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(Clipped from The Official Loaf Website.)

Say what you will about the Dark Realm of popular music we call �New Age� � the careers it�s claimed, the sweet, piano-tinkling rockers it�s smashed, one by one, against a wave-ravaged cliff of critical debasement. Poke fun all you want at those Christian lyricists and mood musicians we alterna-hip trendsters love to pan. You can smoke on your panpipes and put them in, I say.

Just one thing.

Kindly leave John Tesh out of it. He�s my boy.

Truth be told, I�m a relatively new fan: it�s only been of late that I started tracking the shape-shifting career of the former Entertainment Tonight co-host-turned-radio show host-turned civic stadium superstar/performer. But once his musical presence flashed across my radar, glory-glory-Hallelujah, I think I may have found my Jesus.

The sentiment was only compounded late last week, when I had a chance to interview the legend himself. By way of that certain, �aw-shucks� affability and all-around graciousness he�s known for (�What a great question!� he�d say, even when we both knew I�d asked a boner), Tesh slowly wheedled his way into my happy place. Before I knew it, I�d hearted our initials in my planner.

As should you. Get your planners, that is: This Friday, Dec. 1, he�ll be thrilling Sarasota fans with �The Total Tesh Experience,� a retrospective concert/autographing sesh, at New College�s Mildred Sainer Arts & Music Pavilion. You�d better believe I�ll be there, screaming like a tween on Special K and clutching my newly purchased Live at Red Rocks album, craning my neck for a glimpse of all that beautiful blond hair all the while.

Tell me, future converts: Are you ready to Experience?

Creative Loafing: One of the things I wanted to know is if there have been any really weird questions that you�ve been asked in your career that have sort of haunted you?

The Man That Is John Tesh: I get asked a lot of good questions, actually. The interesting thing for me is that because of being on ET for 10 years and doing a radio show in like 230 cities now, people will feel like they can shout out, �How�s Connie?� � you know, my wife � and a lot of the stories I tell onstage relate to my family or a song I�ve written about my daughter. You know, at my age I�ve experienced pretty much everything. I�ve been married fifteen years, I�ve announced the Olympic Games, I�ve played at Red Rocks in front of 15,000 people.

I sort of have the ADD bio, if you know what I mean.

I didn�t come up through the superstar piano thing, like Billy Joel or Elton John; I�m sort of the poster boy for, �If you truly believe in where your heart is, you can accomplish anything.�

CL: That takes a lot of guts, I think.

TMTIJT: Well, I�ll tell you, I have horrible stage fright. And there was a guy who was recommended to me, a guy named John Hart in Texas somewhere, and I went to see him. And he specialized in talking to orchestra players, string players and conductors, who if they�re nervous pretty much their evening is over. You know, because they�ll make a mistake and everyone will hear it. But there are some great techniques for that � and we talk about it on my radio show.

One is being overly prepared about what you�re about to do. The second thing is to have an escape plan, to actually go and find out what�s going to happen � don�t wait to be nervous or wait to get that bad question; pretty much create that situation and then deal with it. When you�re not there, when you�re in the privacy of your own home, deal with those situations, create them and then go in that direction.

It�s like what happens if you�re a piano player, if you hit a wrong note, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna play the note over again? Are you gonna smile and keep going? You gonna say anything? You have to create those situations and then there won�t be any fear of the unknown.

The other thing that John Hart told me is that wherever you�re gonna be � you know, let�s say you�re at a Rotary Club or something like that � go there the day before or two hours before the event and walk around, through all the tables and chairs and stage and become really comfortable. In other words, let it become your house, and everybody else is a visitor in that house. You can�t just walk out onstage and � whoa! Nerves are definitely gonna be a factor.

CL: Have you walked around the Pavilion yet?

TMTIJT: I haven�t, but I will that day. The other thing I like to do is before I start playing, I�ll talk to the audience. Instead of just coming out and �Ta-Da!�

CL: Speaking of, I was curious about the music that you�re including in this tour. I�m assuming you�ll be playing stuff off Worship at Red Rocks, right?

TMTIJT: Yeah.

CL: Anything else?

TMTIJT: Oh, we�ll probably be including stuff from all five television specials. So it�ll be everything from Olympic Themes, Christmas music, to maybe a gospel piece. We even bring a dancer with us, believe it or not, a hip-hop dancer with us who dances to some of the tunes.

We think pretty visually. We also bring screens with us so I can take you to places like the Olympic Games or the Tour de France bike race games that I wrote music for.

You know I�ve been to, I don�t know how many, probably a thousand, concerts in my life, so I definitely know what the concert experience is like. And you can�t get by with just a piano anymore; you have to be really creative and our whole mission is, like I said, to encourage people to find that side of their heart, but also to interact with them visually.

CL: Have you ever considered dancing yourself at your own shows?

[The Man That Is John Tesh Laughs]

TMTIJT: Have you ever seen an episode of The Addams Family or The Munsters? I�m the dad in both of those. No, I think Gomes was the dad. No, I was Lurch � and the dad in The Munsters.

CL: So no hip-hop for you.

TMTIJT: Nah, but I could bust a couple of moves I guess. I have a 12-year-old daughter, she actually does hip-hop class three or four times a week. I mean, I�m a complete idiot. I actually thought the song was, �I have a sexy back,� so, [laughs] I couldn�t figure out why they were listening to that until somebody straightened me out a little bit.

CL: But are there any musical guilty pleasures you�re hoping to explore or try out on future albums?

TMTIJT: Yeah, I love what�s going on with the hip-hop stuff. And there�s only so far I can go. So what I do is I bring this guy out to dance with us. There are a couple of Spanish songs that I�ll do and he�ll dance to that. A couple of other songs that we�ll do for big sporting events, we tailor-made for him.
That whole area is something I never would have been exposed to if my daughter hadn�t enrolled in this dance school for ballet and hip-hop.

So, again, it sounds like two (or three?) most ridiculous words to put together � �Hip-hop� and �Tesh� � but I actually think it works. Because I�m not dancing, I�m just playing.

CL: How about instruments? If you could play any other instrument, what it would be?

TMTIJT: Oh, gosh, guitar. Easily. I�ve tried so many times; I must have three guitars in my house. You know; �Maybe if I buy another one, I�ll learn how to play it.� For some reason, it�s just, I grew up playing trumpet � I�d been playing trumpet for many years before piano � the idea of having a portable instrument is so appealing to me. I�m very, very jealous of our guitar player.

CL: So no glockenspiels for you?

TMTIJT: Oh, I can play the glockenspiel, sure, sure! I mean, it�s very heavy, when you have to wear it. But glockenspiel and the accordion are not gonna get you any dates.

CL: It�s true. Glockenspiel was one of my first instruments, actually. That and recorder.

[Pause]

TMTIJT: Yeah, well, recorder�s cool, too.

CL: But have you actually played the glockenspiel in concerts?

TMTIJT: No, no. I was in band for many years, and so you always switch instruments. One day you�re playing tuba, and the next day you�re playing glockenspiel. Glockenspiel is � you definitely know when you�ve played a wrong note, don�t you?

CL: Yeah, well, that�s also true. Tell me, do you ever miss working for Entertainment Tonight?

TMTIJT: I miss the people there, I stay in touch with them. In fact, just the other day, I ran into some folks; Mary and I stay in touch.

But I find [my show] a little bit more purposeful. We have people who will call us up and say, �Thank you for your tips on smoking cessation,� or �diet tips,� or �I tried out this �Did You Know?� on my girlfriend and I got a second date.� Stuff like that.

At Entertainment Tonight, it was basically, �Could you get me Britney Spears� autograph?� That was basically the involvement I had with the listener.

CL: It�s been quite an evolution at ET, it seems, even since you�ve been there. How do you feel about its current incarnation?

TMTIJT: I think the show changed when it had to start competing with Extra and Access Hollywood. It�s changed as a sign of the times. I think peoples� attention span has shortened up a bit. It�s a little too sexy for our household, and my daughter, she was two when I left ET, and she�s not allowed to watch that show � not only that show, but Access Hollywood and Extra and all that Prime Access stuff. It�s a little much for a preteen to take in, it�s all about, �Who got this plastic surgery?� or �Who�s in bed with whom?� �Who�s divorcing whom?� And it�s a little overwhelming for someone starting to develop emotionally and physically.

CL: It is a bit more tabloidy now, isn�t it.

TMTIJT: We always did the show with our tongues in our cheeks, you know? Now it�s become such an industry, and there�s so much more competition; we have to get The Tom Cruise Story faster than anybody else. I don�t know that there�s any other way to do it, once you throw competition in there, in that area, that�s really what happens � it becomes, �Who can be flashier?� and �Who can be sexier?�

That�s not just Entertainment Tonight. It�s happened to a lot of the primetime shows as well.

CL: And the glossy magazines as well.

TMTIJT: Yeah, the magazines! You�re absolutely right. The magazines look a lot like the TV shows now.

CL: And vice-versa. I had one more question, it�s about the religious component of your music. We live in an age where terms like �new age� and �Christian rock� are considered retro to some, and yet it�s a term that people often use to describe your own music. Would you say that you�re now trying to transcend those terms to reach a broader audience? How would you respond to that?

TMTIJT: Well, when I do a radio show or a concert, I�m a Christian guy � But when we hire people here on our floor for the radio show or for our touring band, we never ask them that question. There are Christian bands where it�s like, �Unless you�re Christian, you�re not in this band.� That�s not our deal. I live my life based on the stuff I learned in church, and the stuff I learned by being a father and a husband. But we are not in the business of condemning anybody. And that means that I work with Jews, I work with gays, I work with heterosexuals � and they�re all hired by us because we just don�t believe in the religious part of being a Christian. You know what I mean?

CL: Mm-hm�

TMTIJT: Where it�s just sort of like, �Okay, now, we�re living out of the Bible, and the Bible says, �You must do this, otherwise you�re going to Hell.�� We don�t live that way. We live as though we�re all sinners and our biggest thing is we wanna encourage everybody to live the life that they were meant to live.

And so, it�s not a New Age philosophy; it�s definitely a Christian philosophy. We just try to take the judgment out of it that the Christians get accused of so often.

CL: Nice. Do you ever intend to experiment with other faiths?

TMTIJT: No, no. Definitely not. I did that in college, where it was sort of like, �Well, that looks interesting.� But I was raised a Christian kid and my wife is a very strong Christian woman and �

CL: So no Buddhist piano medleys in your future?

TMTIJT: Well, my sister�s a Buddhist! Yeah, we definitely � I go to a church that�s a Messianic church, so it�s Jews and Christians together. Again, on this floor there are Jews, Christians, Agnostics, Atheists, Muslims. So it provides for an interesting dialogue around Christmastime.

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