John Tesh
John Tesh jokes that “dinosaurs were just finishing up” when he lived in Nashville and was a television host alongside Pat Sajak and Dan Miller. In actuality, it was the mid-1970s and since then Tesh has gone on to be a popular television and radio host as well as a successful musician.
Tesh will revisit his Nashville stomping grounds next week when he brings his Big Band Christmas Live! show to War Memorial Auditorium. The show is a mix of covers, Tesh’s originals and Christmas tunes all with the singer/pianist backed by an 11-piece rhythm and horn section.
“The whole idea is to take everybody back to the 1940s and ’50s and present this music like people were listening to it back then,” Tesh said. “I was born in ’52 so when we were listening to it, it was big-band Christmas. Then in elementary school I played trumpet in the easy version of all of these songs. They mean a lot to me, all of these songs.”
Tesh said highlights in the show included his version of Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood,” as well as “Roundball Rock,” which he wrote and was used for the “NBA on NBC” theme song in the ’90s. Tesh cooked up the idea in his head and then called and sang the rhythm and notes into his answering machine.
“I tell the story like that and I realized after doing three or four shows that I had to stop and say that back in the day there was a machine (instead of voicemail),” he said. “There were people in the audience who don’t know what we’re talking about.”
While he’s in town, Tesh says he plans to meet with local television stations about picking up a televised version of his popular radio show “Intelligence for Your Life.” Tesh does the shows with his wife actress Connie Sellecca and her son Gib Gerard. At the moment, Tesh describes it as “life coaching on the radio.”
For more information on Tesh’s “Intelligence for Your Life,” visit www.tesh.com.
Tesh’s Nashville Christmas show is 8 p.m. Wednesday at War Memorial Auditorium, 301 6th Ave. North. Tickets are $35-$55 at www.teshmusic.com.
