John Doe Finds New Beat on Roswell

Thanks to MyrnaLynne, for finding, and typing up this article.

TV Guide Ultimate Cable, magazine, Feb 5-11, 2000 –

X-Rocker John Doe Finds a New Beat on Roswell – by Janet Weeks

When John Doe’s Los Angeles punk band X was making the club scene in the late 1970s and early ’80s, Doe often found himself surrounded by alienated youth attracted to alternative music. Now, as Jeff Parker, the owner of Roswell’s Crashdown Caf’ and father of Liz (Shiri Appleby, left, with Doe), the ex-rocker is once again amid alienated teens. Really alienated.

“I’m loving it,” says Doe, 45, a native of Decatur, Illinois. “Jeff is an understanding dad without being weak or a Milquetoast-y, bland guy.”

Best known as a musician and singer, Doe (left, in 1984) has been acting for years. He appeared in Oliver Stone’s 1986 drama, “Salvador,” and was Julianne Moore’s ex-husband in 1997’s “Boogie Nights.” In “Roswell,” he’s an aging hippie doing his best with a teenage daughter.

A dad himself -Doe and his wife, G.G., have three children, ages 12, 9, and 7-Doe says he’s picked up some parenting pointers from the show: “It gives me a little practice without wrecking my own kids lives.” Still, making the transition from punk star to a modern vision of Howard Cunningham wasn’t easy, he says. “Two years ago, I was Clair Dane’s dad in “Brokedown Palace,” and it was a little weird. We were hanging around, and I was thinking, “She’s so smart and cool, so pretty.” Then I thought, “Oh, man, I really could be her dad!�”

Doe’s “Roswell” schedule leaves him plenty of time for his new band, the John Doe Thing, which recently released the album “Freedom Is”, on Emusic.com. But Doe won’t be breaking out in song on “Roswell” anytime soon. “That would be a little too Ricky Nelson,” he says with a laugh.�