PART 1 | PART 2

Tracy Ferrie Interview (New Bass Player for Stryper)
By: Brett Christensen
Date: May 2005

Stryper.com: Let’s start out with your back history pre-Stryper. When did you start playing the bass?

Tracy: I started on the tuba…

Stryper.com: On the tuba? That’s very rock ‘n roll!

Tracy: (laughs) Yeah. When the teacher came around and was recruiting 4th graders, I considered what would be the most loud and obnoxious instrument that I could play (laughs) and so, it fell upon the tuba. Only problem was, I wasn’t a very big kid and I couldn’t reach the mouthpiece. So they got one of the giant Sears 3” thick catalogues to sit on so I could reach the mouthpiece. It helped, and I eventually grew into it.

Stryper.com: What grade was that?

Tracy: That was 4th grade. And as I went on in my schooling, I added upright and electric bass, by the prompting of my band teacher. So I give a lot of credit to my band teacher in high school.

Stryper.com: So Stryper fans everywhere owe your band teacher a lot!

Tracy: Yep, Mr. Luthamand (sp?)

Stryper.com: Maybe there could be a tuba solo on “Loud and Clear.”

Tracy: Yeah (laughs) I’d have to practice though, your lips have to be in shape. You could bust a lip.

Stryper.com: So it was pre-teen that you picked up the bass.

Tracy: Yeah, somewhere in there. I probably picked up the electric bass in 10th grade.

Stryper.com: How old are you now?

Tracy: 38.

Stryper.com: And you’re considered the pup of Stryper, the young guy. I would have guessed younger.

Tracy: Rock ‘n roll keeps you young. Before it kills you.

Stryper.com: Do you recall the first time you heard Stryper?

Tracy: Yes. I’d been show an album cover when I was living in Boston, and going to school at Berkley. But I don’t think I heard the music until leaving the Boston area. I was in rental van during a really bad part of my life, and I happened to be listening to a rock n’ roll station. The song “Soldiers Under Command” came on. It was like a medicine to my hurting soul, I guess you could say.

Stryper.com: From that point did you seek out a cassette of Stryper?

Tracy: Yeah, I bought “Soldiers Under Command”, and “To Hell with the Devil” on LP was just coming out at that time.

Stryper.com: And it was just off of hearing “Soldiers” on the radio?

Tracy: Yeah. And there are some dramatic events that lead up to that point, I don’t know if you want to get in to that or not.

Stryper.com: Whatever you feel like sharing.

Tracy: Alright. I was eight years old, I was playing in the neighborhood … and one of the neighbors was a very, very on-fire Christian. He would witness to the kids in the neighborhood, invite ‘em in and let ‘em play in his driveway because he had a basketball court. He would tell them about Jesus, and give them some milk and cookies to lure them in. (laughs) Then this man would really on-fire preach, like he was on television or something. One or two of us would respond, and I remember really responding to the message that Jesus was coming again. That was his message. Are you ready, and will you come back with him on a white horse? I responded to that.

I never went to church before, or was ever invited after that for many years. I kinda had a belief in God from that, but never had a relationship. It was never developed, and I never was a disciple. In fact, my parents kinda told me to stay away from the guy.

Through those years, I ended up doing all of the undesirable things that normal kids get into, and I ended up in Boston going to Berkley College of Music. I was semi-dating a girl, and went to a Ratt/Poison concert. It was sort of a two guy, two girl thing, but not necessarily a double-date. On the way back, our car was assaulted by another car. They were throwing beer bottles, and it became like a high-speed chase… with them trying to run us off the road. It went on for miles and miles, until we were almost going to run out of gas. There’s a pretty long stretch between Worchester, Mass, where the concert was, and Boston… and there was a little town in between called Framingham. We couldn’t outrun them… we had a smaller car than theirs, and they had a big four-door sedan. They were literally sitting on top of their car-door windows, hanging out, and even the driver was sitting on the car window and throwing bottles and whatever at us… smashing our windows, and that kind of thing.

So my friend (the driver) finally ended up pulling over in the most lit up area he could find, which was a little hotel, just to get off those kinds of deserted roads that late at night. We didn’t see any other cars or anybody, so we were really freaked out. As we were getting out, they attacked the driver. I was helping the two girls get into the lobby of the hotel for safety, just to get them inside. Right before I got them in I heard the driver call out for help… for me to help him. As I went back out, a couple of guys went after me. There were four altogether in their group. As I began to defend myself, I was able to knock one down and then deal with the other one. He jumped in the car, locked himself in based on what I did to the other guy. So then I came around to help the driver, and began to pull them off. The guy that got in the car got a nightstick and he hit me from behind, and I basically kinda don’t remember anything after that. So the rest of this event was from the other people in my party.

I guess what had happened during that portion, is that the four of them took me on in a half-conscious state. They held me down, stomped my face and beat it with the club. The other guy that was with me ended up taking off and running.

So I was kinda alone with the four of them, and just delirious. The next thing I remember is being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, and they were trying to ask me questions to keep me conscious. I was trying to take air in but my mouth was full of blood. My teeth were knocked out, and my lip spilt clear through… top and bottom. It was split in two right up to my nose. I remember just trying to breathe, thinking ‘if I can just take another breath, if I can just take another breath.’ In between breaths I was thinking about my mortality and what would become of me. I sized up my life.

Stryper.com: How old were you at this point?

Tracy: This was about 1987 so I was probably 20 years old. I ended up having tens of thousands of dollars in facial surgery and then all kinds of recovery. I was carrying around a lot of negative feelings about the experience and the people involved, so I just wanted to get out. So I left, through the help of my mom. We were driving back, and it was one of those moments that you never forget. We were passing through Cleveland. Cleveland’s a great rock ‘n roll town, you get some good stations there. It was one of those Cleveland rock ‘n roll stations, and that Stryper song came on at probably five or six in the morning. We were driving through the night … and this was the beginning. It was the seed that was going to eventually take root.

I kinda consider it like a farmer going out to plow. Maybe it was not the seed, maybe it was more them breaking the ground. Doing a little groundbreaking in my heart.

I was going to stay in Indiana, where I grew up, for the summer to recover and then head out to L.A. So during that summer in Indiana, I bought a couple of Stryper records and sent them to my girlfriend, Marybeth. I was invited to go to a church by this lady who knew me from when I was younger. I was telling her about some of my New Age ideologies, that I’d picked up in the New England area and from the influence of my girlfriend. She just very politely and lovingly said, “We don’t subscribe to that way of thinking in our church. Why don’t you come and check it out? You can sit up front. I’ll be singing in the choir, and if you’re uncomfortable, you’ll know I’m there.”

She wasn’t at all condemning and trying to point out the wrong in my life. She just simply pointed the direction to where I needed to go. That’s the first time that had ever happened, other than the guy preaching at me. The Christians at school, they ended up just telling me everything that was wrong with what I listened to, or what I liked, or what I did. They never pointed to what was right, they just told me what was wrong. I definitely like to make a point of that.

So I went to the church, it was an Assemblage of God church in Elkhart, Indiana. The preacher preached and sang with joy in his heart, very convincingly. As the scripture says, “No one comes to me unless the Father first draws him.” I literally felt the Spirit of God drawing me to come forward and make a decision. To become a new creation, or re-dedicate, because I did pray a prayer when I was little… but had not seen any fruit. So I responded to the alter call, and began regularly attending church.

I had the initial high of being a new Christian in that environment. I headed out to L.A. and tried to be a Christian without proper training, and proper guidance. I was beginning to fail in my Christian walk, and having a real hard time trying to reach out and find other Christians. I didn’t really know the Bible, so I kinda resorted back to my original way of life. But knew that it was wrong. I felt some conviction, but didn’t know the specifics of what was wrong. While all that had been happening, Mary Beth, who was kinda an ex-girlfriend by that time, was listening to the Stryper music I sent her.

She was on drugs, an alcoholic, and had gone through some dark stuff. About the darkest you can get in life. But she listened to the music over and over, and she eventually knelt beside her bed and asked Jesus to do what the music was saying. She became a Christian by listening to Stryper, directly from the lyrics. No preacher, no alter call or anything like that. Just “OK, this is what these guys are saying, and I’m going to try it.” Because she was desperate. She probably wouldn’t be here today if it hadn’t been for the music of Stryper.

So she became a Christian, and came out to LA. We were living together for a time, and a very loving Christian came along. I was getting involved musically with him, and he approached me with the Word of God. He said, “I hope this doesn’t come across in any way judging, but I think that God is leading me to read scripture to you.” He read Galatians chapter 5 about those who practice such things, outbursts of anger, adultery, fornication, and the list goes on… and those that practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

I think it was the first time I remember actually coming face to face with scripture. It was a crossroads. I just was introduced to this passage in the Bible: am I going to respond to it as the authority of God, or am I going to go my way? I responded to it, and that’s when my life really began to change. I will say it was because of scripture.

After this guy had shown the scripture to me at rehearsal, Marybeth and I were driving in the car on the highway in LA. There was silence. There wasn’t any music playing, and I heard a voice in my head saying, “You’re going to marry this person, and you’re going to do it soon.” (laughs) I turned and looked at her, and she heard the same thing in her head. I didn’t even ask her. All I said was, “If we get married, or when we get married, does it matter if all family’s not here?” She said, “No, it doesn’t matter.” And that was it. We set a date like a month later, and we were married. And the guy who I was involved with music, his dad officiated the wedding.

There were just so many testimonies around that. We had no money for the wedding, no job. I was in between things, and the preacher said “I will marry you only if you agree to getting counseling.” We were like, great, so he offered his services for free. The day of the wedding I called my mom in another state and said, “Don’t be alarmed, but we’re getting married today.” She wasn’t freaked out, she asked, “Can I be a part of it in some way, and help you with the honeymoon?” So that was taken care of.

In the first chapter of Romans, it says that obedience comes through faith. So literally, from the moment of stepping out in obedience and faith… my life began to turn around, it was like everything started going right after that. Everywhere I turned, a door would open. God began providing for us and blessings flowed. He provided an apartment, a job, everything. I mean just immediately [snaps his fingers] things began to fall into place.....

PART 2

Brett Christensen
www.Stryper.com
Keeping The Fire Burning!