Jennifer Knapp

Knapp was born in Chanute, Kansas, on April 12, 1974, with her twin sister Lori. Knapp has called her childhood "difficult" and "abusive" due in part to her parents' acrimonious divorce and her father's remarriage. As a teenager, she was a classical trumpet player. In 1992, Knapp attended Pittsburg State University on a music scholarship.

Initially, Knapp identified as an atheist; but, after making Christian friends in university, she converted to Christianity. With the encouragement of her new friends, Knapp began writing her own Christian music and performing locally as much as possible.

Knapp began selling her two independent albums at shows. Her second album, Wishing Well, attracted the attention of Christian producer TobyMac, who signed her to Gotee Records. She left school to go on tour before finishing her degree.

Kansas (1998), Knapp's critically acclaimed studio debut, eventually sold over 500,000 copies, becoming Gold-certified by the RIAA. Knapp won 1999 Dove Awards for New Artist of the Year and Rock Song of the Year for "Undo Me". She also contributed vocals to Audio Adrenaline's cover of "It Is Well with My Soul".

Knapp toured the US, singing primarily in churches but also performing at festivals. At the 1999 Lilith Fair, she joined the Indigo Girls and Sarah McLachlan on stage to sing "Closer To Fine", a performance she has referred to as her favorite concert experience.

In addition to writing and performing music, Knapp co-founded an artist management company, Alabaster Arts, with business partner Steve Thomas. Alabaster's clients included Relient K, The O.C. Supertones, and Katy Hudson (later known as Katy Perry).

Unlike her previous solo acoustic album, her second album Lay It Down (2000) featured multiple backing musicians. That year she headlined a national "Christian heavyweight" tour with Third Day, who observed that Knapp helped attract a larger and broader audience for their concerts.

In several interviews, Knapp spoke about the possibility of expanding outside of the Christian music market, saying "I want to reach as many people as possible". Lay It Down reached #1 on the Christian music charts and #77 on the Billboard 200 and garnered a nomination for Best Rock Gospel Album in the 2000 Grammy Awards.

Knapp's next album, The Way I Am (2001), was inspired by Jesus Christ's crucifixion and incarnation. The album was recorded while Knapp was on tour and featured the London Symphony Orchestra on the song "By and By". The Way I Am reached #10 on the Christian music charts and #130 on the Billboard 200; it was nominated for a 2002 Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album but lost to Third Day.

Over the course of her Christian music career, Knapp grew increasingly disillusioned with the conservative views of the industry, particularly its emphasis on purity culture and evangelism and its scrutiny of her faith and behavior. She faced burnout due to her hectic schedule that included touring 250 days a year and recording two albums in two years.

By mid-2001, Knapp had resolved to complete the next year's contractual obligations and then take a break from her music career. In her memoir, Knapp describes this decision leading to conflict with her business partner at Alabaster Arts; after a legal battle, she lost her shares and was required to pay a percentage of her income to the company.

In 2002, Knapp toured with Jars of Clay and Shaun Groves on The Eleventh Hour Tour. On September 10, 2002, Knapp played the last concert of her Christian music career in Abilene, Texas, and subsequently went on hiatus, eventually moving to Australia.

While Knapp was on hiatus, her record label continued to release albums of previously recorded music. The Collection was released in 2003. Three years later, Gotee Records issued the album Jennifer Knapp Live, which features live recordings from four shows in The Back 40 Tour.

Her lead guitarist at the time, Mark Lee Townsend, had originally recorded the tracks as a tour memento but lost the tapes. After he rediscovered them, they were compiled into Knapp's first live album with no additional retouching in studio.

In February 2008, Gotee Records re-issued a 10th anniversary edition of Kansas with re-mastered and additional tracks, including "Jesus Loves Me (Wishing Well version)" and other tracks from her 2006 live album.

In February 2010, Knapp announced that her new album, Letting Go, would be released on May 11 and supported by a spring 2010 tour with Derek Webb and summer appearances on the revived Lilith Fair tour. Letting Go reached positions on multiple charts, including #3 on US Folk Albums and #73 on Billboard 200.

In interviews with Christianity Today, Reuters, and The Advocate that were simultaneously published on April 13, 2010, Knapp announced that she is gay and has been in a relationship with a woman since 2002. Additionally, she said that Letting Go would not be a Christian album and predicted that her coming out would alienate many of her Christian fans.

In 2011, Knapp performed at the first annual Wild Goose Festival, a music and arts festival designed for a liberal Christian audience. Other performers and speakers included Derek Webb, Sarah Masen, and Brian McLaren. Since then, Knapp has performed regularly at the festival.

The following summer, Knapp collaborated with Margaret Becker on an album, The Hymns of Christmas. In early 2014, Knapp began recording a new album in Nashville with producer Jacob Lawson. The album, Set Me Free, was released on October 14, 2014, on Righteous Babe Records.

Her next album was Love Comes Back Around (2017), which Curve called: "love songs for grown-ups who have come a few miles". Knapp referred to the album as "my deepest look at love yet" and said that the musical style was less folk rock than she had originally expected.

As Knapp had predicted, her sexual orientation reduced her music's popularity among her Christian fanbase. However, by 2012, she was regularly appearing in front of Christian audiences again, as part of Inside Out Faith, her project of performing music and speaking about her faith and LGBTQ issues.

In 2022, Knapp estimated that her fanbase was a mixture of longtime fans of her Christian music and newer fans of her non-Christian music and LGBTQ advocacy work. To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Kansas, Knapp re-recorded the album, releasing Kansas 25 in May 2024. The album was funded via a Kickstarter campaign.

Knapp's music has frequently been referred to as rock, especially folk rock. She has been compared to Melissa Etheridge, Jewel, Sheryl Crow, and Natalie Merchant.

From the beginning of her career, Knapp has had a reputation for authenticity and honesty, a quality which distinguished her early music from other CCM and which has also been observed in her later music. Her early music included spiritual themes, especially of sin and redemption, while her later music was less overtly religious.

In her memoir, Knapp describes becoming close friends with and eventually falling in love with her road manager, Karen, while she was a Christian music star. She also describes struggling to reconcile her religious beliefs with her sexual orientation. Karen assisted her in navigating her break from the music industry and dissuaded her from discarding her guitars and music awards.

During Knapp's hiatus, they travelled together and began dating, eventually moving to Karen's birth country, Australia, where Knapp became a citizen. After announcing her return to music, Knapp publicly came out as gay in 2010.

Knapp's identity as a gay Christian has been controversial in the Christian community and has reduced her music's popularity in the Christian market. However, Knapp has also stated that the reactions to her coming out have been unexpectedly positive and that she has received significant support.

In 2018, Knapp completed a Master of Theological Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Knapp lives in Nashville and is married.