- [Reporter] For thepast 45 years, John Tesh

has been a recognized andbeloved personality to millions,

as a concert pianist, journalist,

and Emmy award winning 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 John joins us now.

It's wonderful to have you here.

- We've been friends for a long time.

- We have been, since those O.B. days.

A long time ago.

One of the things youwrite about in the book,

and there's so much in here,

but I'd like to talk to you a little bit

about your cancer scenario

because people know you

for all the successfulthings that you've done

in the various aspects of media,

then cancer hits, andout of nowhere, really.

I mean you'd had testing before

that showed that you wereperfectly fine, and then.

What was that like for you?

- I used to play lacrosse, andI mentioned this in the book,

and one of the thingsthat happens in lacrosse

is that you can be, you'veheard of the term blindsided,

and when you get blindsided,

if you're carrying the ballanybody can hit you, right?

And so, I've been blindsideda couple of times,

I had concussions, that'sreally the way I felt.

You really don't have any feeling at all,

you just sort of hear a high pitched sound

and you can't concentrate on anything.

And at the moment they saidyour tumors are varietal

and it's nine out of tenon a scale of one to ten,

it was, I couldn't speak,

because I had all these plans laid out

for what I was gonna do inthe next three to five years,

and it looked like I wasn't gonna make it

past two more years.

We were told, Connie and I, my wife,

were told to get my affairs in order.

- Talk a little bit about

the depression that sets in after that,

how did you deal with that?

- I drank.

What happens is, Ibecame a cancer patient.

This was a big problem,

and I would encouragepeople not to do that.

I was 63 years old when I was diagnosed,

and that's a picture ofme right after chemo,

and it was the same year,almost to the month,

same year in his life thatmy dad got cancer and died.

So you look back, you connectthe dots in a book like this

and you're like, "Wait a second,

"did I manifest this cancer?"

Because I was worriedabout it my whole life,

but then I became a cancer patient.

And so, well, okay,

let's get somebody elseto do the radio show,

let's make sure the insurance is in order,

and all the rest of this stuff.

And then at dinner partiesthat's all you're talking about.

I was referring to it as my cancer,

you want to talk about your treatments.

Not everybody does this, but I did.

- [Terry] Well I think most people do.

- I became selfish, self-absorbed.

There's a chapter inthere called "Pity Party"

where I almost ruined mymarriage over this whole thing.

I was drinking scotch whisky.

You can get anything you want,

you can get the best meals you want,

people are bringing you stuff,

you can get--

- [Terry] They understand.

- Opioids.

Well because,

you don't really have toworry about the future.

- [Terry] How did youbreak out of that John?

- My wife Connie is a toughItalian from the Bronx

and she just won't stand for it.

There's an old movie called"Moonstruck" with Cher in it,

and she keeps going, "Snapout of it", you know?

And so, that was really her thing,

was, "I won't have this",basically is what she was saying.

- But then it comes back again,

I mean, you think you've beaten it,

and you think, "I'm one of the lucky ones,

"I'm one of the percentageover here", and it comes back,

and it comes back virulently.

- Yeah, and it went to adifferent part of the body,

and that's what's knownas staging of the cancer.

So, it left my prostate and went into,

they kept finding it in lymph nodes.

And so, know you've gotthis thing where it's like,

in six months you'regonna go for another scan,

and then you're gonna go for another scan,

and they kept finding little things here.

They were experimental tests,they're not always accurate,

but I'd lost my faith.

And I was consumed by unbelief,

I'd wake up at two o'clock in the morning

and worry about it.

- But today you're cancer free.

- Yeah, but it only happens,

and I had faith for the doctors, right?

And that's really important.

So when you read this book,

and it's clear in the book that,

I have faith in Mark 11:23 now,

and I have transformed my,

I've renewed my mindand transformed my mind,

and I've casted out, insecond Corinthians 10:9.

I'm all over the place,

anyway, it's in the book of Corinthians,

and it is to capture every thought

to the obedience of Christ,casting down strongholds.

The stronghold of my belief

was that the cancer's gonna come back,

but when we got to the lastgroup of doctors who said,

"Listen, you've got somethingelse going on in your pelvis,

"we need to radiate your pelvis

"with 57 treatments over three months".

And then when you talkabout the collateral damage,

we just didn't have a choice,

which was, we have to stand on our faith.

And when you get to that point,

you realize that's allyou've got, you know?

And if you can get therebefore you have cancer,

it's wonderful for you.

But I had always been training,

somebody had handed me a CDof my friend Andrew Wommack,

who studies healing.

And he said, "God hasprovided this for you,

"you just have to understand

"that you're speakingdeath over yourself."

And then if you get to Mark 11:23,

"Whoever says to this mountain",says to this mountain,

"be removed and be cast into the sea,

"and then doesn't doubt in his heart,

"but believes that whathe says will be done."

I was never taught that in church,

and once we got that revelation,

then faith was born between Connie and I,

and I don't think Icould've done it by myself,

but when you have two,more powerful than one,

in that scripture, then yeah,

then I ended up being clearin the next several tests

and I just stopped getting tested.

- You know, we've talked about cancer,

but the title of your book is

"Relentless, Unleashing a Lifeof Purpose, Grit, and Faith",

and what do you want the takeaway from this to be John?

- Encouragement and that if Ican do this, you can do this,

but also, it gets complicated,but just Proverbs 18:21,

"Death and life are inthe power of the tongue".

We must speak life overourselves in Jesus name,

otherwise we will speak our future,

and we will speak our future,good and bad, into existence.

- It's a wonderful book.

It really, really is.

John's book is called "Relentless",

it's available wherever books are sold.

You're gonna love it.

It's filled with all kinds of information

about your personal walk,

but done in such a lovely, wellwritten, conversational way,

it's gonna grab you when you read it,

get ahold of it.

Thanks for being with us.