We found Alex extremely talented with a lot say. When someone has a lot to say you let them. Enjoy this Indepth interview with Alex Rocco
Q. 1. I see that you dabble in the paranormal. When did it start?
A. My earliest paranormal experience happened in the early 1970’s as a pre-teen. I was in a neighborhood store called “Mary’s Store” which was around the corner from me and was located on Henry Street in the Island Section of Jersey City, New Jersey. A teacher from my school, St. Joseph’s Grammar School, lived on Henry Street. I had my back towards the entrance of the store and was at the counter paying for my purchases, when the name “Mrs. Nitchski” came into my mind. A few seconds later, Mrs. Nitchski came walking into the store. I did not know what psychic ability was at the time. In 1973, when I was 10 YO, my beloved Uncle Bill went into the hospital. I had dreadful feelings of death when he was admitted into the hospital. A few days later, he died. As I became older, my psychic abilities became stronger, and I then began reading about psychic powers and using the mind to make them work. There are people from my past, and recently, who have dissed and hurt me very badly. Those people have died young and untimely deaths. If death don’t happen for them, then someone close to them will die, or something bad will happen to that person themselves which will be devastating if not fatal. I have also wished good things for people that I am friends with, and good things did happen for them, as far as their lives becoming better for them in their future years. I did that for three good friends, and they are all having better lives with great jobs and careers and good family lives. The latest person to diss me bad was my ex-business partner. He forced me out of our business partnership. We both operated a vending-distribution-delivery business together for four years. I told him that something bad was going to happen to him for doing what he did to me. He laughed and said..”What are you going to do? Look into your crystal ball”? I told him that that is all in the movies. I just have to use my mind to make devastating things happen to him. This was in 2010. I just found out recently that his wife divorced him three years ago, and his two adult daughters turned their backs on him and want nothing to do with him. They are on their mother’s side. I also found out that he had to sell the business in order to pay his ex-wife money in their divorce settlement. That is the bad I told him would happen to him in future years. He is lucky that what happened to him is all that happened to him. There are many other things I can tell you about my paranormal experiences, but I would need a book to fit those stories in. My biological mom told me that a family member also had the ability that I have. My older brother and two older sisters also have some psychic ability. We are all part Native American on our mother’s side of the family. Our ancestors walked the famous “Trail of Tears” many years ago.
Q. 2. What part of the paranormal do you enjoy most?
A. I enjoy and I also do not enjoy the paranormal. I do not enjoy being able to feel when something bad is going to happen to those that I know and love. My bad feelings did help my close friend Bobby F., and helped to save his life. This happen in 2020. My close friend Bobby F. would always call me once a week, and he would call our mutual friend, Tommy L. every day. I met Bobby and Tommy in 1981 through a mutual friend of ours and of my brother John, Bobby M. Tommy and Bobby F. were friends since the 1970’s. I used to see them talking together in the neighborhood that I would walk through in order to get to William L. Dickinson High School in Jersey City, New Jersey, but I never communicated with them until the day I met them in 1981. All three of them have psychic and paranormal abilities, especially Tommy L. When Bobby F. did not call me or Tommy L. as he would always do, I felt that something was very wrong. I began having visions of Bobby F. lying helpless on the floor of his apartment in Eatontown, New Jersey, which is about 45 minutes away from me and also from Tommy L. I told my partner Lynn and Tommy about what I was seeing. Tommy called the apartment complex’s management office and had them do a welfare check on Bobby F. They found him on the floor of his apartment. He had been on the floor for four days. He was rushed to the hospital and put into ICU. He survived and now spends his days in a nursing home. He is only 65 years old. Tommy L. had many health issues with his heart, diabetes and his legs. I told Lynn and Bobby F. that I do not see Tommy L. living till 70 years old. Tommy L. felt this also. He told his brother and a neighbor that he was tired of living the way he was and wanted to die. Last May 2022, he was found dead on the floor of his trailer home. He was only 67 years old. He got his wish and my feelings of him dying before 70 became the truth. Bobby F., Lynn and myself all miss him. I speak to Bobby F. every few weeks. Tommy L. also saw spirits of people and of his deceased cats. He would smell his deceased mother’s cigarette smoke every now and then in his trailer. She died some years ago. I recently began having bad feelings about my partner Lynn’s health, and have been having them for many months now. On February 14, 2023, Lynn had to be taken to the emergency room of Old Bridge Medical Center in Old Bridge, New Jersey. She had low iron and was feeling very week. She had some tests performed and she was told she has colon cancer, of which her deceased mom also had. My feelings proved right. These incidents are why I do not like having the insight that I have.
Q. 3. Do feel you have the gift of insight? You know being able to feel things and energy that people cannot see with their eyes.
A. I do have insight, and I can feel when something bad is going to happen. I can also feel when someone is out to do me wrong or if someone does not like me. Even though I left one vending business to become a partner with my last vending-distribution-delivery business, I did not listen to my inner voice and became partners with him anyway because I was not happy with the other vending business. My inner voice proved correct after what happened to me and my partner on July 19, 2010. That is the day I walked out of our business partnership because he began bullying me months before into doing so. He made it very hard for me to be partners with him. He also was withholding money from me. I had to get an attorney, take him to business court, and was awarded a large sum of money and back pay as well as disability for a severe lower back injury that I sustained while on the job and while removing a double-door drink cooler from a closing gym in West Orange, New Jersey. I have been happily retired ever since, and I retired at the age of 47. I knew as a teenager, and would tell my friends that I did not plan to work past the age of 50, and that I would be retired before or at that age. While at the business, we had an elderly man whom we called “Uncle Phil” who would purchase power bars from our warehouse wholesale and sell them to his customers retail from his small distribution business. His health was not the greatest, and we could see that he did not seem his usual self lately. My business partner and I would speak of this after “Uncle Phil” would leave to do his business. The following week, “Uncle Phil” did not show up as usual or call as usual. I felt an uneasy feeling about it, and mentioned it to my business partner. A few days later, my business partner called me while I was on my delivery route and said, “Try not to get emotional. “Uncle Phil” is dead. They found him dead in his apartment after three days of him being dead”. My feelings were correct. We attended his wake. He had a closed casket. A few weeks later, my business partner had a service man from the alarm company in the office. My partner was looking on the computer at the warehouse camera footageI asked, “Why are you looking at the camera footage”? He replied, “Because the sonic alarms keep going off and I want to see what’s causing it to happen”. I mentioned that maybe a bird got in and was flying around the warehouse. He replied, “Only a person can set the sonic alarms off”. I replied, “It’s Uncle Phil. His spirit walks round this place at night. That is why the sonic alarms are being set off”. He just brushed it off. He is not a believer in anything paranormal. I told him that I always notice that the temperature is much colder where the power bars are stored, and that is the only cold spot in the whole warehouse. That is the place where “Uncle Phil” would always pull the stock that he needed in order for him to operate his small distribution business. I miss “Uncle Phil”. He was a great guy. He was one of the guests at our Christmas party that we held at an exclusive Italian restaurant in Freehold, New Jersey some years earlier.
Q. 4. What is your scariest paranormal experience?
A. I do not fear any paranormal activity, but the strangest and most startling incidents that have happened to me are these two weird incidents. When my adoptive mom was in the hospital and dying back in September 2002, I was in the living room of the condo we shared for seven years, and I was saying to myself for a sign to tell me if my mom is going to die. Just then, one of the music boxes that my deceased aunt gave to my mom that were on the fireplace mantel began playing for a split second, then abruptly stopped. They have not been touched or wound up since she gave them to us some years ago. In her later years, my adoptive mom would make a whispering sound with her mouth, like the sound of wind. When she would do that, I would look at her and she stopped making the sound. In 1978, our cousin Joanne made me a ceramic Elvis Presley bust. The bust would be on a dresser in the master bed room where my mom slept. When my partner Lynn began living with me after my mom’s death in on September 25, 2002, she kept knocking the Elvis head off of the dresser. It broke and I had to glue it back together. After Lynn knocked it off the dresser for a second time, I moved the head to my desk in my home media production room. One day when Lynn was at work and I was home alone, I was sitting at my desk, reading a newspaper, when I began to hear the familiar sound of the wind-like sound that my mom would make. It was coming from the Elvis head. When I looked at it, the sound ceased. I thought that I was hearing things, but I heard the sound loud and clear. When I told Lynn about it the next day, her reply was, “Oh, you heard it too”? She went on to tell me that when she was lying in bed in the dark, that she would hear the same sound I heard coming from the Elvis head. She also thought that she was hearing things, but I confirmed that she was not. I still have the head, which now sits on a shelf in my media production room. It has been silent for a few years now. I wonder what will happen on September 25, which will be the 21st. anniversary of her death. One more weird experience was as I was relaxing on the couch in the living room and falling asleep in the darkened room, I heard the sound of the dust sheet coming off of the unused tube TV that sits on a table near the couch. I did not look to see it happening. When I woke up the next day, the sheet was on the floor and off of the TV. I showed Lynn and asked her if she did it and she said no and that she thought that I did it. I told her that I did not and why would I even want to do that in the first place. There was no wind or any kind of air flow that would cause that to happen. The sheet was also hard to fall off the TV on it’s own and without someone pulling it off. The sheet has remained on the TV for a few years now.
Q. 5. Do you believe in ghosts?
A. I am a firm believer in ghosts and spirits. I am also a firm believer in a living person making an appearance in solid form as well. I have never had this experience but a classmate-friend of mine did have this experience in 1972, when he was 9 YO. My friend Robert D. was a latchkey kid before the term was coined. He went home to an empty house after each school day ended. His mom owned and operated a hair salon, his father owned and operated his own contracting business, and his older sister was involved with after school activities. He told me that one day he was home alone and watching the baseball game on a small TV in the kitchen. He said all of a sudden, He heard the words, “Hey, Robert”, and looked into the hallway near the kitchen and saw his young nephew, John David standing there in solid form, looking at him. John David then turned and ran into Robert’s small bedroom that was off to the side. Robert ran to look into his bedroom and saw…NOTHING! There was no way that John David left the house because Robert’s bedroom window was shut tight and there was no door leading to the outside. John David was nowhere in the house. He was also too young to have been there without one of his parents being with him. Robert said that he turned off the TV, put on his coat, and went to his mom’s hair salon. When I spoke to Robert some years ago, I recalled this story to him word for word and he said that this incident happened exactly as I recalled it from him telling me about it almost 50 years ago when I was 9 YO. I also have seen spirits with my own two eyes, and even heard one with my own two ears. Some years ago, I was helping my partner Lynn with her print-media distribution business. We were in a quiet half residential-half commercial neighborhood in Aberdeen, New Jersey. It was after 3 AM. We were loading the distribution material from one vehicle to another. It was dead quiet. We were the only people there. All of a sudden, I hear the loud sound of squeaking wheels that were in bad need of oiling. The wheels were on an old-fashioned baby carriage that was being pushed by a woman up the block, and across the street from us. She did not even look our way or seemed to notice us in the dead quiet neighborhood. I followed her with my eyes as she went up the street, and disappeared around the curve in the road. I said to Lynn. “What is a woman doing at this hour on this quiet street pushing a baby carriage”? Lynn replied, “What woman pushing what baby carriage”? I told her what I had just seen and she said, “I saw nothing and heard nothing. I was wondering what you were looking at so intently”. One early morning as we were operating the distribution route in Howell, New Jersey, we were going down a street and as we approached a pickup truck, I saw a woman who was wearing a polka dot shirt, black leather skirt, with her black hair in a pony tail, talking in a very animated way with her two hands as she was standing outside of the truck near the passenger door, to someone who was inside the truck. I said to Lynn, “I hope that these people don’t think that we are up to no good by driving by them at this slow pace at this hour of the morning”. Lynn replied, “What couple”? When I looked back at the pickup truck a few seconds later, there was no one there. My deceased mom’s spirit haunts the condo that we shared for the last seven years of her life. At various times, dishes would move in the kitchen for no reason and make a clanging sound, the rinse spout in the sink would fall back into place on it’s own if left out of place, because while she was alive, my mom did not like the spout out of place and would put it back in place if it were left out of place. One day while I was home alone, I was in the master bathroom in the master bedroom, when I heard the familiar sound of my mom’s scuffling feet on the carpeted floor. I looked out of the bathroom into the bedroom and the sound abruptly stopped. On the night of her death, Lynn was sleeping on the couch in the living room and felt the cold touch of a hand gently caressing her face. On another day when Lynn was home with me, I was sitting in the living room and looking right into the master bathroom and saw a face cloth float off the vanity in midair to the middle of the room, and then float gently to the bathroom floor as if someone took it by hand, then let it drop to the floor. I could not believe what I just saw. I showed Lynn the cloth on the floor and she said that it was not there while she last used the bathroom and that she would not just leave the face cloth on the floor if she did drop it. I also knew that my mom would already be dead when we were on the way to the hospital after being informed by phone at 1 AM that she was dying and to get there as soon as we could. I felt that she was dead at 1:30 AM as we drove there. I even told Lynn not to rush, that she is already dead. When we arrived there, a doctor informed us that she was deceased. I asked to see her and he took us to her. Her eyes were half opened, part of the breathing tube still in her mouth, and her hands were clenched as if she was struggling to breath. We had a priest come in for prayers, because she did not want a funeral or burial. She wanted to be cremated right from the hospital, and I granted her that last wish. Her ashes were sent to me by UPS on September 27, 2002. I had to pick them up at the post office down the road from where I live today. When the woman who worked there said that the box was heavy and asked what was inside of it, I replied, “Would you believe me if I told you that my mother was inside there”? I explained that it was her cremated remains and we both had a good laugh about it. My mother would have wanted it that way. She also predicted months earlier that I was not going to have her with me much longer. She was age 89, the same age as her mom was when she died in 1976, and of almost the same causes. Their death certificates read identical. My grandmother’s doctor’s name was Dr. Garibaldi, and my mother’s doctor’s name was Dr. Garipali. Very Weird. The weirdest incident that happened to me also involved my older brother John and our mutual friend Bobby M. In the early 1980’s, my brother John was living in Bayonne, New Jersey. He was a live-in caregiver for an elderly family member, whom we all called “Grandpa”. Bobby and I would visit John and Grandpa and we would spend the weekend with them. We did not always have a vehicle to drive, so we would have to get around on foot. We all loved to walk, and we could walk for very long distances. We would walk across the Bayonne Bridge and go across to Staten Island, New York, and we would walk around the island. We discovered a small neighborhood bar called “The Four O Clock Lounge”. The place was longer that it was wider. The place had a pool table, video and pinball games, and a small stage that featured small groups for entertaining the patrons. The drinks were also reasonably priced. One Saturday night in February 1982, we left the place at 11:30 PM to take our long walk to Grandpa’s place near 23rd. Street. It took us more than one hour to walk each way. It was a cold night as we made our way back to the Bayonne Bridge. We arrived at the bridge and began our walk across it. It was a cold and quiet early Sunday morning. No one else walking across the walkway of the bridge but the three of us. Hardly any traffic crossing the bridge. John was ahead of Bobby and I. I took up the end, and would keep looking behind us just to be sure no one was sneaking up on us. We reached the half-way point and we were on the New Jersey side of the bridge as we made our way down into Bayonne. I looked behind us and saw no one at all. When I looked back after a few minutes had passed, I noticed someone walking on the walkway with us and headed in our direction. The person looked as if they were dressed all in black. I could not make out any type of features. It was just a black shape in human form. I said to Bobby M., “Bobby, there is someone else on this walkway with us…LOOK!!” Bobby M. looked in the direction of the person and said..”Your right. There is someone else with us. Let’s tell John”. We ran up to John, who was far ahead of us, and told him about the other person on the walkway with us. He looked and said, “There is someone on the walkway with us.” I told John and Bobby M. that I did not notice that person before and how did that person get up to that point on the walkway without me seeing them way before we got to the New Jersey side of the bridge? We then began walking faster, as the person began getting closer. I looked back once, the person was still behind us and catching up to us. I looked back a second time, that person was still there. I said to John and Bobby M., “He’s gaining on us. RUN”! We then began running as fast as we could. When I looked back for the third time…the person was gone. Vanished. I said to Bobby M. and John, “We can all stop running. That person is gone”. They looked back and also saw no one there. We did not know where that person went. He did not turn around and head back to Staten Island because we would have seen him. We had great sight distance from where we were on the walkway. He did not jump into the water below. It was very quiet and we would have heard a splash. He did not jump across to the roadway. It was too far of a jump. We all talked about what just happened as we continued the rest of the walk to Grandpa’s place. A few years ago, I purchased a back issue of Weird New Jersey Magazine. I came upon an article that was sent in to the magazine that was titled “The Phantom Walker of the Bayonne Bridge”. The article went on to describe exactly what the three of us saw on the walkway of that bridge in the early morning hours of February 1982. We did not make out any facial features. It was just a black mass that consisted of a head, arms, legs and a torso in human shape. It made no noises. It was silent. My brother John and I still talk about it till this day and remember it as if it just happened yesterday instead of 41 years ago. John and I lost contact with Bobby M. many years ago. This was one very weird encounter that John and I will never forget for as long as we both may live.
Q 6. Moving on to your career as a entertainer. How to do feel about the music craft of the younger generation?
A. I think that it’s great that the younger generation is keeping music alive and well in this digital age. Some of them even sample the old songs and make them into brand new hit songs. This age of new music is so much different from back when I first started singing and entertaining. The new generation of performers and other generations of performers to come will help keep music alive until the end of life on this earth no longer exists.
Q 7. What genre do you prefer?
A. I prefer the music of the 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s and some songs from the 1990’s. I even like the music of the 1930’s and 1940’s. I like all genres of music with the exception of hard rock, heavy metal, rap and any type of music performed by singers who just scream the lyrics and not really sing the lyrics.
Q 8. When entertaining and doing your thing what does that include?
A. I began singing-performing-entertaining at the age of 9. I would sing in front of my first grade class at St. Joseph’s Grammar School in my hometown of Jersey City, New Jersey. I made up a funny song called “The Man With The Flying Fleas”, which is a take-off on the song “The Man On The Flying Trapeez”. The class would laugh at the weird lyrics that I made up as I sang the song. Also at the age of 9, I made my first public performance at a private house Christmas party, leading those in attendance in singing Christmas songs while accompanied by a pianist. My first performance in a nightclub venue happened for me in 1976 when I was 13 years old. I was a guest vocalist with my cousin “Billy Lee’s” three member band called “Act Three”. The club was the Trolly Room at the now-gone Holiday Inn, which was located near the Holland Tunnel in the Downtown Section of Jersey City. I performed the song “Kansas City”. I always looked and acted much more older than my 13 years of age, and I was even being served liquor. I allowed myself then, and still allow myself now, two mixed drinks. In 1981, I was a part of the New Jersey State Opera Festival, which was held at Piscataway High School, in Piscataway, New Jersey. My choir class from William L. Dickinson High School in Jersey City, N.J. was a part of the festival along with other choir classes from other high schools from all over New Jersey. I was classified in the second tenor section. We performed “The Aida Fantasy” by Verdi. We all performed along with a full orchestra, and two opera singers from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. We performed that opera in front of a large audience. The concert was recorded on an audio cassette tape of which I still have and still plays and sounds great. That same year, I won an award and a medal for excellence in choir and for an excellent performance at the opera festival. That same year, I performed the school Alma Marter in front of the whole 1981 graduation class at the graduation rehearsal in order for the graduates to learn how to sing it for the actual graduation ceremony. I received a big round of applause from all the graduates, and made my choir teacher, Mrs. Robinson, a proud teacher. In 1982, I was a guest vocalist with the club band, “Fallen Angel”. I performed the Duprees 1962 song, “You Belong to Me” with the group at the B&B Lounge, and then again at the Collage Lounge. The nightclub crowd loved my rendition of that great song. In 1980, I started a mobile DJ service called “Tony The DJ”. I played records at a Halloween Dance at my old grammar school, St. Joseph’s, at my college, Jersey City State College for a St. Patrick’s Day frat party, a cocktail party, a dance marathon, and a 1950’s Hop, all held at the college. I also played music at various nightclubs and bars in Bayonne, New Jersey. At one DJ gig in 1983, I got to meet boxing legend Chuck Wepner. My last DJ gigs were at a birthday party and at a Christmas party. I gave up the DJ business in 1985.
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In 1977, I started my own radio station, Citizens Band Ch. 11 WANT Studio Radio. I played a wide genre of music, from the 1950’s to 1981. I created the shows “The Disco Basement”, “The 1950s Hop”, “The Mighty Midnight Express”, “Night at the Movie-Musical Soundtrack Albums”, “Night at the Live Concert Albums”, and various music radio shows. I created my on-air DJ name, “Tony Jams”. I went on-the-air live every Sunday from 12 Noon to 4 PM, and went live on bad snow days. My signal went out to Brooklyn, New York, into New York City, and all throughout Jersey City and beyond. My broadcast antenna was attached to the top of the clothes line pole in my backyard. I have been told that it is still there until this day in 2023. I ended broadcast operations in 1981. I still have some audio clips of some my radio shows that I recorded onto audio cassette tapes for broadcast on later dates. In 1981, I accepted an on-air music radio gig at AM-740 WJCS Radio in Jersey City. I created the “Tony Jams, Mr. Rock & Roll Oldies But Goodies Radio Show”, and was on-air a few times per week during the day, and twice at night. I left the station in 1982 after a financial dispute with station management. I was also asked to do a fill-in radio show when other DJs could not make it to the station for various reasons. It was fun while it lasted and paid good money for very little work, but I needed more money than what they were willing to pay me. In 1986, I attended “Announcer Training Studios/Crown Institute” in New York City, which was located at 42nd. Street and Broadway. I went there to brush up on my radio skills, get re-certified and to get a new FCC license. I met an older gentleman named Alan Z. who went by the radio name of “Joe Allen”. He had long involvement in the broadcasting business and was there for the same reasons as I was. My teachers at ATS were Al Bandiero, formally of Disco radio station WKTU FM, and DJ Johnny Allen of WRKS-KISS FM radio, with both radio stations being located in New York City. I also had voice-over artist Bob Calavan as my voice-over teacher. The course lasted for six-months, and on completion I received my re-certification and my FCC license, of which I still have till this day in 2023. I was 23 years old in 1986. “Joe Allen” and I remained friends, and he became my mentor in the broadcasting business. Joe became involved with WBAU-90.3 FM radio in Garden City, New York, and was the host of a talk show titled, “This Is America”. He also became news director at WBAU. I was a guest on his talk show twice, and in 1989, I became a news caster with “Long Island’s Involved News Team” on WBAU. I also worked for Joe at his Creative Ideas in Broadcasting (CIB) Radio Syndication Network, which he operated out of his house. I helped Joe produce and syndicate his “This Is America” talk show to various radio stations throughout the country. Everything done the old fashioned way in 1991, duplicating and then shipping out reel tapes of his various shows to the stations that played them over the air. In 1992, Joe left his news director position at WBAU after a dispute with station management, and the other news casters along with myself left WBAU as well. Joe’s health became bad and he died in 1993. He was only in his 50’s. His producer-wife Maddie gave me some reel tapes of his “This Is America” radio shows. I have since converted them onto CDs. I listen to them once in a while. That ended my involvement in broadcasting. I became involved in owning-operating various vending-distribution-delivery businesses in 1997 until retiring in 2010 at the age of 47. In 1980, when I was 17 YO, I became involved with the United in Group Harmony Association (UGHA) which was a non-profit organization that was formed to help preserve Rhythm & Blues Vocal Group Harmony Music, primarily of the 1950’s. I started out as just a regular member, then in 1987, I became involved in music and group promotions. The organization had meeting-shows once a month on the last Friday or Saturday of each month, and had special shows on other weekends. UGHA held our shows at Schuletzen Park’s Banquet & Casino Halls, in North Bergen, New Jersey. In the early 1990’s, the TV show “National Geographic Explorer” featured UGHA and some famous R&B vocal groups from the 1950’s on a segment of that show. Some famous members of UGHA were the now deceased Tim Houser of “The Manhattan Transfer”, the now deceased Frank Zappa, and the still living Paul Simon of “Simon & Garfunkel”. Paul Simon was at a meeting-show in 1994. I got to meet him and received his autograph from him. He is a very soft-spoken man, and a man of few words. He met and greeted my fellow members warmly, signed autographs, posed for pictures, and made a short speech before he sat down to enjoy the acapella groups who performed that evening. He also visited UGHA president-founder Ronnie “I” Italiano’s Clifton Music Store in Clifton, New Jersey. I got to meet and become friends with many famous 1950’s performers and groups because of my long involvement with UGHA. Those performers were: Sonny Till of The Orioles (RIP), Willie Winfield of The Harptones (RIP), Joe “Speedo” Frazier of The Impalas (RIP), Timothy Wilson of Tiny Tim & The Hits (RIP), Larry Chance of The Earls (RIP), Ugene Pitt of The Jive Five (RIP), Lenny Coco of The Chimes (RIP), Joey “Vann” Canzano of The Duprees (RIP), Herbie Cox of The Cleftones (RIP), Rudy West of The Five Keys (RIP), Jimmy Merchant & Herman Santiago of The Teenagers, Johnny Maestro & Les Cauchi of The Brooklyn Bridge (RIP to both), Fred Paris of The Five Satins (RIP), Lillian Leach of The Mellows (RIP), singer-songwriter Ellie Greenwich of The Raindrops (RIP), and others. In 2005, I woke up abruptly after having a disturbing dream. I dreamed that Ronnie I’s young wife, Sandi, was sitting in an old fashioned wicker chair, was dressed all in black and wearing a black hat and vail and she was crying non-stop. My partner Lynn and I were also dressed all in black, and we were trying to comfort Sandi and telling her how sorry we both were. The dream ended there and I woke up suddenly. I thought to myself, “What a weird dream I just had”. In 2006, Ronnie “I” contracted pancreatic cancer. His health began failing very rapidly. He died on March 4,2008. Lynn and I attended his wake. His young Widow Sandi was dressed all in black, minus the vail and wicker chair, and Lynn and I were also dressed in black. We were telling her how sorry we were about Ronnie’s death as she held back tears and was very sad. My dream that I had years earlier had come true. Ronnie was only 67 YO. Sandi had a “Remembering Ronnie I Show”, which featured many groups that have appeared at UGHA throughout the years. Sandi tried to keep Ronnie I’s Clifton Music Store open for as long as she could. She kept it open until the store reached it’s 40th. anniversary in 2012, then sold the building, which Ronnie owned, closed the store, and operated the store as an on-line business, before closing up shop for good in 2014. News Jersey 12 did a special feature about the closing of the store after a 40-year run. Lynn and I no longer have any contact with Sandi, and all we know about her is that she moved to Upstate New York where she lives a quiet life. I was involved with UGHA for 28 years. Lynn and I both miss UGHA and our fellow members. Every month was like a family reunion for us. There will never be another United in Group Harmony Association. There have been some organizations that tried to replicate UGHA but without much success. In 1983, I began a pre-recorded audio cassette tape business, featuring the groups and individual recording artists of the 1950’s and 1960’s. I operated the business as a mail-order company, selling at flea markets, face to face sales, and as a yearly vendor at “Labor Day Weekend Lead East Car Show & Music Festival”, which is held every year at the Parsippany Hilton Hotel in Parsippany, New Jersey. I began selling my audio cassette tapes as a vendor beginning in 1994, and ending in 2004, when I ceased operation of my business. I handled all of the re-recording of the music, the duplication of the tapes run off of the master tapes, creating the cassette tape and cassette box labels, and labeling the cassette tapes themselves. I made a nice profit from my business, which I called “WANT Studio Audio Cassette Tapes”. The price of all of my cassette tapes was affordable for all. I even gave some tapes away for free to the many repeat customers that came to my vendor table at Lead East. It was a great business while it lasted. I still have unsold tapes sitting in suitcases. The tapes are still brand new, never played. In 1993, I continued performing oldies but goodies in various nightclub venues in New Jersey, Upstate New York, and West Virginia. In 1988, I was a guest vocalist on the SS Bermuda Star cruise ship, sailing from Montreal, Canada to New York City for one whole week. I sang with the ship’s house band, “The Music Makers” for two nights straight. I also had my own act which I performed in another lounge on the ship. I was offered a performance contract by the director of entertainment, Ivan Kevitt, but I turned his offer because I did not want to be on the water for months at a time. I had obligations at my two-family home in Jersey City, N.J. In 1993, I performed at a New Years Eve party at the Ramada Hotel in Montreal, Canada. I also was a guest vocalist with a group who was performing at an exclusive Montreal restaurant where I dined the night before New Years Eve. I have also performed at the weddings of two of my friends, and at some private functions. In 2003 I began performing as a guest vocalist at “Billy Lee’s Karaoke Showcase”, held once a year at the Italian-American Club in West Creek, New Jersey. I last performed there in 2022. That is all I do in entertainment these days. Once a year is more than enough for me as I am now in my mature years and ever since becoming a Type-2 Diabetic and also having high blood pressure and having to take meds for my ailments. In 2005 I was part of “The Elvis Extravaganza” which was held during Lead East at the Parsippany Hilton Hotel. It was a fun event. Great audience who were very receptive to my act. That was the first and last time I performed at that event. That event was never held at Lead East ever again.
Q. 9. Tell us about your impersonation? And which one do you feel you do best?
A
I have a “trick voice”, and can speak and even sing in various voices and accents. I have had this talent since a pre-teen and while in grammar school. My easiest vocal impressions are Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Mathis, Jay Black of Jay & The Americans, The Soul Survivors, John Lennon & Ringo Starr of The Beatles, and Joey “Vann” Canzano of The Duprees. Whenever I perform a song from any group or individual singer, I try to come as close as possible to the vocal that is heard on the original recordings. I enjoy having people come up to me and say, “You sound just like the record as I remember it”. I have had those words said to me many times at various venues. The first time that I ever had anyone say to me that I sounded like the original record was back in 1981 at the B&B Lounge in Jersey City, N.J. I was a guest vocalist with the club band “Fallen Angel”. I sang The Duprees 1962 song, “You Belong to Me”. Shortly after I sang the song, a middle-aged woman came up to me and said, “You brought me back to my youth when you sang that song. You sounded just like the original recording. I want to ask the band if you can get up and sing another song”. I thanked her for her nice words, but I told her that it was their gig and that I did not want to steal the spotlight from them or their performance. There were places where I heard other people say that I sounded just like Jay Black & The Americans, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and someone at another venue again said that I sounded like Joey Vann & The Duprees, and also that I sounded like Bobby Darin, who I also do impressions of, as well as both of the Righteous Brothers as well as both members of The Soul Survivors. I was almost going to go to an audition for voice over work for cartoons in New York City, but I decided not to go for it. I just did not want to face rejection from those whom I was going to audition for. Who knows what may have became of it if I did decide to go. I have audio cassette recordings of almost every live performance that I have done throughout the years, beginning with the club band “Fallen Angel” in 1981 at the Collage Lounge in Bayonne, N.J. I also have some video performances from my West Virginia and Italian-American Club gigs as well as the New Years Eve performance in Montreal, Canada. Those were all fun days. Things are much quieter for me these days in 2023. I enjoy every day of my life of 13 years of early retirement. I retired after a 31-year working life, beginning in 1979 at age 17, and ending in 2010 at age 47. I am glad that I retired at a very young age instead of having to wait until my much older years to retire. And as I previously stated, I knew in my teens that I would only work until the age of 50 or before that age.
Q. 10. How to do feel about technologies digital sound vs analog sound when listening to music?
A. The very first time in my life that I discovered what analog sound recording was all about was back in 1968, when I was 5 years old. My parents had an 8mm. sound projector that had recording capability. We had a few 8mm. sound films and also an 8mm. audio-only reel of magnetic tape. The reel had no film on it. It consisted of just a white strip with magnetic tape on it. My parents recorded me singing “Pop Eye The Sailor Man” as well as my speaking voice and some other sounds from a radio station. I have that reel of 8mm. audio-only magnetic tape in my possession until this day in 2023. I ran the tape over the playback heads of my Sansui reel to reel player-recorder, and heard what was recorded on the magnetic tape on that reel. It was weird listening to it after recording it all those years ago. I first reel to reel analog recording in 1972 at age 9. I attended a bon voyage party on the cruise ship the SS Rotterdam in New York City. The ships lounge had a reel-to-reel tape player which provided the music for the party. The reel tape being played was Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” album in reel tape form. I was enthralled by it. I loved watching the reels of tape spin around and around as musical sound came off of it. I then purchased a portable reel to reel recorder-player. I would record many sounds on it, and even made up some sketches with my older sister Joanne and older brother John. It was a parody of a commercial that was on TV at the time in 1972. In 1974, I purchased an audio cassette tape player-recorder. My friend’s Wilfred C. and Billy P. formed a mock band, and called ourselves “The Lightnings”. We recorded ourselves on the audio cassette tapes playing guitars and began making up instrumental and vocal songs right on the spot. We told Wilfred’s sister Sonia that we were going to become famous and make records. She believed it. We did record a tape of the songs we made up and sent that tape to Los Angeles, California to a company that advertised that they were looking for new songs to record and release to the music buying public. We never heard back from them. Now that I am older and can think more clearly about what kind of material we sent them, I do not blame them for never getting back to us. They probably threw the tape in the trash, where it belonged in the first place. I still have the two tapes we recorded back in 1974 and 1976. I still listen to them, and the quality of the audio is still good. In 1975, I made audio recordings of my trip to Miami, Florida, to see my uncle Carmen and his live-in lady friend Jeanie. The recordings feature myself, my now deceased grandmother, my now deceased uncle, my now deceased mother, and my now deceased uncle Gabe and aunt Rose. I am the only living voice on those recordings. I was 12 YO then. I also have many live concerts, UGHA events and meeting-shows, and music, all on a very large collection of audio cassette tapes. In 1977 I purchased a combo stereo that had an audio cassette and an 8-Track player-recorder. I began recording on 8-Track tapes. I began recording my radio shows for my home radio station, Citizens Band Ch. 11 WANT Studio. In 1981, I purchased an Akai reel to reel player-recorder from the long-gone Crazy Eddie Appliance Store. I then began recording shows and music on reel tapes, of which I still have till this day in 2023. In 1982, I accompanied my two friends, Bobby F. and Tommy L. to Canning’s Audio Engineering School & Recording Studio in New York City, and watched them mix a song that was recorded in that studio by a man named Charlie Lalo, who was from Hoboken, New Jersey. Charlie recorded a self-penned song titled “You Are My Better Half”. I have a copy of that song on an audio cassette tape. The song was recorded on wide analog recording tape, that could fit multiple recorded tracks on it. It was interesting to watch my friends in action at the large mixing board, which was all manually operated by them and Charlie Lalo, who all engineered the final mix of the recording. I don’t think that Charlie Lalo’s song ever received any air-play on any radio stations. Bobby F., Tommy L., and I lost contact with Charlie many years ago. Bobby F. and Tommy L.’s careers as audio engineers never went any where. Analog recording was also used at AM-740 WJCS radio. Audio cassette and reel tapes. WBAU 90.3 FM radio also used analog audio cassettes and reel tapes. In 1987, I began hearing digital compact-discs being played on my favorite oldies radio station, WCBS 101.1 FM in New York City. I heard the crisp, clear sounds of songs in a way that I never heard them before. I went out and purchased my first CD player and two CDs, a Gene Pitney and a Chubby Checker’s Greatest Hits CDs. I was hooked on the digital sound from then on. In later years, I purchased a CD player-recorder, and began producing my own pre-recorded CDs of music. I also converted many of my audio cassette tapes and the 8-Track tapes that I still have onto CDs. When Beta video player-records came out, I purchased one, and began recording onto Beta tapes. I then purchased two VHS player-recorders and began recording various subjects onto VHS tapes, of which I still have, and they still play well. In later years, I purchased a DVD player-recorder, and copied all of my VHS tapes onto DVDs. I was even happier when I could record on a USB stick. In 2019, I began recording my internet radio shows, “The Tony Jams Mister Rock & Roll Novelty-Funny Favorites-Weird Songs-Oldies But Goodies Radio Show”, onto USB sticks. So much easier than using the analog recording methods from the past. USB digital recording is much easier to edit with. Also, there is no tape hiss, which was heard when using analog methods of recording. You Tube is also a great invention. I have my shows all on my You Tube channel, which is youtube/anthonyjamroz. My Face Book group is: FACE BOOK/THE TONY JAMS MISTER ROCK AND ROLL RADIO SHOW GROUP. All those who ask for a membership request will be gladly accepted. New subscribers to my You Tube channel are also gladly accepted. It is all free for all to listen to and enjoy. I love the new digital age. I do prefer it over the analog age. It would be harder for me to produce and pre-record my internet shows by using analog recording methods as I had to do in the past as compared to using the digital methods of these modern times. I have witnessed many changes in the recording and broadcasting industries in these past 57 years. I never could have imagined back then what we now have in 2023 and in future years to come. The digital age is here to stay. The new musical artists of today are lucky to have the new digital age and the internet age to use for their musical craft. They all have it much easier than the singers-performers of past generations. They are all very lucky and fortunate to have what they have today with the more modern digital and internet age. I only wish that those performers of the past, such as myself, had back then as we have today as far as how new technology has progressed during these last 10 years or so. I hope the next generation of performers and musical artists use it well for the benefit of their future musical careers.
Q. 11. Do you have any advice to give people starting off in the industry?
A. My advice to the musical artists who are just starting out today is this. Do not forsake an education and always have a back-up plan just in case your musical career does not go as you may have planned it. The music business of today is much more tougher, and there is much more competition in the music business of today as well. Take this advice well, for I should know. I have been in the music and broadcasting industry for many years, and I am not a wealthy man from being involved in both businesses. I graduated from grammar school, high school, and I attended one year of college. Aside from music and broadcasting, I have been a manager of a restaurant for 9 years, contract security manager of armed security and alarm computer monitoring for 12 years, and also owner-operator of various vending-distribution-delivery businesses for 13 years. I retired from my 31-year working life in July of 2010, at the age of 47. The various businesses that I became involved with as owner-operator is what made it possible for me to retire early in life. July 19,2023 was my 13th. anniversary of early retirement. If I had to rely on my musical and broadcasting careers only, I would not be an early retired man. I would still be working these days. It is because of the digital and internet age that I am able to produce and pre-record my internet radio shows and post them all in my group, FACE BOOK/THE TONY JAMS MISTER ROCK AND ROLL RADIO SHOW GROUP, and on my You Tube channel at youtube/anthonyjamroz. I am always looking for more group members and more subscribers to my You Tube channel. They are both free for all to join and subscribe to. I produce and pre-record them in my home recording studio-media production room in my penthouse (Top floor) condo in Monroe Township-Middlesex County, New Jersey. I have been producing and pre-recording my internet radio shows since 2019. All thanks to the digital and internet age. I have come a long way since the days of having to pre-record my Citizens Band radio shows, beginning back in 1977, using audio cassette tapes and recordable 8-Track tapes, and hoping that people who owned CB radios and CB radio receivers were out there somewhere listening to my shows throughout New York, Jersey City, New Jersey and beyond. My transmitting signal reached out far and wide and was a strong signal. I do miss those days, but not the hard work I had to put into it in order to make my shows work. As for today, I still use CDs, pre-recorded audio cassette tapes, 33rpm record albums and 45rpm record discs in the production of my radio shows, but the shows themselves are recorded onto a USB stick these days. The wonders of modern technology are such a joy to have and behold. I wish all new and future recording artists-performers-entertainers the best of luck and may all of their hopes dreams and ambitions for success all work out and come true for them all. Thank You, Kadrolsha Ona Carole, for granting me this great interview. It was my pleasure being interviewed by you. Keep on doing all the great things that you do with your psychic abilities, and with your acting roles. Thank You again.
Alex Rocco Facebook