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Exclusive Interview with John Tesh
Sep 9, 2025
John Tesh speaks to Everything Nash about his new album, 'SPORTS,' his time in Nashville, his legendary career and more.
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hey guys, it's Gail with Everything Nash
0:02
here with John Tesh. I'm so excited
0:04
about this.
0:05
I am too because I just love being in
0:07
Nashville and uh and I just came from my
0:10
old television station where I worked in
0:12
when you were two.
0:13
I was too. Um just what I want to start
0:16
with. You are in Nashville. You got your
0:18
start in Nashville. Talk about that.
0:19
Yeah, I mean I had worked at two other
0:22
TV stations uh before coming to WSM and
0:25
now it's at WSMV. I worked in Raleigh in
0:28
Orlando, but uh things really didn't
0:31
start until until WSN because it was a
0:34
it was a very serious news organization.
0:37
And uh and I learned pretty much
0:40
everything that I learned as a as as a
0:42
journalist there in that place. And it
0:44
was really one of the Channel 4 and
0:46
Channel 5 were really the only hourlong
0:48
broadcast in the country, lo local
0:50
broadcasts, right? Uh, and just to be
0:53
honest, there really wasn't an hour of
0:54
news in Nashville in 1974. Now there is.
0:58
Uh, but it was uh there was the really
1:00
the houseian days of my youth. I was 23
1:02
years old. There was I was 21 years old
1:04
and I was at Channel 4 and Oprah at 19
1:07
was at Channel 5 and it's Yeah, it was
1:09
it was it was a great time.
1:11
Could you ever have imagined then the
1:13
extraordinary career you would have?
1:16
Um, no. I mean, my my career has been
1:20
ridiculously supernaturally blessed. Uh,
1:22
I think part of it is that I I'm
1:25
interested in everything. And I think
1:27
that my dad was right when he said
1:29
angrily he my dad was a World War II
1:32
veteran. Um, you're going to be uh a uh
1:35
jack of all trades and a master of none
1:38
because I'm interested in many different
1:39
things. But if you look at the stuff
1:41
that I've done or I'm doing, I I really
1:44
it's sort of different forms of
1:45
communication. But also, I think with
1:47
the ADD that I've had, it may have
1:49
settled down a little bit, but uh
1:52
actually I'm not going to make sense
1:53
now. Um is is that uh it's the great
1:59
thing about being a back in the day
2:00
being a broadcaster was that you can
2:02
work all day and you can turn something
2:03
in,
2:03
right? I'm not really I'm not your
2:05
documentary guy. I'm not like you guys,
2:07
right? Yeah. Yeah. Uh and so I know
2:12
things I mean when you look at the the
2:14
time period from when I got my first
2:15
job, people have talked about this
2:17
before in in Raleigh. Uh I was thrown
2:21
out of school for for for uh forging a
2:23
professor's name and a drop ad card,
2:25
right? So let's start there. And I was
2:27
homeless for like three or four months
2:29
in Raleigh. And from that moment, 36
2:31
months later, I was a correspondent at
2:33
CBS News in New York City. And I still
2:35
don't know how that happened. One of the
2:37
reasons it did happen was because not
2:39
everybody wanted to be a content creator
2:42
like like you know like now like we're
2:43
all broadcasters now. Right.
2:44
Right.
2:45
Uh you also are a super successful
2:47
musician and we're going to talk about
2:48
your album Sports which is out.
2:50
It is
2:52
you recorded it here. I would love to
2:54
know why.
2:57
Well um I not to be mean to anybody else
3:01
in the in the United States but the the
3:03
players in Nashville are it's no lie.
3:05
The players in Nashville are amazing.
3:06
you know, and I think part of the reason
3:08
is is um you know, great players attract
3:10
more great players. And so Nashville,
3:13
when I was here in 74, I think Franklin
3:17
was was cows, you know, and now it's
3:20
like uh I mean it's like the music
3:22
capital of the world. Well, obviously it
3:24
is music city, but uh but there is so
3:27
many more musicians and composers here
3:30
now. So uh we started here. We started
3:32
here with with sketches that I had of
3:34
the songs and then, you know, and had
3:37
the orchestra play to that. Then I went
3:39
back with a rock band and and played
3:42
played the rest of it. And then back in
3:43
my studio and I pulled out all these old
3:46
1980s synthesizers like the Moog and the
3:48
Oberheim and the Profit Prophet 5 um all
3:51
that stuff that makes all those 80s
3:52
sounds that are back now and sweetened
3:54
it with that. So, it took me it took me
3:56
a year, but I I love uh I I I can't
3:59
write anything other than sports music
4:01
for some reason. I think it's because I
4:04
just have seen so much of it, you know?
4:06
Um I was hired to be an anthology sports
4:09
reporter, which is basically everything
4:12
but the NFL, the NBA, and and and Major
4:15
League Baseball. So, downhill skiing and
4:17
figure skating, all that. And that
4:18
movement is just so perfect with music.
4:20
Um, this was your first album of new
4:22
material in 20 years.
4:25
Yeah. I mean, I've done stuff like big
4:26
band music and some other things, but my
4:28
son reminded me, he said, you know, I'm
4:30
I'm Popup because I'm a grandfather.
4:33
Popup, you have a this is your first
4:34
album like you just said in 20 years.
4:37
And I said I said, yeah. I said, but I
4:39
think the thing that really triggered
4:40
it, in fact, I know the thing that
4:41
triggered it was that that this little
4:43
song that I wrote for for basketball,
4:46
Round Ball Rock, is coming back in the
4:48
fall on NBC. And when NBC made that
4:51
decision, I just said, um, and they want
4:53
me to do all these interviews and
4:54
everything, I said, "Well, maybe I
4:56
should do that some more, you know, and
4:58
so, um, so yeah, that that's how that
5:00
that's that's at least was it was a kick
5:02
in the pants, you know.
5:03
I saw some of the footage of you making
5:05
it. You were you had like an orchestra
5:07
basically. You had all these musicians.
5:09
How stunning.
5:10
Yeah, it's great. I mean, uh, and and
5:13
you know that it's also a lesson in how
5:15
to do any of that stuff, which is and
5:16
you learn by by mistakes where
5:19
if you don't hire the best, you're going
5:21
to end up spending most of your time
5:22
fixing it, you know, and so the the
5:24
musicians here in Nashville, there's
5:26
just so they're sight reading. I mean,
5:28
and and and the music that I brought
5:30
them, not for nothing, as we say in New
5:32
York, it's it's odd time signature. So
5:35
it's it's rock and roll 44, then it's
5:37
wall 68, then it's 128, and then it's
5:39
78, then it's 54 again. And so it's not
5:43
you you would want to have that the
5:44
night before to practice that. I would,
5:48
but but no, they're sight reading and
5:49
it's just boom, you just you just get
5:51
you go right through it. And so there
5:53
was uh it cost us money to bring
5:55
everybody here, you know, and do it from
5:58
Los Angeles, but it was the right move.
6:00
Oh, you said it was a little bit of a
6:01
homecoming. Why? Well, I mean, my my
6:04
aunt Amigene is just turned 100 years
6:07
old. She's really the only living uh
6:10
last living member of of our family. Um
6:13
uh she's And by the way, folks, she's
6:16
the only one who did not uh smoke, did
6:18
not drink, and she loves to dance. So,
6:20
there it is.
6:21
There you go.
6:22
Yeah, I like to dance. That's about it.
6:23
I'm just kidding. Um, but so I wanted to
6:26
see her and and also just being able to
6:29
come back to to Channel 4,
6:31
you know, and uh and say hi to her. I I
6:33
used I I was living a life, man. I was
6:36
20 20 years 21 years old. I had a
6:39
skiboat on Percy Priest Lake. I used to
6:41
ski by by uh uh what's his name? Um
6:46
Johnny Cash's house. What's his name in
6:48
Nashville? I just said what's his name?
6:51
What's her name? Dolly Pardon. I know at
6:53
Johnny Cash's house and um and it was
6:56
great. I mean there it was there was a
6:58
digital streaming there was newspapers
7:01
and there was uh channel 4 and channel 4
7:05
ratings were monstrously huge you know
7:08
and um I used to get a free meal or two.
7:10
It was a great time.
7:11
Uh you're on NBA on NBC. Okay, that
7:15
commercial is phenomenal. Talk about
7:17
being part of NBA back on NBC.
7:20
Well, it's I mean it's ridiculous
7:22
because uh I wrote the song in 1989 when
7:26
I found out that that NBC had gotten the
7:28
coverage for the NBA from CBS. You know,
7:31
it's always moves around, right? And and
7:33
I was actually working on a sporting
7:35
event at the time. I was working on the
7:36
tour to France and I was writing music
7:39
for that and I heard that NBC was was
7:41
looking for a new theme. And so it's a
7:43
it's the story is on the internet, but
7:45
it's a true story. I mean, I actually
7:47
called my answering machine in the
7:48
middle of the night with an idea. And
7:50
musicians will tell you they do this and
7:52
I just sang
7:57
into my answering machine in New York
7:59
via phone. And uh when I got back to New
8:02
York, I went to sleep that night and I
8:04
forgot what I had done. Got back to New
8:06
York and um and it was there. And so I
8:10
figured it out on the piano, got my band
8:11
together, but knowing knowing how the
8:15
sports world works, right? Having been
8:17
in a production truck or two, I knew
8:19
what the structure needed to be. And
8:21
that's really the key to that to why
8:22
that song works where it's it's a theme.
8:25
It's and John Williams does sleep, but
8:28
um it's a theme. It's a variation on a
8:30
theme, right? And then you have to have
8:32
a bed in there, the part that goes.
8:36
And that's when Marv Albert comes by and
8:37
says and says, "Hey, you're looking
8:39
live. It's, you know, whatever." And
8:41
then and then and then another theme and
8:42
he comes back and it's brought to you by
8:44
Geico, Macy's, and whatever. So I knew
8:47
that structure. So I put that together
8:49
and sent it to them fully formed. And so
8:51
the guys at uh at NBC were just able to
8:53
say, "Well, this works, you know, that
8:55
kind of thing." But then it went then it
8:57
was dormant, you know, when when ABC
9:00
took the coverage away from just back
9:01
and forth from from NBC. Then it was
9:05
just it was it wasn't anywhere. It was
9:06
just another another theme. But then uh
9:09
Saturday Night Live did a spoof on it.
9:11
And when they did that, that's when
9:13
people started uh noticing it on
9:15
YouTube. So now that NBC has the
9:18
coverage back, uh they want to play it
9:20
again in the fall.
9:21
So why the gap?
9:24
Um, I I think there it's a great
9:27
question. I think it's because there's
9:29
and there's not like an answer that
9:30
makes a lot of sense, but I went to ABC
9:33
and said and said, "Hey, I know the
9:34
coverage just flipped over to you, but
9:37
uh you can you can use the theme, you
9:39
know, for the 10 years that you have
9:40
it." And they're like, "No, we're going
9:42
to do something different." And I think
9:44
the reason was that when that theme
9:47
happened, it was Michael Jordan, it was
9:50
Magic Johnson, it was uh Larry Bird,
9:53
Scottie Pippen, you know, it was the
9:55
known as the houseian days of basketball
9:57
really. It was known as Showtime. And
9:59
you got Marv Albert doing that and all
10:00
that. And so it was really an uh it was
10:04
heavy duty. It is heavy duty nostalgia
10:06
now. But I think ABC realized and
10:08
probably rightly so that uh that when
10:11
that theme came on, people were going to
10:12
say NBA and NBC and they didn't want the
10:15
ratings to they didn't want to be
10:16
playing all this basketball uh coverage
10:19
that they played so much money for and
10:20
people writing down in the Neielson
10:22
diaries NBC.
10:24
So I think that's what happened. But uh
10:26
but it is so I mean it's been
10:29
30 plus year 35 years or something like
10:31
that since this since the song was
10:33
written.
10:34
But the the wild thing is is that I when
10:36
I went to Nashville, I said, "Hey, let's
10:39
re-record the NBA thing." So, we did and
10:41
I finished and plus a whole bunch of
10:43
other songs and and when I presented it
10:45
to NBC, they were like, "Let us test it
10:48
out." And it turns out that the the fans
10:50
want the original,
10:52
you know. So,
10:52
go figure.
10:53
Yeah. So, you can have that theme now.
10:54
You can play it at your house.
10:56
I'll play.
10:56
Nobody else wants to listen to it.
10:58
I want to switch gears a little bit. The
10:59
John Tesh radio show.
11:00
Yeah.
11:01
Why do you want to do that?
11:03
We um I left television in 1986. I left
11:08
uh I left uh uh Entertainment No, 1996,
11:11
sorry. I left Entertainment Tonight
11:14
because I had an album, a song, a TV
11:18
special blowout called Live at Red
11:19
Rocks. And that's what I wanted to do my
11:22
whole life was to to be a full-time
11:24
musician. And so I there's that I can't
11:27
remember who the explorer was who was
11:29
having a hard time with his marauders
11:32
and somebody will correct me on this but
11:34
uh Bosco Dama or somebody like that who
11:36
who in order to get them to to to stay
11:39
on the island he burned the boats. Tony
11:42
Robbins uses that a lot. You burn the
11:43
boats. And so I wanted to leave
11:45
television to prove that I could be a
11:47
full-time musician. And uh and that's
11:50
really where where that came from was
11:53
and I started touring then then my wife
11:55
and I had a baby Prima. Uh and so she
11:58
was like I don't know two years old and
12:01
Connie raised that Italian eyebrow and
12:03
said are you going to be doing 50 shows
12:05
in a row every year and so I thought you
12:08
know why not come back into the media
12:09
world again but not in television. So,
12:12
we started a family syndicated radio
12:15
show that's on here in Nashville late
12:16
tonight um called Intelligence for Real
12:18
Life. Yeah. I I I just like that. I like
12:21
the idea of of of staying staying
12:23
relevant. I like the idea of uh forced
12:26
learning, you know, that kind of thing.
12:28
You also are so positive. I love this so
12:31
much on social media about your faith,
12:33
about how people can improve their
12:35
lives, benefit their lives. Why is that
12:37
important to you? I in in
12:40
10 years ago in 2015
12:43
I walked into a doctor's office with for
12:46
a routine exam and walked out with 18
12:49
months to live and it was a rare form of
12:51
cancer and uh it didn't make any blood
12:54
markers originally and it was one of
12:57
those things where everything just it
12:58
was a brick to the head and everything
13:00
stopped and um my my wife Connie Connie
13:04
Celica she quit everything and just said
13:07
Hey, listen. We're going to fight back.
13:09
You know, the doctor told us,
13:12
"You should get your affairs in order."
13:13
And so, I started doing that. I called
13:15
him. You know, I was 63 years old at the
13:17
time. I've done some stuff. I got a
13:18
couple of grandkids, you know. And so, I
13:21
I became a cancer patient. And she just
13:23
sort of rose up like, uh, I feel like
13:25
you might have some Italian jeans in you
13:27
as well. She sort of rose up and said,
13:29
"We're not doing this." Uh, and so we
13:32
landed on the right scriptures, right
13:35
biblical scriptures. We learned that on
13:36
the right doctors and surgeons and we
13:38
combined them together and and we used
13:41
some of the visualization that I had
13:43
learned from high level athletes. Uh so
13:46
we combined our faith with with that
13:48
visualization and also with the with the
13:51
heavy duty medical help and uh we fought
13:54
back. I I can't say that it it always
13:56
went well. I mean I I was in so much
13:58
pain I started drinking. I started
14:00
taking Vicodin uh for for all the pain,
14:02
but at the same time, which I don't
14:04
recommend at the time, I would have
14:05
recommended it, but not now. Uh but it
14:09
uh and I I was I was my wife and I ended
14:12
up having a
14:14
pretty famous family fight where she
14:17
just said, "I'm not fighting for you if
14:18
you won't fight for yourself." And so
14:20
when you get on the other side of
14:21
something like that, to answer your
14:23
question with a very long answer, it you
14:25
you you realize that positivity and
14:27
optimism is is really what other people
14:30
want from you.
14:31
I love that. Okay, last question. I'm
14:32
going to let you go. What's next for
14:33
you? I mean, you've done so much. What
14:35
is next?
14:37
I I really feel like I I uh I I really
14:42
feel like I want to finish strong. M you
14:44
know uh there I could give you you know
14:46
many places in the Bible where it says
14:48
that you really you you want to run run
14:51
the race to win you know and so I wasn't
14:54
supposed to live to be 73 my current age
14:57
and uh I realized that I'm I love music.
15:03
I love writing music. I miss it. I was
15:05
trying to do too many things and um if
15:08
so music my wife and my family and my
15:11
grandkids I mean and that's I think I
15:13
think if I give anybody you know the
15:15
same advice that Lyn Manuel Miranda gave
15:18
me when I interviewed him about Hamilton
15:21
he said I just John I just stayed in my
15:23
lane you know and I think so my lane is
15:26
as we sit here at Nashville right I said
15:29
you you guys you and your husband picked
15:30
a lane in in your in your video business
15:32
you know you stay in that lane and And
15:35
the shiny things go by. This is advice
15:38
that that I'm finally learning at 73.
15:41
And you and and you figure out what what
15:42
is it? I mean, the basically the glory
15:46
of God is men and women fully alive.
15:49
And I'm fully alive when I'm when I'm
15:51
making music and when I'm playing it.
15:53
And so when you ask what's next for me,
15:55
it's it's going to just be lots lots
15:57
more music.
15:58
Well, I hope we get to talk to you again
15:59
then.
15:59
Thanks. My pleasure. But next time you
16:01
go to a restaurant to do a restaurant,
16:02
don't forget your friend.
16:04
John Tash everyone.
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