I was talking to a co-worker a couple of weeks ago about the time he was asked to join John Cougar's band right before Cougar recorded American Fool. We've traded stories in the past, so I was kinda surprised that I hadn't heard that tidbit before but I guess it's good to hold a few morsels in reserve - shit, I just heard about the Janie Lane solo tour a few months ago. Anyway, conversation ensued and someone (me) looked the dude up on the internet and checked his curriculum vitae and saw a new (to me) band listed so I asked, "What's up with ROYAL JELLY?" His face lit up and he smiled, "Of all my musical projects and bands, and all the touring...ROYAL JELLY is still my favorite." They were a short lived would-be supergroup in the mid-1990s, but they were super to the wrong group of folks and the suits never figured out how to market them. You've got a band who could've (should've) been playing with BECK, JANE'S ADDICTION, BLIND MELON and the like, even infringing on grunge territory here and there. ROYAL JELLY could have dominated alternative radio (and "Ceiling" made a legitimate, if brief, radio splash)....but you still have to sell the shit. The kids who were listening to alt-rock radio in 1994 did not give half a fuck about a new project featuring ex-members of MONTROSE, KROKUS, FOREIGNER and KINDOM COME, and the butt-rock set probably wasn't grooving on the modern sounds of ROYAL JELLY. And this is why, thirty years later, I'm asking the drummer for crew calls and we're working to see which teams will be on projects that will carry over to the following work day. Life is a weird one.
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