The Bobby Rock Newsletter #50 (3-19-2022) - A Rock Star Has Left the Building

The Bobby Rock Newsletter #50 (3-19-2022) - A Rock Star Has Left the Building

Hey Everybody - 

Welcome back! Been an interesting week on this end, and I’m hoping some of my reflections might prove to be thought-provoking for you. I’m also hoping some of the content this week doesn't come across as too fatalistic because I’m actually feeling the opposite. Next week, we will take a lighter tone with more drums, health stuff, etc. But for now, let’s dive into it:

  • A Spontaneous Reflection about the week behind us… and the largest view of life.

  • A Tip of the Cap to an old friend who moved on this week. I posted this reflection on social the day after it went down, but thought you guys might dig reading it.

  • A Short Book Excerpt about the critical role certain folks play in our journey… and why we should tell them about it.

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Here's a recent shot of my domesticated feral, Juju, and I… included here just to lighten the mood a bit:



Click HERE for more on Juju in Issue #29.

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Reflections on The End

It’s been a bit of a somber week. I lost an old friend who was well-loved by so many and who also happened to play a pivotal role in my journey: legendary rock singer, Joey C. Jones. We had known each other for some 38 years and had a brotherly rapport, but it wasn’t like we were always in regular contact. Still… this one hit me unexpectedly hard, so I’ve been trying to understand why (beyond the obvious sadness of the whole situation).

Yes, he was instrumental in me getting my first major gig, and yes, he was about my age. So when I think of my friend, I feel both gratitude for his generosity and dread in my mortality. But I also have a feeling that he, like me, thought his best work was in front of him, not behind him. And this makes dying on the younger side tougher to contend with, I feel. 

I know we all gotta go, and I’m pretty sure when we get out of here, career-type shit will probably mean very little to us in the bigger reflection of our life. STILL—for those among us who view our “careers" as more of a primary life purpose kind of thing—a grand “calling” of sorts—I think dying before we feel we've expressed our best would be torturous. I have no idea if my friend Joey felt that way. Perhaps he didn’t. But as of right now, I know I would. And I guess that’s part of what’s come up for me here in the grieving process.

Simply put, I’m not ready to die, and the fragile, unpredictable nature of death and dying—and how it can happen to anyone at any time—troubles me if I dwell on it too much. 

In fact...

I wanna live to be 106. Don’t ask me where the fuck I got that number, but that’s what the number has always been. I wanna outlive most everyone I know, gradually get rid of all my material possessions so I won’t have a bunch of strangers rummaging through my shit after I bail, then die alone in my bed, within a mile from the Pacific Ocean... only to be discovered by my housekeeper—who, by the way, has probably not even been born yet. 

And I wanna be buried in a biodegradable casket someplace, not cremated. Fuck that. Cremation is overrated, I say. Plus, I probably wouldn’t have anyone left to tend to my ashes. 

Instead…

I want to rot in the earth, 
return to the dirt, 
feed the worms and plants, 
and give something back… 
As I’m consumed by the very system of which, 
I would have enjoyed 106 years of consumption!

The End

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A Rock Star Has Left the Building: RIP Joey C. Jones:


(Posted 3-16-22)

Saddened to hear about the passing of Joey C. Jones—front-man extraordinaire and one of the kinder souls you might encounter. I have maintained for decades that I owe a huge part of my career to this guy, and I said as much in my last book. Joey and I were basically just colleagues in the mid-80s, working the same club circuit, but in different bands. And yet, he went above and beyond to connect me with (Sweet Savage EP producer) Dana Strum… who agreed to let me drive out to LA from Houston and audition for Vinnie Vincent Invasion, due largely to Joey’s endorsement. This changed my life.



But, of course, helping me out is just a minor footnote in the large life this guy lived. I’ve always considered Joey part of that unique, post-David Lee Roth era of “bold, brash, and blond” front-men from the 80s. But unlike Vince, Bret, or a shortlist of others, Joey never got his due—at least not in the way I always felt he should’ve… although it wasn’t for a lack of talent, drive, or determination.



His work with Sweet Savage in the mid-80s was a study in front-man mastery. That band created a packed-house frenzy everywhere they played, and Joey was their irreverent ringleader, captivating every crowd before him with his signature swagger and searing pop-metal vocals. He simply owned the room. And while his banter and musicality had clearly been honed through the rigors of the road, his magnetic stage presence was not something that could be manufactured. What you saw was authentically who he was. Undoubtedly, he was placed on this earth to do what he did.


These guys were actually somewhat ahead of the curve on
the Poison/Crue "hair metal" glam vibe...
although they never really got credit for it

Although the Sweet Savage EP remains something of a cult classic among hard rock aficionados, Joey would prove to be quite prolific through the years, consistently reinventing himself—and his sound. Holding roots in Dallas with different incarnations of his vision, Joey’s body of live and recorded work includes (from the top of my head) memorable stints with Pal Joey, Shock Tu, Joey C. Jones and the Glory Hounds, and the Joey C. Jones Band. The guy never seemed to stop creating… or improving. Hell, he just sent me some new shit sometime in the past year or so and I thought it was some of his best yet.

I knew Joey had been struggling with cancer over these past few years, beating it once and putting up a hell of a fight this last time. But I wasn’t ready for that text from Strum yesterday, letting me know about Joey’s passing. I realize it’s probably a blessing that he transitioned to his next adventure, now liberated from the pain and struggle he had been enduring. But man… a strange depression has clouded over me in the past 24 hours. I’m sure many of you who knew him can relate.

Joey… peace to you, my brother, and well-done! You brought a lot of light to this place with your artistry, your spirit, and your kindness. We love you.

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The Unbreakable Chains of Serendipity

If we really think about it, through every life runs a chain of serendipitous events that tie one key experience to another, and then to another.  If one single person doesn’t do what they did, that chain is broken and, suddenly, the entire trajectory of your life shifts—and many of the people in it and experiences of it, all go away. I say no thank you to that. 

Here are a few paragraphs from the last chapter of The Boy Is Gonna Rock that mentions, specifically, how Joey influenced my journey in this specific way:



No Regrets

In consideration of all the various crossroads I’ve bumped up against through the years, one of the most common questions I get from fans, friends, and media folks is the age-old, “Do you have any regrets?”

My answer is always an emphatic, “No.”

I understand that it’s human nature to go back in time and play the what-if game: to ponder all the ways one’s life might be grander in the present, had some key opportunity or decision gone a different way at some paramount juncture in the past. But I’ve also come to learn that the ripples in the pond that roll out of every decision we make and opportunity we engage (or not) become part of this complex matrix of cause and effect that shapes and influences every aspect of our lives—as we are living it now, and as it will largely unfold in the future.

This was one of the light-bulb-moment reminders for me in writing this book. I continued to make connections from one event along the journey, direct to another non-related event years down the road, realizing that one could not have happened without the other.

In Chapter One, I wrote about an ill-fated project where I wound up stranded without food or money in a vacant house in Oklahoma City. This was a “regrettable” low point, as you might imagine. But that project would also provide a chance meeting with Joey C. Jones… who would later create the in-road to Dana Strum and the Vinnie Vincent Invasion audition. If there was no low-point in OKC, there would’ve been no Joey C. Jones connection, and therefore, no inroad to VVI. Every single thing thereafter would’ve been different, and this would be a very different book!

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I then went on to detail a few other such synchronicities, all of which happened to be post-VVI connections that, to my point, would not likely have happened had Joey not blazed that original trail for me. But here’s my bigger point: I always felt good about letting Joey know how much his helping me impacted so much in my experience, and I think he got a kick out of it, as well.

Question is, who has single-handedly impacted your life in such a way that, had they not did what they did, or had you not met them, everything would be different?

And I say, let that person know about it if you still can. 

That is all...
 

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    Thanks again, everybody. Connect next week!

    Until then,
    BR


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