MONTREAL – When Southside Johnny got on the road to promote a trio of classic soulful rhythm ’n’ blues albums with the Asbury Jukes in the second half of the 1970s, he was riding in the shadow of his friend and fellow New Jersey son Bruce Springsteen’s mega-breakout. And he had only one goal.

“I wanted to stick it to people,” the man born John Lyon said during a recent telephone interview. Lyon and bandmate Steven Van Zandt (now better known as Little Steven) were “very aggressive about that New Jersey being a joke state thing,” he said. “We thought ‘We’ll show you.’ We’d go onstage and the horns would hit that big chord. It was not like another band hitting two guitars. And I was a wild performer on stage. Iggy Pop was one of my heroes. So between Steve wanting to prove himself and me wanting to prove myself, that was the real bond. We really wanted to say ‘This is good and you have to pay attention.’

Read the full story at The Montreal Gazette…