The most New Jersey thing about Big Joe Henry?
“My love for Italian cuisine and pizza,” the classic-hits radio host told New Jersey Monthly shortly before he was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame on September 24.
“I love the people. The people are the best,” he continued. “That’s what New Jersey is all about. Not necessarily in that order. Family, friends, pizza and Italian cuisine. It’s all in there.”
Henry has been hosting the Big Joe Henry Show on New Jersey 101.5 (WKXW) since 1997. The show has been the No. 1-rated show in the state for more than 25 consecutive years, according to the NJ Hall of Fame.
Also a philanthropist, Henry is the cofounder and executive director of the Rock and Roll Music Fund, a West Long Branch-based nonprofit that raises money for New Jersey charities. He donated the proceeds from his 2008 best-selling cookbook, Big Joe Henry’s Big Jersey Cookbook, to the Foodbank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, and has made more than 700 charitable appearances.
“To be honored for that work is amazing, and it’s just very surreal to me.”
—Big Joe Henry
“You don’t do that for awards,” Henry says of his philanthropy. “The rewards that you do it for are for the children or the people that you’re working for. To be honored for that work is amazing, and it’s just very surreal to me.”
Henry hosted the New Jersey Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2017. “It’s almost, like, full-circle—it’s surreal,” he says of joining the 2026 class, whose members were inducted by Danny DeVito and included Grammy Award winner SZA, the Rascals’ Eddie Brigati and former Governor Christine Todd Whitman.
“It’s the people that make Jersey so damn special,” Henry said during his acceptance speech. “I’ve always looked at myself as a conduit. When I asked, the people of New Jersey stepped up.”
