Day of Fire & author John Thompson

JOSH BROWN (DAY OF FIRE) - This was THE very first interview we did and Josh has such a great story it is still vivid in my mind. It was weird because I had actually met Josh when he was in Full Devil Jacket. He was at producer Bob Marlette's house recording at his studio and I was over at Bob's shooting an interview with him for another project I was working on at the time.

Josh has no real knowledge of the history of Christian rock. He told us about falling away from religion when he was young and how he turned to drugs and alcohol. We try not to get too personal in most the interviews but it was hard not to with Josh, he was so ready to go there. He told the un-edited tale of how lost and desperate he had become. In fact, he said that while they were out on tour he overdosed on heroine and almost died. He had to be resuscitated, he was that far gone. He talked of how he struggled with returning to the band, which he did but the record was never finished. Like Jon Davis of Superdrag told us, it was hard to step back in that world when he felt his life was so different now. He left the band and re-committed his life to Christ. It was not easy. He said he continued to struggle with alcohol and went from being a rock star to having a day job, I think he said he worked at a nursing home. How weird would that be? Going to take your grandma some cake at the nursing home and the dude wheeling her around was the lead singer for Full Devil Jacket?

After considering many options, he started Day of Fire and the band has done really well. They have won some Dove awards and I think even some Grammy nominations. Josh is a great guy with a powerful story.

JOHN THOMPSON (author "Raised by Wolves") - We interviewed John at Cornerstone after we had missed him at GMA. I think he got sick if I remember. Note to self, do not order sushi in Nashville. John has an encyclopedic knowledge of the scene from start to finish. He and several other authors will likely serve as the connective tissue for the doc. He has a great line that starts the promo video, "my grandmother walked into a Christian bookstore and said 'my grandson has been getting into this heavy music...and I hear you have the anti-dote.'"

John talked about the controversy of putting sacred themes into a genre of music that was seen as something that corrupts youth. He talked about how the Christian music industry may shun some bands while they are IN that industry, Switchfoot and POD for example, then embrace them once they made it in the general market.

He had a lot of information about the earlier bands and even had a newsletter where he would cover Christian music that they may not put on the shelves for one reason or another. He talked about DeGarmo & Key and countless other bands that he fell in love with. He had an underground radio show and even his own band. John was one of the very early forces who would delineate what defined good Christian rock. He was such a wealth of knowledge, I really need to re-watch his interview!