John Schlitt of Petra Interview | Christian Rock, Winning Over Crowds, and Finding Jesus
On The Babylon Bee Interview Show, Kyle and Ethan talk to Petra lead vocalist, John Schlitt. They talk about the journey to front man of Petra, almost getting swept out to sea, and his views on the top Christian music artists. John had a long road into becoming the lead vocalist of Petra that dealt with lots of hardship and an engineering job along the way. Check out BetterHelp.com/BabylonBee for 10% off Kyle and Ethan ask John the difficult questions like, which musician is the flakiest. Kyle and Ethan find out what John's dream team of musicians would be for a super Christian band. John shares stories from playing all over the world. He also shares his secret for getting crowds on his side for shows. In the Subscriber Portion, Kyle and Ethan find out about Carman from John, who filmed a music video with him. John shares a story with a difficult crowd over in New York. Kyle and Ethan find out about some of the biggest Christian bands and what John thought about them when they started out. Kyle and Ethan end the interview with the ever great 10 questions.
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Hard-hitting questions.
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Holy Schlit.
Speaking of the lead singer of Petra, John Schlitt.
A very holy band.
Very holy.
Almost as holy as Striper.
Yeah, in fact, maybe more holy.
I think they were more holy.
Yeah, because Striper's is a GD.
And yeah, they try to be a little edgy.
And they broke up in the early 90s because they were like getting off mission and they had to like regroup for 15 years.
Never happened to Petra.
Yeah, Petra stood strong.
They stood on the rock in the ocean.
We'll hear more about that in the interview where he talks about the tide coming in and almost taking away their drum set.
This is fantastic.
We actually had a Babylon B article where we said a Christian band got swept away by the tide when they were trying to.
And we found out that that was basically true.
Yeah.
That basically happened with Petra.
Yeah, basically, we almost lost him.
And so that's very exciting.
This is a fun trip down Christian music memory lane.
I mean, this guy's a freaking veteran, so he had some stories, some fun stories.
And he didn't take himself too seriously.
He was really, just a really good character.
I loved him.
That was awesome.
We need to interview more old guys.
Yeah, they have the better.
No offense, John.
I mean, I'm not saying that in a bad season-wise.
Like to make it that far, they'll look back on your life.
Right.
It's great.
So if you like Petra, you like metal, you like music, or you just like hearing two weirdos interview someone, check it out.
This is John Schlitt.
Well, here he is, John Schlitt.
Yes, John.
Thanks for coming on, John.
Guys, I've been looking forward to it.
I'm glad that you were able to fit me in.
Well, we moved some things around.
Yeah, we had to kick the Striper guys out to get you on.
Oh, tell Mike, I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Now, if you and Mike were to have a sing-off, like, can he sing higher?
Like a falsetto off.
Like a falsetto off.
Yeah, he'd sing higher than me.
He'd break the most wine glasses.
I don't know about wine glasses, but he, tell you what, we did something in Brazil, and I'm listening to him doing a warm-up.
I'm going, you got to be kidding me.
He's got one of the highest strong voices I've ever heard.
Mike's very impressive.
Now, has that always been the case, or is that, you know, just because I'm an old guy now?
Well, I wasn't going to say it.
That's okay.
Come on, you can say it.
It's all right.
You know, actually, I think probably because I sing a different way, and I was just really impressed with his whoa, you know, it's like Godzilla singing high notes.
I don't know.
You know, with me doing it in my different way, we both have our different styles, you know.
And although I'm old as rain, I actually can still do pretty well.
And as long as I can, I'm going to keep on doing it.
But I wouldn't want to compare myself with Mike by any means.
What age range is like the peak for like a good falsetto for a male?
I don't know.
I haven't hit yet.
Okay, you're still going.
I'm still going, buddy.
All right.
No, I would say, oh, shoot.
What would it be?
I don't know.
And I hate that word falsetto.
It's more head voice.
Come on.
Head voice.
Sorry.
Well, from now on, use the word head voice.
You do head voice.
Yeah.
And falsetto, that's for oh, that's for pop singers.
So like falsetto is like, oh, and false, and head voice is like, yeah, yeah.
In fact, that very tone.
I've always searched for that tone.
Every time I get it, I'm really happy.
Just found it.
Give me some pointers.
Yeah, there's a certain age, you know, some bands hit and they probably should have hung it up like 10 years ago.
But I was watching your recent stuff.
It's pretty good, man.
I'm impressed that you guys keep going with some of this stuff.
I can't remember the group that you were singing with a couple years ago that I was, was it Union something?
Oh, Union Centers and Saints.
Yeah, yeah.
And that was good stuff.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It's again, when I'm in the studio, man, I can do just about anything I could before.
Now, live, because I'm not out on the road all the time.
You get used to the road feel and you get used to the sound men that you're using and you start singing a certain way.
And it's easy to do.
For me now, man, they're all one-offs.
Go out on the weekend, do it.
Whoever's using, whoever's doing the sound at that time, you're hoping that they have some idea of what they're doing.
And so you have to sing, you sing a little more.
I'm not quite as comfortable, so my range probably drops by about, I don't know, a note or two if I'm lucky, probably five notes if I'm not.
But still, it gives me enough range to play around.
You know, it's, I wish that I was able to go out and do tours like I did before and get back into that peak that I was, but I don't know if that's ever going to happen.
And I'm okay with that because, come on, been there, done that.
It's cool.
Now I'm doing something else, and that's cool too.
Yeah.
Did you ever like wear your voice out?
Do you ever go through a point where your voice got like I know that there's some singers that you know the amount of singing not so far?
No, I basically sang.
I sing, I don't know, I guess I sing sort of weird.
And in other words, I don't strip my throat out when I'm sounding like a rocker.
And I don't, like you said, with the head voice, I don't, it's not a major deal for me because I've been doing it for so long.
So, so far, so good, man.
And I appreciate what you said about Union Centers and Saints.
I basically said, I'm going to do this as long as I have a voice because it's what I do.
And so far, I've still got a voice, and I'm really happy about that.
Well, why don't we go back to the beginning for people who don't know the story?
I mean, you were with Head East for a while and left that.
And then eventually we're in Petrus.
You want to walk us through kind of how you got started in the beginning of your career there?
Well, with Head East, I basically got napped band by my wife and I were at a sock hop.
Now that's what is that?
I want you to know I'm really old, so I'm doing these terms that nobody knows what they are anymore.
Anyway, sock hop, it's where you are in a skating rink and you run around in your sockings because you can't shoes on the skating rink.
And bands come in and play.
And I'm listening to this band.
I came home from college to be with my soon-to-be wife.
And hear this band, I'm going, oh my gosh, this band has everything it needs, but me.
Not an arrogance or anything, just facts.
And basically, I just said, well, it's too bad it's never going to happen.
Came back to college and my roommate says, hey, I'm in this.
I met these guys in this band called, at the time, it was called the Timations.
I said, you got to be kidding me.
Tell them they have everything to make it but me.
And so it was arrogant enough that Roger, the leader, who's also arrogant, said, okay, let's see.
And so we got together.
And long story short, I ended up singing with those guys during my fresh, between my freshman and sophomore year in college.
And we went from a sock hop band to a pretty major college bar band like overnight.
And that was like a major step for a band.
Lasted for a semester until I almost flunked out of college, had to quit the band twice.
And finally, after three and a half years of graduating, went to the band that after my last small exam.
And we rebuilt, did our own record in 1975 called Flats of Pancake.
Really, the record was supposed to be just a demo record and had record companies come to us and say, listen, this is great.
Let's see if we're going to change it.
The only thing they changed was made side one, side two, and side two, side one.
And it was, I'll tell you what it was.
It was a musician's dream.
We had having that record, doing it ourselves on a 16-track studio, financing ourselves, and then being able to go out and getting picked up by Premier Booking, which was the biggest booking agent in the world at the time, and AM Records, which was totally a classic record company.
I think our biggest problem was us.
We just got in the way, our attitudes.
You know, we were from the Midwest, party band, characters.
Great band, though.
I mean, it was, I was with four of the most amazing musicians, background singers that you could be.
It just, we just didn't put up with a lot of gut from the East or West Coast.
And afraid that closed the door to us pretty quick.
I like that your record was called Flats of Pancake, but records are even flatter than pancakes.
You know, we got that.
That's true.
We got that from, we went back, we went to Cal or to Colorado to rebuild the band for like two weeks, a place called Joe's Barn Group.
So two weeks we spent mountains and all this stuff.
And we came back after those two weeks, and pretty much the band had gotten developed pretty well.
And we went from Champaign, Urbana to Bloomington, Illinois.
And if anybody knows about Illinois, it's about as flat as Pancake.
And so we're still, we're riding in the car.
And I think Steve, the drummer, said, man, this flat is a pancake.
And somebody says, that's the first, that's the title of our first record.
We kept it that way, man.
So for the next seven years, I went on, I guess five years, five years of touring, come from a little town, just wanting to play great music, and then got into the touring circuit.
Man, it was fun for a long time, but believe it or not, you can have too much fun.
Even a dream, after you do it every night, every night, it gets boring.
So I was looking for the next thrill, and that's when old cocaine and booze came up with me.
And I ended up getting fired in 1980 by the band who were still doing the same thing too, but apparently I was doing a lot more than anybody else.
It's pretty big to fire the lead singer.
Well, not unless you've got a bigger eagle.
No, it was.
Apparently, I was a mess and I didn't really realize it.
And went on a binge for about five months.
I'm going to go, I'm going to create my own band, you know, bigger than all this.
And basically, just a great excuse to stay drunk or coked up for five months.
And at the end of that, I thought maybe I'd hit the bottom and thought suicide was a good idea and sat in my chair thinking which way would be the best.
Didn't want to do a gun because my kids would see it.
So I'm sitting in my chair thinking, okay, what's the best combination that I can get a hold of as far as pills?
And my wife, who in that same six-month period became a Christian, would drive me crazy.
She would come, you know, I'm sitting in my pity party and she'd come up and come from Bible studies and stuff, just so happy.
I said, what world are you living in?
And she says, I'm glad you asked.
And she started trying to throw me up.
I'm telling you guys, you know, when you're a bummed out rocker, you don't want to hear about Christ.
And I'd say, just, I'll tell you what, I'll be a Christian when I've had, when I can't do anything else.
I'm too old to have any more fun.
And yeah, I'm 50.
And she goes, you know what?
Okay, I'm not bothering you.
And, but surprising, when you're considering an option of suicide, your wife comes and taps you on the shoulder, says, listen, you promised you'd come talk to my pastor tonight.
I said, when?
She says, last night when you were really drunk.
I said, okay, all right, I will.
I went to that meeting with an attitude of, nothing's going to change.
I want her to remember I tried.
She can put on my tombstone he tried.
I walked in with an attitude and walked out with the Holy Spirit, and I was a changed man.
Guys, I walked in as an attitude character and walked out as a baby Christian, feeling like, wow, maybe everything's not over.
Try to keep in music.
Oh, boy.
By that time, the Johnny Band had been formed, and I played in some of the biggest pig sties I've ever experienced.
And it was not fun.
And basically, the temptations just tore me apart.
And I finally, sorry.
Sorry about that.
Here's a phone that doesn't work.
Here you go.
All right.
I finally just said, it's Michael Sweet here.
We were talking about it.
Throw it in the oven.
He straight yeeted his phone right out of the room there.
Okay, where was I?
Okay.
Thank you.
I finally gave up.
Yes, my son.
No.
I finally gave up and said, I can't do this anymore.
I'd go back to the little church that I was going to had totally blown during that weekend.
I said, I just can't do this.
So, quit music altogether, thought that was the end of it.
And then actually used my degree, my civil engineering degree, and tried to at least.
Then I basically got a job sweeping a floor in a two-and-by factory, and only because I could draft.
So, you know, with a resume of graduated from the University of Illinois, rock star.
I tried to get real spancy and call it, you know, corporate vice president of a multi-million dollar corporation.
You know, it was a but they saw right through it.
So don't call me, I'll call you.
But I finally got to get a job and ended up as a cost and scheduling engineer for a mining construction company as time went on.
And that was over a five-year period.
And I'm thinking, okay, you know, I've got it.
Here it is.
I've got a great church I go to.
My kids are going to Christian school.
I got my first new home or rebuilt home.
I must have the American dream.
And all of a sudden, the little voice goes, This isn't it.
Don't be content.
And please, guys, I'm not saying God talks to me all the time, but I'm telling you, it was like a feeling where it's like, this isn't it.
I told my wife that she says, What do you think it is?
And remember, I haven't sang for five years, and I'm too old to be a rocker now.
I'm 35.
No way, you know.
So I said, I have no idea.
And about, I guess, about a week later, Bob Hartman calls.
Now, Bob Hartman is the founder of Petra.
And by this time, I'm a big Petra fan because somebody had given me a Petra record and says, This sounds just like your own Baba Christian.
I'm going, Yeah, right.
Yeah, okay.
Because I stopped listening to music altogether.
I tried to listen to some Christian music, you know, like Sandy Patty, Amy Grant.
And those are great girls.
I mean, they're sweethearts, but man, it's just not my style.
Yeah, if you're a rocker, Sandy Patty doesn't quite fill that.
Oh, no.
Great singer.
I'm not knocking.
No, not knocking at all, but just couldn't do it.
So I stopped listening to music altogether.
Listen to the radio and drive me crazy because of stuff I missed.
Listen to Petra.
I'm going, oh my goodness, this is great stuff.
So I finally was able to listen to Petra.
So when Bob called, it's like, oh, wow, my hero.
And called me.
I'm going, why are you calling me, Bob?
He says, well, because Greg, the singer they had, is an amazing singer.
I mean, they didn't need another singer.
So he said, well, actually, he says, want to know, are you still a Christian?
I said, yeah, I'm a heavy duty Christian.
Okay.
He says, well, would you consider singing for Petra?
And I said, I said, what about Greg?
He says, just trust me when I say we're supposed to separate.
I said, okay.
So I said, let's do it.
And he looks at me on the phone.
You can hear him go, don't you think you should pray about it?
I'm going, oh, okay.
And my wife is in the kitchen dancing and praising God and all this.
And I said, there's nothing in my way.
You know, I'm telling you, if my wife is cool with it, I'm cool with it.
It's supposed to happen.
But I said, yeah, we'll pray for it, pray about it, knowing that I was supposed to.
Make another long story short.
About six months later, I'm singing Brisbane, Australia with Petra for the first time and sober for seven years in front of 6,000 people, blow my throat after three songs because I'm so excited.
And I think, okay, that's the first and last time I'll be singing with Petra.
We lasted through the whole Australian tour, came back, and they had the patience of Joe.
And I just had to get the right sound men, you know, the typical right soundmen, get back into shape, learn how to sing again and not be stupid.
And it really clicked.
And for the next 20 years, I was the veteran, traveled all over the world and got to see some amazing stuff.
Another great band.
I mean, a great band.
I've been very privileged to be with some of the most amazing bands in the world.
Well, speaking of seeing amazing stuff, I know that Petra recorded a music video at Shore Acres in Coos Bay, Oregon, which is my hometown.
There you go.
Do you remember that?
I don't.
That was not impressive to me.
I guess not.
It was the ocean.
There were rocks and waves crashing.
That part.
That one.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah, that was with I'm on the rock.
That was beautiful.
I'm sorry.
If you just tell me, they know the one with the ocean.
With the ocean, yeah.
They got the ocean.
Yes, it was beautiful.
In fact, that was actually a video movie.
And the reason we did that was because we wanted to do some video, music videos.
We said, you know what?
Music videos are cool, but there's about three stations that will play a music video, a Christian music video.
So let's make it worth our while.
And we decided to make a movie with six videos in it.
A little more expensive, but we really tried to cut the corners here, there, and whatever, and got a lot of freebie stuff.
And we're able to make, I think, sort of a cool movie video that had six music videos in it.
Did anyone get swept out to sea during that shoe?
Do you lose any drums?
No, but the drum set almost got you up.
I'll tell you what, we're on this island, all right?
This island.
Only problem is this island is only an island for a while.
And when the tide comes in, it disappears.
We didn't know that.
So Louis the drummer decides he's going to get a brand new drum set for the video, which I can understand.
And so we've got these boats that go out the island.
We're setting everything up.
And it's taking forever waiting for a helicopter to come over and do shoots for us and all this.
And all of a sudden, I'm standing on the edge of the water and I'm noticing that the water is coming closer every time.
I'm going, guys, I'm not sure, but I think this island is disappearing.
And they're going, oh, and the local, oh yeah, this island doesn't exist after so-and-so clock, you know.
And we're going, don't you think we better get this thing done?
And so by the time they got done shooting and the helicopter came and all that, it was Scramble City.
I mean, we were doing wading and everything else with the drums over our heads as we as we did.
Louis was not happy about it at all.
We made it.
We didn't ruin his drums.
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So you were like kind of there, the dawn of Christian rock, right?
I mean, what was that?
I mean, at least that's my perception.
So, like, what was it like kind of being around for kind of the, I mean, it wasn't the beginning of Christian music, but Christian rock, it seems like that was when I think beginning of Christian rock, I think Petra.
It was exciting.
It really was.
To be, see, I came in, you know, Petra hit a peak already.
So I came in at, I thought, at the peak.
And then because I was a new guy, they just assumed that you could replace Greg because he's so amazing.
And nobody knew my history because, you know, I hadn't been part of that world at all.
So for the next, oh, shoot, the next year, we had to prove ourselves all over again, almost start from the bottom up.
But when This Means War came out, which was our second album with me, it just exploded.
And it just took it to that next level.
And it was exciting.
It was exciting to use a music form that I love.
I do.
I'm still a rocker.
If you know my latest stuff, you'll notice that I haven't swayed too far away from the 70s, 80s rock sound because I think that's real rock and roll.
So I try to use the newest sounds and all this, but still that foundation of what a rock band is supposed to be.
And Petra had several challenges.
First of all, to a lot of the churches, because we were rock and roll, they thought we were straight from hell.
And to the mainstream radio, because we were Christian, we couldn't be rock and roll.
So we were back.
There was quite a battle in that.
But I felt it was totally worth it.
And the band was amazing.
Our producers were amazing.
We really, on the budget of about one-tenth of what I was used to with Head East, we were doing product.
The product was, I stand by right now.
I'm just, even though it's, you know, 30, 40 years old now, it just, it still was quality stuff.
And I, and because of that, we were able to cut through a lot of roadblocks that a lot of the bands couldn't.
And I was really happy to be part of that.
So if 70s and 80s rock suddenly disappeared, what second music genre would you embrace if you still wanted to make music?
Rap core.
Gangster rap.
Gangster rap.
Bluegrass.
Probably grunge.
Grunge.
Could grunge exist without.
I'll tell you what, if rock and roll disappeared, I'd probably go build furniture.
I'd be a civil engineer.
Because, you know, it's my thing.
It's what I do.
I will say that Some of the pop stuff, you know, when you've got a great singer with amazing background vocals and it's not a drum loop that you've heard 14 dozen times with the same bass, when you've got talent going in and doing stuff, there's some singers out there now that just are amazing that aren't just trying to sing 14 dozen notes in a second that actually carry notes out.
There's still some great music, and it's just, I just, I just want exciting music.
I want exciting music that a singer can sing to and be and be inspired by.
I don't care what it's called.
If it's called rock and roll, great, if it's called pop, that's great.
I don't care.
If you could get any of the old heavy metal guys, musicians saved from the 60s, 70s, or 80s, what dream team would you form to create the ultimate Christian band?
Ultimate what band?
Christian band.
Like you got to get an ultimate Christian rock band.
You could get Ronnie James with the secular guys?
Yeah.
The secular guys?
Any of them, yeah, you can take it.
If you convert like four or five guys and make a Christian band, who would it be?
Boy, guys, that's a cool question.
Boy.
Okay, I can tell you the bands that when I was in Head East that I loved the tour with Journey, Foreigner, Styx, Head East.
Grab any one of those guys, put them together.
As long as they're heavy-duty Christians, that would be a super band.
And it could be any combination.
Just use any of those guys.
I mean, the old band members, the Tommy Shaws, the shoot.
Please, I mean, just those are bands.
You know, those are real bands.
Grab any of them, put four or five of them together, and you have a super band.
All right.
Cool.
Good answer.
So, what do you think of the secular versus Christian music divide?
Do you think it's a healthy divide and there's issues with it or being on that side of it?
What do you think of it?
I think it sucks.
But you know what?
It's what it is.
Christian, the Christian market can't play mainstream because mainstream has no idea what it's about.
The messages of mainstream are totally counteracted to what the messages are for Christian music.
As far as, and I guess it's not fair to say, well, if Christian music's industry is not going to play regular secular music, then why should secular music play Christian music?
So it's a shame because the avenue, it's a shame.
I mean, a lot, for instance, U2 was played on a lot of Christian stations for a long time until Bono went out and spewed a couple of words at the Grammy Awards.
And the Christian public realized maybe this isn't a Christian band.
But in the secular world, it's like it just, there's been a big roadblock for Petra from the word go, even after we had four Grammys.
It's just still, I mean, nobody argued with our talent, with the music ability of the band.
I mean, anybody does is stupid.
But they certainly can't stand our message because it's too Christian.
And a lot of times, a lot of times, the messages of the world today are absolutely anti-Christian.
And so it's just a battle of two worlds.
What about the other side of that?
Back when you guys were starting out.
I know that Striper uh had some, definitely had some.
There's some controversy calling the being called the devil's music.
Do you guys go through any of that controversy?
No I, I just knew they were going to get it.
I mean uh, you know they were extreme to me.
I just joined the, joined Petra when Striper was the hot thing on every magazine and all this i'm going oh, give me a break, what's going on?
And really I didn't know the guys then and uh, I think I was a little jealous.
They were getting too much attention.
Petra wasn't.
We've been around.
We've been around a lot longer than them.
Why aren't men from the covers?
But Striper did their thing and they did it very well.
And they did break through and they did get a lot.
But they were smart with their image.
It was so controversial that it was just a smart move.
Where Petra, Petra had developed slowly.
And they had to deal with, I mean, their first record came out and the Christian bookstores had to sell it underneath the table.
It's that kind of stuff.
So Petra was very synonymous for Christian music.
They had developed into, oh, what's Christian rock, Petra?
Oh, well, you either hated him or loved him.
And so Striper came out and said, all bets are off.
Bing, bang, boom.
This is what we're going to do.
And it rocked everybody's boats.
And the secular world loved it because it was cool.
Good for them.
And, you know, as we got to know each other, I saw their hearts.
And boy, they're heavy-duty dudes and they're still out doing their thing and putting out records left and right.
And it's cool.
Do you have any hair care advice for those of us who want to retain long, luscious locks?
Even as we get older, it's more important.
Shampoo or conditioner.
You know, I was warned that you guys are going to ask me hard questions.
No, I don't.
Dogged on it.
I wish I, because I can see right now you guys probably need it.
Yeah.
How'd you find this guy?
So, no, but all I can say is just pray.
God, please leave my hair on my head.
You know, that kind of thing.
Okay, so you're, you know, I don't know if you're like high school age, whatever the moment in your life, you start, the thought came in your head, I want to be a rock and roll singer.
You time travel back to that point.
What advice or warnings do you give to your young self?
I say, learn how to play guitar and don't stop.
Learn how to play guitar, get back to keyboards, make sure that you work on your guitar and your keyboards.
Because my whole life, I had been embarrassed that I'm just a front man.
I'm not good enough to play guitar in front of anybody, and I'm not good enough to play keyboards in front of anybody.
And I'm around so many ridiculous artists, i.e. Mike Sweet.
I mean, he plays a mean guitar and sings like a rocker.
I just stand up there, hold on, I'm a singer, big deal.
You know, it's it.
I've always been disappointed in the fact that I never carried it through.
That's what I tell my young self.
That's always got to be hard to figure out what to do during like the solos and stuff when you're just holding the mic.
You got to come up with stuff to do.
No, no, no.
I'm a pro front man, buddy.
I know exactly.
Yeah, buddy.
Don't you tell me I don't know what to do.
Come on.
No, I'm just saying that's my sympathy to guys over.
Yeah.
No, actually, as a front man, what you do is you take, you take the spotlight that's always on you, and I deserve it.
It's okay.
Take this public, it's always on me and run back, stand behind the lead guitar player because those poor guys, the spotlight guys, just never seem to know that you put the spotlight on the lead guitar player when he's playing the lead or the board player when he plays.
So you just run back there and make you sort of guide the spotlight operators to that and zero in on where the attention should be.
You're like the circus barn, you know, and on this circle here and over here, and there's drampy, you know, just you guide, you guide everyone to where the action should be seen.
So you've worked with a lot of musicians in your time.
So we got bassists, we got drummers, we got lead guitar players, we got vocalists.
Which is the flakiest of those?
But you want, what is it?
You want to make enemies of my friends?
Is that it?
I really thank you for that.
It depends on what mood I'm in and who I've just talked to, I guess.
I tend to.
I'll say in my experience, it's drummers for sure.
Well, see, that in order of happenings, drummer, bass player, guitar player, keyboard player.
Singers, of course, there's nothing.
They're perfect.
But it seems like the less spotlight you get, the more flaky you are.
That's my theory.
I totally agree.
You don't feel up.
You feel more replaceable.
All right.
Yeah, and you are.
It's true.
It's true.
Sorry, Larry.
I'm just kidding.
Sorry, Kristen.
I'm just kidding.
Trust me.
Spinal tap with like 37 different drummers.
I mean, it's just.
Well, I've gone through a few, but they were all really good.
So it's hard to, like I said, it's when you say which one's the flakiest, well, the flakiest is still really good.
So I'm covering.
So when they call me and say, what do you mean by that?
I can come back.
Do you have any cool stories like cool shows you've played or weird shows you've played or anything like that?
Yes.
Anything starting fire on stage ever?
Yes.
Can you tell us about that?
No.
No, I got them.
Okay.
Okay.
This may not mean anything to you guys, but it does to me.
I was in Sweden.
Our producers had just come out to visit us, John and Dino, for the first time.
We hadn't worked with him yet.
They just wanted to see what kind of thing.
And like I said, 6,000 people.
The place was packed.
They had super troopers.
I mean, almost burning my eyeballs.
I mean, I couldn't see a thing.
So, and this is when it was cool to have nothing on stage.
All the amps and everything were underneath the stage.
And all you had was a set of drums and guitar, you know, your instruments in your hands.
But I was used to side monitors.
All right.
This is before in ears.
I was used to side monitors blowing my head off from the sides.
Well, for some reason, they didn't have those.
They had floor monitors.
Okay, I run all over the place because I'm a lead singer.
It was my job to make sure that there was never a quiet time on stage.
So I'm running around and I stand up there at the front of the stage and I'm pointing and I start to back up.
And yes, you know, what was behind me?
Floor monitor.
I fall flat on my rear end.
And I'm told to be cool, but it's not cool to fall flat in your area in front of 6,000 people while you're singing.
So I get up trying to figure out how to recover.
And normally a singer will go backstage, you know, back behind the equipment and sort of get re-established.
Okay, okay, get back.
There was nothing.
There was nothing.
So I go back to the drums and Louie's drumming and he says, get away from me.
Get away from me.
You're the one that fell.
You're the one.
I'm going.
And I'm going.
And I'm going to curse now or something.
Please understand, I'm a Christian, all right?
But I'm not a perfect Christian.
And I go back there and I forget that drums have a lot of mics by them.
Oh, yeah, they do.
And I go to the drums and he's yelling.
And I said, Stumps.
And I mean, as loud as I possibly could.
And all of a sudden, I'm hearing echoes.
Stumps.
Stumps.
I'm going, okay, that's it.
That's perfect.
That's perfect.
The only saving grace is in Switzerland.
Stumps.
Not a bad word.
That was God.
I'm telling you, that was God helping me out.
What can I say?
So when we edit this, we put a different word over naughty words.
So I'm excited to see the guys put an echo on it.
Yeah.
Fireben, fireben, fireman, firebene.
Hey, you, are you enjoying this interview?
Oh, I know I am.
Oh, I sure am.
I'm actually probably sweating trying to think up new questions right now at this very moment.
But if you're enjoying it, you should become a Babylon B subscriber because the interviews are much longer.
Yes.
And we also have the most fun because the portion of the interview that does not go up here on YouTube publicly can be Googled.
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And I'll tell you, probably, and another one that was pretty exciting was one of the last shows we did on the farewell tour with Petra was we played in Argentina and we played at a football, the biggest football, well, soccer arena in South America.
And it officially holds like 96,000 when we oversold it.
Wow.
And I remember we had, you know, one of those aisles that you go out and you sit into the stage in the middle of the audience.
Walked in out there and looked around seeing almost 100,000 people knowing our stuff.
Couldn't speak English, but they could sing our songs.
And that was, that was probably, and for the fact being one of the last shows that Petra did, that was very cool.
Do you find that South American audiences, other countries are like better crowds than American?
Because I watch metal concerts and if you watch ones where they play in South America, it's like crazy.
I'll tell you what, don't get me wrong.
I love American crowds, but I will say the South American, Central America, they are quite the crowds.
The first tour we ever did was on No Doubt Tour.
And it's probably the closest thing I ever came to feeling like the Beatles.
I mean, from motorcycle cops running barricades in front of you to separating the traffic where you're just zipping through with sirens flowing.
It was quite a trip.
Not too many people can experience that kind of thing.
And I was, to tell you the truth, I was totally shocked because we'd never been to South America or Central America before.
And I figured, you know, maybe we'll get a few people to come to see us.
And there were more people at the airport waiting for us than I figured there'd be in any stage that we'd have.
So it was pretty cool.
Yeah.
And it always has been.
Brazil, Argentina, some of the state countries in Central America, they're all, I want to say wacky, but I mean it in a very, very cool way.
I mean, they're just, they're just inside.
Yeah.
Who has the worst crowds?
Toledo.
I don't know.
I've never seen it.
Fresno.
I don't know.
No, there are no worst crowds.
There are crowds where you're warned.
Oh, this crowd won't get up for you because they just sit there and they don't do anything.
It's surprising how if you play good music and you have fun with them, it's surprising how people can let loose and have a ball.
One of the secrets of doing, making, quote, a bad crowd, a good crowd is letting them know that you're not an arrogant piece of garbage and that you're there for them to have fun, not for you to have fun.
And the harder the crowd, the more you work to be their friends.
And you do that by saying, hey, I'm just one of us.
You know, we're one of you all.
We came and we thank you for letting us share your time with us.
And if you come into that attitude, it's surprising how a crowd will go, okay, all right, I like this.
They're my butts.
And all of a sudden, the whole attitude of prove it is more like, cool, let's have some fun.
That's all a band really should do.
A band is nothing but entertainment.
Now, with a Christian band, it's entertainment with the message that can change lives.
But really, we're called a Christian rock band.
Okay, we better be the best rock band that we possibly can be.
But on the same hand, we better be Christ-like as possible.
So it's a double whammy.
And see, I think Christ deserves the best.
And even though we walk, we play in front of a whole lot less people a lot of times.
So the event is not as big.
And our budget is one-tenth of what, at its peak of what our regular counterparts are, you still do your best and you give your best and you say, you thank God for the fact that you were chosen to do this.
And from the time I got a second chance after Head East to go out and be with Petra, I have praised God for it every day.
I just still do now, even with my sore neck.
Hey, I did a lot of bobbing and now it hurts.
But you know what?
Still go out and have a ball because all of a sudden you walk on stage and that sore neck ain't sore no more.
It may be afterwards, but it ain't sore then.
And you just, as long as the voice and the will to do it and the opportunity, that's the biggie.
I'm 71.
Who wants to go see a 71 rock?
Apparently, enough people to keep me busy.
It's probably really healthy, actually, for a 35-year-old to start going to a rock band rather than normally it's like they're like 18 or 19, which you're probably the worst decision maker that you're going to be in your entire life.
And people tend to like get locked into the age that they're in when they succeed, right?
So they become 19-year-olds for life.
So at least you mean like a 35-year-old for life, which is a lot better.
Yeah, it's true.
Wow.
You know what?
That was very profound.
Sometimes we're serious.
This is right.
Very profound.
Thank you.
That's right.
I'm a 35-year-old and a 71-year-old buddy.
That's exactly right.
Yeah.
That's the difference between the 25-year-old that was in Head East and the 35-year-old that was in Petra.
Yeah.
Yeah, you looked out.
Hey, let's move to our subscriber portion.
Yeah, we love stories.
You give us a couple.
We want to get deeper into your just crazy stories from life in a rock band.
We want to find out if you have ever met Carmen.
We want to find out any other crazy characters in Christian music and find out if you have any more horror stories from the stage.
Let's do it.
Yes, I met Carmen.
So we're going to go into our subscriber portion, right?
Coming up next for Babylon B subscribers.
They were truly the worst band I'd ever heard.
What's change?
You guys ever get a show where you're just like a really bad mismatch for the night?
And we played a show in Chicago and actually got booed.
DC Talk, let's talk about DC Talk.
Yeah.
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