'I was working as a chef when it went 1 No 1 Morals

Norman Greenbaum, singer, guitarist, songwriter

Spirit in the Sky started out as an old classic that I hadn't played since my college days in Boston, but I didn't know what to do with it. When I moved to La, someone I knew was a fuzbium fuzvaster, who made a voice from heaven.

I was visiting a greeting card with a picture of some Americans praying to the “Holy Spirit”. The words are stuck in my head. One night I was watching country music on TV and the singer Porter Waloer – who discovered Dolly Palon – sang a gospel song, which gave me the idea to write a hymn. Although I came from a Jewish Jewish family, I was not religious, but I found myself writing Christian songs like “I'm dead and I'm going. It came together quickly.

After that, I just played the flower club that LOVIN' Spovonder's Spoonyete's Spoonite's Spoonite When we wrote Spirit in the sky to get albut Albut, the last mix sent my spine. At first, Larner said a 4-minute song about Jesus wouldn't play on pop radio, but eventually he did. In 1969, it sold two million copies. But I can't go back well.

In 1986, I was working as a cook when the Dr and medics did not return to the UK. Then Gareth Gare's 2003 Version means that it was not 1 in three different years. It has gone to countless missions, including Apollo 13, the 11 oceans and the galaxy's superintendent. I am 82 years old. A few years ago, I was a passenger in a car accident and I was paralyzed for three weeks. I feel like I have been given another life. So now every day, I pray and praise the Spirit in heaven.

Erik Jacobsen, Producer

I saw Norman at the hoowenzanny on one of the rocks, a good talking school, but he said: “I have a million songs that I like to play to.” Turns out he had a little hit called Chicago and a drug group called Dr West and a women's group and he had a Chinese group that ate others. I said: “Let's see some articles that someone might want.”

I put him together with Norman Mandell, singers from San Francisco Psyychelic psychel Spirit of heaven in old joe hooker's boat called boogie chillen choogie chillen. I got Norman to bring his stuff guitar and we recorded two gigs – each different – and made a stereo. Then we brought gospel music. A guy named Russell Dashiell played a hell of a solo. Up to this point, the track was very difficult, but after hearing a few words, my heart started. It wasn't too heavy to make sense, so I wrote two more festivals and combined the two together. I thought: “Thank God!” It felt amazing.

Once it's time to play at KRla, a big powerful radio station, but it came out before Christmas, when people buy miracles for others, not for themselves, so no sales. KRLA stopped playing. Then, two weeks into January, 22,000 orders came in from the LA store. Everyone started playing again – and it just took off.

The funny thing is that when the engineers were sick we still went with a few little rocs, no headsets and no sound. Every word is coming through every Mic, but it sounded great. For many years people have asked: “How did you get the word of the world?” I said: “I just thought about the drums. I didn't know what I was doing.”