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"It Was 15 Years Ago Today"
Intro:
EC: What brand and gauge of guitar strings do you use Bill? Bill: Ahhhhhh! (With disgust) EC: Sorry, those are my questions for my Eric Johnson interview. But seriously, How long have you guys been playing together? Bill: Ten years...ten long years! Chris (Luckette-the drummer) has been with us for seven years. We had two previous drummers: Clark Marty was drummer number one, drummer number two Fred LeBlanc, drummer number three Chris Luckette and drummer four is some lucky guy... Hoaky: (chimes in) O.J. Simpson! EC: How did you come up with the band name, Dash Rip Rock? Bill: The "Beverly Hillbillies” (Ellie May's boyfriend on one episode) EC: Your old drummer, Fred LeBlanc and his group Cowboy Mouth plays some old Dash Rip Rock songs? Bill: They were his songs, the ones he wrote. EC: Why did Fred leave the band? Bill: Cause he got his own record deal, and it was separate from us…and he’s an egomaniac. (Laughs!) Me and Fred are good friends, I just hate everybody else in the band. Hoaky: You can quote me on that! EC: How many gigs do you guys play a year? Bill: About 250. EC: Mostly in the south? Bill: Yeah, mostly in the south, except we go up to New York and up to Seattle once a year. We tour the major rock markets at least once a year to remind everybody that we are not dead. Cause they think we're dead... Hoaky: And we come back and they say, "Damn! You guys are still alive? How can somebody live through that?" EC: What have been some of your favorite or worst gigs? Bill: One of our best gigs was last night in Birmingham. That was one of MY favorite gigs. Hoaky: (interrupts) No, no no! That was my personal worst gig. Bill: I was having a blast, but Hoaky ended up drinking too much and he threw his bass down and stomped on it and walked off stage. We were yelling at the audience trying to get someone to come out of the audience play bass with us and then Hoaky came back and insisted on trying to play. Although he couldn't cause he was too hammered. Hoaky: I was into my cups last night and I was very aggravated, it doesn't happen very often. Bill: And Austin is always one of our favorite places to play. EC: I've noticed that you guys are pretty tight on stage, is that because of your constant playing? Hoaky: If we take more than a week off, we forget the fucking songs! Bill: Ha, ha, that's very true. I think its because we play well together, we play allot together. Each one of us in our individual areas are superb musicians, ha ha ha! Hoaky: We each excel in musical prowess! EC: What’s the name of the new album? Bill: "Get You Some Of Me", it’s gonna be such a smash! EC: What is your record label now? Bill: Sector II, they're in Austin, Texas. EC: Why was the album delayed for almost a year? Bill: Nobody wanted to put it out, ha ha! No, the truth is, we were waiting to get the right deal, we've made so many albums, we've been together so long and we've made so many mistakes. We've really thought this out, hired a new lawyer, new manager, new booking agent. Hoaky and Chris just said, "Bill, whatever you do, just do it". Hoaky: Just do it right, don't fuck it up this time! EC: With five albums under your belt, did you want to try a different approach with the new one? Bill: What we did differently is that we didn't have a producer, we just did it ourselves and as a result, it’s...good. It works together, but it's wilder. We took chances that producers don't like to take. Cause every other record we've made, we'd say, "let's do this...let's stick the mic in the toilet and flush it or whatever...” The producer would say (with a whining voice), "no, you can't do that!” So, this time we were able to do all the wild shit that we wanted to do, and you know, it came out cool. EC: Since this album has been on hold for almost a year, do you already have enough material for the next album? Bill: We've got (new) songs, the deal is we have signed a three record deal, so we have to. We write songs everyday, we just wrote a new one. The other day we were driving on the Natchez Trace and this car zoomed by us, almost ran into us and there were four cops behind him, chasing him. So, we wrote a song called, "High Speed Chase On the Natchez Trace", and we'll play it tonight.
EC: What music did you listen to growing up? Hoaky: Kiss! Bill: And Aerosmith and the Beatles... EC: What was the first record that you bought? Hoaky: Deep Purple, Machine Head. Bill: (to Hoaky) That was yours? Mine was "Burning Bridges" by the Mike Curb Congregation. Ha ha ha, what a horrible song! And you know what the flipside was (Bill sings) "Well Sing In the Sunshine"... EC: I've read that you saw the Sex Pistols in 1978 - did they influence you at all? Bill: It made me wanna drink and be a wild punk rocker you know? EC: I would best describe your music as a cross between Hank Williams and the Sex Pistols. Would that be...? Bill: Pretty close, expect that there were bands doing what we wanted to do like Jason & the Scorchers and the LeRoy Brothers in Austin. We wanted to take some of the more sensitive southern stuff that was happening at the time like REM and Guadalcanal Diary and mix it together with the Scorchers and the LeRoy Brothers. So, we'd play all these punk rock songs and we'd play some pretty cool southern country songs as well. See, its just a big mixture, we're a hybrid. Its nothing original and we certainly didn't come up with it ourselves. EC: You don't seem to get much radio play, does that bother you? Bill: We got allot of airplay with our first two records, cause they were kinda collegy, but we started turning more haywire-twisted-redneck punk rock on our more recent records and there is no radio market for that. EC: It's like your music falls between "new rock" and "classic rock" you aren't the frustrated heroin artistes or the over the hill dinosaurs... Bill: Were close to the over the hill dinosaurs now, ha ha, ha! Yes, it definitely falls between the cracks and that's the way I like it. I mean, we'll never be associated with and trend and if we are associated with a trend, hopefully we'll be the ones who started it. The funny thing about trying to be different or rebel against grunge or alternative or anything is that you've not gonna sell records, you're not gonna get airplay. I think there's a reason to do it. In the long run, historically speaking, two hundred years from now we'll be remembered as being that wild, punk rock country band from Louisiana. Whereas all these grunge bands and all these bands that are lumped into Lallapalooza and all that shit, they are just gonna be nameless and faceless. EC: Bill, you've the main songwriter, although Hoaky and Chris have written tunes from your albums... Bill: Yeah, they do on occasion, ha, ha, ha. I just think they are lazy... Hoaky: I've lost my creative flow...but my Daddy owns a fertilizer company and I'm in a militia! EC: Is live performance where you want to prove yourselves? Bill: We've already proven ourselves to be a great live band and that's where our reputation is. Right now I'd like to try and get some airplay and sell some records. I think with the new album we are gonna get close to doing that. We are releasing a radio single off the new record. It's a novelty song called, "Let's Go Smoke Some Pot". It's gonna get shitloads of airplay, just cause it's so stupid. We had a meeting, we said, "What is our stupidest song?", and we figured, "Let's Go Smoke Some Pot". It's destined to be a smash hit! At least the morning DJ's will play it, its kind of a joke song. EC: With five albums out, how do you decide which songs to do live? Bill: Spur of the moment, I start the songs and hope that Chris and Hoaky can remember them! We're playing from six albums now, actually seven cause we're playing songs from the next record after this one. EC: And then there is the ton of covers that you have played over the years, everything from "Immigrant Song" to "No Matter What" or "Hot Legs"... Bill: We pride ourselves on being able to play three or four hundred songs. I think bands that do covers show that they are talented. Its a blast. Hoaky: Plus, its fun! You get to re-write them in your own way. Bill: We've had reviews where people said, "this is a glorified cover band, I don't believe that they have a future, they aren't creative", whatever. But, if you remember back in the '80s, the reason that the Replacements were heralded as being such a cool band is that they would come out and do two or their originals and then just get fucked up and play covers. People would say, "Oh that is sooo cool". And they wouldn't even finish the covers. That's the era that we came from. EC: Did you ever play with the Replacements? Bill: Yeah, twice. These are the bands that we've played with: Los Lobos, Ramones, Replacements, Cramps - we did a whole tour with, Cracker, Circle Jerks, Screaming Jay Hawkins...Let's see, who has opened for us? Better Than Ezriah, Black Crowes, Georgia Satellites, you name it, we've played with em! EC: I once took a friend to one of your shows and afterwards he asked, "Why aren't these guys big?" Why do you think? Bill: Because we've been mismanaged, we were six years into our career and we still didn't give a shit whether we made it big or not. Fame is something we don't pursue. They say, “watch out what you ask for cause when you get it you might be sorry”. Why be famous when we're just doing what we wanna do? EC: How do you approach songwriting? I mean you have your typical Dash Rip Rock songs about partying and drinking and then you have something like “Endeavor” or “Little Girl Blue”? Bill: I don’t approach it any way at all. Sometimes I sit at home with the acoustic guitar and that tends to produce slower, more pretty songs. But when we’re riding in the van, sometimes we’ll come up with song ideas and that tends to produce more crazy rock and roll drunk songs like “Natchez Trace”. Note: at this point I said that covered all my questions, and I thought the interview ended. I turned off the tape recorder and Bill left the room. Then suddenly, Hoaky speaks... Hoaky: Turn that tape on, I got something to say, damnit! EC: What are your favorite places to play? Hoaky: I like Atlanta, Austin and Baton Rouge where I live. Cause it's convenient after the show. I can get home; I know most of the police officers!
Hoaky: Gimme that! (Grabbing my pages with the interview questions)
(Reading and answering out loud) Yeah, we’ve got a new album coming out…blah, blah, blah. Influences? I don’t know…Growing up listened to a lot of AM radio…blah blah…first album Deep Purple Machine Head…Sex Pistols fucking-A they were great…
They played about half a mile from where I lived, but I didn't get to see them. But my dog, Sadie Mae, was a puppy and I had the first Sex Pistols album. She likes playing Frisbee, one night I went out and I left the Sex Pistols album on the carpet. She thought it was a Frisbee! I came back and it was completely mutilated from her scratching. I couldn't figure out why she destroyed the Sex Pistols album unless she thought it was satanic! How about that? That’s trivia for ya! EC: Why don’t you write more songs? Hoaky: Because…honestly, I quit smoking pot and I just don’t have a creative fucking bone in my body anymore! When you smoke pot you can make a song out of anything.
Hey, we’ve got beer, help yourself… EC: No, can’t for a few weeks, Doctor’s orders… Hoaky: I’d get another doctor!
PAST EAR CANDY ARTICLES ABOUT DASH RIP ROCK:
Dash Rip Rock sites:
www.dashriprock.net
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Right: Dash Rip Rock in 1995
Right: Dash Rip Rock live at The Point