1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 John Lyon (born December 4, 1948), [1] better known by his stage name Southside Johnny, is an American singer-songwriter who usually fronts his band Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes . As the Asbury Jukes were becoming one of New Jersey's most popular acts, Bruce Springsteen grew out of his local following into a respected journeyman rock & roller after he landed a deal with Columbia Records in 1973, and his third album, 1975's Born to Run, transformed him into a legitimate star, a critical favorite who finally connected with a mass audience. Q. Southside Johnny soon landed a new record deal with Mercury Records, but had to deal with an even bigger change, as Steve Van Zandt dropped out as the guitarist, songwriter, and producer for the Asbury Jukes; his role in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band had become too time consuming. Early on when we were teenagers, I think we understood that we were given a great gift of making music. She agreed and joined the tour three days before its start. Do you know what I mean? Mike Boehm Mike. But I also want to hear a backbeat and a lot of horns. I Dont Want to Go Home might have been. rights reserved. Hes carried on as a hardworking road warrior for decades since, recording with an ever-evolving Jukes lineup, most recently on the 2015 return to form, Soultime! The newly-formed 1982 lineup of The Asbury Jukes (with former E Street Band member Ernest "Boom" Carter on drums) provided the musical entertainment at the reception, along with "special guest" Bruce Springsteen. Bruce Springsteen had visited his parents in California. The move came at a lull in Lyons musical career, and life in San Clemente (which he shares with his wife, Jill, and their two canaries) has been mostly quiet: walks in nearby Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park, drinks on the pier at sunset, movie outings. That was an all-black band that had Clarence Clemons, and theres this little skinny white kid Garry Tallent playing bass. Southside Johnny paid homage to one of his earliest influences on his 2017 solo effort, Detour Ahead: The Music of Billie Holiday, in which he went into the studio with a jazz ensemble and cut nuanced but passionate takes on 11 of Lady Day's most memorable songs. It's a friendship that has held fast more than four decades. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution This is a must-ask question: What is it about New Jersey? Economics is not your strong suit. A more extensive tour, including West Coast dates, probably will come next year. Partly cloudy this evening then becoming cloudy with periods of light rain after midnight. That year, Springsteen married model Julianne Phillips; Scialfa had reportedly told people that she had feelings for her boss, but she didn't sit around pining for him, even briefly dating actor Tom Cruise as well as various New York musicians. In a 1996 interview with The Advocate, reprinted on the site Greasy Lake, when asked about the negative reaction some people had to Scialfa and Springsteen falling in love, Springsteen replied, "It's a strange society that assumes it has the right to tell people whom they should love and whom they shouldn't. "Garry Tallent (Springsteen's bassist and Southside's best friend) and I were talking a couple of years ago and realized everybody pretty much got what they wanted. Pal to Bruce Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt, longtime veteran of late-night jams at such legendary Joizy clubs as the Upstage and the Stone Pony, possessor of a classic R&B; growl, Lyon even named his band the Asbury Jukes after Asbury Park, the decaying resort town and center of the states productive 70s musical scene. Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes play the SugarHouse Casino on Saturday May 11. Append content without editing the whole page source. I used to clean the house. After 1986's At Least We Got Shoes, Mirage cut ties with Southside, and he put the band on hiatus, cutting a solo album, 1988's Slow Dance, that leaned in the direction of adult contemporary music, dominated by love songs and ballads. I hope all of the Jukes and all of the Juke fans are doing well. 2008 also saw Southside & the Jukes celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Hearts of Stone with a series of shows at Asbury Park's Stone Pony, one of which was recorded and released by Leroy in 2009 as Hearts of Stone Live. I really am not good at lip-syncing. There was a place called Piners Lounge and Steven and I would go there and Bruce would come and wed watch Garry play. The Sundance Blues Band fizzled out after the closing of the Upstage Club, and by 1972 Springsteen had founded a hard rock band called Steel Mill. Some day I'll do a blues album. permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com. It leaves you with a strong feeling of respect. Q. And yet, while The Boss went on to conquer the world, Southside stayed behind - critically lauded for songs like I Don't Want To Go Home, but shut out of the big leagues, despite his famous connections. Thats right. A. He was very patient, very willing to teach. Bruce Springsteen was the man who took the sound of the Jersey Shore music scene to the world, but it was Southside Johnny (aka John Lyon) who was the early focal point of the scene that produced many of the major figures of the Garden State's rock & roll community. Who were your role models or sources of inspiration when you began your music career? The Jukes landed a once-a-week gig at an Asbury Park club that had seen better days, the Stone Pony, playing off nights for the door. Do you connect with them? You can't go out there and hope people like you. There's not just one thing, and I think that's reflected in all of our music. That musical meeting led to a renewed partnership on the new album. Each contributed songs to the band that was known then as Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, and Van Zandt, known nowadays as political rocker Little Steven, served as the bands manager and producer. I felt I was in a rut, and I had a big crisis, Lyon said over the phone last week from his home in Montclair, N.J., taking time out from making pumpkin pies that he and his wife, Jill, would serve for Thanksgiving dinner the next day at a soup kitchen in Newark. It's just natural that you work hard onstage, because it's your chance to make music You don't just go, "Oh, I really don't care.". Be Proactive. Lyon's parents were music fans with a taste for jazz (his father played bass in a jazz combo before landing a steady job with the post office), and he grew up with the sounds of Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington filling the house. He had a lot of confidence in me. As the Sundance Blues Band and its offshoots became frequent attractions at the Upstage, Southside was playing several sets a night, four or five nights a week, and he began seriously considering a career as a professional musician. I've always known what the Jukes ought to sound like. And we were tenacious about it. One of the seminal figures on the New Jersey rock scene and a gifted, charismatic singer steeped in soul, blues, and R&B. The band's most recent album, "Better Days," was released in 1991 on the Impact label. Not 'I'm gonna try to be a musician.' Watch headings for an "edit" link when available. Every time I got off the bus, there would be literally hundreds of people sleeping there and begging and nobody was taking care of them, he said. I didn't want to have anything to do with any record companies, so my friend Garry Tallent, who was Bruce Springsteen's bass player for all those decades, he and I went to high school together and he said, "Come on down to Nashville and meet some people. Do you agree that it takes a lot of courage? Some Jukes fans have wondered why you've never made a blues album, given your love of the music. Jersey gal Gloria Gaynor's hand-washing 'I Will Survive' video a viral hit, Bon Jovi says son Jake is '100 percent' recovered from COVID-19 scare, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. A. It's something you just naturally do. After the 1988 release of Slow Dance, a solo album of ballads that he says was recorded for his wife, Lyon began playing the Los Angeles region in a band called Blues Deluxe and making plans for a blues album featuring material co-written by him and his guitarist, Bobby Bandiera. The album is on Cypress Records, the independent label whose roster leans toward such mellow folk-pop artists as Jennifer Warnes, Leonard Cohen and Jesse Colin Young. One of the seminal figures on the New Jersey rock scene and a gifted, charismatic singer steeped in soul, blues, and R&B. Most of the changes have been for the better of the band. But in the summer of 90, Southside had a gig at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park and decided to call Van Zandt and several former Jukes. You could make a career out of it. Tell me about the women in your life. Can I ask you about your mother and your connection to her? It's a very satisfying thing to do, so I started playing with a lot of different people and writing songs and just got back into the business. Its one thing to do Fever and I Dont Want to Go Home, which I still love and get a great reaction, but when you get a new song that you havent played a thousand times and it still gets a great reaction, its really a big thrill.. Be Truthful. SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: I do connect with them. That's hard to say, of course. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Q. Do you feel that you understand women? We're very close. I like that--really just let it go and see where the night takes you, and I don't knowI've always been that way where I trust in the people around me and I trust in myself to not go so far that I'll lose my career or my audience, but they understand that I'm not going to do the same thing over and over. A. A powerful vocalist whose style is steeped in vintage blues, R&B, and soul, Johnny was the leader and frontman for the group the Asbury Jukes, whose tough bar band sound married the impact of hard rock with the swing and horn-fueled punch of blues and deep soul. He is an American singer-songwriter who fronts the band Southside Johnny & . I suspect he was just one of the singers in the club and it wasn't a terribly important scene, but too bad for Southside! He is an actor, known for Home Alone (1990), Adventures in Babysitting (1987) and The Karate Kid Part II (1986). Help Us | Upload. It was four rolls of toilet paper, some candy bars, some toothpaste, (of which I was almost out), and a bottle of wine. We had a Monopoly game on stage. She once again explained how she always had to balance her solo work with her duties to the E Street Band as well as to her family, noting she had just taken two days off from touring to get her son Evan ready for college. I remember going over to the Orchid Lounge and listening to B.B. That record was like really a love letter to my husband, Bruce, and had very few characters in it. If you're in a bad mood about having a fight with your old lady, you can talk to her about it.". To me, the spontaneity of making music is the beauty of it, instead of this idea that you're going to program everything and everything's going to work out right. B. He carried himself as a person who has something to say, and still does. Chance of rain 70%.. We do not monetize a photo in any way, but if you want your photo to be removed, let us know, and we will remove it. Southside Johnny (his nickname comes from his love of the raw, hard-edged brand of blues from Chicago's South Side) and the Asbury Jukes started out in 1974 as the house band at the Stone Pony,. Johnny Lyon, is telling me over the phone from somewhere on the New Jersey Shore. In 1978, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes released what many critics consider the band's greatest album, "Hearts of Stone." Just two people in the record struggling to see if they can be close, if you can trust the person, how intimate can you get without getting hurt. . The newly-formed 1982 lineup of The Asbury Jukes (with former E Street Band member Ernest "Boom" Carter on drums) provided the musical entertainment at the reception, along with "special guest" Bruce Springsteen. Well, 20 years is a long time, and my band isn't your average-size band. When did you discover that you were lucky and had a gift? I'm interested in combining things, like the sounds of the old vocal groups, the blues, even something as foreign sounding as the violin. One of the reasons I got into rock-and-roll was because I wanted to avoid the tediousness of life. The great blues mecca of Ocean Grove, New Jersey? Upcoming scheduled Jersey shows include June 6 at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair; July 3 at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park and July 6 at the Ocean City Music Pier. Ocean Grove was a very quiet place. Why not? The group has always featured Mr. Lyon's soulful vocals and a horn section, often called the Miami Horns in honor of a Jukes co-founder, (Miami) Steve Van Zandt (a k a Little Steven). "He's stealing my saxophone players to replace Clarence (Clemons, who passed away last year), so we steal from each other's bands occasionally.". 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 They don't want us to be the same set list every night. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, Goes Out newsletter, with the week's best events, to help you explore and experience our city. It was a great education for all of us. Lyon, sounding upbeat and relaxed, said his break from the road and the musical detour he took on Slow Dance have given him renewed enthusiasm for his old calling as a touring bar rocker. Understandably frustrated with the business, Southside briefly dropped out of music and relocated to Tennessee, but in 1996, he staged a low-key tour of Europe, where he discovered he still had an audience, and a four-night stand at the Chesterfield Cafe in Paris became the basis of a live album, Spittin' Fire. And when he and Lyon struck up a friendship, it changed the course of Lyon's life. Call 519-635-6257 or purchase online at. Lyon developed a taste for harder blues and R&B from listening to the radio late at night, and in his early teens, he began learning to play harmonica after "borrowing" one from his brother, who had bought a guitar and fancied himself the next Bob Dylan. Q. But I can't imagine not being in music. Another thing that is interesting about you is that you didn't plan your career or your life, which you mentioned in one of your interviews. Leroy was launched with 2000's Messin' with the Blues, which featured the latest edition of the Asbury Jukes. I was out here on tour (in late 1988) and I played the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, and I said, This looks nice, lets move here. And we did.. I was just trying to make a really good record for myself.". And Southside Johnny Lyon was the blues and R&B vocalist and bandleader who could outsing both of them. All credits to the original photographer. His multiple awards include recognition for stories on both Bruce Springsteen and Jersey Shore. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com. I went through months of that. ", Things You Didn't Know About Bruce Springsteen's Wife Patti Scialfa, Racing In The Street: The Bruce Springsteen Reader. We reinforced our belief in ourselves. What kind of strategy do you use when it comes time to record? I read that your mom let you stay home and listen to music instead of going to school. One of my sax players went with David Bowie. Was it always your goal to be a singer and performer? S. I don't know if it's courage. I gave out money each day, and the song (Little Calcutta) just got wrenched out of me by the experience.. Soundtrack: Home Alone. Per Acoustic Storm, Scialfa contrasted the record with the intimacy of her first one, saying, "There are some songs with the same theme of closeness; how to be close, love songs. There was no alcohol, so teenagers could get in. Their son, Evan James Springsteen, was born on July 25, 1990. Then once that idea got into you, you never wanted to let it go, because what are the alternatives? Track artist We rode up this hill, and right there was this big 8-ball on a pillar. He also trades vocals with Lyon and Van Zandt on Its Been a Long Time, the first single from the album. A lot of those, Steven and Bruce and those people, had not heard a lot of Chicago blues, some, but not a lot of them. That's the kind of freedom that you don't really think about until somebody asks you about it. Notifications from this discussion will be disabled. She's in love. I have a vague idea about what I want to do and I'd like a set list, but if at any moment I want to do a different song, I'll just call out the title of the song or the opening riff and we'll do it. Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes: 2005: Maxine Brown: All the Time in the World: Southside Johnny with LaBamba's Big Band: September 2008: Tom Waits: A Whiter Shade of Pale: Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes: 2004: Procol Harum: Back in the U.S.A. Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes: 1981: Chuck Berry: Billie's Blues: Southside . Bobby Bandiera and I have been writing songs. They were so determined that was going to be what they did. Even though his friends Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi achieved more fame, Southside Johnny's unmatched dedication will be remembered forever. Sales were modest but respectable, and the band toured hard in support, eventually taking a break to cut their second LP, 1977's This Time It's for Real, which featured more guest appearances from R&B heroes (vocal groups the Coasters, the Drifters, and the Five Satins) and songwriting contributions from Springsteen. We were all scuffling. Thats the nature of this kind of long-lived horn band. I learned a lot from them and that there was a certain sophistication that wasn't really prevalent in the area I grew up in, so they were very unique people, and I'm very grateful to have had them for parents because they taught me how to read good literature and how to laugh and how to listen to music. SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: I have a wife I'm still married to, but we're separated, but I go and visit her. A. 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 But lately, he has spent a lot of time on the road, leaving the canaries with neighbors. I don't define myself entirely by music. 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