Recording Career (continued)
In 1978, Norman was injured during a plane landing at Los Angeles International Airport. Norman claimed to have suffered mild brain damage due to being hit by parts of the cabin’s roof, and that this damage left him unable to complete projects and focus artistically. William Ayers wrote in 1991: “As family, friends and fans watched, his life spiraled downward. He was unable to record a bonafide album from the time of his airplane accident in 1978 until … he attempted to release the badly produced Home At Last [recorded in 1986]. He never expected to be healed.”
In September 1979, Norman performed his “The Great American Novel”, “a Dylanesque protest song”, for U.S. president Jimmy Carter and about 1,000 guests at the Old Fashioned Gospel Singin’ concert held on the south lawn of the White House.
Following a prolonged dispute with Solid Rock artists Daniel Amos, which ended in estrangement, Solid Rock’s business manager, Philip Mangano, and several Solid Rock musicians organized an intervention with Norman in June 1980, which led him to begin closing the company. Religious history professor Randall Balmer attributed the company’s demise to “idealism, marital difficulties, and financial naivete’—as well as changing musical tastes.”
In late 1980, Norman moved to England and, with his father, founded Phydeaux Records, a company designed to compete with the bootleg market by selling rarities from Norman’s own archives. He signed a distribution deal with British label Chapel Lane and released several albums before returning to the United States in 1985. Norman then began work on an anthology project celebrating his career in Christian music, beginning with the album White Blossoms from Black Roots: The History and the Chronology: Volume One; however, the project collapsed when the head of the distribution company was arrested for check forgery and the company’s merchandise was seized by the FBI.
Norman signed to Benson Records in 1986 and recorded the album Home At Last, although the album was not released until 1989 due to legal problems. Despite extensive promotion, the album was negatively reviewed, and Norman himself later dismissed the album as “just a collection of tapes I had”, although he said separately that he was “extremely happy” with the level of support he’d received from Benson. In 1989, Norman received the Christian Artists’ Society Lifetime Achievement Award.
While visiting another musician at the close of a February 1991 tour, Norman received prayer for his long-term health problems from a pastor of London’s Elim Way Fellowship. Norman maintained that through this prayer God repaired the damage to his brain and he was able to function again. That year, he collaborated with his brother Charles on the album Stranded in Babylon, hailed by both critics and fans as one of his best. They would reunite for the 2001 album Tourniquet.
Norman continued to perform and release albums throughout his later years in order to raise funds for medical expenses stemming from heart problems. He gave his last official concert on August 4, 2007, in New York City.