Jaxx Unplugged?
Jaxx owner considers selling legendary rock club.
By Amber Healy
January 24, 2008
Jaxx owner considers selling legendary rock club.
The little rock club that could may have a new owner by the end of the year.
"It was a slow news day and I thought Iâ??d shake things up," said Jaxx owner Jay Nedry, who recently made the announcement heâ??s considering selling the heavy metal club he has owned since 1994.
But music fans take note: he is not completely sure the sale will go through.
With an asking price of $1.2 million for the 7,000 square foot venue on Rolling Road south of Old Keene Mill Road, any prospective buyer has to meet Nedryâ??s high standards and his conditions.
"Anyone who buys this place will have to pay an additional fee to keep me on as a consultant for a year," Nedry said.
The reason?
"Iâ??ve owned this place longer than anyone," he said. "Iâ??ve worked hard to make this one of the top 10 metal venues in the world. I know how to make this place run without annoying any of our neighbors. I need to find someone who will take this place over and maintain the positive things Iâ??ve worked for."
WHILE NEDRY is considering all offers and has so far received about 20 in the two weeks since he first "floated the idea," Nedry said six serious offers were serious enough to pique his curiosity.
A graduate of Lee High School who grew up in a house on the Springfield Country Club golf course behind the club, Nedry said he hopes the future owner, if there is one, will continue the tradition of giving local bands a place to play.
"There have been four incarnations of this place, and in all four, my band the RoadDucks have played on opening night," he said.
He is retaining the right to walk away from any sale that may involve someone who "just wants to own the club so he has a cool place to hang out."
In the more than 10 years he has owned the venue, Nedry said heâ??s become friends with many of the bands he loved in the 1980s, including Slaughter, Dokken and Poison.
"Brett Michaels [lead singer of Poison] is a friend of mine, he usually plays here twice a year," he said.
Maybe the most unlikely memorable show was done by country star Tim McGraw, joined onstage by Kenny Chesney with the Dixie Chicks in the audience.
"They were playing a show at RFK Stadium the night before and they stopped by," he said. "At the end of the night, Tim slid the $17,000 we made off T-shirt sales and everything across the bar to me and told me to write out a check to Childrenâ??s Hospital. Heâ??s one of the nicest guys Iâ??ve ever met, just real genuine and down to earth."
What life after Jaxx may look like is a mystery to its owner.
"I might teach school, I might go back to law school and do pro-bono work," Nedry mused. "Honestly, I donâ??t know what Iâ??m going to do. I just wanted to think about doing something different."
