People. Larry said: ‘Let’s go visit my son.’ But the Norman family, of course, says ‘You don’t have concrete proof.’ They live in a fairyland.”
To date, the Norman family has refused to allow a DNA test that would confirm Daniel is Larry’s son.
“The irony is, if you go on their site, they’re still taking money for all the kids that Larry sponsored. To do that in the face of this kid that has come forth, which nobody argues now that he’s Larry’s son.
“To me, I’ll never get over that one. How do you do that? How do you get up night after night after night? Look; rock stars having kids out of wedlock, that’s no big deal. But you’re spreading this stuff on stage to these people, knowing full well. That’s amazing to me.”
In the film, Robinson forgives his father, and wishes for God’s blessings on each of them.
Some have question Norman’s mental health, positing that he was a sociopath. “I’m not qualified to say that,” admits Di Sabatino, “I’m not qualified to give that diagnosis. It certainly fits the profile. I think something happened to him when he was very young, something horribly tragic.
“That‘s one of the things that he shared with Lonnie. [Frisbee was sexually abused as a child]; that something tragic kind of shaped them, and not for the better. I think he had a hard time trusting people, so if anybody got too close,” Norman would destroy the relationship. “It was a survival technique, it was like; ‘this person is going to hurt me.’ So he triggered off that.”
Di Sabatino refuses to accept mental illness as an overriding excuse. “People will say, ‘He couldn’t help it.’ But I don’t buy it. Personal responsibility has to clearly be upon the person. This guy was too brilliant. He was too calculating, and he was too in the moment to not know exactly what he was doing.”
A more charitable diagnosis would be bi-polar disorder. “He claimed to be. Mental illness ran in his family. When they first got married, he told [first wife] Pamela that everybody in his family ended up in asylums, but not him, because he had Jesus.”
Such thinking was typical of the era. “The 1960s; there’s a naiveté to that time. But I think there was some of that. In my own parsing - and I’m not the adjudicator here for Larry’s life - but anything that takes away from personal responsibility, I just don’t buy in this instance. But that might have been true, all of those things might have been true. Daniel has some bi-polar tendencies, but I think he’s a little more aware and on top of them. But he suffers from that stuff.”
Norman’s failure to deliver on the promise of his early work is a mystery no one quite understands. “I’ve asked these people, and they don’t know. He had the meltdown in 1980, and I don’t know if that affected him, or it happened before and he knew that he was losing his touch.
“Chris Willman from Entertainment Weekly had a great analogy; it’s like Orson Welles. He had these flashes of brilliance. You can put on Only Visiting This Planet today, and it’s still fresh and relevant. It moves people because it’s so well put together. But twenty, thirty years down the road, you’re left thinking there must have been something else besides. All the excuses about why he’s not making something along the lines of Citizen Kane - or why Larry’s not doing something close to Only Visiting This Planet - something else is going on.”
For the last seventeen years of his life, Norman claimed to be beleaguered by ongoing, heart-related medical emergencies and desperately in need of funds for surgery.
A fiancé from the time tells of becoming more and more uncomfortable with the notion that he was simply putting on an act. “This woman was a part of his life, [and] that’s what she came to realize; that he was defrauding these people.”
Di Sabatino witnessed a 1992 show where a visibly frail Norman spoke of his need for expensive medical care, without which he would surely die. An audience member offered a spontaneous prayer for money, and a bucket was passed. “In the second half, he’s doing leg kicks! Where’s the guy that was dying? And he’s doing this night after night after night. And you go ‘What in the world is going on here? Am I being conned? And how am I the only one that’s being bothered by this? I’m sitting in the audience, and it’s not bothering anybody. You know, ‘Good old Larry.’ What?!”
At the time, it was more of a gut feeling. “I didn’t know the extent of this stuff. I had no idea what I was unraveling when I started this. People tried to tell me, of course, but you can’t really understand it until you go down that rabbit hole. And as I started to unravel this, it just got worse and worse and worse, and I realized, this is a fraud, this is a sham. What’s he doing?”
The original edit of Frisbee had used Norman’s music, and received a hearty endorsement from the composer. “You know, he was into it. He thought that it was a good movie, and said he wanted to help. Naively, I thought he was being genuine.”
They discussed putting together a CD soundtrack of the film. “Then he releases the soundtrack - which we were talking about doing together - and just goes ahead and does what he wants. When I objected to it, he started with the stories. He set me up like he set up everyone else, and I found that this was a pattern in his life; he brought people close, got them in a position where they needed him, and then he sunk his talons in ‘em, and he turned the knife, over and over again.”
At the 11th hour, Norman pulled his music from the Frisbee film, necessitating an entirely new soundtrack.
“I had already planned to do this film on him, and I had talked to him prior to that. But then my curiosity got to me, and I needed to do it.
“But I counted the cost; I knew that taking on somebody like this was going to be like going
down into Hades and wrestling with the powers that be. I mean, this guy was good at what he did. And so you knew that your reputation was going to be questioned – I had watched him do it to other people through the years. I knew that would come back my way, and it did. That’s when he started with the story of how I was doing it as a vendetta, and stuff like that.”
Once the film was completed, an attempt was made to block public showings. “We had to stop because of a challenge on copyright issues.” The Norman family threatened to sue, claiming 84 copyright violations in the movie. “We were using Larry’s music, and we asked to court go give us clearance on those materials using a law called ‘fair use.’ That challenge is over now. It’s been cleared, so we’re good to go again.”
In many ways, Fallen Angel is simply following Larry’s own example. In the preface to the second edition of The Jesus People Movement (2004), Di Sabatino wrote: “…Norman’s willingness to engage uncomfortable truths within his songs brought a much needed challenge to the status quo…where so many pandered to what the audience wished to hear or the more tried and true means of expression, Larry Norman defied social convention and allowed the Spirit to flow through and create a legacy that will outlast his lifetime. In an age where too many voices are grumbling and arguing what is wrong with this and that, Larry Norman taught me that one’s greatest protest is laid down in an act of creation.”
Outside of the small but vocal minority, support has overwhelming positive. Especially from those who lived the story. Di Sabatino has become friends with the Solid Rock family. “I’ve been invited to hang out with these guys that were my heroes. They welcome me as one of their own. They had a wake in Nashville for Larry, because none of these guys wanted to go to his funeral, and I was two feet away from Tom Howard and Randy Stonehill as they played ‘Pardon Me.’ I’m telling you, for a guy that grew up listening to these guy’s music, I’m like, ‘What am I doing here,’ and there I was, and they were all gathered there to watch the movie.”
In the end, everyone has forgiven Norman. The fact he really did hurt these people –deeply – and never admitted, nor asked to be forgiven - makes their collective action all the more remarkable. “And you feel sorry for him. See, that’s the thing,” Di Sabatino argues. “They still forgave him, and that’s a good thing. People’s lives were positively impacted. And the music resonates - the music goes on.”
A DVD of Fallen Angel is available for purchase through the film’s official site.
www.larrynorman.net
July 2009
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A blow to the head (as Norman claimed happened to him) is recognized as a risk factor for developing bipolar trauma. So why does the movie not apply some earnest examination of that likelihood and the application of some compassion for ALL involved in this tragedy including Norman potentially as a victim of mental illness.
A serious biographer and someone who really wanted to find the truth would look into this central mystery if they wanted to unlock this puzzle that was Larry Norman. Approaching with an objective approach could help Daniel get the recognition he needs instead of being dismissed because of what looks to others like ax grinding campaign.
http://www.failedangle.com
Thanks for sharing your own insights.
God bless you brother!
Whats all this got to do with this page you ask? Firstly, respect to Dougie Adam, i must have read all his reviews in Cross rhythms even in the times when i was'nt that interested, he is "the anorak that is". Mr Sabatino seems to be hitting a man when he's gone (both physically, possibly musically but it's not up to individuals to decide on the other things, that's Gods issue) . It saddens me to think that a man with such controversy in his life (albeit some of his own doing) should continue to have that done when he's gone. The best way to deal with it is the way Randy Stonehill dealt with it (see other links) . I'm sure we all know of well known christians who have followed similar routes to examples in the Bible:- David/Bathsheba/restoration,... King Saul or Annaias/Sapphira ( remember that it was God that was the judge as you read this article & the rather odd kevinwaynesongs.com page ).
The world and the devil are always looking for an excuse to point the finger at the christian church and all the better if it is a leading figure when lets face it the youth of today (both christian and non christian) no longer see LN as a leading light of contemporary culture.
I'm a LN fan, but after a few concerts in the 90's I had some concerns.
I grew most disillusioned by the Daniel Robinson issue. That the family refuses a paternity test and lawyered up is about all you need to know. Why? A DNA test would clearly show the allegation as true or false. Yet, they refuse. There is solid evidence that demonstrates LN believed Daniel was his son. Which means he had to know he had sexual relations with the woman, etc. Or he could have simply stated, I have never been "with" this woman.
And finally, as has been pointed out- people sin. The bible is full of people making bad choices and sinning. Yet, God continues to use and restore. I think this is the case with LN. A man deeply sinful like me, yet still used greatly by God.
style and tends to reiterate
certain themes.
He has also admitted
to, "being there," when
another person was writing
taunting messages which
presumably reflected
his (David Di Sabatino's)
views.
He's an interesting character
is our Mr David Di Sabatino...
Mind you, we're all, "interesting characters." That's why I, for one, am so grateful for our God's totally amazing grace.
Wow... how paranoid are you?
Just that I drew a blank when I Googled you.
Both you and Darryl Proffer sound suspiciously like a certain Mr DDS to me... ;-)
It is ABSOLUTELY good news that our God is a God of forgiveness... otherwise which one of us could stand?
It wouldn't have been a big deal, but the family was strange. They thought they needed to lie about all this stuff because Larry had to be seen as prim and perfect. That is what he thought the audience wants. THats what he was gonna give them.
Too bad. Because he lived in fear of being exposed. I loved him, but he had some hangups becasue of his family situation.
People aren't going to like that this stuff gets exposed, but it ain't no different than anything in the good Book. Stop getting your panties in a twist. Larry's fans were a bit naive. He used to complain about them a lot to me. He could serioulsy be nasty.
Made good music, though. Talented. But messed up too. That is part of the story. Just like any other rock star I know. Good tunes, bad livin'. Par for the course I'd say. But just because you do some hard living doesn't mean God doesn't travel by your side. That is the good news.
DONE... OVER... case closed. He KNEW that this kid was his. He named the kid in the will. And he set himself against the kid for no apparent reason.
That you played tennis with Larry Norman one afternoon and had a wonderful time sipping mint juleps... who cares?!!
A man that knowingly neglects his child while standing up on stage singing about the Christian life... are you out of your minds?
I doubt this will silent you, Thirty pieces of silver is too tempting.
That said, none of the disclosures brought forth in the film really surprise me. I've read much about what Larry wrote about himself and his music, from his liner notes to interviews and other writings by him. Quite frequently I found myself reading his claims with a significantly raised eyebrow. The matters of his questionable relationship with Randy Stonehill's first wife have been well established before this film was released, so they come as no big shock (there was a good reason as to why Randy was out of fellowship with Larry for over 21 years). That alone should give us great pause to think before we start jumping on Di Sabatino for making the film and John Cody for reporting on it.
If we assume the film has its facts correct, should this information be brought out? Biblically speaking, if we give Larry an "eldership" status in the church (and it could be argued that there are many who have done so de facto), 1 Timothy 5:19 states that "Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses." We have many more than that willing to speak in this film alone. As well, in Matthew 18:15, Jesus instructs says the following:
"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church..."
Again, it does seem that the Biblical mandate was followed, and in the end, the church was told. This, of course, is assuming that the filmmaker and those interviewed are telling the truth (and if they aren't, then we have an even bigger problem on our hands, for we have gone from having one fallen angel to a whole host of liars). And that is the real issue. Is what Di Sabatino presenting here the truth, or at least as close to it as we can get in a documentary. For if it is, then I believe it is important that the truth about our heroes be known, even if it is uncomfortable. It stops us from idolizing them. The Bible does this over and over again, never shying away from the character flaws of many of it's greatest figures.
I will always be a fan of Larry's music, even after this film. May it remind me that a deeply troubled individual can still make something beautiful, something that brings glory to God, in despite of himself.
It is helpful for the Christian community to recognize and talk about the fact that we are all fallen and continue to struggle. I had the opportunity to meet Larry Norman a couple of times (the band I was in even opened for him once) and I had heard rumors about his 'complications'. Still, he was a hero to me and his music an inspiration.
I think Larry was a prophet. And if you are a student of the Bible, you will know that God's prophets were always complicated human beings who continued to sin, had ego problems, and who much of the world would assume mentally imbalanced.
The fact was that Larry Norman had issues and the film Fallen Angel addresses this. But that's not a reason to dismiss Larry Norman, his music, or honest reflections on the person he was. On the contrary; his music is even more meaningful knowing that it came from someone who struggled with his demons, just like the rest of us.
You have to realise that what you are getting here is NOT, "the truth."
Please re-read Dougie Adam's comments.
This is David Di Sabatino's usual formula of spin and half truths laced with inaccuracies.
It was super insightful....but then again, I'm not threatened by imperfection in the church.
Presumably, the editors don't read these comments. You'd think that they'd care about the reaction to their magazine.
I'm ashamed of the state of Christian journalism in my country. It's nothing short of disgraceful.
These were never the goals of david d and it is clear that they are not the goals of Canadian Christianity either.
Such myopic trash. You should work a bit at getting you facts straight . . .
O Canada!
Denny Fridkin did not dislike Larry Norman. Denny left his home and job and moved house to look after Larry Norman whenhe saw how bad Larry Norman's health was at the time of the partial People reunion in 2006. David will never mention this fact in any interview or in any edit of his film because it does not fit with his claims that Larry Norman was defrauding fans by exaggerating his health problems while asking fans for donations to pay his medical bills. Speaking of which, all David offers as evidence for this fraud in his film is 1 anecdote from an ex-fiance following 1 concert in 1994 and this is supposed to back up David's claims that for 30 years Larry lied to everyone about having a brain injury and heart problems.
The whole Solid Rock family have not embraced David Di Sabatino. Half of Daniel Amos did not give interviews for Fallen Angel, Mark Heard is obviously deceased, Janet Heard was not featured in the film, Pantano Salsbury were not featured in the film, Steve Scott is featured in the film but very deliberately did not want to say anything about any negative sides to being involved with Larry and Solid Rock and has said in an interview with Gord Wilson that Larry Norman has not received enough credit for helping to launch other artists careers- something you will never hear David Di Sabatino quote because it doesn't fit his sublimely bizarre hypothesis that Larry only signed Randy Stonehill, Tom Howard, Daniel Amos, Panatno Salsbury, Mark Heard, Salvation Air Force and others so he could stop their LPs coming out and ruin their careers. Donnie Gossett has published a lengthy critique of David's "Fallen Angel" film from the point of view of someone who was on Solid Rock Records in the 70s (and like Steve Scott never got their album released). Anyone wanting to check this out then please go to the Cross Rhythms website and search for the Denny Fridkin interview with Tony Cummings where Denny speaks warmly about his present (at the time) friendship with Larry and reminices about his time in People. Cross Rhythms also have an interview with Tom Howard from last November where despite having taken part in the "Fallen Angel" film with David and knowing all the allegations contained in the film Tom alludes to some negative sides towards the end of Solid Rock but says he doesn't want to talk about those and was happy to speak warmly about meeting Larry, signing with Solid Rock and recording View From The Bridge. Most Solid Rock artists left tributes to Larry on the UK Larry Norman website after Larry died last year.
Another inaccuracy is David saying Larry's career was finished by the late 80s and early 90s by which point he was reduced to re-recording his old songs in his own garage. Someone whowas recording albums in their own garage inthe late 80s and early 90s was Bob Dylan and he still seems to be doing OK for himself having recorded part of both Travelling Wilbury'salbumsin his own garage and the Good As I Been To You album there too. If David hadn't stopped listening to Larry around 1990 he might have spotted that the late 80s and early 90s see the quality of Larry's songwriting and released albums improve dramatically after 5 or 6 years of disasterously bad releases from 1981 onwards (Roll Away The Stone, Barking At The Ants, Letter of the Law, Labor of Love, Down Under(But Not Out),Rehearsal 4 Reality and Back To America are nowhere near the quality of songwriting or production we expected from Larry in the 70s). In 1988 we get the first decent compilation album in the shape of White Blossoms From Black Roots. In 1988 we get a limited edition release called The best of The Second Trilogy- all studio recordings of songs said to be coming out on Home At Last (1989 - patchy), Stranded In Babylon (released in 1991 but with no Best of 2nd Trilogy songs present!) and Behind the Curtain - an album which was never released). So far in these 1988 and 1989 releases none of the songs were recorded in Larry's garage. In 1991 Larry recorded Stranded in Babylon in Sharon Studios in Saronsdal, Norway containing 13 new studio recordings ofsongs which had never been released anywhere else before. 1994 saw "A Moment In Time" released a collection of 10 new rough mix recordings done in 1993 in Sun Studios in Memphis. Copper Wires from 1998 featured 15 songs from Larry's birthday party events in 1997 and 1998 on the internet recorded in his home studio and mixed and mastered at Wavelength Studios in Salem. Shouting In The Storm was recorded on mainstage at the Flevo Totaal Festival in Netherlands and had additional recording and mixing at Hulst Studios in Zwolle and was matered at Wisselwoord Studios, Hilversum where 1998's studio rehearsals album "Breathe In,Breathe Out" was also recorded. Parts of Tourniquet (2001) were recorded in a studio in Norway in 2000. I may be coming across as pedantic but my reason for posting in detail on a few points is to show that for the most part when david opens his mouth and talks with seeming authority about Larry's life and music its factually inaccurate hot air and not actually very well researched.
Most of the people who are interviewed in David's film actually only represent a few specific years from the last 40 years of Larry's life. Denny and Rob from People the band Larry was in from 1966-68. Randy Stonehill, Tom Howard, The Daniel Amos guys, Philip Manguano & Holly, Steve Scott worked with Larry at Solid Rock at most from 1974-81.
Then you have a few people who didn't work with Larry but had interviewed him for CCM Magazine,one ex-wife (1971-80), one ex-fiance from the 90s and er that's it. A lot of people who worked with Larry from the 70s, 80s, 90's and 00s refused to speak to David.
If people watch David's film and seewhat bits David includes from his interviews with the likesof Denny Fridkin, Tom Howard, Steve Scott and compare that with what they are on record as saying about Larry elsewhere you'll notice he only includes stuff that fits with his own theories and that he homes in on the negative aspects people had. You learn almost nothing about Larry's time inPeople from Denny and Rob because all that gets included is the bits David wants to paint - the other members didn't know of Larry's faith and disagree about whether the debut album was always going to be called I Love You or not.The main thing David wants to get across about Larry's time in People is that it is the start of a pattern of Larry spinning his own version of recording sessions and relationships withother artists and record companies. I'm sure the average fan would have liked more info on what it was like being in the band and working with Larry and about their live dates, unrecorded songs, the making of their album with Larry etc but that's alloutside the remit of David's crusade to bring Larry down.
Elsewhere in his film David speculates Larry was abused and had mental problems but as usual its all vague stuff with no supporting evidence to back up the claims in what is supposed to be a documentary... and that's the default position of the film. Make lots of claims about Larry in 90 minutes and avoid givingany figures or documentation which actually shows that Larry ripped off Randy Stonehill financially, or shows that larry defruaded fans with untrue cliams about his health and so on.
This article is a really bad reflection on Canadian Christianity that something as badly researched as this can be published unchecked with complete disregard for the facts, and worse still made to look like it is an authorative carefully investigated account of Larry Norman's life and music. I'm sure David will blame the reporter for misquoting him (anyone remember all the inaccuaracies in the OC Weekly interview and similar in Phoenix Preacher?)
Anyway, I really enjoyed this article. In a way, it brought into focus my own ambivalence about Larry. In fact, it's probably the most balanced thing I've read about him. Well done!
Having said that, I still hate the thought of sitting down and watching the movie. The trailer is ridiculously sensationalist. And I already know a lot of the bad stuff and don't particularly want to sit through a bunch of people grinding their axes, no matter how justified they are.
Like a lot of people, I was also an increasingly bemused onlooker as Larry (or, more precisely, the public image of Larry - I didn't know the real man) gradually became a slightly pitiable self-mythologizing cartoon.
Although it seemed to me that a lot of it was just the way the people around him chose to keep eking out his diminishing output. It seemed that the less music he created, the faster the CDs came out. So it became a trickier and trickier marketing exercise. I guess people gotta live.
Larry had an absolutely enormous burden of expectation on his shoulders, in fact he really was in a similar situation to Elvis, Lennon or Michael Jackson. No matter where you go you meet a lot of people who are massive fans of his, even obsessed. I am guilty of the same thing myself - I held him up the same way as people would someone like John Lennon, except with the added, complicating layer of "the Christian thing". I'm the kind of guy who doesn't "go up" to my idols and harass them, but I witnessed people do it all the time on the few occasions I was around Larry.
For that reason I've always found it easy to forgive his behaviour. He couldn't have led a normal life because no matter where he went there were people wanting a part of him. That kind of adulation is difficult for anyone to cope with, as history attests.
Add to that the slings and arrows that he received from the Christian establishment - it's easy to forget just how conservative the church was back in the 60s and 70s, and how utterly outrageous Larry would have seemed. He would have had to suffer criticism and adulation in equal amounts.
Then there's the burden of having to follow up the incredible string of albums that he put out in the early 70s. Unlike the Beatles, he couldnt just "break up". He would have felt the pressure to keep coming up with brilliant songs and yet the output became slimmer and slimmer. There were still some beauties over the years (eg Goodbye Farewell), but he was never going to be such a major force again.
And on top of it all, he possibly did have some mental problems, and then there was the reported head injury in the airplane incident, which I presume is true.
And that's not to mention his physical health issues. We can make fun of him passing round the hat and then doing high kicks in the second half, and I used to groan a little every time he'd play up the ill-health thing, but, you know, he did actually become visibly frail and then die young, so I think he could justifiably have quoted Spike Milligan and put on his gravestone, "I told you I was ill!"
None of that excuses whatever lying and cheating might have taken place, but it might help explain it in part.
So, bottom line, I can still enjoy his music and his message. What Mr. Di Sabatino said about Jacob is true. And the Bible is absolutely full of flawed characters that God used. I don't let the whole Bathsheba thing put me off the Psalms, either.
Are we wrong to discuss truth? Of course, no one wants all the skeletons in our closet to be displayed for the world to see- that's the beauty of Jesus... he cleans out the closet. But if we are in unrepentant sin, it is our brothers and sisters in Christ responsibility to call us to account- ESPECIALLY if we are harming others.
I don't see the gospel flourishing due to those who sweep the untidy history of Christian sin under the carpet... I do see it flourish when we can be transparent about our shortcomings before each other so that no one is surprised when we fall, therefore showing that it is Jesus who makes sinners right before God, and not our impressive roster of "sin-avoidance" and legalistic rule-following that twists God's arm into judging us acceptable.
I merely see Di Sabatino's work as a service to us all to shake the false infrastructure of celebrity to the ground, so that we might not lift any others up to lofty heights that no one deserves.
Di Sabatino fan