More of this Feature • Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5

On Saturday, August 9, 2003, I got to go to the GodFest at Gray, GA and hang out with the guys from Jonah33. It was (pick an adjective) ... awesome, memorable, great ... you name it. The members of Jonah33 are some of the nicest guys you could hope to meet. They know who they are, who they're not and who they belong to. The interview itself is one of those ones that I'll remember for a long time. Hanging out with them afterwards, eating dinner with them and then seeing them perform is something that I'll remember even longer.

Exclusive Interview with Jonah33

Vince Lichlyter - vocals/guitar
Joshua Dougan - drums
Pete Eekhoff - bass
Jonathon Kellum - guitar

Kim: How are ya'll doing?

Vince: It's hot. We actually pulled in last night from Sweden. We were out of the country for about a week. Eight days exactly. It's kinda hot here, but it was a lot warmer in Sweden than I thought it would be. The promoter's wife took us out to lunch this afternoon at a Mexican restaurant and we got sweet tea and Mexican food and we were loving it. Over there (Sweden) they gave us sandwiches for breakfast. It's like tradition over there ... hot tea, hot coffee. It was kind of weird. We got here and got Mexican food and sweet tea and were living it up. (laughs)

Kim: I've checked out the web site and know a little bit, but tell me about yourselves.

Vince: Did you like it?

Kim: Oh yeah, it's good. You know, you don't just have the sound clips, you've got entire songs. I can't tell you how many of my kids friends have heard All For You for the first time from my computer at your site. You play what the kids are listening to. You play music with a harder edge, but it's got a clear message.

Vince: When I got saved I made a pact with God that I would never write anything that didn't glorify Him. Since this band got formed that's been the underlying heart of the band. It's kind of tricky. You can be so outspoken that you just become cheesy and nobody listens to you or you can be not enough outspoken that people say "what's this guy about"? It's a fine line but I think as long as we're talking to the source of creativity we can hammer it out for a few more albums.

Josh: Yeah, another thing is that we're real. We don't just throw Jesus in our songs so we can get played on Christian radio. It's actually our hearts cry. It's our passion. I think a lot of times that people pick up on that we're not rock stars. We're just four morons. (laughs) For some odd reason God decided to use us so we're going to be obedient.

Pete: We're more or less just along for the ride.

Kim: The big question of the day is this ... the web site has three names listed for band members. But there are pictures of four people and I'm sitting here with four people but the fourth is a different person. What's up with that?

Vince: (laughs) He's our on the road chef and hair stylist. I'm just kidding. It's kind of a strange situation. We started out with four people. The slot that keeps getting messed with is guitars. So we started out with four - a guy named Brian and he's who you'll find on the CD and that kind of thing. But Brian and us had a difference of opinion. Not a falling out, just a difference of opinion about where the overall vision of the band should be. He's not a bad guy, and I don't even really think that he had bad views. It was just different from where I was wanting to go. So we talked about it and decided that it was best if we just went our separate ways. So to replace him we found another guy named Jeff Cozzell - you'll find his name on some of our earlier stuff too. Jeff and his wife just had a baby and he played for us up until the point where he just couldn't anymore because his wife was going to need him home. As a result, we ended up finding John. He's been with us for almost two months.

Josh: But ... this is where it gets more interesting. Because in the past two months we've been in four countries and probably, I don't know how many states ... many, many states.

Vince: We've been really busy.

Josh: As busy as a long tailed cat in a rocking chair factory. (laughs) So we haven't really had time to sit down and practice much with him.

Vince: So we're running half of the set. It's kind of weird, but he comes in halfway through the set. Right now I'm playing. I usually just sing, but now I'm playing too. It's kind of weird, but we trust that God has a plan and just go with it. This is our last show. We have two days in New York at the end of this month. We're hoping in the off time to be able to sit down and teach him the rest of the songs.

Part 2