Original subtitles

Hi. We're Petra.

We just wanna thank you so much for all the hard work you've

done with us for Beyond Belief.

Now we've got a new project coming up,

but we're so excited.

That's about all we can say.

We just want you to keep an eye open, and when it comes out,

push that record.

God bless you.

Push the record.

We're in the middle of a new project now,

and we hope you're just excited about it.

Thank you so much for for everything. Goodbye.

Bye. Hi.

We're Petra, and we just wanna thank you so much for all the support you've

given us on Beyond Belief.

Right in the middle of the middle of the middle of the middle.

I can't talk right now because I'm freezing.

Okay. Next.

Here we go.

Hi. Welcome take over. Bye. Let me have take over. Next. Okay.

Oh, but really. Okay.

Thank you, man.

Hi. We're Petra.

Hi. We're Petra.

We wanna thank you for all your support of Beyond Belief.

We've got a new project that we are so excited about that we

would love to tell you about it, but if we told you,

we'd have to kill you.

They're a cool group that's really rocking for Christ.

They're awesome. Awesome.

Radical.

When I first became a Christian,

people got me hooked up with music,

and that was the first tape.

There's a powerful message here.

Yeah.

And it's lifting up Jesus Christ,

and this is real for teenagers.

This is real stuff.

They're just great.

I mean, you can really see that they really love the Lord.

Lyrically, they're one of the strongest Christian bands I heard.

Her songs are full of scriptural meaning.

I feel like I've been uplifted.

I feel like I've been challenged.

I feel like I can grow.

They're really being used to God in the industry,

and they're really sincere about what they're doing.

I I think a lot of people perceive what we do to be maybe

star studded, bigger than life.

Out here, you know,

we don't have to have the best of everything,

and we don't want the best of everything.

We like average hotel rooms. We like average meals.

We are like the most average guys you've probably ever met.

What do you want?

I get this adjustment for free.

And you know what?

When I'm off the road, I really notice a difference.

I think that a lot of fans think being in Petra is a responsibility,

that we're out there singing about Jesus Christ and

ministering the word of God.

And that's exciting part.

I'm glad that people perceive us that way because that's what we're about.

We look at ourselves as ordinary people, and often,

I think we're surprised

when people make some kind of fuss or something.

It's, because because we know it's not always glamorous.

In fact, sometimes it's just really, very ordinary and very,

every day.

Let let's try it again, guys.

Why don't we play that song four hundred times or what?

It's these newer songs.

Baseball been bada bada good to me.

Baseball gloves.

Tennis stuff here.

You get to sweating up there. It makes it real gooey.

Where I don't have to grip the stick as hard because I play real hard.

This is rock and roll.

Rock and roll is a tough sport.

I'm a Christian rock singer who's had the opportunity to do

what he's supposed to do.

Mhmm.

To use his talents to bring out, you know,

to to tell people about the Lord.

Just like plumbers are to use every opportunity

they have in their talents.

Just like

janitors, just like ditch diggers, just like doctors, lawyers.

I was given this talent

and this desire to play this music style,

and this is what I do.

Mhmm.

And I'm doing it to the best of my ability.

And knowing that what we're saying through our music and

through our lives is something that can actually help other people.

I think that's probably the most satisfying thing about being in Tetra.

A relative of mine gave me This Means War,

one of their tapes.

Oh, I'm a Petra fan all the way.

And I went to that concert, and ever since then,

they've been my favorite group.

I've seen them all around.

I'm Mr. Petra. In a word? Awesome.

I don't think it can be done. They're awesome.

You can't beat Petra.

I've been away for a little while,

I need to hear from you.

Deep inside my heart, I need to hear from you.

Just a

One, two, three, four.

I'm not in the sidelines. I wanna get in the game.

Where nothing is bad shit, not in this game.

The caller numbers, they buck me.

We're either

One of the things that we that that I was constantly telling

everyone in the studio as they would be doing their part was have fun,

because I really believe that that that attitude will come

out in the performance, and if everybody has fun,

the record will be fun.

And we wanted this record to be fun.

We wanted to say some really good things,

but we wanted the the music to be energetic and and fun.

We know what motivates them and what motivates us,

and that's being having a great record, you know,

to be used as a tool for ministry and a good piece of art.

And I'd also like to hear the cymbal on your far right so

that we could get a real good stereo spread because there's a

lot going on in the center and you seem to be sticking to

those two cymbals over the toms.

Okay, man. Just cover it more.

And a little bit more sound on the kick drum coming in after the break.

Man, I'm punching it hard. You might have to give me more.

The kick drum was snapped. We're out of the money.

I was kinda hearing this part just a little bit out of the

way of the keyboard.

I've tried collaborating with people,

and it there's something that goes beyond just sitting down

and writing a song.

Because a lot of times,

I've tried co writing with people in the past,

and they'll harp on this this idea that you know isn't

working, but you don't wanna say,

You know, where Bob and I are at the point where you can just we'll

hear something and just go, doesn't cut it.

And Bob doesn't have to say anything.

I'll just play it for him and just go

Yeah. Yeah. I'll say, okay. Let me try something else.

I did, an album with Kansas. That's how I met John and Dino.

Peter Gabriel I worked with. I worked with Yes.

In my early days, I did work with Queen,

two albums with them, Elton John, David Bowie.

I've been around for a while.

When you mix something,

it's usually only for a couple of weeks.

So, you know, you don't live the lyrics or you don't sort of understand

what the band is or the artist is trying to say.

And I found that the biggest the biggest difference with

this was coming in and doing a mix.

Every song the lyrics spoke to me every time.

I was able to to really pick up on what the band was saying.

A lot stronger than, you know,

if it had been perhaps something just in in the secular market.

Mhmm. You know, something that, it it just it touched my heart.

It was great.

What what we we feared about this was Petrus were was people

saying, well, it sounds like beyond belief.

It sounds like, you know, on fire.

So what we did is we just vowed to Bob, John,

and I that we were gonna intentionally

not do what we thought would work in a specific situation.

Let's not go for the first idea that comes around,

the natural thing that we would normally do.

Let's look beyond that and try to think of something further.

And, I think we did that.

Dino, make me sweat on this one.

Make me stretch,

make me get mad because I can't play this because it pushes me.

Well, you can't play like a team if you're not gonna.

I mean, somebody's gotta be a cheerleader,

and somebody's gotta push the team on.

And it it sure got pushed on with this album.

It really, it really was a fireball.

Thing is, like John said, it's an I mean,

it's an absolute no compromise situation when we work with this band.

It's like they don't they don't compromise lyrically.

They don't compromise musically.

We're always looking to to try to do the best of everything.

But one day I was reading the about David in Psalm, and,

there was a statement he made in there that really hit home in my heart.

He goes, some people are happy with their wealth.

Some people are happy with their children.

So I won't be happy until I wake up in your likeness.

I'm like, wow.

What a real heart for the Lord to desire of all things to be

more like the Lord and wait for that day.

And this is before the birth of Christ,

and yet he had to reveal revelation

that he would be transformed by the Lord into his likeness eventually.

And that's what he's living for.

My favorite was likeness.

When we were mixing it, it was all done.

I listened back to it,

and it just didn't sound like I mixed it.

It sounded like it was just bigger.

And, yeah, it's just I would say that's very inspirational.

You're not just writing a song to show people, hey.

I can write a song.

It's a you wanna use that gift in a way to affect other

people's lives in a good way.

And that's what we wanna do as Petra is to touch people's hearts.

Now I lay me down to sleep.

My heart and soul

are yours to keep.

I close my eyes and try to see

of

you and less of me.

Jesus,

I'm

Well, I think people do have a misconception of what it's like

to be on the road.

I think, sometimes people think it's a

real glamorous thing, you know, and pretty easy, you know,

you just walk on stage with your instrument and wow,

how cool, you know, to do that for a living.

But, they don't see all the hours and planning and traveling and

things that go into it.

Most of the time, we actually don't spend the night in a place.

We will get on the bus here and drive to the next concert and

sleep on the bus.

And,

that sometimes can be easy to do and sometimes can be not so easy to do.

I get up in the morning, get up out of my bunk,

out of the bus bunk,

find my road manager and ask where the hotel rooms are.

What'd I do with the band today?

Took Bob to the hotel, picked Bob up,

took John into the hotel, picked Johnny up,

took Ronnie to the hotel, picked Johnny up.

So is that what a road manager does?

Yeah.

We pick people up, take them to the hotel, and bring them back.

It's hard to find your own personal quiet time,

so I try to do that at the hotel,

and it's great to be able to start the day off like that also.

Mostly everybody goes to the hotel.

Bob will jump on the phone right away, you know,

and John will run and get his cup of coffee and and read.

I tend to stay on the bus, and a lot of times,

I don't even go to the hotel.

I have my manuals, and I have my coffee, and my keyboards,

and I'm happy for the day.

Then we have sound check about three.

Sometimes it may last thirty minutes.

It may last two hours.

Depends on if something's broken or it just doesn't sound good.

You're having technical difficulties. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Usually from the time we do a sound check on,

it's full speed ahead.

It's busy, busy, busy.

We need to we need to go ahead and pray because at

intermission, some of you are gonna be obligated.

Louie can't make right now. He's clipping his fingernails.

Okay.

Have you finished your nails?

Ladies and gentlemen.

Ladies and gentlemen, Louie Weaver's nails.

Can't touch this.

As soon as my boy could start to form words,

we took words that, he knew and tried to describe to

him what daddy does.

And what we came up with was,

daddy is going away to play music

and tell boys and girls about Jesus.

And he understands all that.

And I carry probably fifty pictures of my family on the road with me.

You know, I'm just a really family guy.

When you become one with someone and you

can't be around them

for days at a time, man,

your your heart, your soul, your mind, everything just,

like, gets weak.

You need that companionship and that love that that you draw on.

We pay a lot of dues that way because when I'm on the road,

I'm away from my family.

And my family's growing up before me, you know,

and a lot of times I'm not there.

My wife is always praying for us,

and and she has friends that are praying in agreement with her.

And I'll tell you, she's my rock at home.

I mean, Jesus Christ is my rock. What's that?

And what, you know, a lot of times,

she's the person I can lean on when I'm discouraged or when

I'm lonely.

And sometimes that phone call away to she go, honey,

I'm praying for you. That's all I need to hear.

What's going on today with the band?

What is going on today with the band?

So day off to the middle of the afternoon. I look like death.

Wasting time,

but it's my decision.

My drummers just ramble.

They just go back and forth and shop.

It took me fifteen minutes to find the door to get in here.

Radio Shack is one of the natural habitats of electronics nerd.

I know what's in that bag. Can't Wait wait a minute.

Your autograph?

Before you John, before you show us,

let me guess what's in your bag there.

Okay.

A can of tomato juice,

some peanuts or nuts, some chocolate candy bars,

maybe some Colt.

Was that right? Tomato juice. No, there's a candy bars.

Peanuts. Peanut or this one?

Alright.

So I'm a creature of habit.

But look at this.

Just just go do your thing.

Through the time and life of John Lowry, okay?

So right now, I've been writing a lot of other songs and and I wrote one

a couple of days ago.

But the the original demo of the whole song,

the original everything was done in a hotel room in

Wisconsin one day. So that's not bad for having a day off.

Is this room service?

Now what I'm what I'm doing today is working on my,

live solo during a during a spot in the Petra concert.

I have a little section where I do some stuff by myself.

Down here, I've programmed some drums,

and then I sampled it into the sampling system here.

And this is my wife.

Of course, she doesn't really sound like that.

It's kinda munchkinized.

Eyes. And this is my nephew, my wife, and I.

Go. Go. Go.

Go.

Go.

Anyway, that's what I'm trying to do at night.

It's not a a real tough life.

You know, it's it's but if that's after many years of of paying a lot

of dues, and what we've done is found out what is the most

efficient and what is best for us to where we can do it at a

longer period of time.

Some people think, gee, if I could only do that, you know,

if I can only be in a band like Petra and travel all around

and and do all this.

But, really,

the key to happiness is doing what you know the Lord wants you to do.

There are five different guys that have five different

opinions and come together,

five different personalities in Petra.

And it's amazing how God has put all these different

personalities together and it does work.

And everybody has a vital position.

My impressions of the people in Petra.

Bob Hartman.

It's not a blank stare.

There's actually something going on in there and he's

formulating something.

Everybody sees him, the quiet guy.

The guy is the most incredible thinker you'll ever meet.

He'd be the kind of guy you wouldn't wanna play chess with.

His name is almost on every song.

He's the guy who writes a thing.

Gotta hand it to a guy who can keep a band going for twenty years.

It's like this last record, Bob bought this.

What was it? Gretch. This Gretch guitar.

I mean, we couldn't get him out of the room with this thing.

Gene, you gotta check this out. It's unbelievable.

Oh, look. Look. Don't even look at it funny.

Well, I got a new guitar for this record.

No.

We'll be right in the middle of a take,

and he'll turn around and go, look at those inlays.

They're gonna dog me too. I just know it.

Ronnie's like the kid to me still. Ronnie's our youngster.

I said, Ronnie, you're twenty something pushing forty

because he is so introspective.

This has helped me to be a better drummer.

I used to have pretty much full charge of the stage.

Ronnie came in and I had to start sharing a little bit more

because, he moved around so much.

As a bass player, knows where he's going.

The way he's fit into Petra has been great.

And then they said, well, would you like to be a part of Petra?

And I wanted to go, what am I, an idiot?

When I think of Johnny, I think of electronical genius,

very good friend, a person I trust completely.

He's a keyboard junkie.

Anytime you see him,

he's probably got any five owner's manuals to any keyboards.

Most of them, he doesn't own.

He just likes to read owner's manuals.

That if he really had his own way,

he'd live in a room that was probably ten by ten and packed

full of computers, keyboards,

and the newest gadgets that had been developed.

And I had my mobile unit on. I turned sideways.

He swung his bass around. It hit the keyboard.

And right in front of the audience,

the keyboard cracked and all.

Here's John Lowry.

Two keyboards pulled completely apart.

Neither one of them working.

And he has to have them in pieces. He's not not just.

There they are there are pieces around both of them.

All the electronic stuff,

these guys ought to go to acoustics like me.

You know?

You wouldn't have all these problems with buttons and

switches and bells and whistles.

Louie is kind of the clown.

That's Louie.

The card. The the stinker.

I mean, when you beat on things for a living,

it's gotta do something up here.

From his Mickey Mouse, you know, paraphernalia.

Mickey's always been there for me.

Kids really relate to Mickey Mouse. I related to him.

I was a kid, and I'm still a kid. Big kid.

Get that camera off, man.

I've had enough of these before, after,

and show kinda shots.

Go away, you silly English type.

Press that punch you a second time.

John Schlitt is,

also a very good friend.

He's the guy that when he believes in something, boy,

he gets enthused.

And it's exciting to see that it can be contagious.

We pick on him a lot.

When I think of John,

I think of the amount of time that we spend teasing him.

John Schlipp is the walking guinea pig of Petra.

I mean, the guy he's picked on from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to bed.

Alright, buddy.

You're a creep. You little punk.

You're a creep.

You're a bunch of creeps.

You know, there are people sometimes in your life that just seem to draw

abuse.

There's John that he came.

He's all. What's what's the worst of this? I forget.

How do you get in those tight pants, John?

I love you.

Guys, first of all,

never be a singer because you get no respect.

You don't have that problem, though. You're not a singer.

Yeah.

All the electronic stuff, but, you know,

there's something that never goes wrong with and I'll point it to you.

Try it over there.

None ever goes wrong with that. None.

She just pointed at you and said, is that Petra?

And I said, no. That's John.

I think Petra is a good singer.

It seems like the more I think Piafra is a good singer.

It seems like the more things we go through together,

you know, the good times, the bad times,

the more you struggle together,

and the more you see lives affected.

I I believe that I feel

a thousand times closer to every one of the guys than I did back down.

I'll tell you something.

If you're gonna stand somewhere,

stay on the Lord's side.

If you're on the fence, get on one side or the other,

but get on the Lord's side.

Yes, sir.

I've been running and running

Yeah.

Yeah.

I wanna know. Are you on the lord's side?

To get to go to the Petricon.

So come on in, and we'll let you meet the group here.

I'm the youth pastor here, and, you know,

I spent some time with the leaders there.

And I know that their heart is to to minister to the lost and

that our kids just can have a good time and really get

entertained by these guys as well.

So we're here to have a good time and to minister to Jesus as well.

So, father, thank you that as we go,

that we'll be protected by your angels and that we'll just have

a good time in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen. Let's go. Alright.

God, you gotta sneak it.

Stick it, slip it, slip it, slip it, slip it, slip it,

slip it, slip it, slip it, slip it, slip it, slip it, slip it,

slip it, slip it, slip it, slip it, slip it, slip it, slip it,

slip it, slip it, slip it, right

Doing a five hour job in about two hours.

I think you'll find out by the turnout here tonight that

they're a pretty popular group.

People are coming from all over.

They're driving great distances to to see them.

It's been sold out for about a month and a half now.

So I'm gonna ask my friend two hundred bucks for one of these.

Give me an idea, Jim.

It's the third time I've seen them.

I have all their albums.

You're a hot band, hottest band I know of today. Never mind.

It's

gonna be our rocker boss sponsor.

Rocker rockin'.

Lots of rockin'?

We have selections of purple, purple, green.

And the rock? Rad is phenomenal.

Donschlint all the way.

The message they have is just totally rad.

It's a great ministry.

It's in tin rock too, you know.

You know, we've seen a lot of exciting things down the road.

It is exciting. It's a fast pace.

But we can't forget that it's very important every once in a

while to have that quiet time.

How'd you find me anyway?

Because if we don't get this in our heart and keep it in our

heart, then everything we do is just going through the paces.

But I and and the rest of the guys in Petra are trying their best

to be as sincere and be as real as God could possibly want us to.

I see from you and that your ears and my eyes are open to

see you, Lord God.

Help us to not get no God is constantly showing us his hand

on on what we do, not only in our personal lives, but on,

you know, our ministry, the band, Petra.

God is able to do exceedingly,

abundantly above all that we are able to ask or think.

And I think that applies to my life and my experience in Petra

probably more than any other scripture because God has

continually done more than I could ever ask

or think, with

what he's done in Petra.

God called me to be,

a minister through my drumming.

So therefore, I'm a minister first and then I'm a musician.

And you've been out on a road for three weeks and you haven't

seen your family.

And you go, is this worth it?

One time, my mother came up to me after a festival.

She says, well, I have a son and he was struggling with a lot of the

things that you talked about.

And he tried to commit suicide isn't

even contemplating suicide anymore.

He found fellowship with a church that's completely

fulfilled and happy.

He turned around.

She introduced her son, and he still had the scars,

the marks, the razor marks on his hands and stuff.

But he had just rejoined the Lord.

It made me break down the road because to have a mother thank

me, that something I

said affected something that deeply

really you carry that for a long time.

I've saved the letters of the people that that honestly mean

the most, and it's incredible.

I've got a whole box full at home that I'll never get rid of.

Countless people that have said thank you for taking the time

to be part of our lives.

It's very rewarding.

Man, I was conditioned to where if I was a Christian,

I'd have to wear a black robe, carry a twenty pound Bible,

memorize a list of don'ts, and cut my hair,

and do all this other stuff to belong to this social club

called Christianity.

And all of a sudden,

I found out there's a whole new world out there.

It's time to let Jesus Christ come in your life.

Give him a chance. Let's get real again.

Let's start caring about people.

Let's let God come in and start guiding us.

Let's see this country change. Let's see this world change.

Because you see, what we're singing and talking about tonight is not a religion.

It's a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Sometimes you see the tears welling up in their eyes and

you go, don't you know?

All you have to do is say yes.

You can sure sense God's presence in the concert.

Something with the kids need, especially this generation.

There's another phrase to to talk about what they believe.

And it's great to see people coming back time and time again

in more and more numbers to to hear us talk about Jesus Christ

because we're not scared to talk about it.

Thank you for coming. We had a great time. Hope you did too.

Yeah. We did.

We believe that we have a purpose and,

we're just super excited.

We're gonna go out and kick. Yeah.

Because we believe that's what God wants us to do.

They're totally out of fire for God.

I'm really glad that I brought my kids.

Let's see it.

I can steal hair. I can steal hair pretty good.

People tell me I can't go from ACDC to Amazing Grace.

You don't have to ever prove the truth.

There's the most victorious, Satan kicking,

God praising concert we've ever been to. Victory.

First, man, I thought he sounded very professional.