A Band Called LoveSong: The Music & Movement of the Jesus Revolution
LoveSong band members, clockwise from top left: Tommy Coomes, Jay Truax, Chuck Girard, Bob Wall, and John Mehler. The band’s docuseries releases online September 19 on Amazon Prime, SalemNOW, and other services.
Disillusioned by the civil unrest and moral decline of the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of soul-hungry young people found new life in Jesus during the Jesus Revolution of the early 1970s. A new genre of music sprang forth, blending soulful songs of faith with drums and guitar. Jesus Music laid the foundation for contemporary Christian music; at the forefront was a Calvary Chapel band called LoveSong.
On September 19, a three-part documentary series tracing LoveSong’s influence will release on both Amazon Prime Video and SalemNOW streaming platforms.
‘Jesus in the Midst of Us’
The release comes nearly five weeks after the passing of LoveSong cofounder Chuck Girard, 81, whose songwriting and vocals were at times tender, reverent, and joyful. “It was a work of God,” said Chuck. “We were just four hippies in the right place at the right time.” Calling their band LoveSong, Chuck, Tommy Coomes, Fred Field, and Jay Truax dedicated their talent to God and started writing songs about Jesus—later joined by John Mehler on drums and Bob Wall, who would replace Fred Field on lead guitar. Soon after accepting Christ in 1970, they walked into Pastor Chuck Smith’s office at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, CA, and played him one of their songs.
That simple audition brought Pastor Chuck to tears, and he invited them to play that very night at church. LoveSong played at Calvary weekly, with crowds singing their songs like “A Love Song,” “Little Country Church,” “Welcome Back,” and “Let Us Be One.” Two years later, they were sharing their Christian folk-rock songs before mass crowds in the United States and later in the Philippines—where their songs topped the charts, “as popular as the Beatles for a week” as they toured the country, according to the documentary series.
LoveSong cofounder, Chuck Girard, far left, often put down his acoustic guitar to lead on piano. Some of his popular piano-led tunes were the toe-tapping “Rock ‘n’ Roll Preacher” and his first song with a Christian theme, the tender tune “Feel the Love.”
During those early days at Calvary, rather than a band performing to a crowd, the Holy Spirit united the whole gathering. People often clasped hands and sang with tears and smiles. “It’s like we were one, and Jesus was in the midst of us,” testified Jay Truax, bass guitarist. “I remember God was moving; you could feel the presence of God in the music. LoveSong was just a vehicle that God used to spread the Gospel with young people at the time. God gave us songs that were unique … and spoke to people’s hearts.”
A beaming Pastor Chuck Smith shared on national television in 1971: “The glory of the whole experience, as the beaches were lined with thousands of people singing the choruses and praising the Lord, then walking out into the water. When they realize that all the past is gone, that it’s all been buried, and God has absolutely nothing against them, and the slate is clean, it’s a brand-new life—It’s indescribable.” Black and white photos and videos of the mass baptisms at Pirate’s Cove in Corona del Mar, Newport, CA show young people weeping, laughing, singing arm-in-arm while Pastor Chuck and others baptize countless people in the cove. LoveSong and other groups would often play at the baptisms.
A Song for the World
The Jesus Movement became a global revival just in time. The first part of the docuseries recounts the intense period of civil unrest that led to the counter-culture movement of the 1960s: John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated; protests and controversy surrounded the ongoing Vietnam War; young people left home to find meaning in illicit lifestyles, drugs, and the occult. “All of the things we were experimenting with—drugs, sex, rock and roll—it all just came to a dead end,” recalled Tommy Coomes. “That set up [the masses] for the answer to come in a package we did not expect. …Hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, got saved during the Jesus Movement. …We were rock and roll guys with a heart to tell our generation that Jesus is Lord.”
As the Jesus Movement swept the nation, God opened doors for Pastor Chuck Smith and LoveSong to speak on radio, television, college campuses, and around the world. Chuck Girard shared on a television program in 1971: “I had followed all these men—the Beatles, Timothy Leary, Eastern mysticism … and I never really heard how simple it was to accept Jesus. … Jesus died on the cross to save you because no man could make it. We’re all too rotten inside. But His grace and His love are so abundant. That’s the answer for the world’s problems, and there is no other.”
That year, Chuck Girard and Fred Field wrote “Since I Opened Up the Door,” a song featured in the 2023 movie Jesus Revolution. The autobiographical lyrics include: “Since I opened up, opened up the door, I can’t think about anything else but Jesus anymore.”
New Music for a New Life
Freed from spiritual bondage, hordes of new believers eagerly snatched up the albums which talked about their beloved Savior in a musical style that resonated with them. The band’s first album, LoveSong, sold more than 300,000 copies—an unheard-of number for religious music in 1972.
“This was a culture that connected through music,” recounted Greg Laurie in the docuseries; his radical conversion was portrayed in Jesus Revolution. At Calvary Chapel, Greg remembered, “I didn’t know it, but I had stepped right into the middle of a spiritual awakening. …When God poured His Spirit out, He used music.”
The Jesus Music combined passionate lyrics, smooth harmonies, electric guitars and a full drum kit in the last place many expected—a church. Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel offered the young musicians his platform, supported their music, and fed them the Word of God. Calvary funded Maranatha! Music—producing several compilation albums that were first distributed in Southern California. The first album produced was called The Everlastin’ Living Jesus Music Concert; the first track was LoveSong’s “Little Country Church” celebrating the work God was doing at Calvary Chapel and around the world: “They're talkin' 'bout revival and the need for love/That little church has come alive.” The series relates that the Jesus Music was the seed that sprouted into Contemporary Christian Music.
In the 1970s, LoveSong played to eager crowds at churches, college campuses, parks, and various stages throughout the United States and even in the Philippines. A Gospel invitation was often given with many responding to receive Jesus.
Countless musicians were influenced by that album, including award-winning Christian music artist Michael W. Smith. “That record changed my life,” he said in his speech to induct LoveSong into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012. “I was 13 years old. LoveSong was on that album. It completely changed my life. I remember thinking, ‘This is what I want to do one day.’” He recently urged viewers to listen to the Jesus Music: “It’s remarkable. … This will inspire you.”
Several of the Jesus Music artists had children who went on to successful musical careers. Chad Butler, drummer for Switchfoot and son of a Calvary Chapel pastor, reflected, “They were actually pioneers of music that spoke to people outside the walls of the church. I think they changed the status quo of what was acceptable in church.”
Tommy Coomes noted, “At first, I think we scared the Church. What was Christian music then? We didn’t have guitars or drums in church at all.”
Jay recounted the suspicion they faced when playing at churches outside of Calvary Chapel: “We’d be in the back room praying and really scared, and we would go like, ‘We have nothing in common with these people. They already hate us.’ And within three songs, people would be crying. Also, the Holy Spirit would help them understand we weren’t against them. We were for them.” But a turning point came in the summer of 1972.
A ‘Christian Woodstock’
In June of 1972, the New York Times reported that Explo ’72 was the “largest religious camp meeting ever to take place in the United States … [drawing] more than 75,000 people—mostly high school and college students—to sing, pray, study their Bibles, and learn new techniques for winning souls to Christ” (June 16, 1972). Time Magazine would memorialize the event, calling it “The Jesus Revolution” with a psychedelic painting of Jesus on the cover.
For six days, young people from 75 countries attended evangelism classes and seminars in several locations, then came together at night in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, for a message from Billy Graham and Christian rock music. On the final day, Saturday June 17, an eight-hour music festival drew an estimated 140,000 to 200,000 to a swath of land north of downtown to hear bands like LoveSong, Larry Norman, Johnny Cash, Andrae Crouch & the Disciples, Kris Kristofferson, and Armageddon Experience.
Explo ’72 was a groundbreaking, 6-day gathering in Dallas, TX, in June which included evangelism classes and culminated in an 8-hour outdoor concert on the last day with bands like LoveSong, Larry Norman, Johnny Cash, and others. Billy Graham led the massive crowd of about 140,000 to 200,000 young people to dedicate themselves to following Jesus and making disciples. This event helped the Church to accept that God was working through the new Jesus Music.
Chuck Girard recounted how the Church’s attitude toward the Jesus Music changed because of that event, which saw thousands of young people dedicate themselves to Jesus and to Christian service. “It was the first time that many of these people had ever seen hippies actually minister with rock and roll. [They realized,] ‘If Billy Graham will get up and speak after hippies sing, maybe it’s okay to have drums. Maybe it’s okay to have guitars.’”
Billy Graham’s son, Franklin Graham, related that LoveSong was the first contemporary Christian album he ever owned. “It was incredible; it touched my life. Behind the Jesus Movement were LoveSong and Chuck Smith in the early days of Calvary Chapel; they influenced a whole generation and are still being an influence today. This [docuseries] is an incredible story and history of what God has done through Christian music.”
“I still remember when I first heard LoveSong,” said Pastor Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church in Albuquerque, NM. “These guys were like a combination between the Beach Boys and the Beatles.” He added, “LoveSong and a few other bands and artists pioneered a fresh new worship genre that spoke to an entire generation and beyond. It combined the best harmonies with lyrics about Jesus Christ. …Just as the British invasion would not have been possible without the Beatles, I don’t think the worship invasion would have been possible without LoveSong.”
Ripple Effects
Time after time, young people were intrigued by hearing their friends talk about Jesus and drawn in by the music at Calvary Chapel. Tommy Coomes’s friend Chuck Butler first encountered Christ at the chapel. He was stunned at the congregation fervently singing without song books. “Everyone just knew all the words,” Chuck Butler remembered. When Pastor Chuck Smith shared the Gospel, the 23-year-old musician prayed, God, if this is really You, will You do for me what You’ve done for these people? Immediately, he recounted, “It was like a tsunami poured down through the roof. I was overwhelmed by God’s love, and the weight of shame and unforgiveness lifted from my shoulders in that moment.” Chuck Butler went on to write his own Jesus Music and later became a Calvary Chapel pastor.
Jeremy Camp, another CCM artist whose dad is a Calvary Chapel pastor, is also in the documentary. “The Jesus People Movement and LoveSong in particular really impacted me. I’m excited to be a part in some way … and to pass the torch along to somebody. … God did an incredible thing in my family’s life, which impacted me.” Jeremy has released eleven albums (four of them Gold), has won five GMA Dove Awards, and was nominated for a Grammy in 2010.
Several other notable musicians and Christian leaders speak in the documentary series, including Don Moen, US Ambassador to Isreal Mike Huckabee, Michelle Pillar, Pat Boone, and Dove Award recipient Phil Keaggy—who even played and toured with LoveSong for a season.
Another Jesus Movement?
In Part 3 of the docuseries, “Finishing Well,” LoveSong band members look toward the future. “A very common question for the last fifty years is, ‘Will there ever be another Jesus Movement?’” the late Chuck Girard recounted.
Pastor Skip Heitzig answered, “[Revival] is a sovereign act of God. It can happen any place, at any time.”
Tommy Coomes speculated, “If we’re ever going to see another revival again, people are going to have to be really hungry for God.” He added, “It was a grand experiment, and underneath it I think was a hunger to know God and truth.”
Tommy and Jay told The Christian Post recently that they hoped to see another spiritual revival. Jay urged churches to welcome young people. “When you walk into a place where you sense God’s presence … you get curious enough to start coming back,” Jay said. “And I hope that happens with young people. It’s not rocket science. Love God, love people. Teach the word, pray for people.”
In the left photo: Pastor Chuck Smith, CC Costa Mesa, CA, stands beside LoveSong as they lead a crowd in worship at a massive beach baptism in Pirate’s Cove in Corona del Mar, likely in 1972. From left, LoveSong original band members: Jay Truax, Tommy Coomes, Fred Field, Chuck Girard.
Right photo: The main band members of LoveSong were, from left: Jay Truax (bass, background vocals), Bob Wall (guitar; deceased 2015), John Mehler (drums), Tommy Coomes (guitar; vocals), and Chuck Girard (lead vocal, guitar, piano; deceased 2025). Bob Wall came aboard after Fred Field left the band; and for a time, Phil Keaggy replaced Bob Wall.
Tommy added, “Our hope and our prayer: How long has it been, Lord? Do it again.”
The two band members view the project as a sort of tribute to Chuck Girard, who succumbed to cancer on August 11. “I’m just happy that he got to see the film completed before he passed,” Tommy said. “It is largely about honoring him now, but it’s been an eight-year project, and the last four have been really intense.”
Yet fame was not the treasure that set them writing songs about Jesus more than 50 years ago.
“The real treasure is in Heaven,” Chuck Girard noted in 2012 when LoveSong was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. “I pray that we will all be in Heaven’s Hall of Fame someday and hear the most amazing words we will probably ever hear: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.’” Chuck, who turned his focus to worship music and ministry in the 1980s, also wrote a book called Rock & Roll Preacher.
Series producer/director Jerry Stanley noted the parallel in the turbulent times of the 1960s and today: “I personally felt called to help tell this story; it was a passion project.”
Executive producer Ron Strand added, “This documentary is as relevant today as ever. The answer then was Jesus and still is today.”
The three-part documentary series, A Band Called Love Song: The Music & Movement of the Jesus Revolutionwill stream on Amazon Prime Video and SalemNOW starting September 19.
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