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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