Michael Knott and his daughter, Stormie Fraser, when she was a child. by Stormie Fraser
CV NEWS FEED // Michael Knott, who helped found the alternative Christian music movement while he was involved in Calvary Chapel, began and ended his life as a practicing Catholic, according to his daughter, Stormie Fraser.
“An entire industry wouldn’t exist without him, yet few know his name,” NPR reported in an article in March.
Maybe fewer know that he died a Catholic, a detail that the article didn’t mention.
Knott died on March 12, at age 61, according to his obituary. He was born in 1962 in Aurora, Illinois, and moved to California with his family when he was 8. He composed his first songs when he was 11 and his first band, The Hightops, in 1978, when he was attending Mater Dei High School, in Huntington Beach, California. After attending Chapman College, he pursued a career in music. In addition to solo music, he contributed to Lifesavers, L.S. Underground or “LSU,” Bomb Bay Babies, Aunt Bettys, and Strung Gurus.
“Michael earned himself a reputation as a pioneer in the alternative Christian rock scene, challenging industry norms with his profound understanding of grace and raw authenticity,” the obituary said.
Joshua Lory, who is the administrator for the Facebook group “Knottheads (Michael Knott fans),” said via Facebook messages that Knott attended Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa in the 1970s, when Chuck Smith was the head pastor and American Charismatic evangelist Lonnie Frisbee was there. Knott moved on to the Vineyard church movement after John Wimber, who was co-pastor at Calvary, started that church, which was “a much more charismatic congregation.” By the time Lory met Knott, around 2005, Knott had already returned to the Catholic Church. Fraser said that her father was at Calvary Chapel until about 2000.
“Michael was the most Charismatic Catholic I ever met, very big into the gifts of the Spirit, laying hands/healing, casting out demons, speaking in tongues, prophetic words,” Lory said. “That’s something he carried with him from his days at Calvary and Vineyard. Despite his flaws, Michael was 100% about sharing the Gospel of Jesus with people, and most were people that many would be scared to talk to. He had a servant’s heart.”
Fraser said via Facebook messages that while she doesn’t know why her father returned to the Catholic Church, she believes the mystical meaning of the Eucharist was important to him. When she told him that she was considering becoming Catholic, he was thrilled, she added.
“A few days or maybe a week before he passed away he called me and very adamantly told me how important it was that I say the ‘Our Father’ with my husband every night,” she recalled.
Rick McDonough said in a phone interview on April 17 that his relationship with Knott started as admiration of his music. McDonough first met the man by chance at a grocery store around 2004. He initially thought that he should just leave Knott alone and almost just drove away, but he believes the Holy Spirit intervened. After McDonough told Knott how much of a difference his music had made in his life, Knott spoke with him for about an hour “stuff and just about life.”
That conversation ultimately led the two to start recording together. A few years later, Knott told McDonough that he had been praying to find someone to work with who had a studio. McDonough had also been praying to find someone to do music with on a regular basis, like he had been able to before a cross-country move that he had did before meeting Knott.
“I believe it was a total God thing that we were put together,” McDonough said.
McDonough said that Knott was someone who made people feel at ease and was willing to talk to anybody, at any time. Knott, who was a very sensitive person, also had the Holy Spirit’s gifts of knowledge of things “people wouldn’t know” and discernment. Knott would approach McDonough and ask if he was dealing with a particular challenge.
“He kind of joked about being a C+ prophet, because he was mostly right,” McDonough said. “More often than not, he would get a feeling or an understanding of where someone was at or something that someone was struggling with, and I think that correlated with him going up and talking to people and connecting with people.”
According to McDonough, serious issues in the world and that people were dealing with weighed heavily on Knott, a “people person” who took the emotions of other people and himself very seriously.
The two would pray together, surrendering their music records to Christ and trusting He would use them and their creations as His instruments.
“It was humbling and beautiful,” McDonough said.
Knott took classes to distribute the Eucharist at hospice and pray over people, and he invited McDonough to join him, said McDonough, who did it for about a year with Knott. Knott also sought to convince McDonough, who was brought up in a charismatic church and moved on to the high episcopal church for several years, to become Catholic. Rather than holding it against McDonough that he wasn’t Catholic, Knott encouraged him to consider joining the Church.
“He was always giving me pamphlets and literature and saying, ‘Here, think about this, pray about this.’ And it was kind of fun because he knew that I’m a firm believer but he just thought that I might be able to get more out of my faith and out of my relationship with Christ if I were to go that route,” McDonough said.
While McDonough hasn’t become Catholic, he said he found a lot of meaning in the prayers, Latin chants and symbolism of the Catholic Church.
When Knott moved back in with his parents, about 15 years ago, to take care of them in their retirement community, he would attend Mass with them regularly, McDonough said.
“From my perspective, I never saw him actually renounce or leave the Catholic Church. I always viewed him as having one foot in the Catholic Church and one foot in non-denominational churches,” McDonough said.
McDonough said he wonders if Knott’s time with the non-denominational Churches was partly just “opportunistic” because he was a musician and Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard were kind of the music scene for Christians.
McDonough said that in his eulogy for Knott, he reflected on how two of the man’s character traits were his ability to be a great storyteller and his love for people. As a musician, Knott could bring out the best in people musically, unifying bands and writing songs in a way that would kind of bring people together.
“He was very inclusive and brought the best out of people,” McDonough said.
According to McDonough, people sometimes struggled with the “raw” honesty of Knott’s music.
“At the core of who he was, he was a believer, he loved Christ and he loved people,” McDonough said.
Fraser said that her father was not legalistic in his faith. Knott vocally detested hypocrisy in the Church. In the L.S. Underground album “The Grape Prophet,” he criticized the Vineyard churches.
“He wanted people to have real, authentic faith and see that Jesus loved them,” Fraser said.
For example, a lyric in Knott’s song “Grace,” is, “The proud feel the need to work the loom, yet grace falls free.”
McDonough said that that song stands out to him too, as it proclaims how people struggle and can find healing in Christ and embrace it. Even Knott’s work that appears more secular, like his work with the Aunt Bettys, still had the hope and love of Christ, as well as the desire to seek those as the foundation.
Lory described Knott’s music as “extremely honest.”
“Writing music came very easy to him,” he added.
Knott’s funeral Mass was said at Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Community in Huntington Beach on April 5, and he is buried at Good Shepherd Cemetery, 8301 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach.
Friends and fans of Knott reflected on his legacy in the “Shaded Pain – A Tribute to Michael Knott” episode of the podcast Legacy: CCM’s Greatest Albums. Anyone who would like to support Knott’s family can make purchases at https://knott.bandcamp.com/.