ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 24, 1996 TAG: 9605240028
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
"I WANT TO SHARE Jesus even more now than before," says Kathy Troccoli. She's bringing her message to Rocky Mount on Saturday night.
Her rich alto voice has been described as sultry, silky, sexy.
In the last few years, she's had pop hits including such songs as "You've Got a Way" and "Everything Changes."
She's appeared on "The Tonight Show," "Live With Regis and Kathy Lee," and VH-1. She is co-host of a nationally distributed music and variety show.
She's been featured in stories in The New York Times, Billboard magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and the Los Angeles Times.
At the Fiesta Bowl last year, she sang for an estimated TV audience of 63 million.
So what is Kathy Troccoli doing singing gospel Saturday night in the gym of Franklin County High School in a concert sponsored by the youth fellowship of little Red Valley United Methodist Church?
"I've been known to sing for 50 people in a coffee-house setting," Troccoli said. "I like the intimacy of smaller crowds.
"Just [Sunday] night I did a concert for 1,000 teens outside Cleveland. It was packed out. They brought those snap-and-glow sticks and when I sang 'Go Light Your World,' they all held them up. It was amazing."
"Go Light Your World" is just one of several Christian radio hits off her latest album of contemporary Christian music, "Sounds of Heaven."
The two-time Grammy nominee and seven-time Dove award nominee is working a packed schedule these days singing all over the country, recording new music, preparing for a big fall tour, and serving as a spokesperson for the Teen Life Catholic youth organization and for Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship.
Though she hasn't abandoned secular pop music, Troccoli said she thought it was time to release a completely Christian album. "I want to share Jesus even more now than before," she said .
Like other Christian artists who have had "crossover" hits in mainstream pop, Troccoli has heard the criticism of those who see that as a betrayal of a pure commitment to the faith.
"A lot of us are concerned about the Christian music industry. Where there is money, fame, glory, popularity, there's cause to worry. But I have enough to do to keep my own life in check ... without judging the motives of other artists."
"I have to home in on what Kathy Troccoli needs to do - what God has called her to do. That's why I decided to do 'Sounds of Heaven,' a straight-ahead, vulnerable Christian record.
"I love love songs. I want to do a '40s record some day. That doesn't say my faith is not as deep as ever. It doesn't say I'm not maturing. Choosing to do some pop music has no bearing on how I deal with God.
"I just missed sharing about Christ, which was why I had to do this record."
Troccoli, 38, was raised in an Italian Catholic family in New York. "I was a religious girl in the sense that I showed up in church at Christmas and Easter, but I didn't really understand my faith until I was presented with it during a summer job [in 1978] in the office of a community pool."
Troccoli noticed a co-worker "reading the Bible a lot, and I asked her a ton of questions. The Bible in my family was a book on the end table that was never touched. She gave me a little New Testament and I read the life of Christ."
Eventually, Troccoli said, she had to decide whether "Jesus was a nice guy and a pretty good liar or who he said he was."
She decided to believe the New Testament story and that meant changing her life. She started going to a little Baptist church and developing her Christian faith.
Today she is rediscovering her Catholic roots, "enjoying Mass and the journey." She sang at the World Youth Day event when Pope John Paul II visited Denver a couple of years ago and acts as spokeswoman for the Teen Life organization.
"I've been trying to reach out to Catholic youth and ignite them and get them back in church."
Troccoli also has been open with those teens - and others - about her commitment to remain "sexually pure" until marriage.
It's a subject broached openly on her page on the Internet's World Wide Web - which also includes a wealth of personal information about the singer, her career and her music. (The address is http://www.nauticom.net/www/express/troccoli.htm.)
Whether in cyberspace or in concert, "I want leave people with more than just great songs. I hope I leave something about love and encouragement and looking at eternal things."
She told the Catholic youth group she performed for last week that "you'd never be getting the woman you're getting apart from my dedicating my life to understanding and knowing Jesus and the Gospel.
"I'm on a journey - I've not arrived."
"The foundation is built on knowing Jesus. We can all worship in different places, go here or there. All that stuff doesn't mean anything if your faith is not real - if you're not striving to live it and bring it to other people."
Kathy Troccoli sings in concert Saturday at Franklin County High School, Rocky Mount, at 7 p.m. Tickets, available at area Christian bookstores, are $7 in advance; $8 at the door. Information about group ticket sales is available by calling (540) 721-7545.
Kathy Troccoli in concert: Saturday at 7 p.m. at Franklin County High School. Tickets are available at area Christian bookstores.
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Kathy Troccoli: "A lot of us are concerned about theby CNBChristian music industry. Where there is money, fame, glory,
popularity, there's cause to worry. But I have enough to do to keep
my own life in check ... without judging the motives
of other artists." color.