RIP, Andraé Crouch

The gospel legend is going to see The King.

He died Thursday at 72. From The Los Angeles Times: 

Crouch, a Los Angeles native, died about 4:30 p.m. at Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications after having a heart attack on Saturday, according to Brian Mayes.

“Today my twin brother, womb-mate and best friend went home to be with the Lord,” his twin sister, Sandra Couch, said in statement. “Please keep me, my family and our church family in your prayers.  I tried to keep him here but God loved him best.”

Crouch‘s “Let the Church Say Amen” Celebration Tour was postponed last month due to illness.

Crouch, an award-winning singer and composer, also worked as a producer and arranger for such artists as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Elton John and Diana Ross.

Many church traditionalists “do think my music is trash,” he told The Times in 1982.

“That doesn’t bother me,” Crouch said then. “I’m going to do what I think is right. Every song I’ve written takes you through the scriptures and reinforces the word of God. I give people a beautiful message, but I do it with pop, rock, funk, jazz or disco or anything that will make it appealing.”

Read more. 

One of his most famous compositions—and a staple at my parish every year on the Feast of Christ the King—is the soaring “Soon and Very Soon.” Check out this epic rendition below. And whisper up a prayer for our brother Andraé. Can I hear an “Amen”?