Trey Parker and Matt Stone Wanted To Make A Christian Rock Album Before Cartman Did It

Long before Eric Cartman gamed the Christian Rock genre in his quest for a platinum record, Trey Parker and Matt Stone yearned to feel Jesus’ salvation.

Parker and Stone’s ability to merge their undeniable musical talent with their crass, chaotic comedy sensibilities is one of the best parts of South Park, and nowhere is this marriage of music and comedy more unholy than in the 2003 episode “Christian Rock Hard.” The future Book of Mormon creators skewered both the Christian entertainment industry and the secular acts obsessed with copyright infringement with the Season 7 banger, and it turns out that the South Park creators had Cartman’s exact scheme in the works for themselves before they pivoted to make “Christian Rock Hard.”

In the mini-commentary from the South Park Season 7 DVD release, Parker and Stone recalled how, long before Cartman took the Christian music industry by storm in “Christian Rock Hard,” they and their friends wanted to put together their own Faith +1 album and troll Christian festivals with songs about Jesus’ sleek swimmer’s body.

In “Christian Rock Hard,” Cartman formed the band Faith +1 after making a bet with Kyle that he could make a platinum record by taking the shortcut that is crappy Christian Rock. With Butters and Tolkein (who, naturally, is able to slap a smooth bass line on his first try) in tow, Cartman took Faith +1 all the way to the top of the evangelical entertainment industry, only to discover that, once an album passed gold certification in the Christian music scene, the next milestones are frankincense and myrrh records.

“We had some friends who, sometimes, hanging out, would talk about how great it would be to make a Christian Rock album,” Parker explained in the “Christian Rock Hard” commentary, saying that the duo planned to “use our money, basically, to get it out in the market, but if you really listen closely to the words, it was obvious that it was somebody who was physically in love with Jesus.”

Stone added of the original plan for Faith +1, “We were going to go to all these Jesus fests and stuff where all these guys set up booths,” then the band would hawk CDs onto unsuspecting Christians looking for the next Creed.

“It’s a great idea! If someone out there wants to do it, feel free” Parker said of the scheme that became the “Christian Rock Hard” plotline. “We were even gonna call it Faith +1,” Parker said of his and Stone’s fake band that never came to be.

But while Parker and Stone decided not to take their blasphemous rock band to real-life Christian music conventions, the duo revealed that they are sitting on an absolute treasure trove of X-rated worship songs beyond what fans heard in the South Park episode. “We actually have full versions of a lot of these songs that maybe we’ll release some day,” Parker said.

Sadly, in the 22 years since the premiere of “Christian Rock Hard,” Parker and Stone still haven’t dropped the full Faith +1 album. Until that day comes, all fans of the band can do is get their knees, open their mouths, think about Jesus and pray for a steamy Spotify full release.

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