One of the greatest voices and creative minds of gospel music, Andrae Crouch, passed away Thursday afternoon at the age of 72 after being hospitalized following a heart attack.
Crouch spent several days in the Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles before he passed away.
Crouch fans were worried about the star’s health after his “Let the Church Say Amen” tour was postponed last month due to pneumonia.
The world of gospel music lost a truly great musician and a man that many referred to as “the father of modern gospel music.”
While even some of the greatest gospel stars struggled to bridge the world of gospel to mainstream music, it was something Crouch managed to do time and again for more than half a century.
Making gospel music more mainstream wasn’t something he did simply to boost sales, it was something he did out of personal necessity.
Crouch once said that traditional gospel music bored him and that’s why he had to take a different approach.
“It’s a pity that a lot of great messages have been wasted because they have been paired with bad music,” he said. “That’s what’s wrong with a lot of traditional church music. That’s why most of it bores me.”
Gannett News Service released the tragic news that had other gospel greats immediately taking to social media to mourn the loss of the fallen star.
“Just got a call…the architect of gospel music, Andre Crouch…has passed,” Kirk Franklin tweeted.
Erica Campbell tweeted, “My heart is too heavy. I love you Pastor Andre Crouch. #RiP #ToGodBeTheGlory pray for the family.”
Crouch was the writer behind “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power,” “My Tribute (To God Be the Glory),” and “Soon and Very Soon.”
As a choir director, he led the powerhouse choirs that sang on Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” and Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.”
Throughout his career he snagged many coveted awards including Grammys, GMA Dove Awards and he even received the How Sweet the Sound Living Legend Award in 2012.
He was also inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame and Museum back in 2007 and nominated for an Oscar for The Color Purple back in 1985.
Crouch was celebrated and praised throughout much of his career but the road to success wasn’t always an easy one.
Crouch struggled with dyslexia and had to overcome a bad stutter when he was still a child.
In one interview with the Associated Press he explained that he had to memorize a lot of things due to his struggle with dyslexia.
“I memorized everything through sight, the shape of the word,” he said. “Some things that I write, you’ll see a page with cartoon pictures or a drawing of a car like a Ford or a flag.”
Critics also slammed his work as being too secular, but Crouch never let the negative words deter him.
“Every song I’ve written takes you through the Scriptures and reinforces the word of God,” he said in another interview with The Times back in 1982. “I give people a beautiful message, but I do it with pop, rock, funk, jazz or disco or anything that will make it appealing.”
He is survived by his sister, Sandra of Pacoima.
