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John Tesh was a star reporter making millions, but he always wanted to make a living sitting behind a grand piano.
By GINA VIVINETTO, Times Pop Music Critic
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 17, 2002
John Tesh, 49, will perform music Friday from his new album A Deeper Faith at Ruth Eckerd Hall. But first, by telephone from his home in Los Angeles, the former star reporter and Entertainment Tonight host-turned New Age composer tackles 10 Pressing Questions about prog rock, Ben & Jerry's Phish Food and his wife Connie Selleca's secret "New Yawk" accent.
(1) You cite the composer Stravinsky as an influence.
When I was a kid, it was a lot of listening to classical CDs, a lot of playing classical music. My parents were very much into that, Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff.
You were forced to have piano lessons?
(Groans) Yeah. I had to sit there with an egg timer on.
(2) When Stravinsky, considered a cutting edge composer, debuted Rite of Spring in Paris, 1913, audience members loathed it. They rioted and tore the chairs out of the floor. Has anything like this happened at a Tesh concert?
(Laughs) One of the strangest things that ever happened to me -- at my concerts, it's not screaming girls -- we were playing an outdoor concert in front of 20,000 in Detroit. At the end of the show, we went out into the audience. I had my wireless keyboard. We had never done this before. I had a lady who wrapped her arms around my leg and would not let me go. I was dragging this woman as I walked. Finally I thought, "I better just stand here until somebody helps me."
People let out strange aspects of their personalities at concerts, don't they? I used to go to Jethro Tull and Yes concerts. People would tell me when Rick Wakeman (Yes keyboardist) would be playing onstage, you could wave a hand in front of my face and I wouldn't blink. I used to be totally into Yes. About three months ago, two members of Yes came to see me in Reno, and I couldn't even play piano.
Were you a big prog rock fan in the 1970s?
Oh, yes. Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Uriah Heep. Kansas, if they were considered prog rock, but they had some hits and it ruined that for me. Mott the Hoople, but, they're not too progressive. Even Dixie Dregs. Oh, and Rush! Any of that stuff with the odd time signatures I love.
(3) Your own concerts are kind of flashy, with lights and fancy outfits and lots of drama. Is that because of your jones for prog rock? I think it is. Or it's the ADD personality where you want to be distracted at all times (laughs). One of the funniest Yes concerts I've seen in a long time was out here at the House of Blues. They all dressed in white. They had these gigantic projectors that were projecting, like, all kinds of acid stuff all over them. It was like, (druggy voice) "Ah, that's cool!" I like that, but I also enjoy going to see Dave Matthews Band where it's not like that at all.
I love performing live. There is nothing like playing behind a grand piano.
Most people know you from Entertainment Tonight, and you seemed comfortable enough hosting that, but in concert, you seem truly happy. It's like when a mom who has been dying to be a mom her whole life finally has a baby. Or a writer who has her first book published.
(4) Did people tell you you were nuts when you said you were quitting your career to make music? Everyone down to my family members said, "Do you really want to do this? Are you sure?" I used to sit at North Carolina State, when I was in college, in these practice rooms with these dingy upright pianos for four hours every day, practicing, practicing, making up songs, writing. Nobody knew I was in there. I used to sit in there and pray that one of these days I could sit onstage and do this.
So, when I got the opportunity to do that, a television show meant nothing to me. That's what people didn't understand. They'd say, "John, you're making more than a million dollars a year doing this show and everybody knows who you are." And I just felt like, "Well, you don't get it."
(5 )You were born in Long Island, N.Y. How long did you live there? 18 years.
Pardon me, where is your accent? How did you get the total broadcaster, robot voice? (Laughs) The robot voice -- and in a way, it is one -- is from being on Long Island and (adopts accent) tawkin' like dis. The funny thing is, the girls there talk like that, too. They're like, (annoyed Long Island accent) "Hey, are you gonna ask me out, or what?" I had a very strong accent. Then, I went to North Carolina where everyone was like, (adopts cheerful Southern accent) "Hi, how ya doin'?" It all canceled itself out.
But if you came to my house for dinner -- because my wife is from the Bronx -- you'd hear a lot of (tough New York accent) "No, I'm not gonna do dat!"
We've all seen Connie on television. She never has an accent. Are you saying at home she sounds like a girl from the neighborhood? She's Italian, so it sounds like an Italian girl screaming at a Long Island boy.
I have become a passionate Italian. I'm not Italian, but my wife took me to Italy for a vacation and I had never been. She couldn't get me home! I wanted to buy a house there. The people, the food, I almost didn't even get to the wine. I didn't want to spoil the dinner.
(6) Tell me something irresistible about Connie Selleca. The most attractive thing -- of course, my wife is beautiful and she has an amazing body and is a totally cool person -- but, the most irresistible thing about her is her commitment to her family. I know that sounds like a line, but she will do anything for her family. She's loud. She's crazy --
This you like? Oh, yeah. She's wonderfully impossible.
(7) Your new album is called A Deeper Faith. How big a role does God play in your life? Now more than ever in my life, I have learned the power of prayer. The record is about the power of worship and the power of prayer as a useful resource in your life. Because people now are on that whole self-help thing where they're all, "What can I do to make myself better?" You know what you can do, you can have a deeper faith.
(8) Many people don't know about your background as an award-winning investigative reporter. You don't seem the type. You don't seem very pushy. Yes, well, I was definitely a Type A personality. I covered the Son of Sam case, all that stuff. It was that case that made me back off. I was interviewing a guy who had just had his girlfriend's brains blown into his lap and I'm in there going, "Hey, can I ask you a question?" and he burst into tears.
I was definitely pushy. You don't get to be anchoring the news and reporting at age 23 in New York City without being pushy. I was totally determined to win and be the best at it, at any cost. That meant stepping over people. I've definitely mellowed out. I've learned you can really ruin people's lives by being a TV reporter.
(9) Describe yourself in high school. I was painfully thin, shy. I'm 6'6." I was almost this height by the time I was in junior high school.
Wow, Lurch! Did you say Lurch? (Laughs) Absolutely. I was a thin Lurch. All that was missing from me in high school was the bolts in my neck!
Okay, so you were physically awkward and painfully shy. I guess you weren't popular. Not at all. I graduated high school in 1970. I figured the best way to be popular was to be in a band. So, I learned all the chords to Beatles songs. I got myself a little organ and I joined a band. I thought, "This is how I'm going to get girls." Any musician who tells you they are not in it to get girls is lying. But, for me, it never worked. I ended up being the really thin, Lurch-type keyboard player.
(10) What's the most perfect indulgent midnight snack? (Embarrassed groan) Oh, no. And, it just kills me afterward. Well, Connie makes these chocolate chip cookies. But the other thing is Phish Food. Do you know that stuff? Ben & Jerry's? Un-be-lievable. I can eat a quart of that stuff. Then I wake up in the morning, I'll be all gaseous and bloaty. But see, Connie's the kind of person -- she has total discipline -- she will binge like that with me, then she'll fast for seven days! I'm like, "How do you do that?"
PREVIEW: John Tesh performs at 8 p.m. Friday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater. $34-$38. (727) 791-7400.