Arends was a college junior when she discovered Heard through Victims of the Age , which she says "had less spit and polish than the burnished CCM I was used to," and that after listening, "my ideas about what constituted greatness—in a singer, a production, and especially a song—were undergoing seismic shifts. The lyrics were jaw-dropping. They made me want to be a better writer and a better human. A couple weeks later, Heard and Randy Stonehill played a gig at Arends' college, and she and her boyfriend now husband served as Heard's drivers.
They picked him up from the airport and had some polite conversation. The next day, Arends' boyfriend drove Heard back to the airport "without me, and I confess it was so he could try to play my hero some of my own roughly recorded music," she recalls. Heard declined, saying he was too tired, but left his mailing address for Arends to send her demos. It was 18 months before Heard called Arends to say he liked her work, and asked for more samples. She hit the studio and recorded a few more; Heard replied that he liked her initial demos better because, as Arends remembers, Heard thought "the second round sounded like I was trying to be 'professional,' while the first round sounded 'real.
Today, Arends says, "I can now see that the day he called me to say he liked my stuff—and needed me to record more—was actually the first day of my music career.
His advice to 'keep it real' has goaded, haunted, and inspired me for the two decades since. And his own body of work is still, in my view, the gold standard for the writing of poetic and prophetic music. Mark's music tells the truth and calls us to respond to the truth in a very rare and powerful way. Taylor says Heard's Victims of the Age "was possibly the first album I'd ever heard on a Christian label that was world-class.
We later worked together when I had him mix some tracks for me. For such a serious artist, he had a surprisingly good sense of humor and a very unique laugh.
Of Heard's legacy, Taylor says, "I was asked the same question twenty years ago, and I believe his legacy is still the same: The truth hurts.
Mark had written it for his late father. I just reread the lyrics , and they're even more stunning and poignant than I remembered. So poignant, in fact, that I'm going to have to call my own father now and tell him how much I love him. Williams says she didn't know Heard well, but enjoyed the few times she had a chance to play with him in the recording studio, especially when Heard brought his accordion. She was so impressed by his work that she "even entertained the idea of him producing a record for me," but they never got around to it.
Favorite song: "I appreciated all of them, but we had a great time recording his song 'What Kind of Friend' at Buddy and Julie Miller's home studio. Pettis was on stage with Heard at Cornerstone that July evening in when Heard had the heart attack. They had become friends while Pettis stayed at Heard's house for a few months while working together on Pettis's album Tinseltown. During that time, Heard got a call one morning, and Pettis overheard him saying, "No, man, I really can't, thanks but no.
Pettis told Heard, "Are you crazy? How can you turn that down? He's just some guy named Bob Zimmerman, and I have work to do! Mark took the work seriously, and himself, lightly. Pettis especially remembers Heard's sense of humor. Very quick and original.
He was irreverent, testy, sometimes profane, could impersonate anyone, and had the best spontaneous one-liners ever. Pettis adds, "I would suggest that Mark's legacy, besides the work itself, is his honesty and absolute dedication to his personal concept of the work as art. They each picked him up on their own. Favorite song: "Sooo many favorites. I love 'No' and 'Everything Is Alright. Like Beatles songs, they sound easy … until you try to play them. Mallonee , frontman of Vigilantes of Love and now primarily a solo artist, says Heard was "a passionate man, a great songwriter.
He was a man of sober faith. He knew what kind of skin we all live in. That was his ground of reference, the place he wrote from. That's why his music, especially his later work, always has the ring of truth, the imprimatur of real-ness. Mallonee noted that Heard's authenticity may have hampered his growth on CCM labels. But lucky for us, he was more committed to things of the Spirit and transparency than to their narrow visions. Thompson was about 10 years old when he discovered Heard while at a Christian summer camp.
A counselor heard him listening to a DeGarmo and Key tape and asked Thompson if he was into Christian rock. From that moment on Mark Heard was a touchstone for me. I devoured every record—studied them, learned to play them. Thompson went on to front a band called The Wayside and to open a music store called True Tunes—and publish a magazine of the same name. He had booked Heard for an interview and a show in Wheaton, but it never came to pass; Heard died about a month before that.
Miller first met Heard through a friend when she was in high school in , and then reconnected in Los Angeles in when they began playing and singing on each other's albums. His eyes saw more clearly than most believers I've ever known.
He knew great angst, and had a gigantic sense of humor. Miller says when she learned of Heard's death, "it felt viscerally like the world had gotten much, much smaller. Grief doesn't really have closure. You just get a bigger heart to carry it in. Time has stood still when it comes to having known Mark.
The little child in me always thinks how God named him; he made his mark when his powerful songs were heard. Stonehill and the late Larry Norman were at a CCM conference in Indiana in when Heard introduced himself to the two of them, asking if he could play a few songs. Larry and I looked at each other in wide-eyed delight, and I thought to myself, This guy is a treasure!
Stonehill says though he spent a lot of time with Heard, they never become close friends: "Mark was a complex, deep man who valued his privacy and, more often than not, held his cards pretty close to his chest. But he led by example and inspired me to always keep reaching for the next creative high water mark. The unflinching honesty of his portrayal of the human condition makes his statements about faith and Christ ring fresh and true in the heart of the listener.
That's a profound gift to the music world. I doubt if the power of Mark's music will be bested, or even matched, for generations to come. Favorite song: "Tip of My Tongue. It's one of those songs where you sit back and mutter to yourself in amazement, 'Well, if he never wrote another blessed song in his life, man, he wrote that one!
Scrobble from Spotify? Connect to Spotify Dismiss. Search Search. Join others and track this song Scrobble, find and rediscover music with a Last. Sign Up to Last. Length Lyrics What kind of friend could I become? Lyrics What kind of friend could I become? Related Tags singer-songwriter andrew damick christian all Add tags View all tags.
Featured On Play album. Second Hand Mark Heard 2, listeners. Play track. Artist images 45 more. Mark Heard 6, listeners Related Tags singer-songwriter andrew damick John Mark Heard was a record producer, singer, and songwriter originally from Macon, Georgia.
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