7 Nov 2020

Shihad frontman John Toogood on converting to Islam

From Music 101, 1:35 pm on 7 November 2020

Hitting massive local success in the late '90s, rock band Shihad (briefly named pacifier between 2001-2004 ) are a household name. Together the band produced five number one studio albums, and hold the title for the most number-one records from a New Zealand artist, a title they share with Hayley Westenra. Frontman John Toogood has had quite the journey outside of Shihad.

He converted to Islam after meeting his now-wife Dana Salih. The pair were married in Dana's home country of Sudan in 2014. Before this, John was a self-described "staunch atheist", but has now even written a thesis on his newfound religion. New ABC podcast series Days Like These follows John's journey to religion and why he's mostly kept it to himself until recently.

Warning- This audio contains  discussion of terrorism events and includes sounds of gunfire