Interview with
Billy Zoom of X

Guitarist and saxophone player Billy Zoom talks
about jazz, soul, the invention of rock 'n' roll, and
its reinvention with X.

By Mark Prindle

Billy Zoom is the legendary flashy guitarist from L.A. punk legends X. When he agreed to a telephone interview on a sunny September evening in 2004, he probably had no idea that I had taken four shots of vodka before dialing his number -- and an additional six by the time we hung up TWO HOURS AND NINETEEN MINUTES later.

But that's the mark of a true gentleman. As I repeatedly interrupted him and forgot points he'd made only five minutes earlier (pay attention to how many times I ask him, "So you really only like the first X album and not the others?"), he stayed cool, crisp and finely-humored. Plus he was nice as all get-out! I'd heard he was a tough interview, but nose iree. Billy Zoom is a swell fellow. Watch for a new X live CD and DVD Live in Los Angeles coming out on Rhino as soon as they're finished with it!

My words are bold; his are plain. I felt it was best to distinguish them from each other in that way.

---

Well, you're punctual.
I'm a punctual man! With punctual ideas.
(*silence*)
Actually, I'm one minute late.
That's close enough. It's three hours difference.
It's still wrong though. It's not right.
Ha!
How are you doing?
Well ... Compared to what?
Compared to ... You could be doing bad, I don't know!
Nah, I'm doing okay.
I tell ya what though, just to let you know, I'm 31 now and since I was 16, that damn "Decline Of Western Civilization" movie -- (*whistles*). It did it! Did it!
You liked that?
Yeah! It was fun! I mean I fast forwarded through a couple of parts, but not the X part. I mean, you sitting there wiggling your ears -- you're not gonna get a tattoo because it's too trendy...
I watched that -- are you taping this?
Is that okay?
Sure. Are you taping now though?
Yeah. But anything you don't want in this, I'll take out, you know.
Well no, I was just gonna say when Penelope [Spheeris] decided to do that movie, she asked us, the Blasters, the Plugz and all the other popular bands out here, and they all turned her down.
Why?
Because nobody wanted to be in it because it was a stupid movie. And everybody turned her down, except John [Doe, X bass player] was out drinking with her and some friends -- a lot of the things that X got involved in just happened because John was out drinking with somebody -- and it seemed like a good idea, so he told her we would do it. And then he told them they could --         Well I'll tell you, back in those days, we used to do three nights in a row at the Whiskey. We'd do Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, two shows a night. And it was pretty rough, you know? Two shows a night, three nights in a row. So the third night, Saturday night, we got out of the club at about three in the morning, and we were beat because we'd just done six shows in three days. Loaded the gear up in the car, drove back to -- John, Exene and I, the three of us were sharing -- John and Exene had a little one-bedroom apartment, and I would sleep on the couch. So that's where I was living.
        And we came home from the gig, we turned around a corner, and all of a sudden, Exene looked up and said, "John, it looks like there's somebody in our house!" All the lights were on and everything -- and it was 3:30 in the morning! And there's people like walking in and out, and John goes, "Oh shit! What's the date? Oh! I told Penelope and her people they could film us, and I think I might have given them a key to the house."
At four in the morning?
Yeah. And we didn't know! And that couch where I'm sitting and looking bored out of my mind, that was where I slept. And there was a film crew in the room where I slept.
You did look bored.
By that time, it was about 5:30 in the morning.
Why was he giving someone a tattoo at 5:30 in the morning? Was that staged?
I have no idea. No, I don't think so, because they didn't know that we were gonna do it. But I guess Top Jimmy knew we were gonna do it because they brought him along with the film crew. And I think maybe he had it planned; I don't know. I don't know. I don't know anything about the tattoo thing. Maybe it was something that Jimmy had talked about doing -- you know, giving him a tattoo or something like that.
Did you continue avoiding tattoos to this day?
No, I don't have a tattoo.
Very good.
I'm not into self-mutilation.
VERY good. So do you like --
If I had ever even come close, it would have been a long time before it got so trendy. I would resist during the X period just because I saw it as too trendy.
So I'm reading on the web site that before that period, you had like really long hair and glasses?
Well, if you go back to the late '60s.
Yeah. Were you playing in bands at that point?
I started playing professionally in bands in about 1963.
Oh my goodness!
When I started playing music, there was no rock and roll yet.
Wait a minute! Are you like 80 years old?
No, I'm 56. But I started playing music when I was about four or five. I was kind of a prodigy, so I started young. My dad [Tommy Kindell] was a musician, and he started training me when I was about four.
On guitar?
No, I started on -- I won't give you the whole story because the last time I did an interview and somebody asked me to tell them about my musical background, they ended up cutting me off in 1963 because I'd taken about an hour already.
Oh my goodness!
But I had formal lessons on accordion, violin, piano, clarinet, alto tenor & baritone sax, and flute, and several years of music appreciation, theory, and arranging.
Are all those instruments similar enough so that you could adapt or were they --
Piano and clarinet are pretty different. I had a few lessons on brass too, not to get really good on it, but enough to understand how trumpets and trombones work so that I could write arrangements. But I had lessons on almost everything except -- oh, and banjo!
        But I was not allowed to have lessons on guitar. Because my mother did not consider a guitar to be a real instrument. Because people like Elvis Presley played the guitar. My dad of course knew better because he'd actually gigged with Django Reinhardt and people like that, but my mother had this hang-up about guitars. So my dad started teaching me guitar when I was about six.
Man! How could you play with your little tiny fingers?
I had a tenor -- Do you know what a tenor guitar is?
Yeah.
Four strings. I had a harmony tenor guitar that I started out on, and then I switched to six-string when I was about eight. And when I was eight was about the time when Elvis hit.
So you grew up with the rockabilly that you ended up playing?
I grew up with my dad's jazz collection. I originally was training to be a jazz saxophone player. I spent a lot of time listening to it and going to see -- I saw Count Basie and Duke Ellington and all those bands. I still have the Dave Brubeck Quartet's autographs; I saw them two or three times. That was the kind of stuff I grew up listening to. And I used to play along with -- I knew about half of [Paul] Desmond's solos from Dave Brubeck's stuff.
Did you practice constantly?
Pretty much, yeah. And I was playing guitar that whole time, but I wasn't ever -- you know, it's funny -- my mother on the other hand had all of Elvis's records. And she was funny because she wouldn't let me take guitar lessons because it wasn't a real instrument because people like Elvis played it, but she bought all of his records. But she had all the 78s, and so I listened to those, and I was just thinking about this the other day that it was odd that it never occurred to me, even though I listened to those records a lot, it never occurred to me to play any of those songs on guitar. And I don't know why, except that I'd never seen anybody play that kind of music in real life. I'd only heard the records. And I was very hung up in jazz with the saxophone. And then when I was -- am I going on too long?
No, no! Not at all, believe me.
When I was 14, when Kennedy was president, I went to a dance at the VFW hall sponsored by the Young Democrats, back when Kennedy was all hopped up about the Peace Corps, and they had Dick Biondi, who was the top DJ people listened to, hosting the thing. And they had a band, I can't -- I think they were from Clinton, Iowa, I think -- it was the first time I'd ever seen a rock and roll band play live, and these guys had Fender guitars and Fender amps and matching jackets, and I remember standing there watching them and watching the kids that I went to school with watching the band, and watching the band and watching the kids and I thought, "Hey, I can do this! I can play what that guy's playing on guitar!" And so I decided to start a band, and I quit my jazz quartet. And I started a band, you know? Started playing the guitar. Until that time, I'd only played in a jazz band. And cowboy songs -- I was big on Roy Rogers and stuff like that. Anyway, then I started playing in bands in '63. I joined the union in '63, so that was when I became a professional.
Wait, how old were you when you joined the union?
15. You had to be within six months of your 16th birthday or something like that to join. The union was kinda strict back then; you had to kinda be union material. And then I went through the whole surfy Ventures instrumental thing and the British Invasion thing, and then rock came in and I didn't like rock so much, so I was playing soul music.
Really? Oh, okay. What did you think of the Beatles when they started?
When they started, I liked them a lot. When they got into all the drugs and did Sergeant Pepper's, I couldn't stand it. It wasn't original or interesting to me, because it just sounded like a bad imitation of the Hal Kemp Orchestra. That stuff with the clarinets and stuff didn't appeal to me. I guess if you'd never listened to that kind of music, it was different.
Yeah, I guess most rock fans hadn't heard that --
To me, it sounded like a bad '30s or '40s vaudeville show. That's what it was supposed to be, and I think that people didn't get that.
It's strange that it's considered a psychedelic classic when it's not at all psychedelic, except for like one song.
No, it was sort of a joke. A vaudeville show from the late '40s, early '50s. I think they had vaudeville shows because they didn't have TV.
That British Music Hall stuff.
Yep.
Hey, were you -- just before I forget to ask -- were you ever allowed to play any of those other instruments on X records?
Yeah, there's sax I'm playing on Big Black Sun; "Come Back To Me" has a bunch of sax. And DJ's playing marimbas, which he does very very well. He's actually played marimbas with some jazz bands.
Really!?
Yeah, he's a real -- he's a serious jazz musician. What was I gonna say... Oh! Anyway, when the rock thing was picking up, I saw Hendrix and I met Hendrix in '67.
What was he like? Do ya --
Pardon me?
Was he nice to you? What was he like?
Oh, I said "Hi," he said "Hi." Then I watched him play and it was really interesting for about 15 minutes, but I wasn't really getting into his rock thing. So I started playing soul, which was really big at the same time -- James Brown, that kinda stuff. I started going in that direction. And it was easy for me because I doubled on guitar and sax.
Were a lot of white guys playing soul at that point?
There were some white soul bands, but in the bands I played in, I was the only white guy. So from '68 to '72, I was mostly playing in soul bands.
Were there still weird kind of separatist racist things going on in the country at that point?
No, we didn't see any.
Really!?
Yeah, we thought it was all gone. Because soul music was completely integrated, and we kind of had the impression -- I was kinda bummed because we had the impression at the time that that was all over and we just had to wait for the grandparents to die off.
It's still not over.
Oh, it came back. Mixed up with assholes like Jesse Jackson stirring everybody up and trying to bring racism back because without it, he would be out of work. He brought down Stax Records, he and his group -- the Black Panthers. I still haven't forgiven him for that, destroying the music scene.
Jesse Jackson did?
Yep. He was instrumental in the demise of Stax Records and soul music.
How? What'd he do?
He started hanging out with the Black Power guys and Black Panthers and stuff and started telling them they were getting ripped off and they had to get Whitey out of the music business. They had to take the business over for themselves. So they took the company over, took all the money and then --
JESSE JACKSON!? The Reverend Jesse --
Yeah!
Oh my goodness. Okay. Didn't know that about him.
It's well-documented if you read that book called Sweet Soul Music, and there's also a Stax documentary that goes into it. But yeah, in the '60s, soul music was completely integrated. I mean look at the Stax house band -- Booker T. and the MG's. Two black guys, two white guys.
Yeah. When I was growing up -- I was born in '73 and I listened to all my dad's old records -- his old 45s. A lot of the stuff that ended up on the Nuggets albums. And I was listening to them recently, and I was surprised by how much soul music he had. Obviously he was a white guy, but he had a ton of like Eddie Floyd, Sam & Dave --
Well, that music was very, very big in the late sixties.
Very good too. And now it just seems like black people tend to, at least in the industry, gravitate towards rap and that modern r'n'b stuff.
Yeah, I kinda lost interest in that when it went from soul to funk.
You didn't like funk?
No.
Get funky?
I don't get funky. I liked soul and r'n'b, but I didn't like funk so much. I didn't do acid. I've never done acid.
I've never done acid either, but some funk's pretty fun! Not all of it. I don't listen to it constantly, but some of it -- "Thank You Falletinme" -- you know, the cool bass lines and stuff.
Well, there was a really good scene in L.A. in '70-'71, and that was the last soul/r'n'b music I liked. I was not into disco.
Oh, disco. No, that's not too hot.
They had a few good disco songs. Like Tyrone Davis. He did "Turn Back The Hands Of Time" -- that's a great song. It's not disco, but --
I don't know if I know that one.
There was a lot of good music coming out of South Central L.A. in that period. I was in a band called Art Wheeler and the Bros. Love. All these names wouldn't mean anything to you, but Eddie Singleton and Chester Pipkin --
Oh, THOSE guys!
Yeah, they won't mean anything to you, but they were part of the L.A. music scene. So what was the question?
Who knows. Here's a new one for you though. Are you as absolutely bummed as I am that after 25 years, the Ramones have all died within four years? It's unbelievable!
I was really bummed about Johnny because we were friends.
Oh, I didn't know you were friends with him. Oh, he lived in L.A.!
Yeah, he lived in L.A., but I met him in the early part of the '80s. We were on tour and we had checked into this hotel in Manhattan, and there was a note for me from Johnny Ramone saying he heard that I liked the Ramones and he wanted to take me to dinner.
WOW!
So I went to dinner with Johnny and Linda, and then they took me back to their apartment and he showed me his baseball autograph collection and we talked about stuff. So I've known him since then.
Did you know he was sick?
Not until after a long time. He wasn't talking about it.
'Cause it was really hidden. He kept it hidden even better than Joey did.
He kept it hidden for a long time, and then I started hearing rumors, and finally last year I called him and said, "What's going on?" "Well you know. I've got this cancer and you know...." I felt really bad because I hadn't spent much time with him recently. I wish I'd spent more time with him. The invitation was always there. But I did read that -- you know, the reason I'm doing this interview is because I read that one with Tommy (CITIZINE #5).
Oh! I did that! Yeah!
I have been shying away from interviews for a long time.
How come?
Eh, a lot of reasons. But anyway, I really liked that interview. It was really interesting, and there was some stuff in there that I'd never known about, and it was definitely fascinating, being a huge Ramones fan.
I couldn't believe I got a chance to talk to a Ramone. I'd seen Joey a few times in New York and just said, "Hey!" The last time I saw him I didn't know he was sick, and he was crossing the street, and just like a complete dumbass, as he walked by I said -- and I'm embarrassed about this now, but as he walked by I went, "Thank you for saving rock and roll!" And he didn't even look at me! He just kept walking, and I went, "What's up with that?" And then a guy said, "Oh, he's dying of cancer." And I was like "Oh my goodness."
Yeah.
And he was gone a few months later. It almost seems like the band ended --
Did they start rehearsing on a toxic waste site or something?
I know! I know!
I mean, you know --
Dee Dee just blew it.
Dee Dee -- it's sad about what happened, but I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner, because he was basically trying for that.
Yeah. That's true. But Keith Richards is still alive!
Right. Go figure! I don't know what that's all about. But Johnny always took care of himself.
Yeah. What kind of cancer did he have?
Prostate cancer.
How did he get that? From eating too much meat or something?
I don't know.
Are you healthy?
Yeah, pretty much. For a grumpy old fat guy, yeah. Ha!
Oh, are you chubby now?
No, I'm not chubby. I just don't have my 32-inch waist anymore.
Jeez, I'm only 31 and I'm already starting to pack 'em on. It just happens.
I was thin 20 years ago!
Heh. Do you mind if I ask you -- if you do, then I won't ask you -- but both of my parents are Christian and Republican and of course I love them, and I know that you know that this magazine is geared towards "Hey, we're liberal... We don't like Bush!" and all that. So I'd really like if possible for you to just, you know, quickly -- or if you don't want to, don't -- just explain what appeals to you about it, so that people can't say, "Ah, everyone who's a Republican is a jerk!," you know, that kinda thing. Because I know obviously both must be important to you, and I know that you're not some .... jerk! So ... And I'm just ask -- I know that's a, you know, silly kind of question --
It's difficult to answer.
Yeah, but do you remember why you first became a Christian? It happened before you were in X, right?
Actually it happened right around the time that X started. And it just, I don't know, it was just a personal decision. I had spent a number of years checking out different philosophies -- you know, I went through my Kabbalah phase in about '73.
HA!
That didn't last too long. I don't know really what to say about Christianity, except that it's real. You kinda have to give it a chance and experience it. I don't know.
I was raised in a Christian household.
Well, I was not. My dad was an atheist.
Oh. I'm not an atheist! I'm just a, you know --
My dad was an atheist. My mother had been raised Catholic but was discommunicated -- What do you call it? Excommunicated for marrying my dad! But she really didn't -- Bless her heart, she didn't know what it was all about. She went to Catholic school with Catholic kids, but she didn't really understand the theology.
Oh, okay. It is real, though? You really --
Absolutely. But you know, I don't -- It's something you have to experience for yourself. I don't try to push it on other people. If somebody's interested, I'll talk to them. But uh... Aaawwwwwwwffffffuhhhhhyeeaaahhh...... The political part is hard to answer too, except that I like -- No, the political part's actually easier. I am not a Republican; I am a conservative. The Republican party is a political party, and I think all politicians are basically full of crap. However, I lean towards conservative values because basically what I want is a government that provides national defense so that we are free to do what we want within our borders, and that keeps criminals off the streets so we're free to do what we want in our homes, and that provides a fire department to help fight a fire if my house is burning down. And basically other than that, I kinda want 'em to stay out of my life. I'm a big fan of things like freedom and liberty, and I see those as being conservative values, and I see liberals as wanting to have bigger government that sticks their nose in everybody's business and takes away our freedoms.
Oh, okay. Do you like Bush at all?
Mmmmm ... I like him okay. I know a lot of people really hate him, but I don't know. I'm disturbed to see people getting so bent out of shape and in peoples' faces about it, because it was my understanding that the whole point of a democracy is that everybody is entitled to their opinion, and in matters involving voting, the electoral majority rules. You should basically respect peoples' rights to disagree with you.
Yeah. I don't know. I think it just depends on what you read. I tend to read things that talk about all the, you know ... All the bad things you would say about George Bush and this particular administration. But to be honest, I was gonna vote for him when I didn't know anything about him. Before 9/11, I was gonna vote for him, and I went to the -- something was screwed up, they said I couldn't vote, I had to go downtown or something.
So you never voted?
Yeah. I tell ya what -- even though I'm not real fond of George Bush, I'm also not real fond of Kerry unfortunately.
Well, that's another thing. Kerry wasn't anybody's first choice. He got picked by default. You see, somebody somewhere decided that he was the one that had the best chance of defeating Bush. I don't know why they picked him though.
I know that the Republicans keep saying "flip-flopping," but he just seems really wishy-washy like he doesn't have any ideas.
Yeah, he seems pretty phony to me.
Yeah. Well, Clinton seemed really phony to me!
I don't know how to classify Clinton. He couldn't be a rock star because he couldn't play an instrument, and the only reason he became a politician was because he wanted the attention.
Some people think -- and by some people, I mean "my boss" and "the guy I work with" -- think that the reason they're pushing Kerry is because they don't think Hillary is ready to run and they don't want to wait eight years for Hillary, so they kinda put a guy up that they knew would lose so that Hillary could run in four years. You know, it's just a theory that I don't know much about.
Yeah, I've heard that.
Okay. I don't think people are gonna vote for Hillary; people hate her!
Well, I certainly can't see her making it to the White House because of what her husband did. I just see him as a person who is driven by his own personal insecurities. But her -- she kinda scares me. I think she might have an actual agenda. Anyway, can we talk more about music?
Absolutely. I was actually about to go back to it.
I'd much rather talk about music, you know?
That's fine! I was actually going to --
The older I get, the more I think that different people just process the same information differently, and reach different conclusions.
Yeah! Based a lot on I guess what their history is, and everybody has different things that they --
I think it might just be the way their brains are wired. I don't know, but....
How much are you into music? How big a part is it in your life?
How big is it in my life?
I mean, how much you -- I know that you fix amps, I know that you play in bands and I know that you produce bands. Is music your passion?
Absolutely. Well ... No, my family's my passion.
Oh, good! Yeah.
But I think that artists, in general -- if I can classify myself that way --
Of course you can.
I think they create because they have to. Because they were people who just happened to see things a little bit differently than the rest of the world, and because of that they're ridiculed and persecuted as kids. And some of us turned those feelings and that hurt inside and used it to try and create something that we can show to people and say, "Here. You think I'm weird? This is how you look to me. This is my view of the world." And it's not something you can choose whether or not to do; it's something you're driven to do. (* buzzing noise, followed by high-pitched squeal*) Hello?
What the heck is that?
I don't know!
I'm on a land line. Are you on a land line?
Well yeah, but I'm on a cordless phone. Let me change.
Okay.
(*pause in the action*)
Is that better?
Oh, much nicer!
Okay. I think the cordless phone's running out of juice or something. Anyway, I don't think it's something people just decide to do; it's kind of a drive to kind of create something that you can show to people.
I understand that.
And sometimes the unfortunate part -- you know, the two horrible things that can happen is that (1) you create something and show it to people and they say it's a piece of shit and then you feel horrible. The other is that you create something that people really like and they tell you, "You're a genius! It's brilliant. I love it." And then they say, "Okay, from now on I just want you to do more of that. Don't create anything new."
Oooo, okay. Yeah, that's -- yeah.
"No! Do more X songs! Do more X songs that sound like 1979."
Ugh. Okay.
But it's like, "I did that. Here it is. Right here. You can listen to 'em."
What kind of songs do you write now?
What kind of songs do I write now. Right now, I am working on a theme song and background music for a show called "Gearhead TV," which is supposed to end up on Speedvision. And I'm doing mostly TV soundtracks and background music for commercials and stuff.
Oh wow! How'd you get into that?
I am not, by the way, fixing the amps much anymore. I've kinda phased that out.
Oh, okay. Yeah, I noticed on your web site that you didn't seem to be doing it anymore.
No, it's just that I have other things to do.
Yeah. More artistic things to do!
More artistic, more fun things to do. It's just time to move on, although I do still -- like I just did three amps yesterday for Goldie Hawn's son-in-law. Chris...ahh, what's his name -- Robinson.
Ah, you have to do that because she was in "Foul Play"!
Uuuuuuuhhhhhhhh..... Kate Hudson?
Goldie Hawn, right?
Goldie Hawn, yeah. But Kate Hudson sounds much better. And I did them for her husband, the singer from the Black Crowes.
She married HIM!?
Yeah, she married the guy from the Black Crowes.
Oh. Ah, you know, I like the Black Crowes --
They're happily married supposedly, according to their roadie.
Yeah, just like Britney Spears and her new husband [Kevin Federline].
I hear that's fake.
Yeah, me too. That they didn't actually sign the, uh --
They faked everybody out.
She's weird. She's an odd bird.
I think she just wants to get away from her mother because she's tired of being pushed into show business. That's my theory. Anyway, what was I talking -- Weren't we gonna talk about music?
That's what we're talking about!
That's one of the reasons I stopped doing interviews. Nobody ever wants to talk about music!
We were talking about how Goldie Hawn makes beautiful music! No, here's a question:
And then people always ask me questions like, "So what's it like being up there with X? Is it still as much fun up there as ever?"
I'm not gonna ask you that.
That question --
I know better than that. I know --
It's like asking an Olympic swimmer after a meet, "So were you having fun out there, splashing around in the water?" It's not supposed to be fun.
That's not what I'm doing, man!
It satisfies, uh --
I'm your BUDDY!
I know! I can tell.
And I appreciate you being so nice after reading this thing on your site about "Oh, he's so standoffish! Oh!"
Where was that?
The Nice Guy page. The interview you put on here.
I need to change that; it's about six years old.
Yeah! Why is it still on here? It makes you sound like a real ass!
It does?
Because of the way the guy wrote, it does! "Oh, some people say he's a jerk, but he's not! He's just --"
Well, that's his paranoia. That wasn't me. He changed his mind after that, and now we're buddies. I just talked to him about a half an hour before you called!
REALLY!?
We're now good friends! He was just apprehensive about doing it. The first part of that interview -- I thought it was funny because it was about how paranoid and apprehensive he was about interviewing Billy Zoom. And then he kinda gets over that through the interview, and now we're buddies. Maybe people don't get that; I don't know.
I play the guitar too, although I've never ever been anywhere near as good as you are. I've just gotten to the point where, you know -- what happened to me of course is that nobody cared. So I just stopped. I got a 16-track and I was recording on it. I've made a lot of CDs, but not enough people care. So now I just think --
Don't think for a minute that people always cared passionately about what I did. I mean X was, I think, my 44th band.
Really!?
Yeah. I don't remember now, but I counted it up once and I think that that's what I came up with. And I'd had an off-and-on career for, you know like -- in '67 I was a star, in '68 I couldn't get a job.
What were you doing in '67?
'67 I was playing in the biggest band in the Quad Cities. We were big and I was making more money than my parents combined.
ARE YOU SERIOUS!?
Yeah!
What was the name of the band?
It was a '60s soul band. It was called the Loved Ones. We were playing three or four nights a week; we were pulling on average about 1200 kids a night. Average -- and sometimes it was 16-1700 kids. And I had a motorcycle, a motorscooter, three cars and I thought I was set. And a year later, I was selling one of my saxophones to pay the rent! And it was kinda off-and-on from there. I had a little bit of success overseas in the mid-'70s doing rockabilly. I had a couple of minor hits in like Finland and Norway, and that was, you know, that was -- I didn't know X was gonna be anything special.
How much of the songwriting did you do on the, on the -- five albums you were on, right?
John and Exene did the lyrics. When I started -- we should back up a little bit. I don't think a lot of people realize that I started the band.
Okay. Yeah, I saw that in the interview.
After soul music had turned to funk and I was sort of looking around for something to do, I did rockabilly for a while.
What year did you become -- I'm sorry. What year did you become "Billy Zoom"?
About '73. I'm not really sure. It started out kind of as a joke.
HA! But you've kept it for thirty years now!
Somebody said it as a joke in like '72.
Is it just a stage name? Like does your wife call you --
Everybody calls me Billy.
Even your wife?
Yeah. Everybody except my aunt, who is 86.
Is it weird? Or do you just figure, "That's my name now"?
No, because that's been my name since '72 or '73.
Woooooooooow. Your parents didn't mind?
My parents -- my mother died in '67 and my dad died in '78, and I hadn't seen him much in the ten years before that, so I was pretty much on my own from the time I was about 18.
Oh. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up.
That's okay. You know, since I was 19, I was in Davenport, when I was playing in that band in the Quad Cities. My mother had remarried and gotten married to this jerk, and then she got sick and died. Then he came by and said, "Your mother's dead. You have two weeks to get all your stuff out of my house." So it was kinda pathetic, you know.
Jesus. Did you punch him?
No. I did rockabilly in the mid-'70s just sort of by default, because I didn't look good in spandex.
Ha!
It's true. I mean, if I'd been skinny and looked good in spandex, I might have had a whole different career. I might have jumped into that glam thing. But I didn't. And I started -- well, I got that gig with Gene Vincent in '71, and that turned out to be the most fun I'd had playing in a while.
Was he friendly?
Gene?
Yeah.
Yeah, Gene was a great guy. The rest of the band sucked. The rest of the guys in the band were a bunch of hippies who thought -- they weren't sure who Gene was, but they knew he'd been famous. But they were profoundly embarrassed; they said this on numerous occasions -- that it was so embarrassing to play those stupid old songs in front of people. But they thought that maybe it would look good on their resumé, you know? Gene was fun. We'd get him, uh -- my favorite thing, I wish I'd had a tape recorder back then but I didn't. Cassettes were still kinda new when I did that. I would have really liked to get him in the motel room telling stories. Hooking Duane Eddy up with a transvestite in Soho -- and not knowing that it was a guy. He had funny stories like that. About Eddie Cochran, and having adventures and stuff. I liked Gene.
So you said that you formed X. How did that come about?
Oh! I was kinda getting burned out on rockabilly. I'd had a little success overseas, but not anything big. In Finland, a gold record was 20,000 in '73. So if you sell 9,000 records, you have a minor hit. But it's still not enough money to go over and tour.
And you heard the Ramones!
I started hearing about the Ramones in summer of '76 when they played the Roxy. And I think they played the Whiskey -- they made the rounds. I didn't go see them, but I started hearing about them. And my bass player Patrick Woodward, who played this killer upright bass and an electric one too -- he brought me a review to rehearsal. It was a review of them at -- I think it was the Roxy. I can't remember what paper it was, but it was a negative review. And the writer obviously did not like punk rock, did not like the Ramones, and was probably enamored with Journey or somebody like that. He was running down this list of what was wrong with them -- you know, the songs were too fast, they had simple lyrics, there were no extended guitar solos -- and it sounded like everything was too rock 'n' roll for this guy. And so I said, "This doesn't sound so bad," and Patrick said, "Yeah, I'm inspired -- I wanna go see 'em now!" It sounded good to me; it sounded like something we'd like!
        And at that point I was playing about three nights a week, but I was working a day job. I always did electronics on the side, and I was working at a place that worked on pro audio gear for studios that were putting in new sound systems and stuff. And we put in a sound system at a ballroom in Norwalk, California, which is a suburb that nobody's ever heard of on the south side of L.A. County. And they had a ballroom where people did ballroom dancing during the week, and on the weekends they were starting to have rock and roll concerts. And we put in a sound system there -- a big one for the time.         So I was out there everyday for a week or two, and the people said, "Hey, if you guys ever want to come see any of our shows, just call and we'll put you on the guest list." And they gave me a list and there was Tom Petty and the Ramones. And I said, "Oh, I'd like to see these two." So I saw the Ramones at that show, and it just kinda changed everything. It was sort of what I had been looking for but couldn't put my finger on. So I watched the Ramones and I watched the audience too, and I was obviously one of the few people there that hadn't been following them.
This was in '77?
Late '76, early '77. When their first album was out.
Wow. I went to see 'em in '89! You know, that was...
And while I was watching them, I was thinking, "You know, Eddie Cochran and the Ramones put together -- if I could do something like that ... I could put this rockabilly guitar stuff, you know, rock and roll guitar -- if you could put that with what Johnny's doing with the bar chords, it would kick butt."
        And the next day I went out and bought their album. I saw 'em on Saturday, bought the album on Sunday, and on Monday I put an ad in the paper for a bass player and a drummer to form a punk band. I think it said something about "Eddie Cochran meets the Ramones" or something. And John Doe, this kid fresh out of college with a Baltimore accent -- he was the second bass player I auditioned and he had really cool shoes. I think at that point I had assumed that I would be the main songwriter and lead singer because that's what I'd been doing, and then I listened to some of John's songs and he sang really well and had some really strange but interesting songs that were really unique in style. Because my stuff was more predictable, you know?

CONTINUED ...

Interview with Billy Zoom of X
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