Chapter 1: Dealing with Other People's Chaotic Thinking Patterns
The autobiography of Joe Viglione, actually, I'm a quite logical man COUNT VIGLIONE I AM 2/8/26
Chapter 1 Chapter 1
Two key figures in my life, producer Jimmy Miller and Jo Jo Laine, we shall delve into them in this chapter 2/8/26
In the hallway of Euphoria Studios, Revere, MA the tall figure of Jimmy Miller came out of the studio saying “The Count, The Count, I must meet the Count” he was looking to meet me for the first time. Within three weeks we would sign the first of three contracts, with me as his representative up to October 1994, when he passed. Jimmy was certainly my favorite producer of all time, one of the big 3 along with George Martin and Phil Spector. Oh one can argue about Quincy Jones - “It’s My Party” is a great record, Arif Mardin, Jerry Wexler, these are the thrice great, of course, and they all have a certain aura that eluded, in my mind, David Foster. What Martin, Spector and Miller did, however, was pure rock and roll, despite Martin’s vast array of genres, he is credited with producing one of the loudest “metallic” singles of all time, “Helter Skelter.” Well, if not metal, pure raw hard rock.
And when juxtaposed with the rage and power of Jimmy Miller’s “Gimme Shelter” or “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” one can feel the brilliance of their work, as invigorating as Spector’s “River Deep, Mountain High.” Into this quagmire I had committed my listening life, and now I was immersed in the personality, the creativity, the flaws and the family of David James Miller, A.K.A. producer Jimmy MIller. It was not without peril.
The chos is controlled in these above noted recordings, and where Quincy Jones certainly rocked out with Michael Jackson’s Thriller, he is best known for jazz acts and, perhaps, Dinah Washington, not the electric guitars in his work with the Isley Brothers. Maybe Judy’s smile was so mean in “Judy’s Turn to Cry,” the sequel to “It’s My Party” because it was sublime pop, and I acknowledge all these individuals of legend, the legendary sound chemists, our music makers, but I choose Miller, Spector and Martin because they gave rock a focal point from which all else cascaded onto the radio and our musical world. In my opinion.
“Johnny jumped up and he hit him….” yes, there was domestic violence in early ‘60s music, Phil Spector, of all people, dying in prison after the most extreme violence, taking Carole King’s “He Hit Me” (And it felt like a kiss” ) to unknown realms, and the singer was glad that she got hit! Yikes.
Interesting that the YouTube has over a million hits, people - somehow - liking the tune over the Gerry Goffin message: 1,369,096 views Jun 5, 2007
“He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)” by The Crystals. The YouTube poster notes that “the song didn’t receive much airplay, a lot of people protested it as a song that endorsed domestic abuse.”
Moving right along, I had rented a car for Mr. Miller literally next door to his swank condo we got him, and when Jimmy went into the sauna downstairs and put his key on a hook, the car was swiped by three fifteen year olds - with no license - who took it on a joy ride. I had put the Miller family in Medford near Kappy’s Liquors (thinking back, what a mistake!!!) and the kids who stole the car got into an accident in Malden Square, the next city over, and put the car back from where they stole it.
The next morning I get a call from the rental agency saying he is suing me because of the accident. Mind you I bought the insurance for Miller. Jimmy and I want into court and the judge was on our side as we had the insurance policy. The judge blasted the rental guy for his double-dip attempt “I don’t care if Mr. Viglione was driving (knowing we had rented for Miller) and he parked on the corner to get a bottle of milk and the car got hit (as opposed to it having been stolen.) “Mr Viglione bought the Insurance. What I want to know, sir, is what you did with that insurance money. I’ll take it under advisement.” Jimmy Miller looked at me happy, and said “We won.” Miller would have made a good lawyer, but we didn’t need our mutual legal skills for this one. The punchline: It was Michael Miller, named after Mick Jagger, and two hoodlum friends of his who had stolen the car from dad.
CHAOTIC THINKING PATTERNS
Therein lies the problem of being a manager when there’s a psychotic wife (Gere Rock Miller, “Vic Damone’s broad” as Bill Miller, Jimmy’s dad called her, a former Playboy bunny, got a 2 1/2 year suspended sentence for stabbing Jo Jo Laine in the breast at Mission Control Studios when I managed Miller, Jo Jo and the New Kids On the Block/Jonzun Crew recording studio.) When I went to pick up my American Express card loaned to Jimmy for his trip to see his daughter, Deena Miller, and a friend of Deena’s Miller was having an affair with, Psycho Gereldine chased me down the hall of the condo I got her to live in, with a knife, screaming a vulgarity until I got in the elevator and the door shut on her like she was Norma Bates from the Hitchcock film Psycho. Allegedly she had stabbed her son and her husband as well, prompting Jimmy to say “Her sister is certifiable, and one of them is in an asylum” kind of sort of hinting that his wife should have been the one in the asylum. This is what you take on when you sign that management agreement, no matter how many lawyers were involved with the contracts (three or so!)
THE MEDFORD TV 3 BATTLES OR MORE CHAOTIC THINKING PATTERNS
Miller was living in Medford, and years later my life was consumed with the fight for public access TV, which I won, but at a great price. Judge LaMothe called me “Very logical,” when he awarded me twice for ANTI-SLAPP violations the TV station had committed, Judge Fitzgerald saying “You’re an intelligent man.” If one knows anything about judges they rarely give out compliments, unless they are impressed. This was in the aforementioned Medford/TV wars where I had to deal with individuals who had “chaotic thinking patterns.” They were nuts and yours truly beat them and they lost the TV station. Why did I not write a book on ex Mayor McGlynn and Medford as many asked me to? Because they were garden variety crackpots that the world would not find of interest. It’s a great story, but I didn’t want to waste it on people of little intelligence, despite McGlynn being perhaps the slickest local politician that I have ever encountered, he was a nobody outside of the Medford City Limits while being King for 28 years in a dynasty of perhaps six decades with daddy dearest also being mayor of the city.
So let’s skip all that and get to the fun stuff. Darling Jo Jo.
Jo Jo Laine, Joe Viglione and Andrea Woernicki (drummer Bobby Chouinard’s girlfriend) at the Hard Rock Cafe donating WITH A LITTLE LUCK gold album from Paul McCartney to the Hard Rock, Boston.
I took this photo of Rod Stewart and Jo Jo Laine at the Four Seasons Hotel, God, it was a lifetime ago, 1989 or something. She passed in October of 2006, 19 years ago. We had so much fun. Rod Stewart wrote You Wear it Well for Jo Jo Laine,(ex wife of Denny Laine from Paul McCartney and Wings) who would have been 73 today. Rest in peace, my good friend.
Rod wrote for the ending of her book “You wore it well then, Jo Jo, and you still wear it well now!” Meanwhile Cream drummer Ginger Baker wrote “No sane man will go near her.” Count me in on that! I did and can assure you, it’s all true.
Remember them basement parties, your brother’s karate
The all day rock and roll shows
Them homesick blues and radical views
Haven’t left a mark on you, you wear it well
A little out of time but I don’t mind
Jay, her brother, was the karate guy, not the brother that shot the father
Infamously a different brother shot her father up in Danvers back in the day. the reverse of Marvin Gaye. The father was alive for about 9 months and then passed. Her story is quite interesting, she was a friend of Brad Delp’s. I told Brad she had passed, and then he did as well.
Photos by Meredity “Molly” Day in Los Angeles, our 1986 tour of Hollywood
Jimmy Miller above, Jo Jo Laine below jojolaine.com https://jojolaine.blogspot.com/2020/
Jo Jo’s daughter, Heidi-Jo Hines at TV3 Medford, with Joe Viglione Photo by the late Jimmy Morse.
.Count Viglione headlines June 29, 1978, the Cars headline June 30, July 1 and July 2, 1978 8:30 pm and 11 pm Tickets 5.50 for the Cars, $3.50 to see me, but I got to be the independent contractor for the club after we did so well, and booked the room for about 18 years. I believe that I hold the world's record for performances there at 49 Here's a side note, the room was the famous Boston Club (Ian Lloyd and Stories, lots of major acts) and my friend Richard Nolan and Third Rail shut it down (a possible riot happened end of closing.) When Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum burned down the wax figures went to the old Boston Club. It reopened as Dummies. I closed down Dummies. It reopened as Boston's Best Concert Club and when my shows did so well, June 29, 1978, Dec 2, 1978, the agency asked me to put shows in. I put hundreds of shows into the venu
Every Day I am writing a page of my biography https://joeviglione.substack.com/p/count-viglione-i-am starting on Feb 7, 2026. Here is the Foreword completed 3:30 pm today Count Viglione, I Am Thoughts of a New England Rock and Roller FOREWARD https://joeviglione.substack.com/p/count-viglione-i-am Enjoy