Jersey Boys Blog

By Charles Alexander

As Frankie Valli’s official biographer (see http://www.gilgweb.com/Bios/Valli-Alexander_Bio.html), I often get the chance to see him backstage, though I must admit that he never recognizes me until I reintroduce myself. It’s always fun, and you never can tell who’s going to show up. But rarely have I had so many pleasant surprises as I did on the night of September 27 at Frankie’s concert at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) in Nashville. I happened to be in my home state on business, and, as always, I have to thank Dean Egnater, Frankie’s manager and lighting genius, for letting me into the hectic world of the real-life Jersey Boys, who were doing their fourth concert in four cities in four nights.

This night promised to be special because, as anyone who has seen JB knows, Bob Gaudio has a home in Nashville. Surely he would not miss one of Frankie’s rare visits to Music City.

Getting Dean’s permission to go backstage is one thing. Actually finding Dean and getting the necessary passes is another. This time I expected as many as six friends to join me, and so I needed seven passes, qualifying myself as one of the greediest groupies around. Reached on his cell phone, Dean said I could catch him to get the passes at the soundboard at the back of the theater right before the show started. Sounded dicey to me, but what choice did I have?

I was chilling in the lobby, buying a bottle of water (yes, water) at the bar when I got my first big surprise of the evening. Someone tapped my shoulder from behind, and I turned to see Robby Robinson, the brilliant keyboard player who has been Frankie’s musical director for nearly 30 years. Lucky for me, Robby has a second home in Tennessee and all his children and grandchildren live nearby. He had been waiting for some relatives to arrive when he spotted me at the bar. And double lucky for me, he offered to take me backstage immediately.

Jackpot! I was ushered into a small room where five people sat: Dean, Bob Gaudio, Judy Parker Gaudio, along with TPAC President Kathleen O’Brien and her husband Tim O’Brien, a writer, who were being gracious hosts to the Gaudios. Bob introduced me to the O’Briens as the guy who wrote about him and Frankie in TIME magazine in 1987. “I thought I was getting the cover,” Bob joked, “but the story wound up in the business section.” While Dean got some passes for me, I, as usual, lobbied Bob about a future project I wanted him to take part in. But as usual, I did NOT get the Jersey contract I wanted.

Back in my seat in the theater, I greeted five good friends, several of whom had seen Jersey Boys multiple times but had never seen the real thing. They were Jack Stanford, George Pine (a good buddy from our days together in the “famous” Class of 1968 at The Webb School in Bell Buckle, TN), Ray Broadhead, Jenny Hunt and her daughter Sarah Ashleigh Hunt. They were all blown away by the show, and so was I. Andrew Jackson Hall in TPAC is such a wonderful theater that this was the best Valli concert experience I have had since the ’70s. Dean later told me that TPAC is one of the few places in which he can do his entire light show, which is spectacular. During the show, Frankie had Bob and Judy stand up and wave and also introduced some surprise guests that I will tell you about soon enough.

After the show, my little posse went down to the front of the orchestra to await an escort to take us backstage. Suddenly, I heard a woman’s voice calling, “Charles, Charles.” The attractive blond who strode up to me looked familiar, but I’m as bad as Frankie when it comes to attaching names to faces. “I’m NewJerseyLasagna,” she exclaimed. She explained that she was a little flustered because she had tried to sneak a picture of Frankie during curtain call, and a security guard was rougher than necessary when he temporarily confiscated her camera. But I had just the thing to make her happy again: an extra backstage pass.

So, with her camera back in hand, Lasagna joined my posse and got pictures of Frankie, Bob and other stars of the evening, including a shot of the great Brenda Lee’s back (I swear it’s Brenda) before she made a quick getaway. I wanted to meet Brenda, but before I could bow down and worship at her feet, she was gone.

Another highlight for me was meeting two former Four Seasons for the first time: Clay Jordan, who played guitar in the Four Seasons in 1972 and 1973, and Lynn Hamman, the Seasons’ drummer through much of the ’80s. Hamman is the big guy wearing the blue-gray shirt with white buttons on the cover of the Streetfighter album.

Finally, in a worthy climax to my evening, Frankie asked me, “Did you meet Jean Valley?” Wow. Soon I was in the presence of the one and only Texas Jean Valley, the singer who was Frankie’s mentor in the early days (Jersey Boys can’t possibly cover everything!) and from whom Frankie took his stage name. But “y” was a bullshit letter, and you know the rest.

Valley may have been the only celebrity that Lasagna’s camera missed. With all the talent of a veteran news photographer, she didn’t go for just posed pictures, but roamed around for candid shots you won’t see anywhere else. I particularly like the scene of Frankie huddled with his young Seasons—Brian Brigham, Brandon Brigham, Landon Beard and Todd Fournier. The Hall of Famer has nurtured a lot of talent in his day, and he really believes in his “kids.”

Good work, Lasagna. You can be on my journalistic team any time!