Moving Moments: “ - JERRY F*CKING JUDGE… THIS SONG IS FOR YOU MY BROTHEEERRR!!!” [Johnny’s tribute to Jerry Judge]
2 years ago, on May 10, the Hollywood Vampires started their 2019 Spring Tour and during their next 7 shows, while singing his cover of “People Who Died”, Johnny opened his heart and made a lovely tribute to his late friend and bodyguard, Jerry Judge, who passed away just one month earlier.
The song, originally from The Jim Carroll Band, is known for being “a catalogue of young people Carroll knew growing up who met tragic ends”. During the tour, the Hollywood Vampires also pays homage to their loved ones who passed away, like Hunter S. Thompson, Marlon Brando, Lemmy Kilmister, Prince, Bela Lugosi and others who had their photos added on a backdrop video screened on the big screen behind the members.
Johnny’s homage comes after the chorus of the 5th verse, replacing the 6th verse for a speech. All the members slow down their instruments and Johnny got very emotional (something I think most of us didn’t have seen in a long time). Now the backdrop shows a photo of Jerry, taken during the filming of “Dark Shadows” in 2011. Johnny looks up to him, points up proudly, and for the first time talks to the audience on stage expressing his feelings toward his huge friend… We all know how hard is for him to talk on public and stage and he did it throughout the next 7 nights.
“That mountain… Used to stand right there on the other side of the stage. Jerry was a bulldog, made MI5*, he’d take a bullet in the head just to keep me around… We call him equalizer, instead of his name… And then he found relief from the cancer’s pain. He is still there. Jerry f*cking judge… THIS SONG IS FOR YOU MY BROTHER!!!”
*MI5 (stands for “Military Intelligence, Section 5 and is the British domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, and part of its intelligence machinery and known for keep the country safe and to protect people from danger whether it be from terrorism or damaging espionage by hostile states)
This only one of the dozen of tributes Johnny and the Vampires did in Jerry memory. Johnny, as well his bodyguards, also wore a t-shirt with Jerry’s face on the front and a handwritten message of Johnny on the back, which were also added to the balls that they threw during the last song to the audience, and to the guitar pins they usually thrown to the audience. One of then, Johnny turned into a lapel pin and wore during one of his trial days in London, on July 24, 2020. Still in 2019, Johnny also tattooed Jerry’s face on his arm along his initials (JJ) and the number 13, which were previously written in a black piece of cloth that Johnny wore during the tour as an armband around his left arm as a symbol of mourning.
And in spirit Jerry was there, and is still taking care of Johnny on the corner of the stage, the same side we can see Johnny always playing, and wherever he goes running around to protect him.
Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Judge. Rest in power.
IN MEMORIAM: Today(April 5, 2022), marks 3 years without our eternal bodyguard, Jerry Judge.
Rest in Power, Mr. Jerry Judge…Keep protecting our baby boy.
