Wednesday, September 19

Remembering…

Mark Nelson at 2:06 PM 17comments

17 Comments

at 3:54 PM  Anonymous said...

1. Driving up and down Northshore Drive listening to "The World As Best As I Can Remember It Vol. 1" until the lettering on the tape wore off.

2. Riding around Queens, NY listening to his last album just as it had released thinking, "These are his last songs."

 

at 3:54 PM  Anonymous said...

I saw him a couple times, including once not too long before he died. I remember when I heard, Carol and I were hauling furniture up I-75 from Knoxville in preparation for closing on our first house in Cincinnati. I was driving a big Uhaul truck, swerving around the ubiquitous orange construction barrels that dot the highway between Atlanta and Detroit, and I had to pull over, I was so upset. Felt similar to when I heard Keith Green died 15 years before that. Music is so personal and has a way of creating a strong sense of bonding, even if the person who created it doesn't actually know its listeners.

 

at 5:30 PM  jason said...

Man, I'll probably cry writing this. To this day, his "Liturgy, Legacy, Ragamuffin Band" is probably my favorite album of all time.

1. Only got to hear him in concert 3 times, and all were fairly brief, as they were at conventions or festivals. He signed a hat "be good" for me at one. I've loved that phrase ever since.

2. I laugh thinking about all the times he would actually mess up the music or lyrics during his concerts. In the 3 times I saw him, I bet he started songs over about 7-8 times because he would totally play or sing something wrong, then laugh about it.

3. Driving through Kentucky on my way to a weekend ministry when I heard of his death on the radio, and stopping immediately to call my friend Kurt to tell him about it.

4. Going forward in youth group when I was in high school to commit my life to Christ while we were singing the chorus of "Step by Step".

5. The fist time listening to Rich sing the song "Jesus" on the Jesus Record demo cd, and thinking it was probably the most moving song I'd ever heard before.

 

at 10:47 PM  Preston Searcy said...

I remember, as a kid, listening to Rich's music on Christian radio. I thought he was so cool until I saw the video for "Here in America" and said to my mom "that's Rich Mullins?" I guess he wasn't as cool as I expected.

Now it seems that I listen to him almost everyday. If I want to listen to music or play an instrument, it always comes back to Rich. His life has inspired me in many ways.

 

at 11:20 PM  Anonymous said...

My first memory? Junior high camp... we learned "Awesome God" that week and sang it over and over and over again. I still prefer that song sung acapella by a group to any other version.

The next December I was on stage at TCTC as part of the "TCTC Chorale" back in the day... Rich was the guest choir director and we were singing "Awesome God" with him directing. He was sick if I remember right. I had no idea at the time how cool that was to be a part of that.

A few years later you (Mark) brought him in for a show at Farragut High School. I remember how hard you worked selling tickets and setting the whole thing up. I think we had Choice Lifestyle there for a whole week before the show doing assemblies and stuff. Maybe my memory is fuzzy but I think we darn near sold that show out. I remember Rich and Beaker out there barefoot and like Jason said... he kept having to start the songs over. It was the best concert I had ever seen at that point. It's still in the top 5.

I remember the day we left for New York City the fall after I graduated high school you stopped by Cedar Springs and the girl you knew there made you a copy of side 1 of "Liturgy, Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band". We didn't know it was only side 1 though so we thought wow... this album is amazing but it's so SHORT! When we actually found the CD in a store we were so excited that it had 6 more songs. We wore side that tape out during those 5 weeks and to this day whenever I hear any of those songs I picture myself on the road to NYC.

And then there was the first time I heard "Hard to Get". I didn't cry when I heard that Rich had died but I did cry when I heard that song for the first time.

I can't believe it's been 10 years...

- Greg

 

at 12:22 AM  Brokenness-Quebrantado said...

I wish I could remember because all the comments sound good to me. But honestly I don't even know who this person was. I am totally lost and I think I am lost because when I came to know about Christ 17 years ago I was in Mexico and I never heard about him. This tells me that as Christian American you have been blessed with so many people that have touch your lives. What a great opportunity to have so many choices and so many resources to get your spirit on fire for Him. United States of America is blessed to have so many generations of people that have followed Christ and have made a difference in people's hearts

 

at 7:02 AM  Mark Nelson said...

Greg...about that concert at Farragut High School...

We actually had some trouble because we sold too many tickets...

Casey Galbraith told us the auditorium held 1400 people, so we sold 1400 tickets...it actually only held 1040.

Rich had people set on the floor in front of the stage, and then once he started, he let people set on both sides of the actually stage...it was pretty cool.

I only got cussed out by one couple who thought I oversold on purpose...I just blamed Casey

 

at 7:48 AM  Anonymous said...

My first Rich concert was the day I knew I was going to marry my wife, Jenn. It was cool...

Awesome God was the first song I ever heard and yesterday my five year old, Anna, and three year old, Katie, kept wanting to hear "The Other Side of The World" because they love the intro and Rich...

He has and continues to make a profound impact in my life and my family.

 

at 9:36 AM  Mark Nelson said...

Cameron...was that first concert at Taylor University? If so, do you remember the date?

 

at 3:16 PM  Tiffany Travis Sexton said...

I tried to leave a comment yesterday but my internet wouldn't let me...so Greg said a few of the things I tried to write.

I remember being at the TCTC thing when Rich was sick (and kind of grouchy) and everybody thought he was mean.

The concert at FHS was so cool. I remember the barefoot thing and how crowded it was.

I remember doing "Screen Door" at Rainbow back in the middle school days. "Owen loves his mama!"

Tiffany got us tickets to see Rich with Ashley Cleveland at the Ryman years ago. That meant so much to be able to share his music with my wife, who had really never heard many of his songs. Sure, he wasn't nearly the best singer in the world, but he had so much passion, and such a love for God.

Rich's music meant so much to me. Mark, you know how I always listened to tapes for months on end. Well, I still do that with his CDs, especially Ragamuffin. "The Color Green" is still my favorite song...ever! I love how descriptive it is and it paints a picture about how much artistry and detail God put in front of us to enjoy.

I can't believe it's been 10 years since he died. Time sure is going faster.

 

at 5:51 PM  Anonymous said...

Mark,
It was at Taylor University. It was 1996...Just googled a 1996 Calendar and it looks like it would have been Saturday Sept. 21st. Matt Thomas and I drove over and were talking about our loves. At the time, I was talking about Jenn...I saw a double rainbow and you could see both ends touch the ground. It was such a cool day and great concert.

 

at 1:08 PM  ragamuffinminister said...

The concert at FHS was my first encounter (unless you count singing all his songs in "Teen Worship"). I got to meet him, thanks to you. :)

I remember he played some stuff from Liturgy/Legacy that night and everyone was excited to hear things that weren't out yet. I remember it being packed.

I also remember being at Cornerstone and I found someone's all access press pass and I wore it so I could go backstage and stand around with Audio A. and Rich. That was cool.

It's hard for me when my youth groups or college agers want me to change the cd when I'm playing him. I'm like..."do you have any idea who this is?" But I guess it's about more than music, isn't it? So I politely change the cd and maybe lift a silent prayer that one day they'll have a spiritual fascination with someone as lots of us had with Rich's music.

Oh, I remember a professor telling me that Rich was banned from JBC because he went barefoot or something. I don't even know if that's true or not.

 

at 4:00 PM  Stuart said...

In the first year after committing my life to Christ Keith Green died in an accident. I hardly knew his songs at the time, but the words and life of that young man made a big impact on my life. Rich Mullins had a similar impact. I never saw him in concert, but God used him to teach me a lot about life. After he died I was able to acquire a tribute to him from "Countdown; the magazine". It was a wonderful tribute to a man of God. Rich's songs were right in my range, so I've sung a number of the words he wrote. His songs always challenge me to seek God, and look for Him in the simple things of life. Though he didn't go out like Elijah, he did help me to follow God; step by step.

 

at 7:34 PM  Anonymous said...

I remember camp and doing the whole "pass the cup thing" to screen door on a submarine.

When he died, I remember being at Glenn and Karen's house and watching the kids because Karen was so upset.

I remember crying as my brother played the ragamuffin cd for me. Hold me Jesus is still in my five top favorite songs.

I guess I became a Rich Mullins fan after his death. His music is good, but I think his lifestyle is what I really love to look at. He got the whole Jesus thing and what Jesus really came to Earth for. Screw conventions and "we've always done it this way"! He was here to love the unloveable. He was real!
And the fact that he played Johnson barefoot, in the chapel...man he's cool!

 

at 9:05 AM  Mark Nelson said...

Here's something that my friend Sarah Fouser e-mailed to me...(she told me it was okay to post it here)

In my venture down memory lane, how could I not think of all that I experienced in college while under the influence of Rich. And to imagine that I didn't even know who he was until Mark Nelson started playing him.... all the time. We listened to him on the road to Mahoney, Illiana, Kansas City, New York, Rainbow. We worshiped God to his songs; we did skits by his lyrics. We studied scripture when what he sang didn't make much sense. All that changed my life, and I am still grateful to you, to Rich and mostly to God for orchestrating my own most unique song.

 

at 2:38 PM  The Anonymous Human said...

There is a fantastic tribute video to rich entitled something like, "a homeless man: the journey of rich mullins." I've somehow managed to keep a VHS tape of it. Everytime I watch it, I cry. There are a few moments that stick out in my head...

Rich gave away most of the money he made. He told his accountant to give him the salary of someone at the poverty line and give the rest to all his different charities and the brotherhood.

In an interview, one of his close friends talks about rich's appetite for sin. It took me awile to figure out that was a kind way of saying he screwed up a lot. He wasn't afraid of saying he needed grace. Probably why I resonate with him so much.

In referring to his last cd, a friend says, "isn't it just like rich to do his best work and then give it away." i remember riding in the car with my youth minister and getting ready to put the cd the ragamuffins had redone and he asked me to put in rich's cd. I asked why, because in my head the finished version was a better cd and he said, because it's rich. It didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time, but now I understand.

 

at 3:54 PM  Anonymous said...

Mark, I was a Junior at CCU (Cincinnati Bible College in those days) when he died in 1997. Rich actually was a student there for a year or two in the late 70's or early 80's. My best friend in college had a bootleg tape of a concert he performed in Foster Hall on campus. My friend's youth minister was a classmate of Rich's and gave the tape to my friend. One song was called "Seminary Girls" an ode to the gals at Bible College and his desire to take them to "Skyline Chili and Mt. Echo (a popular makeout place overlooking downtown Cincinnati). It was awesome.

In April of '97 (I believe) just a few months before he died, several of us guys from the college got second row seats at a Rich Mullins concert in Cincinnati. Between songs, when there was a pause, we all yelled out in unison "Play 'Seminary Girls!'" He stopped, looked at us with a very surprised look and said, "I don't think I can remember that one. You boys from the college?" We nodded. He said, "Probably a lot of stories told about me by the professors." We nodded. He said, "They're all true."

I will never forget the end of the concert. The whole crowd was worshipping God (I had my eyes closed). He sang acapella and led us in Awesome God, Step by Step and the Doxology. I opened my eyes (I imagine the whole crowd did too) and noticed Rich had slipped off stage. Just like him to allow God to get the honor. The applause was deafening.

I miss him.

 

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