Episode 84: Legendary Gospel Singer Larnelle Harris Shares How Ordinary People with Extraordinary Gifts Influenced His Career in Music

Sep 18, 2024

We are incredibly blessed to welcome a living legend to the Music for the Soul Podcast today: Grammy Award-winning singer Larnelle Harris. Join us as Larnelle shares stories from his remarkable career and reveals how his passion for singing began. He talks about starting out as a percussionist before transitioning to being a singer. However, just as his career began to take off, he faced a life-changing challenge—losing his voice. Larnelle states that this was a critical moment in his career that led him to immerse himself in scripture and prayer, which fostered a strong relationship with the Lord.

 

Larnelle felt immense spiritual growth from that time and shares how he used that to grow a career spanning five decades, 18 albums, 5 Grammys, and countless other accolades. He shares invaluable lessons learned from both his faith and his time as a singer, emphasizing how God uniquely uses each person for His glory and the importance of remaining humble in the music industry.

 

Finally we talk about portions of his book, Shaped Notes: How Ordinary People with Extraordinary Gifts Influenced My Life and Career, which our listeners can learn more about down below. We highly recommend today's episode as Larnelle is an excellent speaker, story teller, and a dear friend of Music for the Soul!

 

Who is Larnelle Harris?

Admired by fans and peers alike for his majestic tenor voice, Larnelle Harris has become the personification of talent and integrity in a career that spans over five decades. He is the only person in history to be a member of three distinct hall of fame organizations: the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and the Amateur Radio Hall of Fame. He was twice inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, both as a solo artist and as part of the Gaither Vocal Band. He has achieved nineteen #1 radio singles and a plethora of top 10 hits. Harris was the first Christian artist to perform inside the Kremlin after the fall of the Soviet Union. He is one of a handful of celebrities to receive the Ad Council's Silver Bell Award for Distinguished Public Service in recognition of his song "Mighty Spirit" as the theme song for the longest-running Public Service Announcement in television history. He recently performed for the National Day of Prayer event in Washington D.C., at New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall, and sang for a gathering of U.N. Ambassadors in our nation’s capitol. Harris and his wife of 45 years, Cynthia (a.k.a. Mitzy), reside in Louisville, Kentucky.

Resources:

Our listeners can check out Larnelle's Book, Shaped Notes: How Ordinary People with Extraordinary Gifts Influenced My Life and Career, at the link here: https://www.amazon.com/Shaped-Notes-Ordinary-Extraordinary-Influenced-ebook/dp/B074JP7SK8?ref_=ast_author_dp

You can checkout every song that Larnelle has worked on at Music for the Soul at the link here: https://www.musicforthesoul.org/product_musicians/larnelle-harris/