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INTERVIEWS:
Press Conference with Andy Landis at Creation 1994
?:	I remember reading something in your bio about Matthew 25. How personal 
is that, if I may ask?
A:	Very personal for me. I have only been a believer for about six and a 
half years. I knew Jesus before that, but I didn't know that he died for me, 
personally. So, when I was first coming into the Christian industry, I felt 
like I didn't really know anybody. Everyone seems to be saying "Hi" to each 
other and I'm like, "Hi, I'm new in the Body. Here I am." I feel like all of 
us at times feel like that, like someone else seems to be the center of 
attention or someone else has it all together and I feel like we need to 
reach out to that broken part of us. I think the Lord is very clear about us 
needing to help those people who are imprisoned, who are sick, who are 
alone. I think He's very clear about that.
?:	What kind of musical influences did you have?
A:	I didn't know anything about Christian music when I was growing up. 
It's just within the past few years when I really found out about it. 
Musically, I was influenced by Elton John, The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, John 
Mellencamp, Tom Petty--acoustic rock. I'm from New Jersey. My Mom is from 
this area of Pennsylvania and she was really into local music, which was 
very Appalachian. I really like mandolins and fiddles, but I like them to be 
kind of edgy--pushed like John Mellencamp does his stuff. I like acoustic 
instruments--James Taylor, his lyrics were very effective on me. Even 
Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton a lot.
?:	What's the greatest challenge and the most rewarding experiences you've 
had?
A:	The greatest challenge for me, being in this sort of business, is my 
own heart--keeping it from being completely smashed and watching my dreams 
go up in smoke and remaining faithful. That was true in the secular world as 
well as in this one--keeping my own thoughts and my own heart growing and 
keeping it tender and soft to other people and not allowing myself to get 
hard even when things hurt me badly. I think the most rewarding experiences 
are interaction with people. I love people. I think we are so cool. I think 
we are the most incredibly fascinating creation that He has made. I love 
nature and I love animals, but people are fascinating. This just gives me 
such a great opportunity to meet people and minister to them and hug them 
and love them. That's my favorite part.
?:	In the secular industry, there's a big emphasis on image. How much of 
that is important in the Christian industry?
A:	I think it's the same. I think it's very important, not because God 
thinks it's important but because we, in this country, have seen so much--
we've seen people go to the moon, our eyes are so fed--that our eyes are 
almost trained to be attracted to something that we recognize or that 
captures our attention in some way, whether it's beauty or a picture on a T-
shirt. I think it's real important in the Christian industry. I would like 
to see us as an industry keep our focus on that is being real as much as 
possible--not being pretentious. To be real about when we're trying to 
capture people's eyes. The secular world can make up all these images and I 
would like us to stay very real. That would be my desire, but I don't have 
control over that, I only have control over mine.
?:	Why the country influence to your music?
A:	I only hear a few of my songs that sound like country to me. To me, it 
sounds like heartland music, where it's rocking country. There's only two or 
three songs that I really think are country and I took that same sound and 
stretched it both ways. A couple songs on my album are really rocking and 
are really fun. I like those instruments. I like musicians and I like people 
playing music, rather than building tracks. Some people are really geniuses 
at doing that and that works for them, but I like to have musicians around 
and play enough of them. Plus, the reason I like those kinds of instruments 
is that influence from my Mother. She would sing the country/hillbilly 
songs--Appalachian songs. It was a mixture of that and John Mellencamp.
?:	You've done some other work and some commercials. What have you been 
doing lately?
A:	I haven't done commercials really recently. But I still write for other 
people. Sweethearts of the Rodeo have stuff on their album and Ricky Van 
Shelton has one of my songs on hold. I would like to continue to do what is 
good and what is offered me--if it is hard work and I get to be true to who 
I am and I get to be able to be myself, which is someone who believes in God 
and loves Him very much. I haven't really done anything that I wouldn't want 
you guys to know about, professionally. Some of my songs are in some stupid 
movies, but nothing that would be displeasing to the Lord--I don't think. I 
guess I won't really know until I see Him in person.
?:	Your album is very personal... I appreciate that.
A:	God keeps me in this place of being broken, constantly, where I really 
have to turn to Him because I was not brought up in the church really. He's 
really teaching it to me that we have to stay broken and we have to be 
sensitive to other people's hurts. The more I talk about my own, the more I 
help other people and the more I share my own burdens, the more other people 
are willing to talk about theirs. I feel very much like the Lord is teaching 
me patience. He's teaching me to love more clearly and to more precisely see 
other people's needs--and see my own. I still don't know how to take care of 
myself really well. I get tired and I don't realize I'm tired--those kinds 
of things. What's so exciting to me is that the deepest shames in me--like 
from child abuse and from being raped--not abuse from parents, those kinds 
of shames are out in the light now. I can't tell you how much I appreciate 
what the Lord has done to me there. I can hardly take my eyes off Him in 
those areas where He is healing me. Now, the stuff that I have is more 
"normal" stuff--insecurity, normal stuff--that the deep shame, that I was a 
bad person, is being healed. It's because I believe in Him. It's a miracle--
it really is!
?:	Do you think we're becoming too much like a Christian sub-culture?
A:	I think that we already have the responsibility. I think it's clear 
from the first page--Genesis. We are to go out. I think this kind of thing 
is wonderful [Creation festival]. I think we all need to get together and 
lick our wounds and help each other and hang on, to be strengthened. That 
concerns me--that we have caught ourselves up in the world is exactly what 
the Bible has asked us NOT to do. Jesus said to go out in the world and to 
love one another. That's a big command, but it is true. That doesn't mean 
that we should love each other more than we should love someone down the 
street--we need to love everybody. It's hard, but we are called to do that. 
I don't want to preach, but we are the Body. I am a piece of His body--I am 
His finger or his toe or his hangnail or something. I must touch other 
people. I must do it and you must do it, not because you're wonderful or 
you're perfect or anything, but because God has asked us to. If He loves us 
and we love Him back, we have to do what He asks us to do. I'm very 
concerned and I think it's up to all of us who are concerned about that to 
start--if it's the neighbor or someone who works at McDonalds--open the door 
and ask them how they're doing. Give them a smile and rub them on the back 
or help them when their tires are flat--whatever it is--serve and they will 
know we are Christians by our love.
?:	Would you attribute some of your desire to be real to listening to 
James Taylor? I know James Taylor is awfully real.
A:	No, I wouldn't attribute it to that. I would attribute it to being 
stripped down by the Lord. By being completely on my face with nowhere to 
turn. He has changed my life so profoundly I am not the same. So, for me 
it's really God. I can't not be real because there's nothing else I can be. 
I look down to nothing. I wasn't doing drugs and I wasn't drinking, but the 
"Andy Landis" power was gone. So, I think when you get really stripped down 
and He lifts you up and says, "Here's a new life," it's hard to forget it. I 
really have to attribute it to God and to growing up with very little. If 
there's another thing, it would probably be that my Dad worked two or three 
jobs and my Mom worked and we had very little and that's a good thing. I'm 
really grateful for that. When people kind of get caught up in their cars 
and stuff, I think, "Oh well, it's just a car." I feel like I totally have 
to give that to the Lord. Just to finish what you're saying, people like 
James Taylor. People in the secular world who try to be very real give me 
courage to do the same thing. I thank them for being real in where they are. 
I can think, "James Taylor does it and John Mellencamp does it, so I can do 
it too." It give me more courage. I'm sort of a chicken--that's the truth.
?:	How long have you been a Christian artist?
A:	Six and a half years. I was a Christian, but I didn't know Jesus loved 
me, personally. I knew He loved us all and you see those thousands of people 
and you think, "How does He have time for me?" I was always like, "Jesus I 
know you're busy, that's okay, I have it under control. Help people that 
really need help. Don't worry about me." Basically, He probably said, "Okay, 
we'll see." He stayed right by my side the whole time.
?:	Who had the most impact on your life?
A:	Her name was Delia Thornton. I had been studying a lot of different 
philosophies and religions, including my own, and I was really caught up in 
thinking that I had to be a good person and do everything right and not make 
mistakes and EARN my way in that works kind of thing. I burned out. I got 
really sick. I was probably on my way to go home before I even knew where I 
was going. I was in a fast food restaurant called El Pollo Loco, which 
stands for crazy chicken, in downtown LA, and I was with this girl and she 
had been a believer for about five years and was Catholic before that. She 
changed and I really noticed it, but I thought, "She's a Jesus freak..." We 
were sitting in this restaurant and I said, "Delia, I feel like I built a 
bridge and there's a piece missing and I don't know what it is." She looked 
at me and she kind of smiled and said, "Andy, do you know Jesus died for 
you." She pointed at me and a light literally came on in my head. I had 
heard those words at least a hundred and fifty times in my life, but I never 
understood it was me--He loved me, just the was I was. I actually had an 
encounter with Him where I saw Him and I looked at Him and [I got it] and I 
started crying and laughing. Then I started saying, "I'm so sorry Lord I 
didn't understand. I wasn't trying not to know You, I just didn't 
understand." I heard Him say inside me, "It's okay, it doesn't matter. It 
only matters that you're here now." In that moment, I threw my arms around 
Him and kind of hopped in His lap and I was saved in that moment. And, you 
know what I was saved from most? Me. I was the most critical person of me. I 
wouldn't be critical of y'all, but I thought I was the pits. He began to 
slowly change my mind. Instead of listening to my own head, I started 
listening to Him. He said, "All things are possible through Christ who 
strengthens us," and "All things work for good." I would say, "All things 
Lord?" And He would say, "All things." It would be right there in black-and-
white. Even when I was raped? That's gonna work for good? It says ALL 
THINGS, so I would just go, "Okay, all things." Now I'm singing about it and 
young girls are writing to me thanking me. I get letters saying, "Thank you 
for talking about this. Thanks for singing about it." I can look at it and 
say, "It's real, all things work for good." That doesn't mean that I believe 
it in the moment, when you get a fender-bender, I certainly don't think it's 
going to be good. But it's true. I think He likes it when we question Him--
when we talk to Him--He's real and alive. He wore clothes, He ate, He 
stubbed His toe, He got tired, He got sick, He wept, He got angry; He's just 
like you and me only He did it perfectly.
?:	Is there someone you rely on for spiritual advice?
A:	Yeah, I have a few people around me. One is Allen Brown, who's my 
manager. We hold each other accountable for stuff. He's good for me. I have 
an assistant who's a strong believer. I have a few girl friends and a woman 
who's a Christian counselor who kind of acts like a mother hen. Her last 
name is Rambo. I say, "Every girl needs a little 'Rambo' in her life." She's 
a really strong believer and she's not in the music industry and she has 
taken me under her wing. I feel like I've gathered and been praying for 
sisters and brothers around me, especially older people. I have a tendency 
to be the older sister, so I've been praying the Lord would provide those 
and He really has. I feel very covered up. I do feel, and I want to be 
really held accountable. I do not want to mislead anyone. I take it very 
seriously.

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