- Well, like millions of people,

you probably know John Tesh as an

"Entertainment Tonight" co-host,

an award-winning reporter,

a Grammy-winning recording artist,

and the host of his own radio show.

You might also know thathe is a cancer survivor

and in his new memoir, "Relentless,"

which I might add, is an incredibly

entertaining and interesting book,

John reveals a side of himself

that he's never shown before.

(swooshing)

(upbeat piano music)

- [Narrator] For the past 45 years,

John Tesh has been arecognized and beloved

personality to millions,as a concert pianist,

journalist, and Emmy-Awardwinning radio and TV host.

He has achieved much in life,

but the road has been anything but easy.

John faced obstacles along the way,

including being suspended from college,

living homeless for months,

and facing a deadly disease.

In his memoir, "Relentless,"

John shares how the challenges he faced

set the stage for his success in life.

- Well, I wanna welcome John,

but I wanna tell ya, this book,

it's called "Relentless."

It is an incredible book.

It's available where books are sold,

I guess wherever they are.

- Yeah.- All right.

- Yeah, I can't believe youhad time to read the book.

I'm honored.- I did.

I read it all.

It's fascinating, I love it.

John, what did you have?

What disease almost laid you out?

- It was a very rareform of prostate cancer

and it was a form of prostate cancer

that did not make PSA.

And normally, as a guy, you go in

and you get that PSA blood test.

It's no completely conclusive.

And I found that out the hard way.

My doctor, Dr. Stephen Galen,

did the other part of the test,

which is the digital rectal exam.

And my PSA was really low for five years,

like .4, which meansthere's nothin' goin' on,

right?- That's right.

- But he found with his test, he said,

"John, there's somethingvery different here."

And "something verydifferent here" ended up,

and next was a sonogramand then it was a biopsy.

And then, within, like,a couple of months,

I was at Johns Hopkins with (mumbles).

- [Pat] I see.

I had one of those needle biopsies

and they're not fun.

- It's not a party, no, no.(Pat laughs)

Yeah.

- Well, I had a Gleason seven.

Did he give you a Gleason score?

- [John] Gleason nine.

Now, Gleason.- You're kidding?

- I had three Gleason nine.

Gleason nine is you hitthe jackpot on a tumor.

So, they grade the tumors from one to 10.

So, yours was actually probably in an area

where it was like, Imean, if it was a seven,

sometimes they don't operate on that.

With a nine, they alsodidn't wanna operate

on it back in the daybecause it's too risky,

right?- Yeah.

- So, it was sort of like, you know?

So, they were able to say, you know,

"Get your affairs in order,"

is what they told me, yeah.

- So, they thought you'd die.

Well, I told 'em, "Getthat sucker outta me.

"I don't care what it takes."

- Right, right?

Yeah, because you can't sleep at night.

And plus,- Oh, man.

- the other thing is Iknow now after going back

and connecting the dots in the book,

that my dad, Pat, got cancer

and died when he was 63 years old.

And when I look back at him,

it freaked me out because

I got cancer at exactly the same age,

almost in the same month as my dad.

- Wow.- And knowing what

I know now, I'm convincedthat I contributed

to manifesting that cancerjust by worrying about it,

yeah.- Yeah.

But they offered you somereally severe treatment

that would have left you impotent

and who knows what elseand you said, "No."

- Well, I said, "Yes," at the beginning.

And if I hadn't had faith,

if my wife, ConnieSellecca, and I hadn't had

faith for the doctors,

I wouldn't be here talking to you

because our faith, theknowledge of divine healing,

of what's promised in the scriptures,

it was not fully formed back then.

So, when Dr. Ted Schaffer, Dr. Logothetis,

and all of those guys,and Dr. Brian Chapin,

when they said, "You're gonna have to have

"a radical prostatectomy,and remove the prostate,"

I had faith for that.

It was just like what you said.

Get this outta me.

- [Pat] Yeah.

- We did then I had anothersurgery, then I had chemo.

I'm compressing three years of time here,

but the cancer was relentless

and it just kept coming back, you know?

- And then.

- And then, when itcame, when they thought

they saw something in the lymph nodes,

two things were happening.

One was, Connie and I were relying on

Mark 11:23 and Proverbs 18:21.

And we were speaking and also

in the Book of Romans 4:17,

which was, you know, "Godcalls forth those things

"to be not as though they were."

And we were praying that every day.

And so, instead ofbegging God for healing,

which I had been doing,

and talking to God about my sickness,

I was talking to my sickness about God.

And so, we fully formed in that,

in the healing faithand a lack of unbelief.

And so, when the doctors said,

"You're gonna have to have radiation

"to carpet bomb your pelvis,"

we had a look and faith was born.

And I was not only healed of that cancer,

but also of arthritis.

I had terrible arthritis in my ankle

because I had broken my ankleseveral times playing ball.

And, the reason for this,of course, many reasons,

but the true reason as thatfaith was my only choice.

- [Pat] Yeah.

- If they were to do that to my body,

I woulda been a differentperson, you know?

- Well, thank God you did.

But Connie was right with you.

You were praying together,

you agreed together, the two of you.

- Yeah, I mean, I can tellyou what woulda happened

if she wasn't in my life for that moment.

In fact, there was a time,

there were several timeswhen this happened.

But I just didn't do wellwith the chemo, you know?

And a couple of thingshappened with that, right?

One is, you're suffering madly, you know?

I couldn't get beyond the nausea.

And then the androgen deprivation therapy,

where they take the testosteroneout of your body, right?

Because prostate--

- Big, big mistake.

- Yeah, I mean, it's just but basically

you go through menopause

as a man.- Oh, it's terrible.

- I couldn't keep any weight on.

And she was very cute.

I would say, "Come on,let's go out to dinner."

And she was, I weigh 225pounds now and I'm six, six.

I was like, you know,I'm like 30 pounds light.

- [Pat] Yeah.

- And she was like, "No,I'll cook for you," you know?

Because she knew I just looked hideous.

But there was a time when I had

big complications in the surgery.

And there was a time whenone of the procedures

was they had to put an NG tube in my body,

in my nose to pump my stomach.

And at that moment, andthis is in the book,

at that moment, I lookedat her and I said,

"You have to kill me."

I just couldn't.

I was so sick I couldn't pray,

I couldn't receive prayer into my heart.

I was just, all I could think of was--

- And you asked her to killyou, you really were serious.

- I, you know, I loveto look back on it now,

and say, "No, I was just kidding."

But I was, yeah, because acouple of things happened here,

where one is that you wantthe suffering to be over.

I was 63.

I was like, I've accomplished some things.

I'm done, right?

And the other thing is,

you just feel like you'vejust destroyed your family

with your sickness, whereConnie dropped everything.

My kids were, of course,they're trying to help me.

But I just, I didn't wanna be that person.

And I became, Pat, Ibecame a cancer patient.

I spoke cancer over myself.

My cancer, this and that.

And there's a chapter inthere called "The Pity Party,"

where I started feeling sorry for myself,

probably your favorite chapter.

(Pat laughs)

And I was drinking, you know?

And a lot of times, when you get,

we've seen this with peoplethat we minister to now,

you know, when you accept your disease,

especially if it's somethingthat could be terminal,

you get a lot of attention,

right?- Oh, yeah.

- I mean you could havewhatever drug you want,

you could have, you know,

you could be drinking andovereating and everything

and people don't, you know.

They're, "Well, you know, he's," you know?

- Yeah, well, John's gonna leave anyhow.

- Exactly.

So, the whole book is, as you know,

the whole book is notabout the cancer journey,

but we sorta titratedit throughout the book

so you could flashback and see.

And this process, Pat, of just going back,

and connecting the dotsagain and writing the book,

made me realize that when I was homeless

in a tent at 19 years old,

having been tossed outta college,

and my parents threw me out

and my professors threw me out,

that that was probably my first,

the first time I had understood

and had a relationshipwith the Holy Spirit.

- [Pat] Really?

- Yeah, yeah, it's the onlything can explain that,

you know, go ahead, sorry.

- You found Connie.

So, you wanted Connie so bad.

She's the one who, you the Lord.

- Yeah, yeah.

- She wasn't gonna haveanything to do with you

until you came to Jesus.

- Yeah, I mean, thisis a great example of,

it's a great messagefor, you know, for women,

because she stood her ground, you know?

And meaning that when I had drifted,

I grew up in the Methodist church.

My dad was running the church,

my mom was involved.

I had an uncle who was a Baptist preacher,

- [Pat] Really?

- like you.

And when I got to college,

I just went nuts, you know?

And it happens to kids sometimes.

And so, until I met Connie in 1991,

and she was, and we started dating

and that's in the book as well.

And she said, "Well, youknow, if you like me,

"you might like your church."

And I was like, "Okay, okay, yeah,

"I like you a lot," you know?

- Whatever you say.

- Yeah, if you see Connie and you see me,

you know that I definitely married up.

And so, or if you'vemet her, even more so.

And we really wrote this book together

because I wouldn't have been relentless

without her hand in mine.

- John, you know, yourstory is so incredible.

You moved up the ladder from local TV

all the way up to the network

in a matter of a few,what looks like months.

I mean,

it was just meteoric.- Yeah.

- Why, I mean, God's hand was on you.

- Yeah, and my imagination, you know?

I mean, in Hernan Cortes,

it's a great story of the explorer,

he was afraid that his men going to mutiny

and take their shipsback to their country.

And instead,

he burned the ships, right?- Burned the ships, yeah.

- And it's such a great example

because when I made the decision,

I was trying to changemy major in college.

And I was in textilechemistry because my dad was

- [Pat] Yeah, okay.

- one of the vice presidentsof Haynes underwear.

And so, we got free underwear

for most of our lives, you know?

And he just thought thata music career for me,

which is really where I was headed,

was not gonna make it.

And he was, you know,he was probably right.

But he just insisted that I enroll

in textile chemistry at NC State.

And for about, you know,three and a half years,

and, you know, a gradepoint average of about 1.8.

I took a course to raise my grade.

It was Radio, Television 101.

And I got bit by that bug,

you know?- Yeah.

- Of being able to create things

and have them manifest that day.

And I wanted to change my major

and was past the drop/add date.

Most of my professors were happy

to get me outta the classroom, you know?

'Cause I was bringin' down their curve.

- Yeah.

- But my statistics professor just said,

"No, I'm gonna hold you to it.

"We're past the drop/adddate, I won't sign this."

And so, on advice fromsomebody in my dorm room,

I'm blaming it on them.

They said, "Just do what I do.

"Just sign the professorsname to the drop/add card,"

because there's so many kids in the class

and I made that fateful decision.

I did.

I got caught about two months later.

The professor reported me.

And I was in violation of the honor code

at NC State.- And they threw you out?

- They threw me outta school.

They suspended me indefinitely.

- No less.

- And right, and gaveme an F for the course,

right?- Yeah.

- And then my dad had a meeting with me.

And he said, "You have shamed me.

"You have shamed your mom.

"You have shamed your mom's bridge club."

He had a whole list of shaming.

"You have shamed the underwear division

"of Haynes," you know?

And then he said, you know--

- Nobody will ever wear theirbriefs again because of you.

(both laugh)

- I was Mr. Shame.

And he said, "You're no longer

"welcome in our house," you know?

He threw me out.- He threw you out

of your own house?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah,

at almost 20 years old.- Just because

of signing one name, a little forgery?

- He was a World War II veteran.

He was a Chief Petty Officer.

He was an honorable man.

- [Pat] Oh, man.

- But if he hadn't been honorable,

if that statistics hadn't been honorable,

if I hadn't ended up in that tent,

you and I wouldn't be talking about this

'cause I'd be makin'underwear, which is, no.

- When you got on theair, was in at Durham?

Where were you?- Yeah, yeah.

- [Pat] Okay.

- Well, in Raleigh,

- Raleigh, yeah.

- what happened was I'm inthe tent for like, you know,

I'm homeless and without a job.

I was pumping gas at college Esso.

That's before it was Exxon.

That's how long ago this was.- Right.

- And I wanted, I said,"Well, I should try

"and get on a radio station," right?

And this is in there.

And I couldn't figure it out.

Everybody said, "You haveto have a demo tape."

So, I called a friend of mine

who had the keys to theradio lab at NC State.

I was no longer a student there.

So, it was illegal.

But he got me in there.

And I had a reel-to-reel tape recorder

and a manual typewriter.

And there was a little uprightpiano there and a microphone.

And I made fake demo tape

and I did the traffic report.(thumping)

- Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.- Like, "This is John Tesh,"

you know, "at WKIX 2020 News."

And I was typing at the sametime to emulate the teletype.

And I would hold my nose and I would go,

"This is David Dire in Cairo.

"Today, Dr. Henry Kissinger."

I did a Henry Kissinger.

It was really, it was the most

terrible thing you could possibly imagine.

It went on for like 15 minutes.

I dropped it off at the,

I didn't have any choicebut I had to do something.

I dropped it off at the radio station

and I got a call.

My tent was pitched next to a payphone.

I got a call on the payphone

and it was Scott White and he, from WKIX.

And he said, "Did you doall of this stuff yourself?"

And I said, "Yeah."

He goes, "If you wanna job that badly,

"I'll give you a jobplaying the religious tapes

"on Sunday morning from four to seven,"

you know, when therewas that public service

that'd come in.- At that time,

I know.- Right, right.

And so, it was me and all of the pastors

on the reel-to-reel tapes, you know?

And then, you know what happens,

is somebody gets sick orsomebody quits or gets promoted,

I got my toe in the doorand I got a job there.

Then I got a job at the TV station,

then I ended up in Orlando and Nashville.

And then at 23 yearsold, I was the youngest

correspondent at CBS.- It was amazing.

They all were, you quitright after they promoted you

and then they wanted to move you up.

And before long, I mean,

how long did it takeyou to get to New York?

It was how long?- It was 35

and a half months.

Yeah, I know.

- From homelessness- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.- to New York

to the black rock.- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But I have to tell ya, I was praying.

I could see myself witha jacket and tie on

on the set in New York doing that.

I had imagined that

and was praying about that,

you know, all that time.

So, I got an offer to work in Milwaukee.

I said, "No, it's NewYork, it's New York."

People are like, "You're crazy.

"You're never gonna work again."

And all the rest of that stuff.

So, when you don't have a choice

and faith is the only thing, you know?

- Well, it's amazing,what God, God's hand.

I mean, I read this book and I say,

"I've never heard ofanybody who moved up so fast

"in broadcasting."- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- And the next thing, you'reon "Entertainment Tonight,"

which is a fabulous showand America's sweetheart,

Mary Heart.- Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it was and thenthrough the whole thing,

I was still, because Iwanted to play music, right?

So, I was playing musicthrough it all, you know?

Playing in jazz clubs and things,

trying to write music.

And then when I couldn'tget a record deal,

it was "Entertainment Tonight,"

I decided to do a publictelevision special at Red Rocks.

And it ended up connecting with people.

It was sort of an"Against All Odds" special

where after about four songs,

it got rained out and allthe musicians had to leave.

So, it was just us, here it is here.

Like, just the, thisis like four songs in.

It's going well here andthen the rain happened.

And all the musicians had to leave

and we thought we weregonna lose our house.

We thought we were gonna lose everything.

And God stopped the rain.(audience cheering)

- [Pat] Really?

- The moon came out.

And then this mist, after the rain came,

and covered the stage.

And you would pay like $5,000

for a mist like that, you know?

It's a special effects.- Yeah.

- We were able to finish it.

PBS ran it a couple of times

and it just blew up and in a good way

and raised millions for PBS.

It started my music career.

- [Pat] Incredible.

- Yeah, yeah.

I think the title'sprobably good for the book.

It's, you know,

it's relentless, you know?- When you were at

"Entertainment Tonight,"you had this lovely lady

next to you and you werethinking music all the time.

And you had to get a coursein empathy in order to?

- I'm really sorry that youread this book, Pat, okay?

- [Pat] (laughs) Yeah.

- 'Cause I knew you'd get to, yeah, yeah.

- Well, well, I--

- No, no, what happened was

when I got hired to work with Mary,

I still consideredmyself a news man, right?

Mary and I were just talkin'about this the other day,

'cause she had no idea this happened.

I got hired to be a news man.

And so, I was doing theshow about celebrities

tongue-and-cheek, right?- Yeah.

- And what happened was,

it was looking like I didn't like Mary.

So, Mary'd be sitting hereand I'm just sort of like,

(chuckles), you know?

And that kinda thing.

And you know, "Well, well, you know."

And so, I got called in.

They said, "Listen, it looks like

"you don't like Mary on the air."

I said, "No, I love Mary."

They said, "Well, you're not,your body's not sayin' that.

"We're sending you toa body language coach."

So, I said, "No, you're not."

And they said, "Yeah, if youwanna keep this job, we are."

So, they sent me to Dallas for four days

to this professional body language coach.

And I'm in there, and I'm like,

I don't wanna be there, right?

And so, she has a tape, a VHStape, of like 50 of the times

when I was like rolling my eyes

or turning my back on Mary, whatever,

all stitched together,all edited together.

I'm looking at it.

I'm bein' a jerk.

- Yeah.- Yeah, yeah.

And, of course, my wife, later, is going,

"Yes, you do that," you know?

- (laughs) Yeah.- And so she trained

it outta me, basically.

- What do you have to do to show empathy?

What's your body language?

What are you suppose to do?

- Do what you do.

You and Terry do a greatjob with it, right?

I shoulda watched you and said,

"Just do what this guy's doing,"

you know?- Right.

- Do you remember when Harry Reasoner

and Barbara Walters were together?

And how that was just.- Oh, yeah, yeah.

- Apparently, that's what I looked like,

yeah.- Well, you do great.

Well, anyhow, John it's just

a thrill to have you on the air.

And this book is so good

and I did read it and it's very--

- I know you read itbecause you're bringing out

all the embarrassingparts and I appreciate it.

- I didn't give away some ofthe key punchlines, I hope.

Well, thank you so muchand boy, what a miracle.

You know, we're both cancer survivors

and mine didn't spread, butI got rid of it pretty fast.

- Well, I stood on Mark 11:23.

And for people, you know this scripture.

But "whoever says to this mountain,

"be removed and be cast into the sea,

"and does not doubt- "and does not doubt

"in his heart," yeah.- "in his heart,

"but believes that whatHe says will be done,

"will have what He says."

And our whole family,

once faith was born on that scripture,

I was healed, you know?

And now, we go into, on Sundays,

we go into sub-acute facilities,

Connie and I and our healing Bible study,

and we lay hands on thesick and they recover.

I've studied John G. Lake,

you know?- Well, yeah.

- Who was the guy back in 1900s

who used to empty hospitals,

you know?- Exactly.

- And a lot of churches, as you know,

don't teach that.

And that's really what this book is about

is that you can have whatyou say in Jesus's name.

- Well, you're totally cancer-free, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

- And you're healing,you're touching people

and they're healed?- Yeah, healing, recovering.

- Yeah, I mean, yes.

I do not believe that Godput cancer on me, okay?

I'm not that guy.- The devil puts cancer.

I really believe it's an evil.- Right, right,

it's the spirit of infirmity, right?

Just like arthritis.

But I have the obligation of the cure now.

- [Pat] Praise God.- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- And you also did thetheme music for basketball?

- (laughs) Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, well, it's funny how little,

you can write hundreds of songsand one of 'em will pop out.

I wrote this song on my answering machine,

you know, 30 years ago,

where I knew that NBC needed

a theme for their sports coverage.

And so, I got an ideawhen I was in Europe.

And I called my answering machine

and now, on stage, Ihave to explain to people

what an answering machine is,

'cause nobody can remember.

You, obviously, remember that, you know?

And so, I sang the theme that

I had in my head intothe answering machine.

It was (mimics sports theme).

'Cause I knew I went to sleep at night,

it would be outta my head.

And when I got back to the States

and played my answering machine,

I was like, well, this might be something.

Figured it out on the piano,

had an orchestra play it, sent it to NBC.

And as the story goes,

they called me up andsaid, "This is great."

And it put two of my kidsthrough college (laughs).

So, I've been singing intomy old answering machine

for the rest of my life, you know?

- (laughs) You got the royalties

with music from all that.

- Yeah, yeah, right, yeah.

Yeah, that story, the longer version

of that story is in there, too.

People will be singinginto answering machines.

- Well, John, you're terrific

and it's called "Relentless,"ladies and gentlemen.

It's a fabulous book.

Yes, I did read it andI haven't given away

all the key points in it.

It's a life, it's amazing.

God's using you.

Thank you, my brother.

- God's using you becauseI'm now pointed at 90.

I'm gonna get to 90

and then we're gonna live Abraham age,

right?- That's the answer.

- Yeah, yeah, okay.

- Well, I'm 90 in anothercouple of weeks or so and then.

- Yeah, I know, I know.- I've got

10 more.- Are you in Psalm 118:17?

- Absolutely.

- [John] Ah, yeah.

"I will not die but live," (laughs).

- Moses lived to be 110.

I figured.- Yup,

- But you know, I've justfinished three books.

And they say, "You'll stillbe bearing fruit in old age."

And I, you know,

I don't know what it is.- Faith, yeah, basically.

Yeah.- I'm doin' a TV show

and all this other stuff.

- It's incredible, God bless you.

- God bless you.

You are terrific.

- Thanks.

- Thank you, my brother.- It's my pleasure.

- God bless you.

John Tesh, ladies and gentlemen.

You oughta get this book.

And let me tell ya,

where do they get it?

Anywhere?

- Yeah, yeah, sure, yeah.

- It's called "Relentless:Unleashing a Life of Purpose,"

oh, "Grit, and Faith."

Whoa, you'll love it.

Okay, is that enough pitch for you?

(both laugh)

- Thank you, Pat.

It's my honor to be with you, thank you.

- You too, my brother.