Eddie DeGarmo and Dana Key grew up together in Memphis, Tennessee within walking distance of each other and Graceland. Their first time meeting each other was in the first grade. From that moment on a lifelong friendship formed that would take them on both a spiritual and musical journey together for many years. Both coming from families that were musically inclined it was only natural that Eddie and Dana followed suit. Eddie learned the organ and piano while Dana learned the guitar. Throughout their childhood Eddie and Dana played in bands together. While in high school Eddie and Dana along with their band Globe were signed to the Hi Records label. Before the band ever got an album out Eddie and Dana became born-again Christians. Eddie accepted Christ as the result of the witness of his older brother Larry who had accepted Christ overseas while in the military. In 1972 Eddie attended a service with his brother where David Wilkerson was preaching. It was there he saw an electric guitar being played in church for the first time by none other than Dallas Holm. In fact, it was Dallas Holm who led Eddie in prayer at the service. The next day Eddie wanted to tell someone about what he had done. He convinced Dana to skip class with him so he could share the Gospel with his friend. It was at that moment that Dana too accepted Christ. Unknown to many, both Eddie and Dana grew up in church, but neither had ever considered the Gospel until then. It didn't take long for their faith to conflict with the secular rock and roll lifestyle of their band Globe. Eddie made the first move in stepping down from the band and Dana followed right behind him. Naturally they begin to write songs that reflected their faith, as the Bible says "for out of the abundance of the hearth the mouth speaketh (Matthew 12:34)." As both Eddie and Dana have testified on multiple occasions, they were not looking to create or pioneer a new genre of music nor were they looking to be controversial. Rock and roll is what they already knew how to play so it's was only natural that they continued to play it. Like many others that they were unaware of at the time their blend of rock and roll with Christian lyrics did not settle well with the church or the mainstream. There was a point that the struggle became great enough that Dana had packed up his guitar and Eddie was willing to sell his instruments, but it seemed God would not allow that to happen since he was unsuccessful in doing so. It was clear to them that God was calling them to proclaim the Gospel through music so they set out to do that knowing God would provide if they put forth the effort. They were also encouraged when they discovered Larry Norman through his album Only Visiting This Planet and began to realize they were not alone in their musical calling. In the early days they were simply known as The Christian Band and would have scores of folks flock to their open rehearsals and concerts where they would play original songs they would write. It provided a way for them to spread their music and the Gospel. Susan, Eddie's future wife, came to Christ as the result of their early music ministry and it was also how she and Eddie met.

With the help of some friends including Lewis Willis of Allied Recording Studio in Memphis, Eddie and Dana recorded a demo tape of their new music. Lewis pitched the demo to Hi Records, with whom he had previously gotten Globe signed with, but London, the parent label of Hi, simply didn't know what to do with Jesus rock and roll. Stephen Lawhead, who was with Campus Life Magazine at the time, shopped the demo around to every Christian label he could, but they were turned down because of their unapologetic rock style. Finally a call came through to Eddie from Pat Boone. Eddie's wife initially hung up the phone on Pat thinking the call to be a prank. The second time Eddie answered and learned that Pat wanted to sign the band to his small label called Lamb & Lion. So in 1978 on the Lamb & Lion label Eddie and Dana, now going by DeGarmo & Key, released their debut album titled This Time Thru. Studio musicians were used for the album due to their other members having to drop out of the band prior to them having a record deal, however they retained the bass player from the sessions, Ken (Kenny) Porter and added drummer Terry Moxley for their first tour that took place on the west coast. (You can see their final concert of that very tour at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, CA on our DeGarmo & Key YouTube channel.) Ken and Terry stayed with the band through their second album, but it became apparent to Eddie and Dana that they couldn’t support a full time band at the time so Ken and Terry had no choice but to resign. Studio musicians were once again used for their third album. This album also began a friendship between the band and Amy Grant due to the duet she did with Dana on the song Nobody Loves Me. The duet proved to be controversial for fans from both artists. For the tour they managed to pick up drummer Greg Morrow who was already with another local Memphis band with a record deal and the bass player as well. Greg ended up staying with DeGarmo & Key for a number of years as a defining member of the band. Due to their connection with Amy Grant an idea was hatched to have DeGarmo & Key play some concerts with Amy as her backing band in addition to performing some of their own songs. The concerts saw two albums released by Amy titled In Concert Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Once again controversy surrounded a rock and roll band playing with the soft pop queen Amy Grant and Amy playing associating with a rock and roll band. Nevertheless, the tour and albums proved to be fantastic. Their fourth and final album for Lamb & Lion saw two more musicians added to the band: bassist Tommy Cathey, who was originally with the Memphis band Target, and guitarist Tony Pilcher who was with Eddie and Dana originally during “The Christian Band” days. Tommy would go on to stay with DeGarmo & Key until the band’s retirement. Tony stayed with the band through their 5th album, Mission of Mercy, and then departed to embark on a solo career which saw one album come to fruition titled Livin’ For the Light on the local Memphis label Voice Box. Throughout the late 70’s and early 80’s both Eddie and Dana worked closely with Ardent Studio in Memphis – even working for them as employees for a while. It was there that they learned the ins and outs of studio work. Both Eddie and Dana brought in many Christian bands to record at Ardent over the years. The year 1983 saw a change in musical direction for the band from straightforward rock and roll to more of a heavy keyboard emphasized pop sound. To this day the move proved both controversial for their existing fans and extremely positive for their new found listeners. Eddie recalls the decision as one out of necessity, not necessarily preference. The necessity of income for full time musicians, especially those who are in the music ministry, is often overlooked by many. This was real for Eddie, Dana, and the rest of the band if they were going to be able to afford to keep playing full time. By emphasizing the keyboards and toning down the guitar it made their music more radio friendly. With the help of Bob Farrell, Eddie and Dana wrote a song that put DeGarmo & Key on the map so to speak for air play. That song was Let the Whole World Sing. Not only did the song achieve much air play, but it also greatly broadened the audience of DeGarmo & Key. The move provided the possibility for new fans to be exposed to more rock oriented music by discovering their previous albums and for existing fans to be exposed to more pop oriented music. They turned the guitar back up a little for the follow-up album Communication, but the keyboard/techno driven sound continued for a total of three albums peaking and coming to an end with 1985’s Commander Sozo and the Charge of the Light Brigade. During the Communication album the band embraced the music video scene and created two videos from the album: Alleluia, Christ is Coming and Six, Six, Six. The latter is legendary in two ways: it was the first Christian music video to be featured on MTV and the first Christian music video to be pulled from MTV. While the video garnered heavy rotation on Christian TV, the secular MTV pulled the video because of a scene where the Anti-Christ was burning alive though without dying. MTV claimed the short burning scene was too violent, citing pressure by the government to shun violent content. They did, however, allow the scene to be re-edited and approved for airplay once more. The scene was re-edited to feature scenes of apocalyptic events being portrayed in a crystal ball (You can see both video versions on our DeGarmo & Key YouTube channel). The title for Commander Sozo was a compromise between Eddie, their producer/manager Dan Brock, and Dana. Eddie and Dan wanted to call the album Destined to Win while Dana wanted to opt for something more “eclectic” as Eddie recalls. The album featured most of the bass and all of the drums being played by Eddie’s Fairlight, but Greg helped program the beats to mimic his playing style. When 1986 rolled around the band decided they missed the pure rock and roll style they began with and decided they didn’t want to hold back this time. What came of that desire was the album Streetlight. Capitol Records took an interest in the band and wanted to market their music to mainstream audiences. This wasn’t the band’s first encounter with mainstream interest. Mercury Records had shown an interest in the band early on and there was even interest from ZZ Top manager & producer Bill Ham during the recording of Mission of Mercy, but both wanted DeGarmo & Key to tone down their faith and that was something Eddie and Dana were unwilling to do. If you have ever seen a 45rpm single of the song Every Moment with Soldier of Fortune as the B side you may have noticed the Capitol logo on it. Even the cassette release of Streetlight was manufactured by Capitol. However, the mainstream deal with Capitol was short lived after a few of their executives sat in on a DeGarmo & Key concert. Both Eddie and Dana had a discussion about the night they knew the executives were going to be in attendance and agreed that if Dana preached like he always did and gave an altar call that it would be the end of their deal with Capitol. Dana proceeded to preach and give an altar call that night as usual and the next day Capitol immediately severed ties with the band. Eddie and Dana made it clear that their focus was souls and not airplay which is a lasting legacy that has followed them from the beginning and will continue to stick with the name DeGarmo & Key until the end of time. That was the last time the mainstream would come knocking at their door, but it didn’t matter to them. The album produced a video for Every Moment that garnered airplay on MTV once more. The band partnered with a ministry known as Mission Aviation Fellowship. The video for Every Moment featured footage of MAF in action as well as footage of the band during their trip to Africa with the ministry. A home video release was created to familiarize people with the ministry titled The Air-Care Project: Rock ‘n’ Roll Outreach to Africa (watch all home video releases on our DeGarmo & Key YouTube channel). The next album rocked even harder than Streetlight. They titled it D&K since they had grown accustomed to the nickname given to them by their fans through the years. Showing even more public dedication to ministry the album included a Bible study on the lyrics sheets to go along with the songs and even an invitation to accept Christ as Saviour. Most notable about this album was the two-for-one cassette offer. When a person bought this album on cassette they would get two for the price of one. The free cassette was identical to the first other than being labeled as a “gift edition” and was to be given to an unsaved friend to open the door for witnessing. The overwhelming amount of feedback they received and continue to receive about how this campaign positively affected many and brought so many to Christ is not only a testament to the faithful witness of the band, but also a testament to the power music can have when used for God. With the D&K album came the addition of a secondary guitarist by the name of Steve Taylor (not the same Steve Taylor who sang). The band went on to record a live album from the D&K tour titled Rock Solid Absolutely Live which also had a home video release of the concert under the name Rock Solid: The Rock-U-Mentary. This live album was unique in the fact that they recorded no overdubs for it. What you heard on the album is the same raw audio you would have heard attending the concert. Greg Morrow departed the band following the tour in a decision to go on the road with Amy Grant. Eddie recalls Greg’s decision as being hard to swallow, but there were no hard feelings or grudges held between anyone. The band picked up a drummer by the name of Chuck Reynolds who played on the band’s next album The Pledge. Chuck didn’t stick around very long and another touring drummer was brought in by the name of Kevin Rodell who also provided the drum programming for the album Go to the Top. Greg returned to the studio for the band on the last three albums Destined to Win: The Classic Rock Collection, Heat. It. Up. and To Extremes.

During the late 80’s a deal was struck between DeGarmo & Key and their label The Benson Company that gave the rights to all of their albums to Eddie and Dana. Forefront Communications was born out of necessity to handle their music and by 1989 Forefront began signing other artists to its roster. The 90’s saw more bands being signed to Forefront and both the label and its artists were making big noise in the Christian Music world. When 1994 rolled around Benson was still interested in DeGarmo & Key continuing to record music, but Eddie knew the time had come for them to move on and follow the other doors God was opening. After the album To Extremes the band announced their retirement, however, that doesn’t mean life slowed down completely for Eddie and Dana. Eddie went on to take Forefront to the forefront (pun intended) of Christian music by pioneering a lot of bands that to this day have a lasting legacy. As Eddie puts it they signed a lot of bands that other labels would have passed on. He certainly knew about the struggles during the early days of his old band and wanted to extend opportunity and trust to his contemporaries. Dana went on to begin a record label with Ardent Studio in partnership with Forefront. The coming years saw Forefront being sold to EMI and Eddie going from label owner to independent music publisher and play writer with the rock opera Hero to the president of the largest Christian music publishing company Capitol Christian Music Group. Dana went on to pastor The Love of Christ Community Church in Cordova, TN. On June 6, 2010 Dana went home to Heaven as the result of a pulmonary embolism. July 31, 2014 saw the retirement of Eddie DeGarmo from Capitol CMG. DeGarmo & Key with Tommy Cathey and Greg Morrow did get to perform a few times prior to the home-going of Dana including ASCAP Christian Awards Dinner, the last Cornerstone Festival, at Dana’s church, and on a K-Love cruise (see the Cornerstone concert on our DeGarmo & Key YouTube page). The band was honored three times for their lasting legacy: 2004 Soul2Soul honor, 2007 ASCAP Horizon Award, and in 2010 when they were inducted into the GMA Hall of Fame.

The legacy of DeGarmo & Key is nothing short of a testimony of God’s grace and faithfulness and what He can do when you live your life totally surrendered to His perfect will.