Petra
Petra
Official Music Videos
Music Videos
Some of the Albums
Some of the Albums
About
About
In the early 1970s, songwriter and guitarist Bob Hartman met bassist John DeGroff and formed the band Dove. It quickly disbanded when DeGroff left to attend a Bible school in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Hartman soon followed, and in 1972 he and DeGroff joined two classmates, guitarist Greg Hough and drummer Bill Glover, to form Petra. The band played small Midwest venues such as churches, coffeehouses and parks, to share the message of Christianity with concertgoers.
They released their first album, Petra, in 1974 and Come and Join Us in 1977. The band had numerous lineup changes during their first years and Greg X Volz became the lead vocalist between 1980-1985.
In 1986 Greg X Volz left Petra and John Schlitt became the new lead vocalist. The band changed the style from the keyboard-influenced, highly polished rock sound to an arena-rock sound heavy on guitars and emphasizing Schlitt’s soaring vocals.
Petra was a pioneer of the Christian rock and contemporary Christian music genres and was, for many years, regarded as the ”world’s most popular Christian rock band”. The band took its name from the Greek word for ”rock”.
With a style initially similar to The Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd, Petra’s sound evolved into a more energetic, driving rock sound in the early 1980s akin to Foreigner, Styx and Journey. Throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, Petra was one of the world’s most popular Christian rock bands. Each of its albums during that period selling hundreds of thousands of copies while the band sold-out arenas and regularly placed songs at the top of Christian radio charts. With its lyrics, music and style, Petra influenced numerous other artists at a time when Christian rock experienced strong opposition from many conservative pastors and churches.
In more than three decades, the band experienced numerous lineup changes yet released 20 studio albums. They also released two Spanish-language and two live albums, selling nearly 10 million copies. Petra was being nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning four, and winning 10 Dove Awards. Its biggest hit, ”The Coloring Song”, reached the top position on three Christian radio charts simultaneously, and at its peak, the band’s tours rivaled Amy Grant’s in popularity among Christian audiences. Petra was the first rock band inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the first Christian band whose memorabilia was included in the Hard Rock Cafe restaurant chain.
The band announced its retirement in 2005, launching a farewell tour that was recorded for release on CD and DVD. Petra’s 33-year career ended with a performance in the early hours 2006. However, the band has continued to perform sporadically since then. In November 2010, an incarnation of the band’s mid-1980s lineup surfaced under the name Classic Petra. It released an album, Back to the Rock, as well as re-recordings of hits from that era. The band released a companion live CD and DVD in 2011.