Broken On The Back Row by Sandi Patty

By Rene Williams

Author: By Sandi Patty

Sandi Patty is Christian music’s most celebrated artist. She has received 39 Dove Awards, 5 Grammy Awards, 4 Billboard Music Awards, 3 RIAA-certified platinum and 5 gold recordings, and was a 2004 Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductee. In her illustrious career, she has sung before 5 United States Presidents.

But in the early nineties, Patty’s career came to a screeching halt. Rumors of adultery and lies swirled around her, threatening to end her stellar career. When rumors were verified as truth due to an exposé in Christian Today, Christian radio stations removed her from playlists, Christian bookstores pulled her records from their shelves and her pending engagements were abruptly cancelled. Leaving fans, record label executives and friends stunned and disappointed when she divorced her husband and married the man she had the affair with, Patty retreated.

Chronicling her difficult years and subsequent healing, Patty has recently recounted the events of her life in a book entitled Broken On The Back Row. With a foreward by Max Lucado, this intensely personal look at the life of Sandi Patty gives the reader a deep glimpse at her upbringing (including an incident of sexual abuse by a trusted babysitter), her entry into the music business and the relationships that shaped her. She lets the reader know from the beginning that this is not a tell-all book with gory details of her illicit affair or reasons for the unhappiness in her marriage. Patty states, “If you’re looking for bitter accusations and excuses about why my first marriage failed, you won’t find them here. Don’t expect to find lurid details of the affair I was involved in either. It happened. I’ve acknowledged it, apologized one-on-one to the individuals I harmed by my actions, and have been forgiven by God and restored to my church.”

The book instead captures her life during a difficult time and shows God’s love and forgiveness. For those who have loved her ministry, you’ll find her beginnings quite interesting as she was on the road with her singing family from practically the start of her life. The book also details the growth of her career and the constant struggle she felt between being a mom and a recording artist.

She also lets us into her family life (complete with photos), and talks about those who were closest to her during that troublesome stage. She talks candidly about the mistakes she made and the steps of reconciliation to her church and loved ones. Also, she talks about her new life with her new husband (now married to for 10 years), her blended family and her burgeoning career.

But most of all, she talks about God’s unfailing love and His power to forgive sin. Redemption is the key theme to Patty’s memoirs and it shapes the entire book. Although we may not have gone through the experience she did, she allows us to feel her pain and through her trials, we can see ourselves in her story. This book will minister particularly to anyone who has fallen away from God and is searching for a way to get back. This book will leave the reader with a great understanding, empathy and respect for one of Christian music’s most influential artists.

For more information on Sandi Patty, go to www.sandipatty.com

Feedback - Rene Williams is a freelance writer for Gospelcity.com, GTM Magazine and Charisma Magazine. She also is the author of the Gospel News Update, a bi-weekly e-zine about what's happening in the Christian music industry, and the D.C. Gospel News Update, a weekly newsletter about gospel events in the Washington, D.C. area.