The odd couple

Not every rock star wants a punk princess crowd-surfing by his side. Sometimes, it’s the quiet schoolteacher in the back who catches his eye.

Joey LaRocca, the lead guitarist of rock band, The Briggs, believes he and his wife, Terry, who tutors youngsters, complement each other’s personalities nicely, even if his tattoos scare some of her students.

“He has to wear a jacket when he comes and helps as a substitute tutor,” said Terry LaRocca, founder of Almost School Tutoring and Terry’s Tutoring, private educational programs for children. “He needs a more conservative look, otherwise it distracts the students. But, he’s a very good algebra and geometry tutor.”

The La Crescenta couple has found that different interests and lifestyles brought them together and keep their relationship strong through scheduling compromises, lots of text messages and a very good cellphone plan.

“Terry’s very organized and business-minded, since she has her own company to run,” Joey LaRocca said. “I’m more artistic and messy, since I’m always traveling with the band for six to eight months out of the year. But we always find time to call and ask about each other’s day.”

Communication plays a key role in relationships with contrasting personalities, said psychiatrist Dr. Lynn Jarvis, of Canada Counseling Center in Glendale. “Men and women share the same basic human needs,” Jarvis said. “They just have different ways of expressing those needs. That’s why people look for a contrast in their partner when compared to their own behaviors. It’s important to have complementary characteristics to balance each other’s needs, which is one reason why opposites attract each other.”

Not only did their contradictory personalities bring the LaRoccas together, but their opposite careers have strengthened their relationship, they said.

“I’m lucky I get to work with my students, who fill the void when Joey leaves,” Terry LaRocca said. “I visited Joey a few times on tour and I asked him how he could play a show, pack up, drive to another town and do it all over again. It seemed so boring. He pointed out that I teach the same subjects each week. But since we’re both doing what we love to do, it makes time away from each other pass by faster.”

For Joey, his time on tour focuses mainly on the band, which allows him to devote his time at home to his wife.

“When I’m at home, I’m a full-time homebody,” Joey LaRocca said. “I cook dinner for Terry, wash the dishes and help her with her business. We also go out more often. I don’t want to seem like a phantom husband who’s never home.”

Though they have been married for only three years, the LaRocca’s history together goes back to their teenage years, when Terry was the student instead of the tutor.

“I had a teacher at the Tutoring Place in La Crescenta who asked Joey to tutor me in math,” Terry LaRocca said. “He helped me every day after school. We became friends, which later turned into boyfriend and girlfriend and now husband and wife.”