Interview with John Elefante by Paul Braoudakis July 1997

Paul: The very first thing I noticed when I was listening to Corridors was that the personal pronoun “I” was in almost every single song. This is an intensely personal album, isn’t it?

John: Yes, absolutely.

Paul: Can you tell me why?

John: Well, it’s the truest thing to my heart. It’s my own personal relationship with God and how I see it from my perspective. Even though I do have an evangelistic side, I just really like to sing about what God does in my life. It’s easiest to sing about, because it’s what I know the best.

Paul: Is there a reason why this particular album is so introspective?

John: I guess I’ve learned more about myself. I’ve learned more about my relationship with God. And a big thing is I’ve adopted two children from birth.

Paul: I was waiting for your to say that.

John: And that’s had a major, major effect.

Paul: Did it affect your songs?

John: Yes, absolutely.

Paul: All of them?

John: I don’t know about all of them. I mean, I feel it comes from a different place. But it’s just that it affects me in my whole life. I think the most amazing thing about it is that you really understand how God views us when you have a child.

Paul: The father/child relationship...

John: Oh yeah. You can discipline. You can love. You could be willing to lay down your life. You understand all the things, all the reasons that God loves us. And if God’s love is as intense — which I know it is — as a father’s, that’s got to be off the scale! In fact, here’s an interesting story: We have a little deck outside our house. And it’s really dry. Summer’s hit, and we haven’t sealed the deck yet. And my little girl was running down the deck to go out in the backyard and play. She got a huge splinter in her foot, just underneath the skin. It took us about an hour-and-a-half to get this thing out of there. It took five of us to hold her down because it was hurting her so bad. We had to dig into her foot with a pin. And she was saying things to me like, “Daddy, you’re killing me! Why are you killing me?” She thought we were intentionally hurting her. It just broke my heart. I said, “Honey, we have to get this splinter out of your foot. It’s going to get worse. It’s going to get infected.” “But you’re hurting me! Tell me why are you killing me? Why are you killing me?” And my wife and I that night talked about it. It really affected us. Because when God prunes our tree, when he’s chopping away and cutting away all the dead stuff, it hurts because that stuff’s grown. It’s like he just keeps chopping and pruning away so we’ll bear more fruit.

Paul: And we wonder why. We wonder, “Why are you killing me?”

John: Oh yeah. “Why are you killing me? Why are you doing this, God? I’m going through a really rough time...” And I understood it at that time. She didn’t understand it because she is too young to understand that I’m pulling the splinter out because you’re going to be hurting if we don’t get it out. It’s going to get infected. But she didn’t understand that yet.

Paul: Her mind didn’t have the capacity to grasp what was happening to her.

John: Just like we don’t. Exactly. It was such an incredible depiction of that.

Paul: How do you feel this album is different from Windows of Heaven?

John: Well first of all, it was written and recorded over a four/five month period. Windows of Heaven was about a four-year process. It didn’t take four years to make, it’s just that we would slide in two songs here and then find time and record two songs here and two songs here and another two songs here. Lyrically, the influence of having a family now definitely plays out in the record. But musically, it’s not as busy. It’s definitely more stripped down. I think the vocal, the sonics of the record is more set to feature my voice and really get me out there as a singer. In the recording process, the record company really wanted to hear my voice. “We don’t want to just get bombastically blown away with all the music and everything going on. We really want to get in touch with the singer.”

Paul: Was the last one recorded in the new studios also?

John: No. The last one was entirely recorded — except for a few things — in California.

Paul: At Pakaderm ?

John: Right. This one was recorded solely at The Sound Kitchen in Nashville and my house.

Paul: It seems after listening to this album that you’ve abandoned the hard rock edge that was so prevalent with Mastedon. Is that something that was intentional, that you’re trying to get away from, or can we expect to see that resurface in a project later on?

John: I don’t know. That’s hard to say. I’ve still got rock and roll in my blood, but right now I don’t think with these lyrics that setting would work. But it’s definitely in my blood.

Paul: The bands that you guys used to produce really established you as having a sort of “hard rock edge.”

John: Well, that died about 1990. Everything started getting a lot more vibey and acoustic in the 90s. But I did make a very conscious effort to not be trendy with this record. I wasn’t into “Oh, we’re going to make an alternative, acoustic, vibey...” I just did what I do and made it melodic and recorded it the way I know how. I’m not into trends too much.

Paul: Will we see another Mastedon album?

John: I don’t know.

Paul: You haven’t thought about it at all?

John: Well, we haven’t discussed another record. What we have discussed is getting both records, combining them together, remixing, maybe me singing some of the songs that some of the other singers sang, and doing three or four new tunes. So it would be a compilation of both with three or four new songs.

Paul: When you guys did that one incredibly successful show at Cornerstone (1991, the only full live performance of Mastedon), did that not prompt you to say, “Wow, maybe we’ve got something here”?

John: Well, yes and no. But I think if you see my show now, you’ll see all those elements. We do some Mastedon stuff. We do some Kansas stuff.

Paul: What Kansas stuff do you do?

John: Believe it or not, we’re doing part of Wayward Son, Fire with Fire and we’re doing sort of a Pink Floyd version of Dust in the Wind.

Paul: Really?

John: It’s wild. We did it the other night, man. People freaked out just as soon as we started it (sings the intro) ... Like the whole show just comes to a stop. It’s a killer.

Paul: You once said that your days with Kansas weren’t exactly all glamour and joy. Can you tell me about some of the bad times and what they taught you so early on in your career? What did you learn?

John: Well, I think what I was shocked into learning is that the business sometimes and almost always was more important than the music — the aspect of the bottom line. See, I went in thinking it was all about the music. And that if it was all about the music, in turn the business took care of itself. But I was shocked into reality real quick. Most of the decisions were made from a business perspective in that band and somewhat a musical.

Paul: These guys all came from a small town in the Midwest. Most of them knew each other since they were kids. Did you feel like an outcast sometimes?

John: Oh, absolutely. Totally.

Paul: The whole time?

John: The whole time. Yeah.

Paul: Is that something you felt, or were you made to feel that way?

John: Well, I don’t know if it was a conscious effort for anybody to make me feel that way. But I just was an outsider.

Paul: And your age...

John: Yeah. I was much younger. It’s just the way it was.

Paul: Have you heard any of the stuff they’ve done since then or have you seen them live since you left the band?

John: I heard early on, right when I left. The record Power I thought was good.

Paul: And then Freaks of Nature, which is one in the last year...

John: I’ll just come right out and say it. I don’t think the band is Kansas anymore without Kerry Livgren. Never will be.

Paul: People are dying to know: Is there a possibility of you ever doing a project with Kerry?

John: God would have to put it together. There’s nothing planned.

Paul: Do you guys keep in touch?

John: Yeah. We talk.

Paul: It seems like it would only be natural. You both have a history, you’re both musicians, you’ve both got studios, you both are Christians..

John: Every time we get together we talk about it, but nothing ever really materializes.

Paul: Is it just the busyness of both of your schedules?

John: Yeah, pretty much. But I don’t know. Who knows? We could be out on tour next year. Who knows?

Paul: He still jumps on stage once in a while when Kansas comes through town and does Dust in the Wind.

John: Yeah, that’s what I hear.

Paul: Have you ever met Steve Walsh?

John: Yes.

Paul: When you were in the band or after?

John: Before I was in the band.

Paul: Did he just come to a show?

John: Yeah.

Paul: What was that like?

John: It made me extremely nervous.

Paul: Was he out in the audience?

John: Oh yeah, he was staring at me from the soundboard on the first show we did. Freaked me out.

Paul: Was he cordial?

John: Oh yeah.

Paul: Did he talk to you after the show, say “Good job” or anything like that?

John: Yeah, he did. Yeah.

Paul: Lots of people say that Drastic Measures was primarily an Elefante album.

John: It was. I was just about left alone with a producer to make a record myself.

Paul: You and Dino (John’s brother)?

John: No. Dino wasn’t there. But it was basically me, Rich Williams, and the producer.

Paul: Tell me about your recent project with Lou Graham (of Foreigner).

John: Well, Lou Graham was my mentor vocally. He was the guy that I listened to. I mean his vocal ability just kills me. I listen to him a lot. Then actually singing with him on the Petra record was one of the biggest treats of my life.

Paul: How did that happen?

John: Well, I sang with him at a Harvest Crusade out in California. The song We Need Jesus was the theme for that crusade. He was in town with Foreigner, and he loved the tune. We sent a car out to pick him up, he came down for two hours, sang his part and went back. But he’s a straight ahead believer, man. He’s for real. Great guy.

Paul: That’s great. So he’s still doing the Foreigner thing. How’s he dealing with that?

John: Well, he’s going to a Calvary church, which I trust, because I’m a Calvary.

Paul: In California?

John: No. In Rochester, New York. But it’s associated with the Calvary churches in California, which I completely trust. I think he’s been discipled right. I don’t necessarily believe that you become a Christian and stop everything that you’re doing. Some things you need to stop, that’s obvious. But I don’t think that he should necessarily leave Foreigner all of a sudden and do a Gospel record.

Paul: Kerry didn’t leave Kansas.

John: No. In fact, that still might be going on if he hadn’t given in to some of the pressure from people saying “Oh man, you got to get rid of this Kansas thing and go out and do your own thing and sing about the Lord.”

Paul: Tell me about the tour for this album (Corridors).

John: We’re planning a fall tour. Looking ahead to next spring, we’re carefully planning a tour.

Paul: So there’s no tour itinerary as of right now.

John: Not yet. We have a tentative sketch.

Paul: Are you planning major metropolitan areas, Christian festivals ...?

John: It would be festivals for next spring, but yeah, primarily big cities.

Paul: Okay. So what’s next, John? What’s next for John Elefante? You do the tour and then you get back...

John: Well, we see what happens with this record, do some dates. I don’t know. It’s like wherever this thing takes me. We have big plans for this record, and I can only see that far right now. That’s as far as I want to see for right now. But I already have some new stuff for another record, so there’s always that coming in.