John Milo Slick (born September 28, 1953) was the keyboardist of Petra from 1981 to 1984. During his time with the band, Slick recorded three albums, and also served as songwriter. After leaving Petra, Slick retired from music business and currently works in the computer industry.
Biography
Slick was born on September 28, 1953 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He received classical piano training, and then studied at Indiana University and Belmont College. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Music in 1981.
Petra
Slick met Bob Hartman and Mark Kelly at a Bible study and was asked to joined the band. He played keyboards on the band's fourth album, Never Say Die, which was released in 1981. Producer Jonathan David Brown said in an interview that "As far as I'm concerned, he (session drummer Keith Edwards), John Slick and Greg 'made' Never Say Die happen."
During his time with Petra, Slick recorded two more albums: More Power to Ya and Not of this World. He also wrote some songs in the latter. At the end of the Not of this World Tour in 1984, Slick left the band.
After Petra
After leaving Petra, Slick worked in the Nashville music industry, composing songs and doing transcriptions, as well as working as a session musician.
Eventually, Slick left the music business in favor of a career in software engineering. He worked five years as a product specialist for New England Digital, manufacturers of the Synclavier digital recording system. Part of his responsibilities included supporting the technical needs of artists like Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Frank Zappa, and others. Slick also worked with Miami Sound Machine as a Synclavier specialist on their album Cuts Both Ways.
After attending a Las Vegas COMDEX trade show, Slick ended up working with Aware, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He attended graduate courses in computer science at Harvard University and worked in the development of an audio decompression application.
Slick later joined Nortel Networks as a software engineer in multi-platform CD-ROMs for technical product documentation. He currently works for Computer Sciences Corporation as a senior software engineer, designing and developing software applications, and working on General Dynamics in-theater military support systems for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Albums
with Petra
- Never Say Die (1981)
- More Power to Ya (1982)
- Not of this World (1983)
Songwriting credits
John Slick wrote the following Petra songs:
- "Visions (Doxology)" (1983) arrangements
- "Not by Sight" (1983)
- "Occupy" (1983)
External credits
- John Slick on Wikipedia