John Tesh brings his upbeat show to Immokalee casino

Thursday 27th February 2020

John Tesh plays, sings and tells stories Nov. 22 at the Admiral Theatre.

John Tesh jokes that his shows are relationship currency.

When he sees couples coming to his show at the Seminole Immokalee Casino Hotel on Thursday night (see information box for details), he'll know a good number of those men are there to make their wives and sweethearts happy. He's fine with that.

In fact, the 67-year-old Tesh is fine with just about everything. The musican-author-showman-radio host survived prostate cancer that was expected to kill him five years ago, and almost anything slung at him now sails right by.

Tesh brings his show, which includes his, daughter, Prima, in its dance segments; his stepson, Gib Gerard and musicians to buttress his sleek sound.

He has just finished a book, "Relentless: Unleashing a Life of Purpose, Grit and Faith." There's a possibility a quote from it may come up. Tesh's show is "an evening with" rather than "a concert by," titled "Songs and Stories from the Grand Piano."

"This show is very different in that it's about half music and half talking. It's stories from my life that are illustrated by music," he said. "I've done the music stuff for so many years, and I really wanted to do something a little more encouraging.

"I realized a lot of things that happened to me in my life, both successes and failures, could be encouragement to people who are examining their own lives."

Tesh has lived through more than a few teachable moments. On his way to the person he is today, he has:

He has crossed all those bridges through the help of his wife, Connie Sellecca, with whom he shares a deep spiritual life. In fact, one of his DVDs is a worship service at Red Rocks.

"Our tour sort of a more relaxed tour now. We used to go out and do 40 tours all at once. It was the most efficient way to do it," Tesh said. "Now we'll go out every other weekend and do two or three."

"We all have kids and grandkids and other jobs, and I come in for the radio show," he explained.

Tesh, whose first media work was for a radio station, still does a good deal of radio. Locally, he's on WJPT-FM with his "Intelligence for Your Life" show, offering guidance on everything from job interviews to personal health, and his show anchors the overnight hours on 101.5 Lite FM.

Many people may know Tesh from his two horizon-sweeping media events:

Less well known, perhaps, is that Tesh wrote the National Basketball Association theme "Roundball Rock," played before and and during breaks on NBC-broadcast games for a dozen years. It's his access to the male contingent in his audiences.

"About halfway through the show, I start playing the NBA basketball theme, and that's when the guys start paying attention," he said. He added, with a chuckle: "I would say that song is transformative for the couples."

Tesh also has just finished recording yet another special for PBS.

"That's definitely a good assessment," he said of the observation that he always seems to have at least three different irons in the fire at once. "My wife is always saying, 'Can you stop going in all these different directions?' "

But that's what fuels him, he conceded.

"I've never really looked much at the prize. I love the process."