HAPPY NATIONAL HUG A DRUMMER DAY!!! I always forget this obviously universally loved holiday exists. To celebrate I’m doing two things, getting a hug from Brianne, and I’m posting an all-new Jon’s Drum Cam featuring Jumping Jack Flash performing “Honky Tonk Woman” by The Rolling Stones!

   A couple of days ago Jumping Jack Flash got the privilege to perform at the 6500-seat Star of the Desert Arena at Buffalo Bill’s in Primm, NV. The whole experience was pretty great. From the room (I got a suite), to the sound crew, to the show itself. Basically, I’d have no problem going back. Thankfully, I remembered to bring the Zoom camera.

   I was recently asked if I have a favorite Stones song to play, and I actually have two! One of them is “Miss You” off the Some Girls album, and the other is this song right here, “Honky Tonk Woman.” Why? Because I love it when a song is just a song. Meaning everything about the song is just to make the song itself a great song. Get it?! 

   Basically, the instrumentations, the arrangements, the vocals, everything about it is not meant to show off one individual. Even the solo isn’t “show-offy.” It’s short, sweet, and to the point just like the song itself. Each individual instrument compliments rather than distracts. One band that basically wrote nothing but songs like that is The Beatles. But for now, we’re talking about the Stones…

   I am technically overplaying in JJF’s version of this song. At least compared to the record. But live, even Charlie played more than he did in the studio for this song. After learning any Stones song, I just think “What would Charlie do?” and I play that. So it’s more in the style of Charlie rather than note-for-note of the studio recordings. The whole point of a live show is to be entertaining. So, like Charlie, I like to embellish the drum part in the live setting to be… well, entertaining. 

In other words, I don’t want to hear about a goddamn drum fill not being EXACTLY correct.

In this video:
Joey “Jagger” Infante as Mick Jagger
Young Hutchison as Keith Richards
Liam Kelley as Mick Taylor
Jon McCracken as Charlie Watts
Zoe Infante on background vocals
Matt Kalin on Sax

Jumping Jack Flash’s full performance of “Honky Tonk Woman” from the Star of the Desert Arena in Primm, NV. Filmed live on 10/7/2023.