Customer Reviews

Rock Stars on God: 20 Artists Speak Their Mind about Faith

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My main gripe about the book is that the introduction makes it seem like this is a book of devotions. It is not. Most of the interviews are taken from the (Christian) HM magazine column "What So and So says" where secular stars are interviewed and approached about thier beliefs in God and Christ. The responses are interesting, but not necessarily spiritual.

By far the best interview is the one with Alice Cooper. As a long time AC fan, I bought the book mostly for this one interview. This is the first time (to my knowledge) that he really discusses his conversion experience (He doesn't want to be a 'celebrity beleiver'). It is AMAZING! He is very open about his faith and he reasons for staying in the secular music scene. The book alone is worth reading this rare interview!

OK, let's talk about the book title and the author. It's really a stretch to call some of these interviewees "Rock Stars." I follow popular music fairly closely, and I've barely heard of some of these interviewees. One of them is that doofus Jesse that won the MTV V-Jay contest about 10 years ago, and he now happens to have a band that you've never heard of. But, hey, I was just chomping at the bit to hear his opinions about God and Jesus. Now, the author is listed as Doug Van Pelt. But he didn't do all the interviews; maybe half of them. He's definitely the best interviewer of the bunch and maybe SHOULD have done them all.

Another issue is the style. All the hemming and hawing and uh, well, hmmm type stuff is left in. That may make it sound more authentic, but it gets annoying after you're about halfway through the book, because almost everyone does it. It is interesting, however, to be reading the interview with Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, finding him to be very articulate and well-spoken (at least on the page), until he's asked about Jesus, and then he hems and haws with the best of them.

My favorite part of the book was the interview with Alice Cooper. This comes from me being an Alice Cooper fan in high school, and being made to feel somewhat guilty about it because I was a Christian and Alice was supposedly "of Satan." Now Alice, who was a preacher's kid, is a bona-fide Christian who continues to perform in the "secular" world, so I feel vindicated. Plus, his interview is really, really good, because you can tell that the interviewer enjoyed doing the interview--probably a relief to talk to a real Christian after all those interviews with people who have rather off-center ideas about religion. The other interview that stood out to me was with Henry Rollins, a definite non-believer, who seemed to be a threat to do physical harm to the interviewer if it hadn't been over the phone. Fun, fun, fun.

To conclude, there's some interesting stuff here, but nothing earth-shattering.

I picked up this book because I am a big music fan. I love those "behind the music" type shows. This book also intrigued me because of the many different types of artists they interviewed and how they were direct in asking them non-musical questions about their faith and backgrounds. Since rock stars often get a platform to speak it is rare we hear them really discuss anything of importance outside of music.

From Sammy Hagar and KISS, to Alice Cooper and Jethro Tull, to Green Day and a host of 90's bands I have heard of but never listened to, there were a wide range of musical styles represented. The premise of these interviews is that a journalist from a Christian Music magazine would interview other artists and ask them about their lives and their faith. Some of the reactions were what you would expect. Henry Rollins basically acted as he is depicted, and Sammy Hagar has even more energy in print than in person. Some of the artists were quite articulate and thoughtful, while some were not.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was from rock and roll bad guy himself - Alice Cooper. Alice is a strong Christian family man with a great outlook on his life and his role. He has some really funny quotes about having to live down some of his reputation. He thinks God must have a sense of humor to use him.

The book is written well, and the interviews themselves are pretty much as said, with all the poor grammar and colorful phrases kept it (although often "bleeped"). Overall a fun book and a good look inside the music on an important topic.

ROCK STARS ON GOD (2004)
by Doug van Pelt

This is a very cool book collecting interviews from a magazine called "Heaven's Metal", a rock music magazine with an emphasis on Christian issues. Although the book was published in 2004, it contains some interviews going back as far as 1991.

Books written by Christians about rock music usually fall into one of two categories. They are either written to condemn some aspect of the music, or they are documenting mostly Christian musicians. While 'ROCK STARS ON GOD' does have some interviews with Christian musicians, most of the interviews are with people you'd never think to ask about God or religion. Unlike similar books, I would say that non-Christians would also enjoy 'Rock Stars on God'. It should also be pointed out that the interviews also discuss other "standard music journalism" things as well, such as what an artist's influences are, how the tour is going, if they have a new album coming out, etc.

Some highlights of the book for me were:

-Ian Anderson talking about Jethro Tull's royalty payments

-Kirk Hammett talking about the suicides of heavy metal fans

-John Maurer talking about being a Christian member of Social Distortion

-Henry Rollins' terse response to a question about a TV show

I think I'm a little bit older than the target audience for this book so there are a lot of bands here that I either don't care for or have never heard of. However I still read these interviews because I enjoy seeing the reactions to the questions. One funny occurrence in many of the interviews is the confused and awkward responses from bands when asked directly about Christianity. This seems especially true of the younger bands, who I think are trying to walk a line between being politically correct and projecting a certain image for themselves. The dude from Godsmack was clearly not comfortable talking about the subject matter whereas Troy van Leeuwen from A Perfect Circle just seems really really surprised that anybody would ask him that. That being said, it is good to know that these secular and even atheist groups would still do interviews with a Christian magazine.

I found this book to be quite enjoyable and easy to read. I haven't read the whole thing. I've only read the interviews with the "Rock Stars" I've heard of. Don't care much about the others. Kind of like buying a Various Artists CD... if people still do that... you don't buy it for all of the bands.

The book was what I expected... interviews with Rock Stars - word for word.

I was interested mostly in Godsmack, Metallica, Kiss, Drowning Pool, Green Day, Nickelback, Perfect Circle... to mention a few. I was a bit disappointed in that many of the front men for these bands or the ones writing the songs were not the ones interviewed. But, several were.

The interviews start out with talk about the band... some reviewers complained about this as a "I don't care"... If someone doesn't care about the band, I have to ask why they're bothering to read the interview at all... anyway, when they transitioned from band talk to Jesus talk I was expecting to learn from a master evangelist how to do so smoothly... after all they've got experience.

I immediately busted out laughing when I read how this "smooth" transition was done... kind of like asking a girl out for the first time... small talk and then boom... once it's out there... it's on them to respond... We could all learn from that... just ask... you'll never know what someone believes unless you're willing to ask. As seen in many of these interviews... often they don't even know what they think because they haven't been asked...

Most of these Rock Stars are definitely a product of lives filled with distractions just as many others are who are just their fans. But, I was blessed to just know that they were introduced to Jesus and what He claimed about himself... namely... to be the Way, the Truth, the Life. Understanding this requires faith and faith requires a choice. These interviews put it out there... It's now up to them what to do with it...

This book is entirely misadvertised. The publishers should be ashamed of themselves for tricking so many of us into thinking this would actually be a book about musicians talking about God. The book is filled with pitifully boring interviews about the bands' latest tour or album or something, then out of left field the imbecile of an interviewer says something like "so what do you think of Jesus Christ?" Then the musician says something like, "never met him." Not exactly, but, with the exception of a couple interviews, they are no deeper. In fact, this book, being touted by many Christians as a good book is a terribly un-Christian book. With responses like, "if it works for you, fine" and "you don't need church to believe in God" this is hardly an appropriate book for teenagers who are already celebrity crazy and waivering in their faith. But ultimately I blame myself for thinking that our ridiculous celebrities would ever have had anything meaningful to say about something as profound as God and faith.

do not buy this book.

This book is not musicians talking about God. It is transcripts of interviews about bands' various tours, political committees, and other bland topics like their family upbringing which hardly mention God at all. It's as if once in an interview the interviewer will ask, "oh yeah, what do you think about God?" where the rapper or "musician" responds, "don't know him really." Or with the Rage interview, albeit a talented band, an interview by them includes support for the moral relativistic killing of unborn life (they even support partial birth abortion as a "choice") and playing the race card does not belong in a Christian book.

This book is a joke. It's just useless text and cheesy, hokey-isms instead of true, meaningful conversations by secular or Christian artists about God.

Don't waste your money.