A Semi-Charming Life

Stephan Jenkins is definitely a rock star who reads--if not believes--his own press. Backstage at the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, dive The Chili Pepper, where Third Eye Blind were about to perform a "secret show" for local station Y-100 FM, the frontman seemed in good spirits, talking excitedly about the November follow-up to his band's quadruple-platinum debut. "We're taking a break from recording our new album at Stevie Nicks's studio in Pasadena. You can still scrape coke left over from the '70s out of the faders," he joked. Then he realized he was talking to Mr. Backstage Pass. "You called me 'self-consciously studly' in Spin!" Jenkins barked, dragging yours truly behind his tour bus for a verbal bitch-slapping. "That sounds like some jerk who drives a Corvette and constantly checks himself out in the rearview mirror."

He also took issue with the way his girlfriend, Charlize Theron, was characterized as a "willowy arm attachment." "She's a major actress!" he said. And finally, for the record, Jenkins wants it known that he never demands his mug appear on concert T-shirts (no matter what Matchbox 20's Rob Thomas says).

Sipping a lite beer after the show (gotta keep that studly figure), a calmer Jenkins said the new album, tentatively titled Red Summer Sun, "will be much more rawk"--the result of pent-up aggression from two years spent on the road.

The harder-guitar direction was apparent in "Sorry," a new song previewed during the set, as well as in a rowdy cover of the Who's "Baba O'Riley", which Eddie Vedder once publicly denounced Third Eye Blind for playing, prompting Jenkins to ream the Pearl Jam singer in Rolling Stone. "Eddie called me," Jenkins said. "He wants to work it out. He knew he was wrong. The guy was probably a hall monitor in high school." Opening the show was Third Eye Blind's Elektra labelmate Vitamin C (aka Colleen Fitzpatrick), who went over big with her perky "Spice Girls meets Blondie" schtick. The ex-Eve's Plumb frontwoman agreed that "Stephan is studly. And I think he knows it." Hey, she said it, not me.

--James Patrick Herman