The Petra Zone

I just bought a Greg X Volz song book on Ebay, No Room In The Middle and inside there is pictures of Greg with a band and it is NOT Petra. Shows some pretty large crowds also, one pic is of a mini like concert hall and I was impressed to say the least. Does anyone have any information about this band Greg is with and any details of that tour or any before that without Petra. I saw Greg in Moline IL. in 1992 or 1993 and he didn't have a band but it was great! I met Greg after the concert and was kind of let down though because he had a big head and I don't mean physically. I'm sure as the years have gone by that things have changed and he is more modest.

Greg VOlz was in a band called 'e' band back in the early 70's before Petra. In the band included David Eden (Wrote coloring song) and they used to sing Praise Ye the Lord years before released by Petra.

Shaabyi

The band after Petra was a super band, called Pieces of Eight, which included Joe English. Joe English was the drummer for Paul McCartney & Wings. Joe then became a Christian and started his own band, which had several hits like "Midnight Angel Choir", etc. His keyboard and B3 player was John Lawry. That is the whole Greg/Petra/Joe connection.

Pieces of Eight was a Petra killer. It was like David Lee Roth after Van Halen. David's band was better than VH could ever be, but it was not the same thing. So, eventually it lost steam.

did Pieces of Eight record any albums and did concert tours?

POE was Greg's band that toured. They did not record as "POE".

I saw Greg with POE at the Worcester memorial Auditorium in Oct of 86. They were very good and they played everything from River is Rising and Greg even did the praise Medly from CITAS almost exactly as it was done on the video. He even wore an outfit from the BTS tour.

brent wrote:The band after Petra was a super band, called Pieces of Eight, which included Joe English. Joe English was the drummer for Paul McCartney & Wings. Joe then became a Christian and started his own band, which had several hits like "Midnight Angel Choir", etc. His keyboard and B3 player was John Lawry. That is the whole Greg/Petra/Joe connection.

Pieces of Eight was a Petra killer. It was like David Lee Roth after Van Halen. David's band was better than VH could ever be, but it was not the same thing. So, eventually it lost steam.

Sammy was so much better than David. David was a druken joke on stage. I saw VH 2 times with David and both times he could barely stand and slirred just about all the words. I want to see professionalism in a band not some idiot that can't hold his liquor.

1. DLR was the best for that era, Sammy for his. I don't like hearing Sammy singing Dave songs. Dave doesn't sing Sammy's, but it would "suck" (sorry I had to work that in) if he did.

2. All of Van Halen are drunken idiots.

3. The most spine tingling thing that I heard DLR say was, "Not even GOD can stop Van Halen!" The crowd went wild. Dave was wrong.

You are so right Brent!!

I personally liked Dave's humor. I thought VH got way too serious after David was gone. I've heard live stuff with Sammy that was not altogether sober. What can you expect though from a guy who makes his own tequila. they all had problems.

So this band, Pieces of Eight toured as Greg's solo band for one year or tour for The River Is Rizing? Did they not get the ticket sales like expected and then Greg toured with tracks after that? I was buying Greg's stuff around 1990 and missed out on a bunch of stuff.

On the Van Halen stuff, I heard Sammy Hager was supposed to be a Christian but I think he might have just dabbled in it, any comments without getting on the Van Halen thing entirely?

I don't know why POE disbanded. I would imagine that if money could have been an issue.

There was a rumor floating around that Ken Tamplin and Sammy are cousins, and that Ken witnessed to Sammy. I don't know if that is true or not.

Judging from Sammy's lyrics, common sense would say that he knows exactly where he stands with God.

"I'll bear the cross on judgement day..."

"You don't have to die and go to heaven, or hang around and be born again. Just tune in to what this place has got to offer, cause, we may never be here again. I want the best of both worlds..."

These are just a few. I think that since he gives so much time to it, he must be under conviction. I hope that he accepts Christ. I hope that they all do.

Well I don't know about ticket sales for Greg and POE but when I saw Greg it was a sold out show.

Did they not get the ticket sales like expected and then Greg toured with tracks after that?

I asked Greg about that when he was here (I did a number of concerts with him in '94-'96). He told me that when he left Petra, he assumed that he would take Petra's followers along with him (that they would continue to follow him, along with Petra).

He put together the band, did some touring for his first solo project, but the anticipated following didn't follow.

So yes, basically it got too expensive to keep the band going. Promoters couldn't afford it, Greg couldn't keep it going, so bring out the tracks.

John has the same story, really, after "Swine."

I have a video (yes, Greg did some solo vids) and one of them have clips of Pieces of Eight.

If you see the tshirt for "River," it has a big 8 on the front of it.... doesn't really tie in with the album cover, but oh well!

Sue D. what will it take to get a tape of the Greg X Volz stuff?

I looked online and found Heaven's Metal interviewed Sammy Hagar and yes he admits that Ken Tamplin is in fact his cousin and yes Ken has witnessed to him. But clearly Sammy is not a Christian but he says he as close as you can get, he believes alot of garbage about other so called gods but doesn't believe Jesus is the only way. I do not believe that he is a Christian unless he has drastically changed his views and actually accepted Jesus in his heart as the only God but in this interview he clearly states that is not the case at all. You can easily find it if you search under Sammy Hagar Christian Heaven's Metal or HM.

I do full heartly believe that Alice Cooper is in fact a Christian, he is not afraid to admit it and I find nothing that says otherwise though the look of his website is very hard, but if you read and read alot you will clearly understand where he is coming from. I don't really understand how this topic started but oh well!

Fling me an email, Beak! [email protected]