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In Memoriam: Keith Harrold
Fri., Aug. 17. 2018 12:11pm EDT
As mentioned in the article above, we are saddened to report that former ApX drummer Keith Harrold passed away on Thursday, August 16.
Although his schedule never permitted him to be our full-time drummer, Keith was a bridge over troubled waters for ApX, filling in for us at various times from 1993-2000, when our regular drummers couldn't make it to a particular concert and after each of our first three full-time drummers (Jeff, Rick and Bob) left the band.
He often referred to himself as "the Chester Thompson of ApologetiX." Genesis fans like Keith himself should get the reference. In the years after 2000, Keith would occasionally come to ApX concerts, and we would often have him sit in for a song or two.
Keith played all the drums on our Isn't Wasn't Ain't CD (although it was only available on cassette back then) in 1993 and also played on three tracks on our Keep the Change CD in 2001: "Daniel," "Cheap Birds" and "The Ballad of Jesus & Yahweh."
An integral part of the Christian music scene for over 25 years, Keith was a national sales rep for Word Records, where he won numerous "National Sales Representative of the Year" awards. He was also a founding member of the New Beginning (a.k.a. "the New Beginning Band" and "the Newbs"), one of Western Pennsylvania's first and most popular Christian rock bands in the 1980's.
That band reunited as the Paradise Club Band from 1991-94, playing monthly concerts at the Paradise Club in Irwin, PA, the place where we played our first concert and built our fan base from 1992-94. And that's where we also first met Keith.
In addition to his drumming, Keith blessed us many times over the years with advice and guidance based on his knowledge of the Christian recording industry. We fondly recall one time in the early days when he had us all over to his house to talk about our future.
We also remember in 1999 when he told us he felt we were ready to start playing at the big Christian music festivals. That was right after we played Q-Fest in Rockford IL and wound up on the front page of the Rockford Register Star newspaper. "This changes everything," he said.
The same thing could have been said the day Keith was born. He changed all of our lives for the better, and we thank God for the years He gave him to us as a friend and a bandmate. We love you, Keith!
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