Freddy Jones Band Celebrates the 30th Anniversary of "In a Daydream"

This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Freddy Jones Band's biggest hit, “In a Daydream," which topped the Triple A radio charts at number one in 1993. In celebration of the milestone, the alternative rock band decided to release a reworked version of the song last year, and is now embarking on the 30th Anniversary "In a Daydream" Tour, which stops at the Oriental Theater on Friday, March 10, with Denver music icon Hazel Miller opening the show.

“People always come up to us and tell us how the song was a huge part of their life,” says longtime bandmember and bassist Rich Ross, who has also spent many years touring with The Samples and playing with Nashville country artists Phil Vassar and Josh Gracin. “When you release a song that is that powerful, where it captures people and takes them back to a special place, moment, in their life, it becomes part of their personal collection of songs — a soundtrack of their life."

Ross says the purpose behind re-releasing “In a Daydream” was twofold. “One, it’s that song that fans come out to the shows for," he explains, "and two, we want people to hear how we perform it live. Obviously, we have matured in the last thirty years, and we play the song differently than how we did when we were younger. We also have some different players in the band, so their personalities seep into how they play the song. Releasing it was our way of celebrating the original song release in 1993, as well as saying, ‘Hey, this is exactly how we perform this song live now.'”

Dubbed the “Darlings of Triple A Radio” and “King of Triple A,” the Freddy Jones Band cracked the upper echelons of the Billboard charts with its top-five radio hits “Take the Time,” “Hold On to Midnight” and “Home Thing.”

The Freddy Jones Band is sure to play such hits at the Oriental on Friday, and Ross is especially excited to see Miller open the show. “Hazel has been a friend of mine for over twenty years. She’s a great person, great friend and a great singer,” says Ross, who, along with guitarist Terry Goldstein, lives in Denver. “Denverites can expect a high-energy show, hit songs and a few surprises, as well. The bandmembers have extremely different music interests, so we pop in a few songs that you wouldn’t expect us to play. We always try to give people something they haven’t seen before at a Freddy Jones Band concert.”

Joining Ross on stage will be founding frontman Marty Lloyd, Goldstein and drummer Greg “Goose” LaPoint. Despite the band’s name, Ross affirms that none of the members were ever named Freddy Jones. “When Marty was in college, he was practicing at a guy’s house, and this band was named after the guy singing. Marty said as a tribute to that guy, he was going to name his own band after a fictitious person, a random name,” explains Ross. “Originally, the band was going to be called Fred. But then Marty and his bandmates came up with Freddy Jones Band out of the blue.”

Apart from the worthy jubilee for “In a Daydream,” the band is also celebrating its two new singles, “Connected” and “Mirror Ball." Those songs had been sitting in a Dropbox file that Lloyd sent Ross in 2015. “It wasn’t until 2019, when I was sitting around, that I took a listen to the songs," Ross recalls. "I called Marty right away and said, ‘Man, these demos are really good. We should go record them.’”

And that's what they did in January 2020, when the band had a couple of days off from touring. “We went to Studio on the Ridge in Nashville to flesh out the songs," Ross says. "We were going to have them mixed in March, but then the pandemic hit, so we waited a year and a half before we actually did it, until times were more stable.”

The band first released “Connected” on October 21, 2021, then “In a Daydream (30th Anniversary Edition)" six months later, and “Mirror Ball” at the end of February. Ross says the band has plans to add the three tracks to a forthcoming EP, due out sometime in the next couple of months.

After the Freddy Jones Band wraps up its Denver show, it will be working on booking its spring-into-fall tour dates, which usually include forty to fifty shows per year.

“We’re not a touring band that goes out on long tours. We are a national touring band that plays ‘Nashville touring style,’ which is a phrase that was derived from country artists wanting to spend time with their families but also wanting to go out on the road,” explains Ross. “Ticket sales don’t usually do well Monday through Wednesday, so Thursday through Sunday is how many of them do it, as do we. And since we all have families, having that balance between work and home life doesn’t burn us out. It keeps us pumped for each show and appreciative that we get to do what we love.”

Freddy Jones Band: 30th Anniversary “In a Daydream” Tour, with Hazel Miller, 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 10, Oriental Theater, 4335 West 44th Avenue. Tickets are $28-$35 and available on the Oriental Theater website.