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Borders.com presents

John Tesh
Chat about his new album, "Pure Hymns"

September 25, 2000

John Tesh's career has run the gamut from "Entertainment Tonight" host to New Age composer and performer. John chats about the release of his latest album, "Pure Hymns"--a collection of traditional and contemporary Christian worship songs.

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NetCafe: Welcome to NetCafeLive! Tonight we are chatting with John Tesh, about his new album, "Pure Hymns." NetCafeLive is presented by Borders, Inc. and Talk City, Inc.

H2o: Who came up with the name "Pure Hymns" on your album?

John Tesh: That depends on whether you like it or not. [grin] That means me.

Cleveland: Mr. Tesh, when did you decide that you wanted to make a living as a musician?

John Tesh: When I was 6 years old, I began taking piano lessons, and I really wanted to be a rock-n-roll star, but never thought I'd be able to make a living at it. My parents didn't think I'd ever make a living at it, which is why I studied physics and chemistry in college. The first time I heard a song of mine on TV, I realized that commerce and creativity might work well together in the role of music.

EZGuest: Does Connie help you write or is she just your muse?

John Tesh: Connie is not only a muse, but she also is brutally honest. For example, I played two songs on "The Crystal Cathedral" yesterday, and she had no problem telling me how much she hated the first song. It's important to have someone in your life that you know is always being honest with you. I think it's made my albums better.

H2o: John, if they ask you to come back to host ET again would you?

John Tesh: That's a great question! I love the people who work at ET; I just am not interested in doing TV again. I had a hard time turning down the Australian Olympic Games, because I really wanted to do that again. But they wanted a year of my time, and I was in the middle of a concert tour. So I'm sure one of these days, the right TV show will come along, but it will probably be some sort of music show.

TallandBlonde: Has your music career surpassed your expectations?

John Tesh: Definitely. That really happened for the first time back in 1994 when I released "Live at Red Rocks," and we did the public TV special in Denver. I never thought the response to that record would be as huge as it was and to date, it's still my only platinum record.

Brian: You are so talented, and in so many different things, do you mostly just stick to your music career now, or are you still involved at all in investigative reporting?

John Tesh: We have an office here in LA, and it's more like a media group where there are two full-time artists that create album covers. There are three Web sites and a recording studio and two radio shows. So it all represents different interests in my life. One of the Web sites is www.tesh.com, which is purely music. And there is www.faithmd.com, which is a Christian newsletter and www.healingmd.com, which is an alternative health site. All three of these sites provide information for our weekly radio show.

Wheatie: How long have you been involved with FaithMD?

John Tesh: It's been a year in the making, and we just recently released our first newsletter.

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