[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGING]
[CHEERING]
Wow.
That was incredible, you guys.
Thank you.
Wow.
Yes, thanks.
What a great start to our event tonight.
Awesome.
That was amazing.
Hi everyone, I'm Em.
And I'm Caden.
And these are the Piano Guys.
Let's give them one more round of applause.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you so much for being with us tonight.
We are here on the roof of the LDS Conference Center
in Salt Lake City, Utah.
And we're joined by youth from all over the world.
During tonight's event, our guests
will be sharing their talents and answering your questions.
So if you have any questions for the Piano Guys,
just send them our way at youth.lds.org or on social
media using the hashtag #LDSface2face.
That's the number two.
We also want to see where you're watching it.
So just post a picture of your group
or a selfie on your favorite social media site.
Again, that's the hashtag #LDSface2face.
Now, before we start with questions,
we want our guests to get a chance to introduce themselves.
Yeah.
Can you tell us each your name and what
your role is in the group and how you became the Piano Guys?
Oh, we might need a mic.
I'm Paul Anderson, and I'm the producer/video guy.
I'm Jon Schmidt, and I'm a piano enthusiast, is what I am.
I'm Steven Sharp Nelson, and I do the cello.
And I'm Al van der Beek, and I'm a music producer/songwriter
and fashion police of the group.
Oh, yeah.
So we'll tell you how the Piano Guys got started.
We get this question a lot.
And honestly, looking back, it was such a miraculous
set of circumstances.
It started in a little town called St. George, Utah, which
some of you may have heard of.
Anybody from St. George here tonight?
Woo!
Yes, everybody from St. George is here tonight.
Thank you very much for being here.
Very small town.
So it was there that Paul Anderson owned a piano store.
It was called the Piano Guys.
And Paul grew tired of advertising to sell his pianos
by conventional means--billboards and newspaper
ads.
So he wanted to try social media.
And around that time, Mr. Jon Schmidt
comes walking into his store to practice on one of his pianos,
and Paul says, "Jon, I love the way you play the piano."
That's him.
"I love the way you play the piano.
Could I film you playing on my store pianos?
We'll upload those videos to YouTube,
and we'll sell tons of pianos."
And Jon was like, "Sure, OK."
And so he pulled me in.
We had been playing together for a long time.
And I had just happened to have moved onto Al's street not
long before that, and we were jamming together,
writing tunes together.
So I pulled him in.
And pretty soon, in no time at all,
seemingly--maybe a couple years--we had 50 videos
on YouTube; upwards of 700 million views;
four albums with our record label, Sony;
four million YouTube subscribers;
and we still haven't sold a piano.
[LAUGHING]
So the piano store is now closed, actually.
I just wanted to share that inspirational message
to get us started tonight.
You should be a motivational speaker.
Thank you very much.
But it was in the beginning that Paul had this fun vision.
He wanted to take the piano and the cello out
of their context you're used to seeing them in, a concert hall.
He wanted to put them on a speeding train,
a beach, a cliff.
So he said, "Guys, I want to take the piano and cello
and put them on all seven wonders of the world."
So we thought he was crazy.
We just said, "Paul, let's start with your backyard
and work our way up from there."
But he was right.
We've played now on two of the seven wonders.
Right now you're seeing when we played in front of the Christ
the Redeemer statue in Rio, and we also
played on the Great Wall of China.
So we've got five of the seven to go.
So that's part of what we do.
We put pianos and cellos in crazy places.
We take classical music; we transform it;
we mash it up with popular tunes.
So it's been an absolutely fun adventure.
Oh, yeah.
You can't have it.
Sorry.
All right.
Well, we'll start with our first question.
Yeah.
So a lot of youth are asking how you
are able to keep your standards while still being in the music
business.
For example, Brady from Arizona, in the United States, asks,
"Do you have any advice for me so that I can achieve my music
goals while still upholding my standards
and being an example to others?"
Well, you know, when we met with our manager for the first time,
we had thought about the music industry a lot.
And we have some friends in the music industry.
And we counseled together, and we
decided what our standards would be as a group of four guys.
And we let them know that the only way we would
sign the record deal and enter into a relationship
is if they would respect that we wanted to have control.
We didn't want to be doing things
that went against our standards and our beliefs.
And we even said that we didn't want to play on Sunday.
I mean, right off the bat, we felt
like that's something we could be in control of.
We're all dads.
We all have families.
And we want to be in church with them on Sunday.
And so it was just really great to be
able to do that right off the bat.
And I think it really helps to figure out earlier,
before the situation ever arises, what your standards are
so that when they are challenged,
it's never a problem,
because we decided beforehand what our standards were.
And I would really encourage the youth
to do that, decide beforehand, before you
get in the situation, what your standards are.
I'll bet you guys have something to add to that.
Well, we've had to--we've run into those situations.
We're so grateful that we made those decisions beforehand.
I mean, we've had opportunities to play
in some pretty incredible places,
internationally and worldwide, on Sunday.
And we had made that decision beforehand
and were able to, as a group together, turn that down.
You know, I love how our attorney is Jewish.
He's an incredible guy.
He loves what we do.
And he's represented every single artist imaginable.
You know, any artist you'd name, he's represented him or her.
And I love how excited he got about our standards.
Don't you remember that?
He said, "Really?
You don't drink?
Really?
I'm going to write that into the contract."
And we're like, "OK."
So our Sony contract now has this religion paragraph:
"You shall not controvert their religious principles,
namely"--and then he researched our Mormon religion and put all
of our standards in the contract.
He's like, "Look, I just put this in there."
And I'm like, "Wow."
And he's like, "And if they go against this, we'll sue 'em."
[LAUGHING]
And I was like, "Wait, no.
That's not the way we do this."
But you know what's so interesting is, as you shine,
as you really commit to those standards,
people love it and respect it.
We get afraid sometimes where it's like, "Oh,
I'm going to be different."
No, different is good.
Different is awesome.
I have good news for you guys.
You have microphones on the piano behind you.
So if you want to go get those ...
I'll get 'em.
That was our sound guy.
There isn't any microphones.
OK.
Well.
That was a huge disappointment.
Sorry.
It's the ones you were using before.
I don't know.
OK.
Do you want to share?
We'll share?
OK.
Cool.
OK.
Our next question is--
There we go.
We'll share that one.
OK.
You can.
You can have it.
We'll get it later.
I love live stuff.
This next question is for Jon.
So Lisa from Wyoming is asking, "What do
you do to prepare yourselves--"
Your mic is cutting out.
Here, you just hold this.
"What do you do to prepare yourselves
spiritually to be worthy of the inspiration
and guidance of the Holy Ghost when you compose?"
You know, being prepared to receive inspiration--I think
inspiration is something that Heavenly Father gives to all
of His children.
And I think it's just a matter of how much.
You know?
I think everybody is on the dial-up without doing anything,
because Heavenly Father's nice.
He just is nice.
Right?
But you can--like, dial-up Internet is a lot different
from high-speed Internet.
You know?
They weren't born then.
That's right.
But I think as we try to stay connected to Heavenly
Father at all times in all places,
we can move from dial-up to high-speed.
And we can have that inspiration get stronger and stronger
in our lives.
And I can speak for all of these guys.
We try--I'm not saying we're successful all the time,
but we care about keeping ourselves connected to Heavenly
Father.
And it's something I really wish I
could have known in high school, that you
can connect to Heavenly Father and stay close to Him
and rely on Him for everything you guys do.
If there's one thing I could teach to my kids,
it would be this: to try to stay connected in everything you
do--not get that separation that you feel,
that I used to feel in high school when I was at football
practice or at math class or in social situations.
There was too much separation, and it was needless.
And if there's something I want to teach my kids,
and that they've tried to do in their life--and I think
it's been cool to see them do better than I did--I just want
to throw out this challenge to the youth of the world to rely
on the Lord for everything that you do.
And if you're doing that from the minute
you wake up to the minute you go to bed,
the inspiration is just going to get better and better
and better for everything you need, every problem you
want to solve.
I mean, my kids even, like, on the weekend,
they pray about--like, to have a good time with their friends.
Like, they pray, "Heavenly Father, everybody's
trying to have a good time drinking or whatever.
Help us to come up with a good idea to have a better time,
to, like, show people a better way."
And I'm looking at them right there.
They have so much fun.
And do these prayers get answered for you guys?
They totally, totally--I mean, I wish we had an hour for these
guys to tell stories about how those prayers have been
answered.
But it's not only that.
They're praying for their football practice,
for their math class, for all of these things.
And I just want to testify that this is something
you can do in high school.
It's something the Piano Guys do.
We try to connect at all times.
If we feel that separation start,
I can honestly say these four guys care,
and they try to do something about it.
They try to take care of it.
So that is, I think, the best way
to prepare for inspiration, not only for piano composing
but for life.
Whenever you need it, it will be there.
All right.
So Evan from Missouri says, "It seems
that you are always happy when you play your music."
And that's something that we've all noticed, right, guys?
OK.
"So do you have any advice on how to be happy every day?"
[LAUGHING]
This is the best guy about it.
You're just the happiest one?
You know what?
I have been very blessed to be surrounded
with amazing, amazing men that lift me up in every way.
One thing that I've learned and I continue to learn in life,
and something that I want to be able to teach to my children,
is to surround yourself with people that lift you up,
that bring joy into your life, that hold you
to the same standards, that don't put you down,
and that believe in you,
because these guys, they make me a better person.
If I was to let myself down or let anyone else down,
I'm letting these guys down; I'm letting their families down;
I'm letting the Lord down.
So I feel very accountable to these guys.
And as a result of that--I know your question was about joy.
But because of that, being surrounded
with these amazing guys, it just makes me happy
because I just feel like I'm in the right place.
Like, I feel like I found my place.
There's nothing best in life when
you feel like you've found your place in life.
And I think that's kind of what we're all striving to do,
isn't it?
To find our place in life and find out
what Heavenly Father's plan is for us?
And when you find that place, that's
when you have the most joy and where
the most happiness comes from.
Thank you.
[LAUGHING]
It's simply stated.
Happiness is best found by following
the teachings of Jesus Christ.
And there's a lot of other places to find happiness.
But the best place to find it is following
the teachings of Jesus Christ, and all four of us
can testify to that.
And there is nothing like keeping your temple covenants
and having a family that is sealed to you
for time and all eternity.
When you come home from a long tour
and your two-year-old yells, "Daddy!" and comes
and hugs you, you want to live in that moment.
And I know that all of you have felt those moments too,
that you want to live in those moments.
And those moments are best found by, again,
following the teachings of Jesus Christ
and holding fast to those, no matter what.
That was perfect advice for us here.
Thank you.
So the next question is for Al.
Ashton from Utah asks, "How has being a father and priesthood
holder affected the types of content
you put on the Internet?"
Well, first of all, I'd like to say hi to Ashton from Utah.
Thank you for that.
It was a good question.
First and foremost, we're dads.
Before the Piano Guys and all of this stuff,
the most important thing to us--and I know we can all agree
that it's being a husband, being a father,
and being a priesthood holder.
And from the very beginning, we realized
because we have families, we wanted
to put something out there, some type of media,
some type of music and videos that could include the family.
You have a lot of stuff out there
that maybe just the teenagers are into
or the parents are into.
But we've been blessed to be able to do something
that the whole family can enjoy.
I mean, we've seen it at our concerts.
Little 3-year-olds come, all the way
up to the 90-year-old grandparent.
And we realize that it's really important, the type of music
that we choose to do.
And we have this little test that we put it through.
If we cannot sit in front of the computer to watch a video
or listen to some music with our entire families,
and if we feel uncomfortable with it,
then we won't do that song, no matter how hot it is,
no matter how many hits it's getting on YouTube.
It's something that we decided in the very beginning that we
would always try to do, that if it's something that we would
feel uncomfortable with--so it's kind of something that I would
put out there to the youth, because music is such
a powerful thing.
It can make you feel so many different emotions.
It can make you feel happy.
It can make you feel sad.
It can make you feel mad.
It can make you feel joy.
And so my challenge is that when you listen to music--because
a lot of you guys like to wear the headphones.
But if you were to put those headphones on your mom or dad,
would that be something that you feel comfortable with?
I feel like that as we have done that and stayed true to that,
a lot of doors have been opened.
A lot of inspiration has come as far as the songs
that we've been able to mash up together
with classical and pop.
And so it's been a wonderful thing
to be able to stick to that and also
to feel the blessings that come as a result of just sticking
to those standards.
Sweet.
Thank you.
So we actually have a question now from our live audience.
Who has a question for the Piano Guys?
All right.
Hello, you.
Stand up for me, please.
Thank you.
What's your question for the Piano Guys?
I was wondering, what has had the biggest
impact on your testimony of the Savior?
Great question.
As far as our music, or just our life?
Anything?
I would say, back to what I was saying, in high school,
feeling separated from God in high school.
Not too many years after that, I discovered
a book called Raising a Family unto the Lord by Gene R. Cook.
He's one of my personal heroes in my life.
And as I read this book, I saw a glimpse into the life of a man
who is connected to his wife, or connected--in fact,
I actually met him and his wife and his son at the airport one
time.
And they were some of the happiest people
I've ever met in my whole life.
And he's just a total hero to me.
And as I read his book, it just gave me a glimpse
into somebody who actually connects and stays connected.
And when that separation happens, he worries about it.
He wasn't perfect.
But that book just opened my eyes.
And I thought, you know what?
I thought I was living the gospel.
I thought I was centered, you know,
like that clay in the middle of the potter's wheel
that we heard about in conference.
I thought I was centered, but then I
saw the master, the guru, who was really centered.
And it just touched me so much.
And as I've tried to do what Gene R.
Cook suggests in that book, in his hundreds of personal
experiences, where you're just, like,
blown away--you're just like, "This guy has a personal
assistant."
And I would capitalize p and a in "Personal Assistant."
And we can all have that Personal Assistant.
And I've started to realize that it really works.
The gospel really works.
And that is the biggest thing that has
helped my testimony of Christ.
It's just to see that example and to try to follow it
and to see that it works.
The gospel absolutely works.
Sorry that was so long.
I got something.
You know, I grew up in the Church,
which I'm sure a lot of you did.
I went on a mission to Seoul, South Korea.
Busan mission.
And when I came home, I stopped doing a lot
of the important little things.
I stopped praying.
I stopped reading my scriptures every day.
I stopped going to every meeting every Sunday.
And eventually I stopped going altogether for several years.
So the thing that brings me the closest to Christ
is the Atonement and using the Atonement in my life,
because I felt great power once I understood
what it was for and all the blessings that I was missing
out on and my family was missing out on because I was being
so stubborn, being so prideful.
And I was kind of at a point in my life
where I felt like I didn't deserve the blessings,
and maybe Heavenly Father wasn't listening to my prayers.
But one morning when I woke up, I said to my wife,
"Let's go to church."
And so we decided to do everything that we've been
taught growing up--all those things from parents and Sunday
School teachers and our leaders.
And we put it to the test, and the lights
started going off in our heads, and we started
to get our own testimonies.
And I can testify that I know that Christ lives
and that I know His Atonement is real.
I know that He loves us all unconditionally
with a perfect love.
There's nothing that we can be doing
in our life that should keep us away from that love
and from using the Atonement,
because once you use it, man, I'll tell you,
it's a life changer.
And you get that fire underneath you for the gospel.
And it's a game changer.
It really is.
The Atonement is so powerful.
It's awesome.
I just want to say something in relation to this.
I love this guy.
He's done a lot for me in my life.
And one thing that shaped my testimony is--we've been on The
Tonight Show, The Today Show, The Morning Show,
The Tomorrow Show, The Yesterday Show.
I don't know what shows we've been on.
But there have been way too many of them.
And we've been in Carnegie Hall.
We've been at Red Rocks.
We've been all over the world playing these sold-out shows.
And you know what?
All of those paled in comparison.
They were nothing compared to being in the temple
and seeing Al sealed to his family for time
and all eternity.
That was spectacular.
And that is what confirms my testimony of the truth
and the reality of God's gospel and the gospel of Christ.
And it confirmed that same feeling--you know,
it's the same feeling you get--all the youth,
all around the world--it's the same feeling you get when you
see a sunset.
It's the same feeling you get when you hear a piece of music
that motivates you.
It's the same feeling a parent gets
when they see their newborn child for the first time.
It's all the Spirit of God.
It's the same feeling I felt when I saw you
and your family get sealed in the temple that day.
And it's the same feeling I get when I read the scriptures.
And I tell you, a big testimony for me
was when I was in high school, I felt such a difference
when I would read the scriptures every day.
Man, what a difference that was.
Between reading and not reading was a chasm.
It was such a supreme difference.
I challenge you, if you're not regular in your Book of Mormon
and scripture reading--Bible, scriptures--just get on it,
and you will see a profound difference in the increase
of the Spirit of God in your life,
which will improve everything you do.
Thank you so much.
This next question is for Steve.
So Hannah from Tennessee asks, "The Lord has repeatedly
told me to take the time and practice to develop my skill.
I know I shouldn't give up, but I find it very difficult
to stay motivated.
How would you suggest I motivate myself
to continue trying to become what Heavenly Father wants
me to be?"
Oh, Hannah, Hannah, you and I should hang out.
I mean, I totally get it.
I totally get it.
Wherever you are, Hannah, bless you for asking this question.
You want to know what my practice sessions are like?
I'll tell you what my practice sessions are like.
It's like me and my cello, and we last about five minutes.
And I play something like [HUMMING]--squirrel!
I mean, I have ADHD.
I suffer with it.
I struggle with it.
It is a weakness I have been given.
But that weakness has been turned into a strength
by Heavenly Father.
And I believe that Jesus's grace is sufficient for us all.
No matter what our weaknesses are, no matter what
our challenges, how uphill our battle is,
His grace is sufficient for us all.
And it just gets me excited talking
about this, because I tell you, my life
has been this amalgam of experiences
that have proved to me that the more we turn our life over
to God, the more He can do with it than we ever could.
And I believe that with all my heart.
So my advice to anybody who's struggling
is, turn your life over to God.
He can do so much more with it than you ever could.
My practical advice, Hannah and everybody, is, change it up.
That's why I had to play cello, and I played guitar,
and I played drums.
And then I combined them all one day
because I didn't have time to practice them all.
So change it up.
Find a way to change it up.
And then remember--my favorite scripture,
my theme scripture in life, Doctrine and Covenants section
64:33.
Love this scripture: "Be not weary in well-doing,
for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. [For]
out of small things [come] that which is great."
That means that there's meaning in everything.
There's meaning in all the small things we do.
So we get tired of the small things, right?
Read the scriptures.
I've got to pray.
I've got to do all these small things.
I've got to practice.
I promise you that those small things beget great things.
Great things come from small things.
So just focus on that.
Awesome.
Thank you so much.
So as we understand it, you have another song prepared for us,
and it involves someone in our audience tonight, right?
Well, we hear that some piano players showed up
in the audience, in the studio audience with us tonight.
So what we want to do is something we've done
in our concert before, where we just invite a random person
from the audience that we've never, ever rehearsed with,
never even talked to--and you have to trust us on this.
You guys back me up on this.
Have we ever talked to anybody in this audience
or rehearsed with anyone in this audience?
We shook everyone's hands real quick, but that doesn't count.
And we're buds.
And that's right.
We talked to you.
But you're not included.
So I wanted to see a raise of hands:
who's in the audience who knows how to improvise jazz?
Improvise?
OK.
So what we're going to do--we have more than one.
So we're going to pick the gal, because you know, ladies first.
And we'll see what happens.
It's kind of hard to fit in more than one.
But let's have you come up, and I'm going to ask you your name.
Let's introduce everybody to--
I'm Clara.
Clara, who prefers to not share her last name.
We'll just go with Clara.
All right.
So Clara, what is your piano experience?
I've played since I was, like, three.
And it's fun, and I love music.
And you do jazz?
Yeah, yeah.
So what is your jazz experience?
I've just played, like, in jazz bands for the past three years,
so ...
This is going to be fun, because what we do is,
I play a chord progression, like a four-chord progression.
And then you just make it up.
It's called a blues riff.
And jazzers, they can do this all day long.
It's just so--you could do it in your sleep.
Right?
Probably not.
Just make it up.
And we have not rehearsed.
Now convince them--take the mic and convince them we've never
rehearsed.
Take the mic?
Yeah, we've never done anything together.
I think we're good.
Give him Scout's honor.
Does the youth of the world believe us, or are we lying?
[LAUGHING]
I believe you.
OK.
All right.
Hannah, right?
Clara.
Oh, Clara.
Jessica, right?
OK.
Yeah, right.
All right.
So I'm just going to play--oh, wait.
We lost the mic a second.
Yes, you can give us some percussion.
I'll lay some percussion down with you and Jessica.
[LAUGHING]
I know.
All right.
So, check.
It's not on.
Oh, there we--
There we go.
All right.
So the way this works is, I'm just going
to play a little blues riff.
Just feel it.
Whatever you feel.
And don't worry if you have to warm up a little bit.
That's the way it goes.
[PLAYING MUSIC]
That's nice, Steve.
[PLAYING JAZZ MUSIC]
OK.
Let's bring it down.
[PLAYING SOFTER]
Why are we even here?
This is Jackson.
He raised his hand earlier.
[APPLAUSE]
You can go home now, Jon.
[CLAPPING ALONG WITH MUSIC]
One, two, three.
[APPLAUSE]
Nicely done.
Wow.
That was cool.
I'm not worthy.
You know, Sherry, if you ever need a cellist, you know?
That was really cool.
Do you guys believe that that was just on the spot, right?
Not if you keep asking them.
It was so good.
It was so good that people won't believe it.
That's the problem.
Nice job.
What was your name again?
Jackson.
Thanks, Robert.
Jackson and Clara and Robert.
[LAUGHING]
All right.
All right, so--
And that was nice percussion too, Steve.
Oh, thanks.
Thanks, Steve.
Shucks.
OK.
The next question is for Paul.
Rachel from Iowa asks, "How do you stay close to your families
while you travel and perform?"
And Eric from Canada asks, "What do you each
love most about your wife?
And how have your wives helped you in your careers?"
Oh, wow.
Well, if you haven't noticed, I'm the shy one of the group.
I'm not as good of a speaker as these guys.
I was nominated "most shy" in high school,
so this is a stretch for me to even be here.
But he didn't even show up to get the award.
Yeah, too shy.
What's great about technology is that we've got FaceTime.
You know?
It's so fun that all of us will be FaceTiming, sometimes
on the tour bus.
We're always together.
It's almost like we're on a mission
together, because we're just together 24/7.
And so we're FaceTiming our families.
And then sometimes there's three FaceTimes going on
at the same time, and we'll interact
with each other's family.
And it's a lot of fun.
That's what's great about it.
That was a good question, Rachel.
But as far as my wife, wow, what I love most about her,
I would say, is her wisdom.
You know, the first time I asked her to marry me,
she said--yeah, yeah.
How many times did you ask her?
Yeah, the first time, she said, "Maybe we
should start holding hands first."
And so I knew right then that I was probably
jumping the gun a little bit.
But she's incredible.
She makes me want to be a better person.
So I love her to death.
And what was the last one?
Was there something else?
How they helped you in your career.
Oh, my goodness.
They're the ones that are sacrificing,
staying home with our kids.
And I love each of these guys' wives.
I mean, that probably didn't sound good.
We all each have separate wives, anyway.
And anyway--who's next?
And good night, everybody.
You know, my wife, she's--and her name's Rachel, by the way,
so awesome name, Rachel.
She always says to me--and I love her so much
for this--because I know that she's tired and she has bad
days, and here we are all over the world,
and we're eating gelato in Italy and posting on Facebook
and having such a great time.
And she always says to me, "Honey,
thank you so much for sacrificing and working
so that I can be home with the children."
I love the most about my wife that she loves being a mother
and she excels at it.
And our kids are so fortunate.
And I just want to thank her for choosing to be a mother
and being home with our children so
that I can go out and do what I love and provide for them.
I love her.
I love you, honey.
Can I say something too?
Just this morning, as I was praying together
with my wife at the beginning of the day,
our little companionship prayer, all of a sudden,
just the Spirit hit me, and it just
said, "This event that you're doing for the youth would not
have happened without an incredible wife,"
that when we got married, we put our life in the Lord's hands
and we made a decision together to go into music.
And it was a really faithful decision for a girl to make.
But she and I did this together, and we relied on the Lord.
And it was neat in the prayer to say,
"Let my wife feel appreciated today by me and by Thee."
So that's just something from this morning.
I don't want to be left out of this conversation,
because I think we could go on and on about this, couldn't we?
And you guys know this.
My wife is incredibly talented.
Who's the better musician, me or my wife?
Easy.
Your wife.
Exactly.
She actually should be the one on YouTube.
If you lined us up, you'd say, "Yeah, she
should be the one on YouTube."
I mean, she's gorgeous.
She's talented.
She could do anything.
She plays so many instruments.
And you know what I love about her?
And there are so many things I love about her.
But I love that she can share in my joy of doing music
and not be negatively competitive with me.
You know, I think that is such a hard thing in today's world.
I think differences between us are meant to be celebrated,
not calculated.
And I think we are forced, almost,
by the world to constantly compare ourselves to others.
"I'm not as good as he is at that."
"Oh, man, she's way better." "Oh, I'm way better at that
than he is."
We're constantly putting ourselves in this hierarchy,
like "Am I better or worse than him?"
And she has this gift of seeing me as God sees me
and not being negatively competitive with me.
And I love that, and I wish that I had that ability
to look at someone and just simply share
in the joy of what they're able to accomplish in their life.
And so thank you.
Thank you, honey.
Isn't it an amazing temperature tonight?
It's like perfect temperature.
It's October.
Oh, my gosh.
Look at that sun.
OK, we're getting blessed.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for sharing that.
That was super beautiful, you guys.
I'm really touched, actually.
OK.
So we're going to play a fun game called
"How many questions can you answer in the next 10 minutes?"
That leaves me out.
So we have Alexis from Ohio asking, "How do you keep Sunday
holy when you are on tour?"
And a related question that comes from Emily in Washington:
"What do you do when you're asked to perform or work
on Sundays?
And how do you say no even if it means a lot?"
You know, it's so important for us to be in church on a Sunday.
And like the question alluded to, we're away from home a lot,
and we're in other countries.
But one thing that I love, again,
about being around these guys is that we send emails
to each--"OK, guys"--we contact our tour manager and say,
"Can you find a church in Germany or find one in Turkey,
Istanbul, so that we can find it?"
because it's so important for us,
because we know that our families are in church.
And to be able to be in church together
to partake of the sacrament has added great strength
into our lives when we're away from our families.
And it makes us feel so good to know that our families are
in church partaking of the sacrament
and that we're able to go anywhere in the world together
as brothers to partake of the sacrament,
because that's such an important covenant.
That's the most important thing, to keep the Sabbath day holy.
So it's been awesome.
We didn't hold to these fast questions really good, huh?
Oh, was that supposed to be fast?
[LAUGHING]
This isn't a game show.
I know, exactly.
But I do have to say, we just experienced this last Sunday
where we were in Scotland.
And I have to admit, I was tempted to go out and miss out
on church on Sunday, this last Sunday,
because we went out to Scotland not prepared--well,
as prepared as we could be.
But things fell through.
We hadn't found locations yet.
We hadn't found a band that we wanted to work with.
And it just felt like, "If we don't spend this time doing it,
then it'll never happen."
And we only had a little bit of time.
So we ended up--the guys were just wonderful examples
and, again, said, "We go to church.
We'll have faith, and things will work out."
And we went to church, and everything worked out
at church.
We found somebody that knew somebody
that could provide so many people for the band
that we had planned.
And then we were able to find locations within, like,
10 minutes.
I spent four days looking here in Utah for locations
and couldn't find these but found them in 10 minutes there.
So it's amazing, the blessings that
come from keeping the Sabbath day holy.
Awesome.
So Jon, we hear you can play the piano behind your head
or something?
Upside down.
Oh, upside down?
OK.
Do you want me to?
Yeah.
Well, we just wanted to know if Steve can do anything
like that.
Can you do cool things, Steve?
Do the upside-down thing.
Yeah, but we need to see Steve do something too.
OK.
All right.
OK.
Can you do anything?
Steve, don't you play the cello?
Can you do anything cool?
[PLAYING PIANO]
A round of applause for Jon.
That was amazing.
[APPLAUSE]
I actually can play the cello upside down.
Have I ever told you that?
I've been working on it.
It's going really well except I keep
running into the same problem.
Every time I do it, I puncture my neck.
Steve, we need you.
Stop that.
So I don't think I'm going to show that tonight.
It'd be too violent.
You know what?
Steve, you should show some cello sound effects.
Does anyone want to hear any cello--
Oh, yeah.
OK.
Let's see.
Like, you wouldn't believe the sound effects
that Steve can do with his cello.
For example, he could do, like, a cow, for example.
You know, it's funny.
Actually, I remember we needed a cow call because we actually
were filming in the middle of a pasture, a cow pasture.
And when we started playing, they all took off.
So I'd never tried it before, but this is what
I did to try to get them back.
[PLAYING]
That's cow's a little sick.
Sorry.
OK.
Do "name that mammal."
Oh, yeah.
Good idea.
OK.
I'm going to play "name that mammal" with y'all.
OK.
Ready?
Here we go.
[PLAYING]
I heard "seagull."
Seagull's not a mammal, people.
Looks like we're a little biology-deficient here.
But you know what?
It did sound like a seagull.
We were looking for "whale."
But I think we could combine those two.
We don't want to be exclusive.
So we'll just call it a swale.
That's nice, Steve.
New animal we just created tonight.
Very accommodating.
So I know that was a long answer to that question.
It's OK.
We're doing really well.
We're not doing very well.
We have two questions answered in, like, 14 minutes.
All right.
So from Theodore from New Mexico, he asks you,
"How do you choose good music?"
Al kind of answered that.
Yeah, I think it's music that makes you feel good.
That's it.
All right.
Yes.
Good answer.
Less than three minutes.
Yes.
That was short.
Way to be.
OK.
Hannah from Texas asks, "Is prayer part
of your performances or rehearsals?
If so, how?"
Yes.
I just have to say really quick, we pray before everything
we do.
We pray when we're writing music.
We pray before we start.
Sometimes we pray several times when we run into problems
during the writing of one song.
Sorry, this question deserves a pretty good answer, I think.
We pray before concerts.
We pray before film shoots.
We pray before looking for locations.
And those prayers get answered.
It's awesome.
Can we testify of that?
Absolutely.
I wish we could tell them all the stories too.
We could go on.
Do you have an example that you could share?
Just one?
Tell the--the key story is one of the most cool ones,
the lost keys.
That was.
We were in Hawaii at a video shoot--well, we were in Hawaii,
and we filmed a video there, "Somewhere over the Rainbow."
And we were getting ready to leave, and we were in a hurry.
We had a rental car that needed to get back at a certain time.
We had to catch our flight.
And silly old me had lost the rental car keys.
We were playing on the beach.
We were everywhere.
I mean, the possibilities of where this could have been
could have been anywhere.
So I was like, "OK.
I'm going to just scramble.
I'm going to just go find those keys."
And I don't remember which one it was,
but they said, "Guys, we just need to say a prayer.
Let's just say a prayer."
We just--I know that Heavenly Father cares about those keys,
because we cared about the keys and we wanted to get home
to our families.
So real quick and short, we said a prayer together.
I started walking, just down the sidewalk,
up to this little white shack.
And there was a guy in there.
And I said, "Hi, I'm looking for my car keys."
He's like, "What do they look like?" "Well,
they're rental car keys with a little black key fob on them,
and it says 'Ford.'"
He says, "Are these them?"
I'm like, "Yeah."
I was like, "Where did you find them?"
He said, "Oh, I just found them just laying on the ground here,
just out in the parking lot."
I wasn't looking there.
I was going back to the beach and looking on the sidewalk,
trying to, you know--
He wasn't supposed to be there.
Yeah, and he wasn't supposed to be there.
It was on a Sunday when we were trying to get home.
And he just happened to be there that day.
So I know, I testify that Heavenly Father answers
our prayers.
Was it not?
It was not Sunday.
Jon should be telling the story.
OK.
Well, regardless of what day it was,
it doesn't have to be a Sunday.
It was--
We weren't playing on the beach on a Sunday, peeps.
I love that time.
Do you remember when we filming "Carol of the Bells,"
and we were way up in the canyon,
and we had forgotten the cello chair?
Oh, man.
And we only had an hour to film.
So we were stuck.
And Al goes, "Just a second."
And he walks off into the woods.
I'm like, "This is not a time.
This is not the time to go walking in the woods."
And he comes back, he goes, "Here you go."
And he produces this perfectly shaped log
that's just the right height for me to sit on.
He's like, "Yeah, I just went into the woods and prayed,
and Heavenly Father gave me this."
And I was like, "Cool.
I want to try that."
I tell you, you could pray for anything
that is a righteous desire.
Prayer is such an incredible tool.
And like Jon said, if we hit a rough spot, we'll pray.
We'll pray.
We'll just remind each other, right?
Even if we don't feel like it, that's the moment:
"OK, we've got to pray."
That's excellent.
Thank you, guys.
So as teenagers, we all have a really hard time balancing
our lives and everything else that we are trying to do,
you know?
And we all know that you guys love
your family and your wives, as you've previously testified.
So Teresa from Texas asks, "What did you
do to balance your music with everything else?
Was it ever hard for you to do so?
And what can I do to spread the gospel through my own music?"
Boy, they really gave us questions
that are tough to be quick with on this lightning round,
didn't they?
Can I read--I write down things in a notebook that I love.
And I just want to read a quote that I know all of these guys
also love.
And sorry--I'm just going to--it's a quote about balance.
OK?
And this has been the balance for us.
And as my wife, Michelle, and I got married,
this was the quote that we bet the farm on,
this quote, going into it, because we felt
like we should go into music.
And we wanted to do it the right way because we
knew that we could get out of balance,
and things could get out of whack,
and pretty soon Dad's never home, and all that stuff.
So this is a quote by President Ezra Taft Benson
that Steve mentioned a little bit before,
but I want to read the whole thing
because I have an absolute testimony of this quote.
We have seen these promises in our life.
And it is a quote that will put your life in balance
if you do this.
It says: "Men and women who turn their lives over to God will
[find out]"--and this is Ezra Taft Benson;
this is a prophet of God making this statement--"will [find
out] that [God] can make a lot more out of their lives than
they can.
He will deepen their joys, expand their vision,
quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles,
lift their spirits, multiply their blessings,
increase their opportunities, comfort their souls,
raise up friends, and pour out peace."
And I would add, He will keep your life in balance
if you give your life to Him.
And that's our advice to every musician that comes to us.
That's the first thing we say.
When somebody says, "What can I do
to make it in the music business?" we say, "Number one,
give your life to God.
And if He shares your music with hundreds
of people or thousands of people or millions of people,
just trust Him, because it's all going to be part of the plan.
It's all going to be part of a huge balance in your life."
Well, I can testify to that.
That's one thing that--we do a lot of traveling.
But we definitely don't travel as much
as maybe someone who's younger and single.
That's one thing--we've put God first and our families first,
where we're only gone for a little bit at a time and then
we come home.
And we could be--I mean, I would be retired right now if I were
to actually do what most artists do in traveling.
But this is--our families and God are way more important than
money or anything in this world.
So a quick thing too.
It's not a necessity to be a professional musician
to bless lives with music.
That's not a necessity.
I think you can do it in small ways that
can make big differences in people's life.
The most important thing is just to pray for opportunities
to use the gifts God has given you.
And He always will give them.
And be cheerful when they come along,
even if they're inconvenient.
And when you use those, when you utilize those opportunities
to bless other people, you don't have
to be a professional in order to make a difference
in somebody's life.
Thank you so much.
All right.
So, Kaylynn Anne from Facebook asks, "What would you
suggest to a teenage girl, due to hard trials,
is slipping away from the Church and struggling
with self-esteem?"
Toughie.
So I've got some kids that have been through teenagehood.
And you guys are almost there.
I'm about 12 years away, but yeah.
I've got a cute daughter over here with her friends.
And I've learned so much from the way she's handled things.
The thing that I would say is, this whole idea of "Let virtue
garnish thy thoughts unceasingly,"
is, oftentimes we think of virtuous
thoughts in certain ways.
But some of the ways we need to think of it is a thought of "I
am worthless," or "I am"--if you tell yourself negative things
about yourself, that is not virtuous.
If you have resentment to someone
or a circumstance or God, that is not virtuous.
If you are stressed out, that is not virtuous.
And so I would say, let virtue garnish your thoughts
unceasingly, and pray for the Lord
to open your mind to the times when you're
struggling with virtuous thoughts, negative thoughts
of any kind.
We always think about really unvirtuous thoughts.
But we need help with all of it.
And God will help us.
It's like that personal assistant.
It's like having a really nice piano teacher sitting
there helping you.
He's like, "You know, playing bad notes
is going to limit you, but I can help you with that.
I mean, we can totally help you with that."
He's not going to give up on us.
He's not going to say, "You know what?
You're struggling with your notes; I'm out of here."
He's not going to do that.
That's not how our Heavenly Father works.
He's not going to say, "You know what?
You're struggling with virtuous thoughts.
I'm out of here."
He's not going to do that to us.
And so I would say to somebody who
is having thoughts of feeling worthless,
those thoughts are not coming from God.
They are not virtuous.
But God will not give up on you.
He will be there for you.
He will help you through it.
And trust that.
The best antidote I've found for self-esteem
issues and frustration and selfishness is service.
It's so underrated.
It really is.
Like, we do not appreciate it enough in this world.
We're so self-centered.
You know?
It's us and our selfies.
We're so absorbed in that, right?
But the minute you start serving somebody
is the minute you start loving that person and yourself.
It's amazing how it happens.
It is instantaneous.
The minute you see, "OK, this person needs help,
and I can be helpful to that person,"
is the minute you stop what Elder Maxwell calls
going into "the saloon of self-pity"
and taking a big drink of self-pity.
You know, you can just picture those moments--we've all had
them--"Woe is me, and the world is caving in on me."
The minute you start serving somebody else, all of that
goes away.
It's a great antidote.
Anything else to add from any of you?
Well, again, I was going to say the same thing.
Like, when I was in high school, I
struggled huge with self-esteem and struggled so much
that I had depression.
And one thing that, like Steven mentioned,
the best thing I've found is to be able to serve someone else
and take care of them.
And each of us has gifts.
Every person in the world has a gift that they can develop
and they can use to benefit someone else.
And these guys have taught me that over and over again.
I mean, I'm hanging out with some of the coolest guys
in the whole entire world.
So talented.
Where are they?
I mean, how can I compare to them?
I mean, they're just awesome.
But they have taught me what my gifts are and how I've helped.
And it's just, again, surrounding yourself
with good people and serving them.
Thank you.
So the time has just flown by, and we
wish we could have you for another, like, five hours.
But unfortunately, some people have school in the morning.
So we're just going to wrap up.
We understand that you guys have a final song to play for us
and that you arranged it for this event.
Would you like to explain more about that?
We did.
It combines two of our favorite hymns.
Jon, you're welcome to chime in on this too.
But it's "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing."
And I love the yearning in this hymn, you know?
How you're crying out to God, and you know, "Here's my heart,
... take and seal it."
I just love that.
And we've combined it with--what did we combine it with?
"I Need Thee Every Hour."
"I Need Thee Every Hour," which I think really
sums up what we've discussed today.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I think this ties in really, really well.
And they have some footage that they're going to roll.
Some really great scenes from the Christ videos.
Can I just say, youth, just like President Uchtdorf said,
the gospel works, and it works wonderfully.
And all four of us would say that,
and that's our testimony to you.
And this song is also our testimony.
[PLAYING MUSIC - "COME, THOU FOUNT" AND "I NEED THEE"]
That's a nice airplane.
I don't remember that in the arrangement.
Thank you.
That was beautiful.
Well, we would like to thank the Piano Guys for being with us.
It's been wonderful having you guys.
It's been great to learn from you
guys how you've chosen to stand out in your industry
despite pressures from the world and the various scary things
that go on.
It's been great to have your examples to us.
And I hope that we can take this experience home with us
and apply it to our lives and stand out.
Yeah.
I notice a common theme tonight is
that the Savior's always there.
And I know that that's true, and I testify to that.
So thanks to all watching, and thanks to the Piano Guys again.
It's been wonderful having you.
And that does it for us.
So we'll see you guys next time.
Thanks for watching.
[PLAYING MUSIC]