Joe Cocker’s rocking magic came back to life last week at Laguna Woods’ Clubhouse 5 with Jason Feddy and his nine-piece band, Mad Dogs and the Englishman.

The local rocker calls the group a tribute band to a tribute musician.

“Joe sings songs by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, many of the artists that I like. He rarely wrote anything himself,” Feddy said in an interview. “He really was a tribute band himself, except that he sang the songs in his own style.”

“Mad Dogs & Englishmen” was the name of Cocker’s live album and tour that, in 1970, stood a Beatle-saturated world on its head and became the inspiration for Feddy and his band. The title was based on the observation that “only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun,” razzing the naiveté of fog-drenched Englishmen in hot climates.

Looking at clips of Feddy’s performances – when he fronted Sunday afternoon Beatles tributes at the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts for seven years, or played at the Sawdust Festival or sang in pubs and concerts in parks – viewers will find resemblances between him and Cocker, two raspy-voiced, shaggy-haired performers.

“Joe was born and raised 30 miles from where I was. His singing style is defined by his accent — I can hear the Yorkshireman in him; you can hear the Yorkshireman in me,” said Feddy, who grew up in Leeds and came to the U.S. in 2000.

Noteworthy about Cocker, who died in 2014, was his marionette-like, almost spastic, body and hand movements that some tried to attribute to physical failings. But they were just part of Cocker’s performing style since as a singer he didn’t have an instrument to play on stage.

Feddy said he alludes to the movements but does not imitate them fully.

“I don’t impersonate Cocker,” he said.

Evoking Cocker musically is but a segment of Feddy’s professional persona.

Fluent in Hebrew, Feddy is a cantor at the Temple Isaiah of Newport Beach and the Jewish Collaborative of Orange County.

Before the pandemic, he was also a lively contributor to local radio station KX935, now KX FM.

Feddy and his actress wife, Ava Burton, also took part in the widely acclaimed “Shakespeare’s Fool,” a witty send-up of the bard’s prose. Most recently, the show was performed with an enlarged cast at the Laguna Beach Cultural Arts Center.

During the pandemic, the couple started an internet show called “Pageant of the Mattress,” during which they sit on a bed in their guest room and entertain their fans with music and witty banter.

“People tipped up, and we could scrape up a living from that,” Feddy said.

And that defines Feddy’s life. As he put it, “I never had a real job. I’ve always been a musician. I’m not qualified to do anything else. I’ve confounded myself by supporting myself — it’s a miracle really.”