Speaking as a Jesus pioneer RANDY STONEHILL has survived to become one of the most impassioned singer/songwriters in American CCM. Mike Rimmer grilled Randy about his past, present and future.

Randy Stonehill

Somewhere in the early nineties, it seemed that suddenly Randy was awarded living legend status for his contributions to Christian music. He laughs, "I usually don't look in the mirror and think of myself quite that way, I don't have a little name tag "Randy Living Legend Stonehill". All I can say is that by God's faithfulness I have been able to continue in this music ministry for a long long time. I learned long ago not to take myself too seriously I know who I serve and where the good gifts come from and that's more than enough for me."

Through his long career, Randy has been able to work with some of the most creative producers. In the eighties he teamed up with the late Mark Heard. Randy recalls, "Mark is someone who I would name among the top 50 poets and song writers of the century, quite often I knew in working with him that I was in the presence of greatness and I would tell him that. The collaboration produced one co-written song, Faithful. A song carefully structured for radioplay. "We were trying to be team players with the record company" he remembers, "and Christian radio in America can be pretty conservative. It was so funny. We went in during the rhythm tracking you know with the bass and the drums and if the drummer got too cool he'd actually push stop button and say 'no, play stupider' and then we'd all laugh and the drummer would play something simpler and you know it's funny because it turned out to be a big radio hit!" Heard and Stonehill had written the lyrics of the song together as Randy recalls, "I said I'll split the writer royalties and the publishing royalties right down the middle with you because that's fair and he said 'ok but do this in the credits on the record don't put my name in English. Put Giovanni Audiori, which is Italian for John Heard. He said my real name is John Mark Heard, so I'll get the royalty cheques but just put my name in Italian.' He wasn't really thrilled with the song and it just cracked me up.

Another high point for Stonehill was the Wonderama album, which was produced with another genius, Terry Taylor. Stonehill describes him as "one of the most creative people I've ever met and we've been friends since he created the Daniel Amos band back in the early 70's. His production ideas are so excellent that sometimes you watch him revving up, it's almost like you can hear his brain whirring. You say what do think about this particular thing? And he'll sort of stare off into this distance and go 'hmm... you know what you could do, you could take it in this direction' and then he'd stop himself and go 'whoa you can take it in this direction'. Randy describes his reaction to Taylor's creativity, "I'm frantically writing these down and he'll come up with half a dozen more of them and finally you have to say stop and say 'ok idea number 2 I think was the best one', so that was a delightful experience."

One of the most remarkable songs that Stonehill has written is Rachel Delevoryas from the Wonderama album. It tells the story of a girl from his school days who was cruelly bullied. Stonehill comments, "This just goes to show that we serve a personal God and reality is weirder than fiction because the first night I played the song in northern California and Rachel's sister was in the audience. She went home and she called Rachel and said boy you're never gonna believe what happened tonight, do you remember a kid from school named Randy Stonehill and Rachel said yeah I'll never forget him because out of the whole of my fifth grade class he was the only boy that was kind to me. Her sister told her I'd written a song about her."

He continues telling the story, "I didn't know about any of this until I got a note sent back stage a concert I was doing and I hadn't even recorded the song so when I opened up this note it was just like the twilight zone! It said 'you've finally got my attention I would like to talk' and it was signed Rachel Delevoryas. I hadn't seen this women in 15 years but she came back stage after the concert and we talked for two hours and I was able to share the Lord with her."

1998 sees the release of a new Randy Stonehill album after a four-year gap. Even as the publicists were doing their thing and sending out press releases and advance copies of the album, it was possible to sense that this was more than just a new Randy Stonehill record, there was a growing sense that the album itself was a milestone in his music. To these ears, Thirst is the best album he's recorded since the seventies! No idle claim and it's exciting to think that his music will now be discovered by a generation of Christian music fans who have previously been unaware of Uncle Rand's lifetime contribution to Christian music.

The encouraging element of Thirst which makes it stand head and shoulders above his recent albums is that Randy has rediscovered a musical spirit of adventure. Part of that can be attributed to the work of producer Rick Elias who through his work on That Thing You Do and Rich Mullins1 Jesus Record has become something of a man of the moment! Stonehill reports that "apart from having shared musical roots and a kindred musical spirit, what made working with Rick special was what he said 'this is more than a business or financial consideration for me; it's a labour of love.' That's a high level of commitment, and I believe it shows up in the project."

Few who've heard the album would disagree that this is some of Stonehill's most adventurous music. He set out to create an album with an edgier sound that would demand attention. "I wanted something which was muscular" he explains, "with more guitar and we kept trying to figure out a way to make this music jump out of the speakers and grab people!!"

Stonehill cites his previous release, 1994's The Lazarus Heart as one of his most favourite albums. It was by far his most successful album when it comes to radio hits but he also admits that in retrospect, it's always possible to make improvements. "1 really liked that album, but there was a commercial ceiling on it, in terms of the musical chances we took." In pre-production for Thirst, he wanted to create something that was as accessible as The Lazarus Heart but he wanted it to be "more muscular, edgier, more guitar-driven, which is truer to what I do as a concert performer. So Rick and I hit on the studio directive. Don't try too hard. Let things be understated. When you come to a crossroads, and there's a stock approach to something, let's give it a bit of a strange half-twist instead. That's exactly what we did and I nicknamed Rick, The Duke of Cool because he doesn't even have to try that hard. He's just cool! He's got great musical ideas!"

That half-twist is heard from the very first track, Hand Of God, which features Big Country guitarist Stuart Adamson with his trademark Celtic guitar playing. Randy reports "That was a musical treat for me. I was describing my arrangement ideas for the song and I mentioned Big Country saying I wanted to have this Celtic thing ringing off the mountainside like Big Country and Rick Elias smiled and said 'I know that guy!'" Adamson had re-located to Nashville and was soon playing guitar on the opening cut. Stonehill says, "When Rick told me Stuart was willing to play on the album. 1 just got this goofy grin on my face, and the fan in me came out. It was like Gol-1-ly. Can I bring my camera and take a picture?" Then there is the driving edgy sound, which characterises songs like Fire. Stonehill sums up his feelings about that song, "It's one of my favourite moments on the record and I have to tip my hat to Rick for that. He just took the ball and ran with it and developed something far richer and more powerful than I had dared to hope for."

Stonehill enlisted the usual cream of Nashville sessioners to bring a solid sound to the project - Phil Madeira, bassist Jackie Street, drummer Bobby Sales and guitarist Jerry McPherson. "he's so cool" enthuses Randy. "He discussed some of the songs with Rick and showed up for the sessions with everything from a banjo to a sitar, along with a few things that we didn't even recognise! he's a collector of instruments and gadgets, things I can't pronounce, like the Turkish geszunteitschnitzel! When he likes a song, you see this child like gleam in his eye - he's just enormously creative."

There has been a gap since the last album and I wondered whether Stonehill felt any pressure to get out there and make another album. He explains, "I'm not interested in cranking out fresh product just to be visible in the market place and just keep the ball rolling. I had actually thought about recording a year and a half earlier and thought I could go in and make a record and it would be a pretty good one but it wouldn't be the right one. I had half the songs that really represented who I am and I needed to write the songs from my heart and find a way by God's grace to make a record. So in God's timing it all came together and I've been able to create a record which I believe is one of the best of my career." Stonehill describes it as "the best collection of songs I've ever had on one album."

Thirst contains two songs which reflect his passion for Compassion International, the organisation which encourages the support of children in the third world. He is clear about his own motives for getting involved, he explains, "It helps me to embrace a holistic approach to the gospel. I can have a prayer life, I can sing about Jesus, but this is a wonderful and effective way of acting out God's mercy which we're called to share with a hurting world. It's one of the richest experiences of my life. These children that are sponsored through Compassion, they're the future and they are our legacy. Most of what we do in life will burn up and blow away but it's the love of Christ we shared in love and obedience, it's the fruit of that which has eternal implications."

The song Little Rose was written for one of the children that Randy and his family sponsored through compassion, he explains, "I had met her in 1984 when she was ten years old. She's an orphan from Tahiti and twelve long years later I finally had the opportunity to visit that country again and she walked into the Compassion office and my jaw just dropped. She had what the Bible describes as the fragrance of Christ. She was a grown young woman with the light of Christ in her eyes. We spent the day together and at the end, I hugged her goodbye in front of this little shack in the ghetto where she lives and it was really painful. At the same time I had great peace in knowing that she was so firmly in God's hands. I turned to my friend from Compassion and I said Look what God has done. She is like this little rose blooming in the desert because of His love."