Live With Ryan Ries - Sonny Sandoval Testimony Frontman/ Throat for POD/Co-Founder of The Whosoevers

live with ryan reese from southern california this is live with ryan reese call now 1-888-564-6173 or post your questions using the hashtag livebryonreese on his instagram twitter or facebook what up what up tonight we have a very special show i have one of my very good friends brother family uh sunny sandoval he's the throat and the lead singer for pod so uh if you just tuned in we have a rad show of um which could be talking about his life his journey of uh him starting the band pod when he was young and uh to where he's at today following god just being a light in the world which a lot of people uh are scared to do so i admire this man he's been a huge influence in my personal life um so once you welcome uh sunny sunny how you doing sir what's up i know uh we have uh sean mckeon also chillin in the studio guys as always and we have justice i don't know if the mic is hooked up yet but we have justice chillin um so sunny you know uh first of all dude you know you've been a major influence in my personal life you know i remember when i found the lord back in uh 2008 like you know we knew each other from the industry we crossed paths before but then when i found the lord i remember texting you and i don't exactly remember what i said but there's something along the lines of like i left circa my old job and i'm i'm chilling at my dad's church or something like that yeah you said you're helping your dad out i'm helping my dad so i knew as soon as you said that that you had found the lord and you were helping your pops you weren't all christian and religiously like yeah oh yeah i got saved with the holy spirit and yeah yeah it's like i'm 80 i'm just helping my pops out yes and it was that was a that was a crazy time in my life because you know people so easily uh they find jesus you know i found jesus on high on cocaine you know 90 day cocaine bench in in costa rica but i found him in this hotel room and i gave my life to god and at that point a lot of people it turns into a crucial point to where you could fall get involved at church but then you could go like you could follow this whole like institution of the church and become like a corny christian or you could follow jesus christ and live that spirit-led life and be like one of the disciples yeah that weren't institutionalized they were totally punk rock and they were who they were created for they didn't get caught up in the new fad of christianity you know the new dressing the way they didn't follow the fads you know they um and for me when i when i give my life to you or not to you to jesus when i found you when i gave my life to god you were a key person in my life because i just started just watching you you know a lot of people when you give your life a lot of people just watch and you were there for me and we we hung out we went to israel and obviously we'll talk a little bit about that later on but um just watching your life and and just seeing how you were following god you you weren't caught up in in this institution of the church and it really just inspired me to to to fall in love with a god in a relationship like that and not go just fall into like the the flow the routine of things so i thank you for that that's awesome man and uh you know you've had major impact on my personal life and you've done that yeah you're brilliant so you know for these listeners that are listening now they um let's just hear your story how did this whole pod band start i mean where'd you grow up i grew up in um south san diego uh literally four or five exits from the border and um i grew up in a young family my parents were already i can't remember when they split they were all just teenagers when you know they had kids um and i come from uh you know my grandmother's from italy my grandfather's from guam why all mixed up so you know we um we grew up in the south you know hard-working family i was raised up catholic and um i just uh you know that it's that kid from divorce family you know just trying to figure it out my family was young so they were still doing a lot of their partying and you know doing what they do my uncle my dad my mom and they all sold drugs and just partied with all their friends you know and there was a we just came from that broken um dysfunctional family but it was it was normal to us you know i had my friends there on the street um always felt love always been loved you know about my family they were just young and chaotic and they were without without the lord you know and then my uncle noah he was separated from my aunt which is my mom's sister at the time and he was suicidal and lost and i think he was ready to kill himself and the lord led him to mike mcintosh's church which i go to to this day down there in san diego in san diego yeah and when he had his little theater church in downtown san diego and um you know the lord found him and started working his life and um my uncle was he was he was crazy you know what i mean so when he got saved um you know he kind of came to the family and said you know i found jesus and it'll be like what the heck i found jesus yeah yeah whatever but he did man you know it wasn't this um you know radical religious thing he just said you know god said he's going to restore my family and get me back and you know everybody just watched them and um and sure enough it happened you know the lord restored his marriage with my aunt my aunt got saved you know one at a time in our family people just started getting saved like god was picking them off you know my mom got saved um so i you know i watched them and they would start going to church in calvary san diego and wait how old are you at this time um i think i'm high school yeah yeah or junior early early so i would go to church once in a while you know my parents were she wouldn't feel like she was forcing me you know what i mean um but i always had love and respect for god like i said i grew up in a catholic home my grandmother she's she's a saint catholic saint you know yeah and um so i always had respect for god um it was just more of a religious thing what you know you go to church when you do it wasn't like this everyday thing of knowing jesus and loving him having him in your life and so i just started to watch my family change and so like i said i always had this respect because i knew man if god can change my family um he's he's got to be there's something real to this you know you've seen literally i mean yeah i i know uncle noah yeah he's sober he's a little he's a psycho man he's still psycho he's a little bit yeah he's still psycho so you're you're seeing like you said you're seeing jesus pick off one by one your family the way he normally works too you start praying for family members and also they start getting saved yeah and you're seeing this work where because i know you've told me like your your parents were young rock and roll family you know moving drugs slanging and that whole having people over so this is a whole party atmosphere yeah people coming and robbing my my house uh looking for drugs yeah so it's just like it's just like crazy and what's great what's interesting is you know in california 50 of kids come from broken homes oh yeah so how many people that are listening to this right now are in that same situation where you're at but god started moving and he started just transforming your your people your family's lives and you're just tripping on this watching it yeah my my mostly my mom she's she's you know she was a a sweet woman and um you know i just watched the lord move in her life and then as a teenager you know you do what teenagers do it had a lot of friends they still have today you know just hanging out surfing skating getting into trouble with them you know trying this trying that um and you know i made it through high school and then when i was around 18 right out of high school it was when my mom was diagnosed with leukemia and that just kind of took its turn you know with her she went through admission and you know chemotherapy radiation all that stuff and but that's when i really started to i mean i was still getting high with my friends and going out but i that's when i really started to see the lord working in their life because here i'm ready to rebel against anything of god because i'm watching my mom suffer but yet she was praising god the whole time you know that's what i was going to ask you like did you did you get bitter at god during this time or was it what was going on not at not at the the time um i was just i think i was just more questioning why she was the one going through this yet she was finding peace in this you know i mean why was she so happy and i think i was more worried and afraid and um you know angry than she was you know and um so yeah she went through all her stuff went through remission um i remember seeing her hanging with her in her hospital room and she um you know she would have um like the worship guy from our church come in and you know where she just play worship songs so she can sing and i just remember thinking what the heck is kind of funny when you're not a christian but but you can see the joy you know and and then genuine then genuine man that's and that's what you know that's what i i look for in in christians man is that i want to see that kind of genuineness that my mom had you know because it was real and it wasn't she was never you know she was just she was the real deal you know and she went through remission came home the whole nine and you know i thought i'm still doing my thing and i'm i'm happy now she's doing better um and then one time i'd come home hang out with my friends and stuff and um you know i was we had went out and smoked and hung out and i came back and she was sitting there waiting for me outside my my room i was trying to sneak in and then she just sat me down and then you know she just told me that um she could tell i was sad you know and i was unhappy and she just you know she says you've lost that love in your heart you know and she said i just want to know when i die that you're going to be in heaven you know you and your sisters are going to be with me and i remember telling her mom don't don't talk like that you know you're not going to die and she's really you know when you think look back hindsight she looked at me like if she was looking at my soul and give me a heads up you know and telling me no i'm i'm gonna die and i need to know this you know i need to know that you're straight with the lord you know and i was like yeah mom whatev whatever you want me to do you know i'll do it and just tell me and she invited me harvest down in san diego with greg laurie what year was this oh man this is like oh dude in 1990's mid 90's yeah i would say no i would say even 90 93 maybe dang this is this is pretty early 92 maybe no 92 maybe 91 if you just turned in uh we have a sonny sandoval lead singer of pod on the radio just talking about his story on just uh growing up in the uh growing up in san diego and and just dealing with his mom that's fighting cancer and uh just talking about how he started pods so well yeah yeah and so she asked invited me to harvest crusade down in san diego um and i went you know i thought it was awesome um greg had given amazing um he talked about the lord it was cool a lot of people went forward but it just wasn't i wasn't moved yet to make that commitment you know so it wasn't like you didn't feel that conviction like you needed to go well you know you you in my heart i believe that was you know i was saved you know what i mean because my family was saved so you're saying yeah i had gone to church with them and you know i participated some things in youth groups so you know yeah i'm sure i'd ask god into my heart at some point yeah just thinking uh yeah i remember one time i had my friend chuck he he came from a christian family and i remember him like as even as a young kid making me accept the lord you know yeah you have to man you have to have to ask god in your heart you came up like a pentecostal church you have to have jesus in your heart man i remember standing in on my street back in the hood jesus come into my heart you know my heart i thought yeah dude i love the lord man i got no i got no problems with them you know it was just it was just um like you said earlier just having that relationship with them um but sure enough uh you know i kept hanging out with my friends doing my thing and um i had went to uh we used to go to concerts all the time i didn't punk rock shows and at the time there was this band called the crucified and their awesome group they were they were christians you know i remember going to somas it was packed and i would just go to all these crazy shows just to pit with my friends just to get that angst out you know have some fun and uh i remember going there and i had like crucify i think my cousin and marcos had dragged me a couple times before and their pits were awesome and but at this particular show i remember um at the end of their shows they always sang the same song and it was called it was united by christ and where they started chanting you know united united by christ united and then i'm looking around and all the the people in the you know in the crowd are singing and and right there i you know i was a part of the pit the whole time and then as soon as they started chatting i felt like i wasn't worthy enough to chat with them you know what i mean because i wasn't i didn't know what that meant you know i didn't i wasn't like wait wait i wasn't one of them you know yeah that's how i i felt like i was interesting you know i was too much of a sinner maybe these guys were all perfect you know you just what you think in your mind you know and um sure enough i remember going home or actually going to continue the party with my friends at their house and um the next day you know just we had partied and i was supposed to go visit my mom she had went back for some checkups and they were going to keep her overnight because she wasn't feeling good and i remember calling that day just you know tired and stuff and i said hey i checked my mom and i said i'll be i'll come back in a month i won't make it tonight and she was like all right you know that's okay son and then my aunt had called me later or you know paged me at the time i called her back and she was saying i really think you should you should come down and i was like what do you mean you know she said she said your mom's not doing good and i'm like she just told me she was she was good and she's like i just think you need to get down here so i had went down there to the hospital and you know i went to the hospital room and she was shaking and she was cold you know yeah and it's whatever just it just happened like that you know and i remember her you know eyes lighting up and she was so happy to see me and then i was just tripping because i'm yeah what the heck you just i just talked to you know you just told me stay home and and sure enough that night she would kind of slip into a somewhat of a coma you know and that's kind of just when everything started um and then that whole week i was there for a week so this so this was like a long yeah it was a long period of time she kind of just slipped in and it was like what the heck and and then the doctors you know they're doing their tests and then you know a couple days later they're saying they're thinking she's she's gonna go you know and she or the doctor would come in and the night time and say you know just be prepared she might she might not make it through the night you know and then she would make it through the night and during the day he'd say be prepared she might not make it through the day and this was going on like i said for a week um and then one day you know they would come in all the time and the doctor came in the morning mind you i'm our family's sleeping in the hotel excuse me the hospital at this point you know i'm in the room with her she's um she can't speak you know um she's just kind of there comatose and one morning he comes in and the doctor says you know because at this point he'd been repeating himself every day every night and then he finally said you know so she she can't talk she's just doing this again she's just yeah and so we were just expecting her to go at any time um and the doctor comes in and he says you know and at this when you think back hindsight it seems so unprofessional i love him to say this but this this is when i know it's the lord you know yeah because he comes in and he says you know it's not um we don't have a medical term for it he's like but we call it we call it mother's heart it's almost like he was just giving me you know his heart perspective you know trying to soothe the family and he said we call it mother's heart and he says you know your mom she's pretty much ready to go but she keeps holding on you know she's what what keeps the body alive is your heart i mean he's saying this is so unprofessional yeah this is this is just like him you know being a uh you know caring person and he just says you know it's the heart that keeps you alive and then he says the reason why she she's fighting and the reason why she won't just let go is because she doesn't want to leave her kids behind what what doctor would like how does he know that you know why would he say that yeah and so instantly i'm sitting in the back of the room and i'm having this flashback of when i came home and had this conversation with my mom and she was saying i'm going to die i just want to know that you're going to be in heaven with me you and your sisters and it instantly just hit me and it was like oh man you know she's holding on and she's suffering because she's she's afraid to let go because i'm not i don't know the lord you know i'm not going to be in heaven with her and so that god had me just bugging out and then my basically my family had forced me to go home because i had been there all week to so that that was just you that wasn't your whole family when the doctor talked to you no we had like my grandmother you know like you know close tight you're having like a revelation yeah yeah god you know who knows what the lord was speaking to everybody else but to me it was like i said i was having this flashback in this conversation with her um so my family makes me go and clean get cleaned up i had i think i'd showered all week just stuck in this room with her and so i got out into the parking lot and um i was just sitting in my car in the parking lot forever and you know just trying to process all this and then you know that's when i really just cried out to the lord and i started talking to god and you know i said lord if if you take my mom like she's she's all i have you know um i had been through so much with my mom you know divorced um you know it was for the longest time it was always just me and her you know so um i remember just telling the lord if you take my mom i don't know what i'm gonna do you know my i'm gonna lose it um but and trying to make my mom proud or happy or whatever that thing you know remembering our conversation you know i had literally got down on my hands and my knees in this dirty parking lot and i just asked god please come you know come into my life cleanse you know take away all my sins you know just whatever i can think of you know please forgive me but what i do remember is i just remember you know asking god and saying please i i want i want the jesus that my mom has you know i don't i don't want this idea of religion you know and and what i thought was christianity even at the time you know i just said i want my mom's jesus because to me that's what was real it wasn't this churchy thing it was the jesus that i saw inside of her yeah and watched you know this jesus that changed her life and my family's life so i said please god i want to be like that you know i want to be like my mom and please you know i don't want her to suffer and i had went home and cleaned up and i come back and when i got back to the hospital room you know i just hugged her and i whispered into her ear i said go and be with jesus you know i said i'm gonna be okay i'll be all right and then um later on again family was flying in family was coming to see her you know my mom she was a loved woman you know yeah totally and people were coming and then in this just getting lost in the moment um i think we had gone to this to go get something to eat to bring back to everybody and i remember driving away and then my girlfriend at the time shannon was my wife now yeah um we were driving away and i remember saying wait wait a minute what am i doing why am i leaving wait a minute i got i gotta i have to stay and she was like just just you need to you need to go you need to we just let's just go get something neat for everybody and then when we were driving back to the hospital i remember my uncle one of my uncles who had flown in actually come to visit was outside he was smoking a cigarette and and then he just started shaking his head and i knew you know and so i had run i literally jumped out of the car ran busted to these hospital doors you know ran through the hallways and then just walked in to the hospital room and she passed away um so then i you know she literally took her last breath knowing that you know that you were she was waiting for you to give your life to god i was squared away with the house you know what i mean and so that's you know then you think back again i think like the lord was he was in in it the whole time you know and i do remember hugging her and holding her and um what it seemed like five minutes um hours and hours had gone by where literally you know the hospital was saying telling my family we you know you guys we gotta go and i remember glancing at the clock i think and just hours it passed by but it seemed like it was so crazy i was in some time warp you know and at that that night it was just like okay what's next and so you know she went to be with the lord and and it's been a you know it's been a journey ever since i was 19 at the time um i'm 42 now it's been a journey with the lord my ups and downs my imperfections my struggles you know and all this all these years later you know um i'm still saying you know i want my mom's jesus yeah in this crazy world you know absolutely if you're tuning in right now this is live with ryan reese we got our good friend sonny sandoval in studio from pod and we just on this first half of the show have just kind of been going through his life i don't know how many people know uh what he's gone through in his life and sonny's just really opened up how you know his family you know from a crazy background then god began to touch some some of their lives his uncle and then even his mom and then him just opening up to us the struggle of his mom having leukemia and those moments that she would just pour into his life uh just very impacting you know and as we go on with the rest of the show you're going to hear a lot of things but this is definitely a life shaping moment in his life whenever i think of sunny and hearing the story because this guy's a real deal too man me and ryan love this guy we know all that um has taken place in his life and it is definitely a story how god just works in our life supernaturally very naturally like it's just like he starts putting the pieces together in our life he loses he uses our loved ones or he uses circumstances and situations even when we have a guard up you know you have your guard up towards like you know religion and all this kind of stuff and you don't want any of those things that you have seen like a bad taste but when you see something that's legit and genuine and you do inventory in your own life you recognize something is lacking that's when god can really like come into our lives like he has in all of our lives and reveal who he is it's it's no it's it's crazy when um i mean i couldn't imagine you know my mom's obviously been dealing with cancer fighting cancer for the last like since i got saved i remember and dude it's so gnarly to be going through that and a lot of people are are going through or lost someone or in the process of it do you what would you like to say cause we have like i think only like four more minutes before the break but to people that are listening that have maybe they're going through a situation or maybe they just lost a parent yeah what what would you say to them that for comfort right man i think that's where faith really kicks in man you know like i said you don't know it at the time but god he's he's in the details you know i mean he he knows what's going on that's when you really do trust the lord it doesn't have to make i mean we want it to make sense to us but you know in in god's uh scheme of things sometimes it's not for us to figure out because the lord knows what's up and obviously you know through my journey of walking with god you see that man if god didn't use my mom and she didn't have to go through this tragedy i probably wouldn't be walking with him today i know i wouldn't yeah so i know that you know so and i wouldn't have you know spent the last 23 years you know with my brothers in pod and been able to do and experience all things we've had you know we've done and um you know i believe god has used us um you know as wretched as we are as sinners as we are um to make music and to to change a lot of people's worlds you know and to share the love of god and to share our testimonies um you know and i would have never been in this ban or i wouldn't be here today making music you know it's it wasn't in my plan so it's funny how god uses those things and does something that you never even could have thought of or even dreamt of you know is there like a verse that says you make beauty out of ashes oh yeah there's some person oh yeah i mean and i think about like you know you know talks about james you know when you go through these trials and tribulations god's using these situations to uh create christian character like your character yeah to build you into a a spiritual giant in a sense um he just flexes your your muscles and he builds you up even though you know these situations are crazy like painful and but we don't understand but we have to trust and the verse i hate um all things work together for good for those that love him i love that verse when everything's going good but when my world's falling apart and it does it does you're like okay all things work together but this is not cool i'm not psyched on this verse right now but it but we know it when you look at the whole scheme like you said like you look back from the last how long's pod has been around going on 24th 24 years you look back at the last 24 years because you started we're going to get into how pod started but basically you look back at the last 25 years it's been awesome um and these things these these um milestones that happen in your life um they produce this this character in you and that jesus that your mom had i've never met your mom but i'm pretty sure you have that jesus i know you and i think because i when i'm with you i'm like dang it dude i need to be like sonny yeah more compassionate he's nice to people i mean not that i'm not nice to you but you got like you got that like i i don't know you got you got something that i need more of well you know what another thing is like when he talks about like when a major tragedy or trial happens to us it's at that moment like where you can choose to be given over to bitterness or you can have that moment where you see the frailty of life and god can change your heart and that's what you said like there's a part of your bitter when you know your loved one's going to die and stuff you read biographies of a lot of people you know even some famous people they lose a loved one and then they get bitter towards god you know they blame god and they run from god most their life but when you realize that like i love that verse all things work together for good for those who love god according to his purpose like god does have a plan and what the enemy at the midst of our trial he wants to bring discouragement and confusion but the lord can always bring man redemption he can he can restore the the heart that's been broken for sure okay cool well we're going to be going to break here in a few minutes um i have shine that goes off every thursday and sunday night you can go to reindashreesh.com and get that info we'd love to see you out there we'll be back in two minutes more live with ryan race coming out is everything all right call now 1-888-564-6173 or post your questions using the hashtag live ryanreese on his instagram twitter or facebook i think i speak for the entire administration when i say what do you do foreign foreign now back to live with ryan reese cool we're back we got sonny sandoval he's the throat he's the lead singer of pod and uh you know this last section we were just talking about how um you know he grew up down in san diego and grew up in a young family rock and roll families parents were you know involved with the party scene just like many people maybe that are listening now and just not walking with god and crazy things happening his wife or his mother uh got leukemia and during that process god used that for him to find jesus through his mom when she was on her deathbed and uh he gave his life to jesus and now here you are you're at a you're at a place in your life you're young you're how old are you 18. not now no how old are you now after this point when you gave your life to jesus in that hotel or in that parking lot it was 19. so you're 19. you just got out of high school you're dating shannon which is your wife now and now you're not are you in a band at this point no okay so how in the heck did pod even start um i was working i was at the grocery store i think it was even just working night crew at that point um i had was going to some community college you know my mom got sick i dropped out i was like i had been working since i was 15 years old you know um and i was always going to shows my my cousin's a drummer marcos is a guitar player they were your cousin's the drummer the pod yeah but at that time they were just you know it was wasn't called pod yeah um and then they i had gotten saved and it was just working um and i guess uh you know my cousin had this wild idea i found this out later but we were all these guys christians at that time yeah man i used to go to their shows and and i i would always go there and get in the pit and ready to defend them because they would get up and you know tell in these backyard parties or these play with these bands and they'd get up and say you know hey man we're christians it's about jesus so i i was always inspired by them already no way that's awesome and i would just go because i just had their backs like if anybody you know because at that point we play with skinhead groups different you know and their stuff always popping off sure and if you get up and say you're about jesus yeah that's like you're looking for a man they're looking for a fight you know and so me and my friends we were always backing them up because they were they were the homies you know yeah for sure and um so anyways um i guess my cousin had told marcos hey man let's ask sonny because marcos was he was singing and this is like a three-piece and and playing guitar at the same time and at that point they were like let's you know let's ask my cousin if he wants to sing in the band and because they want to do something different you know and i was always into reggae and hip-hop right and they were like we can try something different you know kind of this metal thrash punk with some some rap and hip-hop type vibes and and marcos was like sunny like that guy never even talks to me exactly if you don't know sonny yeah you're you're a quiet guy yeah i wouldn't know but then it's like you um it's like when i see you in concert and see you know people you aren't around you're real quiet and then even you're kind of stop smoking but then at the concert it's like you take a pit bull to a ring and then you like unleash it the pit bull and he goes on stage put him back on the leash and put it back yeah it's psycho but see that i just think that's something that is special between me and the lord you know what i mean it's that i that he he gave to me um so they had asked me if i wanted to you know be in the band i was like this makes no sense yeah um because that you know i don't even like hearing my voice and microphones i don't i don't jump in the cameras you know i don't i'm not that guy um but at the time i had taken a little um they gave me some time off from work and at the time my uncle um noah who you know came to the lord he had a landscaping business and this is when in and out was still and now burger was still very new there was only one scattered here and there yeah but he had gotten offered to do the um in and out burger in fresno and so i had taken off they gave me like two weeks off and he said we'll come up to fresno with us you know do some landscaping and uh so i was helping him out in fresno and then come you know on a wednesday night it was like oh we're gonna go to to church um after work and there was calvary fresno and so we had went him myself my cousin love and here we are and you know there's barely anybody there it's a wednesday night fresno calvary chapel and uh we're just sitting around like strangers you know never been there and then oh and then you guys all walk in you guys look like a bunch of hooters see this is the interesting thing about you guys you guys were covered in tattoos from a young age you started getting your tests start again it wasn't like that like back then no no no and especially christians yeah the tattoos it wasn't even really like popping at all yeah unless you were they were in spandex in the 80s you know these guys yeah that was yeah that was that was back then so you guys show up yeah we're there hanging out um you know trying to trying to uh you know go to church on a wednesday night and um sure enough we're just sitting there and then like i said there wasn't that many people but then here comes starts we see these two guys walk in um and i'm staring and i'm staring and i watch them walk up and they sit down and it's um jim and chaffin and jeff baloo it was the drummer and the bass player for the crucified no way how okay how many years later is this this is uh well last time you see him at like somewhere it it well this was like right when my mom was sick so i would i would say within a year a little over a year but but these guys asked me to you know be in their band and i was like i'm not you know that's not really my thing but you know that what's the typical i'll pray about it and see what happens so here we go so i go and work with i go and work with my uncle and my cousin and then um here comes these guys and we've met them um you know said what's up and then um to me that was kind of confirmation from the lord that you know is full circle you know from when i was there watching them play to my mom you know getting sick and passing away and then um that night my cousin you know i told my cousin i said i think i'm supposed to be in this band you know and then um i think we sat in the hotel room and then started um i got a piece of paper and pencil and started writing lyrics to our first pod song and then we had we had you know the pod it was no it was still it was still um it was still their band so we had come home from in and out working um you know we told marcos hey we're gonna do it yeah and so we we started jamming that's amazing that's nuts that's amazing so then when when did the name uh pod come into effect what i think we started we started jamming and um we were all sitting in the room you know trying to figure out a new name new band um and then uh my sister-in-law you know not then but now she had terry she was working at a bank and and she had said you know it a bunch of names had come out but at the time you know everybody remember any of the names because this is like no people want to know i don't remember i do remember though um at the time with like metallica there was all these one-word names we were like it can't be a one-word name it's got to be a couple you know words and and it has to sound tough has sound mean back then you know our music was was it was pretty heavy i mean sort of heavy roots to it but you got some heavy stuff yeah so she had said payable on death it was a banking term maybe she had typed it up that day and um so your sister-in-law yeah so it's me yeah so payable on death was a banking term when someone passes away you know what they leave behind say like their will their goods all their stuff and so we related that to jesus dying on the cross and you know we weren't out to have this spiritual um name but it was still sounded tough payable on death still sounded tough and and if anybody asked we could say hey it has to do with jesus but you know what dude that that is because i i didn't know i always just pod or pod yeah payable on available on desks yeah and then obviously the spiritual meeting is it makes it even that much harder right i think we just got tired of saying you know when you're asking what you're dancing people on death you just got tongue twister afterwards shorten it up p-o-d yeah and then that was it man we just played around san diego all the the friends partnered with a bunch of just live shows and stuff live shows man we weren't even 21 and we would play a lot of these bars so we'd have to sit outside until it was time to play that we'd play and they'd kick us right out and then um we just kept playing mostly backyard parties a lot of the straight edge parties down there um and we would just do our thing and it was such a different sound at the time right that you know we were just getting a lot of love around san diego and we just kept doing it kept doing it you now you i know you were uh because uncle ago uh noah what you guys would get in his van and he was like your tour manager i mean he was like he was just getting you guys going like he was like yeah we're touring yeah and you guys even uh you guys played some churches yeah you guys played a couple and tell tell the listeners the story of uh remember the one where oh one two three tell that story um well you know we we were playing most like i said backyard parties like uh these uh you know wherever they let us right and at the time you know i'm wait wait you're because i want to be careful with these years i want to know so when when you were doing this what year-ish was this because i think this was this was the end like the end of 92. okay so now think about the place that the church the kind of music right and what was going on people were not covered in tattoos no this was not hip so these guys are dc talk was like okay the hardest thing ever okay dc i didn't even i didn't even know i didn't because you got to say i just became a christian i didn't know all this stuff neither did i exactly to me there but there was a crucified and i knew they were christians and so i had you know there was a couple bands like these i can get with this you know but crucified they were going around touring they were in like a lot of churches i mean this is like hardcore music at that time they were opening up for like pantera back then yeah they weren't doing the church the state of the church of calvary back then yeah i mean look at the pastors the way they were dressed yeah there was no way these guys but these guys were good my dad's a pastor i remember the way they dressed yeah no these guys look funny these guys were a band man they were and they were they were in demand they would play wherever you know yeah but and at the time again we weren't saying oh yeah we're a christian man i didn't i didn't know what that means i still don't know what that means yeah we were just a band we were because we were playing everywhere yeah we got invited to play a church so that was my first eye opener like they what they wanted to play at a church like yeah we're playing we're playing clubs we can't even get into you know bars and stuff yeah they're they wanted to play the church like i didn't know that was allowed you know i know you can do that and we had got invited to play a church um i think it might even been like marcos and gabe's church at the time and uh but they were doing a youth group rally like i said we're right next to the border so all these kids were coming in from out of town and they were staying you know big youth group night at this church and then they were gonna go to mexico for the weekend or whatever and help with the orphanages and you know do yeah little missionary trip awesome and so they invite us and then we we play and we're just doing our thing we had all it's funny because now that i remember we had all the homies there all these gangster cats they're not even saved you know but yeah again like i was before they're backing us up they're standing on the stage all hard you know looking all dugged out and then um first church first church they're probably the first time they've ever stepped in church so we're we start to play and we get to half the song and mind you we're in a this is a church dude so we're talking the you know the stepped stage oh yeah carpet church oh you know yeah yeah that's the step stage where the podium usually goes and uh we started playing why do they have step stages i don't know what typical church protocol i told my dad i said when they were redoing their church i said get that steps out of there why do you guys have steps you can just angle the church that way so you know maybe so you can see the hey you know what it's a crazy world we're living now too we've got all these muslims coming in you know pulling out guns and stuff you close the steps yeah yeah exactly anyway but we we started playing man i think we made it halfway through the song and this this guy i think he was one of the youth group leaders he literally was freaking out he rushed but he rushed the stage but it's funny he ran up the steps he tripped over the steps that's why the steps yeah yeah you have to make it but the kids were all like at first you're just sitting there like typical youth group kids and then as soon as we cranked up this was live guitar it was heavy you could see their eyes literally just you know pop out of their heads like what this is awesome you know and then all of a sudden his pastor runs up and he literally he's just like giving us the quit your signal and he starts grabbing mics and i think he grabs my mic and he just grabs it out of your hand grabs marco's guitar and pop and she's like no no no no no we can't we can't do this we can't do this and we're looking i'm like what because in back my mind where you invited us yeah exactly what's going on all the homies are in the back like what the heck and then um he just says we we we can't do this like because he just believed in his heart this was this wasn't of god you know yeah so he you know he basically tells all these kids because they were just shattered at this point they were shattered you know like yeah the kids are like so embarrassed so embarrassed you know and then he just said hey yeah we can't do this we're not going to do this but hey guys let's give this ba and let's give these guys um five crisp ones and in the instantly like robots you just have like hundreds of youth group kids just like clapping yeah just five solid crisp ones dude and then i grabbed the mic from him you know and i said hey don't don't even trip man we're not we're not tripping and i just said this has nothing to do i might care less about music or this bad it has nothing to do this has this about you guys we just came here to be a part of what you guys are doing you know and i said you guys are coming from out of town into my neck of the woods you're going across the border you know and you guys are going to help out those that need help and yes that's that's jesus you know and so we man we love you guys because at this point i'm 19. we're we're close in age you know these are just kids we're kids ourselves yeah so i just said hey man keep keep keep doing it and and sure enough man we packed up and and left it was that and that was our first experience with church and at the time that he said we're tattooed it's it's full guitar loud volume yeah yeah and but that was like i said we had already been playing shows and we got invited to a church so at that time amongst the guys were like it was just confirmation to us that we're not we weren't made to to play god god was calling you guys to the to the world exactly we weren't supposed to play for christians you know whatever that was i guess i didn't know what that was at the time and then you realized oh this is a host there is a whole scene there was a whole industry but we didn't know that because we were playing the clubs we were playing you know we were opening up for bands like green day and cypress hill that back then were blowing up and god was opening up doors for us to play because our music was good you know it wasn't like we're playing we had to play for whatever a packed out church we were getting invited to go play in clubs and that's you know what and that's so true god god calls us to get to different places you know like for instance i don't get invited to speak at a lot of churches yeah but i get invited to speak at tons of like rehabs that are not even christians oh yeah god opens these doors show up and all these people get saved it's like i'm like you open the doors you know well because it's the it's the language i think you speak we speak you know how many times have i been with you speaking at a church and it's like we've gone to some baptist church we've gone to some conservative churches and you just know right off the bat like they're not gonna they're not that they're not going to hear us but our language is different right and the moment you get up and you start talking about whatever god puts on your heart i can look around and look at these pastors and he's like you know he's like oh my goodness we didn't know we were getting into this but the problem is but this is the state i'm in touch with the culture yeah yeah i know what's what the kids are going through i'm doing high school tours i know what's happening yeah and i'm basically saying what everyone's thinking yeah yeah but for some reason we got in this this box of like this is the institution this is the language that we use in the institution of the church i was talking to billy graham you were probably with me we were talking to the billy graham director uh paul saber and he said hey you know it's not the church it's the institution yeah you guys aren't anti the church and i'm like no way because we're all the church he's like you guys are inside the institution he goes i agree yeah you know it's it's the institution institution we become ill relevant because we're caught in this um this yeah this protocol whatever it is but it's you have to have yeah yeah and i tried but in our church too man and it it is a safe zone it's become a safe zone it is when you need safety but it's you know it just it's a war zone you know immediately we and people you know we get so comfortable um in our churches that who doesn't want to stay in there 24 7 and just you know be safe absolutely but it really is i always refer to us being out in the world as a battlefield and and our churches are just these are just medic tents man we come in we we spend time with the lord we we allow god to heal us and get our rest but then if we're in the real world we we're called to go out you know trust me i'm i'm out so much on the road it's like i i desire to be when i'm at church you know and i sit there with my wife and you know it's like i love it i feel like this is my safe zone i can just be here and and not be sunny from pod i can just sit here listen to my pastor worship the lord um and just get restored and refilled and then when it's time to go it's like you know i don't go i don't go hopping and skipping like yeah man another tour i'd go out like all right but because you know how many times have i asked god like when basically when's it when's it done you know 23 24 years later lord what just let me know when when you want to wrap this up you know and i can move on to the next chapter of my life and but every time we go out it's hard even as hard as it is today it's harder today to tour it's harder the industry is crazy it's you know there's the industry is broke but yet i still see god doing awesome things and it's like okay i got to go out one more time you know well i've i've known i mean i know you guys blew up huge at uh in the 90s late 90s like 99 2000 yeah massive massive huge huge and you um you guys i mean you guys are you guys are massive massive and there were some things that happened maybe just over time let's talk a little bit about when you guys blew up you you know you let's talk about that time when you yeah that led into some some situations where you ended up kind of stepping down yeah we got about i think like 10 minutes left so okay awesome um yeah so same thing uh we started pod we played locally um never had any thoughts of going one sec i just got notified we have five minutes left okay i never thought we'd go outside san diego you know and then um we we did a little demo back in the day you know we did a couple um three-week tours during our summers while we were all working and we were playing shows um you know out in the u.s and i think around um 96 or so we were starting to get asked to play all over the place and so we all made the decision like that we quit our jobs see it felt like lord was moving something's happening we just started going out on our own and doing our own thing in the u.s and then that would eventually lead to a signing with atlantic records right and then our first record you know went platinum and our second record um which was released on 9 11 you know and then we happen to have a number one song at that point on the trl mtv the rock radio station and so like you said things just skyrocketed and we were touring you know we were touring 13 months out of the year yeah um and and again always with the intentions of going out and just loving god and and speaking about him in our music but you know now a whole new industry has opened up a whole new world here we are um from playing little clubs to you know sold out stadiums just with you know and and then now playing on stages with some of you know the biggest bands in the world meeting them we're friends with them now you know money yeah you know you play bills are paid you played in downtown new york where they dropped new year's eve you guys are like yeah bringing in the new year on mtv exactly you know our bills are paid life gets a little bit easier and so all those struggles come and so now um you know still having this intention of going out and and trying to share the lord with people it's just a whole new obstacle you know here we are and people start you know you start getting all the things that rock bands get you know and it's like wow this is real we're not just this like little quote-unquote christian band going and playing in a church anymore we're we're a rock band like whatever you want you want green green are you on a trash full of green ammonia done we're a real rock band with real temptations real struggles all this stuff you know and then you start going through shady business and egos and people you know guys quitting the band and us yeah firing people and just all this stuff that rock the enemies dude that you're like you forget why why you're in it and then you continue to go and you know so you just kind of for me personally i go and speak for myself you know you just get lukewarm and it's like you just start living by this model of man god knows my heart and i love him and but you're gonna try and get away with whatever you can you know and then um eventually you just you just kind of are just living that life you know your distance from the lord begins you know because you're not he's you're not seeking him all the time it's just this yeah god's got my back i know he does i'm just gonna keep pushing through you could just do this just in regular life too you could do that you don't have to be in a rock band so for me you know all this stuff's happening to me my my guys and it was just you know so come around 2008 which you were talking about earlier that's when i just said um i just needed to take a break and i just asked the guys if we can take a break for a year and i just needed for me to go and really um seek after the lord and just just get my heart together you know um and that's what i did man that's you know that's a whole other chapter of stories when me and you hooked up again and was blessed to go to israel and that's where ever you stepped down from pod and that's right when i got saved that was a whole nother god thing we went to israel and that's where you gave the name to me he said i see like a movement of a name called the whosoever is a movement of these people around the world coming together to to reach people yeah for christ yeah because you really saw the world around i mean you by this time you've traveled all over the place you've seen so many young people and you're like man the world's a mess yeah yeah right sure man you've been there you've done that and that was exactly where i was at my life and even with head from uh corn he was in that place in his life where we've all been there done that and there was nothing that was gonna take us back to the world yeah we've seen it all yeah and even today i can care less yeah about the cares of the world yeah being rich or famous or any of that that right ah it's so empty man it's ridiculous man well we got we got a minute left man do you want you got anything you want to say to anyone that's listening out there um what else i know you've been talking i don't know maybe you know here's something um someone that's uh maybe in a place in their life where you know maybe they grew up in the church or maybe they're just driving down the radio and they're listening this this thing or they've seen something on instagram but maybe their question is god real how do i even like give my life to him what are the steps to follow him what does it even look like what do i do i got drug problem i got issues what do i do all those things are right right where they need to be you know what i mean you're this is when you're just called to just give it up and trust in god there's nothing we can say that convinces you until you actually take that step the moment you take the step um is your first act of faith where you're saying lord i you know i do want you in my life i want to see so we you know we've told this to kids all the time you challenge the lord man challenge the lord see what he can do for you let him come in and clean up clean house all right well there you have it sonny sandoval lead singer at p.o.d we'll catch you guys next week love you guys this has been live with ryan reyes to connect or find out more about ryan click on ryan reece dot com check us out next saturday at 9 00 pm for live with ryan reese

Channel: Ryan Ries

Views: 22,671

Rating: 4.9053764 out of 5

Keywords: sonny sandoval, testimony, the whosoevers, ryan ries, justice, co-founder, jesus, genuine, remission, cancer, promise, peace through the storm, joy, chemo, singer, songwriter, heaven, coma, tattoo, straigh edge, rock, san diego, the beginning, reggae, youth of the nation, boom, alive, southtown, Satellite, higher, murdered love

Id: CW_a41EUTCA

Length: 58min 6sec (3486 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 15 2016