- 9 months ago
This is a first...I've never interviewed a member of GWAR before. The Berserker Blothar was a blast to speak with.
Their new album, The New Dark Ages, is out and we discussed that, the upcoming documentary -This Is GWAR, the pandemic, the original name of his character, and TONS more.
This is a fun watch....enjoy!
Their new album, The New Dark Ages, is out and we discussed that, the upcoming documentary -This Is GWAR, the pandemic, the original name of his character, and TONS more.
This is a fun watch....enjoy!
Category
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FunTranscript
00:00Thank you so much for watching Riff TV. Now, this interview is obviously with video, but I don't interview everybody on Zoom.
00:07That's why I put it on my Talkin' Rock with Meltdown podcast. We talk to rock artists from all over the genre.
00:13So check out Talkin' Rock with Meltdown wherever you get your podcasts. And now to today's video interview.
00:20Blothar, what an honor to talk to you. How are you doing?
00:23Ah, well, you know, I'm hot. Who would have known that Redding, Pennsylvania would be like the surface of the sun this time of year? Apparently it is.
00:37Yeah, you're getting what we got yesterday, I think. So are you out on tour or what do you got going on right now?
00:44Yeah, yeah, we're on tour. I don't otherwise come to Redding, Pennsylvania for the seafood or anything like that.
00:53Yeah, we're on tour and riding through Amish country here.
01:00Yeah, so you got to try the, what do they call it, the wet bottom shoofly pie.
01:07Ooh, that sounds wet bottom. It's just delicious already.
01:14So how's things going for you now that things are kind of going back to normal?
01:18Well, yeah, I mean, you know, it's always been normal for us. Just a bunch of people dying.
01:25That's true.
01:26Just another day in the world of war.
01:30I mean, yeah, it's great, you know, to be out on the road actually throttling humans rather than sitting at home reading about how they're killing each other off.
01:40So it's, it's, it's been fun to get back out there on the road and do what we do best, which is, I don't know, what the hell is it that we do best?
01:50We do something.
01:52Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
01:54Yeah.
01:54So you got the new record as well, the Dark Ages. That record's awesome. You know, I was listening to it, I'm thinking to myself, you sound like someone and I couldn't really place my finger on it.
02:02Then it kind of hit me. A little bit of Dee Snider in there. Have you heard that one yet?
02:05I heard any Dee Snider. Some people say Blackie Lawless, which, you know, have you seen what Blackie Lawless looks like lately?
02:16I have not, but I interviewed him recently, but I didn't get to see what he looked like. He was on the phone, but I haven't. Have you?
02:21He looks like me, basically. Just slap a wig on me and that's Blackie Lawless. So I'm actually very complimented when people say that.
02:30But, you know, Dee Snider, too. I mean, he's a great, he's a great singer. He's got a confusing stage presence, but, you know, hey, so do I.
02:41I was just going to say, yeah.
02:43Yeah, yeah. But I've always been a fan of Dee Snider, especially, you know, he's a smart guy, too. So that's good.
02:51Well, tell us about the new record. What was your goal in putting on a record at this stage in your career?
02:56Like, do you have something in mind or was it stuff that you had just just pent up and built up through the pandemic or what?
03:04Well, yeah, I mean, you know, 15 years, 15 albums down the line, 30 some years, 35 years.
03:10You could ask, why is Boar making records at all? Well, we're making records because we've got stuff to say.
03:18And, you know, it's really a whole new band. The band is a lot different than it has been in the past.
03:26And the New Dark Ages is just a reflection, you know, looking around at the world and the state of things right now.
03:33But we wanted to do something, something different. We wanted to put out an album that we're going to try something, an experiment, something, do something with music that we have never done before.
03:46I mean, Goar's done bluegrass. We've done funk. We've done disco. We've done, you know, hard rock and heavy metal, obviously polka, Tejano music, you name it.
04:00But we wanted to do something we'd never done with music before, and that's make money.
04:07So you haven't done that yet, huh? But you're going to try this time.
04:10That's right. This time, surely we have the right combination of vapidness and sex appeal to make unlimited amounts of money.
04:21Yeah, the cash is going to flow in. There's no doubt. So speaking of that, I was thinking about this on the way in.
04:26How is your merchandising? Do you guys make a good living off merchandising, Goar?
04:32Oh, yeah, absolutely. We will. There is no limit to how we will prostitute ourselves.
04:39We, you know, people look at Kiss. I mean, Kiss, I was reading something the other day.
04:45Some stupid fan was saying, oh, look, Kiss is in a car commercial. They sold out.
04:51I'm like, are you kidding me? They were born and sold out. That's what they're designed for, is selling out.
04:59And Goar is the same way. You know, we just want enough money that we can, you know, sit back and buy a bunch of cigars and hand sanitizer and toilet paper and watch the whole world die.
05:13That's what we want. So growing up, were you were you a fan of Kiss?
05:19Of course. Yeah, of course. Absolutely. You know where I heard Kiss the first time?
05:24And this is a true story. My grandmother had, for some reason, a bunch of albums.
05:32And she had, you know, Freddie Fender and, you know, the very best of country with that song, Dang Me, Dang Me.
05:40They ought to take a rope and hang me. All that kind of stuff.
05:43And then right there on the bottom was Kiss, Rock and Roll Over.
05:47I have no idea why my grandmother had this record, but she did.
05:51And I couldn't stop looking at it. Right.
05:57And then when I listened to it, I was like, oh, wow, man, this is this is really something else.
06:04So, yeah, I was a huge fan.
06:06And, you know, and plus they sing about like, you know, hanging around in ladies rooms and and riding up to an elementary school and waiting for the chicks to come out.
06:15Like that's the kind of thing Gene Simmons was into.
06:17I was just thinking about that before you.
06:19And of course, of course, they sing about Detroit Rock City.
06:23Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Detroit Rock City.
06:26But then there's also Christine 16, which I guess now would be Christie 60.
06:31Right. At least Christine 26.
06:34But so so let me ask you about this, because when you open up that record for the first time as a kid, I mean, looking at the members of Kiss, that's like mind blown.
06:43Right. And back in the day, it's like you didn't really know about these about these guys and stuff.
06:47So that leads me with Guar. It's kind of like the same way.
06:50But now talk about the the advent and the inclusion of the Internet as to maybe making, you know, putting you guys out there a little bit more.
06:58And maybe some of the mystique is kind of maybe gone a little bit from all our all our favorite bands.
07:04Yeah. I mean, from the world, mystique has gone away with the Internet.
07:09Everybody has information, but information is a hell of a lot different than knowledge, isn't it?
07:13Yeah, certainly different than wisdom.
07:15But I mean, what you see is you're you're you're absolutely right.
07:19The the the culture, if you think of of when the Beatles, when Kiss came out, you're talking about there were very few sort of outlets to to see and to witness this.
07:32So everything came out of the nozzle with a lot more force right now.
07:36It's just a big, wide hose with everything dripping slowly out, making a gravy of suck.
07:44But I mean, really, to be honest with you, I think that that for all of that, we still managed to have some kind of a mystique around Guar.
07:55And and but you're absolutely right. It's not easy.
07:59And look at Kiss. I mean, now they're you know, you we know something about what Gene Simmons life looks like because he did a reality show.
08:09You know, the same thing with Ozzy. I mean, I used to think, you know, people growing up would think Ozzy was an actual demon, you know, like a I mean, those those were the good old days when you could really pull the wool over people's eyes.
08:20Right, right. Yeah.
08:23Well, I remember, you know, when I was a kid, I think we're probably pretty close to the same age when I was a kid.
08:27And, you know, look at a diary of a madman. I'm like, man, this guy is like out of his mind.
08:32And now, yeah, now, of course, Ozzy's 73 years old, having neck surgery.
08:36So, yeah, you know, and I hope he's all right. I really do.
08:39Yeah. He's such a good singer. We were listening to him last night. It's just.
08:44Yeah. Were we listening to him on the tour bus?
08:47You know what? I was.
08:49Well, I was intoxicated, I will admit, and I was hanging around with the guys in the band Goat Whore and Necrogoblin or Necrogoblicon, excuse me.
09:01And we were in the dressing room and we were just listening to Ozzy.
09:05I mean, it was great. He's the king of melody, man. He writes really good melodies.
09:15Yeah. No, Ozzy was my favorite growing up.
09:19And, of course, you guys have this documentary coming out as well that's dropping on July 21st.
09:24This is Gwar. I saw the trailer for it, man. It looks super interesting.
09:28How long have you guys been working on this project? I know it's been done for a little bit.
09:32Yeah. I mean, you know, the pandemic, it's the same thing with the album.
09:36It didn't really take us five years to make an album.
09:39You know, there was a good year or more when we were not able to be in the same space.
09:46And so it kind of slowed things down.
09:48But the one thing that the pandemic also did is that it allowed us to focus more on these other avenues of expression that have always been a part of Gwar, like films and comics.
10:02But we haven't really haven't really been doing very much with them because we've just been in this cycle of putting out records and then going and doing our live show.
10:12So the pandemic did. I mean, one of the many, many good things about a worldwide pandemic was that it afforded Gwar the time to experiment with other means of expression.
10:27But, you know, I mean, we're also with this album.
10:30I mean, it's a different kind of record because we haven't put out a graphic novel at the same time as an album before.
10:39And the two are supposed to go together and they do go together.
10:43So that's part of the the experiment with this album.
10:49So hopefully people will people will like it.
10:52And the graphic novels very it's just a kind of a chance to fill out some of the themes on the album.
10:59Turned out very well.
11:00Now, because of the two year layoff, did that afford you a chance to do that as well?
11:04Or was that already in the works or maybe in your mind?
11:07We definitely wouldn't have done that if it weren't for the for the pangolins, you know, for eating pangolins over at a wet market in China allowed us to make this freaking graphic novel.
11:20You ever seen a pang?
11:22I am interesting.
11:23I have not.
11:24No, maybe that should be in your show.
11:26Is that in your show?
11:28A pangolin?
11:28No, penguins.
11:29Yes.
11:29Yeah.
11:30Pangolins didn't even know pangolins existed.
11:32They look like messed up little armadillos.
11:35So is there anything that you guys have have talked about or tried to create for the show where you're like, no, this is way too over the top?
11:45Absolutely not.
11:46I was going to.
11:47I mean, we have that shot poop into the audience.
11:50I'm sorry.
11:51A little bit.
11:51You had what?
11:53We had a butt cannon.
11:54Oh, that's right.
11:56Yeah, it just sprayed oatmeal and chocolate syrup into the audience.
12:03That was great.
12:04Somebody said, you know what?
12:05That's a great idea.
12:07Let's do that.
12:09So we did it because we'll do anything.
12:12Absolutely anything for attention, even if it's abuse, at least it's attention.
12:17Yeah, right.
12:17Exactly.
12:18You say that, you know, obviously, you know, you say that the band's changed over the years.
12:22Obviously, there's been many, many members over the years.
12:24How is the musical like how is your musical vision like changed or has it stayed the same since since the death of Dave?
12:34Well, since I mean, things have definitely changed.
12:40There's Odorous was he was a very, very funny guy with a lot to say.
12:48And when he would write songs, when he would perform, what he liked to do was he kind of he put hooks and things like that.
13:00Those kinds of things were were secondary to this message of humor and of and he was great at that.
13:08He really was, you know, but you wound up like just for this tour, for example.
13:14There was 42 pages of lyrics, 42 page, you know, that's a lot.
13:22I mean, so the guy, he he filled a lot of space.
13:27One of the ways that we were able to kind of create some separation between what what Odorous is doing and what I'm doing is it was cooling that out a little bit.
13:39Right. Like leaving the music some space to breathe and focusing more on melody, focusing more on on hooks and things like that.
13:48And it's it's worked out for us. It's been, you know, that the song still sound like war.
13:56They're still funny. They're still controversial and upsetting and all of that.
14:03But they're but they just have a a little bit of a different focus musically.
14:09Is there is there ever a time when you're recording the record or doing the graphic novel or anything like this, even with the documentary?
14:15And you think to yourself, would Odorous do this? Do you ever do you ever think like that or no?
14:20No, I mean, and if we did, then it would be to do the opposite.
14:24Right. I mean, see, the thing about it is that if we if we do what Odorous did, then it's going to look like just a cheap imitation.
14:35You know, it's going to really call attention to the fact that the guy's not there.
14:39Right. And, you know, because nobody's going to do Odorous as well as Odorous did Odorous.
14:46So we have to do what we do now. And that's really the thing that we're working with.
14:52Yeah, I know you don't know much about my history, but I took over for an afternoon guy that was on the radio for like almost 40 years.
14:58He was a legend. And for a little while, it took me a little bit of time to figure out, hey, this is my ship.
15:03That might have been the same thing for you to think, well, this is now you're you're the leader.
15:08Yeah, it's a good that's a good analogy. It is a similar situation, you know, and I'm sure that you tried to create some space.
15:16You tried to create your own identity on the air and you did that. Right.
15:20I mean, and that's very much what being the lead singer for a big, crazy, insane, ridiculous rock and roll band is you got to find your own identity and build it like build it like that.
15:36I mean, you know, think people look at Brian Johnson. I mean, he didn't do exact.
15:42He doesn't really. Everybody's like, well, you really replace ACDC with a guy that sounds just like him.
15:47He doesn't sound just like him. Not at all. You're not at all. He's a he he has the same attitude.
15:55He has the same sort of, you know, approach to singing, but he has a different voice, you know, even pretty much.
16:02I'm pretty sure he has a different voice type even right than than Bon Scott did.
16:09So. Yeah. Yeah. Real fast before we move on, I just wanted to touch again on this on this documentary.
16:17This is Guar. So is there somebody in the band that kind of archives everything and then you guys put this together?
16:23How'd this work? Yeah. You know, you asked me about that and I think I probably didn't answer you.
16:28Oh, that's right. No, you're fine.
16:32This is Guar. We do have an archivist in the band.
16:36Just this the Bob Gorman is the same person who made the book, which is called Let There Be Guar.
16:44It was a coffee table book we made. And Bob, you know, he's always been just like who he is,
16:49is a little squirrel like figure that collects whatever he can get.
16:57That's he's always been that way. I've known him since I was 15 years old.
17:03And so, yeah, I mean, he has a vast catalog of flyers and of dates written down and information about all the stuff that we did.
17:13And, you know, they came to us with the idea to do a film about Guar and we were already prepared.
17:23We had all this stuff to help them out because of Bob's efforts.
17:27But we also had a story. Right.
17:31I mean, Guar is a band that is on stage. It's unlike anything that people have seen.
17:37But off stage and the story about the organization that puts Guar on is a fascinating story.
17:45And it's and it's very I think people are going to be shocked at how how unique Guar is.
17:52You just don't have a collective of artists and musicians working together to make something, you know, I mean, because it's Slipknot and Kiss.
18:02I mean, they may have designed their costumes, but they didn't make them. Right.
18:06You know, I mean, there's a Guar. You have a group of special effects professionals and visual artists and sculptors and costumers that are in the band.
18:19And they're they're they're also the people that come on stage and wear the outfits and get killed and do all of the stuff.
18:26You know, so it's a very unique organization.
18:29Now, with like what the guys from Slipknot, they change their their gear and their outfits, you know, every tour or whatever.
18:34Is there now when you change your outfits or when you when you make stuff for the stage?
18:38I mean, how much are you thinking about? Well, this has to be functional.
18:42Well, I'd like to hire you because I like the way you think, I mean, no, apparently they don't think about that.
18:56So we just wear something that weighs five thousand pounds and try to be, you know, it's like it's like if David, David Lee Roth was just wearing a fat suit all the time.
19:07I mean, it's it's next to impossible to perform in this stuff.
19:11But I mean, that's sort of the aesthetic of war.
19:15I mean, war does have an aesthetic and that aesthetic is that we smell bad and we look worse and we're up there wearing a bunch of, you know, I mean, look at this stuff.
19:27I feel naked, honestly, you know, I don't have a mask or nothing on.
19:30Yeah, it's a lot.
19:34So my friend, Todd Evans, you may have heard of him.
19:38Oh, yeah.
19:38Yeah. He's a good friend.
19:40He says he wanted to ask you what's your what the original name you wanted to use for your character.
19:48Oh, my.
19:49Can you say it? I don't even know.
19:51Steady me up.
19:52Just yeah, I can't really say that on the air.
19:56Filthy. I mean, I'll say it.
19:57You can bleep it if we're not.
20:00Yes.
20:00Squidman shit sucker.
20:03That was the original name.
20:07And, you know.
20:09He would remember that.
20:11What a nut job.
20:13Yeah, he's a great guy.
20:15He's become one of my really good friends here.
20:17He's a good musician and he's freaking huge.
20:20Huge. There's no question about it.
20:22He said he said, yeah, Blothar is a monster bass player, had some killer other bands as well.
20:27He said Capone and a couple other ones that he mentioned.
20:31Yeah.
20:31Keep on.
20:32Yeah.
20:32Keep on.
20:33Yeah.
20:33Yeah.
20:34Yeah.
20:34We've been.
20:34Yeah.
20:37We had a mutual admiration society.
20:40He's a good player.
20:41He really is.
20:42A good guitar player and a good bass player.
20:46And he was a good, a good beefcake.
20:49He was definitely the most terrifying beefcake that we ever had.
20:53He's told me some crazy stories.
20:57Hey, you know, we were talking about Ozzy and stuff.
20:59Just a couple more things here for you.
21:00We'll let you fly.
21:00I don't know how much time you have.
21:01But when you're out doing these festival dates, what, what do other bands think?
21:07Are they, are they watching from the side of the stage?
21:09Do you see a lot of that or no?
21:11I mean, you know, it's interesting.
21:13I'm just going to go ahead and say it.
21:15War is not cool.
21:17Right.
21:17Like, like, you know, and I'm talking about like Slayer cool.
21:21Right.
21:21Like, you know, we're, we're not going to roll up.
21:25And then the guys in Ozzy's band are like, oh, hey, how are you guys doing?
21:30Come on over to our place.
21:31Right.
21:32You know, because war, what war is, is a bunch of comic book geeks.
21:36It's a, it's a bunch of guys that like horror movies.
21:39It's a bunch of guys that are into Japanese live action animation shows.
21:43Right.
21:43We're goobers.
21:44We're gamers.
21:45We're D and D enthusiasts.
21:48And, and we don't really fit in with the, you know, tight black pants and boots.
21:55And tattoos of all the heavy metal guys.
21:59And that's fine.
22:00That's cool.
22:01Because we are what we are.
22:03And we, we, we like ourselves and we like each other.
22:07So, you know, to be honest with you, I mean, sure.
22:11We have friends in music.
22:12It tends to be punk bands, you know, which is how, how war started.
22:18War is really a, even though we play heavy metal and that's how people think of the band.
22:23I mean, it's rooted in punk rock.
22:25Uh, and that's definitely where we're most comfortable.
22:29Well, it's funny.
22:30Cause you know, the, the berserker blow there.
22:32I thought that you and Zach wild would be like, you know, like this, like best friends.
22:36Cause he's kind of, I mean, himself, you know, you're right.
22:40And, and, and I, I, I exaggerate.
22:42Right.
22:42I mean, Blasco, uh, from Ozzy's band is a great guy and we hang out with him.
22:47Uh, you know, there are certain bands, always been bands that, that, uh, and, and musicians
22:52that liked war a lot.
22:54Dimeback was a big, big war fan.
22:56Uh, Dave Mustaine, uh, took some photos early on in our shirts and then we, uh, sat around
23:04and, you know, hung, hung around with that guy a little bit.
23:06Um, so, uh, yeah, I mean, there, there's definitely people that, that we associate with, you know,
23:14who's hilarious is Rudy Sarzo.
23:17That guy is really funny.
23:19Yeah.
23:20You know, I hang, I, I do have some rock star friends, I suppose.
23:24Yeah, no, Rudy's a great guy.
23:25I've never had a chance to meet him, but I interviewed him and yeah, he's definitely a
23:28good dude.
23:29So, Hey, when's the next time you're going to be on that Gutfeld show?
23:32Oh man.
23:33I don't know.
23:35I don't know.
23:36I'm trying to cut back on the cocaine.
23:38If you know what I mean, it's hard over there at Fox news.
23:44Everybody's into the blow.
23:46If you know what I mean, it makes that little bow tie really spin around.
23:52Yeah.
23:54No, I mean, I mean, seriously, uh, I have absolutely no idea when I'm going to be on
23:58Gutfeld again.
23:59And the last time I went, you know, he had been, he was like, you know, I don't
24:03like it because there's this delay when we talk to you by satellite.
24:07So we're going to bring you into the studio.
24:10That was a huge mistake because we, I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that we
24:15smell terrible because I'm sitting there and there's like, you know, all of
24:20these very good looking conservative women around me and a big professional
24:25wrestler guy and then Greg, you know, and, uh, then there's me just thinking up.
24:34Yeah.
24:35Um, so we'll see, you know, I think if they can get past the smell, we'll be back.
24:43But honestly, I mean, shortly after the last appearance, it's like the world just
24:46kind of drew, you know, I mean, all the stuff started happening in Ukraine.
24:52I mean, they've got a lot of stuff to talk about.
24:54Uh, so I think that's, that's one reason, uh, one reason they've pulled back from
24:59that a little bit from the humor side of it, but it's a pretty funny show in some
25:03ways.
25:03Yeah.
25:04Yeah.
25:04It's, it's, it's entertaining.
25:06So July 21st, uh, this is Gwar drops on, um, uh, streaming services on shutter, uh, all
25:11sorts of guests would even talk about, uh, but weird ale and, uh, Bam Margera.
25:15Hopefully that guy's okay.
25:16Apparently he disappeared from his rehab or something.
25:21Yeah.
25:21Yeah.
25:21They did.
25:22And he, they, I saw a picture of him.
25:24He looks, he looks almost exactly like his dad now.
25:28Uh, but you know, Bam, Bam's a cool guy and, uh, and, and we wish him the best.
25:33And I, I, I think he's going to be all right.
25:36He just, you know, I mean, it's hard.
25:39Life is hard.
25:40What can I say?
25:41Yeah.
25:41And, uh, the dark ages is out in the dark ages is such a killer record, man.
25:45And it's like, um, I don't know if I want to, I don't know how I want to phrase it,
25:49but it's, it's, it's, there's, there's obviously there's just heavy stuff, but there's
25:53some stuff that's kind of like semi-commercial.
25:55Would you agree?
25:56I, I, I would agree.
25:58I mean, the new dark ages is what it's called.
26:01The new dark.
26:01Oh yeah.
26:02The new dark.
26:02Yeah.
26:02Sorry about that.
26:03Yeah.
26:03That's fine.
26:04Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, it definitely has some, I mean, it's got a different focus
26:11like we talked about earlier.
26:12I mean, I don't know about, I mean, commercial, you know, some of the, some of the songs have,
26:21you know, I don't know how a MF liar.
26:25Yeah.
26:25I said some of them, not all of them is that, you know, we're trying to sell out.
26:31It's just that we have potty mouth.
26:33We can't do it.
26:35We're actually just literally physically unable, apparently to make money.
26:40We have to just curse and ruin everything.
26:43Um, but I mean, it definitely has more melody and I think that's, that might be what you're
26:49picking up on.
26:50That's exactly it.
26:51Yeah.
26:52Yeah.
26:52And rat catcher.
26:53I mean, the song rat catcher that we have, which is a song that first time was on the radio,
26:59you know?
26:59Uh, and it's, it's, it's, it's nice that we're getting, getting picked up like that.
27:06And, and that song definitely, we were thinking, uh, you know, more like Alice Cooper, uh, along
27:13those lines, you know, it was really funny because one time Alice Cooper was doing an
27:17interview, uh, and I was a much younger guy and I was watching this interview and he started
27:23talking about war.
27:24I'm like, what the heck?
27:25And so he says, you know, they're great, but they need to write, they don't know how
27:29to write songs.
27:30They need to get somebody to write a song for him.
27:32Like, uh, you know, and he suggested the guy who wrote Desmond child who wrote dude
27:37looks like a lady.
27:38Right.
27:39And I'm like, I don't know, man, come on.
27:41And I felt very kind of insulted by it.
27:44And then years later, I realized that Desmond child wrote some of his tunes and that, uh,
27:49that, you know, really what Alice was doing was giving a piece of literal good
27:53advice, right?
27:56You know, get somebody to help you write one of these tunes.
28:00Like, uh, so.
28:02So have you ever had a chance to meet Alice and talk to him about that?
28:06I have, I've met him.
28:07Yeah.
28:07And, and we, I didn't talk to him about that.
28:09Uh, but about, uh, about a lot of other stuff, you know, he played golf with, uh,
28:14odorous.
28:15Oh yeah.
28:16Yeah.
28:16Who was also, yeah.
28:17Who was also a golfer.
28:18And, uh, I mean, you know, he's a, he's a really, really funny guy.
28:23He's got great taste in music and he, and he really understands, uh, rock and roll, uh,
28:29and music period.
28:30I mean, even vaudeville, you know, he's got a, a really, uh, a depth of knowledge of music
28:36that it's very admirable.
28:38So it's funny you say that because that, uh, that, what, that, that record, uh, the leather
28:41and lace record or whatever, that's like the only record I just cannot stand from Alice
28:45Cooper.
28:46I just, I don't, I, I think I gave it away.
28:48I'm like, just get this record out of my house, but the rest of my love.
28:52You know, you mentioned vaudeville.
28:54So yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no.
28:56You're right.
28:57Uh, well, I mean, I think it's more of the performance aspect.
29:02Like when I say vaudeville, like, uh, yeah, yeah.
29:06His point was always, look, uh, this is, this is nothing new.
29:12Uh, you know, and I remember seeing an interview with him where he was talking about May West
29:17seeing Alice Cooper perform and talking to her and she's like, yeah, this is vaudeville,
29:22you know, um, must've, I can't imagine meeting May West.
29:26You know, here I am talking about Alice Cooper.
29:29I want to meet May West.
29:31Are you still teaching?
29:33We have similar.
29:35Yeah.
29:35Similar assets.
29:36Right.
29:36Are you still teaching?
29:41Uh, no, I don't, I don't teach.
29:44Uh, uh, I, I was a, uh, well, my, the human thrall of Blothar, Michael Bishop was a, uh,
29:52a music professor at the university of Virginia, but for about 12 years, but, uh, no more.
30:00That's interesting because music is so subjective and you could talk to us.
30:04You could talk to, uh, 50 different people about one song and everybody has a different take
30:09on it.
30:10Oh yeah.
30:10Yeah, they do.
30:12And, uh, you know, it's like, uh, Elvis Costello said that writing about music is like dancing
30:18about architecture, you know?
30:19Um, definitely true that, uh, uh, you know, uh, and what, what, what we focused on there
30:27wasn't music journalism as much as it was, uh, music history and, uh, ethnography and writing
30:33about music and things like that.
30:35Well, I'll tell you what, I could talk about music with you, uh, Blothar for the rest of
30:39the day, but I know you got stuff going on and I do appreciate your time.
30:42The new dark ages is out.
30:44Congratulations on the record.
30:45It is, uh, to quote, um, a fellow Detroit or Ted Nugent bombastic.
30:53So crazy.
30:56So we'll blow it there.
30:58Thank you so much for your time.
30:59All right.
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