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

Here are the stories behind the songs on our 20th single of 2024. 

WALK HIS WAY (2024)

When longtime ApX fans learned we were redoing our old parody of "Walk This Way" some of them may have wondered if we'd attempt the Run-DMC remake (with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry from Aerosmith) to spice things up. I was a big fan of Run-DMC, and their interpretation did chart higher than Aerosmith's (#4 in 1986 vs. #10 in 1977), but I greatly prefer the original ... just not our original. 

Don't get me wrong: I thought our 1998 studio recording was decent, and our 2004 live take had some interesting features, but I still felt we could do better. In fact, I gave advance notice of that in previous editions of the ApologetiX songbook in the journal entry for "Walk His Way" and on a list we posted of ApX parodies I'd like to redo. 

Our 2024 rendition sounds so much more like the Aerosmith, thanks to exemplary playing by Wayne Bartley on guitars, Rich Mannion on bass, and Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner on drums. 

I was also pleased to finally be able to focus an entire session on getting my vocals right, as opposed to the "sing as many songs as you possibly can in one night" approach we used in '98 and the "you never know what to expect when you fly to a concert in Miami and use somebody else's sound system and do a song in the middle of a show so hope and pray for the best" we used in 2004. 

One thing I did like from the concert recording was the ad-lib section with six Aerosmith song titles, so we expanded on that and inserted 18 this time. 

"Walk His Way" features J. Jackson on lead and backing vocals; Wayne Bartley on guitars; Rich Mannion on bass; and Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner on drums and percussion.
 
I’M YOUR BORN-AGAIN MAN

This is one of our rare vertical parodies. In other words, the lyrics are addressed directly to the Lord above. 

I got the idea on June 26, 2024, although I initially thought it would be a horizontal declaration — "I'm a Born-Again Man.” Obviously, that didn't parallel the original quite as well, but I still mulled things over before changing the title to "I'm Your Born-Again Man," because I try to give careful consideration before writing something I'm going to be singing to God. 

I want the sentiments expressed to be genuine ... thoughts I really might say in prayer and not just things thrown in there for the sake of a rhyme scheme. Ideally, I also would like for our fans to be able to identify with what is being said, so they can sing along and give a heartfelt "amen.” 

Once I began the creative process, I realized we could change the "1-2-3" at the beginning to "John 3:3." Then I remembered we'd already done that in our 2002 parody "Born Above," which is also about regeneration. Well, at least I waited 22 years before repeating myself! 

Of course, John 3:3 is the famous passage of the Bible where Jesus tells Nicodemus, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” After coming to Christ in 1988, I bought quite a few copies of Billy Graham's 1977 book How to Be Born Again and sent them — along with personal notes — to friends and relatives. That may have turned some of them off, but there was no turning me off. 

"I'm Your Born-Again Man" features J. Jackson on lead and backing vocals; Wayne Bartley on guitars; Rich Mannion on keyboards and bass; Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner on drums and percussion; and Janna Jackson on backing female vocals. 

For every copy of Zedekiah, Hezekiah, Jeroboam & Other Guys you order, you can select one title from the list above. For example, if you order five copies of Zedekiah, Hezekiah, Jeroboam & Other Guys, you can select five different titles (or five of the same title) from the list. 

We began our latest trip through the Bible on Wednesday, April 3.

Here's our Bible-reading plan for the next two weeks for those of you reading along with us:

Sat., Oct. 12 - Isaiah 7-9
Sun., Oct. 13 - Isaiah 10-12
Mon., Oct. 14 - Isaiah 13-15
Tue., Oct. 15 - Isaiah 16-18
Wed., Oct. 16 - Isaiah 19-21
Thu., Oct. 17 - Isaiah 22-24
Fri., Oct. 18 - Isaiah 25-27
Sat., Oct. 19 - Isaiah 28-30
Sun., Oct. 20 - Isaiah 31-33
Mon., Oct. 21 - Isaiah 34-36
Tue., Oct. 22 - Isaiah 37-39
Wed., Oct. 23 - Isaiah 40-42
Thu., Oct. 24 - Isaiah 43-45
Fri., Oct. 25 - Isaiah 46-48

Note: If you don't have a Bible handy, you can look up these passages for free on Bible Gateway. They have about 60 different English translations/versions there to choose from, plus translations in many other languages, many of which also have multiple translations/versions.

We recently revamped the downloadable version of our complete library. Now it comes in a PDF with pictures of every album and single for easy reference. You just click on the ones you need to download them instantly.

We're giving our complete library on download to everyone who donates $100 this week.

That's 1716 tracks, including various versions (studio, live, rarity, album, single, EP, revised, remastered, etc.), plus side projects ... even our most-recent single and our latest CD.

Our updated ApologetiX USB thumb drives contain the digital versions of all of our CDs, plus any singles, EPs, or rarities that aren't on CD.

That includes our 75th CD, Zedekiah, Hezekiah, Jeroboam & Other Guys, and our latest single, “Walk His Way / I’m Your Born-Again Man.”

Emblazoned with the band's logo, they have a storage capacity of 16 GB, and they’re write-enabled, so you can add more music to them if and when you get future ApX downloads.  

They’re available for a donation of $150 or more. If you've donated for our complete library before, they're available for a donation of $50 or more.

J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX here again.
 
Here are the latest entries in the "albums that influenced me" series I started writing in May 2020.
 
Note: Just because an album appears on this list doesn't mean I give it a blanket endorsement. Many of the secular albums on this list are mainly there because they wound up being spoofed by ApologetiX.

1612. Hot Potato Soup - ApologetiX
In 2012, ApologetiX drummer Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner and his wife, Eve, built a recording studio in their basement, complete with a separate booth for vocals. When described on paper, that might conjure up images of a homemade, ramshackle endeavor, but when I finally saw it in person, I was quite impressed. They named it Red Apple Audio Workshop (RAAW), furnishing it with top-notch equipment while devouring and assimilating all the latest information they could find on recording. Jimmy has a great ear for music, and Eve's a computer whiz, so the two of them made a wonderful team. And they kept improving the facility as time went on. Furthermore, when the Tanners moved to a new home in 2019, they planned ahead and sought the perfect house in which to build an even bigger, better studio. Consequently, we've been recording the drums and vocals (and occasionally the guitars and bass) for all of our albums from 2013 on at RAAW. In general, the other musicians record their parts for guitar, bass, and keyboards in their own, much smaller, home studios, and send them to Jimmy, who then prepares them along with his drums and my vocals (and all other vocals), and sends them to our mixer (currently David Michael, who was preceded by Wayne Bartley, who succeeded Bill Hubauer) for final mixing and mastering. If we have guest vocalists and musicians, they generally record at RAAW. We've recorded upright bass, mandolin, banjo, trumpet, saxophone, harmonica, and even bagpipes at Jimmy's studio. Anyway, the first album to come out of there was our 32nd overall, Hot Potato Soup. Released in March 2013, it featured 15 parodies of songs from the 1964-2011, including two from the '60s, three from the '70s, two from the '80s, four from the '90s, and four from the 2010s. Artists spoofed included Alice in Chains, The Black Crowes, Enimem, Foo Fighters, Foreigner, Foster the People, Cee Lo Green, Guns N' Roses, Judas Priest, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Manfred Mann, The Monkees, Rihanna, The Spin Doctors, Sweet, and Third Eye Blind. We titled it Hot Potato Soup because it featured a few controversial topics that can be real “hot potatoes,” mixed in with everything else like a soup. We didn’t set out with that goal in mind; it just happened that way. Like many soups, Hot Potato Soup may seem a bit spicy, but we hoped our fans would find it quite tasty. Of course, God can make any soup better, as evidenced by this story in 2 Kings 4:38–41: "Elisha returned to Gilgal and there was a famine in that region. While the company of the prophets was meeting with him, he said to his servant, 'Put on the large pot and cook some stew for these men.' One of them went out into the fields to gather herbs and found a wild vine. He gathered some of its gourds and filled the fold of his cloak. When he returned, he cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were. The stew was poured out for the men, but as they began to eat it, they cried out, 'O man of God, there is death in the pot!' And they could not eat it. Elisha said, 'Get some flour.' He put it into the pot and said, 'Serve it to the people to eat.' And there was nothing harmful in the pot." There's nothing harmful in the potato soup we served up hot on this album, either, but that doesn't mean it'll suit everybody's tastes. However, now that we had Jimmy's studio, we were about to increase our output of albums dramatically, so there was bound to be something for just about everybody.  
 
1613. Celebrate Christmas With Praise and Worship - Various Artists
I got this 2005 CD courtesy of former ApologetiX drummer Keith Harrold. Although Keith passed away in 2018, Celebrate Christmas With Praise and Worship continues to be a big part of my Christmas listening every year ... albeit just a small part of the rich legacy he left behind in my life. As an annual tradition in the Harrold household, Keith would play Arlo Guthrie's 18-and-half-minute talking-blues song "Alice's Restaurant Massacre," the lyrics of which revolve around events that took place in Guthrie's life on Thanksgiving Day 1965. In similar fashion, here in the Jackson household, I save Celebrate Christmas With Praise and Worship for Christmas morning as we begin opening gifts. The album was produced and arranged by Keith Troup. Seven tracks have vocals (by Michael Priebe, Jason Eskridge, Delores Cox, and Debi Selby); the other nine are instrumental. I reorganized them digitally so the ones with vocals come first. I only play those on Christmas day, because it keeps them special. The instrumentals, however, make great mood music that I play throughout the holiday season. All 16 tracks are well-known Christian hymns, but the ones with vocals are performed in an upbeat R&B style whereas the instrumentals seem more along the lines of Mannheim Steamroller. They also remind of my all-time favorite Christmas LP, The Gift: A Colours Christmas. Not surprisingly, Celebrate Christmas With Praise and Worship is a close second on my list. I listen to the album as a unit, so it's hard for me to pick favorites, but the opening track, "Angels We Have Heard on High," is always the first song I play when we open gifts, so it's extra special to me. As far as instrumentals go, they're all great, but there's something about the arrangement of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" that really gets to me.  
 
1614. Handheld Messiah - ApologetiX
ApologetiX put out two LPs simultaneously for the holiday season in November 2013. One was a compilation of 13 previously released Christmas-themed parodies (one of which we rerecorded) called ApologetiX Classics: Christmas. The other was an all-new project consisting of 11 more Christmas parodies, spoofing Aerosmith, Harry Chapin, Foreigner, Murray Head, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Joel, Tone Loc, U2, Vanilla Ice, and Elvis Presley (twice). We called it Handheld Messiah. Most people have heard (or heard of) Handel’s Messiah, an oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel in 1741, with biblical lyrics by Charles Jennens. It’s one of the most-famous and best-loved musical works in history, although initial public reception was rather modest. The handheld Messiah, Jesus, also got a rather modest reception when He first appeared in public, but would go on to become the most-famous and best-loved miracle worker in history. And so much more. Prophet. Priest. Savior. King of Kings. Lord of Lords. Of course, Jesus existed long before He was born to the Virgin Mary in the manger: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14). In the last book of the Bible, it calls Jesus “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Even in the first book, God foretold and foreshadowed His coming numerous times, as early as Genesis 3:15. Those signs and prophecies continued throughout the Old Testament. The Messiah was no afterthought. And He didn’t stay a baby, either. We can’t hold Him in our hands anymore. But now no one can snatch us out of His hand (John 10:28). With this CD, we celebrated His birth, His death, His resurrection, and His second coming. We now had a total of 24 Christmas parodies, but more would follow in the years to come, including two in November 2014.
 
1615. Mandatory Fun - "Weird Al" Yankovic
Thirty years after "Eat It," parody king "Weird Al" Yankovic finally reached the top of the Billboard 200. Ironically, he did so with his final album. Mandatory Fun was released July 15, 2014, and entered the chart at #1 just two and a half weeks later. I received two gift copies in the mail, courtesy of his drummer, Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz, with an official note stating that this would be Al's last full-length physical LP: "Mandatory Fun marks the end of Al's contract with Sony. Al doesn't intend to renew, instead preferring the advantages of being independent. Since albums and singles aren't selling like they used to, and the end of CDs as a medium looms ever closer, there's really no need for the manufacturing and distribution services that the label provides. New songs will go direct to iTunes and other digital outlets as they're recorded, so they'll be more timely, and we won't have to wait until there's an album's worth of songs before any of them can be released, which has pretty much been the model in the past." Mandatory Fun featured five full-on parodies "Handy" ("Fancy" by Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX), "Foil" ("Royals" by Lorde), "Word Crimes" ("Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell Williams), "Inactive" ("Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons), and "Tacky" ("Happy by Pharrell Williams). Of those, my top picks are "Word Crimes," "Tacky," and "Foil." Among the six originals, my favorites are "Lame Claim to Fame," "Sports Song" (possibly the most erudite college-football fight song ever recorded), and "Mission Statement" (a style parody in the vein of Crosby, Still & Nash but loaded with corporate jargon/gobbledygook). Al also did a great job spoofing the styles of Foo Fighters on "With My Own Eyes" and Cat Stevens with the nine-minute, disturbing "Jackson Park Express." Meanwhile, the polka medley this time out was titled "Now That's What I Call Polka!" and included tunes such as "Wrecking Ball" (Miley Cyrus), "Pumped Up Kicks" (Foster the People), "Sexy and I Know It" (LMFAO), and "Thrift Shop" (Macklemore & Ryan Lews feat. Wanz). The medley also incudes "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams. Yes, Al covered three different songs on Mandatory Fun that originally featured Pharrell Williams. My wife, our two oldest daughters, our son-in-law, and I saw Al in concert four years later at the Palace Theater in Greensburg PA on March 24, 2018, as part of his Ridiculously Self-Indulgent, Ill-Advised Vanity Tour. It was my third Al show overall, but their first ... and the first I'd seen him since the 1999. 
 
1616. Singles Group – ApologetiX
In mid-July 2014, the same week "Weird Al" Yankovic unveiled his final LP, ApologetiX put out the first of four all-new albums the band would release over the final six months of that year. We'd decided in January to scale back touring and ramp up recording, much of which was done at Red Apple Audio Workshop (RAAW), the studio run by ApX drummer Jimmy "Vegas" Tanner and his wife, Eve. This might be showing our age, but we spent much of our youth in record shops and the record sections of department stores. If you couldn’t afford to buy an album, you could always buy 45-rpm singles. Finding your favorite song with a picture sleeve was a special treat. Most artists put lesser songs on the flip sides, but others, like the Beatles and CCR, had multiple double-sided hits. In fact, the Beatles had so many great songs that many of their singles didn’t even appear on albums until later compilations. With that in mind, in 2014, ApologetiX became a singles group, releasing two or three songs every two or three weeks. Remembering our childhood preferences, we made sure each release had its own special digital picture sleeve (designed by my wife, Lisa, and me) and that all songs on it were hits! We made those singles available to our fans as downloads for a donation of any size. As the band had become increasingly dependent on fan support, it seemed a great way to get more music out there and also to give something back to our supporters. Many fans still preferred CDs, though, so we grouped the first six singles (13 songs in all) together on our 35th LP, Singles Group. Artists spoofed included Bryan Adams, The Beatles, Billy Idol, Cream, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Molly Hatchett, No Doubt, Tom Petty, The Rolling Stones, Steely Dan, and ZZ Top. Making all that music was quite a collaborative effort, with current band members, alumni, friends, and family participating. By the time Singles Group came out, we were already more than halfway to completing a second collection, which would arrive a mere two months later. 
 
1617. Loaded 45s – ApologetiX
The 36th ApologetiX LP, Loaded 45s, came out in the first half of September 2014, a little less than two months after the 35th, Singles Group. Both consisted of parodies that were first released as part of our recently instituted, ongoing series of digital singles. Three of the tracks featured female lead vocals — the most we'd ever had up to that point — spoofs of Pat Benatar, Heart, and Carly Simon, sung by Janna Jackson, Keely Singer, and Elaine Heitzer, respectively. The other nine tracks were take-offs of AC/DC, The Beatles, The Blues Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, Ides of March, Elton John, Kenny Loggins, Steve Miller, and Twisted Sister. All the songs we spoofed originally came out as singles on 45-rpm records, but these parody singles were “loaded 45s” — loaded with the life-changing Word of God. With that in mind, here are some verses from a pair of loaded 45s in the Bible — Isaiah 45 and Psalm 45. Isaiah 45:21–22 reads as follows: “Declare what is to be, present it — let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” Notice how God says there is no other God or Savior apart from Him. Then how can Jesus be our Savior? Psalm 45 gives us clues, as God Himself refers to the Messiah as “God”: Psalm 45:6–7 “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.” Hebrews 1:8 says God is talking “about the Son” in those verses. We do a lot of talking about the Son in the verses (and choruses) of our songs, too, and we pray that everything we do will bring glory to Him, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. As it says elsewhere in Psalm 45: “My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer” (Psalm 45:1).  
 
1618. Apoplectic - ApologetiX
Released in late November 2014, the 37th ApologetiX LP focused on music from the mid-to-late '90s, primarily alternative stuff. In a sense, Apoplectic was the follow-up to our Ticked (a.k.a. Rolling Clone) CD from 1997. It concentrated on the same era and genre of music and had a similar attitude. That’s one of the reasons we called it “Apoplectic,” which basically means “really ticked.” In fact, all but one of the parodies on Apoplectic were written at the same time as the ones on Ticked; we just ran out of space in '97. However, waiting 17 additional years gave us a lot more time to hone our craft, so the quality of the performances on this album were a marked improvement. We actually began writing songs for Ticked at the end of '94, so some of these songs had been waiting 20 years by the time Apoplectic came out, although we tweaked the lyrics a little bit. Artists spoofed included Better Than Ezra, Bush, Foo Fighters, The Goo Goo Dolls, Meat Puppets, Alanis Morissette, Oasis, Joan Osborne, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, REM, Seven Mary Three, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Soundgarden, Yes, all this and Foo and Goo, too! A couple of the tracks on Apoplectic were sung by my oldest daughter, Janna, who was born in 1996, about the same time I got the lyrics for the songs she would grow up to sing! Fittingly, one of them was a parody of a song called “Ironic.” So God provided the singer at the same time He provided the lyrics. We just had to wait 18 years to find that out. Isn’t that ironic? As we told our fans in 2014, "If you’re unfamiliar with some of the songs we spoofed here, just pretend it’s that long-awaited CD of original music you’ve been asking us to release!" That's a photo of my third daughter, Kelly, on the cover. She was 11 by the time Apoplectic came out, and I got her permission to use it. 

If you'd like to donate to the ministry of ApologetiX, there are a couple ways you can do it. 

If you prefer to mail a check or money order, please make it out to "ApologetiX" and send it to: 

ApologetiX
208 Charlemma Drive
Pittsburgh PA 15214-1414

Although the donations are not tax-deductible, they will be received very gratefully and used immediately. Thank you!