CITIZINE EXCLUSIVE
Interview with
D.O.A.'s Joey Keithley

Lead singer of D.O.A. talks about a life in punk, life today, and his new autobiography.

By Thom White

As a young man, Joe Keithley of Vancouver, B.C., gained fame as "Joey Shithead," singer, guitarist, and chief rabble-rouser of the punk-then-metal band D.O.A. From 1978 to 1986, D.O.A. toured extensively across North America and Western Europe, and sold thousands of records in England and the U.S. The band officially broke up in 1990, but Joey would reform the group a few years later, and to this day, the D.O.A. name lives on under his guidance. Most recently, Mr. Keithley put out a new D.O.A. record, Live Free or Die (complete with gaudy red, white, and blue cover) and his first book, I, Shithead, a chronological look at his early years as a punk rock star.

In the spring of 2004, Joe agreed to do a CITIZINE exclusive interview before a spoken word gig of his at The Knitting Factory in Hollywood. I had read more than once that the Ramones show he saw as a teenage punk was a life-changing experience for Shithead; that will explain the pointless series of questions at the beginning, before moving on to other interesting topics.

My words (first published interview ever) are in bold; Joey's are plain text.

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So tell me about the book. I see it there, tell me about it.

Yeah, I, Shithead. It's about growing up in Vancouver and getting politicized and then hearing more punk rock and discovering that that actually was the first real rock music that, that -- real rock music -- that had come along in about ten or fifteen years. And getting it going and causing some shit and playing in D.O.A., and that's basically … It goes up to about 1990. Uh, myself and my publishers agreed it'd be too unwieldy to do a whole band, so a couple years from now, I may do some sort of follow-up with some of their shit…

Part two?

Yeah, yeah, Not quite, it wouldn't be in the same sort of linear chronological fashion but it might involve like, you know, the worst fucking mechanics, the worst places to play, you know, that kind of guide type of … It might involve something like that. But I'm working on a second book already, so ....

Oh, Okay!

Yeah, that one's not about D.O.A., that's about activism.

What did you listen to early on?

Uh. Well, you know, there was kind of a set-up for that. When I was a kid, I kind of listened to -- on one hand, on heavy rock -- Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, and my, probably my all-time favorite, Jimi Hendrix, right? And I really love his politics, and just the soul of the guy. And then on the other hand, I also listened to a lot of shit like Bob Dylan, Leadbelly, and so, it kind, you know …

How old were you when you saw the Ramones or heard about the Ramones?

Uh, well, you know, we kind of started a punk rock band at that point, so I was like nineteen I think. Well, we started D.O.A. and it was like 19, and Dimwit, our old drummer, rest his soul, he's not with us anymore, brought home this record, The Ramones, and he's like, "Yeah, we've seen it in Creem magazine" and you know. Then I put it on and then, "Wow, is that ever fucking weird! Every song sounds the same!"

[laughter]

You know, the first time you ever listen to a country-western album, it's what, like, what -- "Wow. Isn't that fucked up? Everything sounds the same," like, you know? So …

But the words are different in each song.

Well, yeah, of course, and the riffs are different once you realize, you get into it, right? Cuz you're not --

[brief interruption with entrance of The Great Baldini, D.O.A.'s current drummer]

Hey, Baldini, how ya doing? This is Thom.

Baldini: Hi Thom.

How you doing?

This is the Great Baldini.

Nice. Baldini? Nice.

And, uh… So, anyways. Uh, went to the Ramones. They gave away free tickets, because they couldn't sell any tickets, right?

You'd heard the first album already.

Yeah, we were familiar with it. We were kind of practicing some punk rock songs, so we were already into it. We had started a band called The Skulls, which 's got nothing to do with The Skulls in L.A. We heard about them much later and were like "Fuck, somebody's trying to steal our name. It's like, gotta take care of those fucking pricks …. You know, I've met the guys, they're pretty good. We played with them last year.

They played with The Weirdos, when The Weirdos played in L.A. a couple of months ago.

Yeah, okay, yeah, cool. No, somebody told me that last night, we were up in Malibu. So anyways, and now then about 400 people showed up for free tickets and they only played half an hour 'cause that's all the songs they knew. There was no opening band because there weren't any other punk rock bands around. And it kind of went from there. I went, "Wow. This is real rock music." So with that particular one show is a real big influence on me.

Did you hear them before you even heard the British bands then?

Uh, no. It was kind of about the same -- pretty close to the same time 'cause you started seeing stuff on the T.V. things about punk rock, you know. It was a song by The Damned.

[brief interruption as house manager enters the room]

Hey, come in. How ya doin', man?

Pretty good. Hey, did you want a stool on-stage or something?

Yeah, I could use a stool and a -- and a chair. The stool I'll put my setlist on, and the chair I'll use for like a prop.

Well, we got a real table out there for you.

All right, fine. The stool and the table will be perfect. Yeah, that'd be great.

[back to interview] And uh, so …

But when did you actually see any British bands live? Did they ever come to … ?

Ah, they got to Vancouver like, um -- Beginning of 1978, the scene was really kind of going with bands like D.O.A., Subhumans, Pointed Sticks, The Dishrags, uhhh, you know, there's about maybe ten original bands. There was about sixty of us, and everybody played in the bands, and we were the audience.

You all knew each other?

Well, we were the audience for the other bands when the other bands played. And we swapped in different bands, right? And, uh, so -- So, uhh, everybody got their kind of open spot when the bigger bands came through. Like one of the local bands opened for The Police; we opened for The Ramones; The Dishrags opened for The Clash; The Subhumans opened for -- I can't rem--; Pointed Sticks opened for uhhh, Eagles. It's like, they kind of tried, "Okay, these guys are new wave, let's --" And it was kind of the big break in town to get to open for these big bands, right?

When did you first get to -- When did you first get to play in L.A.?

Um, well we took one trip to S.F. That was at first when we actually, uh, did a whole kinda national tour. Ah, you know, New York, Texas, and uh, S.F., Portland, Seattle. I mean, not like big ones.

Do you remember the places you played in Texas, 'cause I grew up there …

We had three shows booked, and -- But because I forget to phone anybody back, two of them got cancelled 'cause they never heard from me again by the time we get down there. So we were flat broke. So the only show we had, we played at Raul's.

In what city?

In Austin. That's the original one. That's right on Guadalupe, right by the U of T.

Okay. Now the book. How did the book happen? How did you write it?

The book happened by traveling around, talking to guys like Baldini and other people, and I tell these stories. I tell 'em so many fucking times, eventually they just go, "Fuck, why don't you just go fuckin' write a book!"

[laughter]

'Cause, you know, hanging out with me -- Gimme one beer, and it's like hanging out with the punk rock legion. "I remember back in the day! There was a time we'd go to this joint --" You know, that kind of thing, right? And it kinda goes from there. Just so you see, it's just so you kinda … it builds up and up and up …

So how many time have you driven around the U.S.A. now?

Well, God. I think, uh -- Well, we know we've done three thousand shows, and I think probably close to half of them are in your country, right? So, like way more than Canada, 'cause there's a lot of more towns down here. Um, so we've done like fifty tours down here, of course ... You know, a tour being from like a whole week to like two months, I would say, by itself. Not one show is not a tour. But the amount of times we've done in mileage is I'd say -- on the ground, this is not your air miles -- is probably a million miles.

[laughter]

Yeah, so around the globe -- What's that? like ten -- Around the world forty times or whatever in the van. I -- put it to you this way, okay, here's one. We haven't done a lot of shows since 1986, but by 1986, me and Dave [Gregg], our old guitar player, we figured that we had spent an entire year of our lives sitting inside our van driving around the United States. Just inside the van.

And was it always a three-piece?

Uh, well, we were a four-piece for a long time between 1980 and 1990, for about ten years. And then we've been a three-piece since then. We started as a three-piece too.

Okay, now is the book more about the music, the people, the politics? What --

The book's about all of those kind of things. You know, my, my politics are not like the one party or one … it's like "people power," "power to the people," you know, help the little guy, you know, fuck up the big guy, kick the establishment in the groin. That's kinda what my trip is. And, uh, so --

And do-it-yourself.

Yeah, and D-what, DIY. … it's got the anarchist principles of "be your own boss." Change the world, but when you do it, you know, change has to start within yourself, and you try to inspire others, your friends, your family, to, you know, participate with that. That's as opposed to the dictionary definition of anarchism which is, you know, to blow things sky high and to fuck things up. Although the fucking things up aspect of punk rock is --

It just means "no hierarchy," doesn't it?

Well, yeah, more or less in a sense, yeah, that there's not a boss. Be your own boss. Exactly, yeah, you got it right on the nose. So in the book, what I really tried to do was, rather than just make like a rock book where -- "Ah fuck, we got fucked up here. Uh, you know, somebody got a blowjob there," or whatever, you know, the kind of Motley Crüe or, you know --

The party.

The party or, you know, whining about this, this, and that. Which I say, yeah, we got hassled by cops, we got fucking in fights, we got ripped off by promoters and record companies, and went through a lot of troubles. But you know what? In the end, we came through as stronger, better people, so I want it have, even though, I wanted to come up with a positive aspect so when you put it down, you finish it, you're like, "Wow. Yeah, punk rock. It was a worthwhile thing."

'Cause I always thought of us, rather than just being the -- I say the nihilistic side of things is important, 'cause that's part of the fun -- you know, that hedonistic, nihilistic side of punk rock, you can't forget that. It's part of the thing that a lot of people were attracted to. Yeah, so you gotta have fun. Even at my age, I gotta go have fun, that type of thing. So, but, punk rock meant a lot and was a social rebellion, and that's what the difference is between, like, out-and-out rock 'n' roll that you just do to make money.

Okay. Now punk rock -- do you think that it was -- now, twenty five years on, it's evolved. Like, what is called "punk rock" now has evolved. It can't stay the same as it was when you first found it.

No. Certainly not. It's, uh -- now it's changed into -- See, uh, a lot of the younger bands, they do have a DIY ethic, and they believe in the politics, and they're involved in different organizations that do good things for people. They run their own zines, and that's all happening. And there's a whole 'nother aspect to it where we have the real commercialism of it which is really evidenced by the big record companies realizing they can make quite a bit of money off of it, 'cause, you know it's --

It's familiar to people now. It's been around for so long.

Exactly. Yeah, now it's genre music.

Hip-hop and all those things in the '70s, they were totally new, but by now it's …

Yeah, punk rock, like rock or hip hop, is perfectly made to sell young people rebellion, and all the trappings like tattoos, piercings, clothes, CDs, and all the shit that goes with it. It's perfect for that, for like the kid that goes -- especially for the white kid -- and check this out, I'm not saying it has to be a white kid -- but for the kid in the suburbs who's like, "Fuck, I hate my parents. I hate school." You know, punk rock is perfect for that.

Still.

Still. Yeah, it's the funny thing.

[interruption as he talks to house manager about going on-stage]

Okay, I have one more question. 2004, we have a big presidential election. You're Canadian, so you're not, maybe not so into -- ….

No, no, I follow your politics a lot. It affects us greatly.

The way the whole political American system works with Bush vs. Kerry, even though a lot of people don't like either of 'em. Do you think Kerry -- do you think it makes much of a difference? What will Kerry be that Bush isn't?

Well, for one thing, I think there are a couple of real vital aspects that -- I'm not saying Kerry is necessarily gonna be a good president, but he would get George Bush's cronies, all the guys that ran like Iran-Contragate, the Vietnam War, uh, you know, the phony weapons of mass destruction campaign in Iraq, you'd get them all out of office. But the other real key thing that people can't forget -- and this I say … you kind of have to hold your nose to vote for the best of the worst, so to speak.

The other key thing is that, if he's in there again, there's a couple Supreme Court judges in the United States that are gonna retire, and so, what do you think Bush is gonna put in if he's in again? Couple more arch-conservative judges. And essentially, that's the third system of your government, the judicial system sets the process …

Well, now it is the judges. The judges can overrule all our laws now.

So if you have some real, old-time conservative judges that, you know, are not prudent in exercising their, you know, they wanna change -- if they're activist judges, and activist judges can be right or left, or centrist -- um, if you get some real extreme right ones, I mean, then that would tip the balance of power a lot that way. And it takes years to get rid of these people because they're in there for life, pretty well. So I think that's a real key aspect people ought to consider in this campaign. And … it completely affects us, uh, you know, we're like 30 million people on your northern border, and a fucking huge aspect of our life is what happens in the U.S.

And you guys aren't that happy with what's happened in --

No, George Bush is a nitwit. We get screwed over with the, uh, with the mad cow disease, with the war and everything. We just, like, our lumber was cut out. We live in the west. The lumber trade was cut off, and he fucked up hundreds and hundreds of people's lives because we wouldn't go to war with fucking George Bush. So it affects us a lot.

But it's also like -- there's that economic aspect, but there's also the moral aspect. And basically, it's uh, really locking in morals, even though that he uses that kind of as his trump card, his, uh, ultra-conservative constituency, right? So that the 25% of the people that are the real born-again Christian-type thing in this country that believe, "Oh, he's the man" type thing. You know, the hardcore bedrock Republican.

Yeah, but even they're turning against the Iraq war, I think. I think a lot of people are saying, calling it an error, at least an "error" or "mistake." You know, if they believed it was a great idea to get rid of Saddam or whatever at the time.

What a bloody expensive way to do it. Wouldn't it have been cheaper to stick the CIA in there to knock him off? ….

Well, yeah, obviously. The point was to take over Iraq.

Yeah, but they could have -- Not to, but, in a Machiavellian sense, their plan is a terrible one, because now they've already alienated all these people in the Arab world to hate America and citizens of America. You know, so rather than make some friends with these people who the capitalists and industrialists want to get the oil off of, they have fucking pissed them off, they've pissed off the populations, which obviously, the populations could, you know, at any time, could rise up and overthrow any one of these dictators in any of these countries.

I know, then they'll have a whole country, another government against you.

Well, yeah, it's like, look at Iraq. Iran […] Mubarak over in Egypt. Suez Canal, the key trading partner, ally, not in NATO, but you know. Yeah, some kind of dominoes could fall the wrong fucking way, and fall on Bush's toe like a big ten-ton monolith.

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