The Newsboys and The Babylon Bee | A Bee Interview With Duncan Phillips and Michael Tait
The Babylon Bee talks to two of the Newsboys to find out how they know for sure that breakfast isn't served in Hell. Michael Tait and Duncan Phillips chat about their new album STAND (Deluxe) and whether or not they will be tapped to do the soundtrack for God's Not Dead 17. They talk about the Lord, the Christian music scene and have some thoughts about The Babylon Bee. Get their new album Stand (Deluxe): https://www.amazon.com/STAND-Deluxe-CD/dp/B09SQ4JJ7J
Hey everyone, welcome to the Babylon B Interview Show.
I'm Kyle Mann.
I'm Adam Jenser.
And today we talk to half of the newsboys.
Yeah, we got Michael Tate, the lead singer, and Duncan Phillips, the drummer.
They got a new album coming out, Stand.
It's the deluxe edition of their other album, Stand.
And they got their touring around the U.S. and three performances in New Zealand in November, and then they're touring again in the West Coast in January.
And they got two new songs out, King of Kings and Jesus Did.
So now that we got all that out of the way, we get to go to the interview now.
They were really funny.
They were awesome, yeah.
Talk about their careers and their new music.
And yeah.
Yeah, so here we go.
Check it out.
This is the big one, boys.
We talked to the newsboys.
Boys.
Awesome.
Let me start by saying, I'll start by saying Babylon B is pretty colorful.
We're going to put that as our new quote on our website.
Pretty colorful.
It's good.
It's good.
And that's why we are interested in this interview because you guys are colorful.
You never know what to expect.
You don't know what you're going to get, but that's good.
That's good.
A new twist on something.
I love it.
Really?
Are you sure?
I don't know.
I like that.
I don't think anybody's ever described us as colorful before.
I mean, you're picking your words very carefully, it feels like.
So these days, right?
Variety is the spice of life.
That's it, man.
That's it.
Well, you know, we're a Christian culture podcast.
You know, we talk about all kinds of, you know, Christian culture stuff, Christian music.
But in a colorful way.
In a colorful way, we've been told.
In a colorful way, apparently.
Exactly.
And we've never talked to the newsboys, which is, you know, that's like the elephant in the room when you're talking about Christian culture from the 90s all the way through today.
You know, you look at most bands in the 90s, Christian bands back then that I was into.
You know, I got a five-iron frenzy tattoo on my lower back.
And it faded away a little bit.
So, I mean, what was the key to longevity for the newsboys?
Yeah, so we always say we will evolve until we dissolve.
The stones are still around, for God's sakes.
I don't know what the key, there's a key to longevity.
I just know that we've stayed consistent to our craft.
We feel called to this by God.
So that's timeless and put it that way.
I think there is.
I think a part of it is we so still love what we do.
We're so very passionate about what we do.
And we just keep on turning up.
I think a part of success is you just keep on turning up.
And that's what we've ever done.
We just did a show this last weekend.
And I felt like a 16-year-old kid up there.
Me too.
Yeah.
You know, I was just like, oh my gosh, you can't believe playing the show.
We actually enjoy doing shows.
And as they say in England, we stay trendy.
In a good way, in a sense, we try to keep up with what people want to hear, where they are, where music is, and being conscious and aware, you know, of what's in the room.
And you probably live a similar lifestyle to like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, right?
So pretty much.
Absolutely.
No doubt about it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I came home with my helicopter today for my idea.
Pretty good life.
You thought me was 5 million.
No, it was 10 million.
I lied.
Dang it.
Now, Duncan, I know you've been with the Newsboys longer.
What were the early influences, musically speaking, for the, I mean, it was such a, I had the cassette tape for Take Me to Your Leader.
That was like, well, I had Free at Last and I had Jesus Freak, of course, and I had Take Me to Your Leader.
Those were like my cassette tapes growing up.
So it's so alternative when you listen to it now.
You know, we were, we were kind of, we had Sandy Patty and we had Amy Grant, we had Michael W. Smith, you know, and God bless all of them.
But this was so out there and different from all that stuff.
Well, it was.
I mean, you know, we were guys who grew, I grew up in the 80s.
That was my first love was 80s music.
DC Talk was probably his biggest influence.
Yeah, absolutely.
I don't have to go with no one now.
I'll be quiet.
No, but DC Talk are awesome.
I mean, I grew up ELO, the cars, the clash.
I mean, all those kind of real, I mean, Gary Newman, yeah, you know, remember John Farnum back in the day, NXS, you know, men at work, just it goes mid-night oil, it goes on and on.
And that was, it was such a great time to be alive and playing music and listening to music.
So we had all these influences.
I was a massive NXS fan.
Love Michael Hutchinson.
Oh, me too.
Just the whole vibe was so stinking cool.
Hey, little sister, what have you done?
Billy Idol.
Hey, little sister, who's in?
Okay.
So, anyway.
How we're my son.
See what I got to deal with.
Sorry, huh?
Yes.
So we grew up in that, love, love pop music.
I think we were always very aware.
You know, coming up through the 90s, and Nirvana hit, and there was that whole guitar driven, have all these angst.
And so, so we were kind of influenced, even though I think Newsboys was definitely its own bag.
It was definitely its own thing.
You knew as soon as you put the radio and Newsboys song, oh, that's Newsboys.
You just knew because we had our certain sound.
We're very unique in that way, but we are absolutely influenced by everything that we're hearing at the time.
No doubt.
Well said.
Yeah.
And it's interesting that you pull mostly secular bands for that because that is the vibe that you get.
That it's not, it wasn't like we're going to make this Christian thing that's going to do the same sounds that these other Christian bands are doing.
It was like an authentic, you know, influence from outside, you know.
I mean, for us, if it was good, it was good.
Right, right.
And then so much in the 80s, 90s, so much really good music coming out.
And, you know, I don't know.
I never really, when I was a kid, when I first started playing in these bands as a person Newsboys, when we first came to America, that's when we got categorized.
Well, you sing about faith.
So you're a Christian band.
Yeah.
And okay, cool, whatever.
But growing up in Australia, it wasn't quite as defined.
So we get out, we play in a club or a pub somewhere and we play all the covers, but then we throw in our songs in the midst of it.
That's what it should be.
So it's kind of maybe we kind of didn't grow up in Nashville.
So have that whole Nashville thing.
Now, there's nothing wrong with that.
Love Nashville and love the whole music industry here.
I never got that part, though.
Like when they would, when they would categorize you, you're right.
Cause it's like, yeah, me Toby and I years ago, we were like, we were looking, when we first got our records and our CDs into a Tower Records, we thought, oh man, we've made it in Tower Records.
But of course, it was in the Christian category, which is still making it, whatever.
But I was like, Tina Turner's Buddha.
Why is she not on a Buddhist rock?
Yeah, yeah.
That's not those guys.
Anyway, the relay.
Do you ever see the South Park where Cartman creates a Christian band?
Yes.
Did you guys use that strategy at all?
Just taking all those old songs and just sing Jesus.
Pretty much nailed it right there.
That's good.
Oh, that's a sound bite right there.
You know, that's kind of that's good.
Good job.
Yeah.
The Newsboys endorses South Park.
It's the name of our episode now.
Wait a second.
It's a colorful show.
It's a colorful show as Michael Tate.
That's right.
Colorful people.
Hey, that's another reference.
You didn't grow up with Christian music, so you don't know any of these references.
DC Talk, I knew.
I don't know much after it.
So you know him, but you don't know him.
Well, and I, and I know of the album Jesus Freak.
But yeah, I was more into secular music growing up.
So, yeah.
What?
Secular music.
As we were prepping for this interview, we had an internal debate.
Are there four newsboys or five?
There's four guys.
Unless you're the fifth one, you're not telling me.
Yeah, it's four guys.
I mean, back in the day in the 90s, late 90s, there was actually six guys in the band.
And then our bass player left.
Our bass player left just before we're going to go over to China and play some shows over there.
So then we went to five.
And then another guy left, what, 12 years ago?
12 years ago, Pete left.
Michael came on board.
And even our road manager, our production manager, tour manager was with us afresh this weekend.
And he said he's been out with another tour.
They've got 20 guys on stage.
It's a great, great outfit.
But he said there's so much power when there's four guys on stage and it's like nothing was muddy.
Everything speaks sonically.
Well, really.
And he said it was so powerful.
It's actually more powerful than having 20 guys on stage because everything is allowed to breathe sonically.
Yeah, it depends what they're doing too.
If you have four guys like the Beatles, like you two, a band that's four guys, everybody's going to be doing their part well.
Yeah.
And you're like, there's no slacker.
There's no second or third guitars.
You can just goof off and do that.
It's none of that.
No smoke breaks.
The guitars is the guitar.
The drums are the drums.
And of course, vocal is vocal.
So it's there's a lot more pressure, but it's it can be very, I think equally more powerful.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And when you have three people like DC Talk, you all have to be really good.
Well, some might say.
I like him to the band Three Dog Night.
So every guy is his own guy.
And it's, yeah.
But you guys are very unique.
You each brought something to the table that the other guy didn't have, you know?
Yes.
So unique that we it's so unique that you split ways.
I mean, that's how you work.
That's another interview.
Another time.
Another time and place.
Who would win in a fist fight?
You or Kevin or Toby?
In a fist fight against all three, like a big melee.
Throw you in a room.
No weapons.
I'd probably overpower them.
Toby's booty is pretty coordinated.
Kevin's got some power behind his punch.
You should tell that story.
You say it like you know.
Can we hear them experience this punch before?
Right, right.
Years ago.
It was a killer story.
You guys on the road.
Here's you on the road.
DC, before you came on.
Just before I got talking newsboys tour, which took the newsboys out on a tour called the New School Jam.
It was with us and Heather Kirsten.
And that was early 90s.
Like 90.
Then the twins, the dynamic twins.
These two black guys.
Yeah, yeah.
Hip-hop guy.
And so we did this tour.
And in the middle of the tour, you guys were at a track stop.
We had a show in Colorado, headed to California, a couple of days' drive.
So we stopped doing the day to the Shoni.
We get the Shonys.
We've been almost on the bus all day long.
This guy, that guy, me and Peter Perl, this guy, that guy, this guy over there, changing back at truck stops, each other's buses hanging out.
And we get to Shonys.
Toby and Kevin had not yet arm wrestled.
And this is bad.
Kevin's going to kill me for this.
It's good.
It's good.
So we're in the restaurant and Toby's there, Kevin's there.
All of a sudden, we go boom.
And Toby goes, boom, takes on the easy.
No problem.
We're kids, 22, 23 years old.
Then Kevin goes, and of course, Eagle kind of stands up.
You think, I got a guy, I got to do better than this.
Then he gets back there again.
And guys, the grossest thing on the planet happened.
He went, he fought it.
Then Toby's went.
Oh, you heard what's this?
It's a snap.
You saw Kevin's arm go like this.
Compound fracture.
Right here.
Completely snapped.
Yeah.
He's a bone in his heart.
Meanwhile, I'm going, oh my gosh.
Oh, my gosh.
No way.
I'm freaking out.
And Peter Fuller runs towards the Shoni's front door, hits the door, and passes out because it was an absolute mess.
He was so surprised.
It was a crime scene.
It was like he just takes his boom and what I'm watching is fall out of his sleep.
And Kevin's screaming every word in the book because he's insane beyond words.
But I don't think Kevin's ever forgotten Toby.
But the tour goes on.
The tour went on.
Yeah.
Christian bands are always known for going wild in Shonis.
Oh, Shonies up.
That's the Babylon B, I know.
Now, Duncan, do you ever get motion sickness on that spinning drum thing?
And have you ever fallen off of it?
No, no, I've never fallen off, but I have got stuck upside down.
And it goes around.
It was like I said, go boom, boom, boom.
And Duncan gets stuck.
It was like a seven o'clock.
Yeah, but what happened?
I got stuck on my, I was leaning up in the air like this, and I'm stuck.
I'm like, oh my gosh.
So I keep on playing, finish the song.
He's still stuck, right?
Still stuck.
So we, we, the lights go out.
Then I have about four crew guys come up, unstrap me out of the set, lift me up on my back, down off the VSD of the stage.
It's like a stuck first world.
And then we had to completely stop the show.
Then we kind of got it back up manually, got it back down on the ground, and just started the show back up.
Hey, we're back.
It's like a spinal tap scene or something.
I'd like if someone had to operate it manually for the rest of the show.
There's just someone there like spin-cranking it with their hands.
That thing's a beast.
It weighs like 10,000 pounds.
It's crazy.
That's not quite that.
10,000 songs with the main approach.
It's about two ton, the thing.
So it had to be.
It had to have all its weight because when you have those spinning forces going out there, there's so much centrifugal force and so much weight.
It's completely, you know, changing your center of gravity the whole time.
So it has to be really heavy.
And then we've got legs on it underneath it to go really wide to make sure that it's not going to.
Thank you, Dr. Einstein, for that.
He asked.
The newsboys are going to split up after this interview.
They're going to break each other's arms again.
Guys, I'll come up for you guys.
Now, did any of you ever deliver newspapers or are you just appropriating that culture?
Yeah, no.
No, I never did.
Did he?
Yeah.
Yeah, never.
Four o'clock in the morning.
Pickle sack.
Yeah.
He never missed, he said.
Yeah.
Never missed a yard.
He broke one window.
He never missed a yard.
That's a big target.
To hit a yard.
Wait, that will acre lots.
So come on.
No, Okay.
To back up, clarify, I lived on Capitol Hill all my life.
I lived on Capitol Hill.
We live in 1875 square foot homes that were brownstone stuck together.
So the yard was literally like a matchbox.
Yeah, that's only 20 feet wide, maybe.
So if that the newspapers always hit the ground.
Exactly.
Well, how did you guys get this inside theological knowledge that they don't serve breakfast in hell?
Was that a special revelation or?
Well, going back, going back to those days, it seemed like there was a lot more.
We had a lot more ability to do crazy stuff because we were considered an alternative band.
We were not getting played on AC music.
We got played pretty much on CHR, which was kind of like the alternative version of music.
And so we kind of just sang about, we sang the way we wanted, especially lyrically, the way we wanted to.
And that was actually Steve Taylor.
I don't know if you know who Steve Taylor is, but he, for many records, was almost like the fifth Beatle, you know, look at Bernie Toppenboy.
Well, he was.
You're right.
Exactly right.
So he and Peter work very, very well together.
Peter wrote most of the songs and then musically.
And then Steve Taylor will come along.
And Steve Taylor, if you ever met him, he's an awesome dude, super creative, but super quirky at the same time.
So with Peter's kind of pop sensibilities mixed with Steve Taylor's quirkiness as far as lyrically, it was just a golden moment.
I think Newsboys passed.
I think it was real special.
It was a real special time.
I never come live.
Breakfast in Hell can never do live because just the words, words have to like connect for me in a sense.
I'm kind of basic, guys.
Shocker.
They have to work together for me to remember them like Word Association, but it was like, you know, squirrels and rabbits and in a tree.
Well, they're not songs written by a vocalist.
Yeah.
They were songs written by a drummer.
So all the cadence and all the rhythm of the vocals is just out there.
It's just wacky.
And of course, the lyrically, but they were pretty wacky too.
So being a world-class singer, he's like, What the freak?
Too good.
Too good for it.
I mean, we tried to do breakfast and shine.
I kept thinking about something beautiful.
You did or something beautiful.
That kind of comes about.
But to answer your question, I don't, I'm pretty sure there will not be breakfast in hell.
And if you, if there was breakfast in hell, you probably wouldn't want it because it'd be burnt and you wouldn't be in the mood to eat it anyway.
Yeah.
It'd be like scorpions or something.
But yeah, so Michael Tate only sings classy lyrics like I love rap music or something.
Hey, you know what?
Hey, hey, bro.
Exactly.
It's easy to follow.
I told you basically, man.
I'm a meat and potatoes kind of guy.
I guarantee one thing.
That's going to be dang good.
That's going to be dang good, meat and potatoes, baby.
That meat and potatoes is fillet.
Now, do you remember you performed at uh Christian Artists of the Rockies in 1996?
We need you to remember this specific card.
There was a teenager in one of the choirs.
Do you remember someone named Jarrett LeMaster?
I tell you right now, Duck, I don't remember that.
Ducking to remember half a crew guys names.
He'll remember that.
It's not a Mick Jagger lifestyle.
Yeah, well, I know.
No.
There was a young boy named Jarrett LeMaster who would one day go on to star in sketches on the Babylon B.
No way.
Yep.
He was scary to think.
He was in one of the choirs and he wanted to know if you remembered him.
He was in one of the choirs.
At Christian Artists of the Rockies in 1996.
Competing, right?
I don't know.
I don't even know what he wanted us to ask this question.
We're just excited to tell him that you don't remember.
Sorry, bud.
Jared, we love you, bud.
We love you in the name of the Lord.
Don't know what you're talking about.
I've only went there one time.
I was a judge for like a musical competition one time, one year.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Move on.
Sad.
Not good.
We have a hard time remembering Jared ourselves.
Yeah, that's true.
Oh, come on.
We love you, Jared, somehow.
Now, every time we talk to Christian artists, we always want to know what their coolest stories from the road are.
And, you know, you got any good inside baseball stories behind the scenes, hanging out with other Christian bands.
You know, uh, anything crazy that's happened other than you know, Kevin breaking his arm.
Uh, no, that's pretty crazy.
You know, hey, what happened?
I had to a bus stage on the tour bus.
Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay, B, B. Uh, I can tell you some story about we got invites backstage, uh, expletives of Fallon backstage right before we go on stage.
Oh, that was a great story, you guys, back in the day.
Um, so you should tell us one day I'm gonna put it in my book, uh, before they were freaks, a book coming out before we were freaks.
It's called, so I'll tell you about it then.
You know what?
You're gonna make us pre-order your book that's not out yet.
It's not written yet, but you gotta pre-book.
Okay, yeah, no, I'm gonna find a juicy tip, but do something juicy because we got silly stories.
Like, I missed one day, I was on the toilet taking a number two, what, yeah, okay, yeah, number two, and then and the show started 10,000 people in the arena, and I'm on and I'm on the toilet, and dude, it was a rough one.
We had spicy food the night before, and I wasn't leaving that room anytime soon.
And the band, the intro started, and the band was already playing.
I heard the song going, and I was like, you know, mid, mid, mid-situation, bro.
And yeah, that's the story.
That's the Babylon B.
We don't get the top secret.
Cool story, but we do get the number two.
Well, that's the Babylon B brand.
That's our brand right there.
Just to help you understand this whole situation is Michael has a very sensitive tummy.
So I'm lactating.
I mean, toast.
When it hits him, it hits him.
And he's got to do it.
So it wasn't like he was being flighty or like, I'm going to go to the bathroom now because I can't because I'm the lead singer.
Wasn't that at all?
Oh, no.
It was just like, but we were all side stage.
The intro just played.
So we thought any minute now, Michael's going to rock up, do the whole rock star thing.
Hey, I'm here.
And that never happened.
Never happened.
We played the whole song without him.
Stop the show.
The show went dark.
Michael comes walking into the arena at the back behind the stage like anyway.
Good times.
Awesome.
You guys have the album stand.
You have a new deluxe version coming out that has new tracks.
You guys already got a couple singles out.
So what's uh, what's up with the deluxe version?
You got a few extra tracks on there, something like that?
Yeah, deluxe, you know.
Give the kids some.
It's deluxe.
It's made out of gold or something.
Yeah, the 10, the 10 songs.
Yeah.
10 songs just wasn't enough.
And we got to make the record over.
We made it over the over the unexpected pandemic break.
And I remember things.
The scandemic, right?
The scandemic.
Yeah.
Don't get too blood.
Yeah, exactly.
No.
That's our that's our brand.
We read you loud and clear.
Our commenters are going to love that.
Don't get them good.
Tim Song.
What do you think of what do you think of Dr. Fauci?
I played the fan.
I think Dr. Fauci knows what's up.
He thinks of himself the way he thinks of himself.
He is the way he is.
I didn't say that.
But yeah, so there's fake newsboys.
Yeah.
Yeah, right.
Oh, fake news.
Getting on here.
So I mean, I got a couple of new songs on the end, but the record itself, it was by far, hands down, my favorite newsboys record that I've been on.
I haven't had time to craft, think about the song.
It's a long time, yeah.
Work.
And if it wasn't right to our likings, we thought, that's why I can't write the course again.
You know, that lyric ain't quite smacking yet.
Let's do it again.
Oh, that's hot.
That's how to do that.
Let's do this.
Let's do this.
So we did that and made a 10-some record.
We thought, man, I want to put extra songs on the record, but we couldn't because we ran out of time, basically, believe it or not.
And then, as you keep on writing, it's just like, oh man, this is smashing.
This is smasher.
So we think, we hope.
Yeah, we yeah.
Well, you never know.
Sometimes you think you know, but you never know.
That's the bill.
Yeah.
All the ones we couldn't get up there.
So there you have it.
Got it.
Are you guys planning on writing a song for God's Not Dead 17?
Dude, let me tell you, I can't wait to address this.
It's gotten to the point of where, like, I still have the Devil Awards for K-Level Awards when I do go and they announce the movie.
Like, I want to hide under the seat.
Not because I'm obviously not ashamed of my God who changes my life daily.
It's just because we were probably the first two.
We thought, okay, cool.
It's made its mark.
That's cool.
We had no idea that the company wanted to keep making these pieces with different people going on.
People think we're involved in every one of them.
We're not, but it happened.
So I think God's Not Dead.
Obviously, the song and idea is fantastic.
It's a cry for believers to make a statement and to stand up in these dark, cray, cray days.
Because believe me, we are in a pickle in America.
But the movie series could be.
I think God's a lot, but the movie series, probably.
Yeah, God's not dead.
The movie definitely not.
But yeah, I wish they would just say, you know, but it may, they put them out there and people get them on DVD, whatever they call it.
Do people watch DVDs anymore?
I don't know.
I haven't watched the DVD in years.
Yeah, me either me, huh?
Hey, yeah, nah.
Yeah, nah.
Yeah, nah.
Well, I think there's Blu-rays now.
They came out about 15 years ago.
Yeah, there you go.
Yep.
One of those doing nothing.
We got the dust in my theater.
Collecting dust.
Where do you guys live?
Where are you guys at?
We're in Southern California at a non-disclosed location, undisclosed location.
I gotcha.
For angry, yeah.
Yeah, I'm saying that.
Yeah, no, you can't see it.
We don't want Nantiva to come for us when our guests say pandemic and stuff like that.
Would you call it a plan?
Scam because you can't say that.
People got sick from that and died.
Why do you want to know where we are?
No reason.
Because I'm nosy.
No reason at all.
They just messed up.
We're being silly because you guys bring it out of us.
Yeah.
The Babylon B makes me silly.
Coming up next for Babylon B subscribers.
In the epic blockbuster film Newsboys Down Under the Big Top, there is a scene where Phil Joel shares a hot dog with a canine companion.
And while he chews on it, he suddenly pulls something out of his mouth and declares, I thought I gave you the.
And then there's a word that we can't make out.
Yeah, with the crazies, man.
You gotta be crazy, baby.
True.
It's true.
That's pretty much a proverb from the Bible.
This has been another edition of the Bee Weekly from the dedicated team of certified fake news journalists you can trust here at the Babylon B. Reminding you that someone out there knows something about Carmen.