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December, 2000
Fan of the Month:
Debbie May Congratulations, you've won a signed Southside Johnny poster!  Most of you are probably aware of the Southside Digest Internet newsletter that is coordinated by fan, Debbie May. Debbie's efforts are very much appreciated by Southside Johnny and his management team and we would like to acknowledge this by honoring her as Fan Of The Month for December. We recently caught up with Debbie who kindly shared some of her thoughts about Johnny's music with us as well as an insight into how the Digest began.When did you first become aware of Southside Johnny and the Jukes? Well, I grew up in NJ so it was hard not to know about them. I've owned all of the albums and been a fan for it seems like forever. But, for lots of different reasons, my first show was actually quite late in the game - it was in 1990. I've made up for lost time though. What attracted you to their music? The short answer is Southside Johnny's voice. I could listen to that man sing forever! One of the reasons that I loved the acoustic tour so much was that you could really hear his voice in the mix. Approximately how many live performances have you seen? That's a tough one for me to answer. I'm not good at keeping track of those things. I know I've seen over 50, but I don't really know for sure exactly how many. What's your all-time favorite song and why? There's no way that I can pick just one! This is hard for me, but I guess I have 2 favorite songs. "Tell Me That Our Love's Still Strong" - I love this one because of the horns. It's my most favorite horn solo. The other one is "Day In and Day Out"- I love this one because I just love to hear SSJ sing it (it's that voice thing). When "Spittin' Fire" came out, it took me a long time to listen to the entire album because I kept hitting repeat with "Day In and Day Out"! 'Course, there's an unreleased song that even SSJ doesn't remember - but I always loved "What Love Takes." That has a nice horn section in it as well and I know they played it acoustically at one of their radio appearances (back in '94 I think). Have you got a favorite quote and/or story from any of the shows you've seen to date? I probably have a bunch of these. One of the funnier ones happened this past Sept at Hampton Beach. I was sitting with my 7 of my friends in the front. I wasn't driving so, well, let's just say that I wasn't driving... Anyway, at one point, SSJ & Bobby were playing around and trying to figure out what to play. SSJ told Bobby to play some country because "Debbie May will go nuts." (Let's also say that country music is not exactly my favorite.) The funny part is that I never heard my name so I turned to my friends and said, "Who?" My friends laughed so hard. All of them screamed, "You!" Go figure that my favorite performer says my name onstage and I don't even hear it!! Oops! Is there a particular performance that holds special memories for you and if so, could you elaborate? Well, the first one that comes to mind is the One Step Up benefit on 9/23/97. It wasn't a Jukes' show, but it was the first opportunity to see SSJ perform after his break. I had thought that I would never see him perform again and I'll never forget that night. He only sang a couple of songs and the funny thing is that I can only remember 2 of them: "Trapped Again" and "The Fever." "Trapped Again" was the first song he sang that night. I can't really describe how I felt. I was overwhelmed by the fact that I was actually seeing SSJ sing again and that was somewhat emotional for me. "The Fever" was extra special that night as well. How did the Southside Digest come about? I finally got connected to the Internet around 1993. The first thing I did was search for SSJ info. I found an SSJ digest. I signed up right away. It was a very quiet list and soon after I signed up, the person who was running it (I'm very bad with names, but I wish I could remember it) had to give it up. I just didn't want it to die so I found a way to keep it running. I took it over sometime in '93 or '94 and it has grown from 35 or so members to almost 700 today. There have been some bumps along the way and we have changed mailing list providers a few times, but we've kept it going. We even kept it going while SSJ was on his break - it was quiet, but it was still going. It's helped to know that I had the support of SSJ & the band. Thanks to Debbie, the Southside Digest has enabled fans of Johnny's music from all over the world to share a common wavelength. It has given them a connection to his music and many friendships have developed as a result of her devotion. To subscribe to the Southside Digest, send a blank e-mail to: southside-subscribe@topica.com Congratulations to Debbie, Fan Of The Month for December 2000, from everyone at southsidejohnny.org.
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