I was first introduced to SSJ back in October, 1976. My buddy in jumpschool (US Army - Airborne School) turned me on to "I don't want to go home" and I've been hooked since. Two years later I was stationed in Italy with the 509th Airborne Battalion in Vicenza. One of our favorite clubs was in the hills over-looking Verona (where Romeo & Juliette lived,... and died). This club would play any music that the patrons brought in. One night I brought in a couple of my Jukes tapes. The DJ kept coming back to me to "borrow" the Jukes because the other people in the club kept asking for more. I left them my tapes that night and had some more sent from the states. When I left Italy in late '79 those tapes were still being played in that night club.

I've seen the Jukes in Jersey (a few times), San Diego (a few more times) and Vegas. I was VERY disappointed when the show in Scottsdale (damn the Cajun House) was cancelled! Over the years, I have probably been one of Johnny's most vocal prophets; proclaiming to the masses the greatest R&B band to ever grace the surface of mother earth. Any way, two of my favorite pictures are of me and SSJ; one from '78, the other from 2001. We haven't changed a bit; either of us!

James "Barney" Barnett

Now, if I could only sing "The Fever" like Johnny...