me free in my songwriting; it really set me free in the establishment of Petra." On others During its 33-year career, Petra influenced countless artists in and out of the Christian scene. Petra was the only Christian band to play at the 1992 Farm Aid concert and the first Christian band to be included in the Hard Rock Cafe. In 2000, Petra was the first Christian rock band to be inducted to the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. "The doubts about popular music mixing with Christian lyrics have mostly vanished due to their 25-year track record of proven ministry and changed lives. Petra was a true pioneer for our industry," GMA President Frank Breeden said at the time. In 2004, CCM readers inducted Petra into its Hall of Fame, with the magazine noting: Few artists had as much influence in the formation and growth of what has come to be known as "contemporary Christian music" as did Petra. ...As one of the movement’s trailblazers, Petra bore the brunt of the controversy, enduring picketers, protesters and public denunciations by prominent Christian leaders. (It is, perhaps, a telling sign of the Christian community’s former resistance to Petra that the band won a Grammy before they ever won a Dove Award!) Still, all rabble-rousers aside, Petra managed to create some of Christian music’s most treasured recordings. The list of prominent Christian artists who began by listening to Petra is long, and it includes: Bart Millard, lead singer of MercyMe, said More Power to Ya was the first album he had bought with his own money. "I bought it twice because I literally wore the first one out," he wrote in CCM. "Because of that record, I became consumed with Christian music." Singer/songwriter Chris Tomlin has listed Not of This World as his "first Christian album". The lead singer of rock band Third Day, Mac Powell, said the band formed with the intention of being "the next Petra. You know, we wanted to be the next big band that affected a lot of people through music." Former Newsboys lead singer Peter Furler – who founded Inpop Records, used the label to give Petra a home at the end of its career and produced the band's final studio album – and his band opened for Petra early in its career, and guitarist Jody Davis listed his first Petra concert as a major influence on his