Southside Johnny: The Grandfather of the New Jersey Sound

By: Community Magazine | May 31, 2023 |  , Entertainment |  Atlantic Highlands , Colts Neck , Fair Haven , Holmdel , Lincroft , Little Silver , Locust , Middletown , Oceanport , Red Bank , Rumson , Sea Bright , Shrewsbury

STORY BY: Brian O’Malley | FEATURED PHOTO CREDIT: Danny Clinch

Simply put, Southside Johnny Lyon is New Jersey rock-and-roll royalty. As much a part of the Jersey Shore culture as saltwater taffy and summer beach badges, Lyon has been dubbed “the Grandfather of the New Jersey Sound”

If you ask him, he’ll jokingly say that he’s the “great-great-grandfather” of that sound. At 74 years old, however, he’s still rocking his heart out at over sixty shows per year. Southside is hesitant to put a definition on the “New Jersey Sound”, or even admit that there is one, saying, “the real link between all of us is the feeling that we’re privileged to do it, and we know that we better put out the energy and put out our best show night after night.”

Despite his signature song being titled “I Don’t Want to Go Home”, Lyon is immensely proud of having grown up on the Jersey Shore, saying, “for me it was a perfect upbringing; I love New Jersey and I love Monmouth County”.

Born in Neptune at what is now Jersey Shore Medical Center, Southside was raised in Ocean Grove in the 1950s and 1960s. “It was just a magical childhood here and Ocean Grove is a really happening town”, Lyon says, adding, “we may not have realized it as kids, but it’s a pleasure to live here.” The son of musically inclined parents, Lyon grew up listening to blues, jazz, R&B, and Top 40 records, but it was the emerging rock and roll genre that stole his heart.

John began his musical endeavors singing and playing bass with his school friends, performing at area parties “whether they wanted us to or not”. He found a place in a band that was looking for a bass player, and later met local up-and-coming musicians Steve Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen, and Gary Tallent, who helped convince him to make music his career.

“Steven and Bruce were saying that they were going to be musicians, and I thought, ‘well I am too, darn it’”, John relates, adding “I loved singing and I was getting away with it…I didn’t have any career plans so I thought that maybe I should try this.”

Lyon noted that he considered becoming a writer, but that he lacked the discipline that career required. “I’ve written lots of things, but once music grabbed hold of me, that was the end of that.” Going into the music industry wasn’t a sure thing but, as Lyon points out, “I really didn’t care if I made any money or not, and believe me in the first six or seven years we didn’t make any money”. John was able to scrape by, however, sharing a small apartment with Steve Van Zandt and two other musicians to make the rent.

For a brief period, Southside Johnny worked at the post office. After about ten months on the job, his supervisor approached him and advised him to quit his job and dedicate himself to making music, advice that was echoed by his father. As he tells it, “the boss came to me one day and said, ‘John go make music, don’t get stuck at the post office’… and a week later my father said almost the exact same thing, ‘John, go play music while you’re young’”.

And so Lyon dove headfirst into his music, linking up with Steve Van Zandt to develop a performing duo. Van Zandt and Lyon had similar tastes, both preferring their rock and roll with a little blues and R&B. The two began adding musicians to their band, all the while experimenting with the kind of sound they wanted to create. “We had an idea of what we wanted to do. We didn’t want it to be strictly rhythm and blues, we wanted a rock and roll element too,” Lyon recalls. “Eventually Steven suggested we add horns, and I said, ‘yeah let’s get horns’ and that was the start of the Jukes”.

Southside describes the Asbury Park music scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a time of great experimentation. A regular feature at the Upstage Club, the Student Prince, and later the Stone Pony, Lyon, Van Zandt, and friends like Springsteen found a receptive audience at the Jersey Shore that allowed them the freedom to refine their sound. “It was the 60s, everybody seemed to want to be in a band,” Lyon says. “There were a number of bands that were trying to find their own way of making music and we were in the thick of all that…fortunately for us the audiences in Asbury Park and Monmouth County were open to all that, they wanted to hear different things. For us, that was an education.”

The Asbury Jukes quickly found their rhythm, releasing their first album in 1976. In those early years, the band performed over two hundred shows a year, a number that now astonishes the 74 year old Lyon. Now in their fifth decade of performing, the Asbury Jukes can claim over 100 musicians who have joined their ranks over the years. And they’re still at it, with a full slate of shows scheduled this year, including headlining the inaugural North to Shore Festival this summer and returning to The Stone Pony Summer Stage in September.
 

PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Drake

The Festival Only New Jersey Could Create

The vision of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy, the North to Shore Festival will take place across the month of June in Atlantic City, Asbury Park, and Newark. New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), which is producing the event, is confident that the festival will provide yet another great reason for tourists to visit the Garden State, as well as provide opportunities for local business and talent in three of the state’s iconic cities to shine. North to Shore’s multi-genre lineup will feature the best of New Jersey’s music, comedy, poetry, theater, film, and technology. According to David Rodriguez, NJPAC’s Executive Vice President and Executive Producer, “A Jersey festival isn’t a Jersey festival unless it’s an authentic reflection of the artists who bring their creativity to work in this state 365 days a year.”

North to Shore’s publicist Brian McDonough agreed, saying, “It was critical to the true intent of North to Shore that it was community members who selected the performers that best represented the arts in their respective home cities.”

The Monmouth County leg of the tour will run from June 14 to June 18 at several venues including Asbury Park staples Wonder Bar, The Stone Pony, R Bar, and The Asbury.

Among the festival’s performers and presenters are legendary names like Alanis Morrisette, Santana, Demi Lovato, Bill Burr, and Bill Nye “The Science Guy”.

When asked about the decision to invite Southside Johnny to play, the festival organizers said, “Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes are Jersey legends. When the idea of a statewide festival came up, NJPAC knew Southside Johnny needed to be involved.”

Lyon is excited to be a part of North to Shore and looks forward to his fans having a good time. As to what kind of show we can expect and whether there will be any surprises in store, Southside says, “I usually rely on the night to tell me what I need to do”. He added, “you know, you make a set list and then you laugh because you know you’re not going to follow it…luckily I have a band that I can shout out songs to and they’re right on top of it”.

NJPAC is hopeful that the festival will also provide opportunities for local business and talent in its host cities to shine. In addition to providing a forum for outstanding entertainment, the goal is that North to Shore will generate economic activity while highlighting the depth of the state’s diversity, creativity, and energy.
 

PHOTO CREDIT: Bob Schultz
 

We’re Havin’ a Party

The home of the Jersey Shore music scene since 1973, The Stone Pony looks forward to the start of its annual Summer Stage Show in the next few weeks. The iconic Asbury Park club was the springboard for musicians like Southside Johnny, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, and Jon Bon Jovi. Summer Stage can attribute a great deal of its success to the album release concert for Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes first record, “I Don’t Want to Go Home”, on Memorial Day weekend 1976. Southside has been a regular performer at the Summer Stage in the decades since.

With a performance slated on September 2, Lyon is excited to be a part of this year’s program. “It’s a great place and they do a terrific job,” Lyon says. “People sit on the boardwalk and near the hotels and they watch…I’m happy that they’re happy.” With plans for The Jukes’ setlist still in the works, Southside admits, “once it starts looming on the horizon I’ll start thinking about what I want to do.”

Lyon describes his strategy for designing a show, “basically what we’re trying to do is please ourselves, musically, and find some way to go that’s exciting and gratifying. We hope that the audience likes it, and fortunately for all of us we have found an audience that does,” adding that, “the audience really brings out the best in us and those are the things you live for”.

He is grateful for the support his fans have provided the band throughout the years, saying, “we have an audience that was willing to give us a shot. If you are really sincere in what you’re doing they will listen to you and they will respond.” John is quick to joke that he can rely on his Monmouth County fans to keep him honest, saying, “nobody ever goes through the motions with a Jersey Shore audience without being, you know, booed…you really have to put it out.”

Southside Johnny’s body of work has become so much so identified with the state that he was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2019. Lyon never imagined the kid from Ocean Grove would ever be added to the Hall of Fame’s roster, joking, “no, I never thought I would. I thought maybe I’d make it on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, but not the Hall of Fame.” Humor aside, Southside is humbled by the recognition, wishing that his parents were still alive to witness the event. “It would have tickled them pink,” he said, adding, “it’s an honor that seems so over the top for me because I’m a singer, you know, and there are people out there like firemen and all the rest who really deserve that kind of honor”. Lyon noted that he accepted the Hall of Fame induction at the insistence of his good friend, Jon Bon Jovi. “I couldn’t say no…he’s been a really good friend to me for years and years”.

The Monmouth County native still lives in Ocean Grove today and he loves his hometown. In his typical humorous style, Southside Johnny reminds his neighbors that “summer is coming…fight for those beach parking spaces!”

Asked why he remains in Monmouth County after all these years, Lyon says with a bit of pride, “I’ve lived all around – all over California, Delaware, Nashville, New York. I washed up back at the Jersey Shore, and I figure this is where I belong.”
 

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