by Deborah Barnes

With an eye for spotting curveballs, Newsboys step to the plate hoping to slug-out hit after hit.

"That's mine, over there." Phil Joel points proudly to a road-scarred orange dirt bike in a warehouse area behind his manager's office in a Nashville suburb. "And that's Jeff's, and that's Jody's."

Four-fifths of the Newsboys' members - bassist Joel, guitarist Jody Davis, keyboardist Jeff Frankenstein and lead singer Peter Furler - are chattering at once. (Drummer Duncan Phillips is away on a second honeymoon.) They're describing in animated detail their passion for off-roading on knobby-treaded motorcycles. "We take them on tour and ride trails or through the desert wherever we are," says Davis.

"It's such a great sport for us, climbing hills and rough trails and all that because we've gotta conquer things, conquer these hills," Joel explains.

That never-give-up attitude has served these guys well, especially recently. The twists and turns of the motorbike trails are nothing compared to the personal and professional transitions they've faced during the past two years. After nearly a decade of rising slowly but surely through the ranks to become one of Christian music's hottest bands, Newsboys were suddenly forced to confront big-time changes--losing a member, making inroads into the general music market, taking a new turn musically, and recording an album without their longtime producer.

Calling It Quits

The guys ponder these developments as they leave their treasured two-wheelers and file into their manager's office. By far the biggest change has been the departure of the band's co-founder/lead singer John James, who left the rock 'n' roll life last year (CCM January 1998) to spend more time with his family and to pursue a calling as an evangelist in Australia (where the band got its start).

"It was a fairly big surprise," admits Joel, sinking into an enormous leather sofa. "He'd kind of whispered a few things in Pete's ear, so he had some idea of what was gonna go on, but we didn't know anything about it. It was pretty much, 'John's gone, we're going to Europe, let's go....'"

With a laugh Frankenstein interjects, "We had three day's notice, and we're off to Europe on a tour."

"But I was never scared of it," Joel continues. "John is like, one of the greatest frontmen... definitely the greatest frontman in [Christian music], and probably the world. I thought, 'Oh, John's gone, and there's this huge asset of the band gone.' But I don't think any of us got scared. Probably Pete more than anyone because he had to get up front."

Furler laughs, rubbing his forehead. "Yeah, well, I never have had a yearning to be a lead singer in a band, and now I am, so that's where the worry comes in. I get so nervous every night, like if I ate the wrong thing I'd be sick.

"And also, we didn't know what it would mean [when James left]. We didn't know if all of a sudden promoters wouldn't want to book us, or people wouldn't want to see us at a festival. But we figured, if all the big shows were gone, if we had to play thousand-seat [venues] every night, it wouldn't matter--our focus hasn't changed. It was getting back to that 'Seek first the kingdom of God,' then everything else sort of
falls into place."

As big of a jolt as James' departure was, the band maintains that dismantling Newsboys was never an option. "When John told us, I don't think there was ever a thought of throwing in the towel," says Furler, scanning the faces of his bandmates for affirmation. "Newsboys have always been a band that when things have gotten hard, we've come out swinging. This was just another example of that."

It's a recurring theme in the conversation, the group's ability to look on the bright side, carry on in the face of adversity. Rather than an ending, these men came to see James' exit as the beginning of a new kind of creativity, a fresh sound and a different dynamic among the members. "I think what came out of it was everyone having to pick up the slack--and that's a lot of slack," Furler explains. "That made the band a lot closer, a lot more team-oriented--not that we weren't before, but everyone took on new responsibilities and the respect level went up even more."

"And the thing is, we're better now," Joel shrugs. "We're miles better live. Let's face it, John was a great frontman, but he was very quirky, very flamboyant--the weird suits and all that stuff. And that was fun, but that'll take you just so far. And no one's getting younger, and our audiences are growing as we grow."

Deborah Barnes

From CCM Magazine, Aug. '98