People!: The '60s rock hitmakers with the Larry Norman connection

Wednesday 19th December 2018

Tony Cummings spoke to guitarist and founder of '60s band PEOPLE!, Geoff Levin, in the wake of the publication of Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?: Larry Norman And The Perils Of Christian Rock.



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People!: The '60s rock hitmakers with the Larry Norman connection

Geoff: Larry didn't come up with that idea; I came up with it. Michael was the guy who worked on repertoire and like I said, I was constantly searching for things that I thought would be fun, would be entertaining. I don't think I would do that now but in that day there was the plastic Jesus on the dashboard and stuff like that. And we were Jewish. So we thought 'A Whole Lot More Jesus. . .' was a fun song. I was not anti-anything; we were brought up to be very tolerant. My parents were not in any way bigoted.

Tony: So you weren't bigoted through your Jewish background but in fact I would suggest that a lot of Scientologists are pretty bigoted.

Geoff: Our choice to do that song was before we were in Scientology. We were performing it and what set us apart from the other groups was we were focused on entertaining. We were not focused on 'listen to our message and our cool songs that are different than everybody else's' or 'listen to our great Santana-style guitar player'; or 'listen to us jamming for 20 hours like the Grateful Dead'. Our band wanted people to walk away from our shows feeling better, feeling happier, having had a great time. We were able to do 'A Whole Lot More Jesus. . .' because we were a fun band. I think if our attitude was really snarky, a little bit nasty, Larry would have nixed it. He didn't say anything about it. I think he saw it as okay. The original song was done tongue-in-cheek. Honestly. We took that and did it the way it was done. We didn't really alter it. If people wanted to they could interpret it however they wanted. There's a story that Larry had a big fight with Capitol because originally they had agreed to call the album that and then they said no.

Tony: Is that a true story?

Geoff: No, absolutely not. They never entertained the idea of calling it that. At that point it was a much stricter time being able to be critical of another religion. You believed what you believed and in the Bay area there was a dearth of bigotry. Everybody was like do your own thing. If you want to be a Buddhist, great; if you're a Christian, awesome. Let's drop acid together and you see what you see, I'll see what I see. No, the album was always going to be called 'I Love You' and they had a single which could drive the album. The problem was we didn't have another followup song from the album which we should have had.

Tony: Any final thoughts about the history of People!?

Geoff: No, let's leave it there. I've only recently publicly spoken out about my history in Scientology. The thing that was really important to me now is gaining the compassion of each member, how each member related to what happened to our group. That includes Larry and the injustice that was done to him. We've speculated on what would have happened to the group, what would have happened to Larry, what would have happened to all of us if we hadn't made that mistake. That needed to be cleared up. Larry did not quit. I understand why he might have said that. He was unceremoniously and unjustly kicked out of the band. Mike followed because Mike stood up and said you kick him out of the band and I'm out, I'm done with you guys. We were that stupid we had not taken in that we not only got rid of one of the very talented people in the group, we had alienated our manager who had directed the group and managed our career. I'm glad to be able to get the story sorted out, it needs to be told. And if Mr Thornbury wanted to get the story straight he could have talked to Robbie, Gene, Denny or Albert. Thornbury chose not to interview any of us. CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.
About Tony Cummings
Tony CummingsTony Cummings is the music editor for Cross Rhythms website and attends Grace Church in Stoke-on-Trent.


 
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Reader Comments

Posted by Charles Norman in Oslo, Norway @ 17:24 on Dec 23 2018

So much rubbish being said here. Geoff, can't you get your stories straight? My reply is too long to fit in this box, but if you'd like to see a rebuttal with actual proof instead of conjecture, check this page at the Larry Norman web site:

https://www.thesolidrockshop.com/peoplealbum.html

Merry Christmas everyone!



Posted by Barry Newman @ 03:20 on Dec 21 2018

Larry Norman did not tell the truth about a lot of things. I think a lot of people owe the guy who did that documentary an apology. He nailed it.



Posted by Jeffrey in BC @ 18:37 on Dec 19 2018

Good little interview. I appreciate this point of view.

I feel like Thornbury's book could have had the subtitle, "As told by access to Larry Norman's personal archives." The members of People aren't the only people in the book who didn't get interviews. It simply isn't a journalistic book; it's more like a devotional/hagiography.

I hope more people are willing to tell their story if they feel misrepresented by the book.



The opinions expressed in the Reader Comments are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms.

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