An entire industry wouldn't exist without him, yet few know his name. Michael Knott, a brash and brilliant pioneer of the alternative Christian rock scene who challenged the faithful to examine their faults and hypocrisies, died Tuesday March 12th at the age of 61. Knott's cause of death is currently unknown. Born Dec. 22, 1962, Knott came out of Southern California's Christian punk scene of the early 1980s, at first joining the ministry-oriented band The Lifesavors before essentially taking over and renaming the project by the decade's end. Like much of the music coming out of Los Angeles and its surrounding beach towns, his L.S. Underground wrote groove-heavy, funk-tinged, flange-ful alternative rock -- think Jane's Addiction and Red Hot Chili Peppers -- with a gothic flair and a charismatic frontman who fancied himself a punk Elvis.
Knott challenged the status quo and didn't quite come off as friendly when he chose to address the hypocrisies and lackadaisical mentality toward sin in the body of Christ through his music. Christian Bookstores where you used to be able to buy any Christian record refused to sell his 1987 album "Shaded Pain." Churches in his area refused to host his tours because of the convicting lyrical structure of his songs. Still, those setbacks didn't deter Knott from bum-rushing Christian Contemporary Music once again. CCM is a catch-all term for faith-based music in popular formats beyond gospel and hymns; back then, anything fringe -- like punk and electronic music -- was still new ground for this traditionalist industry. Knott founded his own label, Blonde Vinyl, and in 1991 made a wild gambit, releasing 10 albums at once with the aim of purposely over-saturating the market. His gamble worked. Christian teens and 20-somethings suddenly had a trusted source for music that was cool, weird and heavy... and that their parents would approve. Without Blonde Vinyl, there would have been no Tooth and Nail records which was a catalyst for launching a ton of alternative bands in the Christian industry. Tooth and Nail records drastically altered the course of Christian music as it launched and legitimized bands like Underoath, The O.C. Supertones, and MXPX.
Knott eventually bowed out from the record label and from the mid-90's on, he produced music under his own name. These recordings confronted his demons with both bombast and a quietly fervent spirit. He was known to be confrontational, burning bridges with labels faster than his prolific songwriting could keep up with. He himself talked in his music about his own struggle with alcoholism. In the eyes of those who loved his work, Michael Knott understood better than most that grace isn't for the beloved, but the broken.
