Interview with Billy Zoom of X
September 2004 -- Page 3
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(*new tape begins*)
Hi, I'm recording. What'd you ask -- what'd you ask me just now?
I said how long has it been since the last time you listened to the Ramonetures CD?
The Ramonetures?
Yeah.
I probably haven't -- okay, I'll answer that and then I'll continue. I myself have not listened to it in over a year. However, I myself own over 15,000 CDs --
Wooooow.
-- and people keep sending me new stuff to hear. People send me free stuff because I have this web site where I review CDs, and that's, you know, I, I umm... Have you ever seen -- you haven't seen my web site, right?
What is it?
It's just my name -- markprindle.com.
Mark....
I have a Ramonetures page on it. It's just a bunch of interviews and --
p-r-i-n-d-l-e?
Yeah, isn't that a nice name? Yeah, cuz your name -- your real name is kinda like Prindle, right? Ty....
I had my best friend's --
NO, YOUR REAL NAME IS LIKE TY SOMETHING --
Kindell, but my --
EXACTLY!!! SEE??
-- my best friend in elementary school was Paul Prindle.
Really!?
Yeah, in junior high.
Yeah, I don't know any Paul Prindle. But anyway, but the, but the point is though that I never --
John Doe, X -- oh, there's The John Doe thing.
Are you on my page now?
Oh yeah, sure.
Yeah. Yeah, that was a good -- John was really friendly to me (CITIZINE #6), and that was nice. This is what's really disappointing here is that (sigh) I can't believe I didn't hit record, but that's alright. I really do have like over an hour of you talking about things that are important to you, and what I want here in this interview is things that are important to YOU.
To me?
To you!
Okay.
Because you're the -- 'cuz, you know, people can say what they want about X records and say, "Oh! What's Billy Zoom been doing since 1985?" or whatever, but --
Well, I've been back with X since '98.
I know! Why did you go back? Oh. I know why. Because you needed -- you wanted the money, and they -- right? Do you even get along with them anymore?
I don't know if that's a relevant question.
It's not.
Do you get along with the people you work with? Or do you show up and do your job?
Yeah, you're right.
You say "Hi" and you say "Goodbye."
And they're not people that you -- they're, they're not people that I would hang around with in my free time.
Uhh, we don't hang around in our free time? I kinda hang out with DJ a little bit. DJ and his wife and me and my wife. But we don't live close to each other. So we get to the gig, John reads and talks on his cell phone ...
Do you like playing the old songs at least?
Yeah.
What kind of music do you --
It's FUN. Ha!
It IS fun!
It's not fun, but it --
IT'S NOT FUN!?
I told you that earlier!
Yeah, I know.
It's not the kind of thing that's supposed to be fun.
It pays well?
It's tolerable. It's not fun. It's, uh --
What is fun for you?
Fun for me?
Yeah.
Driving in an English sports car with the top down on a Fall day.
Do you do that a lot?
No, we don't get Fall out here.
FALL STARTS RIGHT NOW, right? The first day of Fall is right now!
Yeah, it was about 100 degrees today.
Oh. Well, move!
I like it here.
No, obviously you don't. You're upset because there's no Fall.
I'll put up with it for all the good stuff. It's a reasonable trade-off. What do you do for fun?
What do I do for fun? Well, I hang out with the wife and the dog. Do you still have Sasha?
Yeah. We changed her name to Leroy.
WHY DID YOU CHANGE HER NAME!?
Because she comes to "Leroy."
That doesn't make any sense.
Well, she likes "Leroy."
My little dog is named Henry. We love him very much. Hey, do you have any -- any kids?
Not so far.
Do you want kids? Because you should stick to dogs. We're sticking to dogs here.
Uhhhh, I would've liked some, yeah.
Takes a lot -- a lot of time though.
That's all we've got, right?
That's a lot of time you wouldn't have to yourself though.
Oh, you know. Pretty much anything I'm gonna tell myself at this point I've heard before. You know, "I need time for my songs." I've got too much time for myself.
Dogs are the best though. Dogs are better than kids.
I've got enough room at my place; kids and dogs are a good combination.
Yeah. Yeah. Our guy's name is Henry; he's the best. I love that guy.
Named after Henry Rollins?
Oh my God. Why did you say that? Because it's true!
I could tell because I just saw his name on your page.
What is he like in person?
Much smaller than he is on TV.
Is he short?
Well, everybody's shorter than me, yeah. But he looks so huge and buff --
Yeah, he does.
-- on TV, but in person, he's just, I don't know. It's the wackiest thing.
I'm gonna email this to you at billyzoom @ billyzoom.com!
He also has a radio show on Indie 103.1 [no longer on the air, 2005].
Is, umm... Just between you and me -- you don't have to tell him this -- his last few albums haven't been all that good. And I've been a fan of his for a long time, but he's got this new band and it's just not that good.
Really?
Yeah.
He was really good singing Ramones songs with a jam band the other night.
Wow.
So you've got a drinking binge going?
He's an intense guy, they say. I definitely would not wanna run across him in an alley --
Wait a minute! [Quoting from a review of WIld Gift on markprindle.com] "It's also got throwaways like 'It's Who You Know'"?
No, I like that! Did I say that?
"Lots of people think that this is the ultimate X record, but I'm a bit fettered by the sheer abundancy of interchangable goodtime ... choggle rock on here. Sure, it's got -- "
Which album is that?
I can't remember what album that's on -- Wild Gift.
Who the hell knows. I gave it an 8! I gave a 10 to --
"-- and "In This House That I Call Home" that just don't register at all when stacked up against all the other killer tracks." That was one of the ones we had a lot of trouble in the studio with. It's a good song; it just doesn't sound good on that recording.
Hey, Mr. Zoom?
I like "It's Who You Know"! That's one of my favorites!
Can I say something?
What?
I wrote that review like literally like seven years ago. I've been doing this thing for eight years.
You remember a band called Rhinoceros?
No!
One instrumental hit in the late '60s.
Hmm. What was the hit?
I can't remember. I was gonna ask you. Anyway, the reason I asked is there was this rock band called Rhinoceros that had an instrumental hit. I can never remember the names of instrumentals because they don't have any hook line.
Exactly. The Ventures! I have all their albums; I have no clue what the songs are called.
Yeah, right. So anyway, it was a big hit and I tried to write at the time an instrumental rock song in that vein. This was about 1968 or '9 or something like that. Anyway, "It's Who You Know" -- that "Dawn duh duh dawn duh duh dawn duh dah dah -- dawn duh duh -- "
I can't believe I said that about that song, because I like that song.
That whole instrumental part on "It's Who You Know" is actually that instrumental song that I wrote in the late '60s, and I just stuck it with some of John's lyrics.
So anyway, there you go. "It's Who You Know" was based on an instrumental demo I made in 1969.
So, in all truth, you only like the first X album? You don't like the others at all?
I like the first one and the third one.
Okay. Alright.
I like Under The Big Black Sun. That album sounds pretty good for some reason.
Do you like any -- What did you think about the fact that ... Well, let me start that over. At X shows, were there problems with people in the crowd being really violent like they were at so many of the bands'?
No. In the beginning, there was NO violence. I don't know; it depends on what period -- - no, not a lot of violence. There was none early on though, but what happened is that back in the '70s, the media pretty much ignored us and we just had this big underground scene and there was no violence at all. Then at one point, the media started covering the violence. From somewhere, they started writing about how violent these shows were, and all of a sudden -- this was back in the early '80s -- all of a sudden, kids from the suburbs started showing up and being violent because they'd read that that's what you come here for. And it sort of became what the media described it as. I believe that's where it came from. I don't know. It's funny -- I was just listening to Steve Jones talking about all the spitting and stuff in the English punk scene and how he hated that, and I always associated that with the Sex Pistols. And he goes, "Nah, they didn't do that early on. They just started it at some point; I don't know why. We always hated it."
Wow. Did they spit on you?
No. It was an English thing. One girl in Indianapolis at a rock club spit on me once, and she had apparently -- She was one of these girls that is American and she went to England for ten days and then came back with a British accent.
HA HA HA!
And she spit on me, and I looked at her and she said, "Well, that's what we do in England." And I didn't like it, so I poured a beer on her head and said, "This is what we do in America when somebody's an asshole."
GOOD! Very good. Heh heh heh! Heh heh heh.
That's the only time I've ever been spit on.
Oh gosh, that's so annoying.
I had beer cans thrown at me.
Sorry?
I had beer cans thrown at me in Germany. They hated me in Germany.
Why? 'Cuz you smiled too much?
Exactly. Because I smiled too much. And they complained about it. The kids said they hated the fact that I smiled.
THAT'S WHAT SEPARATED YOU!
The world's terrible, you know. Everything's polluted and there's an atomic bomb and everything could blow up and I'm smiling. And "How could you smile?"
That separated you though.
I know, but they got really upset about it.
What idiots.
Isn't that funny?
Everyone in Germany is an IDIOT.
Uhhhh..... I don't know. Maybe.
I'm just kidding.
A lot of them! Ha.
I can't believe that. That's crazy.
I don't like to generalize like that, but --
Everyone in Germany is no good. Let's say that. Are you, ummm -- Looking back at your life, are you at least -- are you happy that you were in X? Do you feel good about your life -- what you've done with your music ability?
I feel good about parts of it, you know? It's very satisfying to do something you excel at in front of people and to sort of show them what you can do. And it's really satisfying to push yourself to see how far you can take something. And when it goes well, it makes me feel very good. When there's problems or it isn't a good set or it sounds bad or something and I don't do as good as I would have liked, then I get frustrated.
        And let's see, to answer your question, looking back, yeah I like parts of it. Parts of it I feel really good about. I mean, it beats not having any recognition or doing anything interesting. If I had it to do over again, I would have a much worse reputation than I have, because if I had it to do over, I would have been a lot more of a hardass about a lot of things and I would have made a lot fewer compromises.
Oh, okay. The records might have sounded better if you'd said something?
I would have set Clay Rose on fire three years sooner.
HA HA HA! HUH HUH HA!
I finally lit him on fire in Stockholm. This was an ongoing thing. I kept trying to get rid of Clay because he was incompetent and he was a complete asshole, and we were flying out of Berlin -- from Berlin to Stockholm -- and we had to fly from Berlin to Copenhagen and then change airlines to fly to Stockholm. And we were getting on the plane in Berlin, and they're very strict there -- they have these former Nazi guards, you know -- they uh, "One piece of carry-on only!" And Clay got up there and in one hand he had the attache case which had all our money and all the receipts and all our accounting and everything from the gigs, and in the other hand he had a duffle bag with his dirty laundry. And they told him he had to get rid of one, so he ran down the steps, threw the attache case on a moving conveyer belt, didn't get a claim check, and it wasn't even the right belt. It wasn't even the right flight, and I was behind him and I almost said something, and then realized, "You know, if that disappears, then we'd have to fire him." So I just didn't say anything, and we got to Copenhagen to change flights and then went onto Stockholm and it didn't come out the other end and he couldn't understand it. And so then we had a meeting and we agreed that he had to go, because he was grossly incompetent. Finally everybody agreed with me.
Yaaaaaay!
And we were in a club in Stockholm that evening, and in addition to having the ballroom where we played, they had like a lounge that had a fireplace and a bunch of overstuffed chairs and stuff. And he was sitting in the chair -- it was one of those La-Z-Boy things where you're supposed to lean back -- and he was leaning back with his feet up on the coffee table, and he was explaining recording technique to someone. Sweet. And he was this guy who was balding in the front but he had really frizzy big hair like Bozo The Clown on the sides and back, and I came up behind him with two big lighters cranked up and took off all the hair on the back of his head. And that was what happened to Clay!
Good. Are you, umm ... Is there anything else you'd like to say on this interview about your career or where you are now, or is it -- Like you said in that interview from six years ago that you wanted to try to start a Christian record label, but have you ever actually heard a good Christian band?
Well, that's part of my motivation. Yes I have, but not since the Louvin Brothers.
Oh, okay. Wait! That was like the '50s, wasn't it?
Yeah.
Ohhhhh boy.
See, that's the problem! I think there's a problem there in that there's no reason why it has to sound that bad.
Heh heh heh. You're a huge Creed fan then?
That's part of my motivation. I love music, I'm a Christian, Christian music is horrible. I feel like I have to do something about that, but I'd still like to.
Have you written any Christian songs? Or do you stray away from ...
I've cut some stuff in that sort of vein. I keep meaning to go back to it actually to finish the project, but things like that where it's just my own project tend to get put on the backburner a lot. I'm used to it. And things that help make the mortgage payment tend to come first, you know? But uh --
What's the best-paying thing right now? X reunions?
Yeah.
Okay. How many are there a year?
It depends. In 2003, we actually did a national tour, which paid very well. This year [2004], we didn't tour that much back east. Next year [2005], we are gonna do a full tour.
Do you feel bad about doing that stuff?
25th anniversary of the first album release. We gotta kinda play that up.
Do you feel bad about this stuff? Or do you like -- is it okay?
What stuff?
Going back and playing these old songs.
Oh, no! I enjoy it. I just don't like it being called "fun," because I don't think that's the appropriate term. But yeah, I'm into it. I love watching the audience at X shows. I think that's the real show.
Are they usually people of X's age? Or younger kids who never had a chance --
It's a lot of the same people who were there in 1979.
HHHHHHHHHHHO!!! HUH HUH!
And a lot of times they bring their kids. And there's always a bunch of young punkers that have heard about us and want to see what it's about. So we get a good cross-section. But it's amazing how many old-time X fans will come and bring their son or daughter with them. And then I feel REALLY old. I do enjoy watching the audience interacting with each other and with the band.
Do you guys play stuff off like the fourth album?
The fourth one?
Like "Burning House Of Love"? Do you play that?
Oh. That's the fifth album.
Yeah. Oh. Okay. Sorry.
No, we did a couple of times. John doesn't like to do it. Besides the fact that nobody's really crazy about most of the material on that album, it's also very hard to do some of it live because it's so produced, and there are like 25 or 30 guitar tracks and different parts and stuff. Some of 'em we could do 'em but, besides the fact that we're not that crazy about the songs, it doesn't come across that strong. There's not those kind of power trio in your face songs. So John just doesn't think it comes across well. We do the first three albums.
You don't think of the band as "John's band," do you?
No.
Okay. What, um --
I think of it as MY band.
Then how come you didn't get songwriting credit?
Well, because it was a deal breaker. I originally expected that I would. Now it looks like I had no input in any of the songs in my career.
But it's so clear you did! Okay. Alright, I'd better get off the phone now only because I have to go to dinner at this place with my wife.
11:00 is too late for dinner.
No no no no. It's never too late for dinner!
Where do you live?
I told you! New York City!
Where? What part?
Upper East Side. 91st and Lexington.
Where are you from?
I'm originally from Georgia.
Georgia.
I'm sorry. I'm not proud of it, but yeah.
Where? What part?
Norcross, Georgia. It's 20 miles north of Atlanta.
Oh, it's way up there.
Yeah. It wasn't terribly rednecky, you know?
Oh, I love Georgia!
Why? I don't!
I love Georgia. I used to go hang out in Valdosta to relax.
I went to Valdosta when I went to Governor's Honors School when I was --
I got married in Savannah.
WHY!!??!!? WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?!?? Why?
Because I love Georgia.
Georgia's horrible.
It's one of my all-time favorite places.
Well, that's because you're not, uh what, black, you're not gay, you're not heh. Georgia's pretty bad.
What -- you're black or gay?
No no no, I'm just saying in terms of people who aren't very tolerant.
When you get up into the --
Is it bad in L.A. too? Because in Georgia you know, it's the South! Things happen.
Uhh... like what?
Like people who hate black people. People who hate gay people.
I don't really know what it's like in L.A. anymore.
Where are you right now?
I'm in Orange County. This is the home of hotrods and surf music, and --
Agent Orange!
Social Distortion, Agent Orange, No Doubt, Rancid, The Offspring --
The Vandals!
-- Lit --
Did you ever like The Vandals?
I don't know. I'm trying to think of who they are. It sounds familiar.
Awwww, that's sad.
I know the pump don't work 'cuz The Vandals broke the handle.
That's Bob Dylan though; that's not The Vandals.
No.
Mmm, that's alright.
What did The Vandals do?
I just really like them. You know, th --
I remember the name; I just can't remember what they did. I love Orange County.
Good! Do you -- when you -- Every day when you get up -- not when you get up, but every day do you -- do you play the guitar every day?
No. I will frequently go for months without picking it up if we don't have a gig.
Yeah, okay. Good. That makes me feel better.
I have an old acoustic in the den that I will pick up occasionally, but I'm more likely to pick up the saxophone.
Really!?
Yeah, I will play that almost daily sometimes.
But you just keep playing "Baker Street" over and over, right?
Something like that.
Doo DOO doo, doodoo doo-ti-doo! What a classic.
And I work in the studio almost every day, so I play whatever is, you know. If I'm doing soundtrack stuff, that's usually the Yamaha Motif workstation being a drummer. It's like a digital -- it has a keyboard and a workstation. And then I'll add guitars and bass and sax to it and I do as many rhythm tracks as I can. At least for a demo. If I do something I really like or that's budgeted, I'll hire studio musicians to play on it.
What does your wife consider you? A musician?
Hold on. (to his wife): Honey? Would you consider me a musician? If you had to say what I was? (to me): She says I'm in the music industry. Because that covers producer and everything.
How long have you been married?
All together or this time?
This time.
Four years.
Wait, this isn't your first wife?
No.
But this is the best wife, right?
Absolutely. And the last wife.
Good. Stay with her. 'Cuz wives are good!
This is a good one, yeah.
Wives are good. I've had one since -- two years? But then I don't have albums out like you have. You're Billy Zoom! You have albums!
Did you know that Johnny Ramone and his wife Linda were together for 22 years?
No!
Yeah!
She used to be Joey's girlfriend!
Yeah.
And he was all bitter about it because he's weird.
Yeah.
Mmm. I couldn't believe that. You know, I saw that Marky Ramone about three months ago said, "Oh, Joey's --" Excuse me, "Johnny's dying." But I didn't really believe it. I didn't believe it. When I saw it the other day, I just couldn't believe it.
I knew he was sick, but even then I thought he'd be around for a couple of years.
Yeah!
It was like, "Yeah okay he's got it, but he's doing okay." Did you see that documentary?
The "Rocket -- " uhh... "End Of The Century"?
Yeah. I guess that's what it's called.
How did I miss that? Nah, I'm waiting for it to come on video.
How long has it been out?
No! I'm waiting for it I guess to come out on video because I have Hey Is Dee Dee Home and I have the one Marky put out and I have the original --
This one's really good. I didn't see the final cut yet, but I saw it up at Johnny's in April, and it's really good. And it's really, uh ... They don't pull any punches.
Yeah, I heard it makes 'em look --
They air their dirty laundry and everything, you know?
It makes 'em all look bad is what I heard.
Well, except for Joey. Because Joey's mother wouldn't let them say anything really bad, although they did cover the fact that he had attention deficit disorder.
And he had OCD.
No, no -- - OCD I mean, yeah.
But nobody knew! They didn't know.
There's no way they could have known. But it's really good; you should go see it.
I want to. I think I may have missed it here though. You know, I have every Ramones video I can have. I have Ramones Around The World by Marky, I have Hey Is Dee Dee Home, I have the original Ramones, uh ... the one with all the videos? It's from like ten years ago. But I guess I --
Georgia? You're not even a New Yorker.
No, I was from Georgia.
That's disappointing.
You know, one of the reasons I wanted -- Can I tell you something? One of the reasons I wanted to move to New York was 'cuz of The Ramones!
Yeah, absolutely.
They were my first punk band. Granted, I was 15 years late, but still! You know, 198-- I said 1989, but '88 I saw The Ramones. I saw The Ramones with Dee Dee, and then he quit immediately afterwards, and it's not my fault I wasn't born until '73. It wasn't my fault I didn't discover the Ramones until '88, but they were amazing! Even in '88. That late, they were still amazing to a guy who'd heard nothing but stuff on the radio.
Absolutely! They were great. They were the greatest rock band of all time.
AND they introduced me to punk rock, which was X and the Dead Kennedys and Circle Jerks, etc.
But you didn't think we were punk.
I thought you were FAST, but I thought you deserved to have hit singles more than the Ramones did because it wasn't just bar chords. It was really catchy stuff with catchy, you know, VOCALS basically, which the Ramones, you know -- - especially the first album when Joey couldn't sing at all -- - didn't have! I think that X -- not on the, the, you know, Ain't Love Grand -- but the early stuff was really like, you know, CATCHY stuff! More so than "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" or "Loudmouth." You know? That stuff was not gonna be hits, you know? It was -- it was rare that even AC/DC had a hit! And they were just like the Ramones but slower!
You think?
I do think, yeah.
I don't like them. I never got into them.
You never got into AC/DC? They were -- OHHHHHHHHHHHH -- they were my -- they were my trip INTO The Ramones. I love AC/DC.
No, I skipped that '70s rock. X is the only rock band I've ever played with. As far as guitars and stuff.
Really?
Yeah.
Well, I wasn't born until '73. I tell ya what -- AC/DC was like the Ramones chords but played at half-speed.
Mmm.
It's pretty neat that you got into the Ramones, considering what you were raised on.
They sounded like all the stuff I grew up with, only louder and faster.
Oh yeah, they sound just like Thelonius Monk. You're right!
They sounded like Eddie Cochran and they sounded like --
Really!?
Yeah! They sounded like '60s pop songs on steroids.
Hey, uh Billy?
Yeah?
Thank you.
Okay! Call back some time.
No, I'm serious. Thank you. And I'm sorry that I kinda was a, was a nogoodnick.
Try not to make me sound like a mean guy, because I'm really not.
You know that interview you posted on your site made you sound like a standoffish guy.
I should take that down, but then I'd have to put up something biographical --
BY MARK PRINDLE!
There you go. See, I don't do the site. Somebody does -- a fan does that for me. I don't really do much.
Oh. That fan is as lousy as your producer from 1985. No, but the important -- the thing is that I read that and I thought, "Oh no, this is gonna be a difficult interview. I'd better have a couple drinks." And now I talk to you and you're just so nice, and I feel like a real --
There you go.
-- jerk.
Yeah, I know.
But why did you stop drinking? Was it bad for you?
I never really drank much. I never really got into it much. In fact --
Was your wife a Christian when you met her?
No, not really.
Oh, okay. No, it's -- you know, it's -- like I said, I, you know.... What was that noise?
Oh, that's my computer.
That's no good! Turn it off! No, I -- those computers will break your heart. And tear you apart.
What kind of computer do you have? Are you a Mac guy?
What do I -- no, the worst, I have a -- Gateway. Ugh. Gateways are terrible. What do you have?
I have Macs.
Yeah, that's what -- My wife just said, "Get a Mac!"
I'm in the music business. They've always pretty much done the studio music production on Mac, so that's why I have about three in the studio.
My good -- Really?
Yeah. They do different things. I've got one that runs the automation console, and I've got one that --
Are you mad at me for having a drink before I called you?
No. Should I be? Would you like me to be?
I'm mad. I'm mad at myself for losing ten minutes of the call.
Ha!
I did see the Ventures though, when they were old and they didn't have Nokie [Edwards], but they were still good.
You should interview Nokie.
I'd love to!
He's a really nice guy.
Really?
Yeah. Very, very nice person.
Do you have any idea why he left the Ramones? Oh sorry, Ventures?
I don't know.
Because Gerry [McGee], Gerry, you know, Gerry's fine but he's not --
He's very good, yeah.
But he's not a Venture. He doesn't have that same sound. He made them into an instrumental band instead of a... Ventures band, you know?
Yeah, well Nokie wasn't an original. It was Bogle and Wilson and --
Yeah. Exactly.
They brought him along originally as a bass player. But he was from that Bakersfield country studio thing. That's where he came from.
Thank you. Umm... yeah. But seriously, umm -- thank you for being so nice.
No, it was fun. This was fun!
It was not fun; I'm no good!
Ha.
I could have asked you AMAZING questions, like "When you wrote -- you know, and then name some song you wrote -- what did you, what was the influence?" You know? I could have asked you, "What have you been listening to lately?" And I could have asked you, "What were your influences?" That's the big one.
You know what? If you think of anything you want to ask me, or if you want to clarify anything, we're leaving for Washington in the morning but I'll be back in two weeks.
Can I send you the interview after I type it up?
Absolutely. Sure.
Did you hang out with FEAR at all? Lee Ving?
Sure!
YOU DID!?
Yeah, sure!
What were they like?
About the same. Yeah, Lee was okay. I remember mostly their drummer used to build and race Pontiac Firebirds.
Spit Stix did?
Yeah, he was a heavy hotrodder and he was into Pontiacs.
Wow.
And Derf was a nice guy.
Was he a big cokehead?
Well if he was, he didn't give me any!
Oh. But you didn't use that stuff anyway, did you?
Uhhhh well, a little bit when it was mandatory.
Come on, cocaine? That's bad stuff!
Yeah I know, but there was --
It wasn't bad in the '80s?
There was a time in the early '80s when it was mandatory out there. You'd go into a gig and there'd be people doing lines off of tables.
Oh. How did it make you feel?
Like you want some more right away.
Did it -- like right now I feel like, "Whee! Look, the alcohol. Whee!" Was it like that?
Haven't you ever done it?
I've never done anything except alcohol. Like I said, I didn't start un -- I tried smoking pot once and it just made me really paranoid and irritated.
That's interesting that it made you paranoid. That's good that it makes you paranoid. Good for you.
But it's okay! I definitely am not sitting here going, "Damn, I wish I'd smoked some crack." You know?
Me either!
Good! That makes two of us. Alright, but if you ever come to New York, and I know this is, you're gonna laugh at this and throw it away but seriously, if you ever come to New York, we do have an extra room and you and your wife can stay there.
Okay.
Seriously. I'm not like -- I know it sounds ridiculous, but I'm serious. We have an extra room and you can stay there. Okay?
Okay.
Alright.
I gotta go.
I have to go more than you.
I have to get up really early in the morning.
For what?
We're leaving for Seattle.
Yeah, great! Yeah. No, but umm... thank you for the time and everything. Seriously. Okay, have a good evening.
You too.
Bye. (to my wife): I think he thinks I'm an asshole!
(*three minutes later*)
It's you again.
Don't be mad at me, okay? (etc.)

September 22, 2004.

Interview with Billy Zoom of X
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