Mickey Avalon

That’s cool.

Yeah it makes that exciting. I think that Lollapalooza was a cool thing when it got started. I’m a big Jane’s Addiction fan. It’ll be cool to meet Perry and stuff, yeah.

I’m jealous. I think I went to Lollapalooza in 1996 with like Soundgarden. It was awesome.

It was. From there we actually fly there and then we play that and meet the bus there and take off on our tour. Most of those shows are in the Midwest in bars. Those are going to be fun too but it’s going to be cool to start it off with Lollapalooza.

Are you going to stick around for any of the other bands that are playing?

I don’t know who’s playing, but I think we’re there for the whole day so I’ll probably see some people.

So you’re playing this Midwest tour. Have you played any of those areas before?

A lot of these areas are actually our last places that we haven’t been to yet. A lot of them are places that we’re going back to but, like, we never played St. Louis. It’s going to be fun. We just did another tour that was the East Coast and everything and there were a lot of new places there and every show was sold out and it was good. It was fun. So it’s cool now going new places and having full houses, we used to only have that at home.

The shows that aren’t LA or New York are still fun? Just as crazy?

Yeah! Just as crazy.

What are you listening to right now?

I listen to a lot of country music and folk music. Right now I’m buying weird box sets so I’ve got this weird '60s psychedelic stuff. It’s pretty cool. I mean, it kind of also depends on if I’m writing a lot of songs. I’ll listen to people because I like the way they like songs. I got an i-Pod but I never really, I mean I even kind of figured out how to get it to work but never good enough to really have any fun with it. So in the car I listen to classic radio and at home I listen to country, Dolly Parton, and I like Lucinda Williams a lot.

Not too much rap?

I listen to rap. There’s nothing so much out I like now. I grew up on rap and I love it but there’s more of the older stuff like Ghetto Boys and Slick Rick. But I don’t have any new CDs that I’m putting in, any new rap CDs.

Yeah, the radio stuff is not very good.

I guess in the club and stuff, it has its place. I don’t want to just jump on the bandwagon pointing out the obvious wrongs but usually when stuff like this happens then there’s a backlash, you know. Like when disco got out of control, kind of got real cookie cutter, then heavier rock came to save the day. I’d like to see a rock and roll resurgence, like a renaissance.

I think it’s already happening.

Even with bands like The White Stripes being able to get as far as they’ve gone, I’d say one of the only bands out there that’s still steeped in the blues. Because that’s really what it is, it’s like what your tastes are and the music you grew up on. Right now the music is worse. So if you don’t have good stuff to listen to, it’s going to be hard to make good music. I think I was just lucky enough to grow up with my father, he had a really crazy record collection. I got lucky to grow up on the blues and stuff like that. So I think what I do ain’t even really that great. It’s just better than the stuff that’s out there because of the stuff that I’m regurgitating.

So how did you ever get into this business? Did you grow up wanting to be a musician? How did this happen?

No, I always kind of rapped to myself. I went to see Beastie Boys, Run DMC play when I was 11-years-old and NWA and a bunch of bands back then and I never really thought it was something I could do. I did like to write stories and poems and stuff when I was a kid and then just form rhymes in my head and then that would be kind of a rhythm. My friends were part of underground scene putting out CDs and I would do a verse or two on their shit.

I got married pretty young and had a baby and moved away to Oregon. I don’t know. I didn’t know how to play any instruments. I didn’t think I was going to be a rapper. I wasn’t trying to be. I didn’t think that was even possible. I sold weed to make ends meet and to take care of my family and stuff. I got sober for a little bit, I was in AA, and I was helping these guys build a website. My Mom, I stayed with her for a little while to get sober and she made me take this computer class so I learned how to use a computer. I learned some graphic design, whatever, to make a long story short, they put me in the studio and we made one song and then other people heard it. I was fucking around at my friend Simon’s house and we would just record shit and then I’d have to go home to the sober living house and he was going out to clubs and giving the CDs out to people and then basically this guy called me and wanted to get more serious. I just needed some dough. So I was like, he called and said that they wanted to work with me and manage me. I was like, alright, I thought managers gave you money.

[laughs]

Because, like, you know, when you work for a store, the manager is the guy who pays you and stuff. So I was like, “Well if I get $1500 a month that’d be cool.” They were like, “Okay, we’ll do that for three months but you’ve got to record five songs a month.” So, I just recorded a bunch of songs for them and then I just followed my manager’s lead. Then we just started playing shows and before I knew it, it was just kind of reality and now, I mean it’s like a fairy tale story except that that wasn’t necessarily my dream. Now it’s remolding my dream. There’s no turning back now, really.

Basically I’ve got to just keep doing what I’m doing. The next record is almost done and it will get finished when I get home from this tour. It’s just a little more of the same but it’s a little more live oriented just because I wrote the first record before I started performing. Now, I’ve been performing so these songs are a, a little bit different, it’s like things have changed for me and I’m traveling and facing new problems but it’s basically just the next chapter, you know.

I noticed a lot of your lyrics seem to be tongue-in-cheek. Like in “So Rich, So Pretty” you rap about girls with bulimia and these spoiled, coked-up Paris Hilton types and it seems like there’s sort of a disconnect as far as your fans go because all these rich, white, OC kids are crazy about you. Do you think they just don’t get it? Do you think that we all kind of like being made fun of sometimes?

A lot of those were in before I even knew there were going to be fans and people I was playing for. I thought the satire in that was pretty blatant. I wasn’t really trying to go over anybody’s head. You know, some satires you don’t even realize it. Like, you know, you could watch half of Spinal Tap before you even realize it’s not a real band.

[laughs]

I thought this was pretty down the middle. I was also making fun of myself. I mean, by making them the object of my romantic desire, the joke is I’m still there; I’m still in the room to see this.

Yeah, you’re a witness.

I realized that no matter what I said and no matter how many excuses I had I was still there. So there’s obviously some sort of allure, you know. But I don’t know if it’s so much over their head, nowadays I mean even things have changed in the last few years since I’ve written them. It’s like okay now. It’s weird. It’s like people used to make fun of selling out. Selling out--that’s not even a concept anymore. It’s like people are trying to sell out in life. It’s like fake tits. You know that’s almost become a badge of honor as opposed to something to be embarrassed of.

Totally, like it’s absurd and we just embrace it now.

Yeah, you know, I think they’re laughing at themselves but at the same time they’re like, “Yeah, I do throw up and have fake tits.” I don’t know really. I just laugh. I’ve heard it a lot. “That song’s about me.” The same question you asked me. I’m like “Alright, that’s cool.” [laughs]

With the more serious stuff, you reference your past a lot and you’re definitely not hiding it from anyone. Do you think writing these songs is cathartic or are you just telling your story?

I think it definitely helps to get a lot of stuff out. Like, the next record, a lot of that was written at the same time. So it’s probably the last of getting that stuff out. There’s no need to keep revisiting, you know, going back to stuff. It’s one thing to do a memoir, in a few years revisit a topic for one song or even in the interviews with a lot of the questions about that stuff, it’s been so long. I mean I’ll talk about it.

Do you get sick of interviewers asking about it. Are you afraid of getting pigeonholed?

I figure people are going to say as long as the records are good then it really doesn’t matter. If my second and third and fourth records are about good songs about new things and people want to think that I’m doing that, and I’m not, then fine. But, I mean, there’s probably tons of people that think I’m a one-trick pony and in a lot of ways I am but there’s definitely more to talk about. I thought making a little bit of dough was the last piece of the puzzle for my self enlightenment but there’s a whole bunch of new problems, and not business problems. I mean real problems, like life doesn’t get perfect.

New problems, right. So, since its SuicideGirls I’ve got to ask you about the tattoos. I know you’ve got one that says “Thank You.” Who are you thanking and what for?

I think it’s more gratitude toward all women. I know it kind of seems coarse but at that time I was sober . I hear the word sex addict and that seems kind of weird because sex is good for you if it’s done right. So I guess I wasn’t addicted to sex but having a lot of sex then because I was off drugs. I would go out to breakfast with one person, go out to lunch with another person and then go to dinner with a third person. So I kind of was like a crack head for it.

[laughs]

So, like a lot of the girls were probably the prettiest girls I’d had up until then. I mean it’s kind of juvenile a kind of thank you to all women who were willing to get down with me.

That’s cute. What about “I’m Sorry”?

That’s probably on the flipside of that. That wasn’t really directed toward any particular person. I mean at that time I guess there was a lot of stuff going on with my ex-wife and stuff like that. Really at that time it seems like those were probably the only, it seemed like the only words that ever came out of my mouth. Just like a mantra to everybody and when you say it that much it kind of loses meaning. It’s just like everything, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Stuff like I’m sorry I let you down again. So it was kind of a little part of that. Now I mean, I’m not really doing anything that I’m really sorry about. I mean I haven’t really changed my life that much but I don’t keep anyone around me that has a problem with the things I do to where I have to apologize.

On SuicideGirls all the models and members have their own profile. We have a little questionnaire that people can answer (or not) for their profile. So I’m going to ask you some questions from that and it works best if you just answer off the top of your head. Can you humor me for a second?

I can try.

Okay. Five things you can’t live without.

They’re all illegal!

[laughs] We don’t care.

Love--not love, flesh. weed, tobacco, pills and my toothbrush.

I’m glad you put the toothbrush in there. Heroes?

Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis.

What makes you happy?

Not much these days. I guess simple shit, corny, getting together with my kid, getting together with my friends, getting high.

What makes you sad?

The world.

What gets you hot?

Someone who wants to have a good time.

Most humbling moment?

Fuck, they’re all humbling. I guess probably when my sister died.

Alright, you’re working on a new record right now. Are you going to record it after you get back from tour? What can we expect?

We’re fucking around, I mean we’re always fucking around, we don’t ever take it too seriously. I think most of the songs are already there. I’ll be “recording” when I’m done in October Right now they just need to get to the producer and be remixed and mastered and pick them out and stuff. So I’ll go in and force myself to record a bunch more just to see if anything does happen in the eleventh hour and there’ll probably be a lot of stuff for the third record. But like I said a lot of people are saying, the next record is bigger and better. It isn’t really bigger or better, I mean I like it and I’ve been playing a lot of the songs out on tour, and testing them out. People like them so I mean the sounds I hear in my head are starting to happen more than the first record so I think it’s good.


For more information, go to www.mickeyavalon.com