Though a favorite son of New Jersey, “Southside” Johnny Lyon can thank Richmond for two formative firsts: his first band and his first serious girlfriend.
In the early 1970s, the Asbury Park music scene was a fluid one with players like Bruce Springsteen, Miami Steve Van Zandt, Garry Tallent and Southside Johnny moving around between different line-ups. In early 1972, a group of musicians went to play with Springsteen in Richmond for a series of shows at the Back Door [future home of Twisters, Nanci Raygun and Strange Matter].
“A guy came up to me after a show and asked if I wanted to start a band,” remembers Lyon. “Bruce also introduced me to a girl that night and I fell in love. I got a band and a girlfriend which was more than I had in New Jersey. So I stuck around.”
Lyon ended up living in Richmond for over a year and marrying the girlfriend. But by the end of 1973, he was back in Jersey, assembling the crew that would ultimately become Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. Fifty years later, he’ll bring the latest assemblage of Jukes to the Tin Pan on Sunday, June 4th.
Throughout the 70s, the band was intrinsically linked to Springsteen, recording several of his songs, including “The Fever” and “Fade Away,” and sharing several E Street Band players. Since then, more than 150 musicians have cycled through the Jukes, including Boz Scaggs and a young Jon Bon Jovi. “I have a horn section so people come and go,” jokes Lyon. “I can’t remember all of them.”
Van Zandt, who was a founding Juke, committed to the E Street Band as Springsteen’s star rose. While the Boss became a marquee act, Lyon maintained an aggressive touring schedule that would ultimately end his marriage but burnished his reputation as a passionate performer and good-time party bandleader. He’s been particularly popular in the United Kingdom and Europe.
“When we first went over there, I think they thought everybody had a big horn section but we were unique in that aspect,” he says. “I mean, when the horns kick in it takes it to a whole other level.”
In the years since the Asbury Park heyday of the 70s and 80s, Lyon has experimented writing music in more specific genres. He collaborated with longtime bandmate Richie “La Bamba” Rosenberg on “Grapefruit Moon,” a jazz record that came out in 2008 and was re-released in 2021. And the last studio album from the Jukes was “Soultime!” in 2015 that brought 1970s soul and R&B influences more to the fore.
An unexpected release last year resulted in a burst of new acclaim for Lyon when his original label, Epic, put out “Live in Cleveland ‘77,” a re-engineered recording of a fabled performance at the Agora Ballroom and Theatre in Cleveland. “It really wasn’t something I had any input in other than to say yes or no,” says Lyon. “They did a great job with mixing the singing and all that stuff. I got talked into it and a lot of people really liked it, so that’s great.”
The album features an appearance by Ronnie Spector, the original “bad girl of rock and roll,” who toured with the band and who was a featured singer on a number of Southside Johnny tracks. “She was great to have on the road. She was just one of the guys, you know,” remembers Lyon. “It’s tough when you’re the only female with like, 10 guys on a bus. But she fit right in. I really cherished our time together.”
While some of his former bandmates have landed high-profile gigs or become megastars like Springsteen, Lyon enjoys a relatively low-key lifestyle in his native New Jersey not far from where he was born. “I don’t want to be famous; I want to be left alone,” he says. “I like to wander around and think and just kind of drift around with my head in the clouds. If people are constantly coming up to you you can’t do that.”
“I think all of us, Jon Bon and Bruce and Steven and Garry and I, we all kind of got what we wanted,” he continues. “Some of us wanted to be movers and shakers and some of us wanted to be left alone to make music. I think you have to really be conscious of what you want and be able to say, ‘No, I’m not that.’”
During Lyon’s induction into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2018, Bon Jovi referred to him as the grandfather of the New Jersey sound. When asked to characterize that sound, Lyon says, “I don’t think there is an actual sound, it’s more an ethos where you go out and you prove yourself every night. You have to mean what you’re doing and you have to put your heart and soul into it.
“Oh, and we like to be loud.”
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes will appear at The Tin Pan on Sunday, June 4th from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets available here.
