John Lyon

John Lyon (born December 4, 1948), known professionally as Southside Johnny, is a retired American singer-songwriter who fronted the band Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.

Southside Johnny has long been considered the Grandfather of "the New Jersey Sound." Jon Bon Jovi has acknowledged Southside Johnny as his "reason for singing." He is a member of the New Jersey Hall of Fame, Class of 2018.

John Lyon was born in Neptune, New Jersey, and grew up in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. He grew up in a home full of music and with his parents' big record collection of blues and jazz; his father played bass in bands. "I grew up on music. We listened to Billie Holiday, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters and Big Joe Turner. My parents loved music, the louder the better. My father played in bands for years, and my mother went into labor with me at some seedy New Jersey club. I guess some things were just meant to be."

In 1967, Lyon graduated from Neptune High School with Garry Tallent and Vini Lopez who would both go on to play with him in the future.

Southside Johnny first achieved prominence in the mid-1970s as the second act to emerge from the Jersey Shore music scene and is considered part of the Jersey Shore sound, following Bruce Springsteen. Southside Johnny's first three albums, I Don't Want to Go Home (1976), This Time It's for Real (1977), and Hearts of Stone (1978), were Stax-influenced R&B, arranged and produced by the co-founder of the band and Springsteen confederate Steven Van Zandt, and largely featured songs written by Van Zandt and/or Springsteen. The Van Zandt-written "I Don't Want To Go Home" became Southside Johnny's signature song, an evocative mixture of horn-based melodic riffs and sentimental lyrics. Other notable songs included "The Fever", "Talk to Me", "This Time It's For Real", "Love on the Wrong Side of Town", and a cover of Springsteen's "Hearts of Stone".

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.