Me and the rock star

There could be debate on whether J. Geils was the best band rock ?n? roll ever produced. But there?s no argument in my mind that the six musicians who made up this Boston-area group were the coolest collection of rockers ever.And lead singer Peter Wolf (nee Blankfield) was the coolest of the cool. He?s been cool since 1968, when he was one of the original disc jockeys on WBCN. And was there anything cooler than the stage rap he did before the live version of “Musta Got Lost,” with references to “Repuda the Beauta” and other manic bits of verse? He was so cool he could have walked into a room and chilled it faster, and better, than the Coors Lite Train.So you can imagine my slack-jawed awe when I found out Beth Bresnahan, our CEO, knows him, and that she?d set me up for an interview with him Thursday afternoon. I felt like a cross between Wayne Campbell genuflecting in front of Alice Cooper (?we?re not worthy) and Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney (?Awesome!”).An almost 62-year-old guy tongue-tied before one of the coolest cats in rock? Guilty. But it didn?t last long. There was the business of finding out what he (and the group) are up to now. But before we get to that though, shortly after I began scribbling, the pen I was using ran out of ink.?I?ll bet Aerosmith gave you that pen,” the uber-slender Wolf smirked.Good line. Better icebreaker.You?ll be happy to know Geils is still going strong ? without band?s namesake, however. If that doesn?t make sense you?ll have to keep reading.John “Jay” Geils was the guitarist of the group. And because he was the only one of the six under contract, his manager wouldn?t let the group record unless it had his name attached to it. Thus, the J. Geils Blues Band was born.?I didn?t care,” said Wolf. “All I wanted to do was play music and make a record.”But at some point, Wolf said, Geils starting “doing things that weren?t conducive to the band?s success, and we had to ask him to leave. I don?t want to get into what it was, but I?m sure you can read between the lines. We had to part ways.”Also missing is drummer Stephen Jo Bladd, who got into a bad accident (he was struck by a car) during the group?s lengthy 1980s and 1990s hiatus), and his back never got better.?He just felt as if he wasn?t up to it,” said Wolf.The other characters remain: keyboard wiz Seth Justman, harmonica wiz Richard “Magic Dick” Salwitz and bassist Danny Klein (who still wears a derby).When the Geils Band comes to the Hampton Beach Casino Sunday it will be accompanied by three musicians who have played in Wolf?s solo band “The Midnight Travelers:” Duke Levine and Kevin Barry on guitars and Tom Arey on drums. And while Wolf calls his solo band “very special,” there will be no crossover. It?ll be all Geils, all the time – with a heavy accent on the band?s early-to-mid 1970s repertoire that, he says, still ranks as his favorite stuff.And in a way, sticking to classic material works for Wolf. His relationship with Justman is – in the true rock ?n? roll sense – complicated. And the same could probably be said for the whole lot of them.?It was never my intention to be a solo artist,” Wolf said, referring to his abrupt departure from the band just as it achieved its biggest dose of national recognition. “The rest of the guys in the band made that decision for me. They kind of felt they could do better without me. I?ll let history decide on that one.?So,” he said, “by sticking to what we?ve already done, it eliminates the source of a lot of that friction.”Periodically, Wolf said, Geils reunites. The first time it occurred was in 2000, when they played at a benefit to raise money for the families of the firefighters who died in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse fire in 1999. The group also played for Bruins president Cam Neely?s cancer foundation.Paring down a classic rock repertoire that covers 12 albums (including a couple of live ones) can be daunting, Wolf said, because there are so many songs they feel obligate