ET Co-Host Is Also a Notable Composer

In music stores across the country, the works of John Tesh can be found in the Jazz-New Age section sandwiched between Tangerine Dream and Turtle Island.

John Tesh? Would that be the ever-polite and dapper co-host of the syndicated show “Entertainment Tonight,” affectionately called “Teshie” by his ET partner Leeza Gibbons?

One and the same. There is more to Tesh than meets the eye of the ET camera. His New Age music peers have thought highly enough of his compositions to award them with Emmys in 1987 and 1988.

Heady stuff for the 38-year-old Tesh, a college dropout who dreamed once of being a rock star. A talk with his father changed that, but his love for music never faltered.

Now on his third album, “Tour de France: The Early Years,” Tesh is gaining notice. Released in October, it was the third-most-popular album on the New Age charts with 50,000 copies sold so far.

Tesh seems grateful for his musical success. When his first album, “Tour de France,” was released three years ago, Tesh made weekly trips to a corner record store to see if someone had purchased the store’s only copy.

“I was close to buying it myself, but my picture was on it. I thought somebody might bust me,” Tesh said.

At the urging of his father, Tesh grudgingly gave up his rock ‘n’ roll dreams. As hard as it was, Tesh relegated his music to the back burner while he pursued something else he found interesting: broadcasting.

During the next several years, Tesh rose from a part-time job at a radio station to a correspondent for CBS Sports in 1981.

It was during this time he approached CBS sports executives about writing original music to accompany stories he covered. Tesh went on to win two Emmys for accompaniment music to the 1987 Tour de France bicycle race and the Pan American Games.

Since then, Tesh has scored music for television and film, from the Dean Stockwell movie, “Limit Up,” to the current arrangement of the “Entertainment Tonight” theme. He is also composing music for Fox’s animated children’s television show “Bobby’s World.”

His dual careers haven’t come without sacrifice. Tesh recently separated from his wife of eight years.

“What was happening was, with the work I was doing, at both ends I wasn’t saving enough time for a relationship, and it just evaporated,” he said.