ASBURYJUKES.NET | Interview: It’s his party!

Interview: It’s his party!

THE ASBURY PARK PRESS – INTERVIEW BY ED KAZ – DECEMBER 29, 2000

“I get up onstage and go insane and sing. It’s my only redeeming feature, I think.” — Southside Johnny

It’s a simple equation: New Jersey + New Years = Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. And this year, the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank will be the scene of the crime, as a revved-up Johnny Lyon — along with a recharged Asbury Jukes — will ring in 2001 with a raucous live show mixing rock, blues and soul in a manner that is both unpredictable and unparalleled.

Lyon has reason to be revved. His month-old new release, “Messin With the Blues,” (Leroy Records BHCD1001) produced by high school pal and E Streeter Garry Tallent (who also plays bass and co-wrote many of the songs with Lyon), finds the singer in top-notch form, blowing through a lucky 13 tracks that traverse a broad spectrum of blues, from New Orleans to Chicago-style to Cajun. As hard as this is to believe, it’s the first time the Ocean Grove native has ever done a full-on blues album. Better late than never.

Taking a short break from one of his periodic old-record hunts, Lyon phoned in from the corner of Lafayette and Frontage Road in New Orleans to speak to Jersey Alive about his recommitment to the blues, the difference between age and maturity, and what it means to be a Scarlet Flyer from Neptune.

(As of right now, “Messin’ With the Blues” is available only through the Web site www.southsidejohnny.org)

JERSEY ALIVE: I guess you’ve been pestered for years by fans saying, “When ya gonna do a blues album?”

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Yeah. (laughs).

JERSEY ALIVE: So, you did it!

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Yeah but ya know, ya do it for yourself because you feel like you’re ready for certain things at certain times. I started out singin’ blues. I did it for 10 years before I made a record, so by the time I made my first record I thought, “I really don’t want to a lot of blues stuff right now.” And now I’ve come full circle. I mean, I loved making the record. It was such a lot of fun. It was really just close your eyes and sing time.

JERSEY ALIVE: I think you need a certain bit of life experience to really do a good blues album . . .

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: (interrupts) You mean old? Like in old? (laughs)

JERSEY ALIVE: Well, I’m not sayin’ that, am I?

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Well, yeah. (laughs)

JERSEY ALIVE: So how old a man are you nowadays?

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: I’m 51. Either 51 or 52. I don’t remember.

JERSEY ALIVE: Oh yeah? The birth certificate was lost somewhere, just like Louis Armstrong?

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: I thought I was 51 for a whole year until somebody said, “No you’re not. You’re only 50.” Well then don’t bother me about it, if I don’t know I don’t know and I don’t wanna know.

JERSEY ALIVE: Well it’s a bonus! You’re a year younger.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: I don’t care one way or another. It doesn’t matter to me, and it’s not something to dwell on.

JERSEY ALIVE: Well, I’m 44, so I’m gainin’ on ya.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: A mere pup.

JERSEY ALIVE: (laughs) The thing about you is that your voice . . .

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: (interrupts) Sounds like an old man!

JERSEY ALIVE: Yeah. You sounded like an old man when you were 20.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: (laughs) That’s true.

JERSEY ALIVE: That, to me, is the mark of a great singer. When you listen to Otis Redding — he passed away when he was 26, yet he sang like he lived his life for 50 years.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Yeah. You hear his first records, and he sounds like this old weary guy. But I think it also is the style of music too. Rhythm and blues is not teen-age music. It’s very much a music that is a layer of things that can go on between men and women, and people. All that stuff about sex and unhappiness. It’s really a much more mature music than what most people make, and I’m glad of that. I mean I didn’t consciously do that, but it means I can do it, instead of trying to make teen-age music when I’m 50. I don’t have to sing “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to” at 51 or 52, whatever I am.

JERSEY ALIVE: So you have matured. Is that what you are trying to tell me?

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: I haven’t really matured. I just aged. (laughs)

JERSEY ALIVE: I like the little touch at the beginning of your new CD, where you can hear scratches, and at the very end you can hear the needle pick up.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Yeah, that’s Garry’s machine. That’s one of his turntables. He said “Listen!” and it went “Click!” and I went “OK!”

JERSEY ALIVE: (laughs) That Garry. He’s some cat.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: He’s a wild cat.

JERSEY ALIVE: You grew up with him right?

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: In high school. I think the first or second year of high school he moved up from the South and I thought, “Who is this weirdo with the two-tone shoes and the high roll shirts?” He looked like a Southern cat! And everyone looked at him like a weirdo, but he played. He had been in bands since he was 9 years old.

JERSEY ALIVE: And where did you guys go to high school?

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Neptune High School. The Scarlet Flyers, man.

JERSEY ALIVE: But you weren’t on any teams, were you?

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Nah, I never got the jersey, OK? I was not athletic and still ain’t.

JERSEY ALIVE: You’re athletic on stage, though.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Yeah, it’s the only place I burn off any calories. I gotta start doin’ it more.

JERSEY ALIVE: When somebody thinks “blues” they aren’t always aware of the many different styles, and you seem to have run the gamut with this album, you’ve got swamp stuff, and more happy things. There’s one song that I really love. I think “Tell ‘Em I’m Broke” should be the single.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: I think that’s what we were thinking of too, yeah. It’s a very New Orleansy kind of sound that we were looking for. That really jaunty kind of march-along horns.

JERSEY ALIVE: The horn section sounds great.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: They were great. They’re unbelievable. They got all their stuff done in a day and a half. They really did. They’re all just great players.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Mark (Pender, trumpet) and Richie (“La Bamba” Rosenberg, trombone) come out every time they get a chance, when they get away from Conan (O’Brien), if they can make the gig after the show or if they can get some time off.

JERSEY ALIVE: I imagine, now that they play every night (on “The Conan O’Brien Show,” in the Max Weinberg 7) , their chops must be incredible.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Yeah. Mark and Richie were always monster chopmeisters.

JERSEY ALIVE: How long have you been living in Nashville?

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: About three and a half years I guess, four years, something like that.

JERSEY ALIVE: You haven’t lost your Jersey accent. You still sound like me.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: I find that the longer I stay down there the harder my accent becomes. Sort of self defense.

JERSEY ALIVE: The Jersey attitude never leaves.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Nah. I’m accused of being a little hard-edged down there, but that’s ok. I keep ‘em on the straight and narrow. That’s my job.

JERSEY ALIVE: (laughs) That’s good. You’re our representative down there.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: (laughs) (Former Young Rascal) Felix Cavaliere is down here. A bunch of people are down here from up North. They all say the same thing: “Who are these people!”

JERSEY ALIVE: You’re like a bunch of aliens. And when you tell them you’re from Neptune, they go, “OK, that makes sense.”

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: (laughs) That makes sense, right. I’m a Scarlet Flyer from Neptune! (laughs)

JERSEY ALIVE: That’s the next album title.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Ah. It may be. “Hi. I’m from Neptune.” (laughs)

JERSEY ALIVE: You’re quite a belter on stage.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: I am. I’m trying to get a little more subtle in my approach but, you know, on stage it’s probably more fun for me than anybody else. I just like to let loose. Luckily for me I’ve got fans that understand that it’s not trying to be note-for-note reproductions of the records and they’ve been very great to me over the years. I’ve got the best fans. They let me do what I want to do, and you know, going into these strange songs that the band doesn’t know.

JERSEY ALIVE: That’s always a fun thing. I remember once seeing you at the Capitol Theater in Passaic. It was around the time that Richard Rodgers died. And you stepped out of the whole persona and sort of gave a history lesson. You said, “Maybe you don’t know who this guy is . . .” and you performed “On the Street Where You Live.”

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Yes. Which wasn’t written by him. (laughs)

JERSEY ALIVE: It wasn’t?

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: I think it was written by, uh, Lerner and Lowe.

JERSEY ALIVE: Oh, jeez.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: (laughs) But that shows ya, ya know? I mean on stage, those kind of things, it doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s just supposed to be a night to let loose.

JERSEY ALIVE: Have you ever thought of doing an album of pop standards?

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Yeah, actually I’m kind of mulling over doing something like that next. I’m not sure, I mean, there’s a number of things I want to do, but I don’t know which way to jump as far as that goes. Should I do it with the 18-piece horn section or should I do it with the intimate, kinda smoky-lounge thing?

JERSEY ALIVE: I think the smoky lounge would be cool. That would be my choice.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: That’s one more vote. One more county heard from. If you’ve ever seen me with Richie’s big horn band, that’s such a killer thing to do too, so . . .

JERSEY ALIVE: You guys did that at a benefit show in Red Bank a few years ago.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Yes I think we did, yes.

JERSEY ALIVE: It’s always funny when you do those benefit shows. You have to deal with every Asbury Juke that ever existed.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: (uproarious laughter).

JERSEY ALIVE: They all come back to haunt you.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: There’s over 80 ex-Jukes or something like that. Somebody in England did a family tree one time and I mean, it was just an amazing amount of people that have been through the band.

JERSEY ALIVE: And you still have them all over for coffee, right?

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Sure. They all come by for a barbecue. All 80 of ‘em.

JERSEY ALIVE: “The Jukes are here!” (laughs)

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Oh, god. What’s this invading horde? Attila the Hun and the Jukes.

JERSEY ALIVE: I also wanted to mention (Jukes lead guitarist) Bobby Bandiera.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: Oh, you had to bring him up, huh? That oughta put the keebosh on all our fun now.

JERSEY ALIVE: His playing is really nice on the album.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: He played great. And it’s all kind of off-the-cuff. I mean he didn’t know anymore than I did about what the music was gonna be.

JERSEY ALIVE: It just goes to show that playing in all those clubs for 20 billion years paid off.

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY: And the thing is, Bobby and I have a real rapport with that stuff too. He understands what I’m trying to do and he really helps me get it done. Between him and Garry, I had a lot of support as far as just experimenting and we wanted to just let it happen the way we used to make records instead of all this intense overdubbing and cleaning up every mistake.

JERSEY ALIVE: So Bobby is kind of like Keith Richards to your Mick Jagger.