MRHS grad says choosing profession meant a difficult but rewarding road, touring with band in U.S., Europe
SOMERS POINT – So, you wanna be a rock star?
Josh Bassett will tell you taking that road sure isn’t easy, maybe even the toughest thing you’ll ever do, but it is rewarding if you’re true to yourself.
Bassett, who as a small child lived in Ocean City then moved with his family to Somers Point, now splits his time between Los Angeles and Italy with his wife, Italian fashion designer Cinzia Simone.
He and his band recently finished a two-month tour in Europe and when he was visiting home at the end of last year, his band did a two-week blues tour in New York City, Asbury Park and Atlantic City, and even did a gig at a bar in Somers Point. Last fall, it was a six-week tour in Italy.
Bassett looks like a rock star — just check out some of his images — but the singer and guitar player doesn’t limit himself.
“I’m a musician,” he said. “Everything that I’m interested in comes through in my shows and songs — I am a jazz musician, I’m a rock musician, I’m a folk musician, I’m a blues musician, I’m a psychedelic musician.”
Although his primary roles are as a singer and guitar player, when he is in the studio he will use whatever is around. He writes and releases his own music, has recorded albums, done music for films, but also plays covers at shows and on social media — with his own spin. (See his music videos and more at joshbassett.com or his Instagram page #bassettmusic.)
Bassett, son of Katherine Bassett, an education consultant, and Steve Bassett, an insurance broker, was born at Shore Medical Center, spent four years in Ocean City, then went to school at Jordan Road School in Somers Point and graduated from Mainland Regional High School in 2000. While at Mainland, he soaked up everything musical that he could.
“I did every single music program they had there. I was a drummer in the marching band. I played percussion in the wind ensemble. I was an All-South Jersey symphony player. I played violin in the orchestra. I sang in the choir. I did all that,” he said.
He followed it up by heading to the University of Miami to study jazz music because jazz legend Pat Metheny studied and taught there.
“I wanted to go there because he went there. I wanted to study what he was studying,” he said.
Bassett had that opportunity because he was able to study under some of the professors who taught when Metheny was there.
He said his influences, on guitar, also include Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Jimi Hendrix and John McLaughlin and, as singers, Chris Cornell (Soundgarden), Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), Jim Morrison (The Doors), Jeff Buckley and Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots).
Bassett’s two big connections in his life right now are through Weiland and Hendrix. His manager is Weiland’s widow, Jamie Weiland, and one of his friends is Leon Hendrix, Jimi’s younger brother.
Jamie Weiland has been a friend for almost four years. They met through a producer, Rocco Guarino, who recorded one of his albums and was Scott Weiland’s personal assistant and studio manger. Scott Weiland had a studio in L.A., Lavish, and Guarino ran the studio.
“He introduced me to Jamie and we hit it off,” Bassett said.
When he told her about so many things he had to do, “she said she’d love to manage me.”
As for Leon Hendrix, he said he didn’t know Jimi had a brother. During his first visit to Seattle he saw a newspaper article “about this cool-looking dude being Jimi Hendrix’s brother.” A few years later, he was playing at a club in Hollywood and when he came offstage, “I bumped into this dude wearing a sequined jacket and sunglasses. It was Leon. We started talking about Jimi songs I liked.”
They exchanged information and six months later Hendrix said he had some shows coming up and wanted to know if Bassett and his band would open for him. That gradually led to a friendship and if Hendrix has a gig coming up and calls him, he gets his band together.
Being a professional musician isn’t easy
Bassett said it takes commitment to be a professional musician.
“It’s probably one of the most difficult things you can try to do. You have to love to do it. You’re not going to get a lot of recognition. It’s not going to be easy. You’re not going to be rewarded financially for a while,” he said. “You have to have people around you who support you doing it. You don’t have to, but it helps.”
Bassett said the journey can take a long time and being a touring musician “can be like boot camp.”
“It is insane. The boot camp is the logistical part of it. You wake up in the morning somewhere, you have all of your bags and your gear and your stuff, and you have to get it out of your room and into your car or van, you have to load it, drive three hours to the next place, then pull up at the other hotel. Get all the gear out and into the room. Maybe get an hour to sleep or take a shower, then you warm up. Then get the gear down to a car, load that, drive to the venue, unload it, set it all up, play the show, break it all down, get it back to the car, then back to the room. And then wake up the next day and do it all over again.
“And do it four days a week for five weeks. Your body is completely shot,” he said. “It’s awesome.”
A musician as fan: he has great stories
In his own journey, he said, “You meet incredible people. Outrageous things happen. The best thing for me is when I get to meet and become friends with heroes of mine.”
Bassett said he went backstage with artist passes when Aerosmith was playing Atlantic City. He met the band and lead singer Steven Tyler.
“We had a 10-minute conversation backstage. He signed the first Aerosmith album for me. During the show, he came over with the mic and had me sing a chorus with him in front of 20,000 people. That was the coolest thing.”
A friend of his in Los Angeles had done PR for Guns N’ Roses in the early days and was still friends with Slash, the band’s lead guitarist, and his family. Bassett went to the band’s show at Dodger Stadium, got to watch the show in front with Slash’s father and then went backstage.
He gave Slash a gift bag with two T-shirts he designed featuring old ads from Rolling Stone Magazine from the 1970s featuring a Marilyn Monroe type holding a bag with the Aerosmith album “Rocks” – Slash’s favorite album — hanging out of it.
“I put that on a T-shirt and gave him a note thanking him for inspiring me all my life and being a cool representation of what a rock star should be. Shook his hand. Talked to him a bit,” he said. “Duff (bassist Duff McKagan) from Guns N’ Roses was standing over there. I didn’t want to bug him, but he came over to me and asked if I was the guy who gave Slash the T-shirts. He told me the shirt was really cool. I happened to have another one with me on my shoulder and asked if he wanted it. He did.”
One of his favorite stories is going to a 2018 festival called Cal Jam east of Los Angeles organized by the Foo Fighters. He got VIP passes and there was a rumor Nirvana was going to reunite and do a set.
“That, for me, was one of the reasons I started playing guitar. Some of the first songs I learned were Nirvana songs. I had some VHS Nirvana tapes. They taught me how to dress, how to think and talk about politics and school and authority. It influenced my outlook, my whole generation really,” Bassett said.
He really wanted to meet Nirvana bass player Krist Novoselic, “who was the one next to Kurt Cobain and started the whole thing.”
“I brought this big crystal with me to potentially give to Krist Novoselic if I happened to meet him.” The crystal Celestine (or Celestite) “is supposed to give you access to your angel. I thought Krist might want to communicate with Kurt or his parents.
“Long story short, I carried it around with me all day, to all these shows, and at the end Nirvana did reunite, they played six songs, and after that there was a party. All these people were there — Dave Grohl was there — and I ended up giving Krist the crystal,” Bassett said. “He had a box of oatmeal cookies with him and he offered me some cookies. I have a photo. I’m standing next to him. He’s holding the crystal and I’m holding the cookies.
“After I talked to him for five minutes, I walked away and I cried. It was heavy.”
Albums and life in L.A. and Italy
Bassett’s first album, “Vanishing,” was self-released in 2012. He worked with music producer Francois. Some of Chris Cornell’s session musicians worked with him in the studio. He only recently started doing promotion for it. A video of one of the songs, “Bring Me Back Down,” is on YouTube (and through his website).
“We shot that video in San Francisco. It has models in it and we had our instruments in the water. We drank a bunch of whiskey,” he said. “It was February and it was freezing.”
“Ghost Hwy” is a more acoustic album that came out at the end of 2016. He produced, mixed and recorded it himself. A video by that name, also on his website, was shot in a desert area and is more like a short film.
“There were no lyrics for the song when we shot the video,” he said, but after the video, of him driving in the desert, he knew the storyline and did the lyrics.
He recorded two other albums, one just before the pandemic and another during.
Bassett has been living with his wife in Los Angeles. She was creative director for Guess for 12 years and now is a consultant for Forever 21 and Joe’s Jeans and has her own line that can be found in Nordstrom. (“She’s a complete badass,” he noted.)
After they sold their loft in the arts district they were visiting Simone’s parents in Italy.
“The childhood dream house of hers had a for-sale sign. We took a tour and ended up buying the house. I use that house as a base over there,” he said. It’s in the Abruzzo region on the Adriatic Sea.
No discouragement here
Bassett said although the road is difficult, he is loving the life and doesn’t want to discourage others who want to be professional musicians.
“If you’re true to what you love to do in music and just keep doing it and stick with it, eventually one or two things happen that are nice and it makes you want to keep going,” he said. “As you go on it snowballs and you get more and more momentum. And more and more good things happen and you get more confidence. … It all keeps getting better. It’s the most rewarding thing.
“Even if it’s not financially rewarding or recognition-wise right away, you know inside yourself.”
Learn more about Bassett at joshbassett.com.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff