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A Visit With Pat Terry

11/10/2003
Revised 04/12/2007

Related articles: Pat Terry Group Reunion Concert: "First Love", Mark Heard: Key to the Change in Pat Terry?

I was curious to see if I would recognize him after 25 years. But sure enough, when he walked in the door with his gig bag on his back, I knew right away it was him. His scraggly beard was grey now and when he took off his hat it revealed a “Friar Tuck” style of baldness. But he still wore his glasses and the same soft spoken mannerism which had been his trademarks. And when he started playing his guitar and I heard that voice there was no doubt that this was the same Pat Terry whose music had so shaped my early years as a Christian.

For those of you who don’t know, Pat Terry was a Christian artist who was popular back in the mid to late 70s. His most widely recognized song was “I Can’t Wait To See Jesus.” I had first run into him in the early 70s when he started playing guitar occasionally in our church services at Rehoboth Baptist Church along with a couple of musicians named Sonny Lallerstedt and Randy Bugg. His meek voice conveyed songs of such spiritual sensitivity, purity, and honesty that they pierced my soul. I had never heard anything like it.

Pat and his fellow musicians began to play at the Dan Dehaan Bible Study which I attended. To have such great music played in conjunction with such great teaching was an incredible privilege and a memory which I cherish to this day. My favorite memory is the day that Pat, Sonny, and Randy came into the Smoke Rise Elementary School Auditorium where we met each week and brought in the cases of their first album which they had just picked up that day. We were all so proud of them and they were all so excited!

Over the years, I bought most of his albums and played them to death! We would play many of his songs in the church band I was in and he would sometimes come back to Rehoboth and play. When I was playing in “Rick Eldridge and Rebirth”, we were booked out of the same agency as Pat and we would occasionally run into each other. But I fell away from the Lord for many years and no longer kept up with Christian music. I remember hearing that Pat was no longer playing with Sonny and Randy but I never heard why. Still later, I heard that Pat was no longer in Christian music and the rumor was that he was now a songwriter up in Nashville. And that’s where the story ended for many years.

However, back in 2002, God “got my attention” and He was merciful enough to accept me back into His arms. My interest in Christian music was revived along with my faith and I began to try and find out what had ever happened to Pat. I dug out the old albums and listened with new ears as songs like “Meet Me Here”, “Alone At Last”, and “Enduring Love” caused tears to flow from my eyes for God’s mercy. I scoured the internet and Christian websites only to find that the only mentions of Pat were from other people like myself trying to find out what had become of him.

Then, on November 8 of 2003, I was looking through the “Creative Loafing” website and saw an event listing three Nashville songwriters playing that night at a local establishment called “The Swallow at the Hollow” (http://www.swallowatthehollow.com). The songwriters were Allen Shamblin, Greg Trooper, and…Pat Terry! Could it be the same Pat Terry? It had to be! So that night, I found my way out to “The Swallow”, sat at the bar and waited.

When he came in, I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off of him. After 25 years of wondering what had happened to him and how his music from back then still cut me to the quick…after all those years of praying for him and hoping to see him one more time…here he was! It wasn’t “idol worship”…it was like seeing an old dear friend years after you had thought they had died. It was just so good to see him again! It was like a cool drink from an old, pure, familiar stream!

I managed to speak to him briefly. After refreshing his memory of who I was (it HAD been 25 years and I look very different now), I gave him a copy of my book (“Contemporary Christian Musician’s Survival Manual”) and told him I’d love his feedback on it. After shaking his hand and telling him how good it was to see him again, I went back to my seat to enjoy the music.

Each songwriter took turns playing their songs and they were all good. But, of course, I was focused on Pat’s material. I listened intently as that same pure voice rang out song after song…breaking my heart with thoughts of what had been lost and what could’ve been. Here are the songs he played:

“It’s A Little Too Late”: recorded by Tanya Tucker. One line that stuck out for me was “I'm too far gone to turn this heart around.”

“Help Me Hold On”: co-written with Travis Tritt. Pat told a story about how he had gone out to hear this new guy his friends had told him about and how they had spoken to each other afterwards. Travis recognized Pat from back when Pat had played at his church. A few days later, they wrote this song together. Here are some of the lyrics that stuck in my mind:

“Help me understand where I went wrong
It's hard to find myself in this position
Prayin' I'll go crazy once your gone”

“Help me hold on...to what we had
Once our love was strong, it can be again
You said it takes two, to make love last
You were right all along so help me hold on”

“That even though I promised you forever
I never knew how hard that would be
I realize I took your love for granted
But I've learned that love worth havin' don't come free
And I'll pay any price it takes to keep you
Satisfied and stayin here with me...”

“Notorious”: recorded by “Confederate Railroad.” It was about a young thug who robs a liquor store and kills the clerk. He and his girl run from the law and he winds up dead. The chorus goes:

“He's a desperate rider, he's a Jesse James
The best that he could hope for is a household name
There ain't nobody that a man can trust
When all his headlines read, notorious”

“I Never Throw Anything Away”: inspired by a toy on a shelf but was really about relationships.

“Jump On It”: a funny song co-written by his wife (and recorded by John Anderson) about a poor family that splurges on a trampoline.

“Someplace Green: Pat wrote this song while on the road in the late 70s. He talked about how they were playing an average of 225 dates a year for about 3 years…about how he got burned out and was missing his home. It was about how he hated the dreary grey of the cities and longed for the green surroundings of home.

“When Love Rains Down”: a sad song about how the ground of his heart was hard and dry but how he hoped for renewal. I choked back the tears when he sang:

“I was walking last night with Jesus and I woke with tears in my eyes
because its been such a long time since I walked in that garden”

“Gift of Mercy”: This last song’s lyrics went:

“If I ever get to heaven
It will be due to mercy and not because of justice”

I went up after it was all over and shook his hand once more and told him it really was good to see him again after 25 years…wanting to say so much more but not knowing how. I won’t be presumptuous and make any kind judgment about his relationship with God…that is between him and God. And I am in too great a need of God’s mercy to try and judge anyone. But there seemed to be a common theme to his songs…a theme of loss, regret, and desperation. It seems such a sad waste to see someone who is so talented and whose music was so anointed playing secular music. The most he can hope for now is to get a #1 hit and make a lot of money…before his music was changing people’s lives for all eternity. I don’t know why he no longer plays Christian music, but I suspect that he is a casualty of the Christian music business. Pat was such a mild-mannered soft-spoken gentle soul and I think that he was taken advantage of by the “industry”. They burned him out on the road and he probably never made a dime from it and probably lost the rights to his own work in the process. God forgive us. I hope I’m wrong and that Pat has a great relationship with God and that this is what He wants him doing now.

However, I can’t help but pray that someday I will hear Pat once more singing songs that change people’s eternal destiny. Songs of forgiveness, songs of hope, songs about the love of Jesus and His gift of mercy…bring him back, Lord!

Read about the subsequent Pat Terry Group Reunion Concert!