Kinks member, Dave Davies, now a Jersey boy
Anthony Bosco | For Inside Jersey Anthony Bosco For Inside Jersey
The British rocker has made his home in Bergen County.
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A member of rock 'n' roll royalty waded through the Saturday morning crowd at the Jackson Hole in Englewood with nary a second glance from the throngs packing the bustling diner. They seemed more focused on their breakfast than the Englishman in their midst.

Ever dapper, Dave Davies, the founding member, guitarist and occasional singer-songwriter for the legendary British band The Kinks, slid into a booth and removed his fedora, revealing thinning gray hair that still falls to his shoulders.

"Are you a Beatle or a girl?" Davies says, recalling the question once lobbed at him during the band's first American tour in 1965.

The man formerly known as "Dave the Rave," one of the wild men of the British Invasion of the 1960s (along with The Who's Keith Moon and Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones), is now a soft-spoken 71-year-old who seems to have found his place in the world.

And it's in New Jersey.

These days, Davies spends many of his Saturdays in front of the TV, catching English Premier League soccer -- er, football - when visiting his longtime partner, Rebecca Wilson, in her Bergen County home.

Wilson, 49, is a New Jersey native and former journalist who met Davies -- via Skype --while writing a story for Punk Globe magazine.

"He had a new record out and the publisher said, 'Why don't you do a story about Dave Davies? ' " says Wilson, who grew up in Leonia, but spent years living in California before returning to the Garden State about five years ago. "I contacted him on Facebook and we did an interview, totally innocent."

Not long after the article was published, Davies reached out to Wilson with a job offer that soon blossomed into something much more.

"He needed someone to write press releases and liner notes," Wilson says. "He was in America and said, 'Why don't you come to one of my shows?'"

Two weeks later, the two officially became a couple. Ever since, the pair has bounced back and forth across the Atlantic on an almost monthly basis, Wilson said.

Wilson helps him manage aspects of his business -- but clearly did not check the schedule for his favorite football club, Arsenal, when she agreed for him to meet for an interview.

"They were winning last I checked," Davies jokes.

Prior to getting up close and personal with New Jersey, all Davies knew about the state stemmed from tour dates with The Kinks and being acquainted with the background of musical influences, such as The Isley Brothers -- Cincinnati transplants who set up shop in Teaneck -- and Ricky Nelson, a Teaneck native.

His frequent visits also gave Davies a chance to reconnect with drummer Dennis Diken, co-founder of the New Jersey-based band The Smithereens.

Diken, who says he's a lifelong Kinks fan, first saw Davies in the '70s, "when my friends and I used to stalk The Kinks. If they played five nights in New York, we went all five nights," he says. "I wouldn't say Dave knew me at the time, but that's when we first met."

Diken, 61, a Belleville native, who grew up in Garfield and now lives in Carteret, still plays with The Smithereens and other notable acts.

Diken and The Smithereens crossed paths with The Kinks over the years -- including a memorable set when the two bands played together at the old Boston Garden in 1991. There was even talk of The Smithereens -- sans then-singer Pat DiNizio -- backing Davies for a solo tour in the late '90s.

But it wasn't until a fan reconnected the pair about four or five years ago that Diken became a part of Davies' touring band. He says playing with Davies has been a dream come true.

In between the music, when Davies is in town he can be found skulking his favorite haunts in North Jersey - the local guitar shop, Guitar Boutique, in Ridgefield Park; Bischoff's Ice Cream and Candy store in Teaneck; and Jerry's Homemade in Englewood, where he picks up his favorite imported cheeses.

But mostly, Davies says, he just loves the often-overlooked beauty of his new home state.

In between the music, Davies can be found skulking his favorite haunts in North Jersey - the local guitar shop, Guitar Boutique, in Ridgefield Park; Bischoff's Ice Cream and Candy store in Teaneck; and Jerry's Homemade in Englewood, where he picks up his favorite imported cheeses. But mostly, Davies says, he just loves the often-overlooked beauty of his new home state.

"When you talk about New Jersey to someone who's never been there, they say, 'Oh, I'll just go to New York,' " Davies says. "But I've spent a lot of time in New Jersey and I think it's lovely. It's got quite a multi-cultural thing about it. You get people from all walks of life. There's a lot of uniqueness to New Jersey -- what you don't see in the movies or on 'The Sopranos.' "

Spearheaded by Davies and his older brother, singer-songwriter Ray Davies, The Kinks erupted onto the music scene during the first wave of the British Invasion, on the heels of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The band's first hit, "You Really Got Me," released in July 1964, rocketed to No. 1 on the BBC charts and the Top 10 in the United States.

One of the hallmarks of the band's early success came courtesy of Davies' signature raunchy, distorted guitar sound, a sound he inadvertently invented while tinkering with his amplifier.

"It was this little green amp I bought for 10 pounds at a radio shop three doors up from where we lived." Davies recalls. "It sounded like crap. I dunno where I got the idea from, but I had just started shaving and I took this single-sided Gillette razor blade and cut the speaker cone. I really didn't think it'd work, to be honest. But when I plugged it in ... It was one of those magical moments. Like the first time you hear 'Hound Dog.' "

The Kinks released 24 full-length studio albums. The four original members were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. The band last performed together in 1996.

Davies found solo chart success in 1967, with the singles "Death of a Clown" and, to a lesser degree, "Suzannah's Still Alive," both of which were Top 40 hits in England. Despite an abundance of recorded material for a solo album, none appeared at the time.

From 1980 to 1983, Davies released three solo albums while still an active member of The Kinks, "ALF1-3603," "Glamour" and "Chosen People." Davies released his first post-Kinks record, "Unfinished Business" in January 1999, a compilation of his work with and without The Kinks, from 1964 to 1998, including several previously unreleased recordings and a newly recorded title track.

It would be the first in a steady stream of releases from Davies, who was entering the most prolific period of his career, culminating with 2002's critically acclaimed "Bug."

Davies suffered a stroke in 2004 while on a promotional trip in his home city of London -- not long after his brother Ray was shot in the leg in New Orleans while pursuing a mugger who had snatched his girlfriend's purse. Both eventually fully recovered.

The health scare slowed down Davies' musical output, but only briefly.

He released "Fractured Mindz" in 2007; "I Will Be Me" in 2013; "Rippin' Up Time" in 2014; and "Open Road" last year, which he wrote with his son, Russ Davies.

"We worked together on a few albums before. And we were talking about making a more rock 'n' roll, pop album. Russ is really good at laying out musical landscapes."

This year, Davies continues to record and tour. The veteran rocker spent the spring performing in California for several shows and then hit the East Coast with dates at the City Winery in New York; Havana in New Hope, Pa.; and Outpost in the Burbs in Montclair.

And there are plans to release a follow-up to "Open Road" with his son; a collection of Kinks outtakes that he is compiling with his brother; and a compilation of long-lost Davies material from a dark time in the musician's career.

From 1971 through 1979, Davies recorded only two of his own songs that made it onto Kinks albums, "You Don't Know My Name" in 1972 and "Trust Your Heart" from the 1978 "Misfits." Unreleased songs from this period will be the basis of the compilation.

"About two years ago, we got together all these tapes in the '70s that I recorded but never released," Davies says. The compilation album, called "Decade," is due out on Oct. 12 and features the single 'Cradle to the Grave."

Davies is also selling original artwork and prints through his website, davedaviesart.com.

Early next year, he plans to join the Rock Legends Cruise VII, along with Kansas, Buddy Guy and Foghat.

In the meantime, you might find him standing on the waterfront in Edgewater in search of inspiration.

"You sit out and look across at the city," he says. "It's really quite a spectacular thing to do on a quiet night."

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