Jeff Thursday Jan.22/09

A message to a friend out there...

I want to talk a bit about being bullied, feeling alone and how that can affect you. Seems when you are in the middle of it all you feel as though you are the only one who has ever been there and that you'll never get out alive. That sense of despair can be overwhelming. I remember it well. As a kid I was bullied severely after my family moved to a new town. I was so ashamed by it all that I never told my parents or my friends till much later in life. It was a daily agony, that sense of fear and it was so debilitating that my usual A+ grade point average plummeted to an all time low (that also was due to some terrible teachers as well at that time). I learned how to dummy down and avoid being noticed. I made some bad choices. Nobody liked a smart kid. Especially dumb ass bullies like the ones from my new school who hung around in small gangs and preyed on anyone who just happened to look wrong to them. When you're 11 or 12 and three guys a year or two older than you surround you (you see, these losers had already failed more than one year of school by that time) and tell you they're gonna kill you after school, well, you just believe them. You learn to run and hide from what seems like impossible odds and all the while you hate yourself for not standing up to them. This is the genesis of self loathing that can follow you into your adult life and hurts your adult choices if you're not careful.

For me I had music. It literally saved me. I was discovering my new talent and I practiced with a vengance born out of personal humiliation. Funnily enough, all my real friends at that time were a little older (fortunately, so too were the girls that hung around which ultimately, turned out to be real good thing, but that's another story...) and we were playing in bands together but they were all already in high school and lived a different life from 8:45am till 3:20pm. So there I was, in this weird temporary position of schoolyard prey by day and fledgling, junior rock star by night. It wasn't till a few years later and I finally got into high school myself that all the bullying stopped for me (not to mention the fact that I shot up to 6'2" over that summer. Funny how size matters.) The ones that hadn't quit school at 16 to work in the textile factory for $1.25 an hour went straight to the special bus and were never seen or heard from again. Those poor bastards. It wasn't till I became a bit older and figured out that "Shit Flows Downhill" theory. They were probably getting the crap beat out of them everynight at home and were taking it out on me during the day. It wasn't me. I was just a generic punching bag for their frustrations and anger. I hope they got some therapy along the way and got it together. Wait, that's a lie. The truth is I hope they're still making the minimum wage and are living a miserable life somewhere...(supposed to be funny).

What I am saying to you my friend, is that you are not alone here and you need to reach out and connect to the ones who love you now. Talk. Identify your passion and persue it faithfully. Give yourself a break. You can't figure this one out on your own. Everyone has obstacles to overcome in life and you can, with good and loving help, overcome any of your problems. Just don't try to do it alone. We need family and friends and don't worry, they will love you and support you through it all. It is worth the effort. Trust me on this...J.

Jeff Friday Jan.16/09

Hey, what's up...

Thought I'd drop a quick post in before my business day starts and I either forget or simply run out of gas. It's been a good week so far with some new dates coming in for the summer and later on in the year. It looks like we're solid at the Tim Horton's Brier in Calgary on March the 13th so I am now working on some other dates to go along with that if I can with the help of course, of my trusty agent...hey, sounds kinda like a Bond flick "The Man With the Golden Guitar" or hmmm... how about  "You Only Play Twice", no, that sounds like a gig on a cruise ship...ok, how about "Dr. Yes", no, I keep thinking Dr. Seuss. I'd use "Casino Royale With Cheese" but I think Quentin Tarantino (come on, hasn't everybody seen Pulp Fiction?...you know, "we're gonna get medieval on your ass"," Know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in France?") has a hold on that. Ouch. Yeah, yeah...uh, ok, how about..."Thunderballs" no, that's too blatantly pornographic and sounds like either a Mel Brooks movie or the new AC/DC album (gotta love AC/DC ) although, Ursula Andress looked pretty good to me even though I was only about 7 years old (yeah, I had that birds and bees thang pretty much figured out by then). I'm running out of movies... come on Mr. Broccoli help me out here, alright, lets go with "Diamonds Aren't Forever, They're Just Expensive". Somehow that seems to work for me. Lol.

Ok I've run that completely into the ground now. 

Well kids, it's that time to get on to the phone and answer your email (singing...letters,we get letters...). I hope you all have a great weekend. We are, apparently, going to see some sun and warmer weather out here on the Westcoast this weekend which will be welcomed by me and every other moss covered denizen hiding out in their $600,000.00 2 bedroom condos. I tell ya, if it gets over 8 degrees I'm going golfing. Betcha wish you were out here, eh Jake? LMAO. et tu Brutal? Wow, this is a kickass cup of coffee...

J.

Jeff Friday Jan.09/09

Hey out there,

OK, catching up on the New Year and I have been answering your emails all morning while continuing to do battle with this evil cold virus that I have. We did have a couple of great shows last weekend in Red Deer (thanks for breakfast Larry) and the Deerfoot Casino in Calgary plus a terrific New Years Eve show in Regina at the Casino there which is always a blast. Great staff (thanks Karen) and kudos to Edgar and all the boys for a production job well done as usual. Hey Edgar hope your eye is feeling better and that your health gets back to normal real soon (ps, thanks for the spare Strat!). 

Yeah...the new Hits/Anthology CD is doing great and it's nice to finally have a good package of all the best Streetheart material for our fantastic fans. Bless you all for your patience and sorry it took so long but hey, I got stuff goin' on! To all those patient Witness fans my apologies on the delay of the Witness CD but it is a business protocol issue at the moment and that needs to be dealt with appropriately and respectfully so, I'll keep you posted but again, my apologies. If I could, I would hand deliver one to each of you and in a utopian state that would be the case but, this is reality so...hang in there kids.

Moving on now...I promised some of you this past weekend (don't worry, I remember you!) that I would keep up with the blog so I am here on that promise even though, I am currently sick, swamped with Streetheart biz and have been up since 6:30am (am I bitchin'?) trying to catch up. I have no idea when I am going to be working on the songwriter part of life which is what I do for a living, allegedly. lol. Actually I am starting on a new project that I am pretty excited about that requires my producing experience (basically that just means being bossy... which apparently comes quite naturally (again, supposed to be funny); see Aries profile) so, I'll just find time and make it all happen. Just glad I don't have a Jack Russel Terrier (or twins...).  Happy to see the rain back in Vancouver again as sometimes that snow thang and Vancouver drivers (not all of you, just that guy in the other lane) create a dangerous mix. Not me however, being a good Northern Ontario boy and all. I mean, we had snow 6 months of the year when I was a kid and we used to have to walk 5 miles to school, carrying a 78 pound sack, uphill, with no shoes, in a blizzard... OK, a little exaggerated yes, but I'm currently having a hypo-glycemic dip and need some food so, that's it for now and we'll see you next time for another exciting and lurid episode of "Who Wants to Be A Rockstar Anyway?" LMAO.

Peace Out,

J.  

Jeff Sunday Dec.14/08

Hey out there...Yes, it's been a while but it's not like I haven't had anything to do...The Greatest Hits/Anthology CD is finally done and I am now working on some retail distribution solutions for those of you who can't get out to a show and get a copy or don't have access to online purchasing. That is going to take some time but hopefully it'll be sooner than later. The disc has been very well received so far and we thank you all for that. We are very proud of what we've accomplished with this and it is the set we've always wanted for our fans. You're the best and we've tried to give a bit of that love back with this collection. You have all given us an amazing ride and it's been a lot longer than I would have ever thought possible! 2009 is right around the corner and things look really great (read busy) for the New Year already. I anticipate lots of travel and even more shows than ever for us in the coming year especially this summer. All the boys are in good spirits and I am grateful to continue to work with such a good bunch of blokes. This rock and roll thang is still pretty cool and personally I give thanks everyday for my good fortune. Of course, there are those overwhelming days but hey, everybody got stuff goin' on...that's life I guess. All in all I know I am a very lucky man.

Christmas has kinda snuck up on me and I find myself more stressed than usual with life and it's responsibilities and I am working hard to find some Christmas spirit. Not that I am whining here, it's just that I wish I could shut things down inside my own head for a while and truly feel relaxed inside of myself...hang on, I gotta grab the phone. It's my lawyer...(no, I'm not in trouble I am just asking some business questions that I need to understand by tomorrow morning). 

Hey, I played golf last week and that was a very cool thing to do this time of year. The upside of living on the West Coast I guess. I wonder if anybody was a Wreck Beach?(that's Vancouver's notoriously famous nude beach BTW, supposed to be funny) Anyways, just a few lines to say I am alive and well and I when I look back on the past year I am grateful for it all. Bless all of you, peace, love and understanding and I promise we'll be out there bustin' it every show in 2009...oops, that's the phone again. J.

Jeff Tuesday Sept.09/08

Hey, What's Up?

Yeah, it's been a while since I have had the luxury of time for anything other than work lately and it seems that I am always trying to catch up and take care of 1000 various things. I need an assistant... 

Hope you all had a great summer. We were very fortunate this year to do a lot of very cool shows and I can't think of one flat night for the band. Thank you everybody who came out and supported us over the last few months and a big ass shout out to all the promoters and the production crews for their hard work as well. We did an awful lot of travelling from coast to coast and all points in between...sounds like a ZZ Top song (I think it's Jesus Just Left Chicago...). 

The new Streetheart Greatest Hits/Anthology CD is done. We will now wait for the first copies to be pressed and shipped. It has been a long process but it will be worth it. It looks great and the material is of course great. That's because a lot of it was chosen by you through your requests and through your poll selections. Thanks for your help on that! Now that's done I'll take on the next order of business which is, wash my dirty gig laundry (kidding) update the website a bit and finish Kenny's long overdue solo CD (crossing fingers now). Just so you know, Kenny has put together a very cool Witness Inc. compilation that is available at all of our shows now so, if you remember and were a fan of Witness Inc. and would like to own a copy of all their songs (singles and B/sides) in one nice CD set, this is it. 

For my golf buddies out there... I haven't played golf in 4 months! (so much for getting down to scratch this year. I secretly want to play Tom Cochrane for money you know...lol) which is a drag but it says how busy it has been for the band which is good...sort of. I'd better start practicing again.

FYI, I am hoping to record and shoot some live shows as well this year or early next year since a lot of you have been asking about the possibility of a live DVD. It is a good idea. We have some opportunities to film coming up so we'll see how that works out. 

BTW, if you are interested, I submitted a music spot for the CBC Hockey Anthem Challenge if you wanna check it out. Just go to CBC Anthem Challenge and Type in my name in the search engine. I just felt I should at least put something in. It's kinda like buying a lottery ticket however. You don't really have a hope in hell but I guess that's better than no chance at all. I have heard some good spots up there but who knows what they'll choose. Anyways, if you have some time...OK you kids, I gotta go and work in my basement a bit if I am ever going to get that recording studio built. Bless you all and say a prayer for me to find time to get out on the links...haha. Later.J.

Jeff Tuesday July 22/08

Wow, what a weekend. Thursday morning, up at 6:30am, get on a plane, fly to Calgary, get in a rental van, drive to Red Deer, play a fabulous show to wonderful fans, talk to a whole bunch of people, sleep for a few minutes, get up again at 6:30 am , drive to Calgary, drop off van, get on a plane, fly to Castlegar, rent two more Suv's, drive through the mountains to Nakusp, play another killer show to another great crowd on Friday night, see my cousins for a minute (love you all so much!!!), have a drink and a chin wag with our friends Willi Jahnke, Michele Williams and Susan Mackie from the Nakusp Music Fest (what a first class event they put on!), go back to the hotel, sleep for a few more seconds, get up at 7:00am (yee-haw, sleeping in!) drive back to Castlegar, drop off Suv's, fly back to Calgary, pick up van again, check into hotel, make all the arrangements for a very special surprise show for our friends Russ and Delaine Fisher (bless you both for the most wonderful and touching evening. Your family and friends are very special people and thank you for sharing your celebration of life with us!). Rock Russ and Delaine's place and hang out with everybody till late, drive back to the hotel, run into our friends the Headpins at the hotel and talk trash for a bit and finally crash out early in the morning, get up, have some breakfast at the local truckstop, pack up the van, drive back to the airport and fly home in time to meet the Sunday rush hour traffic in Vancouver and almost get crushed by a Smithrite truck, and finally, stumble in to my house around 6:00pm Sunday night a battered but a better man for all that I experienced over the weekend. Thanks to everybody and to all the techs and crews (Geoff, Jeff, Two Dogs, Brandon and the rest of you hard working bro's) for making this past weekend so wonderfully crazy!!!!! It was so cool to see you all again, the band had a fantastic time, we played great and were inspired every night as usual. God, we are a lucky bunch...J. 

Jeff Friday July 11/08

Hey Electroman...the Greatest Hits/Anthology CD will be out by the end of the month. We are nearly done and are now into the actual production of the the discs as well as finalizing all the artwork. Kenny is also releasing a Witness Inc. compilation which I believe is basically ready and we'll finish his solo CD off right after our busy summer schedule slows down a bit. We are off to Lethbridge tomorrow to do a show with Honeymoon Suite and I just finished negotiations for the 31st of July in St. John's NFLD at the George Street Festival which will be huge fun. Glad I'm not walking (that was supposed to be funny. You see, I live in Vancouver and, uh...never mind). I just finished a radio interview for Lethbridge which explains why I am up this early so I'd better go make some coffee now and get to work before I fly out tomorrow. Hope you all have a great weekend ... J.