Rock That Doesn't Roll: The Story of Christian Music

Katie Thornton loves radio. Her series The Divided Dial has delved into conservative talk radio and shortwave. It won a 2023 Peabody Award . And her piece for Rolling Stone , " Jesus Take The Dial " goes in depth on CCM radio giant K-LOVE's operations.  We talk with Thornton about how K-LOVE's parent company has used its non-profit status to build a broadcasting behemoth and the downstream effects...

Ozzy Osbourne died in July. He was memorialized as the "Prince of Darkness" and was a key figure during the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. But our guest Jason P Woodbury points out that Osbourne's genius was in marrying heaven and hell - and if you listen closely, he's not as different from Christian rock as you might assume.  Jason P Woodbury is an editor of Aquarium Drunkard and hosts their podcast...

Larry Norman thought another world was possible. Christians would make daring, artistic rock music. Mainstream musicians would make earnestly explore their spirituality in popular songs. He started a record label and an artist management company to make this a reality. And though he could see glimpses of this world, it was fully realized.  Gregory Alan Thornbury is our guest this week- in an inter...

Larry Norman is widely recognized as the first Christian rock star. Recording with mainstream studio musicians The Wrecking Crew and later sharing a label with The Velvet Underground, Norman began his career singing explicitly about the values of evangelical Christianity on mainstream releases that didn't exactly light up the charts. But when Christian music publishers licensed his albums to sell...

Nathan Evans Fox is a country music artist, but he has a deep background with Christian music. In his viral hit single " Hillbilly Hymn " he brings the biblical concept of jubilee into the rural gas station.  Find more of Nathan's music here and look for his podcast "Yallidarity Social Club" soon.  --- Register for Theology Beer Camp with our promo code RTDR for $75 off. Do you have a Christian ro...

Derek Webb was part of a remarkable success story with Caedmon's Call in the late '90s. But the more success he witnessed, the less he could keep quiet. Now in his solo career he stands confidently alongside the marginalized, even attending the Dove Awards in a dress.  -- Do you have a Christian rock story to tell? Leave us a message at (629) 204-4264. If Rock That Doesn’t Roll is important to you...

In season two of Shiny Happy People, the Amazon Prime Original docu-series turns its focus to Teen Mania Ministries, the organization that made Acquire The Fire stadium events. These events are described in the series as "youth group Coachella." But Christian music was just the tip of the iceberg with Teen Mania.  To unpack the series, Andrew is joined by Krispin Mayfield, a fellow podcaster and l...

Glenn Kaiser has had a huge influence on Christian music as a musician, a festival co-founder and an outspoken thought leader. He was our top guest choice for our live taping in January of 2025 in Chicago. While Glenn Kaiser is a singular figure in the world of Christian music, we are aware that Jesus People USA is a triggering topic for some listeners. For a more thorough examination of Jesus Peo...

Mason Mennenga is really good at social media . You've probably seen his posts about evangelical culture, Christian music or VeggieTales. But he does a lot more than just that. He hosts two podcasts : A People's Theology and The BlackSheep Podcast . He has a YouTube channel . He writes academic papers on music . And he works in the admissions office of a seminary. His social media bio was once "Sk...

No new episode this week. Be back next Wednesday. Check our Patreon for some bonus content if you're interested.  Do you have a Christian rock story to tell? Leave us a message at (629) 777-6336. If Rock That Doesn’t Roll is important to you, support us on Patreon . https://www.patreon.com/rtdr (join via the website, not the iOS app) Or make a one-time donation : https://coff.ee/rtdr If you can't...

In 1998 it seemed like Josh Caterer had it made. His band, Smoking Popes, had three critically acclaimed albums out. They were signed to Capitol Records. He had married his high school sweetheart. But Josh had also just become a Christian and couldn't reconcile his rock band life with his new evangelical life. So he quit the band.  On today's episode hosts Andrew Gill and Dr. Leah Payne talk with...

In mid-June NPR published a story with the headline " Christian music is experiencing a pop breakthrough." As podcasters covering the Christian music industry, we usually think it reached it's zenith of popularity in the early 2000s, so this article caught our attention. To dig deeper into the topic, we invited the article's author, Emma Madden, on the podcast. Our chat was wide ranging and gets i...

This week on the show it's legends only: Russ Taff and Steve Taylor. They collaborated on Russ' new album, "Cover Story," but both have long and distinctive careers in the Christian music industry.  Russ Taff became lead singer of The Imperials in 1976, started his solo career in 1983, earning two Grammys and many Dove awards. He was one of the industry's biggest solo male stars, but his most belo...

Michael Tait, most recently lead singer of The Newsboys and also well known as one third of DC Talk, confessed to accusations of sexual assault and drug abuse on June 10, 2025. This came after deeply reported investigations into his behavior were published first by The Roys Report and then by The Guardian .  The day before this news broke, whistleblowers accused the worship leader best known for r...

A short update on progress towards season three of Rock That Doesn't Roll.  Leah's limited-run podcast, Spirit and Power.

Buy tickets for our live show in Chicago on January 5! It's the second annual Rock That Doesn't Roll CCM Christmas Song Awards! Listen to find out what awards Amy Grant, Sarah Masen, Carman, Stryper and David Meece won this year. Do you have a song that deserves an award? Leave us a message at (629) 777-6336. If you want more seasons of Rock That Doesn’t Roll, you can support us on Patreon . https...

Charlie Peacock is a renowned figure in the music industry for his solo albums, production work, songwriting and his record label RE:Think, which launched Switchfoot and Sarah Mason. Outside of the music industry spotlight he and his wife Andi Ashworth were creating a very unique space in Nashville called The Art House. Their experiences with The Art House inspired their recent book, " Why Everyth...

Jordan Morris is a long time podcaster, comedy writer and creator and co-writer of the two-time Eisner-nominated graphic novel Bubble (based on the hit podcast ). His new graphic novel, co-written with artist Bowen McCurdy is Youth Group . It draws on Jordan's real life experiences in a Orange County California youth groups in the 1990s, but adds literal demon hunting to the list of church-approve...

Second Sunday is one of our sibling podcasts with PRX's Big Questions Project.   Second Sunday is about Black Queer folks finding, keeping and sometimes losing faith. Mark Miller is a graduate of Juilliard and Yale University with an expertise in choral conducting, sacred music, and voice. His hymns and anthems are sung by communities of faith throughout the world, and his album, Imagine the Peopl...

In this bonus episode Leah and Andrew talk with Blake Chastain , the first person to use "exvangelical" as a hashtag (and host of the Exvangelical podcast) about his book, " Exvangelical and Beyond: How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That's Fighting Back . " He shares about his time as a "bookstore guy" and how the academic concepts of "counter public" and "hyperobject" are he...

Today we're sharing an episode from another Big Questions Project podcast: Mother Is A Question.  "This episode is called "Mother Is A Song," and we’re traveling to a place and time when mama was the muse–back when musicians in the U.S. were constantly singing about “the one who’s always true,” as one of these songs goes. One hundred years ago in the U.S., in the early days of recorded music, a lo...

If there's one music genre lampooned more than Christian rock, it might just be ska. And Christian ska? Expect next level ridicule. But a lovable band of misfits from Denver, Colorado managed to do something that might seem unthinkable: combine two maligned genres and become a cultural phenomenon with an enduring cult following. On the season two finale of Rock that Doesn't Roll , music journalist...

Picture this. It's 1986. The Cold War is at a fever pitch. The whole world is locked into a conflict between the Forces of Freedom, and the Commies... at least that's how it felt to 80s kids. But the Cold War wasn't the only threat facing American society. Many feared that a much more sinister enemy lurking in the shadows: the devil himself. During the so-called satanic panic, parents worried that...

How do you make fake Contemporary Christian Music? Creating fictional Christian music that feels authentic without crossing the line into parody or pastiche is a tricky artistic challenge. But we found the creators up to the task. Joseph Stephens , composer for HBO's The Righteous Gemstones , a crime-comedy about a family of musical televangelists, and composer Daniel Smith ( Danielson ) and filmm...

KUOW's podcast Let The Kids Dance! is the story of Seattle's Teen Dance Ordinance in a seven-part docuseries chronicling an untold chapter of pop-culture history. It’s a story about moral panic, grassroots activism and an unstoppable music community that fought for its freedom, created and hosted by Jonathan Zwickel. The TDO made it impossible for venue owners to turn a profit while hosting all-ag...