Last week, we lost one of the pioneers in Christian rock music. Chuck Girard entered into eternity on August 11 after a months-long battle with stage IV cancer.
In the ‘60s, Girard played guitar for the vocal group the Castells and joined the rock band the Hondells. With the Hondells, he had a top ten hit with the band’s cover of the Beach Boys’ “Little Honda.” He was a spiritual seeker, trying out all sorts of philosophies — and drugs — before visiting Pastor Chuck Smith’s Calvary Chapel and embracing Christianity.
He formed the band Love Song in 1970, and Love Song became one of the pioneers of “Jesus music.” A group of long-haired hippies making rock music that glorified God shocked a lot of people in the Christian establishment, but the genre took off and morphed into what we call contemporary Christian music today.
After he left Love Song, he went solo and recorded a self-titled album that featured the band Ambrosia backing him. (In turn, he played on two of Ambrosia’s albums.) That album included his signature tunes “Rock ‘N’ Roll Preacher” and the modern hymn “Sometimes Alleluia.” It was the first of 10 solo albums.
Side note: I remember singing “Sometimes Alleluia” in the church where I grew up and came to faith in Jesus. Its simple beauty and truth still resonate with me.
In more recent years, Girard’s daughter, Alisa Childers, has gained a reputation as one of the sharpest and warmest Christian apologists and podcasters. She had her own music career as part of the Christian girl group ZOEgirl in the early 2000s, and she recorded a worship album in 2023. Childers has also written three books.
She paid tribute to her dad on her podcast earlier this week. She shared touching stories from his final weeks as well as his earlier life. It was a moving episode, and it left me in tears at certain points.
Childers talked about how Girard encouraged her to cultivate her musical talent:
I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, and from a very early age, my dad recognized that I had a musical talent and that I began to write songs when I was 11 years old and there was no bigger cheerleader than my dad. In fact, to a fault. I look back today and think, “I wish my dad would’ve been a little more critical of my music,” because he was so encouraging and taught me how to use his little 8-track recorder that he had so I could layer my background vocals on and I began to make little demos that are seriously pretty crappy.
She also talked about his ministry to homeless people in Los Angeles:
Ever since I was a very little girl, here’s my dad, a best-selling CCM artist, and he would go with my mom down to the Fred Jordan Mission on Skid Row in Los Angeles, and he would sing for the homeless people.
And I will never forget him leading them in “Amazing Grace,” watching my parents minister to prostitutes and drug addicts and drug dealers and homeless people. And then, on other occasions, all around LA, he and his friends that did this street ministry would set up stages, and they would sing and preach the Gospel.
And so I grew up doing that kind of evangelism, where I would go out onto the streets in Los Angeles and even in New York, pass out Gospel tracts, talk to people about Jesus, and share the Gospel. I grew up doing that, and he never stopped doing that.
It was a special episode that’s worth a listen. And a documentary series about Love Song and its impact debuts on SalemNOW and Amazon Prime this September. “A Band Called Love Song: The Music & Movement of the Jesus Revolution” will explore the genesis of the “Jesus Movement,” the heyday of bands like Love Song, and the band’s legacy, which continues today. Check out the trailer here.
Chuck Girard helped launch a movement that changed Christian music forever. His legacy reminds us that the Gospel is bigger than culture — it transforms it. At PJ Media, we fight every day to preserve truth, faith, and freedom in a culture that tries to drown them out.
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