Beloved rock singer abruptly retires from touring after 50 years

After 50 years of performing, a well-known rock singer is ending her touring career.

The Southside In order to address persistent health concerns, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes leader Johnny Lyon declared on Friday that he is immediately ending his touring career. The New Jersey-based rock-and-soul band abruptly canceled a performance scheduled for New Year s Eve at the Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, N.J.; tickets are being refunded.

Lyon, 76, and Little Steven Van Zandt co-founded Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes fifty years ago. The group was known for its Jersey Sound, along with contemporaries like Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi, and rock/R&B hits like I Don t Wanna Go Home and Havin a Party.

Details of Lyon s health issues were not specified, butNJ.comreports he was briefly hospitalized in February after back-to-back performances at Stone Pony s sold-out 50th-anniversary concert in Asbury Park. After receiving dehydration treatment, the cherished New Jersey Hall of Fame performer was reportedly released in a few of hours.

According to Jeff Kazee, the music director and keyboardist for the Asbury Jukes, Lyon isn’t completely giving up music.

He’s not finished yet. He s just done doing it, (for) a while, Kazee said during a holiday concert at The Cutting Room in New York on Friday, according tonjarts.com.

I do hope that Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes will do something, some final show or shows down the road, but it does seem like this could be the final chapter to a iconic, historical, ground-breaking New Jersey rock group,addedguitarist Glenn Alexander. It has indeed been my great honor, privilege and pleasure to have been a member of Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes for the past 15 years.

The band played at the New York State Fair in 2009, 2014, and 2021, among other venues throughout Central New York. Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes also played the Blues, Brew and BBQ festival in Syracuse and last year s Rochester Jazz Festival.

Lyon wields more energy than (Joan) Jett and (Barenaked Ladies singer Ed) Robertson combined, areview of the band s 2014 NYS Fair concertsaid. They played hard, they played loud and Lyon grew more theatrical as the night progressed. He drummed on the head of drummer Tom Seguso and crept up to the jumbo screen s video camera to photobomb his own band.

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