What a Shame!

[Mexican Spud]

Hey why not get that dude that played drums on the Jekyll and Hyde CD. He seems to be pretty good!!!!

[Shell]

Haha, from what I gather, he was asked but is too busy touring with the band he's working with now to be able to do that. It can be tricky getting schedules together to plan something like this. It would be wonderful to see Paul play drums with Petra again.

[brent]

I think that they were talking about Peter Furler. Paul did not play on J&H.

[Shell]

You're right, I was thinking of the Farewell CD.

[blayze5150]

John and Louie, Louie and John....
This is something I feel has been made too much of. I have been a Petra fan since 1985. As most Petra fans know, for the majority of Petra's existance, John was the singer and Louie was the drummer. Louie was dismissed between Revival and Jekyll and Hyde. If you look at that period for Petra, it wasn't pretty. Before Revival, they didn't even have a label. Album sales had dropped, as well as venue sizes, concert attendance, and dates played. This had to be an incredibly stressful time for any band. Something broke between John and Louie. Is that really that hard to believe? They are human! Now Louie is not playing festivals with the Farewell version of Petra, but is playing with classic Petra. I may be naive, but I don't see this as a "John won't work with Louie" thing. I see this as a "Louie's style of drumming doesn't work as well with the Jekyll and Hyde era music" thing. Louie's a great drummer, but he's not that kind of drummer. I would also believe a schedule conflict would be more possible than a personality conflict. These guys played together for a couple of decades: they could play together for a couple of nights! I've played with people I don't care for many times, but this just doesn't seem like the case with these guys. We should let this thing die!

[brent]

+1.

Viktor was where Louie wanted to be stylistically. That is why he went that route. They got the person to get them there in John Lawry. Louie wanted to do the adult contemporary/P&W thing.

Louie could have and would have played the J&H songs if that J&H record would have come at a time when Louie was into that genre. J&H came about 10 years too late IMO. I think he would have played them well enough live had he not be canned, but his heart would not have been in it because of where he was as a person and musician. The Petra production team could have/would have assembled drum parts or had somebody else record the drums so Louie could keep working. That is my opinion.

At the heart of the matter, we had a case of two differing opinions from two strong willed personalities who wanted the same things but could not agree on how to get there. No two home builders will build a house the same way. Both will adhere to the same codes and inspections. But both will use different techniques and tools. Who is right? I don't know. Especially if the outcome is the same....does it matter?

Heck, Louie kind of fought Alan and I on playing the big kit with the bigger (and more) floor toms, the harder rock stuff, etc. He would say, "Well, if that's what you want, I'll do it, but that isn't what I would do" and then we would get a story (I am not complaining about that either. I loved it. Feedback is not Louie's shortcoming and we welcomed all of it because of who he is and all that he has done). He would not budge on his DW kit drum and head selection, which I understand....so I just replaced some of the toms in ProTools. The engineer always has the last word. haha. See, there are ways to let someone THINK that they are getting their way. That is much easier than shutting them down or cutting them off completely. I'm just sayin'.....

[petrafreak2009]

Hey I just wanted to first apologize to the admins for my last post "beating the dead horse." I was too lazy to find this thread but luckily it came back up so I could find it! Kudos to whoever did that.
I believe what one person has said about them respecting one another, and just agreeing not to play with each other. And I think that it has worked out great in both situations, while it has probably caused both of them at some points to look back and say... what if? My step-father, who so happens to be my pastor, preached on the disagreement between Peter and Barnabas in Acts 15:38-40. I believe that in some sense of the story, John and Louie have done the same. Take a listen if you would like to. The sermon is entitled Friends In The Faith.
http://philippibaptistchurch.com/site/a ... 06:21%20PM

[blayze5150]

I really appreciate the unique perspective you are offering on this matter, Brent. Totally awesome!

I remember the video that came out with "Unseen Power" back in the day. Louie and Ronnie were really dogging John hard in the behind the scenes clips, and that was just the stuff they let us see! I love Jesus, and I get picked on alot (I draw abuse as well!). It doesn't matter where you are with God, that stuff gets old. Put that together with the way things were going for Petra at the time of Louie's departure, and you have a whole lot of frustration, hurt feelings, confusion, and just a bad situation. I really hope it is not a situation where they won't play together. I'd have a hard time believing that that would be the case, seeing how they were together for so long. Time heals most wounds, especially amoung believers! If that is the case, though, we as fans need to accept that these guys are human. I told John at the final concert's meet and greet that he was my hero, and he is. That doesn't mean that he is incapable of human emotions: he and Louie are sinners like the rest of us. I can't imagine being in a position like that where everything I did could reflect poorly on a ministry that is so visable! They are both better men of God than I am for being able to do so.

You're also right about Louie's ability to play the Jekyll & Hyde stuff. I don't know if he could have done it like Peter Furler or the way Paul Simmons did it live, but he is a great drummer. I remember my drummer jamming to the "Wake-Up Call" CD back when it first came out, and he struggled with some of the chops. One in paticular on the song "Good News" made him say many words unfit for a Christian drummer! It kills me that they didn't use live drums on some of there biggest recordings.

I'll just say this: It's going to be great to see Louie again on the Classic Petra tour!

[SCJ-7]

I think that we need to respect John and Louie decision. Only God, John, Louie and possibly Bob Hartman knows what really happened between them. Many of us (including me) want to see John and Louie playing together in Petra concerts but at the moment that thing is not possible. John and Louie are great humans and Christians and they have their place in the long Petra history and now one is in Classic Petra and the other is in Petra. The decision to play together again will be a decision of John and Louie...

[Jonathan]

Why John and Louie don't act like Christians is beyond me.

[brent]

[blayze5150]

Why John and Louie don't act like Christians is beyond me.

John and Louie are men who have devoted most of their lives to reaching others for Christ. When the controversy over this topic came about a few years ago, both men made efforts to calm it down quickly. This is a proffesional disagreement, and it happens to Christians all the time. These are men of God I look up to, because even though I don't see them in their everyday lives, what I do see of them is that they are men of God. I saw John Schlitt stay and greet the fans after the final Petra show in Murphy, NC for hours: and he had just played two shows back to back! Petra was over, and they had nothing to gain by staying, but they did to thank their fans. Had Louie been there, I have no doubt he would have done the same. I do not know John and Louie personally, but I know the God they serve. These men aren't "acting" like Christians: they are Christians!

[Shell]

Blayze, when you've been posting here for awhile, you will learn not to take Jonathan's posts at face value. He is a unique individual and his posts are not always what they appear to be. He wasn't trying to say they weren't Christians or weren't acting like Christians. I would venture to guess it was an observation about the whole topic in general.

[blayze5150]

Blayze, when you've been posting here for awhile, you will learn not to take Jonathan's posts at face value. He is a unique individual and his posts are not always what they appear to be. He wasn't trying to say they weren't Christians or weren't acting like Christians. I would venture to guess it was an observation about the whole topic in general.

Thanks! Always thankful for someone helping out the newbie! Sorry, Jonathan.

[Shell]

Check out some of his older posts Blayze.