But anyway lots of you are also SSJ fans. He mentions how Bobby "Faux Hawk" Bandiera is a part of his band usually but he needed to hire a replacement (cause Bobby is playing the In These Arms solo WTF??? WHY???).
Enjoy
 Sometimes it’s easy to forget that New Jersey has more than 130 miles of beach and coastline. And that can lead to some differences in culture along the Atlantic. For John Lyon, better known as Southside Johnny, and his band the Asbury Jukes, there are parts of the northern New Jersey shore where they aren’t just one of the best party bands ever, they’re music gods. Trust us. Near Asbury Park (from which the band obviously derives its name), for a certain age group, not knowing the words to “We’re Having a Party” could get you deported to Metuchen or some other non-beach locale. Southside brings that legacy to the southern shore Saturday with a concert at Ocean City’s Music Pier (8pm, $30 in advance, $35 at the door. Call 800-838-3006 or visit brownpapertickets.com). For such a shore icon, Southside admits he doesn’t get below the Mullica River all that often. "Not nearly as much as we should,” he says. But south or north, The Jukes always carry with them that magical feel of a time when they and other acts (some guy named Springsteen comes to mind) put the Asbury Park/Jersey Shore sound on the musical map. We caught up with Lyon at his Ocean Grove home for a phone interview and asked him five questions. We found him relaxed, funny, and as always, ready for a party. Since the band’s inception in the 1970s, you’ve seen a huge amount of amazing musical talent play with the band. We’ve heard that its more than 120 guys. Is that really true? "That is true. We count everybody though. If you play in the band even one day, then you’ve been a member of the Jukes. So there are a lot of people who have played in the Jukes and they’re just guest appearances. But the truth is that we have had over a hundred and some musicians pass through that were, you know, they played in the Jukes. There’s a guy over in England, Mike Saunders, who did a family tree for us a few years ago — I guess like 10 years ago now — and he had over a hundred people then and we’ve had many people pass through since then. So yeah, it’s been a real breeding ground. … of what I don’t know. One of those guys currently is Billy Walton, a South Jersey favorite, who will play with you Saturday. Can you talk about him being in the band. Well, Billy’s band opened for us a couple of times, I think once down in Virginia at the Birchmere, one of our favorite places to play. And so we were casting around for a guitar player. Bobby Bandiera, who had been with me for the last 20 years, went out with Bon Jovi. And Jon started adding more and more dates. So we needed somebody to fill in, actually take over the seat. Then we got Glen Alexander and then we had another guy and then this guy. And Billy, we asked him to play one time. I heard him play at The Birchmere and I said, 'I really like this guy.' And he’s just a great guy. He’s just a terrific guy to have in the band. He’s always up and he doesn’t cause problems. And he doesn’t bring any neuroses with him, at least I haven’t seen any. And he kind of fit in. So we’ve taken him with us to Europe. Sometimes we have two guitar players and usually he’s the second guitar player. Sometimes, he’s the only guitar player. He’s just a great addition and a lot of fun to have on tour. Speaking of touring, you’ve been doing a lot. You were just in Norway and you’re going to the UK in the fall. But it seems like you purposefully left the summer months open to play close to home. We were just in Norway and Sweden for five dates. We happen to be fairly popular in Norway and Sweden and really all of Europe … except France, which is weird, because we’ve played France several times and its one of my favorite countries. Paris is one of my top five cities and yet … (laughs) I don’t know. But yes, we want to be here in the summer. You know the winter is kind of a dead season as it is for most bands — we have the winters to record — but when spring comes we just get out there on the road and we keep moving and moving and moving. We play as much as we can. And it’s a good time for bands to be out there. Everybody needs a little break from their worries right now. And that’s what we’re all about. You know sit back, have a few beers and have a good time. You’re a long time veteran of the music industry. What’s your view of all the changes in the industry that have happened with the reliance on digital and the Internet to get music out there. Some say it’s great, others say it destroying the industry. “I think it’s the greatest thing that ever happened to music … after recording. It lets you run your own show. You’re not going to have the big promotional money that a record company can give you, but then you get paid for every record you sell. I mean there’s no A&R man telling you what songs you need to record … not that I ever listened to anybody like that. But you’re in charge of everything. You’re in charge of the artwork, you’re in charge of the songs you record. And it’s a great feeling. It’s so immediate with the audience now. You get a Web site. They can contact you. You can talk to them. It makes it so that’s it’s your own business and you don’t have to be part of a conglomerate to get it done. You’ll probably never get to be a multi-millionaire — though some people might — but it’s such a relief not to have to deal with people who don’t really care about the music. I like it much better this way. And I think its great for young artists. If you look at how the music business has been run, they’re looking for the one artist they can promote. I always think of Whitney Houston, some great-looking person who makes pop music. Everybody else is second tier or third tier. And 99.9 percent of the people making music these days would be in those lower tiers. They really wouldn’t get a lot of respect or help from a record company. And I’ve known some record companies. It’s tough to get paid, to get your just desserts. This way they can stand or fail on their own.” Your own sound can be very diverse, At times it’s very bluesy and yet it can also rock. What can people expect when they come out to see you Saturday? “A good time. (laughs) You know we’re based in rhythm and blues. That’s where we actually started. But there’s always been some rock n’ roll in there. I come from a blues background of listening to it and playing it. There’s some jazz, because we have horns so guys like to do a little jazz thing here and there. We play what we musically want. If we feel like doing some country songs, we’ll do some country songs. We don’t cater to the audience as much as we cater to our own impulses and urges at the moment and we hope to make it palatable to the audience. But we can always go to one of the songs we’re recognized for — you know our so called hits — if people are saying ‘If they play one more George Jones song I’m leaving.’ Then you go right into “I Don’t Wanna Go Home” and everybody’s happy. You have to do that one and that’s fine because it’s a singer’s song and you never get tired of it. Especially when you see the audience react to it.” |
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