Crowd shot masthead ApologetiX Logo Keith Haynie plays bassBill Hubauer plays lead guitarJ. Jackson sings leadJimmy Vegas Tanner plays drums
59,801
as of June 4, 2023

<< Back to the fan club


Search Past News:

Sort by Relevance Date

Yesterday's News:

06.03.23How to Donate Online or by Mail
06.03.23How to Get the ApX Library, USBs, Multiple Downloads
06.03.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
06.03.23Influential Albums 1115-1121
06.03.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
06.03.23This Week's Bible-Reading
05.29.23This Week's News Bulletin
05.29.23New Single: '77 x 2
05.29.23Get Multiple Downloads for One Donation
05.29.23USB Thumb Drives Include Latest CD and Singles
05.29.23Get Over 1570 Tracks for $100
05.26.2370-Year-Old ApX Fan Shares Supernatural Testimony
05.26.23New CD BOGO Ends Soon: Buy 1, Get 1 of 37 Free
05.26.23Next Article
05.26.23Influential Albums 1108-1114
05.25.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
05.22.23This Week's News Bulletin
05.19.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
05.19.23Influential Albums 1101-1107
05.19.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
05.15.23This Week's News Bulletin
05.15.23New Single: '70 & '74
05.12.23Kudos from Canada for New CD
05.11.23Clues for 2023 Single #10
05.11.23What's On Our New CD, Eclectic?
05.11.23Influential Albums 1094-1100
05.11.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
05.07.23This Week's News Bulletin
05.04.23The Story Behind Our Upcoming CD
05.04.23Next CD Available for Order This Sunday Night
05.04.23Influential Albums 1087-93
05.04.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
05.03.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
05.01.23This Week's News Bulletin
05.01.23New Single: '72 & '75
04.28.23Influential Albums 1080-86
04.28.23Clues for 2023 Single #9
04.28.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
04.24.23Fan Will Match All Donations Up to $7700
04.23.23New CD Coming Soon
04.23.2330th Anniversary Challenge Coins Back in Stock
04.21.23ApX Fan Overcoming Alcoholism Through Christ
04.21.23Influential Albums 1073-79
04.21.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
04.20.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
04.16.23New Single: 2 Top 10s from '78
04.15.23Fan Will Match $40 Donations from Fans
04.14.23Clues for 2023 Single #8
04.14.23Influential Albums 1066-72
04.14.23YouTuber Allocates All of April to ApX Albums
04.11.23Meet Two ApologetiX Fans Who Are Authors
04.08.23New Video Playlist for You: ApologetiX Interviews
04.08.23Influential Albums 1059-65
04.08.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
04.07.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
04.05.23ApX Easter Week Playlist
04.04.23This Week's News Bulletin
04.04.23New Single: '86 & '92
03.31.23Clues for 2023 Single #7
03.31.23New Full-Length Concert Video: ApX Live in NY 2005
03.31.23Influential Albums 1052-58
03.31.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
03.24.23New Video Playlist for You: ApologetiX Covers by Fans
03.24.23Influential Albums 1045-1051
03.24.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
03.24.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
03.20.23New Single: '76 & '85
03.20.23This Week's News Bulletin
03.18.23ApX on Hour-Long Live Webcast Next Tuesday
03.18.23ApologetiX Radio Show Celebrates Five Years
03.17.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
03.17.23New ApX Apparel Designs + Mugs, Stickers & More
03.17.23Influential Albums: 1038-1044
03.15.23Clues for 2023 Single #6
03.11.23ApX Alum Drummer Becomes a First-Time Grandpa
03.10.23A Letter from J. About the Letter J
03.10.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
03.10.23Influential Albums: 1031-1037
03.09.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
03.06.23This Week's News Bulletin
03.06.23New Single: '68 & '70
03.04.23New ApX Songbook (1992-2022) is Here
03.04.23Influential Albums: 1024-1030
03.03.23Fan Follows Up on Last Week's Big Music Article
03.03.23Nice Notes from Bible-Readers
03.03.23Over 400 ApX Live Videos Together in One Place
03.03.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
02.25.23Music: The Sacred, the Secular, and the Subjective
02.24.23ApologetiX in Places You Wouldn't Expect
02.23.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
02.23.23Influential Albums: 1017-1023
02.21.23The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
02.20.23This Week's News Bulletin
02.20.23New Single:'65 & '88
02.17.23Serious Prayer Request from Wichita KS
02.17.23Influential Albums: 1010-1016
02.16.23Rock Thru the Bible with ApX This Week
02.11.23How Did J. Meet His Wife?
02.11.23Fan Follows Up on "Ask God" With His Own Story
02.11.23The Numbers Behind the Songs on This Single

The Stories Behind the Songs on This Single
Fri., Oct. 26. 2018 2:15pm EDT

J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again.

It's fitting that we spoofed The Zombies for our late-October single, since it's the time of the season for such things, but we didn't plan that. On September 18, Jimmy texted me and asked if "She's Not There" had been a big hit. I told him it had gone all the way up to #2. "It's an eerie tune," he said. "Very cool. Got lyric ideas?" I've always loved that song and told him I'd put it on my "to do" list.

Within minutes, God gave me the idea to turn it into "She's Not Dead," about Tabitha (a.k.a. Dorcas), the woman Peter resurrected in Acts 9. In the week leading up to Jimmy's question, I'd been thinking about doing a song about her, though I'd been toying with a different song. But this one was perfect for it, and I started getting lyrics right away and let Jimmy know.

Jimmy texted back and said, "It's cool, because I feel like God is telling us to do it." Jimmy never says stuff like that, so I put it on the front burner. The guys had all their parts done by October 6, and I recorded vocals on October 10, so there wasn't much dead time. I think it's pretty cool that we used a song by a band named for the undead to tell the story of a woman raised from the dead.

The other song on the new single was a slow burner. I got the idea to spoof the Sugarloaf song "Green-Eyed Lady" as "Read Isaiah" back in the mid-90's but never expected we'd get around to it, so I never wrote the lyrics. About five years ago,Tom Tincha started talking about what a cool song it was, so that rekindled my interest, but it was still a long shot.

Enter Rich Mannion, who just started playing keys with ApologetiX back in late May. Once you hear Rich's keyboards on both of these new songs, you'll realize he was born to play them. That guy is good. And those songs are tricky.

The trick for me with "Read Isaiah" was narrowing down what scripture references I wanted to use from Isaiah. There are so many great ones, but I finally settled on 1:18, 6:1, 7:14, 9:6 and chapter 53. You know how they take verses in the Epistle to the Romans and call them the "Romans Road to Salvation"? This is kind of the "Romans Road" of Isaiah for me.

The Zombies and Sugarloaf only had five Top 40 hits between them, but, oh, what hits they were! The Zombies had "She's Not There" (#2), "Tell Her No" (#6), and "Time of the Season" (#3); Sugarloaf had "Green-Eyed Lady" (#3) and "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" (#9).

Ironically, both bands had comeback hits four years after their initial successes — at a time when the public had largely forgotten about them. Even more strangely, both comeback hits reached their peak chart position on March 29 (in 1969 and 1975), although the songs we spoofed were the first hits for each band (in the autumns of 1964 and 1970).

Isn't that weird? I know what you're saying: "No, J., you are the one who is weird." Yeah, I know. But, thankfully, God can still use it.