The rules:
1. Email your answers (or questions about the quiz) to me at [email protected]. Note that this is not my regular address-- I'm trying to simplify my life, or at least my inbox. If you accidentally send your answers to my other address, I'll still accept them, of course. I'll just grumble about it a bit. I won't email back any confirmation that I got your answers ('cause I know better than to think that I would actually get around to doing that) so just take it on faith that I have them. If you're the winner, you'll hear from me.
2. I'll run this quiz for five weeks, until May 21. (Unless I happen to be really busy on that day, in which case the contest might run a little longer.)
3. At the end, the person with the most correct answers wins. I'll post all the answers here so you can see how you did, and I'll also post the winner's name if (s)he's not shy.
4. If there's a tie for first place, I'll break it in some utterly random fashion-- probably by drawing names out of a hat.
5. Only one entry per person, of course.
6. If you submit answers and then realize you were wrong, you can email me corrections until the day the contest ends.
7. Those are all the rules I can think of. Any way you get your answers is fine with me. You can do research, collaborate, cheat, just guess "Phil" every time, call up the Newsboys and ask them directly, call up my answering machine and leave threatening messages, or whatever works for you.
| A. Peter | B. Jody | C. Duncan | D. Jeff | E. Phil |
2. "At the Christian school I went to in Michigan, they took down my graduation photo and told the other kids they couldn't associate with me because I had joined the Newsboys." 3. (Replying to a young fan who complained that she couldn't find the Newsboys' earliest albums in stores): "Ahh... yeah, there's a reason for that, Gabrielle-- they're not very good. I hate to tell ya, I hate to be the one that tells ya, but they're not that good. I'm not supposed to say that; hopefully no one from the record company's listening. I'll get in trouble." 4. "I was really ashamed of my dad when I was probably 15, 16 years old, because of him being a pastor.... One time I got fed up and said to him, 'What are you doing this for? You're going out to the middle of Australia, preaching to Aborigines and feeding people and that-- what does it come to?' And I remember him saying, 'This is for the kingdom'.... And just this heaviness fell on me, and I think that was a turning point, on one of them trips where I started to look at them and I respected them because I knew that these guys have given up everything for this, this God and this cause, and I've got to look into it further than that." 5. "Since I was a sophomore in high school, every job I've had has been to earn money to buy equipment. God really gave me a strong desire to pursue music and work through it regardless of disastrous things that have happened. That desire has been the thing that's pulled me through and helped me stick with it because there have been plenty of opportunites to give up." 6. "I've probably read 15 or 20 books on this tour, so I burn through books." 7. (On joining the Newsboys): "I was over here playing in a band on the West Coast, and came over to Nashville to pick up some gear. I was only here for a few weeks, and I didn't run into Pete, but ran into one of his friends at church who saw me there.... So we got in contact, and I went in to audition." 8. "I remember going to bed at night and putting on a little set of headphones and listening to music all night. I'd flip through all the stations in Detroit just to hear what was playing. I loved doing that, because it was my own little time to check out what was going on." 9. (Upon being asked for his middle name): "Squiz" 10. "I don't enjoy being on stage that much... I don't know what it is, I'm not sure, I just don't feel comfortable with it... [but] what happens is, some of it's so uncomfortable up there that it forces me to do things that are beyond my natural ability." 11. (On joining the Newsboys): "They asked if I could play the bass and I immediately said, 'Sure I can play the bass.' How hard can it be? I can play a guitar with six strings-- four big fat strings should be a cinch." 12. "I really feel like we haven't made our best record yet, I know that for a fact. You know, you can retire from being a doctor or an airline pilot, and you probably should at some point. [laughs] I just think that music is like food, it's like air, it's like water. I hope to be writing my best songs in 10 to 15 years' time." 13. (On motorbiking): "I keep getting hurt. Every time I get on one, it's not a matter of 'Gee, I hope I don't get hurt,' it's a matter of 'Gee, I hope I don't get too hurt today.' So I quit, I've just got too much to live for right now." 14. (Answering the question: "What is your favorite season?"): "Summer!" 15. (Upon being asked whether he ever thinks of cutting his hair): "Every day! When I have to get the tangles out of it! The day will come! But I'm determined to not become an old man with long hair! Although Larry Norman does still look good!" 16. "And I also put shampoo on my cereal in the morning, and that makes my hair grow faster." 17. "I don't use shampoo. I use vinegar." 18. "Well, the easiest way to manage hair like that is-- Oh, man! Phynley just threw up on me!" 19. "The day I lose my hair, I'll become a stranger to all who know me." 20. "One of my biggest fears is to be on my deathbed and then to realize I could have done so much more, or I should have done something different. Christ came to serve. Being in a rock band is not serving. Yet, He uses even this. Which is amazing, and which is why I am so thankful. I'm so unworthy, yet I am under His grace. My life is merely a whisper of the breath of God, but it is His breath, His grace, His life in me." 21. (On meet 'n' greets after the show): "A lot of musicians really don't like it, but to me, I just think it's the most special time. To just meet these little kids and meeting with these people just to shake their hand or give them a little hug and thank them for coming and look into their eyes and sign their thing and ask them if they enjoyed the show. I know it seems so shallow, it's just this little brief encounter. But I know they walk away feeling good and feeling good about their faith too because I think they look at us and they place all these preconceived ideas as to what we're supposed to be like and maybe we are and maybe we're not, I don't know. But if I can see people walking away feeling like 'yes, he was who I thought he was,' then that's generally pretty good, because people have usually got a pretty good perception, which is cool. It reaffirms a lot of kids as to what their parents have been trying to instill in them, because they meet someone whom they respect that they feel is what their parents have been trying to teach them and it upholds those standards and I think it's a really special time." 22. "The weirdest thing was that we were sole products of our own minds, because there was no one to get influence off of. We couldn�t go and look at anybody play. We didn�t have MTV, only albums � and so we never saw what they played or how they played it! I guess that�s why we�re so weird." 23. "Artists are pretty strange sometimes, we do wacky things. I've got my head shaved at the moment. We always try new things. Especially out on the road, it can get pretty boring so you do weird stuff to try to spice up your life a little bit."
1. "I like to think I'm normal. God thinks I'm strange, though."
25. "My dad was a coal miner and a musician. I guess that's what got me started, seeing him play. But I spent most of my high school years locked up in my bedroom, playing guitar." 26. (Answering the question, "Who is your greatest musical influence?): "That would have to be Neil Finn of Crowded House. Other than him, probably Peter Furler." 27. "After the LoveLibertyDisco tour finished, the next day I got on a plane to fly out to Nashville. During the flight I began to feel a little sick, so I got up to head to the restroom and the next thing I knew I was coming to in the middle of the plane... which was embarrassing. They got the paramedics and everything, which was kind of funny." 28. (On joining the Newsboys): "We went through these songs, one after another, and they were diggin' it. They come up to me afterwards and say, 'So... do you want to play tonight?' It was only later that I found out that was typical Newsboys style, throw somebody in and see what he's got. Here I am, I don't even know all the guys in the band's names, none of them know mine, and I'm onstage that night." 29. "There are plenty of busboys in Nashville who are better guitar players than I am, and there are plenty of Christians who are more spiritually mature than I am. I look at what I'm doing for a living and I see grace. It's just a wonderful gift from God to be able to do what I do for a living and feel that God is using it for some sort of good. It's just a beautiful thing. It's God's grace, because he knows my heart, and he knows I'm not perfect, but he still chooses to love me and use me." 30. "I knew I wasn�t the greatest singer or guitar player in the world, but that didn�t matter and still doesn�t. There comes a time when you�ve just gotta go for it and dare to fall and be laughed at." 31. (Upon being asked whether there have been any "defining moments" in his career): "Yeah, I had a defining moment. One day I was on stage in the LoveLibertyDisco tour and a 100-pound disco ball fell out of the ceiling and hit me on the head and I realized it was time to change my life. That was my defining moment. You got one, Phil?" 32. "I decided for myself that it was okay that I didn�t exactly fit, and I determined that I would become the person I was meant to be, regardless.... When I picked up a guitar it felt like a third arm, it was just such a natural extension of me. And for the first time ever, I realized that there were things out there that would fit me." 33. (On joining the Newsboys): "My first show was at Creation '93 in front of 60,000 people or so, and I had two days to learn the songs. No pressure there." 34. "My new love is my new Polaroid I-Zone camera, which takes these little tiny pictures. Everybody who has seen it has just flipped over it. It's all about immediate gratification. If you go into my studio, I've been documenting everything with this camera, and these little tiny pictures are stuck all over the place. The studio is becoming a huge scrapbook." 35. "I get so nervous every night, like if I ate the wrong thing I'd be sick." 36. "I've learned that I'm not the most discerning person when it comes to people. I think everyone is wonderful!... But, unfortunately, I have been burned a lot. So I'm becoming a little more guarded in some areas, but it's really helped me solidify and value the friendships that I have, ya know? And it made me realize that friendships aren't easy to come across, not good ones and when I say good ones, I think of the ones we have in the Newsboys, actually." 37. "We were in Grand Rapids and we were playing in the church parking lot. It was a Sunday morning and I got out of bed... and we were living on these parking lots for months... no bathrooms, we were living in RVs. It was really crazy! It was like a battlezone, but I had to go to the bathroom! And there was no place to go! 'Cause the bathroom trucks weren't there and nothing was there. So I was like, I'll go in the church. And my hair is going everywhere, I'm in my rock and roll gear and whatnot, and there was a service going on in this church. I walk in and everyone�s all dressed up nice and in their suits and all the families are together and I just come in to look for the toilet. And everyone's looking at me weird like what in the world is this guy doing... and I�m playing in their parking lot for an event that night and I felt so much rejection. Just walking in to go to the bathroom, it made me feel like, what if I just had decided, oh I wanna come see what this whole Christianity thing is about and I just walked into the doors of this church that day. And that's when I realized that this is what the [airdome] tour is all about, ya know? Making a place where everyone can be accepted and everyone can feel a part and everyone can feel welcome to walk into the doors of this thing." 38. "Lasagna and motorcycles are why we have a legion of people praying for our safety." 39. "I remember sitting in the first apartment I ever had and listening to the Boys Will Be Boyz album and just hating it. Just hating everything about it. I hated the lyrics, and I could say that because I wrote half of them." 40. "I must have been under the age of ten, and I remember going out and sitting in Dad's car and listening to the radio. I'd put the keys in the ignition and turn the key half-way, so I could turn on the radio. I probably would have died from a heart attack had the car actually started.... I listened to the radio so much around that time that it got to the point that I would know what was coming up next. Just by the dead air, I could figure out what they'd play next." 41. "Back in elementary school, we used to have an assembly before class. We used to have to line up and listen to the principal tell what was going to happen that day or whatever, and as we went into our classes, we had to kind of march into our classrooms. But to march, of course, we needed a marching band. So that was my first taste of playing the drums, which I thought were pretty cool." 42. (On joining the Newsboys): "I was originally just going to fill in for the first couple weeks of the Not Ashamed tour, but after just a few gigs, we knew it was the right fit for both of us." 43. "We went in to do an interview and there she was. So I busted my moves." 44. "Before I was born, my mother had cancer, and things were not looking good, but through that situation, she came to know the Lord and grew spiritually through all the circumstances. Because of the cancer, she was unable to have children, but through that they chose to adopt, and here I am because of it. A few years later my dad was injured in a steel press at a factory in which he worked. The accident put my dad on his death bed. Through the prayers of my mom and next door neithbor, my dad was miraculously healed. The incident sparked a spiritual fire in my dad, and today he is a pastor at a church.... Sometimes we underestimate what the Lord can do, and we think that miracles are things that only happened in Bible times, but the Lord is working today!" 45. (On joining the Newsboys): "The guys just called me and I hopped on an airplane the next day. I'd never been on a big airplane before!" 46. "The biggest downside is that people stop looking at you as a being a normal person. I can't tell you how many people we come across who think, 'You're doing well, you must be some kind of super Christians.' You know what? We are in no way better off than anybody else when it comes to that. We have our problems and our struggles we deal with, everybody does. Even Billy Graham has those things he deals with. But it's hard to let people know that." 47. (On joining the Newsboys): "I didn't even have their CD when they called. I had to go to a friend's house to get one... Within three days, I went home, told my folks, dropped out of college and said goodbye to my friends and family. I've been on the road ever since... It's unreal. But sometimes we underestimate ourselves. We never think we can do it. And then, the day came for me and I just knew it must be."
24. "I don't wake up every morning and say, 'I'm part of a multi-platinum-selling rock band!' The whole fame thing wore off in the first month. When we meet the Lord he's not going to say, 'Well done-- you've made multi-platinum-selling albums!' We take what we do seriously, but if you hung out with us you would see how normal we are."
Florence, I love your quiz and I love you! Now may I please go home?