(Tim)
Well John, where do I start?The band that
became Jester Jonze started in my basement around
1978.
I
formed it with
a cousin, a half assed bassist, and half
assed drunken keyboardist and the local hippy chick
drug dealer on vocals. We made a horrible sound but
it soon grew into a real band with real musicians.
By 1980 we were playing local bars. Some were pretty
rough dives. The keyboard player and me wrote a
couple of songs, but I hadn’t met THE Guy yet.
That happened in 1981 when I met Eddie Jones at a
local bar. He and a friend of his were looking for a
drummer. Turns out we were looking for two
guitarists. I was onstage during break talking to
the bands drummer, (I knew their guitarist.) when
this dude came running up to me asking if I was a
drummer. It was Mike Gregory and standing behind him
smiling his ass off was Eddie. We joined up and I
soon found out what a hot player Ed was. Mike was
so-so but a good front man. He did have a big mouth.
We spent the next year paying dues at local dives
and such. We branched out to the states around us.
Playing Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet tunes, but also
AC-DC and Bad Company tunes. We were ragged but
right. Some of the guys were better than others.
Namely me and Ed. We used to have fun then. We did
all the local clubs and even played a disco complete
with shiny ball on the ceiling. Our main club was
Newbys in
Salem
Va.
The bathroom was always flooding in front of the
stage. That’s the main thing I remember about that
place. But the people really liked us there. Ed and
Mike used to walk out onto the tables in front of
the stage when we did Freebird.
It
was quite a scene. They never knocked over any beer
as far as I Know.
(SBM)
Did they ever get hurt?
(Tim)
One night, Ed hopped on a table and landed flat on
his ass in
Radford
Va.
. As I was laughing my ass off, I saw he’d gotten
back on his feet without missing a note. Lots of
wild things like that used to happen when we were a
young bar band. I remember one place in Justice West
Va. We played in 1982. It was a pretty rough joint.
Our singer had managed to talk the local prom queen
to spending the day in his motel room drinking and
what ever. By show time, he was too drunk to stand
onstage and sing so, he SAT onstage and mumbled.
Later that night someone pulled a gun on someone and
the bar owner closed the place down. But not before
they had a
big fight. A real old west chair throwing knock down
drag out. We got paid for the whole night so we were
happy.
(SBM)
What was next in your career?
(Tim)
It
was around this time Ed asked me about writing some
originals. Later that summer, that band broke up.
But me and Ed stuck together. That’s when we
really began to write.
All
thru the 1980’s we wrote and wrote.
Watched trends come and go. But we stayed
with the music and sound we’d always loved….
bluesy hard rock and roll. I guess if we had made it
when we were the right age as in our 20’s we would
have had to be a hair band. But I just couldn’t
see myself wearing lipstick and make up and
generally looking like a fruit. Plus, my family
would have beat my ass of when I came home. But that
was what MTV was pushing then. Still, we kept
writing bluesy hard rock tunes and hoping for a
lucky break.
(SBM)
When did you start recording your material?
(Tim)
We starting making demo tapes I the late 80’s with
the help and backing of a local country band called
Cimarron
. They very nearly made the big time. In the
meantime, Ed joined a top 40 band because he missed
playing in front of a crowd. I would set in with
them occasionally. But they had a very young lead
singer who could do just about anything musically
and do it well. His name was Chuck Johnson. He was a
REAL front man. Great rough voice, good guitar
player and blues harpist. He wanted to play some
real rock and roll too, so we had him join us to
record some demos. Those demos are part of what
makes up the first album “No Foolin.’” We did
4 songs in one day on
Cimarron
’s dime. Very little mixing, so if something was a
bit out of whack, it stayed that way. We did
“Lonely Nights and Empty Bottles,” “Lost In
The Melody,” “Power Of The Night” and the one
you like “Rode Hard And Put Up Wet.” Chuck on
vocals and bass, Ed on guitar and me on drums.
Pretty much live in the studio. What you heard in
those 4 songs was pretty much us live. Then, we
packed it in until fall of 1992 when Me and Ed went
in and did “Boy toy.” That was one of those
songs that came out fast and angry. And it was one
of the fastest we recorded one after we’d written
it….2 months. Then, Chuck moved on to a funk band
and we lost touch with him. But me and Ed still had
songs to do, so we met up with Chuck Crush a local
bassist and studio owner. He became our engineer and
bass player in 1993 and still is to this day. We did
3 songs in may of that year “Miss Vanity,”
“Uptown Lady (In A Low Class Dive,” and “ Bad
Times White Lines.” I think “ No Foolin’” is
a pretty hot little album. Even though it was made
of demos and a period of 3 years. I think it’s a
great example of driving hard blues rock with a
melody. But it’s so hard to get anyone to buy
cd’s these days. They won’t take a chance if the
guy singing isn’t groaning like Eddie Vedder.
Personally, I get tired of all those bands that
sound the same. You’d think the younger folks
would too. But, it’s what MTV and radio force
feeds them. I really hope the internet and MP3
fulfils the promise I feel it has. But, with free
downloading, who wants to pay for anything? Anyway,
back to us…..
(SBM) Yes Please.
(Tim)And
then we began to write country tunes. I
knew it was a bad omen. But we thought we were
getting too old to do rock and this was long before
the internet took off, let alone a thing called
MP3’s. We thought those demos would stay just
that… unheard demos. As the 1990’s went on, and
trends changed yet again from grunge to rap, we just
felt our time had come and gone. Around 1999 I saw
something on TV about this site called Napster and
later MP3. I told Ed we should put our demos on a CD
and get it out there. And he was hot for the idea
too, so, in 2000 Jester Jonze hit the internet with
a thud.:)
(SBM)
How did the name"Jester Jonze" come about?
(Tim)
The name came about because we had been calling the
group Joker for Jones and Aker. But there was
million of them already. So we thought maybe Jester.
But there was a half million of them. I then thought
about calling it Jester Jonze in honor of the old
Southern bands with names like Lynyrd Skynyrd and
Marshall Tucker and so on. Also, it WAS Ed’s last
name.
(SBM)
What happened after you decided on "Jester
Jonze"?
(Tim)
Well, we started getting some pretty intense
attention by 2001. The logical next step was to
revive the band and see if we could still kick out
some jams. After 6 years we were a bit rusty, but
still had the raw power and the will. So, it
didn’t take long. We did 3 tunes for new CD
“Strong Medicine” in May of 2001. They were “
Child Of The 70’s,” my anthem about my teen
years, “Warm Summer Night” a bit of a departure
for us. Not really a riff based song, but very
melodic and with a different guitar sound. I love
it. It gets a fair amount of local airplay. We also
did one of the country tunes we wrote for
Cimarron
,”Rocking Steady To The Country.” It’s a big
rough but it is what it is. Then we stopped for the
birth of Ed’s son and started back in the spring
of 2002. We were much tighter this time and had more
songs that we knew what to do with. We did 4 rockers
“Stardust Woman,” “Dancing
With “The Medicine Man,” “Let Down High,”
and an old song we wrote in 1986 called
“Arms
Of Rock And Roll.” “Stardust” is from 1992 and
other 2 are brand new. I love Stardust Woman. I
think Ed’s lead is great on it. We put a lot of
little things in songs that most don’t bother
with. But it’s what you don’t hear at first that
usually makes the song. We went back in the fall and
did an acoustic song about my late brother in law
called “Perry’s Song.” I always get chocked up
with this one. That boy loved music like no one else
and had a lot of faith in us. But he died way too
young. But, the song is my tribute to him. At least
he’ll be remembered on the net. Something he would
have loved. As for this album. I think it has some
of our best work. It’s all pretty driving. Some
fool French reviewer called “Generic rock”, but
he missed the point. It’s anything but that.
It’s out hearts and souls everytime. And we
aren’t generic sorts of people. Geriatric maybe.:)
It’s funny how people here things. I guess
that’s how you can explain the popularity of
things like Rap. Okay, I know it takes a bit of
talent to rhyme in time and all, but don’t insult
real musicians and call it music. It’s more like
street corner poetry set to whistling noises. Maybe
the should start up poetry
station for rap and let Rod Mcquen host it? But
it’s an insult to call it music after some poor
guy has taken and inanimate object and played it
till his fingers bleed to coax a song out of it or
beat on the drums till his finger are all
blistered.Trying to get a decent sound. It’s just
sad. And you know I feel the same as you do about
the loss of the southern bands. I don’t know why
it had to end so soon. But I guess they weren’t
pretty enough for MTV.
(SBM)
Yes, screw MTV.
(Tim)
Like anyone would have cared. Just bring back my
music. And that’s pretty much what me Ed and Chuck
are trying to do. Keep the great music form the
70’s alive by writing
new tunes in that vein. Besides, it’s the music I
grew up on. I don’t know any better. I just wish
we could get some publicity and maybe sell a few of
the new CD. There's some good old kicking rock there
if people would just take a chance. But, we are just
now starting on the third CD and this one will be
great. We probably won't get it out before 2004 or
2005. But if the net is still here I can promise you
it will be our best work. We have about 5 new songs
already that are some of the most tuneful stuff
we've ever written. So, please buy or CD's and then
you'll all be primed and ready for the 3rd
one.And if you don't I'll just kill myself.:)
You
can find Jester Jonze at
http://www.mp3.com/jesterjonze
I
would like to thank Tim Aker for spilling the beans.
This
is John Lanham for SBM.
