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DiSabbatino is an opportunistic manipulator and a wolf in sheeps clothing who made the mistake of trying to get Larry’s trust then manipulate Larry - and since Larry rightly called him on it, and rightfully forced DiSabbatino to remove Larry’s unauthorized music from the “frisbee” movie, David DiSabbatino has been on a vendetta to hurt Larry Norman while alive… and now is blogging & interviewing in several posts sometimes under false names (yet his accusations and writing style are unmistakable) and bent on trying to ruin Larry’s good reputation post homecoming.

Look at Larry’s life and the thousands he brougth to Christ - while even the briefiest of studies of DiSabbatino’s activities will show him for what he is.

Please do not subsidize the accuser - pray for God’s protection for Larry’s family & honor, pray for deliverance and repentance for “DD”.

You will know them by their fruits…

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You can catch some of the actual meetings on you tube with Lonnie Frisbee and the early days, and I was around in California some years later for the “afterglow” of those times, crazy times. It was hard to know how to handle all of that and sort it all out, especially since in the early days there wasn’t a lot of Biblical knowledge going around, we just loved Jesus! Keith Green was another person who, while passionate and influential, had his life cut short. As a friend who lived at Last Days with him knew, he was intense in many ways that were just not good, as I’m sure Larry and Randy in their lives were/are all too familiar with. Keith wanted a plane ride, wanted 12 people in it when only 6 should have been it it, and against his pilot’s better judgment, insisted on it, and the rest is tragic history.

But that’s what forgiveness is about, eh? We are stubborn, we are selfish, insecure and we want our own way: While these truths about us can be ugly, it’s not why we’re saved: we’re saved because of Jesus and because He loves us, because we EXIST. Period. As a musician, I think I understand a bit of the difficulties of trying to harness all of the ideas, passions, frustrations and idealisms these guys might feel into a “holy little package” and you know, it just doesn’t work so well most of the time, never mind having the whole world watching and keeping score. The only means that seems to bring any freedom is to be open and authentic and admit our mistakes and be free about saying we’re sorry, and having a lot of grace with one another.

Larry Norman wasn’t perfect, but you cannot argue that the man had guts and he was radical for Jesus, and I am very thankful that we were blessed with him here with us for a time. And I KNOW he is where he has longed to be since he was a boy…home with daddy. Peace, Larry. You fought the good fight.

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It is instructive that God limited Larry’s influence in his own lifetime. Its, perhaps, not because of anything he did or did not do, but because of our (we fellow humans) tendency to idolize and exalt that which is not God. Larry was a Rock Star in an age when Rock Stars become exalted and imagined to be things we cannot expect anyone to really become. That said, Larry’s influence can only be measured with great difficulty. But to those of us who loved him, he could have become more than he deserved to be, at least in our eyes. God is wise and the impact of Larry Norman’s ministry will be felt for a LOOOOONG time to come even if not everyone knows that he was chosen for this work.

-BH

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Like everything else in Larry Norman’s life, the truth is often the very reverse of what he said. I am a friend of his first wife, a woman he slandered. … I know DiSabatino, and he was a fan of Larry’s. What Larry did to him was wrong, and DiSabatino was indeed mad, but that documentary was slated to happen well before Larry did what he did. DiSabatino has an email to Larry outlining the treatise of the film, and it was only when Larry found out that Stonehill had been interviewed did he start to slander and jerk DiSabatino around. Like he did with everyone in his life. I can’t wait for this documentary to come out!

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I still hold that Larry Norman was the Father of CCM, because not everything Larry recorded was rock… much of it was folk, much of it was pop. I also hold that The Electric Prunes’ _Mass in F Minor_ holds the distinction of being the first recorded Christian Rock album (and _Agnus Dei_ was even sampled in _Easy Rider_)… but that particular album had zero influence on the evangelical community, not to mention was almost a one-person mutiny on a band that fell apart afterwards…

And I also recommend FRISBEE, and found it mesmerizing, if the subject matter interests you.

Can I just mention that my ironic introduction to Larry Norman’s music was hearing “Watch What You’re Doing” being played as background music, for an anti-rock-music made-for-VHS documentary?

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DiSabatino, who bills himself as an historian of the Jesus rock era, is completing a documentary on Norman. A 2006 documentary by DiSabatino looks at the life of Lonnie Frisby, a conflicted Jesus People musician associated with Calvary Chapel who, with Chuck Smith’s help, is credited with nearly single-handedly launching the Jesus People movement in the 1960s — a movement in which Larry Norman was an influential, if at times reluctant, participant.

You absolutely must get/rent/watch FRISBEE. But don’t just watch the feature movie; there’s another hour-and-a-half of outtakes on the DVD that could be a whole second movie all to itself. If even half of what’s on the DVD is true, then Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard Church both owe their start and growth to Lonnie, which means that Lonnie was directly or indirectly perhaps the single most influential Christian of the last 3+ decades. And like William Seymour, he has been nearly forgotten.

F-A-S-C-I-N-A-T-I-N-G.

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