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Sonja Verena Paris (Reuter) was born in Hamburg, Germany in July of 1964. She studied German and English language and literature at the University of Hamburg, sang lead in the Hamburger local Rock band 'Bandits' and took almost three years of singing lessons from the well known opera singer Liliana Aabye-Hecker.
In 1988 she was hired as editor and journalist by the Heinrich Bauer publishing company and due to her English language skills that
were above the skills of her peers, she conducted interviews with foreign celebrities such as Paul McCartney, Helen Schneider, Sean Connery (just to name a few).
That was the time she turned her back on singing: "I had to choose between music and writing, because I had not enough energy for both, especially at the beginning stages of my journalistic career, when I had still so much to learn. And as a mezzo soprano it was anyway unlikely that I would ever have been able to make good money in the opera field. Like Liliana Aabye-Hecker said to me: 'You will always have a job, playing mothers or witches, but your voice is not high enough to sing the main parts.'
"Besides: I had always a weight problem, and making it in the music business as a chunky short woman is near to impossible, regardless in which field. But that was not my only problem: Even though I was good during practice, I always had so much stage fright, that I needed to be considerably drunk, plus take off either my glasses or take out my contact lenses (I am extremely shortsighted!) before going on stage, so the audience would just be a blur to me. Only in this haze and daze was I able to be relaxed enough to give my best in front of a larger audience. Not ideal conditions for trying to become a professional singer, and so I decided, that I had realistically a better chance to become a professional writer."
Sonja sitting in with the band "Second Service" in the year 2000
Less than a year after her first steps into journalism, she met Johnny Paris® and they fell in love with each other.
"I think I always felt drawn to people in the music field. I was never able to play an instrument correctly, and I admire people that play an instrument well. I have a strong love for music and I had a good voice, but playing an instrument, now that is something totally different. John on the other hand absolutely hated journalists, but he said he was drawn to me right from the start and he could not help it but to fall in love with me."
"I loved John's courage, confidence and calm knowing demeanor. He told me he never knew stage fright. Whether it was on stage or later on, after we were already married, in the dogshow ring, when John handled our Bullmastiffs in competitions: He was always very confident. He was most of the time a calm and introverted person, very stoic and in control of the situation, while I was more wound up, talking up a storm and easily flustered. Nobody could calm me down and comfort me like he could, and I know that my uplifting spirit and bubbly personality sparked him up and brought him out of his shell that he wore like an armor around himself all too often. I think we simply found our matching opposite in each other in so many ways..."
John and Sonja spring of 1990 during the break of one of his concerts
Wedding day: Sonja and John 1996 at the Graceland
Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas
His widow about Johnny:
"We were together for more than 17 years, nine and a half of those married, seven years of those in a 'wild marriage' before we finally said our 'I dos' and of course a dating time of a bit over one year prior to that. John had the most charming smile that I ever saw, a man who would not open up to you until he knew you well, and he was more complex than anybody else I ever met. John was never boring, regardless how well or how long you knew him, a warm-hearted person who would hide it under a hard shell."
"I remember to this day so vividly the afternoon we met the first time in our lives: John asked his drummer, Mick Brady, to ask me to have a drink with him. John did not find the courage to ask me himself, and when I made it finally to the bar, John fell backwards from his barstool. I got a real kick out of it that I startled him like that, and after he managed to balance himself back onto his seat, a man with incredible blue eyes and a mischievous boyish smile looked so deep into my eyes, that I knew right away I was in serious trouble. I did not know at that time what it was all about, nor did I know that I just met my future husband, but we clicked right from the start."
"Unless he was close to you, you would never get to know the real John. He loved music and animals, especially dogs. He loved to fly and loved good food. Yes, it's hard to believe as he never had any weight issues! And he was a person who strictly separated his private life from his life as a musician. He was enthusiastic about all kinds of music, whether it was jazz, funk or rock' n 'roll, you could even drag him into the opera without resistance."
Caring
"He was a caring man, but definitely an 'alpha male'. That’s what he was in his marriage as well as in his life as a musician (but his musicians can most probably tell you more about this than I). He was in any case my rock in the storm, a strong man with own opinion, a man of the 'old school.'
"I watched him in concert, but I never saw him practice with his band in my entire life. He told me: 'I do not want you to see the way I am when we practice. There I am not the most pleasant guy and I just do not want you to know this side of mine!'
"I heard however that he was rather strict during his rehearsals, a perfectionist. He demanded the best of himself and of his musicians. I remember a concert in Germany where John said to me in the interval: 'The guys played terribly today. If this was a practice session, I would flip out, but I can not say anything now. It would just make them nervous. I have to write this gig off!'
Boss
"But I am certain that the drill was more severe next time the guys got together for practice. As impatient as John was with people (he always used to say that he would never have the patience to teach someone to play the sax), he would never get impatient with his dogs. They were allowed to do almost anything - even to sleep in his bed, but they also knew: he was the boss. Once a puppy of ours fell into a pond and John jumped after him (in all his clothes!) to save him from drowning. We bred and showed Bullmastiffs, but after his passing I had to close the kennel down and place our dogs with other breeders or send them into early retirement. I loved his caring heart for animals."
John with his first Bullmastiff out of the German kennel Ex Britannia (above) and two Bullmastiffs bred by his own Lion Heart kennel (below).
"That was John Pocisk, my husband - Johnny Paris®, the musician, can be described certainly better by other musicians, for I was his wife, not his business partner or band member. When we met, I only knew that he was an American saxophone player, but his name and the name of his band meant nothing to me. Born in 1964 I had other idols. But THAT was exactly what John loved about me. At the beginning stages of our relationship (we merely knew each other for a couple of weeks) - we went into a music bar in Hamburg, where people approached him from all sides for autographs. I must have looked rather puzzled, because John said to me: 'You do not know who I really am, do you?' I shook my head, and his answer was: 'And that’s why I love you.'
Talent
"In later years, after we were already married, John used to say with a big smile on his face: 'My wife is not a fan of my music, but that is quite all right. She'd rather listen to Mother’s Finest!' He knew I fell in love with John Pocisk, the man, not with Johnny Paris®, the musician. Even though I was always proud of him and his talent in the music field and I am grateful that it was ME who had the pleasure to be the woman of this truly remarkable man until the day he died."
"John was a ladies man. A charmer that would capture and break hearts left and right on his way through life. He had a very strong personality and charisma that can hardly be described to people that never met him, and that made him irresistible to the opposite sex. He was a suave man (James Bond was one of his all time favorite film characters, maybe because John was in many ways like him). I conducted a lot of interviews for the upcoming book about his life, and almost all of those former girlfriends of him that I had the pleasure to meet and to interview stated that they fell in love with that man at first sight - with just a few exceptions.
Gene Frankowski, who was his sweetheart when they were both at the tender age of 16, about John: 'Knowing him meant loving him. Once he entered your heart, you could not get him out. I was so mad when I heard about his death, that I ripped up the photos I had of him, I felt cheated, that I didn't meet him one more time. That was the impact he had on women, the impact he had on me almost 50 years after he was my boyfriend. There was something about him that captivated you forever. He was just too cute for his own good.'
"He had a colorful life, full of ups and downs, full laughter and full of tears, but he was always a man who had his heart at the right spot, he was a devoted and attentive husband, even though the Rock 'n Roller in him, and the reputation that came with it, could never be tamed by any woman he ever loved..."
Sonja Paris, being an US citizen, stayed in the USA after the passing of her husband. She took over his company Johnny and the Hurricanes, Inc as well as all intellectual rights Johnny Paris once owned, including, but not limited to, his trademarks, copyrights, master recording rights and writer's shares of compositions.
She wrote two books.
She finished her first book in collaboration with Duane Thomas Griwack about her late husband, Johnny and the Hurricanes® founder and saxophonist Johnny Paris®, which is expected to hit the market end of 2010/ beginning of 2011.
Sonja Paris: "This book stirred up some bad blood, because some people disapprove of the fact (to say the least!) that I make money off my husband's legacy. I see it that way: Every biography written means making money off a legacy or dead person. That is just the way it is, and would apply to EVERY writer that EVER dared to get involved in a biography. With that in mind, I believe it is better that someone writes a biography that actually really knew the person a book is about than to leave it up to someone who JUST gathered papers and articles to create a picture of a person. But after all, this book is not just JOHN'S legacy, but also over 17 years of my own life.
Meanwhile Sonja Paris finished her second book "Make the cougar purr", a fictional story about a middle-aged woman. This book was released in May of 2010 and is available through amazon.com and various online bookstores such as Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million.
Please also visit:
Sonja Paris’ official website:
The Johnny and the Hurricanes (2 cd/1 dvd BOX SET) anthology finally available:
This album has been lovingly re-mastered which sets it apart from other Johnny and the Hurricanes products on the market, many of which are illegal pirate copies of inferior sound quality!
At Racous Records:
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http://www.amazon.de/Red-River-Rock-Johnny-Hurricanes/dp/B00444OGEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1288730168&sr=8-1
At Grooves Inc:
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Written by: Sonja Paris
Illustration by: Ute Lahann-Reuter
Edited: by Tahlia Day
Available now!
This work is registered with the Library of Congress.
Registration# : TXu 1-666-784
Copyright© Sonja Paris 2009. All rights reserved!
ISBN-10: 1452824541
ISBN-13: 978-1452824543
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This book contains content and language that may not be suitable for young readers 17 and under!
Hannah, a middle-aged woman, survived her husband's constant infidelity by drowning her sorrow in booze and spending his money freely. After he revealed to her, that his last affair was not just one based on lust but that he found true love in the arms of a much younger woman, Hannah's world falls apart. Driven by rage, and desperate to find a new identity for herself, she turns into a prancing cougar on the hunt...
To read an excerpt of the first three chapters please click the button MAKE THE COUGAR PURR
MAKE THE COUGAR PURR:
Reading Sonja Paris' "Make the Cougar Purr"--what a read! Oddly fascinating, it depicts cougar Hannah as a real flesh and blood woman. via web (by Diana Faillace)
pastedGraphicReviewed Sonja Paris' "Make the Cougar Purr." Great tale of a modern woman-
2010-08-03
pastedGraphic This Kitty Roars, August 3, 2010
By
pastedGraphic (Kenner, LA USA) -
pastedGraphic
This review is from: Make The Cougar Purr (Paperback)
In "Make the Cougar Purr" Sonja Paris zip-locks the reader within the stifling zoo of her 40-something heroine where the howling sensations and prowling stimulations of countless unhappy, directionless and love/life questing inmates overwhelms and disturbs yet constitutes a viable underbelly for the 21st century inferno of relationship hell. Paris, the real-life widow of Johnny Paris of Johnny and the Hurricanes bares her own soul (80% of the time) and the soul of her creation, Hannah Bentley, with a rip and a roar that pings at the iceberg of indignation within the most dangerous animal in her social cage: a woman, psychologically scorned and emotionally wounded.
Fully aware that the only thing upon which she can rely with any regularity is her husband Steven's pathological cheating, blonde and slightly overweight Hannah retaliates with a hardening of her emotional veneer and some extra-curriculum bedroom (and countertop) activity of her own. Not that Steven ever made her happy anyway; from the get-go, her marriage to him yielded little in the blissful- contentment department. Was she in love? Did he love her? Was it all words? Just sex? Why the emptiness? Would more sex fill the void? Would more alcohol? Hannah participates in her life (20% of the time) yet rarely engages. Anesthetized by booze, she is there, but not there. Nonetheless discovering after Steven's sudden death that he actually loved his last mistress and was planning a fairytale life with her complete with a house, white picket fence, requisite child and dog, catapults Hannah onto a frenetic expedition for connectivity.
For almost 500 pages, the reader travels with Hannah across Middle America and overseas to her native Germany, voyeuristically and vicariously participating in a fast-track lifestyle of over-indulgence. For Hannah, a sufficient amount of booze means she's passed out-- and as for sex?--she's voracious--up all night and ready the following morning. Like all the other classic literary protagonists seeking change and redemption, when does our Hannah reach that climatic moment and finally decide that enough is enough? When does she realize that in order to be full she must be empty and that the best things in life are free? Where's the good guy that maybe isn't so hot to look at, loves her to death and eventually gets her to enjoy that warm and cuddly feeling growing inside herself? Ha! Refreshingly, she doesn't settle for second best where looking within means not getting what she wants--Paris and her Hannah are still trudging along the road of personal enlightenment and neither are afraid to admit that there are plenty of rocks to stumble upon that keep you from moving forward. On one leg of her journey, she dabbles with New Age modalities seeking the Higher Self, but amusingly persists in the age-old fun of placating her Lower Self (and Half) with healing touch of a different kind.
From a purely structural vantage point, this reviewer would have liked Hannah to come to some conclusion about her life. As with other seekers on a literary coming-of-age, she journeys through different predicaments and comes out stronger and wiser for the experience. However, from an overall standpoint, Hannah really doesn't grow at all. Despite all her adventures, trials and tribulations, she ends where she started with perhaps a little more cynicism added to the mix of disappointment and ennui. Poor Hannah, she epitomizes the concept of Weltschmerz. Her solution? More experiences of a different nature--a creative project--something that speaks to her soul. She's already got the body covered.
On a technical level, "Make the Cougar Purr," begs for chapter divisions. Paris does break different scenes and emotional departures with visual line separators. Nevertheless, I want to know when I was reaching my goal of finishing a chapter and another phase of Hannah's life by hitting that all-important empty page and larger heading font. Otherwise, Paris does an incredible job of allowing her readers to get inside of Hannah's brain space--even if Hannah really isn't in it herself.
Bottom line? Sonja Paris successfully depicts the struggle within the life of her character Hannah Bentley. This approximately 500 page middle-aged adventure takes the reader on a circuitous journey of self-discovery that doesn't always help us discover anything. Never boring or tedious, Paris intrigues with her writing style and perhaps has intuited that the act of writing in itself is therapeutic, creative and perhaps just the craft Hannah should hone. The ending may disappoint some. Adult language and situations. Recommended.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"
pastedGraphicpastedGraphicpastedGraphicpastedGraphicpastedGraphic
June 25, 2010
The author has a real talent for drawing the reader into the story. You find yourself wondering what Hannah (the main character) is up to when you aren't reading. This is an adult novel--make no mistake, the subject matter is mature, but the use of adult language makes the characters seem like real people and not fictional creations. A very believable and enjoyable read.
great book
pastedGraphic Reader Rating See Detailed Ratings
Posted September 17, 2010, 12:09 PM EST: This book is really amazing. Never read a book with such natural Characters. I feel understood as a women. Hanna’s problems are very realistic to the problems of all women. She becomes a real friend while your reading the book. Such a book was necessary and it will help a men to understand us. But there are not just problems described. Sonja Paris did a great job, made me cry, love, feel sorry, and often couldn’t stop laughing. You must read it.
Make The Cougar Purr Love it!
pastedGraphic Reader Rating See Detailed Ratings
Posted July 29, 2010, 11:12 AM EST: Sonja does a good job in bringing the reader into the book. You know how Hannah is feeling and what is going on. It is a book you can not put down. Easy reading!
This book was recommended as a book to bookmark
pastedGraphic Rating
Posted August 6, 2010, 10:50 AM EST: Tired of romance novels that just portray young women with bodies to die for, novelist Sonja Paris tried a new approach in her first novel "Make The Cougar Purr" (ISBN: 978-1452824543; 494 pages; paperback; CreateSpace). This book is about betrayal, loss and sexual identification, and even though Paris put her work into a fictional "skeleton" its "vital organs" are in part based on autobiographic reflection of her own very turbulent life (she's the widow of Johnny and the Hurricanes® saxophone legend Johnny Paris®). "Cougar" depicts the life of Hannah, a middle-aged woman in a small Ohio town. Constantly betrayed by her husband, she drowns her sorrow in booze and spends his money freely, until he reveals to her that his last affair with a much younger woman is based on true love and not on pure lust. Driven by rage and desperate to find a new identity for herself, Hannah turns into a prancing cougar on the hunt and stumbles from one sexual escapade into another on her search for true love. Paris' writing style combines all the five senses with raw sex and deep-felt emotions, described so vividly, as if watching a screenplay. This book is recommended by Publishers NewswireT as one of nine books "worth a look" for media and booksellers, as well as avid readers of new and unique literary content on its latest semi-annual "Books to Bookmark" list. To learn more about these and other books in detail, visit: Definitely unique and exciting from start to finish. Didn't care much for the ending. But maybe there will be a sequel with a better ending for Hannah (the main character). I felt like: This cannot be it. There ought to be more pages!
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MAKE THE COUGAR PURR has been recommended by Publishers Newswire™ as one of nine books “worth a look” for media and booksellers, as well as avid readers of new and unique literary content on its 2010 semi-annual Q2-2010 ‘Books to Bookmark’ List of Interesting New Books. To learn more about these and other books in detail, visit:
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