By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
April 25, 1997
Jonny Lang doesn’t have his drivers license yet, but the 16-year-old blues musician has already put in thousands of miles on the road. Of course, someone else is at the wheel.
“That gives me a good excuse to sleep in the van,” Lang said, suppressing a yawn. “The other guys can’t get mad at me for not pulling my weight.”
Especially since he’s paying their salaries. Though he still looks every bit the teen, Lang has one of those raspy, tortured voices that belies his youth. The title track of his latest album “Lie to Me” is getting good exposure on radio and MTV. And Lang is performing a series of dates at various Hard Rock Cafes, including a free show Sunday here . . . in the parking lot.
The choice of the Chicago venue is a not-so-indirect result of Lang’s last visit to the Windy City. He originally was scheduled to play Feb. 20 at the House of Blues. But due to a law that says no venues that serve alcohol can hire underage entertainers, the date was canceled. No alcohol will be served in the Hard Rock parking lot.
“Chicago’s the only place where that happened,” Lang said. “I travel with my father (who works as his road manager) so it’s not like I wasn’t chaperoned. I was pretty disappointed because I was looking forward to just playing for people.”
Currently studying with a tutor, Lang said he will graduate from high school this year. While he doesn’t participate in extracurricular activities as he would in “school school,” Lang said this lifestyle enables him to fulfill a childhood dream.
“Ever since I was young, I’ve always kind of wanted to be a musician,” he said. “I don’t like the long van rides as much as playing my songs, but that gives me plenty of time to write. I find that it’s easy to do that on the road because there’s nothing else to do.”
Jonny Lang will perform a free show at 3 p.m. Sunday at the parking lot outside the Hard Rock Cafe, 63 W. Ontario. For more info, call (312) 943-2252.
EYE CANDY: Lang’s not the only youngster in town this weekend. The ska-punk band Less Than Jake, whose members range in age from 11 to 23, will play at Lyons Township High School in LaGrange on Saturday. Then they’ll do a set and sign autographs at 1 p.m. Sunday at Tower Records in Schaumburg . . . Kula Shaker are heading back into the recording studio to record the followup to their debut album, “K.” This time, the English band will hole up in Woodstock, N.Y., where they have alread y made demos of a few songs. They plan on co-producing the record . . . Before his sold-out show Thursday at the Rosemont Horizon, Gavin Rossdale of Bush had a few words to say about Boy George, who wrote in his autobiography that the singer was gay. “I have been looking forward to meeting him,” said Rossdale, who said he isn’t gay. “I would say, `You’re a (jerk),’ or something like that. He said he was coming to our show in London, but then he freaked out because he thought someone was going to hav e a bouncer teach him a lesson. That’s ridiculous and childish.” Kinda like spreading rumors . . . Guns ‘N’ Roses have asked techno guru Moby to produce their next album. The coupling isn’t as odd as it may sound. Moby’s latest album paid homage to ha rd rock . . . E-mail comments to: jaehakim@suntimes.com
