He's produced everyone from Petra to Greg Long. He's played with mainstream megastars Kansas. And he has a superlative new album out. Tony Cummings reports on veteran JOHN ELEFANTE.

John Elefante

Word Records report that immediately after the "Eyes Of My Heart" song from his brand new 'Corridors' album appeared on last issue's Cross Rhythms Experience cassette, all over Britain people were trundling into Christian bookshops asking for it. Maybe they'd swooned over John's 'Windows Of Heaven', a marvellous and somewhat underrated album on Myrrh in 1995 and had been itching for the follow up. Maybe they were AOR nostalgists keen to buy the latest offering from the singer who once fronted American mainstream megastars Kansas. Maybe they were hard cord CCM buffs who, noting John's impeccable production credentials with brother Dino on a long list of great records (Petra, Carman, Guardian, Greg Long, etc, etc) knew they could rely on their hero to deliver Christian music of serious class. Or maybe it was simply Joe Punter voting with his ear and deciding that, if the delicious Beatlesque groove of "Eyes Of My Heart" is anything to go by, 'Corridors' is another gem. It is, finely crafted songs, sensitive arrangements and of course plenty of production class.

Today the singer and producer extraordinaire operates with Dino out of a multi-media recording facility in Franklin, Tennessee known as The Sound Kitchen. There was music, as far back as John can remember. Records were playing at the Elefante house virtually around the clock and John decided early that music would be his life. As a drummer and vocalist, his first paying gigs came at age 10 with a band called The Brotherhood - John and his brother Dino, two cousins and two other guys. "1 had a kind of stage mother who would load up the car and take us to the gig. A year or so later, the singer quit, so we hired a second drummer/singer and we'd switch off. He'd sing the more baritone stuff and I'd go out and sing the high Jackson Five songs, the tunes that needed the high vocals."

John was so convinced that music was his life that he dropped out of high school a few weeks into his senior year. "As soon as I got out of high school, I really started getting involved in songwriting. That's when a whole new phase took over. My parents converted the garage into a recording studio and Dino and I started learning the art of recording. That was like a whole new world. Unbelievable! The possibilities were limitless."

Things with the band were going well. They were playing clubs and an attorney was negotiating a recording contract with Capitol. It was 1980 and that's when the world was inverted. John became a Christian. "I began to think that I had to get out of music; how could I serve God playing nightclubs? I was totally confused, wondering what God was doing. I remember praying, 'Lord, is there a way I can play music and still serve you at the same time?1 I asked my friends to pray for me. I went to a Bible study; everybody there was praying for me. We were close to signing with Capitol. And I was just freakin' out. What do we do? Do we call the guy and tell him to forget the whole deal? It was total chaos.

"I spoke with my pastor's wife, an older woman, Mabel Peek. I laid out my whole situation and I asked her, 'Mabel, what do I do?' And she said, 'John, take it one day at a time. Stay in prayer, and don't make any huge decisions right now. Just stay in prayer and see what God does.' Which was great advice."

John quit playing clubs and focused on his writing and recording, cranking out demos in the garage studio. That's when a friend told him about an announcement on radio station KLOS in Los Angeles. Steve Walsh had left Kansas and the band was doing a sort of talent search, looking for a new lead singer. Oddly enough, the attorney who had been working with John and Dino on the Capitol Records deal was an associate of the attorney representing Kansas. "So I told him, 'Hey, here's one of my demos. Would you pass this on?'"

Out of 300 applicants, John landed the dream job as singer for established superstars Kansas. They were in the middle of recording the 'Vinyl Confessions' album when John joined. What followed were three or four bizarre years. "They were some of the best years of my life, and some of the worst. First of all, I knew nothing about the business of rock 'n' roll. All I'd ever known was you load up the van, you go to the gig, you get paid - end of story. When I joined Kansas, I walked into a huge corporation. There was so much information for me to absorb and I went into it very, very naive. I was thinking everybody was gonna love me, kinda like my family. I found out that the band was not about family love, it was about business."

John and Dino Elefante

And then there was the matter of Kerry's new faith. "His conversion just turned things upside down. He went to the management and to the record company and said, 'Look, my heart has changed and I want to write about different things.' Everybody was freaking out, certain this was going to spell the end for Kansas. Then when they found out that I was also a believer, they were scared about what I might say in interviews. I was urged to talk about what it was like being the new singer, chosen from among 300 people. That was the angle; they did not want me to discuss my faith."

At the same time, John is quite aware that even though he was a Christian, he was not prepared for the pressures that were soon his. "I was a Christian, but I was also a 23 year old kid, who had been thrust into the limelight, making good money and being exalted by the fans, riding around in Lear jets, facing unique temptations. I mean, it was a big deal. And it went to my head."

Now, more than 10 years later, it is a different John Elefante who reflects on the experience. "I think God gave me my 15 minutes of fame so I would know just how empty it can be. You know, 'Play the Game Tonight', hit the top five and I was just thinking, 'Why can't we get it higher than that? Why didn't we get to No 1 with it?' Here I was, doing what I had always dreamed of doing, but I was just worried about why the song didn't go higher on the charts. And you know, when you get a No 1 song, then you worry about how long it will stay there in the top spot."

When Kerry and Dave finally decided to leave the band, John knew it was time for him to go, too. "I knew if I stayed when Kerry and Dave left, I would tend to go the way of the unbeliever. Besides, Kerry's faith was one of the main reasons I joined the band. With that influence gone, why stay?"

So John left on principle but also convinced he could immediately score a solo deal. He hired a high-powered manager and big time attorney, the same attorney who was representing Michael Jackson. He started circulating demos. He made contacts. But he just couldn't bring a deal to completion. "I was sitting there trying to beat the door down. My ego was inflated; I was ready. And God said, 'Nope. I have other plans for you.'"

And John entered into a second time of waiting. "I had the voice. I had the songs. I had all the elements. But the door was shut tight. Looking back, I'm so glad. I praise God for not giving me success after I left Kansas. Who knows what would have happened? I might have gone off the deep end. I might have gotten into drugs. I probably never would have met my wife. God had to rebuild me from the ground up. It's not that I had fallen away from God, but I had been walkin the fence. So God completely broke me down and humbled me through that experience of not being able to score a deal. Then he started making me what he wanted me to become. He had to break me down so he could build me back up."

John's smiling now, content in this moment of stillness, this conversation so many years later. "That's why when I saw Dave Hope last week, I couldn't wait to tell him, 'Dave, maybe you thought I was this little punk who was just along for the ride, pretending to be a Christian. Well, here I am! I'm still hanging in there with the Lord."

After leaving Kansas, John returned to songwriting and recording. He and Dino gained respect in the Christian marketplace for their production expertise. They moved to Nashville and opened The Sound Kitchen. For a while it seemed any CCM company wanting rock with a bit of edge called on John and Dino Elefante to produce the effort. Pakaderm Productions - the brother's company - was even given its own label identity for a while by Word Inc. But with such a superlative voice, able to caress a ballad or roar a rocker, it seemed only a matter of time before John went back to the vocal booth and in 1995 'Windows Of Heaven' was released. Now, switching to the new powerhouse in CCM, Pamplin Music, the fine 'Corridors' seems sure to get mucho radio and find fans...new...or old.