The following was an interview from “Soul2Soul Radio,” a weekly
syndicated one-hour Christian artist feature that airs on radio
stations both domestically and internationally.
Aired Feb. 25, 2001:
(opening remark by John) “I realize that God has given me a
voice. And he’s given me all the experience I learned in Head East.
When Bob called, I realized, ‘Wow, I can be part of Petra.’ And once
again I was reminded: God doesn’t waste a thing. He doesn’t waste a
thing. All that learning, all that experience that the enemy was
trying to use to destroy me in the long run, God took and flapped it
back in his face and said, “Thank you very much, now I’m gonna use
it.”
ANNOUNCER: Hi and welcome once again to another edition of
Soul2Soul. I’m Mike Becht and I’m glad you’ve joined us this week.
Since 1985, he’s been found fronting what is perhaps the world’s
most widely recognized Christian rock band. Of course I’m referring
to Petra.
Over the course of the past 16 years, John’s signature voice has
become instantly recognizable, with his work for the pioneering
group. But John has also, over the past few years, stretched himself
musically, by taking a step out of his comfort zone and producing
three solo projects.
The first two, “Shake” and “Unfit for Swine,” were released to great
acclaim in the mid-1990s. The most recent effort may be John’s
biggest leap to date. Not only is he taking the reins of the
executive producer of his new CD, titled ‘Hope Marches On,’ but he
is also in the midst what appears to be the birth of a new record
company: Icon Music Media Group. Coming up later in the broadcast,
you’ll be treated to the world premier of his debut single from the
new CD.
Chris Coppernoll sat down for an extended length interview to take a
look back at John Schlitt’s career in the music industry.
Appropriately, they started like all good stories do, at the
beginning…
John, how about we start way at the beginning… way back… a long,
long, long time ago.
Oh boy… now… are you talking about the first I ever played in
front of everybody for the first time in my life, are you talking
about my first time with Head East, or are you talking about the
first time with Petra?
(laugher)
I wanna go way back! (laughter) I understand the first time you
really played for anybody, you were 13 years old and you played for
the group Vinegar Hill’s Hometown Band - Something Different?
Wow, you have done your homework!
Is that right? I did a little bit of homework on this one.
Man, no one knows about that!
And even before then, you played like in high school and you did a
lot of singing and those kind of things. And I know that you had
studied the guitar and played the piano and things. Do you know when
the love of music started with you?
You know what, that’s funny; no one’s ever asked me that, but
I’ll have to say it probably started back when I was in kindergarten
- 5 years old. And for some reason - and I know this is going to
sound weird - but I get my report card, all right… and back then it
was S’s, or N’s, or S+’s, and I looked at my music, that little
report and everything was S+’s, and I was the only boy who got S+’s
in music - the whole year. And I asked my mom why, and she goes,
“Well John, you know you sing really good and you seem to have a
knack for music.” I say, “Really? OK.”
And as time went on, it’s like ever so often, stages in my life -
music would pop back in. It was fun. You know, it’s just that all of
a sudden music became more and more… it just always struck my
interest and I just always like it a lot.
You were just out of high school, isn’t that right, when you joined
a band called “The Timations”?
How do you know THAT?!?
Well, they later turned into a really well known group, but at the
time you were a founding member of the Timations.
Yeah, actually you know what - I wasn’t a founding member of the
Timations… well, I came in – well, what happened was, my wife and I
(she was my girlfriend at the time), were at a sock-hop… and now for
the generation that has no idea what that is: they used to have a
lot of skating rinks, community centers that would, every other
weekend, would have a band come in and you’d go in… and they were
basically dances. And they were called sock-hops because you had to
take your shoes off because you couldn’t wear shoes on the skating
rink floor.
So, I was home from college, actually my freshman year of college,
and came home and this one band, “The Timations” were playing and I
looked and was saying, “My gosh, that band has everything it needs
except me!” (laughter)
I looked at my wife and said that, you know… contrary to many
people’s opinions, I don’t really… I’m not that egotistical, so, I
really felt that they just needed a good high singer, and they would
have absolutely everything it took to be, if nothing else, a
fantastic copy band because they had everything else.
So I told my future wife this and she looked at me and said, “Yeah,
I think you’re right.” But, I, you know, put it aside and said
“that’ll never happen, so, who cares…."
I went back to college and it just so happened that one of my
friends from the place I was staying - it was a private house - he
was applying to a fraternity and the fraternity had a fraternity
band. And I said, “Really? What’s the name of the band?” He says,
“The Timations.” I says, “You’ve got to be kidding!” I says, “You go
to the leader of the Timations and you tell ‘em that I said I’m
exactly what they’re looking for.” And you gotta understand - this
is really out of character for me, but it just felt like the thing
to do... and I thought: aw, nothing will happen with that.
So, the friend’s name was Joe, and Joe came back and said, “Man, did
you strike a spark! The leader wants to talk to right away.” And I
said, “Oh, really?” and he said, “Yeah, man, when you said that it
was like the light just lit up and after I told him what you did,
and how you play guitar and you sing and all that…. he just.. oh my
gosh….”
So we got together and I went with him to another teen center
down south, just to ride with him and talk and I did one song. It
was a Bee Gee’s song and I knew about half the words to it so I made
up all the rest… (laughter)
But, they realized that, yes… I could sing and yes, it would be a
real smart move if they hired me. So, that summer, between my
freshman and sophomore year in college, I came in to the Timations,
but during that time period, we changed the name to “Head East.”
I was at the end of the Timations but I was at the creation of Head
East. We just, man, went from a little sock-hop band into one of the
Midwest’s biggest college bar bands, which believe it or not, is
like a big move. It’s almost like being a touring band, but you have
to play seven hours a night, seven days a week. But you can actually
make a living doing it, but the problem was, I was going to college
at the time, and almost flunked out of college because of it - I was
never there. So, I had to quit, actually quit it twice, once before
each semester because I had to go and cram for two weeks to try to
save my can before I flunked out of school.
And the second time I said “Guys, this will be the last time. I
mean, I have a feeling sooner or later I’ll be with you guys again
but I’ve got to finish college; I promised my parents I’d do that.”
So they went on their merry way and I went on mine… finished
college and the day I took my last final exam, I was on the stage
with Head East again.
Now by that time Head East had gone through a lot of changes and
they were in dire straits… it was on the verge of breaking up, I
think. And about six months towards that, it did break up, in a
roundabout way; most musicians says “this is not right.” But
meanwhile I was trying to get the old guys back together. And there
had been some family squabbles and all this. But finally I set them
all down and said, “Guys… this can work. It did - it can now. Let’s
make it work.”
So we had to find a new guitar player, which was absolutely, exactly
what the band needed because that was Mike Somerville, and he was
the one who wrote our quote, “big classic hit” and he wrote a bunch
of other great tunes; great guitar player, out of Peoria, believe it
or not… and I mention that because Peoria will come into the picture
later. It was a beginning of about seven years… started out great
fun…. loved it.
In 1980, what I heard was - and you can just address this any way
you want to - you left Head East and you really had some financial
struggles at that time.
Yes, not only financial, but I had drug problems. I’d say it was
more drugs; it was a combination of drugs and alcohol. The alcohol
was more to help tone the drugs. I was very much into cocaine
because I was looking for that total satisfaction, where you got it
initially on stage; it was just so exciting to see the sell-out
crowds and watching how you can take control and create a fantastic,
fun evening… and it was really gratifying but as time goes on that
gets old. And you’re looking for that next thing and you’re trying
to figure out why… but meanwhile you’re away from your family and
you haven’t seen them for six months… and you’ve got a wife and two
babies at the time. And when you’re sober you realize that this is
not that cool. And you’re wondering why you’re doing it. But you
already feel like you’re trapped and there’s nothing you can do, you
know - the enemy’s already telling you, “You know, you’ve already
blown it and you can’t do anything else and look at - you’re way too
old now… blah blah blah…”
Looking back now, it’s just lies, lies, lies, lies, lies. So, you
start hiding in the veil of coke, in my case, because it’s a very -
for the initial hit - it’s like very uplifting and you can do
anything; you’re superman. But the problem is, it costs a lot of
money and when you come down, you are very depressed. And,
meanwhile, because it’s such a buzz, I’d be drinking a big bottle of
vodka in one hand and a bottle of tomato juice in the other, making
these big glasses of Bloody Mary’s, because the initial high is so
high that I wanted to tone it down and I found out later that I was
really looking for sobriety; and it cost me a lot of money to be
artificially sober.
And again, that is what the enemy does also. He charges you plenty
to quote, “give you” or “grant you” what God wants to give you for
free.
These are all memories that I have, all things that I’ve tried
through my music and through interviews like this, to re-remind us
that there’s always a battle going on and there is always a very
slick operator called the enemy. But there’s always a God who is
greater and real, who can overcome any of it with a snap of His
finger. He just wants to know when you’re ready.
Do you remember when you left Head East…. what was your first job,
because…
Ha! Well you know!… tell me what it is – I forgot! No…, I’m
kidding… (laughter)
I knew that you got your degree, and you studied aeronautical
engineering but you got your degree in civil engineering. But in
your first career as a huge rock star with Head East, you guys had
play 20,000 seat arenas.
Try 80 and 100,000 seat events outdoors, especially in Texas; two
of the biggest events I have ever seen.
Yeah, that’s absolutely amazing. And I just want you to tell us…
what was your first job when you exited Head East…
(laughter) You really want to rub it in, dontcha! Come on!
(jokingly)
Well, OK – reality hit when I finally left the band, I became a
Christian, well, because… for about a six month period, I went on a
total, drunken, drugged-out binge with an excuse of started another
band, and that was from March of ’80 to August of ’80.
My wife got saved in that same time period; isn’t that a
coincidence?! And she kept trying to tell me about the Lord but I
wouldn’t listen because I was too cool. And finally I succumbed to
it with the idea that I already decided to commit suicide so I’ll
just let her know that - yeah I’ll go talk to her pastor, so she’ll
know that I tried.
But it was the first time I’d ever had someone besides my wife try -
not try, but tell me about Jesus. I knew about Jesus in the Bible
but it was no big deal to me. I came from a great family; my parents
were very godly people, but my mom was Catholic and my dad was
Lutheran, so we had a religious battle going on in our family, so
what it did was it allowed me not to go to church at all. And so as
a kid, of course, I don’t do it. And I shouldn’t say “of course” -
in my case, I didn’t do it….. although I totally understood that
there is a God who watches over us - I didn’t have any idea about
Jesus.
So, when this pastor hits me between the eyes about the truth of
Jesus Christ, the next thing I knew I was sitting in the corner on
the floor going “WHAT HIT ME?” And I got saved that night, and I’ll
never forget it. And the pastor is still - I consider a dear friend,
and every time it’s like, “Thank you, thank you so much!”
So it was like just starting a new life; you know, I still had all…
by this time, after six months of binges, I was very much in debt.
For me at the time - it was very much in debt. And I was scared of
that and these were all worries weighing down on me, so I get drunk
again and all of a sudden it was like, “You know John, you’ve got a
new life.” And, I can almost say subconsciously, “Yeah but I’ve
got…” “Hey - you and me - we’ll take care of it. Don’t worry about
it.” And it was like, “Oh - OK.” And He did.
And after checking out, trying to go in as a civil engineer,
everywhere; I was living in Illinois at the time. So, I’d go into
all these civil engineering firms and all these places that might be
able to use a quote “college grad.” The only problem – they read my
resume and go “Rock Star: seven years.” You know, that’s the only
experience I had. And they’re going “Yeah – tell ya what. We’ll call
you – don’t call us, OK?”
And it went on like that for like, oh my gosh, like four months; it
was scary. I hadn’t had any jobs and meanwhile I had debts coming.
So finally I went to a tool & die factory in my little hometown. And
I said, “Listen, I have an engineering degree; I can draft. But I’ll
do anything. I’ll sweep the floors.” And basically that’s what I
did.
And then, after six months, I get a job at a mine; there was a coal
mine being developed close by. So I get a job working for a pile
driving company. I transferred to four different companies on that
project. The last company was Frontier-Kemper, and they were
actually the company that developed mines themselves. They were like
the main company.
After that job, I got promoted into the main office at
Frontier-Kemper; I became cost and scheduling engineer for about a
year. But I was feeling like, “OK- I bought my first home, my kids
are going to a Christian school, I’ve found a great church, I had a
great job…” It was the American dream; I thought, “This must be it.”
And it was right in that moment, God goes, “John, don’t get content
because this is not it.” Five years since I was in music, so that
was totally out; as far as I was concerned, it was over.
Did you ever - you never thought of it again? You never thought
maybe someday it would come back around?
Every once in a while. See, I discovered Petra like three years
before that and I loved them. I thought it was so cool that they
were using rock and roll to bring across the message. I totally saw
God’s plan in that. I mean, it just totally made sense. It was
funny; from my past, I’d go down and work in these mines with these
miners, working with lasers and stuff, guidance, basically showing
them where to drill and work. And, every once in a while going up
and down the buckets, they’d say, “John” (in a more flowery
language), “Why are you here, a thousand feet in a hole when you’re
a rock star?” I said, “Well guys, there ain’t no way…. only way I’d
ever sing rock and roll again if it was with a band like Petra.”
And it’s so cool… and then, what happens? Out of the blue, out of
the blue… after this Sunday afternoon, you know, sort of God
speaking to me thing, and then Bob Hartman called me out of the blue
and said, “Would you consider singing for Petra?” And I said, “Bob…
I haven’t sang for 5 years.” He goes, “All I want to know, are you
still a Christian?” I said, “I’m a heavy duty Christian.” He says,
“That’s all I need to know.”
From there on, it’s been unbelievable. I’ve had a very good life so
far. God’s very much blessed me, seeing how he can work, doing what
I love doing, giving out a message that’s life changing….. oh my
gosh, it’s so cool watching how God works through music.
I want us to start to delve in a little bit on your third solo
project. The new project features songs you’ve written.
Yes.
Songs that you’re totally involved with… executive producer over the
project, involved in day-in, day-out recording of the project;
probably more involved in this project than anything you’ve ever
done.
Anything I’ve ever done.
Start us right there and tell us what that experience has been like.
It has been very scary, but very exciting. Seriously, I would
much prefer having a big record company with a big budget; it’s the
way I’ve always done records - I mean, secular side and Christian
side. So, to come in and really be forced to have it all on your
shoulders…. And when I say “all” - with partners that believe in me
and believe in the project. It’s on their shoulders too, and
everyone else involved right now.
We’ve got a lot of people that believe in possibilities, but we’ve
got a lot of people that never done these things before, and if they
have, it was on the secular side of things. So, you have to really
be a watch guard and make sure that it’s a pure project - that it’s
purely a Christian project but is done very professional because
people expect that from me, being part of the Petra camp. So, it’s
tough - you realize all the crutches that you had before, and now
you don’t have them, so you have to build your own, or you have to
stand on your own two feet totally; and it’s a new experience for
me.
This company; that started out - just as I said before just a
company that wanted to provide a recording service with a website -
that was about it. Now all of a sudden, it’s turning into a
possible… well, let’s just talk right there. Just the recording
service with a website was going to be myself and maybe two or three
other artists that we thought we had discovered.
Well, it turned out that we had discovered a whole lot more, and
people are hearing about what we’re doing, and they’re calling in
and saying “We want to do this and do that.” And it’s offered us,
basically, a chance to let folks know what Icon’s about, which is
the name of the company.
We have something called a sampler – which I never heard about.
“What’s a sampler?” Coming from a different camp, my partners and
the folks that are working with me, they go “Here’s what it is: it’s
sample of 10 artists that we have, that we represent or that we are
involved with – a song from each one and you put it together” and
it’s just a – it’s very entertaining, but it’s not very expensive
and it gives a sample of everything we’re doing. So we’re putting
that out as we speak. In fact, before this show is aired, it will be
out. It’s the Icon – I guess it’s the winter or spring collection….
Is it spring? OK – my guy back there says spring – it’s a spring
collection. I’m pretty excited about that!
And now, the world premier of “I’m OK.”
“I’m OK,” which is the first, really, the first single my company
ever did. And when I say my company - the guys that I am very
closely involved. And it was an experience I don’t EVER want to go
through again! But, it was… it was a learning curve thing that I
knew I had to go through.
I went to our recording studio, which is a great studio… but like I
said, it’s eight hours away, which I’m not used to. Usually I’m used
to driving eight minutes away. But it was eight hours away; I had to
stay at a friend’s house, do all that, which I hadn’t done in a long
time….. use musicians that were less than totally professional, in
the beginning. I realized that that was not going to work. But, it
helped us develop a song, which was a song that I wasn’t that
excited about at first, but we helped rewrite and rewrite, and it
finally turned into something that I think is very, very cool. But
again, that was all learning curve, and so, we didn’t have to do it
that way anymore.
But this song has turned into something; after seeing the expertise
of the team, which was really what I wanted to see, I was very, very
pleased how they took it and had it almost go left field and almost
record it and re-record it and recorded again, and then re-record
it…. But watching how they handled it and how pro it was and it was
like, I walked away exhausted but very encouraged.
(after the song plays, John states the following: )
God is too big for us to ever figure him out. And, as long as you’re
available, you just go for it. You do the best you can. And, I
totally… see, as I said before, I think God has been using Head East
and throwing it back in the enemy’s face ever since I joined Petra…
and who knows, maybe even before that.
And I want you to know; I’m very appreciative of the Head East fans.
Every once in a while they come up and hand me the Flat as a Pancake
or the Arrow album, or the Live album, and say, “Would you sign
this?” And I’d look at them and say, “Are you still listening to
this?”
“YEAH!”
And, I said, “Yeah, I’ll sign it - here.”
And they say, “Well, a lot of people say you never signed it.”
And I go “No, I understand… have you heard my new stuff?”
And they say, “Yeah, it’s really good.” And a lot of times I’ll say,
“Hey listen, it had to be that good because I wanted you guys to
have a chance to hear it.”
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