John tells Christian artistes to be cautious of ‘Pride’
Dimapur: John William Schlitt, currently playing with a five-member ‘John Schlitt And Band’ and renowned guitarist and pastor of a church in North California, Michael Hill were happy to be in Nagaland
In an exclusive interview to Nagaland Post here Tuesday, John, who turns 62 on February 3, said he would love to come back to Nagaland with the rest of his band sometime. Three members of the band were unable to come to the north east owing to visa problems.
(L-R) John W. Schlitt and Michael Hill. (NP)
Owing to the absence of the other band members, the organizers arranged ‘DivineConnection’ (DC) from Nagaland to back up the duo.
John said he was impressed by the talent of DC and was thinking of having them at Nashville for recording.
The duo, backed up by DC performed earlier at Shillong, then Kohima on Janaury 30 and will be on stage at DDSC stadium on Wednesday at 4 p.m. John will be turning 62 on February 3 and will be performing with Michael with whom he has been working since the past three years.
On music, John said it is a tool through which artistes bring their philosophy of life as they write and sing.
John, who used to be lead singer of a rock band (Head East) in the seventies, said the difference between gospel and non-gospel artistes was that “our (Christian artistes) lives have been affected by Jesus Christ and it was important that Christian artistes live as Christians.
In that, John said, the difference between gospel and secular singers was not the music style but the Christian life style.
Ask what he would advise young Naga contemporary Christians artistes leading worships, John said it was important that they give their best to the Lord even with the smallest of things.
However, he advised caution against pride which, if unchecked, could prove to be the biggest contributor that would destroy one’s spiritual life.
Asked about what was the difference in his life earlier while singing with rock and roll band ‘Head East’ and later the gospel band ‘Petra’, John said as a rock and roll singer, the songs were all about him or his feelings. “That’s all what I cared about as I walked on and off stage… I get drunk, coked up (cocaine) to keep me happy.”
He said after getting saved and beginning life all over and even working as a sweeper, he got an audition by chance and that was when he sang with “Petra’.
On the money from singing, John said today he no longer cares about money, “no matter how much you make, it just disappears”. Today as a believer, John said even if he retired he is secure and satisfied with what he has.
On the high with cocaine and Christ, he replied “I’ll tell you the difference ok… Here’s the trick of it… God wants to offer you everything for free and what happens is the enemy comes in and counterfeits… and in my case what it was that I got started off with booze. Back in my days when I was with my rock and roll there was no water… there was all beer or alcohol!
Backstage there was no water or at least in my rock n roll world… If you get thirsty just grab a beer ok. Now the combination of cocaine and alcohol was, you would drink alcohol to get down and would do coke to get up. Later on when I got saved, it took about two years of cleansing everything out from my system.
What God wants you to give for free, faith will charge your life and that is the difference between the ‘high’ of Christian music and secular music.
~NP
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