Southside Johnny.com: John's Jive

February 10, 2002

"Out of all the virtual-gin-joints in all of webworld, she has to link into mine"
- Rik in "Cyber-Blanca"

Hey there my Jukish friends. It's old man Southside with his semi-hemi-demi-quasi-annual jive to brighten your day and frighten your nights. Hope this incredibly brutal winter hasn't dampened the spirits of all y'all. As I type this, I am in the Asbury Park area and it is a bone-chilling 52 degrees F on Feb 10th. Brrrrr!

On a serious note, I wish to apologize to everyone for the nasty posts that caused us to shut down the message board last week. I'm sure many of you were as upset as I was by the viciousness of the poor lost soul who wrote them. As a guy whose whole life has been spent in the pursuit of giving (and getting) a little joy out of this existence, it hurts me deeply to think that there are people who have so much inner turmoil that they feel the need to take joy OUT of the world. I never have understood how any one could get pleasure out of hurting someone. Unless, like a certain guitar player I know, one enjoys having one's bottom paddled while being force-fed pickled herring by a female in fishnets and leather! But this is different. Let's hope that the person responsible finds some happiness and steps away from the anger. The message board should be back up soon, and if any more nastiness appears, please try to ignore it and we will do our best to keep it off the site. Thanks for your patience.

On a happier note, the Jukes and I are hoping to get back into the studio in the next few months to record a "soul" album. Now, by soul I mean a number of the traditional R&B/ Soul styles that I loved as a youth (yes, I was one once...shut up)! There will be some original songs and some covers. How it all will work out, I haven't a clue, but we will try our best. The CD should be out sometime this year. We'll let you know via the web site. On the touring front, Bill and Barry are trying to get us out to places we haven't played in a while, like the West coast, Texas, Florida and the South. We have a number of English dates in the fall, and are trying to get to all of Europe at that time, too. There is also a possibility of the Jukes infesting Japan in the future....if the Health Department doesn't hear about it first.

So, all in all, a busy time for yours truly. Hope my feeble old brain can stand the strain. But it makes it all worth while when I see the happy, smiling faces of the band as I lose my mind in volcanic fashion on stage and sink to my knees in a fit of apoplexy. Oh, the joys of a life in music!

Keep Smilin'!
Southside Johnny