A Giant has crossed over.
Billy Ray Hearn passed from this life at 6 p.m. on April 15th surrounded by his family. He died of complications from heart disease. Billy Ray Hearn was 85.
 |
| Billy Ray Hearn |
You know the music of Petra, Randy Matthews, Pat Terry, Nancy Honeytree, Barry McGuire, the 2nd Chapter of Acts, Keith Green, and so many more, due in part to the pioneering vision of Billy Ray Hearn. In fact, Frank Breeden, a past president of the Gospel Music Association said, “If Christian music—of any style or genre—has touched your life in the last forty years, you can thank Billy Ray Hearn.” Hearn spent his life building a far-reaching legacy by marrying message with music...a legacy that will continue to last for generations to come.
 |
| Billy Ray Hearn with Steve Taylor, NFL Head Coach Jeff Fisher, and U2's The Edge |
Mr. Hearn helped launch modern-day Christian music labels in the 1970s, eventually becoming the founder of Capitol Christian Music Group, the world's largest Christian label. He helped guide the ministries and careers of dozens of artists during his career.
"He was the first true label A&R (artist and repertoire) guy who started the very first professional Christian record company, Myrrh, in 1971," his son Bill Hearn said. “He was a giant of a person; he had so much impact and influence on people in his life and his work. His legacy is going to continue to inspire people for years and years to come."
A Navy veteran and a graduate of Baylor University, Mr. Hearn became a music minister in a handful of local churches before getting a job with Word Records. He was instrumental in getting Word to release a contemporary “youth musical” called Tell It Like It Is, with its featured song, Pass It On. At that point, he felt with certainty that his life's mission was to spread God's Word through music. In 1972, Hearn started Myrrh Records, one of the first labels devoted to contemporary Christian music. In 1976, he formed his own label, Sparrow Records. Myrrh and Sparrow were without question the two most important and influential CCM record labels in the history of the genre.
Hearn is a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and in 1999 received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Gospel Music Association.
 |
| Hearn in the 1970s |
When asked about the secret to his success, Hearn said, "I've always been led by the importance of doing what God says to do, the importance of the family, and the importance of always doing the right thing, whether it's good business or not."
 |
| Billy Ray Hearn accepting an award from BMI |
Billy Ray Hearn's journey led him to be a leader, a teacher, an artist, a producer, a visionary, and a philanthropist, along with the roles of loving father and grandfather.
Here’s what others have had to say:
The thing I remember about Billy is that he knew drums and percussion. He was kind enough to give this young drummer advice on how to improve my percussion abilities by coaching me through the entire recording session. I'm very grateful because I think of Billy every time I play Latin percussion. RIP my friend.
Bill Glover
Petra
I am mourning the loss of the wise and gracious mentor who gave me my start in music. Billy Ray Hearn was a man of faith, a visionary enthusiast, and a true American original.
Steve Taylor
I credit much of my early days in Contemporary Christian Music radio to the late Billy Ray Hearn, who pioneered Sparrow Records and was Founder of Capitol Christian Music Group. He introduced me to Keith Green and the rest is history, as I eventually moved to Southern California to join Last Days Community. Billy graciously let me use his warehouse to ship out the early Jesus Solid Rock radio show to over 100 radio stations…at no charge. That is the way Billy Ray was, a generous man who loved Jesus Music, loved people, and who encouraged countless young music artists to follow their heart and helped make hearing their music a reality. Blessed to have walked with you, my friend…you will be missed. Rest in peace.
Jerry Bryant
Host and Producer, Jesus Solid Rock and Full Circle
God bless you, Billy Ray Hearn, for hearing my songs and believing in me!
Nancy Honeytree
I am saddened by the death of my dear friend, and one of the greatest record company owners ever, Billy Ray Hearn. Billy Ray called me on January 9th to console me over the passing of Andrae´ Crouch. He told me that he was gravely ill. I am so thankful that the Bible says "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord."
I love Billy Ray Hearn.
Bill Maxwell
Andrae Crouch & the Disciples, Koinonia, Producer for Keith Green
My mentor and spiritual father in Christian music, Billy Ray Hearn, went to Jesus today. We knew this was coming. Words cannot express my feelings. Joy and sorrow all at once. A treasure chest of memories from the beginning to the end. Recordings in the early CCM days at Sparrow Records, to orchestras in London, LA, and Nashville. He is a dear friend, though now from the lofty perch of heaven.
Though a lover of the young generation and one of the fathers of Christian Contemporary Music, he was a hymn scholar and lover of classical music as well. He loved great music, melodies, and songs that artistically glorified Jesus. Such men are rare indeed in Christian music today.
Earth is sad for now, but Heaven is already dancing.
John Michael Talbot
I don't think there's a single person who's more responsible for the existence of the form of gospel music I'm a part of. He was, to the end, a guy who loved music, loved the artists and loved the message like nobody else.
Steven Curtis Chapman
Billy Ray was a great friend and had an incredible impact on me and so many others.
Michael W. Smith
I don't think there's a single person who's more responsible for the existence of the form of gospel music I'm a part of. He was, to the end, a guy who loved music, loved the artists and loved the message like nobody else. Steven Curtis Chapman
Billy Ray was a great friend and had an incredible impact on me and so many others.
Michael W. Smith
Now with the Lord - Billy Ray Hearn. If you've all ever been blessed by, or even just listened to CCM - you've been touched by Billy Ray. Heaven's choir is a bit brighter today!! I'll miss you, my friend. See you by and by.
Terry Talbot
Billy Smiley
White Heart
Steve & Nelly Greisen
[The 2nd Chapter of Acts]
[The 2nd Chapter of Acts]
Mourning the loss of Billy Ray Hearn, legend and pioneer in Christian music. Billy Ray was the one who believed in me and brought me to the US.
Sheila Walsh
In the 70s, when Billy Ray Hearn launched his visionary label, Sparrow Records, he opened the door for me and every other Christian artist to record contemporary faith music. Even though I spent the first 30 years of my career signed to his biggest competitor, since 2008 it has been my great honor to record for Sparrow Records. Over the 35+ years I have known Billy Ray he has taught me many things. Giving back was the foundation of his very large and beautiful life. What I remember most about a person is the way I feel in their presence. Billy Ray always made me feel like the belle of the ball. I miss him already...
Amy Grant
Printed below is a short "autobiography," an edited version of an interview by Robert Darden, Associate Professor of Journalism at Baylor University for a book that he is writing. It is Billy Ray's story and is well worth the read.
Enjoy.
I was raised in a Southern Baptist family. Mother played piano and organ for church services in Calvary Baptist Church, Beaumont, Texas. One uncle was a Minister of Music and Education and two other uncles were Baptist Pastors.
 |
| The Hearn family in the 1960s |
Even though I lived in a Christian home and my lifestyle was what you would say was Christian, my faith was not important to me until I was in the Navy, age 17-19, stationed in Pensacola, Florida. Dr. Wallace Rogers, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, influenced me greatly and under his mentoring, I dedicated my life to Music Ministry. After discharge from Navy in 1948, I entered Baylor University, Waco, TX to earn a Bachelor of Music degree in Church Music. My faith was very important to me while a student at Baylor. I was very active in the Christian community of the campus: A member of the original BRH Choir, first student to lead the hymn singing in the Baylor Chapel services, active in the Baptist Student Union.
My first “jobs” were directing music in churches (FBC Hearne, TX) and leading music for Youth Revivals sponsored by the Texas Baptist Convention Youth Dept. in the summers of 1949 and 1950. US Navy called me back to service for Korean Conflict (Jan 1952) and stationed me in San Diego, CA. While there for 16 months I served as Min. of Music at the Highland Ave. Baptist Church, National City, CA. As a Minister of Music, I expressed my faith and beliefs regularly hoping to influence other people to give their life to Jesus Christ. After being a Minister of Music in several large churches for 15 years, 1954-1968 (Trinity Baptist, San Antonio, North Ft. Worth Baptist while doing graduate studies at the Southwestern Baptist Seminary-Ft. Worth, Baptist Tabernacle, Atlanta, GA, and First Baptist Church, Thomasville, GA) I was hired by Word Records, Waco to be Director of Music Promotion in 1968.
For the first 4 years at Word I helped establish Contemporary music in the church helping Ralph Carmichael, Kurt Kaiser by promoting their Youth Musicals Tell It Like It Is, Natural High, and the Jimmy Owens musical Come Together to the evangelical churches. I began producing children and youth musicals for Word which developed into me founding the Myrrh Records label for Word (1972). The motivation and mission of these endeavors were evangelistic, especially to young people.
These works were very successful both commercially and spiritually. The Myrrh label introduced an entirely different style of Christian music to the world. The artists were mainly part of the Jesus Movement taking place in the whole country but especially on the West Coast. This movement was evangelistic in nature. It was born out of the "Peace, Flower Child and Hippie" movements. Jesus was the answer to their search for the meaning of life so they wrote music to express their newfound faith. It spread nationwide from 1970 to 1972 causing the establishment of huge Jesus Music festivals similar to Woodstock in the secular world. Many of these festivals are still annual events attracting as many as 35,000 young people.
As a leader in the commercialization of this music, I was able to work with many artists and youth leaders of the churches trying to make this music and movement effective in winning young people to Christ. We were taking the gospel message to the current culture in their style of music. Throughout history, music has been a viable and effective tool to win people to Christ and teach the gospel truths. The first hymns were radical in the church but Martin Luther used them very effectively to teach his doctrine to the masses.
My own faith and commitment to minister was the motivation in all these developments. I felt God had "called" me to do this, however many times I felt like Elijah crying in the wilderness. The "establishment" or the traditional church was slow to accept us. I would have quit and gone back to being a Minister of Music in a local church had I not thought that God wanted this to happen. Being a choir director was a lot easier but not nearly as rewarding.
During the four years as head of the Myrrh label at Word, I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot of things not to do if I was to stay true to my spiritual mission. I was in a leadership position with no models. The label and I both slipped into a more commercial attitude and sometimes began producing product for the wrong reasons. This caused me to want to "start over" and do it on my own and do it right.
In January 1976 I left Word and founded Sparrow Records in Canoga Park, CA. with the financial backing of a publishing company called CHC Corporation. The motto or mission for the new record company was "Quality Contemporary Christian Music by artists who lived the life they were singing about." My goal was to have a label of artists who were very ministry minded. That is born out by the list of our first few artists: Second Chapter of Acts, John Michael Talbot, Terry Talbot, Barry McGuire, Janny Grein, Keith Green and the Agape Force who produced the history-making children’s album "The Music Machine".
My religious belief or God’s will for my life had come to fruition. I was confident I was put in that place to do exactly what I was doing. The days as a Minister of Music and Word had prepared me for this day.
As to the "business" side of Sparrow Records, I was totally unprepared. I was a "musician." I had no knowledge of balance sheets, P&Ls, debt ratios, cash flow, etc…Fortunately, the investors, the CHC corporation, had a very good staff of "back room" people. They began teaching me the business side. God gave me a good brain for logic and math. I learned very quickly but was still an amateur. There was never a question in establishing company policies in regard to paying royalties and other bills. We would be totally honest and Christian in all our dealings and contracts.. We were determined to build integrity and we did.
When I became 100% in control of the company I hired a wonderful Christian businessman, Gene Holloway of Newport Beach, as my consultant and teacher in the ways of running a business. We met regularly.
I used a dedicated Christian man, Bentley Mooney, as my corporate lawyer. The accounting firm was also a group of fine Christian men, especially Marlin Summers. My business affairs lawyer, the one who wrote my contracts, Richard Green, was a newly converted Christian with years of great experience in the secular record business. He became one of my most trusted spiritual advisors and still is to this day. We established a fairness in our artist contracts that set a new standard. In other words, I surrounded myself with like-minded business people. We were always striving to "do what is right" no matter whether it was good for the business or not.
One instance was when our largest selling artist, Keith Green, came to me and asked out of his contract which had two years commitment remaining. He said to me that God had called him to move to Texas and establish the "Last Days Ministry" and that he wanted to give his albums away for a donation instead of selling them at a price. He did not believe we should "sell the gospel." Of course, I could not "give" albums away and keep a business running. But I believed that if God was truly calling him to establish such a ministry I could not stand in the way. I released him believing that if God was in this, He would take care of me and He did. He sent me Steve Green and others to make up the lost sales very soon after.
My concept of Sparrow Records was that it was NOT a "ministry" to the people. Our place was to minister to the artist and they, in turn, ministered to the people. We provided a good record company as the platform from which the artists could launch their ministry. We were not a church. We strived to be a good business run by Christians based on Christian principles and ethics.
Some of our artists and employees thought that we should be like a church. I was not a pastor. On some occasions, employees and artists thought I should excuse poor performance because we were a "Christian" company and that I should be more compassionate and forgiving. Dropping an artist after they were no longer contributing to the success of the company, even though they were still effective as a ministry, was difficult for me to explain. I could not jeopardize the solid base of the company for one artist because we were committed to supporting all the other artists. Most of the time the artist in question had come to a place in their career or ministry where they could do as well or better some other place or they needed to reevaluate their situation. Sometimes what they needed to do was produce their own records and become independent of a record company. Sometimes I advised them to start their own record company or label. Looking back, almost every one of the artists I gave this advice to became more successful and happier that way. It was always a painful and disappointing time for them and me but in the end, they saw that it was best.
As to ineffective employees, the old saying comes to mind. "Too heavenly minded to be earthly good." This may sound harsh or unchristian but poor work cannot be excused because they are a dedicated Christian or work in a company run by Christians. We are competing against "the world." We cannot be anything but the highest of quality in our work or product.
In January 1991 we moved the company to Nashville. In 1992 EMI, the large music company out of London came calling wanting to buy the Sparrow Corporation. After a lot of counsel and prayer, I sold the company in October 1992. In 1996 I had to have double by-pass heart surgery and I almost never went back to full-time work. My son became the CEO and President and is carrying on the spirit of the company as it was in the beginning and doing a wonderful job. I am now called "Chairman" of EMI Christian Music Group which is really an honorary title but I do a special project for the company from time to time. The most successful being "50 Most Loved Hymns." It was marketed by Capitol Records through Television sales.
My first advice to young people entering the business world is that you need to follow the "passion" that God put in you. What you are passionate about is probably what you do best and that is where you will probably succeed. And, the term "success" should not be judged in monetary terms. Happiness and the sense of doing what God put you here for is most important. God does not give you talent and not expect you to use it. But, God does expect you to get the best education possible and develop your talent.
Always try to recognize your shortcomings or weaknesses and align yourself with people who can cover you. Do not be afraid of admitting your weaknesses. People are always willing to help when they know you are open to help. One of my legacies is that I hired the best people possible to surround me in my company. I hired very qualified people and then let them do their job. I am not a micromanager. The executives of EMICMG are still young thinkers and great professionals. They have built the best company in the industry. It was never about MY ability or ME.
For the young person at the "entry" or junior executive level, I say do not get impatient or anxious to move ahead of yourself. You always need time to develop your skill and create your network. You must be good at what you do at your present level before you can move to the next. Time is on your side. I was 46 years old when I founded Sparrow Records. The track record and the relationships I built were my greatest assets. I constantly hear and see young executives that want to do what I did and do it now and they are still in their 20s. Patience is a great virtue.
Love God, life, family, work hard, do good work and be enthusiastic. It is contagious. And He honors it.
- Billy Ray Hearn
 |
| Billy Ray Hearn. 1930-2015. |
A fitting tribute to a true pioneer.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Delete