New Jersey Stage published its 25,000th story in December 2021. As the site approached the milestone, we posed the question on social media as how we should celebrate.  One response was to highlight our favorite stories from over the years.  We liked this idea, but could not narrow things down to just 25 favorites so we will present a favorite each day from different genres. Every Monday we feature one of our favorite stories in music. This week's choice is Bob Makin's deep dive interview with The Smithereens in 2019.

The interview was published October 3, 2019 and is available here. It took place a few weeks before the legendary band would be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame and a few months before they would begin celebrating their 40th anniversary. 

During a three-hour tour of Carteret (their original hometown) followed by a sit-down interview with Dennis Diken and Jim Babjak, who still live in Jersey – Bergen and Monmouth counties respectively -- then a phone interview with Mike Mesaros from his residence in the San Francisco area, Bob chatted about the band’s history, loss of Pat DiNizio, bright future with Robin Wilson of The Gin Blossoms and Marshall Crenshaw (as lead singers), and, of course, their NJHOF induction.