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There’s a Story in My Eyes…

I WOULDN’T TRADE LIVES with anyone. Every day has been a singular journey that has brought me to this moment in time. Writing this memoir has been like writing the diary I never kept. Fortunately and maybe not so fortunately, my brain is not equipped with a “delete” button, so most of my remembrances are either painfully or joyously intact.

As I leafed through my mental notes, I discovered what makes my life tick: the reasons I found success and the reasons even greater success has so far eluded me. I consider myself the luckiest guy I know—not because I have been blessed with wealth or fame, but because I have been touched by a wealth of people I can truly call friends.

I’m sure all autobiographies are cathartic for the writer, but perhaps even more so for me. Before tackling my memoirs, I was never the type to examine life as it happened, preferring to live in the cozy cocoon of creativity.

Songwriting has always been my escape, but it has also, too often, been my excuse for dealing improperly with many interpersonal and business relationships. Writing this book has forced me to harness my powers of recall and to look for answers to the complex questions I never thought to ask myself before.

You’ll find those answers right here—no holds barred. The complex patchwork of my life is drenched with drama and reward, Sturm und Drang. My book tells the tale of a Czech kid from a small Chicago suburb who, instead of denying his humble heritage, chose to glorify it. In fact, here’s how I still introduce us: “Hi everybody. We’re The Ides of March from Berwyn, Illinois!”

It’s a story about a boy whose rise to success reflects that of Rocky Balboa in the very song he co-wrote for Rocky III: the now iconic motivational anthem, “Eye of the Tiger.”

I feel I was put on this earth to express my heart through the songs I write. Songs thoroughly define me. They have been both companion and sage counselor. They have made me a ton of money, yet have cost me a small fortune as I chased dream after dream to promote them.

Mine is a life that shatters the stereotypical “sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll” archetype. Maybe that’s why I’m still here and still coherent.

It is why my high school sweetheart and I have now been married for forty years. But the contradictions and complexity of my psyche are all here in living color. My various quirks and neuroses have informed my songwriting and created a kind of petri dish of cultures. I believe that if you never fail—if you never fall—then you are playing life too safe, and that’s not who I am. Not at all.

I carry the strength and sometimes overconfidence of my gift, and yet I honor and protect that gift with every fiber of my being. I’ve always felt that if I fully appreciate the life I’ve been granted, He will let me keep it. So far, so good.

I can be endearing or annoying (depending on who you talk to), self-serving or self-deprecating, stingy or generous, overbearing or laissez-faire, humble or pretentious. But I always try to be genuine and treat people the way I’d like to be treated. By relaying my experiences as honestly as possible, I hope I have given you reasons to judge me fairly.

Here I rip the lid off many issues I have avoided for years. In the process I learned a lot about myself.

You will get to know more about many of the people I have been fortunate enough to work with through the years: The Ides of March, 38 Special, Sammy Hagar, Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, Kevin Cronin and REO Speedwagon, The Doobie Brothers, Cheap Trick, Night Ranger, Dennis DeYoung, Reba McEntire, Henry Paul of Blackhawk, David Hasselhoff (!), Johnny Rivers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and, of course, Survivor. You will get a feel for the kind of people I love to work with and find out why I stay close to them even after all these years.

As I enter my seventh decade, I am still evolving—still pushing the envelope, sometimes achieving success, other times falling on my ass. I’m one of the few people I know who has acquired a nickname at age sixty: Jimbo. I’ve shed forty pounds and I’ve kept it off. I work out three times a week; I’ve added a swash of purple to my hair, tight, spray-on jeans, and a confident swagger that is in stark contrast with my history of shrinking from the light for so many years…

Why now? Why the reinvention? And, most importantly, will it last? Well, you’ve got to read this book and then decide for yourself.

People often stop and ask me, “Jim, what’s your best song?” I’m sure they expect to hear me name one of my big hits, perhaps “Eye of the Tiger,” “Hold on Loosely,” “The Search Is Over” or “Vehicle.”

Instead I tell them, “I haven’t written it yet.” And I’m dead serious. It’s always day one for me—the first day of the rest of my life, and I intend to live to 100.

I’ve got too damn much to do, too many committed goals, too many songs to write, and too many emotions to express. I’ve got too much love to share, too many slushy martinis to sip, bone-in fillets to sink my teeth into, young rockers to mentor, too many vintage guitars to collect and memories to reflect upon. But most of all, I have the motivation to maybe even make a difference in your life.

Hopefully, I will touch you with a shared experience or perhaps mirror your own life in some way; maybe I will even shed some light on a problem you might be having. I have found that as I write, I become my own shrink—so I’m saving a bundle there.

At this very moment, sitting at the computer in my kitchen, I’m writing a song called “Delusional” for the group I founded, Pride of Lions, which features me and the amazing vocalist Toby Hitchcock. It’s a good one that concerns the sometimes careless medication of “hyperactive” kids when they become a nuisance to their parents and society. It’s my belief that except in extreme cases kids should be allowed to be kids, exhibiting all the characteristics that make them unique individuals.

The lyric brings that point home:

“He gets up early each morning rushes down to the field

By the power of will he’s a man made of steel

He says he’s gonna be a football star

yeah they all say the boy’s delusional

She sings into her hairbrush in front of the mirror

At the top of her lungs—her passion is clear

She says she wants to be like her idols on the screen

Ah they shake their heads—the girl’s delusional

Then they come up with initials

for not doing what he’s told

Giving her prescriptions—to fit into the mold”

Chorus:

“Let the boy dream—let him believe

Live and breathe—let him be delusional

Let the girl grow

Question all she’s been told

Wild and free

Let them be unusual—Delusional

These are the rule breakers—the rain makers—the game changers

These are the restless souls that shape their destiny

These are the earth shakers—the risk takers—the storm chasers

These are the crazy hearts taking hope to history

Now here’s to all with a vision beyond what is known

The ones who fight the whole world on raw courage alone

The ones who never listen when they taunt and they tease

One flash of their eyes—you can see what they see

It’s the curse and the cure of the dreamer’s disease

Do you know what it means to be—Delusional.”

Copyright 2012 Jim Peterik/Bicycle Music ASCAP

So here it is—with all its warts and beauty, holy water and spit—the world as I see it—“Through the Eye of the Tiger.”

—Jimbo