June 1, 2001 What was your favorite show on your recent tour?
Every night on the West Coast tour was great, but L.A. stands out because there was a lot of musical competition in town that night ... but The Derby was just packed. We got a real nice welcome there. And the sound system was great. You know, that place is traditionally known as swing heaven -- Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Royal Crown Revue play there. We were probably the first country band to play there in a long time, maybe ever. The band and the crowd just tore that place up.
What took so long between Raisin' Cain and Tall Texas Tales?
After lengthy contractual negotiations for me to leave Justice Records ... and by the way, things turned out to be amicable between Justice and me ... I recorded Tall Texas Tales. That's gonna be followed up real soon by Hey Nashvegas!, a record that was made in Nashville in '98, featuring Flaco Jiminez on accordian, Johnny Gimble on fiddle, Mickey Rafael from Willie Nelson's band on harmonica, and really amazing people on back-up vocals: The Dixie Chicks, Jim Lauderdale, and Mandy Barnett.
Are The Road Kings split up and if not, are you going to do another record?
The Road Kings are the first band I ever had and even though we all have different projects, I could never see us permanently splittin' up. Most fans outside of Texas don't know that since the '95 release of Raisin' Cain, my solo career has been my main priority. A lot of the rockabilly kids who aren't hip to the country thing don't realize that I've played lead guitar for Waylon Jennings and Ray Price. This country thing is a big part of who I am. Jason Burns, who's busy running his custom upright bass company (King Instrument -- contact them at kinginstrument@hotmail.com), is currently writing songs with me for a new Road Kings release on Surfdog/Hollywood Records. That record will be out in the near future. I promise.
How can you play a country club on one night, and a punk rock club the next?
When Raisin' Cain came out in '95, we played every punk rock club in America for eight weeks with the Supersuckers. That was before Mike Ness, before Hank Williams III, and the only time I'd heard of country and punk mixing before that was when Dwight Yoakam opened up some local shows in Los Angeles for X. Most of the country guys I've seen either don't have the energy or they're too square for the punk rock crowd. But luckily I had a big rebellion phase in my youth.
What do you listen to in the van when you're driving from city to city on tour?
Oh, we listen to all kinds of stuff ... we all decide together what we feel like listening to. What we listened to the most on this last leg of the tour was ... Tom Waits, Nighthawks at the Diner (check it out at Amazon.com) Johnny Paycheck, The Little Darlin' Years (check it out at Amazon.com) Ennio Morricone, the original score from The Mission (check it out at Amazon.com) a Townes Van Zandt & Guy Clark Texas songwriter compilation