Known by the stage name Carman to his millions of enthusiastic fans, Christian music artist Carman Licciardello passed away on Tuesday evening at the age of 65.
He died in a Las Vegas hospital after battling complications due to surgery for a hernia some three weeks ago, a Facebook update on his page on Tuesday night indicated.
Carman was a member of the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame.
In 2013 the singer was diagnosed with multiple myeloma cancer, CBN News reported in a new piece about him.
“He experienced several years of recovery,” the outlet also noted. “Then he reported last year that [the] cancer had returned, but he wouldn’t stop fighting and he planned to continue touring.”
Carman’s team wrote last week on the singer’s Facebook page, “Due to his long fight with cancer and the effect that has on the body, his bounceback from this has been slower than he would like. He appreciates all of the care and prayers you have sent his way,” as CBN also said.
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Carman was born into an Italian-American family in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1956.
As Christianity Today pointed out about him, “For those who didn’t know him, [his] single name was repeated as a question. Carman? But if Carman’s star never quite secured its place at the zenith of American fame, he never let that dim his belief in his own celebrity, the awesome power of the concert-show-crusade-event, and his commitment to producing a pop spectacle for Jesus.”
Carman himself said of his work, “The music is the best means I have of reaching the most people in the quickest way to win them to Christ. I think an artist owes it to his audience to thrill them and impress them. It lets people know there is joy in being Christian.”
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By CNJ Staff