John Tesh
John Tesh
John Frank Teshis an American pianist and composer of pop music, as well as a radio host and television presenter. His ten-year-old Intelligence for Your Life radio show reaches 14.2 million listeners/week, and is syndicated by Teshmedia on 400 stations in the U.S., Canada, and the UK. In addition, since 2014, he has hosted Intelligence for Your Life TV with his wife Connie Sellecca. The syndicated TV program airs on 154 stations that cover 93% of the potential U.S. television...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth9 July 1952
CountryUnited States of America
When I was playing piano, it was like, 'I'm going to write a song using all the white keys.' My music director, who knew my jazz background, suggested I try big-band music, so we spent a year experimenting with it in concert, and the audience reaction was really good.
My favorite bands were Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull, Uriah Heep, Grand Funk Railroad. If you listen to some of my early music, you can hear it.
I was a geek in high school. I was about the same height I am now, a 6-foot-6 15-year-old with braces, smelling of Clearasil. The only way out was to get into a rock band. ... By the end, I was a rock and roll keyboardist who smelled of Clearasil.
Really, at a time when they're debating when and where a nativity scene can be used, this is the kind of stuff we need to have out there - outside of the church.
I've always loved radio. Television scares me, because I'm older.
I'm almost a vegetarian. I have a very rigid exercise routine. I'm up at 6 A.M.; I take a lot of ginseng.
I grew up with the Woodstock generation. I went to Woodstock, and like everybody in my school, I wanted to be in a rock-and-roll band, and most of us were. But I also grew up with a lot of piano lessons and a lot of classical music training.
I'd like to do a television show that is encouraging, useful, and clean, and I'd like to go up against Entertainment Tonight and beat it.
I grew up wanting to be a musician, but my parents were sure I would starve to death. So, they put me in physics and chemistry. That eventually blew up, and I got into radio.
When I was first writing, I was writing mostly about sporting events, which was really what my assignments were. I was working on the Tour de France bike race and the Barcelona Olympic Games, and those songs tend to be very big, very bombastic-type music, which is the type of music that I love to write.