What Happened to the Peters Brothers?

During my junior year of high school (1980-81), my best friend David told me about two St. Paul-based preachers warning about the dangers of rock music. Dan and Steve Peters received national attention with seminars that sometimes concluded with young people burning their records. I would learn more about the Peters Brothers through articles published in Rolling Stone magazine and my high school newspaper. Another friend loaned me a cassette tape of their seminar. As a rock music fan, I didn’t want to believe what I heard.

In 1984, I attended my first Peters Brothers seminar at Moorhead State University (where I was a Music Industry major). Dan and Steve showed photos, album covers, and song lyrics from well-known rock stars. They also quoted Scripture showing why these musicians promoted ungodly ideas. Although I agreed with their disapproval of satanic album covers and explicit lyrics, I thought parts of the seminar lacked credibility, such as examples of “backward masking” that weren’t legitimate. I refused to respond to their altar call.


The morning after, I found myself listening to a Christian radio station. The Lord was stirring me to draw closer to Him. Within a few days, I reasoned that there wasn’t anything wrong with listening to secular rock music. Moorhead State’s newspaper soon published a commentary I wrote titled “Rock Critic Blasts Seminar.”


Five years later, I worked at a music store in Minneapolis. A pastor and his wife stopped in one day to buy a synthesizer. They informed me Prince’s former bodyguard “Big Chick” Huntsberry attended their church and offered to introduce me to him. The following Sunday, I drove to this church. Big Chick couldn’t be there that night. However, I found out the church had guest speakers: the Peters Brothers! I stayed for their updated seminar. One thing that disturbed me was them quoting portions of song lyrics out of context (I later learned this was to avoid lawsuits from record companies). I walked out near the end of the seminar.


Then in 1995, I attended one more “Truth About Rock” seminar at a church in Burnsville, Minnesota. This time Steve Peters spoke along with his wife Julie. I talked with them at their book table before and after the seminar. I became a Christian four years before. So I had a greater appreciation for what they were doing. Julie asked me if they had improved since 1989. I still noticed a couple of inaccuracies with the information presented despite their efforts to be truthful. Keep in mind the Internet wasn’t widely available at the time.


For almost three decades, I hadn’t heard of any additional ministry by the Peters Brothers. That got me thinking, “Whatever happened to them?” Some online research revealed the seminars stopped in the late 1990s, partially due to family obligations. Steve and Julie Peters are now entrepreneurs living in Florida. Dan passed away last August at 70 years old. Less than a month later, a younger brother named Jim (who spoke at some of the seminars) also died. During fifty years of ministry, the Peters Brothers helped over 100,000 young people commit their lives to the Lord. Dan had also started Christian radio stations in Africa where over 18 million people are touched daily with the gospel.


Some preachers are prejudiced against genres of music they don’t like. Their tastes don’t necessarily equal God’s. The Peters Brothers had always recommended Christian rock as a viable alternative. As a former nightclub disc jockey, I prefer electronic dance music (EDM). An Internet radio station I often listen to is GodsDJs.com.


Rock music fans reading this may still dismiss the Peters Brothers as religious fanatics. I used to believe that. Since becoming a minister myself, I can testify Satan is real and will destroy the lives of individuals who give place to him. The good news is anyone can have authority over that fallen angel and avoid spending eternity in hell if they submit their lives to Christ. During their presentations and in interviews, the Peters Brothers stated, “We're not condemning these musicians. Jesus died for them, too.”


“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” - 2 Peter 3:9


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