- 2 days ago
Mike Ness and Social D join us inside the In-N-Out Burger Sound Space for a special performance, and to talk about the group's new album, 'Born To Kill.'
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MusicTranscript
00:06How are you guys?
00:08What's up you guys? How are you feeling today?
00:12Yeah!
00:14Welcome back, Kevin.
00:15Thank you. I appreciate that.
00:17Happy to have Social D back as well.
00:19Very excited about the new album. We've heard it.
00:22You guys are going to love it.
00:23Oh yeah. Born to Kill, it's dropping on Friday.
00:26And so you guys are going to be getting a little bit of a sneak peek of some of these
00:30new songs.
00:31Are you stoked for that?
00:32Yeah!
00:33So we're going to do an interview for about 15 minutes and then they're going to play for about 15
00:37-20 minutes.
00:38And everybody, let's welcome Mike Ness.
00:42Yeah!
01:02A lot of times I say the man, the myth, the legend as a joke, but in this particular case
01:07it would be accurate.
01:09Oh, thank you. Good to be here.
01:11Hello everybody.
01:14We love you, Mike!
01:16Typically we'd be doing soundcheck now, playing at 10, but this is going to be different.
01:23But, you know, it's all good.
01:25Got the new album out called Born to Kill.
01:27It's coming out this Friday.
01:30The last time you made an album was 15 years ago, and there's been some time in between where you
01:36probably thought this wasn't going to happen.
01:38Yeah, I mean, I didn't want that much time to go by, but, you know, sometimes life throws stuff at
01:46you.
01:47And, yeah, I mean, you know, my kids got into some trouble, and, you know, just normal stuff that you
01:54have to deal with.
01:55And then we were halfway done.
02:00Well, we decided to make the record.
02:02That means you shut down touring.
02:04You go through 40 or 50 songs and try to find, you know, the ones that fit with your vision
02:10the best.
02:13And then we started pre-production and then tracking the album.
02:18But halfway through the album, I got the cancer diagnosis.
02:21So, yeah.
02:22You've been super open about your entire experience, you know, going through cancer treatment and being in remission and just
02:29how well you're doing.
02:31How did that entire experience change how you feel about life and how you feel about writing music and maybe
02:38just your perspective in general?
02:41Well, there's no songs on this record that reflect that.
02:44I mean, although maybe in other ways.
02:47I mean, look, I've been in AA for 40 years.
02:53You know, they teach you gratitude, you know, an attitude of gratitude.
02:59Because alcoholics and addicts, they're whiners, you know.
03:01They whine.
03:02Yep.
03:03They complain.
03:03I'm right there with you, Mike.
03:05Ten years right here.
03:06Right.
03:07Yeah.
03:07But, you know, so, I mean, I tried to adapt that into my life.
03:12But it really takes something, like going through something like this, that really makes you realize that, you know, every
03:25day above ground is a good day.
03:30And when it was time to come back to the record and finish it, it was time to do vocals.
03:36And I just found myself, it felt like I was singing like there was no tomorrow.
03:44Like I wanted the record to be so good because I don't know what the future holds in store.
03:49Right.
03:51I saw some video of you coming out of that surgery and you looked like you were freaked the fuck
03:56out.
03:57Oh, man.
03:59I was a bad patient.
04:01Were you?
04:02Yeah.
04:02What a surprise.
04:03Well, yeah.
04:04Well, because no one, they didn't tell me, you know.
04:08I thought they were just going to go in and take a tumor out.
04:10But it was, I came out of it with all these tubes and a drip thing for blood and like
04:18a tube feeder.
04:22And it came time to have dinner and they're pouring this shit.
04:26I look at it, it says Nestle's on it.
04:30That's a good sign.
04:31Yeah.
04:32It's a great sign.
04:33Yeah.
04:33It's like chemicals, chemicals, chemicals, maybe some, maybe some veggie stuff in there.
04:40But it stunk so fucking bad.
04:42Oh.
04:44And I said, I ain't eating that shit.
04:48But also every time they came and asked me what level of pain I was on, I said I was
04:53at eight.
04:53Yeah, of course.
04:55Yeah.
04:55So that might have had something to do.
04:57It curved my appetite.
04:59Yeah, that makes sense.
05:00So you said you had 40 to 50 songs.
05:03You write the music first, right?
05:06Most of the time.
05:07But, you know, about two or three times out of ten, you kind of get the idea and the riff
05:14at the same time.
05:15You call that the gift.
05:17Yes.
05:18I love that.
05:18It's a gift when that happens because it's like, oh, this is halfway done in my eyes because I've got
05:23the premise.
05:24I've got the hook line.
05:26You know, now it's just like writing some verses to it.
05:29Yeah.
05:29What was the song that you recorded where you feel like it really set the tone for what the album
05:35was going to become?
05:37Probably Born to Kill.
05:38Yeah.
05:39That song, if you listen to the lyrics, it's basically our mission statement of this band and the band's career.
05:48Yeah.
05:49Yep.
05:50The song rips so hard.
05:52It is just so good.
05:54Yeah.
05:54Oh, my God.
05:55Well, look, 15 years went by, I couldn't deliver a sleeper.
05:58So, yeah.
06:00You don't want to come out with a love song?
06:02No.
06:03No.
06:04I mean, yeah.
06:06I mean, yeah.
06:09But I felt it.
06:11You know, I needed to get this out.
06:16Yeah.
06:16You must have had, how many songs did you have from the 15 years since your last album?
06:23I mean...
06:24Probably, probably half a dozen.
06:27Oh, that's it.
06:27There's two songs on the record.
06:29I'm not going to tell anyone which ones.
06:31But there's two on the record that were from, like, some of the White Light, White Heat demos.
06:38Yeah.
06:39Yeah.
06:39Yeah.
06:40Yeah.
06:40So, but they just happened to never get finished.
06:44And they're just sitting, you know, in a drawer.
06:47And so, it's super fun to revisit these and voice memos and just go, like, I think this
06:55would work really good with this record.
06:58I'd like to be in your studio and go through those drawers and find some of those.
07:02It's pretty...
07:03Yeah.
07:03And some of them are just floating around in here.
07:06You know, and they just come up when they come up, you know.
07:09But they're stored.
07:10I love the song Partners in Crime.
07:13Yeah, that's one of my favorites.
07:14And it very much feels like...
07:15That's one of my favorites, yeah.
07:17You know, it's sort of origin days of the band.
07:21It is.
07:21Yeah.
07:22I mean, I think I always write reflectively about the past.
07:33But for some reason, it was important for me to go back to the beginning.
07:37You know, the whole record has a late 70s vibe to it.
07:43And that's what I wanted.
07:44I mean, that was the first wave of punk.
07:47It was the best.
07:48Woo!
07:48Yeah!
07:48I mean, 74 to 79, you know.
07:52It was, like, the best.
07:55And so, it was a chance to revisit all those bands that I idled and pay an homage to them.
08:05And, but also, you know, Partners in Crime in particular, you know, it talks about the opposition that we faced
08:18being punk rockers in 1979.
08:20Now, look, kids in Hollywood, they had it easy.
08:23Because, you know, everyone expects freaks in the city.
08:29But, you know, in suburbia, being a punk rocker, walking down the street with a leather jacket and spiked black
08:37hair and combat boots, you know.
08:40I saw a video of you recently from back in the day.
08:43And you were putting on your makeup and you were spiking your hair and putting all this hairspray and, like,
08:48taking your makeup and going like that.
08:50And it was...
08:50Yeah, I mean, I did that every day.
08:54But, you know, the macho guys, man, they were threatened by that, man.
08:59I mean, they would, you'd be walking down the street in a carload of jocks or, I don't know, just
09:06old heshers.
09:08You know, would drive by and just, like,
09:14And then you go.
09:18And then they turn around.
09:21You sort of...
09:25You sort of have had a career where people tell you you're punk rock, but you're not supposed to like
09:31David Bowie, for example.
09:33Or you're not supposed to cover Johnny Cash.
09:36Yeah.
09:37Like...
09:37You know, it happened kind of in the mid-80s, I feel, where, like, you know, all of a sudden,
09:43all these rules started popping up.
09:45And, look, man, I joined this organization because there were no fucking rules.
09:51You know, that was the attraction.
09:55It's like, it was like we were outlaws in the Wild West.
09:59I mean, the Cathay de Grande was...
10:02That club was a den of inequity.
10:05You know, but it was fun.
10:08But, yeah, you know, I didn't subscribe to that punk rock police thing.
10:12Right.
10:12It's like, even from some of my peers, you know, we were making fun of Sick Boys because I was
10:19saying la-da-da in it, or covering a Johnny Cash song.
10:23And they're like, why are you doing that?
10:25Because I want to.
10:26Because it's fucking cool, you douchebag.
10:30And you kind of, you've kind of done it again on this new album.
10:34That's right.
10:34With your cover of Wicked Game, which I did not see coming from a mile away.
10:40And it is so good.
10:42So why did you pick this song?
10:44I usually just pick a song that I would just love to sing.
10:49You know what I mean?
10:50Like, God.
10:51And I started playing around with it on the guitar.
10:53I'm like, fuck, man, I think we can do something with this and make it different.
10:58This is going to be a geeky question, but is it the only song that you've ever done that you
11:03sing in falsetto?
11:06I'm not sure.
11:06I think I do a little bit in Dear Lover.
11:09I don't know what I do.
11:10I mean, I like that you don't know.
11:13Well, look, I love that record.
11:15But that producer that I was working with really was like making me sing like, you know, at 15.
11:23Right.
11:23You know what I mean?
11:24Where I like to start at 8 and go to 10 and come back.
11:29So I feel like those are really beautiful songs, but every single word is just like pushed to the fucking.
11:36Right.
11:36And it's just a little much for me.
11:38Maybe I'll re-record it.
11:40This is a really great cover, though.
11:43We both love it so much.
11:44Oh, my God.
11:44It's so well done.
11:46Yeah.
11:46I can't wait for everybody to hear it.
11:47And I just want to know, with the jaguar on the cover.
11:52The leopard, yes.
11:53The leopard.
11:54Okay.
11:54Can you talk about?
11:59Well, I wanted something fierce.
12:01Yes.
12:02Yes.
12:02Yes.
12:02That's what I wrote in my notes.
12:04Fierce jaguar.
12:05Yes.
12:06Yes, girl.
12:12No, I wanted something that was going to be iconic, but also confrontational.
12:17And, yeah.
12:19Badass.
12:20That's what it is.
12:21Yeah.
12:21All right.
12:21I have some true or false questions, if you don't mind.
12:24Okay.
12:25All right.
12:26Social Distortion's first show was a house in your Belinda, and you were arrested.
12:31True or false?
12:33True.
12:33Yeah.
12:36What happened?
12:38It was your first show.
12:41I don't know.
12:43Okay.
12:44This guy comes up to me, this tall guy, older guy.
12:48He's like, hey, man.
12:49What's going on here?
12:50I go, oh, yeah.
12:51It's a cool party, man.
12:52You want to come in?
12:53I got him in, and I got him a beer or something.
12:57Fuck, he was a fucking undercover cop.
13:00Oh, my God.
13:01And then all of a sudden, all these cops came, and I was pissed, man.
13:05I mean, I may or may not have spit.
13:08And then I went to jail.
13:12All right.
13:12True or false?
13:13In addition to painting houses, you also worked as an assistant speech therapist at an elementary school.
13:20Oh, yeah.
13:21Completely false.
13:23Yeah.
13:23False.
13:24Okay.
13:25Yes.
13:25I like that.
13:26Because I was thinking the parents must have thought, oh, my God, this guy's going to teach my kid how
13:31to talk.
13:33True or false, the adolescence Kids of the Black Hole is about your apartment.
13:39Yes, it is.
13:40Yeah.
13:40Do you have any pictures or memories of that apartment?
13:45No.
13:46I mean, you know, there was no cell phones back then.
13:49Right.
13:50And there was no computers.
13:55That place, it didn't burn, but it went down in a blaze of glory.
14:00And I ended up, wasn't even there, because I think I went to the hospital that night.
14:09And I had, when I was 18, I thought I was Sid Vicious.
14:14Right.
14:14You know?
14:15And I was cutting before cutting was cool.
14:19Okay?
14:19And I was cutting myself.
14:22And, you know, it worked because all the kids at school, all the seniors stopped fucking around with me.
14:27I'll bet.
14:28They were like, this guy's fucking crazy.
14:31What did you tell them at the hospital?
14:33When they said, what happened?
14:34I told them that the hippies pinned me down and cut me.
14:37But the cop was like, the cop was there.
14:40He was like, he saw some, like, couple week old cuts, couple new ones, couple, he wasn't buying it.
14:47So, they did surgery on my finger.
14:51I almost cut this finger off.
14:53Oh, my God.
14:55And I, so it was like, we went in there like two in the morning, about six.
15:00I look out in the window, I see my friends are leaving.
15:02They're getting into the car and they're leaving.
15:04All of a sudden, these guys in white coats come in and say, you're going to come with us.
15:10And they put me in a wheelchair, strapped me down and took me over to psych ward.
15:15Wow.
15:15Yeah, and I spent a couple days there.
15:19I was a bad patient there, too.
15:22Oh, that.
15:23And that's saying something.
15:24I had this ballpoint pen and they had this long, long vinyl couch.
15:29And I just started writing sex pistols.
15:32And I wrote, this is my mental ward.
15:36And they got me up that night and they're like, no patient has ever defaced poverty here.
15:43Really?
15:44Congratulations.
15:45That's vile.
15:46Yeah.
15:48But they let me out eventually.
15:51But I remember seeing that, the lady assessing me.
15:54And she says, I think you're a danger to yourself and to others.
15:57I think, you know.
15:59And that was like the first time I really felt like I don't dig having the fate of my life
16:03in someone else's hands.
16:05Yeah.
16:06I can imagine.
16:07And one more, true or false, you still Chihuahua guy?
16:11Yeah.
16:12Aww.
16:12Yeah.
16:13However, I did, my wife and I just rescued a Doberman when we were shooting the Tonight video in Tulsa.
16:22Mm-hmm.
16:23And we found it at home.
16:25But this dog, I mean, she was just, it was a blue Dobie.
16:30And she was running around the parking lot and she was like looking for her owners.
16:34They dumped her off there.
16:36Wow.
16:37And I was, we came this close to going to the, renting a car one way and driving it to
16:44Cali from Tulsa.
16:45So because we weren't going to leave until we found a home.
16:50Yeah.
16:50I love that.
16:51You're a good dude.
16:52Mike Ness.
16:53You're the best.
16:54You know, them animals, they need us.
16:57Yeah.
16:57They need us.
16:58Yeah.
16:58I got to tell you, as somebody who's worked at this radio station for a long time, there
17:03are some bands that we lift up and there are some bands that we're on the shoulders of.
17:07And you're one of the bands that we're on the shoulders of.
17:10Oh, wow.
17:10Hell yeah.
17:15I don't know that I ever set out to do that, but it's great to hear that.
17:20That's what happened.
17:21Yeah.
17:21Yeah.
17:22That's great.
17:22So we're really excited to have you here.
17:24We're going to let you step off and come in and play a little bit of music for these guys.
17:29Give it up for Mike Ness.
17:30Mike Ness.
17:31Social Distortion.
17:33Okay, I'm going to leave and I'm going to come back.
17:37How are you enjoying our brand new In-N-Out Burger sound space, though?
17:41Right?
17:44The stage.
17:45We're higher up now, which is great.
17:47We are higher up, yes.
17:48The sound is better.
17:49Everything is better with In-N-Out.
17:51We know that.
17:52Yes.
17:53Did anyone get more than one cheeseburger or double-double today?
17:56No.
17:57No?
17:57Oh, you guys were conservative.
17:59Good job.
18:00Yeah.
18:00This guy right here, dude.
18:00Oh, okay.
18:01Yeah.
18:01All right.
18:01You're the real MVP.
18:03All right.
18:04You guys ready for some music?
18:06Woo!
18:07Woo!
18:07Ladies and gentlemen, Social Distortion!
18:12Woo!
18:23Fuck your answer!
18:27I'm glad you made it, Mike!
18:29Yeah!
18:30Woo!
18:32Woo!
18:34Oh, this works.
18:36Oh.
21:27Look out, man.
28:35Tonight,
37:01We're right back.
44:20We're right back.
45:43We're right back.
52:45Some people.
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