Many called him a prophet. A man with the voice that stirred a generation. His name was Keith Green. Keith wrote a lot of songs that have impacted the lives of millions of listeners. Keith sang from his heart - his high energy delivery was marked with emotion, humor and depth. He put into words, feelings we all experience. And Keith's brilliant piano branded each song with his own distinct style. Keith's music is on cutting edge. It's still as exciting as the day it was written. It will move you to laughter - and maybe even tears. You'll certainly be challenged. Keith's message of uncomprised Christian commitment, and joys and pains of getting there, remains fresh water for thirsty souls. If you're familiar with Keith - you know what we're saying is true. If you're a new listener, get ready for an unforgettable journey. Keith Green wrote an important page in contemporary music history.
The contents of the history I've based on the booklet by The Ministry Years Volume 1.

These are words written by Melody Green, his wife.

ABOUT KEITH GREEN

Keith was born in 1953 in Sheeps Head Bay, New York - into a family with roots in show business. At age two, he was appearing in television commercials and listening to 78 rpm rock 'n' roll records produced by his grandfather's record company. Pianos, guitars and the ukulele were his early toys and to his parents' amazement, their little boy had a bull's eye sense of pitch.

Two decisions were made that would shape Keith's life: the first was a move to the San Fernando Valley in Southern California; the second was to groom their son for a career on stage.

No one, however, seemed capable of shaping Keith's inner spirit. There was something untameable in his step, a certain spring in it, projecting both buoyancy and an urgency about life.

Keith's youthful talent coupled with his good looks brought him early acclaim - and a measure of pain. At eight, Keith received rave reviews for his role as a street urchin in an Arthur Laurants' comedy at the Chatsworth Summer Theater. The next year, 1964 he was lauded for his role as Kurt von Trapp opposite Janet Blair' Maria in The Sound of Music. Keith's theater roles, however, set him apart from other boys his age who were into sports - not the stage. And by the age of ten, he was struggling with feelings of loneliness and rejection.

It was as if an unseen hand was already at work, carving a measure of depth into his heart as he suffered the first pangs of inner emptiness.

Meanwhile, the three rock 'n roll chords his grandfather taught him on the piano had exploded into some 40 original songs. And at 11, Keith landed a five year contract with an industry giant, Decca Records, which released his first single with an improbable title for a pre-teener, "The Way I Used to Be." Keith was given the honor of becoming the youngest member of ASCAP-the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

In a special report on the booming pre-teen music market, Time Magazine hailed Keith as a "prepubescent dreamboat" who "croons in a voice trembling with conviction..." When his second single hit the airwaves in 1966, it was supposed to rocket up the charts and plant Keith among the teenaged stars of pop music.

But worldly success never happened.
From the human viewpoint, Keith's failure came about because Donny Osmond captured the market Decca had envisioned for him. It seemed impossible that so much promise, talent and energy didn't pay off. It was as if he'd hit an invisible roadblock. Much later, after becoming a Christian, Keith was refer to these younger years in the song, Your Love Broke Through:

"Wasted Years" was not an altogether apt description for the period following his disappointment with Decca - but barely into his teens, Keith already felt something like an "almost was". Mixed in with his drive to see his musical dream come true, was his growing hunger for spiritual reality - something solid to build his dream upon.

Primed for the drug culture and free love era that hit the west coast in 1967, Keith, like many teenagers, began to rebel against his parents. At 15, he tucked a wad of bills into his pocket of his blue jeans and, along with friends, ran away from home. It was the first of several stints on the road in search of girls, psychedelics and the promise of universal love preached by the hippie movement. It was the latter that fanned the flame of Keith's inner desire to find an ideal live for.

It was also an era when the West was discovering the East, and the world's socalled "older religions." Keith's search took him through a gamut of gurus living and dead, into astrology, and even self-hypnosis.

As Keith devoured the writings of the religious "masters" one thing struck him as odd: tucked in among their teachings that a man or woman can achieve "Godconsiousness" and sometimes even become God, were constant references to Jesus Christ. The name of Jesus cropped up again and again. Even though Keith had rejected the religion of this Jesus, his growing hunger for truth coupled with his logical deductions began to wear down his resistance.

One by one, as Keith sampled Eastern religions and the philosophies of the day, he saw their promise crumble before his eyes. His experimentation's brought him to realize that they were all dead-ends roads. They sounded good at first, but eventually proved to be void of real life. He instinctively knew that the truth he sought was something more dynamic and profound than anything he'd yet experienced. At the very bottom of Keith's list of possibilities remained Jesus Christ.

One day in 1973, he bought a cross and put it on. Alone, and through tears, he prayed in desperation, "Jesus, if You're there, show Yourself to me."

As Keith later wrote, very simply, "He did."
Though he began calling himself a "follower of Jesus," there were still lessons to learn and greater truth to be seen. Keith once said when it came to making music he felt like a "fish in water." The hand that guided him so far was now going to reach deep to the core of Keith's being and test his inescapable desire to have a career in music...

Melody met Keith Green in early 1973, just after his first prayer to Jesus. She was also on a spiritual search, and though hardly as accomplished as Keith, music was also her first love and she had written many songs on her acoustic guitar. On Christmas morning that year, they were married.
They started reading the Bible together at night but they were still very much into the Hollywood nightclub scene - waiting for Keith to be discovered and trying to "make it" as songwriters. To their surprise, they found they would write songs together. Over the years this ability grew and became a very special part of their marriage.

From the start, you can hear the artists who influenced Keith musically. The Beatles, Joni Mitchell and Procol Harum were among his favorites.

Some of Keith's songs from this early period came straight from the parables of Jesus, which riveted his attention. In the story of the prodigal son, Keith saw himself - a rebel who had run from his Heavenly Father and nearly thrown away his life. So was born The Prodigal Son Suite. Keith intended to expand this creation into a whole rock opera, which was then a newly-emerging genre. The Road To Jericho, a retelling of the parable of the "Good Samaritan", would have been part of the larger work.

Run To The End Of The Highway, also a song from this early period, was written for one of their friends. The song describes a person who tries everything to find excitement and meaning in life - only to find that he can't escape his own problems no matter how far he runs.

Love With Me (Melody's Song) was a song Keith wrote for me. It was a very unusual kind of love song to be singing in the '70's in the midst of a culture where relationships had become cheap and shortlived. Keith's ideas about love being a lasting commitment set him apart from his contemporaries and was one of the things that drew us together.

During this time, Keith was still playing in small Hollywood nightspots, which were haunted by talent scouts from the record labels. Both Keith and I had landed songwriting contracts from CBS Records, but Keith was still squeezing for a chance to launch a career in recording and live concerts.

It was in this atmosphere, not surprisingly, that much of Keith's missionary zeal was born. Keith usually wrote songs about what was happening in his life and finding Jesus was no exception. He'd get up on stage in these little smoke-filled clubs and sing his new Christian music. He did songs like He'll Take Care of The Rest, which is about turning your life over to the Lord, and everyone would clap and echo back the chorus, She'll take care of the rest!"

Keith was really into the Bible-and he always wanted everyone to get into the things he was into. He was a natural salesman and now he was Upromoting" Jesus. The songs he wrote then were full of enthusiasm and the truth of God's love that we were finding in Scripture.

True conversion came for us in the Spring of 1975, while attending home Bible studies led by Pastor Kenn Gulliksen, founder of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship. We finally found the Pearl of great price" and several major changes occurred at once.

First, we jumped into Christianity at the deep end. Keith never did anything halfway. It was all or nothing.
We immediately began to share the Lord wherever we went. We met runaways and pregnant and unmarried young women with no place to go. We had read that te disciples gave to those in need and we took that literally - taking in people off the streets, many of whom were from broken homes and caught up in the drug scene of that time.

We were at Bible studies and fellowship meetings almost every night of the week. It was very common for Keith to stay up all night counseling someone with a problem. He was the most energetic person I'd ever met in my whole life.
It was during a time alone with the Lord, Keith came to the inner knowledge that God wanted him to lay down his music. That was a hard thing, because it signaled the death of his lifetime dream. But after wrestling with it, he knew there was no other way for him but to obey the Lord. It was a major decision to give up playing music in public, but he did.
Keith rested under the assumption that, after all his years of striving for acclaim and success, it was quite likely he would not sing before an audience ever again.
Then, after some months, there was a dramatic release from the Lord for Keith to perform in public again and he was exuberant.

The next major development - in 1975-1976 - was Keith's adoption into a growing musical "family" of Christian artists.