Brave Men S2E28: John Tesh - John Tesh has a Tattoo

John Tesch was one of the most famous television personalities of his era. He was also a composer and right in the middle of a really great career, you know, he was in the Olympics, he did all these different hosting projects, he was on national news. Right in the middle of it, he walked away to be a music composer and then he wrote round ball rock, the NBA theme on NBC. He heard a great sports theme and I mean this guy's rolling, he's got it all happening then five years ago, he hit a brick wall and the brick wall was called cancer. Now three years after the doctors told him, get your affairs in order because you won't be here any longer. Three years later, something has happened to him so dramatic and I've asked him to share it of what's happening with this healing. He has a tattoo on his left arm and today we're going to tell you what it says on Brave Men. It's Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole, wisdom and courage for the journey. And with John Tesch and John has to me, John, you're like Teddy Roosevelt, you've had this amazingly enormous life. But you just wrote a book because you went through trauma over the last few years. Most of us know you're from television or basketball fans know you as the, what was the name of the song, Roundhouse? Yeah, close enough, round ball rock. Round ball rock. Yeah. And the theme for the NBC, NBA on NBC, you've been around all that. So we know that and then we see you on television and we see your concerts sold millions of albums. Now, you wrote a book and precipitated by this dramatic journey that just happened in your life in the last few years. And tell me about that. Tell me what was diagnosed just a few years ago and how that shifted everything in your world. Yeah. It's, what's really wild is, first of all, is that, you know, when, when Harbor Collins Thomas Nelson was saying, we're going to read at least this book now, I like, well, can we wait till September, you know, but then maybe this virus will play around a little bit and they're saying, no, because what's, what's in the book, what you went through in a couple of different instances might be encouragement for people, you know, that should trip out of diverse diversity and, and we're getting that kind of reaction. And mostly from the, mostly from the audio book, because, you know, I worked for, for some reason, Amazon is prioritizing toilet paper over my book. So it's true. It's true. Some people are down in the audio book. There's a metaphor there, but that's, yeah, I had a hard time just putting that sentence together as you could tell. Anyway, the, yeah, what, what happened was my manager as an old friend of mine, a guy named Mike Atkins, represents a lot of great Christian artist. And he became my manager just like a couple of years ago because he retired and he came back and he said, I love what you're, I love what you're doing, John, and he was calling me from a duck blind, too, and he goes, he goes, I really think you should write a book. And I'm like, I know, because you knew what I was going through and the cancer journey was like three years into it. And I said, well, that's flattering, and he goes, yes, in fact, I've got an offer from Harper College. You already talked to them? Yes, they're very interested in you telling their story, but they want to know if you have any, I can't do the accent that long. It took me years to train my North Carolina route, my, my accent out of me. So now, right. Anyway, and so they, we had a meeting on the phone and they said, if you have any other stories other than the cancer journey, and I said, I said, yes, and I sent them an outline and they go, wow, you really, you really made a lot of horrible mistakes. I said, yeah. And they said, you can't be honest about it, writing about it, and even one of the guys Matt Bomber, one of the publishers there, he said, wow, man, you were really good at shooting yourself in the book. I mean, every single, every single country song lying, bless my heart, I mean, it was all in there. In fact, this whole, my whole story is a country song, really. But yeah, so answer the question, John, 2015. I just went into for a routine check, you know, with my doctor and, and got me Dr. Steve Gailin, who, by the way, gets free, Ram Swapaltic, it's season tickets every year because you saved my life. But, okay, so let's, let's, let's talk to some men here. So the thing, the test that you get is the PSA test, right, blood test for your prostate. And then if it's a good doctor, the doctor will also do the digital rectal exam, which is uncomfortable for, for both parties. But what I know now as an expert in this area is that there are a lot of doctors who aren't doing that second part of the test. Yep. If my doctor hadn't been relentless and done that test, I, you, I would be having this conversation. I would have ended. Wow. Really? Yeah. So my PSA was a point four. And what that mean for five years, what that means is nothing going on, right? In your prostate. Really? Everything is fine. I mean, I was a, you know, my heart beats in 49 beats a minute, I've always stayed in really good shape. Wow. Well, I went in there and the doctor did the digital rectal exam and he goes, whoa, which is really what you want when your doctor is behind you, giving you a test and going, whoa. And I'm like, I mean, I get, I'm getting chills now, Paul, just, just telling you this story. Wow. Right. Wow. See? Um, and so, uh, I, what is it basically because something, something's different and something different ended up, uh, progressing into, let's go get a sonogram, let's do a biopsy. And when we got to the biopsy, there's a thing called the Galician score, which you don't need to know about. But basically it's, I hit a poem run with cancer from this. So three of my tumors were released in the eyes, which meant that the cells, when they looked at them, were poorly differentiated, you couldn't tell the cancer cells from the good cells. And the doctor said to us in Los Angeles, he said, you know, you should probably said this to Connie who was, uh, who was in the meeting after the exam, after the biopsy, you, uh, should probably get your affairs in order to go try to make, uh, eliminate, emanate at 11, which is a great, uh, bedside manner. And, uh, and so, of course, we had to hit him with what do you think, how many, how long, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I can't even make sense, isn't there? Well, 18 months to two years, we've been pretty much a guarantee that it's actually a guarantee. So we, you know, because of what we do, we do, uh, 33 hours of radio a week, my wife and I, she does the health, yeah, and your wife, just, most people would know, but Connie, sorry, kind of, kind of like a tremendous actress in her own right and actor and, and, uh, great career. But, but you guys, how long have you been married, John? Uh, on April 4th of 2020, it was 28 years. Fantastic. Yeah. So now this is, this is, uh, upsetting everything. I mean, this changes, this pivots your world. Right, right. And, and the first thing I, right. So it was, here I am with this diagnosis and we went into, into sixth gear on a Mustang, right? It was fine. Okay. I got to find out everything, you know, and I grew up in the research world anyway. So, um, I mean, just as far as, you know, a journalist and, and so I read Patrick Walsh's book, Surviving Cross Date Cancer and, uh, it really sort of the Bible that it's been rewritten now. It's just been rewritten as if the book that I read did not give me a chance at all with three years. Wow. Yeah. So I'm reading a book as encouragement and it's all like in a lot of, a lot of, a lot of, and by the way, we don't even, we, we don't operate on recent months. Wow. And so I sort of blood drained out of me and I did what I normally do is I cold call Patrick Walsh, right? And, uh, John Hopkins and he was retired and, and I talked my way in and saying, I wanted to do an interview with him, which is, you know, he's okay with it now, but I definitely, um, I'm sort of that person and that'll, well, not only that, but you were trained in that because, because you ended up, uh, at a very young age at, uh, CBS television in New York, right? Right. Yeah. It was the, I was a youngest correspondent at CBS at, um, at 23 years old. Yeah. And, and you guys become, uh, experts, uh, I told somebody one time they said, I can't get into this convention, the, the, the past, I said, it's very easy to get in anywhere. You just go backstage, you pick up a chair and then you carry the chair in. That's great. Nobody stops a person carrying the chair. I, I'm, I'm taking that, man. I'm taking that. I'm serious. I get thrown out of everything now. My wife, like, she likes to, uh, uh, she likes to crash weddings with my daughter who's 25. They'll be in a resort or something and they'll do that. And I go, okay, I go, it's an, it's somebody, what the guard, he's over 50 or whatever will recognize me. Mr. Tash, you don't belong. And I get thrown out. Oh, really? You don't get the boom or a tree? No, no, no, no. And the best thing is that my, yeah, so, yes, being pushy as a journalist with a microphone in your hand, I sort of, I, even though I went after Patrick Walsh and I did, I did. Got inside. And he said, and I said, um, yeah, and I, and this is, this is really useful to guys who are, yeah, I mean, even at 40 years old, you know, depending on, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, well, I'm, even at 40 years old, you, I think you need to get a check. Um, but, um, what happened was I went after him and I'm talking to him. It was interesting. He said, oh, oh, Mr. Tash, my, uh, my assistant said that you're a journalist. How, how may I help you? I got him on a line. And this is in the book. And, and he says, uh, uh, I started telling him, you know, I was asking him questions. He goes, I saw him a journalist and this and that and, and, you know, I wanted to know about. And he goes, it sounds like you're a journalist with prostate cancer, sort of, busted blood. I mean, you were then like, you know, so I'm sure that, like, this probably happened to him four times before I called, you know, so, uh, so I said, I said, I, you know, I think you're the only one that can save my life. Wow. Because he was the one that pioneered one of the pioneers of the, of the robotic assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy. And, uh, he said, I'm retired and then the blood drain again, uh, and he said, but it's the guy that I treated myself who treats aggressive prostate cancer aggressively. I think he's the only guy that can, that can do the job that was a guy named Ted Schaefer who was at that job's Hopkins. And, um, we sent all the data because my Connie, my wife is just one of the amazing advocates and she just keeps everything and copies of it and you're not going to tell her, no, I, you know, you can't have a copy of this. This is my right. Sure. She'll hold up a document, you know, I mean, so that same discipline that it takes the tenacity to be an actor, the, the memory thing, she became a medical professional quickly. Yeah. I mean, you just, you just said it perfectly where, what, in fact, during the journey, or whatever, we were at, you know, NB Anderson after that and also Northwestern University and Hopkins, more than one person, more than one surgeon, when we were in meetings would say, uh, are you a healthcare professional because she, you know, because she had, yeah, downloaded everything into her brain and she's, what machines were doing to scan. Wow. So, I mean, yeah, so that, I mean, one of the bottom lines of this discussion is you really didn't need to have an advocate. But when we, uh, when, when we gave the data to, to doctor, we sent it to Dr. Schaefer. We just had his email address. We didn't even have, uh, hadn't even met him. And within five minutes of hitting San, we got that, uh, wash, my phone rang and was him in his car. And so he said, he was just, he's this kind of guy, right? Like a warrior. And he just goes, John, unless I, I looked at your stuff and I said, while you're driving him, he goes, yes, it's important. He said, Dr. Wallace told me what was going on. I, I can save your life. Well, Connie, Connie and I, of course, just, you know, just, you know, just devolved into tears. And he said, uh, he said the same thing was like treat aggressive, uh, cancer, uh, aggressively. And so within, I don't know, a month, um, and we moved into the Baltimore and spent, uh, like a month there and, uh, what happened to me was that we had we, they, they got the cancer out of my, out of my, removed my prostate, yeah, yeah. And, and, and the, the, the interesting thing about what's happening now, as opposed to 20 years ago, 20 years ago, you would lose, you'd lose bowel function, you'd lose, you lose, you'd lose, definitely lose sexual function. But the, the, the other name for the radical, uh, robotic surgery is nerves, sparing, uh, technology. So they go in as they actually lift the nerves, you know, uh, and so the nerves aren't cut out because they should just sort of cut out that area and they, they would cut it out. Yeah. Yeah. So, but what happened was after the, after the surgery, which was supposed to be two hours and just four and a half hours, is that my, my body shut down and so my, my bowel system shut down. I ended up, um, called it, called it Ilius. And that's a blockage in your, uh, in your intestine. It just called it as you throw up and then here you are throwing up and you've got, you know, it's, you're going to wreck the stitches and you're going to start bleeding and everything so there's a panic in this. You know, the, the, the book, the way we did the, you know, the relentless book is that we titrated the cancer story throughout. So it's almost like, like, um, you know, looking like like a, like a, this is us show, I've never seen that show, you know, you look back and, and then you continue with my story and you look back and you know, it finishes off with my, my fate journey. But, um, yeah. So, and, and that's, that's actually, uh, because in reading the forward, uh, your prologue, excuse me, is, is, uh, you actually do that. You use that as a thread, but do you go thinking back on? Right. Because here you are, you know, I mean, at this point in time, you've got this disease. It doesn't care what your background is. You won six, uh, Emmy Awards, nominated for Grammys. You've sold millions of albums, been on the biggest stages of the world, uh, met amazing people. A couple of lives, married a beautiful woman, had a great daughter, all these sorts of things. And at this point, you're, you're the guy on the table. How do you deal with that internally? Where do you have to go in order to endure or keep some sort of sense of tenacity there, John? First of all, thanks for putting me right back on the bed. I really appreciate that I have to go now. Um, yeah. So, uh, we were actually excited about, and, and, and just really encouraged about, uh, about getting the cancer out. And that's a lot of people that we have to, so they'll tell you that, you know, that, so blood, blood disease, like leukemia, stuff like that, it's, it's, it's much, it, it can be much more challenging because it's like, wait a second, it's as well already all over all my body. I just looked at this as, even though it was in the engine room, so to speak, I just looked at it as, we're going to pull this out. It's going to be great. You know, then we'll move on. And, and, and maybe we'll get to, yeah, I even say this in the book, maybe we'll get some good drugs. Well, I was trying to just find the way to, you know, how am I going to enjoy this, you know? And so when I came to, and, uh, and, and there, you know, I was getting ready to walk and do all that stuff, all of a sudden, I just got really, really sick. And at the moment that they, they, and you can just tell, you know, one of the things I, I love to read books like this, and so I wrote one like this, and it was hard for me. It was like two and a half years, right? You were supposed to be six years. But I'm not, I just don't, I don't, I don't shurn out books on how to do that. Yeah. It's because you're always second guessing yourself. Yeah. Relentless is, is, uh, is very real. It's, well, what I liked, what I did, what I did in most, you know, in a lot of the situations that I fought with the, with one of the, uh, editors about this and publisher was, of course, uh, was I, I changed pencils. So what would happen is we, I would, I would be talking about something and then I would flip a switch and then for like 5,000 words, I'd be in present tense. Because I felt like whether it was when we were in the Red Rock's amphitheater and, and, uh, we almost lost our house and the concert there that we could talk about, or whether I was laying on the bed and I'm looking out at the nurses and the doctors and, and, and they're hustling around and have really worried looks on their face. That's happening. That, when you read that, it happens now, you know, and so you're actually in that bed, just like you asked, right? In that that would be, and what they had to do is they had to, uh, administer what's known with an NG2 and, uh, that goes into your nose, to the large tube, because into your nose and then you have to swallow the tube into your stomach and then they pump your stomach out. And you have to be awake. They can't use any painkillers or relaxing drugs or anything like that, because they need you to be able to pay attention to swallowing and, and, and, you know, the very thing that they were trying to fix was, was caused by, by, by, by being under for too long with too much anesthesia. And at that moment, just to pay the picture for you, at that moment, uh, as the blood was pouring out of my left nostril and, and there's this one, swallow, swallow, swallow is because you have to swallow. And I'm gagging and I look at my wife and my wife is, you know, holding my hand, squeezing my hand just, she's fighting back tears. And I just looked at her and I said, I said, kill me, you know, and, wow, and it was, uh, the thing I hated the most about, about recording the audio book is that I had to, to have to go through it again. Yeah. But, uh, that was, that was the moment where there was no, there were no stages, there was no piano. Yeah. There was no, uh, I, I didn't even have, I didn't even have enough energy to, to pray, you know, it just, I just, I had to rely on the sake of my wife and, uh, I just, I knew that if I, and I was planning in my head, if I ever get out of this, I'm going to scrap the kettlebells on my, on my legs and jump into the pool because not only, and this is what happens when you're a cancer patient, not only am, am I suffering, but I know that my family is something. Yeah. But your wife, you guys, uh, your faith, you had to hold on to something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh, Connie had to have faith for both of us. You know, when you're, when you're nausea is a terrible thing, right? Okay. Right. Um, but, but, but, but nauseousness, I mean, that's what they used to, you know, back in World War One, they used to explode those grenades and, I don't know, it was mustard gas, whatever. They would make care of people nauseous and then they would just give up, you know, and that's really it. It's just, it's just, you know, anybody who's listening to this has had the flu, right? At some time, uh, stomach flu. And, and so, yeah, Connie had to have, so her, so she, yeah. So at that point, it's, it is, it's kind of like when Lazarus is in this grave, you know, I was asked guys, you know, you, you gotta put yourself there. How much faith did he have to be raised from the dead? Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. No. I'll answer your question. Yeah. So, so here's Jesus shows up. And, uh, and so we have to, you know, that's where brotherhood comes in for me. That's where identity, purpose and brotherhood are, uh, are three, you know, three strands of accord that, that makes it strong. Yeah. And you've got to have somebody there. So thank God for a marriage that stayed strong. And you know, but John, you know, the stats, the stats are an awful lot of these marriages. It get into this level of depth of, of stuff that's going on physically. A lot of them break up. I do know that and it'll almost happen. So there's a, uh, there's a book, there's a chapter in my book called Pity Party. I wrote it last. I didn't want to read it. I didn't want it. I'm sorry. I didn't want to write it. Didn't want to write. Yeah. Um, because it was really showing my, my, my weakness and in fact, um, Connie didn't ask me to write it and she, and she would, she'd be, uh, it would be understandable what she did. It was at the point when I had been through what happens, what happens with all the treatments. I mean, the treatments worth it. The worst disease. Yeah. It can be. Wow. So after, after two surgery, the cancer kept coming back 2015 surgery and then six months and they give a scan. I think we see a lymph node and then can we biopsy that so they can go like, oh, can we do a bone biopsy, which is really a party. Uh, and then it's like, ah, we can't do anything more for you here at Northwestern. Why don't you go to MD Anderson? Here's this guy. Dr. Christopher Logan-Theta. So I get there and he goes, yeah, we see some stuff, but we need to go back to the end of the game and pull it out a lot like 80 or so it's really to put them into rats and stuff and all of a sudden now you're a big, big experiment, you know, so this is all happening for three years and, uh, it just worked it out, you know, and, and so I became a cancer patient. Uh, and, and this is really important because I, you know, the big message that I want to believe before you and I, I believe this conversation is that I do believe in large part that I gave myself cancer. I believe that I manifested in my life and I'll say how I noticed because my dad got cancer at 63 years old and died in four months. And I, I got cancer in the same year as my, as my dad at 63 years old, only three months apart, right? I was worried about that my whole life, all I, all I, all I, and I spoke it out loud. It came out of my mouth. Wow. It came out of my mouth. And I didn't really know, I read it, but I didn't really know the true meaning of Proverbs 18, 21, death and life or in the power of the tongue. And I was, I was eating those words. I, I mean, my brain hurt it. It affected me at the subatomic level and I'm sure you believe about quantum physics. Yeah. And then understanding what, what did Jesus, if you want to go back to Lazarus, what did Jesus say to Lazarus? He said, Lazarus come forth. So, so Jesus was, he was, I mean, we're not there yet, but Mark 11, 23 has tattooed on my left arm and everybody, my family has a lot of, whatever you feel about tattoos. But Mark 11, 23 says whoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast to the sea and does not doubt it is hard, but believes that what he says would be done shall have what he says. I was saying that I had cancer. And so when you were a prophesying over yourself, right, but I didn't get Mark 11, I didn't get to Mark 11, 23 until I was three years into the cancer battle and a friend of ours, Cha Cha stand of all said, Hey, you know, it was also cancer, you might like this CD and she handed, handed us the CD when kind of we're going back in the car and I, I, everybody was handing the CDs and manuals and pamphlets, we were sending love and lights, you know, so Connie puts a thing in the car in the car stereo and this guy comes out who sounds like Goma pile and he's like yelling at us, say, you know, you, you, you guys, it's wrong, thinking you're killing yourself, you got to come up with a better way to pray, which was the name of this CD series. And it was all about landing on Mark 11, 23 and, and about, and about even even the third John, you know, below, you know, above all, I wish that you a prosper and be a good help. So, you know, this is the nature of God. God doesn't put sickness on people. You know, I'm like, what? I thought, because I thought that this was, this was for me to have a ministry that God was doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I say, of course, of course, I say, 53, you know, by, and first Peter, 24, all this stuff, you know, by his stripes, you were, you were healed almost like a second. I've been killing myself. And so, so we ended up going to Carousel Bible College, we went there a couple of times, Colorado Springs. Sure. Right. So Andrew, yeah. Right. And, and, and then we went to Curry Blakes to buy healing techniques and stuff. We got about a hundred while I was still facing all these tests and everything. We got about a hundred hours of, of divine healing. That's, that's fantastic. You know, it is fantastic. It's, it's, it's, I mean, it's hearing you talk about it, is uplifting. You know, it's uplifting. And then the fact that everybody got the same tattoo, I think that's pretty cool. Actually, yeah. You know, what is it? The family that inks together stays. Right, right, right. And when you post that, you post on a Facebook, you know, you know, God doesn't want you to get the tattoo. It's okay. I ain't buying the lead, you know. Yeah. Well, you know, hey, hey, here's the deal. You know, that's stuff. Frankly, those are, I don't get it. But that's, that's who Jesus usually had problems with was religious people. Yeah. You know, right. Yeah. And you know, it's, I just go ahead. I'm sorry. No, I'm just saying, you know, John, he hung out with the guys like Zach, isn't it? Even some of the guys he chose were a little sketchy. Oh, for sure. They weren't sure. The guys who measured up. They, so, uh, so when Andrew was giving this, he's giving one of those messages. And the cool thing about technology, I mean, listen, going to the coronavirus technology is real. I mean, it's, the only thing I can have socialization is it's tremendous. We'll be right back with Paul's interview with John Tesch here on the Brave Men podcast. CNN dot men is your destination for all things. Christian men's network. And you'll want to go there and check it out. There's a couple key things. I want to point out for you today that are, during this season, when we're in, uh, coronavirus and quarantine, as we record this, uh, majoring in men.com is absolutely free. Typically, there's a small fee for that. But right now, if you go to majoringinmen.com, you can subscribe set up your account and go through an eight-week course that's quick and that's phenomenal. And I'll, you'll want to go check that out majoringinmen.com. CNN dot men. There's tons of resources available. And if you find that this is a valuable, valuable resource for you, we'd love your support. You can find the ways to do that all there at cmn dot men. And finally, uh, Paul does want to hear from you if you have ideas for this podcast or if you have somebody we'd like to interview. Um, please drop us an email. You can email Paul directly at Paul at cmn dot men. And so, uh, let's go back to Paul's discussion with John Tesch here on the Brave Men podcast. You and I both have a broadcast background, of course, uh, a different level than I did. But at the same time, man, to see Greg Laurie have 11,000, uh, professions of Christ on one Sunday, because the president, uh, tweets out, I'm going to watch Greg on TV today or on the line. And a million and a half people show up. And 11, you know, that's stuffs. And then, uh, Bobby Groomwald and and Craig Groschell and the guys that built that online church, a platform. They've got 23,000 churches on it. Now they had over a hundred thousand salvation's last week. Yeah. Just on that platform. We're going to use to it. Yeah, we're going to use to being connected like this. This is fantastic. In one sense, it's tragic. And yet it's, I think it's, it's going to put a new arc on the church and church life and what we do and how we do it. And some of the stuff, most likely because of your broadcast and because of your background. And and then also as a, as a musician and a communicator, really, you communicate art. You know, that's what you do. And all of that now is rather than just being, uh, you know, the sidebar on a Robert Schuler show. Right. Now it's, it's like, this is part of what makes a fully-orbed person, you know, art and writing and all this. So I think it's fantastic. I think what in the way what was great for me was that, um, you know, these guys, it's an adjuomic and curry-blank and Barry band of other teachers. They put all their stuff on YouTube. So I was making these playlists. And so instead of listening to, you know, my own music or some or some stupid show, you know, I, I, I realized before I even understood it that I was renewing my mind, this was all I was listening. Wow. It was just all of these, all of these teachings, you know, and what Andrew did at one point, and I do this frequently. And I love this story is that he was, he was very much about imagination, you know, and everybody talks about visualization. And I've interviewed so many high-level guys, whether it's, you know, Franz Cuomer, the legendary downhill skill. Yeah, he was, Jimmy Connors or Kerry Strugger or, or, or, or Alberto Salazar, you know, they're going to be great marathoners is they, they're all able to see it before, before it happens, right? So what Andrew, Andrew would do and you're going to love this is that he teaches that what he did for an entire year was he would imagine himself as the person being healed in the Bible. And then imagine himself as Jesus healing that person. So whether it whether it was a blind bar of mass or whether it was that the man was lowered through the, to the top of the house or it was, yeah, always Tolita, it was I think higher, healed by Peter or, or even the woman with the issue of blood touching the heaven, he was just imagining himself at being healed and as the healer and, and was it, because I have this, I'm always quoting the spiritual first John 417 as he is sort of we in this world and that's what, that's what Andrew was teaching is that you have, you have the authority when Jesus went to, and let's talk about the church for example, church, amazing, right? I grew up in the church in Methodist church on Long Island, but a lot of churches for various reasons teach that Jesus went to the cross to take our sins. But in the, you know, in, in the Bible, and also in the Old Testament is, he took our griefs and sorrows, translated into Greek as sickness. So we, you know, this virus that came after us, the cancer that came after me, it's a spirit of infirmity. And, and once you see it is that, and once I started seeing it, is that, what does that, when they wanted to give me my final treatment when they found another, they found another lymph node that lit up with an experimental test. And, and, and so we were so far in the weeds, we just wanted every bit of microscopic cancer out of my body, but we had been trained up, Kanye and I had in this and what you and I are talking about right here, which obviously you believe in. And, and so we got to the radiation oncologist and he said he outlined how he was going to do 62 treatments, you know, 3D fashion of my pelvis, and just a carpet bomb my pelvis as he put it. And so he went through the contraindications of the collateral damage. He said, well, you might lose bowel function, his bladder function. And when he got to some of the functions that I was really fond of in that area, I, you know, it was just like, it was noise. So I just kept going. And, and I'm looking at Kanye across the room, she's sitting in a chair across the room and I'm right front of the doctor, so the doctor can't see her face. So, and men will really appreciate this, this allegory is I, I, I can see Kanye's face and see the doctor at the same time. And so I'm going like this. And then Kanye looks at me and she just goes like just in perceptive, like a tiny little eyebrow flash, you know, a little shake at the head, the left and I had the same eyebrow flash factor. And with you've seen that if you're a guy, you haven't seen the movie 300, then you need to watch it. And it's, and it's the moment, the moment that flashed in my brain was when King Leonidas is, is being threatened by the Persian messenger and by, by, by, by the king, Xerxes, he was being threatened that he needs to pretty much bow down to Xerxes. Leonidas is trying to make a decision on what to do for, for the, for his part world. He looks back at his Spartan drive. She gives that eyebrow, like, Kanye's never seen this film. She gives that eyebrow flash back to him. He does a little tiny nod that looks back at the messenger and promptly kicks him into the well as he's screaming, this is spartan. And that's what happened. We walked out of there. Wow. I never had another scan. We knew, we knew that it's a, you know, it's a somewhat 18, you know, I will live and not die. Come on. And then, and then two years, like a year after that, I had a, I agreed to a lot of tests. I wouldn't go back in for more radiation. All the tumor markers are gone. All of the, you know, the inflammation markers come on for cancer though. And I was also healed of, of, of arthritis at the same time. I have no more arthritis in my, in my right ankle. So now I've got the obligation of the cure. And I have, I said, listen, and so in concerts now, I mean, it's crazy. At the end of the concert, I put up a scripture that I didn't get a PBS special. It's now running. Put up Mark 1123 and tell my story because I couldn't, I couldn't successfully share the gospel until I shared my testimony. Wow. You don't have to have cancer to do that, obviously. But, but I couldn't figure out how to share the gospel. And it wasn't just tell your story, John. Tell your story. You know, when, when Jesus healed the, there was a man, you know, Mark five, he's demon possessed and Jesus cast the demons out. And he says, hey, I want to follow you. And Jesus says, no, no, no, don't follow me. And, and if you read that thing, he says, he says, so the man took off. This is interesting. So demon possessed guy, who's, who's basically we would say in the margins of culture, living in a cemetery. Jesus heals him and says, uh, don't follow me, but go tell everybody what just happened. Right. And then it says he goes to the 10 towns, the decapolis. And we find out that 40 years later when, when Jerusalem was destroyed in 69 AD, that when the Christians ran for their lives, they were called the people of the way, when they ran for their lives, they found refuge and they found churches and they found places they could live as a ran east in a place called the decapolis, the 10 cities, which is where this guy went. And so it's fascinating that that God would tell this guy didn't go to school. He didn't learn to be a preacher. All he did was tell his story. All I did was tell a story. I was this and now I'm that, you know, I was, blind. Now I can see I was in the darkness. I'm in the light. And every man has a story, John, and I love the fact that you tell this story because stories, what drives us. In fact, stories, how you made your living. Yeah. Post your life. You know, you're music story, right? The most amazing thing that happened to me during this, I really, you know, I'm always talking in the radio show, you know, we're giving it other people's advice, right? And then in vetting and curating that advice. And so many people are now saying you have, especially, you know, when you're going through the quarantine stuff, is it journal, you know, write down your fears, offload them before you go to bed, you know. And I'm just not, I'm not really consistent at anything other than just doing everything. You know, it's like, let's work out now. Let's go over here. Let's do this. Let's do that. You know, and my wife was like, oh my gosh, you're like, you're a true artist. Oh my gosh, you know, and so until you get me an assignment, it's like, hey, John, you're album is due in September, then then at least I have a deadline that I'm going to miss four times. Yeah. And that's what happened with this, with the book was I was forced, well, sell, again, self-inflicted. I was forced to go back and connect the dots and actually call friends who said, asking them, and even old, you know, family members haven't talked to in 20 years, what was I, you know, what was I doing that called John Stasel and Meredith Vieira, who were in the newsroom with me at WCDS in 76. And and have a conversation with even Mary Hart, you know, and and then the value first hired me, you know, doing, doing radio. And and so what when I looked back on that, the first thing that came to me was, oh my gosh, there really is a Holy Spirit, you know, and that's at that moment I went and got baptized in the Holy Spirit realizing that the first baptism, the water baptism was, was great, right? But but when the power comes with the Holy Spirit to send them and you and you get the fullness and you get power, that was like, whoa, and then learning how to, you know, learning how to speak in tongues and, you know, understanding that I only have so many words in my language and I used to use the other language and personal power. I realized that even when I was a Christian, I wasn't going to church. It's like this is in 1973. I was homeless in a, you know, living in a park for a while, which is in the book. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. You're homeless. You're homeless. You're living in a, what a park. Yeah, it's a park. And and and and then three years later, you're on, you're like a stud on national television. Yeah, I had, if you've ever, if you've ever read about Hernan Cortez who burned his ships. Yeah, sure. Yeah, it's a great metaphor for your Christian speakers too. I burned my, I burned them right down to the water because what happened was, and this is, I mean, the real theme of the book is, is watch me get out of stuff, you know. But that's what was looking, but looking back, it really was, I understood that that the Holy Spirit did. It was, in fact, not a condemner, but a comfort. And and he was, he was bringing things to my, my remembrance and also showing me things to come. But I wasn't when I was in it. It's like, I mean, I mean, it must be that way for a soldier where you're, you're reacting and you're, and you're fighting, and you have lighter flight hormones. And then you go back and you look at that, you're like, wow, I see why I did that. You know, that happened. Yeah. So, uh, Proverbs for who a man is in his hardest, who he really is. Right. And, you know, and then you're talking about what you've been talking about and what happens through this book is, is Romans 12, too. Your life has changed by the change in the way you think. Yeah. I like, I like Roman, I like Romans 417. Well, yeah, God calls forth those things that be not as though they were. I'm always, I declare that over the virus. That is 91. No play. No play. No, man. No play. Absolutely, bro. You know, and I don't doubt, listen, I have a friend who, uh, pastors in Josh Kelsey, who pastors in New York. And it's, uh, C3 New York NYC and, and he two years ago had a vision and he's in prayer and he's not given to that kind of thing. And he saw this red dragon over the city. Uh, and then he got corroborated about a year later by another guy who he's praying with another pastor in the city and they go, hey, you know, I had this weird thing and just like, man, I had the same thing. And then what they both saw was that the more that we prayed, the more that we interceded, the more that we came together as a body of Christ, the enemy was defeated. And they saw that happen. And, you know, I'm not given to, you know, in Jeremiah, Jeremiah 29 verse 11, we all quote. And the first part of that, it's a letter to the guys who were in exile. They're in captivity, Daniel and all those guys. And he doesn't tell him to get out of there. He says, he says, plant. And I've got a whole thing we did about this on, on our, uh, on our podcast recently. And he said, plant and multiply, be excellent. Do what you know to do. And then the last thing he said right before he says, and then I know the thoughts I have for you, give you a future and hope now for your destruction. The last thing he says is don't pay attention. He says, don't listen to the prophets and, and those of, um, magic and divination who say they speak in my name because they don't. And they're lies. And so what I'm saying is that there's a lot of stuff flying around because we're in this connected internet. We're all into it right now because we're working from home or whatever it may be. But there's a lot of spurious stuff. And we've got to be, uh, we've got to stay focused on Christ and who he is and, and be connected in the word because John, I've seen so many of this coronavirus thing has stirred up the crazies. And I've seen so much stuff come along and we have to be able to test this and say, you know what? Here's what the word of God says. Yeah. The word of God says, he's my rock. The word of God says, you know, and not get ourselves all stirred up and obsessed with things but stayed connected into being a follower of Christ and fullness and truth. So I, you know, man, this book, and again, I want to mention Relentless and the, uh, cut line on it is, is, um, I had it here. So here it is living a life of persistence, purpose, and faith. And if, if there's any, and I love purpose because of the whole purpose, planting, but persistence, man, that's, that's where it's at. Tenacity, grit, perseverance, persistence. Not only in your life is a, uh, in this amazing career you've had in all these different aspects of art and, uh, communications. But just in the fact that you stayed after, hey, who, who's John, who's Connie, what's this about? And then begin to find here's the word of God, begins to open up to you. And now you've got it, uh, you not only have it written in your heart, you get it written on your arm. Yeah. That's, that's, that's well done. Um, you know, I, I, I want to make sure everybody understands that, that the thing that really, uh, played such a role, you know, including my, my new revelation, appealing to the thing that played a huge role in my life was, was being equally yoked in my relationship, you know, before, you know, men who are listening before you, Connie and I were both married before, and we were not equally yoked. Uh, and, and, and we found each other, we found each other in 1991. And, uh, and it's actually a chapter in the book that when you read it, you're going to shake your head. It's called two chapters on how I met married Connie and one of them, the first one is Helen of Troy riding a bicycle. I saw her, you know, I saw that and had wrote that chapter. Yeah. My favorite part of the whole book was riding a chapter head, because they're also weird. No, they are. They are. Uh, how dumb can you be and still breathe? That's from Andrew Longman. Yeah. Yeah. Cause that's, that's, he'll yell that at you. You know, it's like, I'm sorry, you believe it. God put this on you. You know, that kind of thing. That's how dumb can you be and still breathe? And then there's the last one, the last chapters, while living, living under the word is last chapter, but the second last chapter is the crack then. And, and that's, that's my son and I, who was, I think, 1314, the time care member, how old he was. But that's my son, uh, give and I, my stepson, who, uh, went and did an intervention on Connie's brother, who was a cracker. But, but, but the chapter happens to be hilarious, you know, because it's just where it's, it's like a father's son picnic, you know, it's like John and give. Don't go to promised keepers. They go to the crack then, you know. Um, so there's some, there's some, there's some fun stuff in there, but, uh, but, yeah, I mean, yeah, I wasn't gonna say I'm sorry. I didn't finish it. It was that, was that, um, being, believing together the same exact thing, Connie and I, we are, yeah, we are, we are so different. We would, she would never, I watch Gladiator once a month. She would never watch that. I cannot take the, I have to be, I have to be handcuffed to watch. This is us. It's a nice show and everything. No, it's, you know, what that's called. It's called laying down your life. Yeah. Pure wise. Yeah. I understand. I understand what my wife, you know, said, yeah, you know, bids and says, hey, look at this video or that. I should not expect the same return. You know, anyway, when, when all of a sudden, we're so, we're so different. She's so organized. And I'm, um, um, you know, I'm a crazy guy that I've been, but this is this knows that now. Um, but we, that, that, the thing about, you know, what we believe about, um, about how, you know, newborns deserve life and about God promises healing. I mean, all the, all the big stuff. I've tried, and that's the other thing on 67, right? And so if you want to read this book, it's, you, you can look under the hood. You can pick any chap. You don't have to go through, you know, it's not like, and then first I did this and then I did that, but it's a chance to look under the hood and see a lot of mistakes. And, and then that when, when I used a process, which included that, that cut line, when I used a process that included not only faith, but also persistence and grip, and lived like Thomas Edison said, you know, Thomas Edison said, this is my favorite. It's, this quote isn't even in the book. I discovered this later, but, but Edison says, because I'm always listening to these, these racial guys in my year on YouTube, you know, uh, but, uh, Edison said, a lot of people miss an opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work. Looks like, you know, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, it's so much work and, and even just training yourself to understand the promise of God, understanding that, that what, how, you know, how you can get healed. And the other thing to remember too is that if I hadn't had faith by those doctors early on, I'd be dead because I had not, each faith was all I had in the radiation part of work. Yeah, most, most, uh, door to, op, tourist opportunity or mark push. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, you know, so this is, uh, I just want to, John, thanks for taking the time, uh, and sharing your story and, man, you know, you, you start talking about faith. It's kind of like, uh, it's meet with a dog. It's just on it, man. But this book, Relentless, I just want to mention this again, because not only just somebody read it, but it's also something to give to a man who's on a journey. Yeah. And particularly guys who are, uh, maybe a young man who's, who's trying to build his career and he's like so intent on it and, you know, reading this and, and thank you for being honest because you talk about real stuff and you had the highest levels of success. And you were in front of everybody at the Olympics on television and all these different things. But then you also talk about, you know, your worst nightmare being homeless, this and that, this mistake. And like you said, coming out of one thing after another. So I recommend it, not only, uh, just for a read for, for us, but it's, this is something that you, you need to get one or two or three of them hand it to somebody who's going through transition in life. Because, uh, when they get to the end and start seeing what the word really does in your life, it's a, it's a game changer, John. I appreciate it. I like, uh, I like reading memoirs because, you know, you always see yourself, it's just natural. You see yourself in somebody else's time. I hope that worked out. Yeah. I do too. I, uh, uh, Steven Mansfield's a friend of mine who's written a lot of books and he's written, uh, he wrote the book, uh, uh, the faith of Abraham Lincoln. He's written books on other guys. He wrote like that. And man, I love that because it stirs us up because it's real life. Right. And it really happened. I just wrote that down. Yeah, when we get off. Yeah, Steven Mansfield, a pH and, uh, Steven's an amazing speaker and leader and a great friend of ours with Christmas. Now we're John Tash. Thank you. I'm taking the time to pray, uh, blessings over you and your wife, Connie and your family. And, uh, and your health journey is absolutely inspirational. And the beauty of this book is not only will it be inspirational, but it has the revelation because we don't change based on inspiration. We change because of a revelation of Jesus Christ. Amen. So thank you for the revelatory, uh, part of that. And, uh, we pray that every place you put your feet will be holy ground. And everything you put your hands to a prosper and that the Lord will keep you in the palm of this sense. God bless you. God bless you. So, Paul, I actually just watched John Tash's PBS special here a few weeks ago. And he played the piano and he had his family out and, uh, and his, uh, his kids and they, they, they, uh, his daughter, uh, dance, I believe, and his son played something, uh, phenomenal. What a talent and, uh, a Christ follower. Incredible. You know what, what is amazing to me is how, uh, they hit this wall, right, with cancer. And this guy is successful. He's known all over the world and, and maybe, you know, because I was talking to him, Brian, I didn't kind of build it up as much as it could have been, but he's done concerts at all the major concert halls, you know, the, what's that one in London? It's real famous, you know, the, you know, all of it's Albert. Yeah, Prince Albert. He's just kind of everywhere. Berlin, Phil, Armannock, all this stuff. Sure. And then before that, he's this well-known announcer. He had, uh, entertainment tonight. He was on that. He was Olympics and he writes all this stuff. I mean, this guy's big time and, you know, he took a lot of time and talked with us and we talked even afterwards, uh, after this interview. And, you know, he's just a, he's the real thing, but when they hit this and the doctor came out and remember that part, he said, he said, he kind of looked over at his wife, Connie, and she just kind of gave him a little nudge of a nod, you know, and said, we're not doing it. We're not going to do this. And he says, they walked out of there and they got that scripture as they're listening to the CD from Mark 11. They just radically chair into their lives. And then I, you know, he said, Brian, I don't know, you know, if he's, how many people even ask him about it, but I asked him, what's the tattoo ceremony? And when he mentioned it, he said, well, it says Mark 11. 23. So that was awesome. That was a great moment because I don't know if anybody knew about it before that. I didn't know. I honestly didn't know about it. So I've seen him interviewed any number of times since his, uh, uh, cancer healing. And so, uh, yeah, I mean, markers are better all the time and, and, uh, absolutely amazing. And just such a genuine guy and, um, glad to hear that. Yeah, but, but he's really an artist because we're, you know, in that conversation. And maybe he's a little bit like you and me, because he just goes over here and, I mean, okay, we're coming back over here and then back over there. In fact, you know, I was trying to follow it again. I think I may have missed a couple, you know, a couple moments there, uh, where I think I got this both off track and we just took it. That's why it's a podcast. It's okay. It's okay. It's great. It's great. It's our podcast. Let's remind our listeners how much they pay for this. Yeah. Well, Paul, that was great. And, uh, um, yeah, what a great job. If you'd like to, if you'd like to hear more of, uh, interviews, uh, like John Tesch, uh, drop us an email, Paul at cmn.man. Yeah, and hit that subscribe button. Oh, that'd be great. That's a huge deal because it not only means something to us, Brian, but it means something to, uh, Apple and all these people who do the analytics, because it shows that people are, uh, are interested enough to do that. That's right. Yeah, we do appreciate all of our subscribers and listeners. And, uh, thank you for tuning in, uh, every week or sometimes twice a week, uh, to the Brave Men podcast. So until, uh, next time, uh, be sure and listen to us on all the platforms you can. Yeah, you know, what they can subscribe on all the platforms, Paul, just like voting. Yeah. Absolutely. Don't need to vote once. Yeah. Um, please don't, that's not, don't do that. Um, so thank you for listening to this week's Brave Men podcast. For Paul Cole, I'm Brian Boyd. Have a great week and we'll see you next time. You've just experienced Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole. Paul is president of the Christian Men's Network. Connect with Paul at cmn.man or write to him at Paul at cmn.man.