Hey hey hey 311 fans! We meet again! Thanks for coming back each week and reading the fan spotlights. I know the people featured really enjoy telling their stories to each and every one of you and I truly appreciate you visiting my blog! Without further ado, let us meet this weeks spotlight fan – here is Mr. JR Barnett!
Close your eyes and let’s travel back to the year 1995…you remember that year right? Well hopefully you do or maybe you are too young to fully remember it, in which case many of us are jealous right now. Mr. Barnett recalls a radio station based in Texas called ZRock that played alternative music. One fateful day they played the song “Down” and the melody caught JR’s ear. He said that at first he just listened to it and liked it, but after it started to get more and more airplay, it became his summer anthem. His friend DJ copied the blue album on to a cassette for him (nice throwback!) and JR started listening to the album repeatedly. The following summer his friend bought Music and they cruised around listening to it the whole summer. “At first, since it was a cassette tape, we seemed to only listen to that first side. Then one day I get into his Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and he says so I started listening to the other side and it’s just as good as side one!” JR and his buddy would drive around singing the songs, with DJ taking on the talents of SA and JR covering Nicks melodic vocals. “I guess the major draw was the uniqueness. The mix of reggae, rap, and alternative feel. It was almost like this invisible force, not unlike the destiny pull of light in Donnie Darko, that made me feel pulled in.”
JR’s concert tally currently resides at 58 and he has two shows he’ll be attending this summer. He’ll be at the Chicago show on July 11th which will be the big 6-0! “I will be taking my 6 year old son Alex with me for not only his first 311 concert, but his first concert ever! His 1st, my 60th!” When asked which show out of the 58 he’s been to so far has been the top one, he had a difficult time choosing. He said that so many shows have had great moments, such as the Myrtle Beach show back in 02 when SA handed him a drum head and they played T&P Combo for him. Then there was Pow Wow which he said was just an amazing atmosphere and the set lists were great, with them playing two full albums live. Of all the shows though, he said this years 311 Day wins hands down. “There were so many songs I needed to hear live that I got to hear. I had even written the band a list of 19 songs they’d never played at a 311 Day and they ended up playing all but two of the songs on my list. How’s that for customer satisfaction? Haha!”
Throughout JR’s love for 311 there have been songs from the band that have meant a lot to him and he said they can be broken down into time periods. “Beautiful Disaster” was his soundtrack during the end of his first and short-lived marriage in 1999. It’s the song that lead him to create the 311 Tribute Album. Other songs that have been important in his life are “T&P Combo,” “Jackpot,” “Sick Tight,” and most recently “The Great Divide.” However if you want to know JR’s favorite lyrics, look no further than his left shoulder. “From chaos comes clarity” is tattooed there under the 311 logo and the autographs of each band member.
JR has a birthday coming up! He was born on July 4th, 1978 and raised in Danville, Illinois. Some of his fondest childhood memories come from hanging at his grandmas house with his cousins in the summertime. “The memories from those times are pure magic.” During the times away from his grandma’s he was playing Ninja Turtles, He-Man, Nintendo, or drawing. Starting in the 5th grade and lasting until graduation he was in band playing percussion. Other places he lived were Indianapolis, then Michigan, and he is now back to Indiana in New Carlisle. He funds his 311 habit like most of us with work, work and more work! He said any extra money goes towards 311 and if it’s a year with a 311 Day, the savings starts early!
JR has some unique qualities that make him stand out from the rest. He draws, paints and works on his own comic strip that’s based on his Sheltie. He has directed movies in the past with friends and even wrote a few screenplays. We mentioned he can play the drums but he also can sing and he taught himself guitar. Plus he has done voiceovers of famous movies with his best friend Drew Jett! He even has a guilty pleasure TV show – “Drop Dead Diva.”
An interesting fact that some of you may not know is that JR is responsible for making the 311 Tribute Album: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants. When 311 announced the three anniversary shows to celebrate their ten years of touring back in 2000, JR knew that he wanted to do something special for it. He got the idea to have a bunch of garage bands that loved 311 as much as he did to send demos of their best covers. He was then going to slap them on a CD and send it to the band. He started to spread the word via the message boards and fan pages. He even made a website for the project with the help of Larry Maner.
After about a month JR had an overwhelming response from bands, fans, and some people with a little clout. He received an email from someone expressing their interest in the project and who wanted to help out. Turns out this person was none other than Nick Hexum’s step-sister Marissa! She came on board as a beneficiary and helped JR expand the project beyond his original idea. He decided to make it into a real CD with full color liner notes and all. Then he decided to put a band together himself to put on the CD, which included himself and his friend DJ, Drew Jett, Chris Camarata, and Darin Ripperdin. They practiced, practiced, practiced and picked their 3 best songs to add to the album. JR had also been in touch with Peter Raspler regarding the album and hoped to just be able to get the CD into the hands of the guys for 3/11/01. Well, not only did they get the CD to them, but he flew to L.A. with Drew and Marissa to hand deliver it to them! The band thanked him by letting him listen to some of the upcoming release From Chaos and Nick took them out to dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s. If you look at the liner notes of From Chaos, they are thanked in it!
Obviously from the story above JR is one of the lucky people who have had the opportunity to hold a conversation with the band members, so he’s managed to say a lot to them! So in this post, and with his 60th show coming up, he’d just like to say, “Please play “Guns” in Chicago. It’s the last song I need to hear to have heard the entire blue album live. Plus, it’s a bad ass song that needs to get out in the summer air and breathe!”
And to all of the fans in the 311 universe:
“Keep the 311 positivity flowing because being negative doesn’t improve any situation.”
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That my fellow positive vibe merchants is our latest fan spotlight! Thanks for reading the story of JR Barnett! I hope you loved it and I am truly grateful to all of you that support this project of mine. Keep dreaming and remember that, “The fish who keeps on swimming is the first to chill upstream.”
Much love! – The Runt