VALLEY STREAM, NY — With hits such as “Hey Jealousy” and Found Out About You,” Gin Blossoms are part of the 1990s soundtrack for so many.
While the alternative rock group formed 35 years ago in Tempe, Arizona, the band’s frontman and songwriter Robin Wilson has called Valley Stream home since the mid-1990s.
That’s the backdrop for Wilson being inducted into the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame.
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“It’s cool to have written songs that are a part of people’s lives,” Wilson told Patch. “That’s why I got into this, music was the most joyful thing in my life. To have been able to make a life creating music and to become in some small way a part of the big Rock and Roll story is incredibly gratifying.”
He calls himself a “huge fan” of the Beatles, who had “a major influence” on him as a musician.
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Wilson can thank his ex-wife Gena Rositano for the Valley Stream ties and it is where his son grew up. He now attends Nassau Community College and hosts a show “Alternative to What” every Tuesday evening on the school’s radio station WHPC.
He met his future wife, who was working at MTV, when he appeared on the first episode of “The Jon Stewart Show” in 1993.
Three years later when they tied the knot, Wilson had Stewart ordained as a minister, and “he performed the ceremony here in my in-laws’ backyard,” he said.
When her parents passed away, Rositano inherited the Valley Stream house.
“It became the best thing for our family for me to move in and kind of steward her childhood home,” Wilson said.
Incidentally, his ex-wife has been the floor director at “Saturday Night Live” since 1996.
“We performed about six months before she got the job there,” he recalled.
When actor Steve Buscemi hosted, along with Jim Brewer, who was part of the ensemble, it was a reunion of Valley Stream Central High School graduates, which also included Wilson’s ex-wife and his son, a Class of 2020 member.
“I made sure that they took a picture together,” he said.
While a photo might be in the offing for fans, Wilson and the Gin Blossoms are back at the Paramount on Sept. 12. You can expect many hits from the multi-platinum album “New Miserable Experience.”
Wilson estimates they’ve played the Huntington theater at least eight previous times.
At the induction ceremony on Aug. 25, Wilson, also credited as a guest lead singer for The Smithereens, will perform with special guests on the Exhibit Hall’s stage.
Tickets are $40 for the public and $35 for members and can be purchased online.
“This honor I find very surprising, amusing and gratifying,” Wilson said. “It took me so long to get used to being here.”
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