I grew up at the Jersey Shore and—admittedly—I’ve spent a good chunk of my adult life trying to leave it behind. But even though I never really thought of myself as a “shore person,” it was where I was raised…and it will always be a part of me. Seeing the devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy last week drove this point home to me—and I regret that it took something so horrible to make me see that.

Anyway, I felt a need to express some appreciation for the REAL Jersey Shore—not the manufactured crap produced by MTV—in song. Yeah, it kind of took on the form of a cliché-filled anthem, but that’s always been my Achilles’ heel as a songwriter…I start out with an interesting idea and immediately turn it into commercialized cheese. But I assure you, my heart was in the right place with this.

Then again, I guess when…