In First Show after Falling Ill in Chicago, Chuck Berry Rocks Again

Chuck Berry has had enough of people’s concern since he appeared to collapse onto a keyboard and couldn’t continue his Jan.1 show at Chicago’s Congress Theater.

“I just got a call from Pine Bluff, Ark.: ‘How do you feel?’” the 84-year-old rock ‘n’ roll pioneer recounted last week in a rare interview in the tiny backstage dressing room at Blueberry Hill, the St. Louis club where he has performed monthly since 1996. “I’ve been asked, oh, I guess, 600 times. Well, come on, that can get monotonous, you know.”

So what does he say to them?

“I want to say, ‘I feel like kicking butt,’” Berry said with a smile. “But I don’t. I say I’m OK. I just left the stage because I had to go somewhere. I turn it into a joke. Anybody that eats food does that.”

Well, regardless of whether the Berry health scare really was just a matter of his needing a bathroom break rather than suffering from exhaustion or other maladies after playing two New Year’s Eve shows in New York City, the mood in Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room was electric in anticipation of the singer-guitarist’s first stage appearance since then.

Berry said he has no intention of discontinuing these performances. “If they pay, I play,” he said, laughing while communicating his long-held ethos. But many fans felt a certain urgency to catch him now nonetheless.

Ean Christman, a blues guitarist, said he’d been saving money to see Berry eventually but decided he’d better make the drive up from Dallas this month. “When that thing happened Jan.1 in Chicago, I said I have to cash in my bottle caps,” Christman said. “There’s no more waiting.”

Nancy Elner, a nurse, flew in from Boston not even knowing whether she could get a ticket to the sold-out show. She decided to take the risk because “I don’t know how much longer he’s going to be playing.” (Someone at the bar had one spare ticket to sell.) Mike McCarthy, CEO of the St. Louis Blues hockey team, also was spurred to see Berry for the first time last Wednesday night.

“It’s on the St. Louis bucket list for sure,” he said.

“I think we’re about to see a great show tonight,” Blueberry Hill owner and Berry friend Joe Edwards said upon emerging from the dressing room. “It’s the first show of the new year. It’s the first show after Chicago. He just seems very buoyant and enthusiastic.”

As has been the case for decades, when Berry is on the road, he requires the promoter to supply a backing band for each show, and they usually hit the stage together with no rehearsal, the star not shy about expressing any displeasure. (He even feuded with one-time band leader Keith Richards for the1986 concert that became the film “Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll.”) So it may not be surprising that Berry said that one of the problems in Chicago was his trio of hired guns.

“The band was bad,” he said. “The band was not in tune.” He also complained that one member didn’t know “Johnny B. Goode.”

Contacted in Chicago, pianist Vijay Tellis-Nayak said he and the drummer and bassist had been studying Berry’s set lists and rehearsing his songs together since October, but on stage there was no way they could keep up with Berry’s changing keys midsong or having his guitar out of tune. “I definitely would not say that there’s anything we could have done to salvage the situation in terms of knowing the songs better,” Tellis-Nayak said.

Berry’s St. Louis residency shows, in contrast, take place not in auditoriums that hold thousands but a basement room with a capacity of 340, and he plays with the same musicians month after month, year after year. Joining bassist Jim Marsala, keyboardist Bob Lohr and drummer Keith Robinson are two of Berry’s children: Charles Berry Jr. on guitar and Ingrid Berry Clay on harmonica and the occasional roof-raising lead vocal.

“It’s like being with the family at the Thanksgiving dinner, where everything is jovial and warm,” Clay said of being alongside her father and brother on stage.

At 10 p.m. sharp, Berry strolled onto the stage in a white captain’s hat, purple glittery shirt and slim charcoal slacks and announced, “Here we go again,” while the crowd stood and cheered. He kicked the band into a rickety version of his 1958 hit “Carol” before abruptly shifting to the lyrics of his 1956 hit “Roll Over Beethoven.”

On the subsequent “Memphis, Tennessee” and “School Day” he established a pattern of singing behind the beat yet still in rhythm, all while he banged out jagged, sometimes dissonant counterparts on his hollow-body Gibson, sometimes slapping the neck percussively. Yet just when you’d think the song was about to break down, it might kick into high gear, as if Berry had preserved his vigor for youthful shouts of “Hail, hail, rock ‘n’ roll!” and “Rock! Rock! Rock ‘n’ roll!”

Someone in the audience muttered that the show was like a roller coaster ride. A tightrope walk also might be an apt metaphor, or perhaps a loose-wheeled wagon whipping around a winding mountain road with no guardrails.

Berry’s memory and hearing aren’t what they used to be; backstage he acknowledged that he forgets lyrics, and he said, “Being in front of those amps for 50 years, my hearing is beginning to wiggle.”

His guitar strayed out of key and out of tune, and sometimes he got lost amid his poetically pile-driving lyrics.

But unlike when he was touring alone and playing with strangers, here he had a support team that could pull him back from the cliff. So when he faltered singing B.B. King’s blues song “Rock Me Baby,” Clay stepped up to deliver a ferocious purr to the sensuous lyrics, prompting her beaming father to pronounce, “Ain’t it good to have a daughter to help her old man out?”

And when Berry was clicking and his band could go full tilt, the results were thrilling, as on a blazing “Let It Rock,” and a finale of “Johnny B. Goode” that ended with about15 women from the audience dancing on either side of him.

When an audience member requested “Maybellene,” his rambunctious1955 single that kick-started his career and perhaps the entire genre of guitar-driven rock, Berry quipped, “You’re calling all these fast ones to see if I can still cut the mustard.”

He played it anyway, not at the original’s breakneck speed, but, hey, the guy is 84 years old. (Earlier, after telling the crowd his age, he launched into his most juvenile hit, “My Ding-A-Ling.”) He even crouched into position to do his trademark duck walk before standing back up and announcing, “I don’t want to fall, y’all!”

That line got a big laugh, yet during “Johnny B. Goode” he did duck-walk across the stage, prompting McCarthy in his seat to proclaim, “Holy (moly)! I can’t believe I just saw that! That’s royalty.”

“Is everybody happy?” Berry called out at the end of his hourlong set, and as loud and enthusiastic as the crowd’s response was, his own face indicated he was right there with them.

He really did feel like kicking butt after all.

Brokenhearted Taylor Swift Isn't Ready to Date Again

Delving into her work since the recent split with Jake Gyllenhaal, Taylor Swift isn't in a rush to find another guy.

"Taylor is not exactly a loner, but she fares well on her own and will be fine if she doesn't hook up with a guy immediately, " a source close to Swift tells PopEater.

According to several reports, Swift hasn't recovered from the breakup and isn't her usual bubbly self. If anything, she's busy in the studio working on her breakup song. In the past, Swift, 21, has written plenty of songs about ex-boyfriends including Taylor Lautner and John Mayer.

Her relationship with Gyllenhaal, 30, was short but looked promising. After hanging together after a segment of 'Saturday Night Live' in October, the couple began seeing each other in New York, Nashville and London. Although they tried to keep things secret, they were spotted through the end of November in those cities, including a stint in Big Sur, Calif., walking on the beach and nibbling on ice cream cones.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, the couple spent time together in Brooklyn with Jake's sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and her husband, Peter Sarsgaard. After that, Swift and Gyllenhaal flew back to Nashville for a few days where they were seen holding hands, embracing and sipping coffee.

"While people expected them to spend the Christmas holidays together, they were each photographed separately in different cities," says the source. "It looked like things didn't work out."

While Us Magazine reported that the actor dumped the songbird, Swift remains a prolific songwriter more confident about her musical talent than her personal life.

"I was sort of geeky when I was young and didn't really fit in," she told Barbara Walters during a TV interview last year. "I loved poetry and songwriting, and spent hours with my music. It helped fill the void."

Swift, who recently released her album 'Speak Now' could be doing just that about her split with Gyllenhaal. Stay tuned, Jake!

Jennifer Lopez "Would Love" To Get Pregnant Again

Jennifer Lopez has her new gig on "American Idol" and new music on the radio, and now the mother of two says she's also open to having more kids – if it were to happen.

Jennifer stopped by Access Hollywood Live On Tuesday, where Kit Hoover asked, "Any more kids possibly? Down the road after 'Idol'?"

"I don't know, we'll see," she told Billy Bush and Kit.

"Two is a lot," Billy said, referring to her two-year-old twins, Max and Emme.

"Yeah two is… look I would love it, if I got pregnant, if that happened right now, I'd be like, 'Oh my God I'm pregnant everybody!' I'd be so happy," the 41-year-old explained.

"I don't know if it's going to happen for us," she said, referring to husband Marc Anthony. "Or if, you know, I would plan it… because right now I'm just getting back into the groove of working again and I missed it."

The new "Idol" judge explained that navigating career and family life is a challenge.

"[My career] was such a huge part of my life for so long… it's so much a part of who I am," she continued. "You lose that for a while when you have the babies, its all about them and it's just like, you know, miracle time."

The triple threat also dished about her struggle to maintain her sexy shape following the following the birth of her twins.

"After the babies my body did change and I had to work really hard to get it back in shape to be quite honest… and actually for the first time in my life I had to change my eating. It was awful," she explained.

"I just never ever thought about what I ate because I was always a very small eater," Jennifer told Billy and Kit. "But then with the babies, you learn to eat a lot and then you have to not do that all of a sudden when they're out and you're like, 'Wow, OK, I really liked this part!' And so it became kind of re-training myself again."

Patriots Prove It Once Again: Offense Wins Games, but Not Many Championships

Call it an upset. Call it a choke job. But however you want to refer to the New England Patriots' 28-21 loss to the New York Jets in the divisional round, there's one word you can't use: surprising.

New England looked to be the favorite to win Super Bowl XLV, rolling to a league-best 14-2 regular season record. They did it on the strength of a historically great offense; the Patriots averaged 32.38 points per game, the eighth-most in the Super Bowl era. In their last eight regular season games, they averaged 37.38 PPG and never scored less than 31.

But all that offense didn't matter when the season was on the line. And that's hardly unusual. In the Super Bowl Era, there has been little to no connection between historically great offensive production and championships.

In the 45 years of the Super Bowl, there have been 25 teams that averaged at least 30 PPG.

Obviously, there is a correlation between scoring lots of points and winning regular season games. The teams that have averaged at least 30 PPG have a combined record of 306-72-2, a winning percentage of 0.805 (roughly equivalent to a 13-3 season), while only two have missed the playoffs.

Once the playoffs begin, though, it's a whole other story. Here are the postseason results broken down by category. (Note: in the years 1966-1969, before the official NFL/AFL merger, there were separate NFL and AFL title games along with the Super Bowl. For our purposes, these games are considered equivalent to conference title games and counted as such.)

In other words, only 20 percent of the top 25 scoring offenses have gone on to win the Super Bowl, and just one of the top 12. Less than half the teams even reached the biggest game of the year. In addition to the 2004 Chiefs and 1975 Bills missing the playoffs, eight others, including this year's Patriots, failed to win a playoff game.

What's most notable, however, is the way that these teams lost. Most often, it was the result of their high-octane offense failing to show up with the season on the line. The 2007 Patriots are the most famous recent example of this. After setting the Super Bowl-era record for scoring in the regular season, they averaged just 22 PPG in the playoffs, a two touchdown drop-off. They petered out with 14 points in the Super Bowl against a New York Giants team they lit up for 38 in the regular season finale.

But those Patriots, or even this year's version, are hardly the only case. The 1967 Raiders were also held to 14 points in the Super Bowl after scoring 33.43 PPG during the season, and destroying the Houston Oilers 40-14 in the AFL title game.

The 2004 Colts were deemed unstoppable when Peyton Manning threw a then-record 49 touchdown passes. After lighting up the Broncos in a 49-24 wildcard win, they were held to a field goal in their divisional round loss.

The 1983 Redskins may be the most egregious example. They set a then-record with 541 points in the regular season (33.81 PPG) and torched the Los Angeles Rams for 51 points in the divisional playoff round. They squared off against the Los Angeles Raiders in Super Bowl XVIII, a team they beat in a 37-35 regular-season shootout, but with the championship on the line, they were hammered 38-9. Against a team that ranked 13th in scoring defense, no less.

Overall, 18 of the top 25 offenses were eliminated short of glory. In their Exit Stage Right games, they averaged 17.83 PPG—barely half of their 32.33 regular season average. Only one of those teams exceeded their regular-season average in its season-ending loss: the 2003 Chiefs, who scored 31 points against Indianapolis after averaging 30.25 during the season.

Even if you consider every playoff game a team played that season, the numbers don't add up. Overall, only five of the teams averaged more points a game in the playoffs than in the regular season. Not surprisingly, four of those were teams that won the Super Bowl (the other was the one-and-done Chiefs); the 1999 St. Louis Rams were the only historically great offense that won the Super Bowl in spite of a postseason scoring decline.

Clearly, having a high-flying offense isn't everything in the NFL. And it goes back to before the Super Bowl. The most potent offense of all time belonged to the the 1950 Los Angeles Rams, who averaged 38.83 PPG; they lost the NFL title game to the Cleveland Browns 30-28. The 1942 Bears scored 34.18 PPG in an undefeated regular season, then could muster only six points—on a fumble return for a touchdown, no less—in a loss to the Washington Redskins.

In the defunct All-American Football Conference, the San Francisco 49ers averaged 35.36 and 34.67 points in the 1948 and 1949 seasons. In 1948, they didn't even make it to the AAFC title game; in 1949, they flamed out 21-7 against the Browns.

Patriots players and fans are undoubtedly disappointed about how the 2010 season ended. But it's not the first time an offense rolled over its opponents in the regular season only to disappear in the postseason, and it won't be the last either. Maybe during their second-half tear, the Pats should have tried to save some of those points they were scoring for the playoffs.

Howard Stern Again Accuses Jay Leno of Stealing Jokes

Shock jock Howard Stern has some less-than-flattering things to say about somebody, and this time, it's not a guest on his show.

The radio host is accusing late-night legend Jay Leno of ripping off his material. Stern appeared on Piers Morgan's CNN show and told the host, "Jay is insane. And Jay is a crook. And the world knows exactly what he's up to. He steals a tremendous amount of material," the New York Post reports.

This isn't the first time Stern has gone after Leno in the press. Not one to mince words, Stern said of Leno on the Early Show, "Just the mere mention of Jay Leno's name makes me to want to vomit," calling the 'Tonight Show' host, "a f****** con man, rip-off artist, no idea mother*******."

So tell us, Howard, how do you really feel?

The more recent accusations against Leno are nothing new. In 2009, Stern accused Leno of stealing one of his sketch ideas outright. In the bit in question, both hosts invite a chicken to predict football wins for the following week. "This must be a giant 'Punk'd' on me," said Stern following the incident. "This guy's ripped off like ten major things from my show. But the chicken thing we did for years."

If there's one thing we know about Stern, his grudge against Leno isn't going to end anytime soon, and his grievance has extended to the public at large. "I don't know how he's beaten David Letterman in the ratings," he said. "It's beyond my comprehension. America must be filled with morons who at night lay in bed -- the ones who are watching him, they must be in a coma."

Brett Favre Retires (Again) ... In Writing

This time Brett Favre means it -- he's retiring from football ... and he's gone so far as to file paperwork with the NFL saying he's done ... TMZ has confirmed.

TMZ confirmed with the Minnesota Vikings that Favre filed the documents.

Of course, this is just a technicality. The 41-year old future Hall of Fame QB could still decide to return next season -- as he did the last three years.

Then again, Favre's never been this beat up -- he didn't even play in the Vikes' last two games.

So, we gotta ask...

Kings To Call Power Balance Pavilion Home, Never Fall Down Again

The Sacramento Kings' ARCO Arena will be transformed into Power Balance Pavilion next month, reports SB Nation blog Sactown Royalty. You may recognize Power Balance as the snake oil salesmen who pitch rad bracelets that purport to imbue their wearers with superpowers like "awesome balance" and "sweet power." Power Balance, however, recently admitted these superpowers are nonexistent.

Essentially then, these are neat looking placebos to be used for decoration. Interestingly enough, that's just what DeMarcus Cousins, star of the Kings and wearer of Power Balance bands, had already thought of them before learning of his home court's new name.

From NBA.com reporter and all-around swell dude Jimmy Spencer:

I asked DeMarcus Cousins weeks ago if the Power Balances he wears on both wrists work. He laughed, "Hell no! These are just for decoration."

Well there you have have it; we will, however, see if Cousins changes his tune once Power Balance presents fat endorsement checks they've used to woo players like Lamar Odom, Shaquille O'Neal, Derrick Rose and Brandon Jennings.

Meanwhile, The Basketball Jones has endeavored to redesign the Kings' logo in light of the news.