Jon was in ROCK CITY. This interview was taken place on April 5, a few hours before the Tokyo Dome concert.
| ROCK CITY (2001) |
INTERVIEWER: Are you having a good time on stage so far?
JON: It's been good, yeah, you know, back from my other job now, in fact being a Rock 'n Roll star. But I'm good with it, cuz I'm enjoying and singing great, you know. It's been fun to play different songs and you know you challenge the band every night to remember old songs. They remember right away, you know. So, it's a nice feeling. I mean...Osaka and Yokohama, just pulling out old stuff, Tokyo Road, playing the whole album entirely you know, pulling out WILD IS THE WIND, RAISE YOUR HANDS...so it's been cool.
INTERVIEWER: I think the Japanese fans might have reconfirmed that BJ is not a ballad band, but is a rock band. (BJ didn't play ballads on March 28th, because they played the songs on the "Tokyo Road" Album exactly the same order as they are on the album.)
JON: Yeah, always was, and that album's a good indicater as is the live album that we release in the rest of the world, there's no ballads on that either. So we rocked up a lot of hits, but it's a rockin' record.
INTERVIEWER: What do you think about rock tracks only show? I think you need some ballads to raise the various expressions during the show.
JON: Just fine. You know it wasn't.....cuz, I'm very good at knowing how to take an audience up and down throughout the course of the night, it wasn't very good for the pacing to perform the album its whole like that, but you know, because of the event, the release of the record, people wanted to hear some of the old songs, I did it that way, but I wouldn't wanna do that every night. And I could physically, but I don't think it was a very good pacing. I would pace it differently if I just put those songs together.
INTERVIEWER: So, I thought the second night was pretty awesome. What do you say?
JON: Great, and I think Osaka was the best one, and then tonight, they're gonna be pulling me off the stage you know, cuz there is the hard curfew but...I don' care. (with mischief in his eyes) Tonight I'm going for everything.
INTERVIEWER: Have you noticed that Aerosmith was watching you on the second night in Yokohama?
JON: Oh, yeah. We knew they were coming. We knew we all in this hotel together all week. We get together everyday you know, had dinner, go to gym or something but.....there was the one night they were able to come. So they came to see the stage and had to get back to their meeting...so...it was great to see them, great to spend a week with Aerosmith.
INTERVIEWER: Compared to Crush Tour, it seems that you are more relaxing and having much fun on stage.
JON: We are having just as much fun. If it's more, it's because everything worked out well as we really hoped it would. I think we're done promoting "CRUSH", we've done telling people that the record's gonna be great, try...you know. There's no more of that. Now this is about the victory run. This is about going around and say "thanks! It's been great". There's probably a little more of that...Yeah, uh-huh...uh-huh, it's not so much about just playing the singles every night. The hits, the hits, the hits. You know specially I think probably last year, that's all we had to do. We go around and say "Look! It's My Life, Great song! Listen to it! Listen..." you know, and pounded over people's heads. And in summer , we get to come around to take pictures with the trophy for the best song and best songwriter, (He is talking about Japanese Music Awards) so it makes you feel good.
INTERVIEWER: CRUSH has been successful all over the world. Now, would you like to make the next album before the engine cools down again?
JON: Oh, sure. It will be nice. Yeah, we don't wanna waste 4 years, no, I wanna have a record out a year from now. You know, that's the idea, but it takes some real concentrate effort to write cuz I don't...I don't have anything that I love right now, song wise. So, it's gonna take hard concentration to get 10, 12 great songs between now and.....January. So, we'll see.
INTERVIEWER: What made "CRUSH" so successful? I think one of the causes is a songwriting. There are so many great songs on this record and also, the impact of IT'S MY LIFE.
JON: That would have been it. I don't know how, I don't know why. But people really ??? in that lyrics, and I wrote it about me. You know, I wrote it about my juggling movies and music. And...in the world, there's.....they don't want me to do both, and I say, "Too bad. It's my life." you know, I'm gonna do it like Frankie said, Frank Sinatra, "I did it my way", you know, and you don't like it too bad! But I didn't realize it, young kids are gonna say, "No, It's my life." or sports teams are gonna say, "It's now or never", I didn't realize that...and that's probably the best thing about writing a song that so....from your own heart, and not worrying about trying to write a hit song. Just writing a song that means something to you. Those are the ones that other people go "Yeah, man. That's me." You know writing a song like JUST OLDER, you know as I'm getting older, or the other bands are much older than I am, it supposes to be a young man's game. And it takes a lot of guts to write a song like JUST OLDER, and I say "Oh, I put it on this record. I don't care cuz I love this song." And as I did it, I realized every night people looooove to hear that song. They really want us to play it every night because they get that lyrics, they wanna hear that. And so, that's the part of....the success of this record is the honesty. It's not just a bunch of...fictional stories that we've created in the proper songs.
INTERVIEWER: Looking back those 4 shows so far, have you satisfied with the order of the set lists?
JON: Set list is....Throw it out! Do it again! I don't know whether it....I like the changes every night. You know I said the first night was special. We wouldn't wanna do that again because of the pacing wasn't quite right for me, the second night was way better, the third night was phenomena, the fourth night Richie got sick so I had to improvise....but I thought it still went fine for what it was, and tonight I'm just gonna go one wild until Mr. UDO screams at me to get off the stage so...(laughing) you know I'm really looking forward to getting...at least getting near of that.
INTERVIEWER: You played RAISE YOUR HANDS in Nagoya. Did you practice that song during the soundcheck?
JON: Obie called me from America. He said "We didn't have any good tape of RAISE YOUR HANDS so start playing it." "OK." And we have to get a version of EDGE OF BROKEN HEART cuz we never did that song, never recorded, so we need to.....that's the kind of stuff I wanna do this whole summer. I just wanna find...that's why you know in the soundcheck we are playing PINK CADILLAC you know, or DANCING IN THE STREETS as a part of SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD, just....you name it, we'll play it. And that's the kind of stuff that inspires me to write new materials. You know, makes you come up with new ideas.
INTERVIEWER: Yokohama Arena (capacity of 13,000) was a small venue for BJ and fans were quite impressed to see BJ at such a close range. There were passageways running from the both sides of the stage so....it's pretty cool.
JON: Oh, that's nice. I'm gonna come back next time and do something even more intimate. But last time we went to where Cheap Trick played, at really little place, (He is talking about a small club with capacity of 2,000) if I would saw that a week ago or last June, I would have played there. You know, something reeeeally little. I thought that was a great club. A really good place to go. So maybe next time we come back, we can do a bunch of those little little little places...that would be good. I'm getting a little tired of baseball stadiums.....so I think...the next one...I got a feeling that the next one's gonna be a different kind of tour.
INTERVIEWER: Every BJ fan in Japan is watching this TV program and is it OK for you to say that?
JON: I don't lie! ....................................only girls.(laughing)
INTERVIEWER: only girls! (laughing) By the way, do you like Cheap Trick?
JON: Yeah, I'm always enjoying the band. He's a great singer and Rick...reeeally playing well. And it's funny cuz all week Aerosmith and we both talking about, "We gotta go see Cheap Trick! We gotta go see Cheap Trick!" and I went for a while last night. I enjoyed it. It was great.
INTERVIEWER: Have you seen them in US?
JON: Well, not for a while. Not for a long while. But I've gone to see them before in America. They've been to our shows, we've been to their shows you know. (Robin from Cheap Trick came to see BJ show at Tokyo Dome with his family.)
INTERVIEWER: This is not about music but...you have been surrounded by too many fans at Nagoya Station, were you scared of them?
JON: I'm a little unconfortable in it. Not so much for my safety but for their safety....or passing by you know, there's a mother with a little baby standing too close to the train tracks and they get run over on the way to...you know, that's not very good. And so....I don't feel very confortable because I can't give the fans my full attension and they are not paying attension to what they are doing. Someone can get hurt. So I...I do feel a little unconfortable in that kind of situation but it's the only way to get in there.
INTERVIEWER: When we talked in Mexico City last month, you said that you were gonna make the next BJ album if you didn't get any good movie offer. Have you got any offer?
JON: No. No. There's nothing happening. There's a strike in LA that everybody keeps talking about, and if it happens, it happens in July. And I'm working till July so I can't look for any movies until September, and nobody's talking about September movies right now...so I have two more days for filming when I get back. We go home tomorrow. I have a week off and two days before American shows begin. And I will be done with the movie. And hopefully it turns out good.
INTERVIEWER: In Japan, people are talking about political, educational and economic collapses all the time. But BJ fans are lucky enough because they can find a hope in you. They can get an energy from your shows. They can find a way by reading the lyrics of BJ songs.
JON: Ooh, that's nice. Thank you. Look. I try to find optimism....in....anything. I think people.....that's their nature. You know, and there's a political swing that puts the country in the down period, seems to me happening in the world all over. You know, America's gone through in a tough economic times. We are just about the really tough economic times. We have a president who spoke process completely different than the guy that he followed, and it's scaring the hell out of us, but you gotta try to find optimism in it, you know. And you gotta do something to make a better place for you. I try to find that optimism personally.
INTERVIEWER: I think probably the fans who went to your concert got a positive message from the songs like IT'S MY LIFE and JUST OLDER and when they got out of the venue, they must have been thinking "OK! Let's get back to work again!"
JON: Ooh, that's good. That is the idea. You know, we don't realize it when we are in it. How.....Rock 'n Roll affects people. And their affects in that building up to that night, and if you give them the great show, they carry it with them, a day or a week. And so....there's an old story I heard....it might have been Osaka, if I'm not mistaking. There was a noodle shop there...You went to, you were with me!
INTERVIEWER: Aah, last time!
JON: Last time!
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
JON: And that kid became a singer!
INTERVIEWER: That's right!!
JON: Right? Because I came in there and...
INTERVIEWER: Miso Ramen!
JON: Yeah! I met that kid and...you know what I mean. You touch somebody like that, and now they make records! You know, that's pretty amazing. You know what I mean, I had an opportunity to meet heroes of my growing up and...you know all those holding up these records and dreaming about making records someday myself. And then you go, "I can do that!" and you do it, so you know, somebody comes to the dome tonight, and I say something that moves them, maybe they're gonna go home and do something great.