Written by John Poveromo
Every movie and streaming series these days seems to deal in multiverses and time travel, usually involving magic, mystical gems, or some jerk with a stop watch and a busted toaster. But all I’ve ever needed are the opening notes of “Found Out About You” on the radio, and I’m eight years old again, riding through Tempe, Arizona, in the back of my parents’ station wagon. (I was between jobs.) Then the chorus of “Hey Jealousy” hits, and I’m somewhere else entirely: windows down, packed into a car with my friends, belting it out as we drive around with nowhere in particular to go.
It’s only now, looking back, that I realize this may be the secret to Gin Blossoms’ staying power. “Hey Jealousy,” “Found Out About You,” “‘Til I Hear It from You,” “Allison Road,” and the rest of their catalog never became artifacts of the ’90s because the music never stopped moving. It was passed between friends, discovered by new generations, and gathered meaning alongside the people who grew up with it. Their songs don’t simply return us to old memories. They remain present while we create new ones.
Robin Wilson has spent more than three decades watching that happen from the other side of the stage. He has seen these songs become first dances and breakups, road trips and reunions, reminders of who people were and companions to who they became. For him, that connection is not simply a reward for a long career. It is the reason to keep doing it.
On August 6, Gin Blossoms will bring that connection to the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park, performing alongside Blues Traveler and Spin Doctors. When I spoke with Robin, our conversation traveled well beyond the expected landmarks of a successful rock career. We talked about Saturday Night Live, Jon Stewart, KISS, The Smithereens, video games, comic books, and the wonderfully strange path that carried a kid from Tempe into so many corners of pop culture.
But we began with the thing that has kept the music moving all these years: the moment a song stops belonging only to the person singing it and becomes part of someone else’s life.
John: After more than three decades of performing these songs, what still makes stepping onto that stage meaningful to you?
Robin: I really enjoy the reciprocal energy between myself and the audience. For me, as the frontman, I feel like that’s my main objective, to have some moments of connection where we all feel like we’re in it together. I’m pretty lucky to have bandmates who are consistent and for us to have an audience, and to be able to go virtually anywhere on this continent and have a good audience that knows our material. It’s quite satisfying.
I spent part of my childhood in Tempe, and when I think about Arizona, your music is inseparable from those memories. What does it mean to hear that your songs have become so connected to a place and a time in someone else’s life?
Honestly, what you just said is one of the cooler and more uplifting things I’ve heard in a long time. I very much identify my personal identity, and the identity of the band, with Arizona. So the words that just came out of your mouth really fill me with pride. I’m all about Arizona here on Long Island!
I’m glad to hear it, man! So with Gin Blossoms coming to the Stone Pony, there’s a fitting New Jersey comedy connection in the story of how an Arizona guy ended up living on Long Island. And it all has to do with Jon Stewart, right?
The Jon Stewart Show was actually a life-changing moment for me because that’s when I met my ex-wife. She was the floor director on the show, and I’m here on Long Island, in her hometown, because of that moment.
We had just come back from Europe, where we had been opening for Spin Doctors in the summer of ’93. I spent that whole tour without kissing a girl. We got back to the United States, and all the girls at MTV were so cute. There were a lot of girls working there, and my ex, Jenna, was just adorable. I fell for her right away. I remember being onstage, seeing her out by the cameras, and thinking, “I’ve got to get to know this girl.”
We started dating soon after that and eventually got engaged. When we got married, we had Jon Stewart ordained as a minister. Jon married us in the backyard of this house in the summer of ’96.
As if being married by Jon Stewart weren’t enough, that one appearance eventually led to this multigenerational connection between your family and Saturday Night Live. How did that unfold?
Our second record, Congratulations I’m Sorry, came out in January of ’96. We had a Top 10 single and went on Saturday Night Live in March. The director at the time was Beth McCarthy, who was a very close friend of Jenna’s from their days at MTV together. She offered Jenna a job, and in the fall of ’96, Jenna started working at Saturday Night Live as a floor director. She’s been there ever since.
I’ve been to the show many times, and my son kind of grew up there. Everybody there knows him, and now he has a part-time job at NBC as a stagehand for Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon. Saturday Night Live, like Jon Stewart, is foundational to the trajectory of where my life ended up.
Speaking of foundation, “‘Til I Hear It from You” has become inseparable from Empire Records. How did the song and the movie come together?
Our label, A&M Records, was in charge of the soundtrack. They came to us several months before the release of the movie and said, “Go write a hit.” Then we found out it was a movie about a record store. It was basically The Breakfast Club set in a record store.
It made a certain amount of poetic sense because three of the five original Gin Blossoms, myself included, worked in record stores. Bill, our bass player, and I worked together at Tower Records in Tempe, and our guitar player Jesse worked across town at another Tower Records.
Working in record stores in the 1980s, when they were a major cultural touchstone, was foundational to how I ended up here. So many huge moments for me as a musician happened at the record store. I joined Gin Blossoms in the back room of a Tower Records. When they said, “You’re going to write a song for a movie,” we said okay. Then they told us the movie was about a record store, and I thought, “Well, that makes perfect sense.”
Marshall Crenshaw told me that he and Jesse Valenzuela brought you the music and chorus, and you turned around the verses remarkably quickly. How do you write a song when its destination has already been decided for you?
Jesse and Marshall came up with the chorus and all of the music, and then they gave it to me to write the lyrics. My job was to work backward from the chorus and tell the rest of the story. I wanted every line I wrote for the verses to somehow land on the chorus and lead you to it.
With “‘Til I Hear It from You,” I was thinking about the rumor mill and being in a relationship. You’re hearing things, but you don’t know that you can necessarily trust them. In that case, I had to write the melody and lyrics for the verses. The rest of the song was already done, so I had to fill in the blanks.
For all the extraordinary people and moments your career has brought you, when you talk about why you still do this, you always come back to the connection people make through music. Is that ultimately what it’s all about for you?
I very much understand that connection and how people associate music and the groups they were listening to with a point in their lives. That sense of nostalgia, or whatever it is, creates very powerful moments. In fact, those are the most powerful moments I’ve ever had in my lifetime. That’s why I do this.
Connecting with music on the radio, on television, or at a concert created the most powerful moments I’ve ever had. They pushed me in this direction, and I’ve always wanted to create that for other people.
People always want to tell you, “I first heard your music here,” or, “My ex-wife and I were at your concert.” Those moments of connection are incredibly powerful. It’s why I do this, because it happened to me. It was so powerful and moving that I wanted to do it, and I’ve wanted to do it my whole life.
The fact that I’ve been able to create those connections for other people is the whole freaking point of my life, really. This is why I’m here. This is my only function.
I think of myself as a good person and a positive force in the world, but what I do is pretty simple. I’m just a rock singer. I’m glad these little songs that I’ve written and been able to sing have connected with people. That’s what it’s all about.
Gin Blossoms perform with Blues Traveler and Spin Doctors at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park on August 6.
Editorial contributed to The Pop Break by John Poveromo, a nationally touring comedian, cartoonist, writer, actor, and the host of Dystopia Tonight with John Poveromo on, ApplePodcasts, Spotify and YouTube. John’s been seen on Gotham Live, written for Newsweek, and has a short film on Amazon Prime titled, “Duppet.” Subscribe on www.dystopiatonight.com follow on Instagram
