The Reverend Horton Heat
Archived
The Reverend Horton Heat is coming to Salt Lake City on July 11 when the Warped Tour pulls into town. I made an appointment for a “phoner” with the Interscope people and I was expecting the Reverend. I’ve spoken to him before and I was looking forward to another conversation because he has the best stories. He can tell stories about rockabilly heroes from the 50s that curl your hair. Imagine my surprise when the Interscope dude said, “I’ve got Jimbo right here, are you ready for him?” “Fuck, I guess, but where’s the Reverend?” I know some “more professional journalists” would whine and cry about talking to the bass cat, but hell, I don’t care. I’ve never talked to Jimbo and he’s at least as cool as the band’s former drummer Taz Bentley. I’ll talk to Taz anytime and anywhere. So I talked to Jimbo and while he couldn’t answer every question he did pretty damn good. I’m writing this one as a total “fanzine” piece – transcribe the tape and let it fly. Since the interview took place in May, skipping the Warped information is appropriate. Let’s get to it.
SLUG: “Have you seen Taz lately?”
Jimbo: “Yeah, he lives in my neighborhood. He just had a baby, a baby girl.”
Congratulations to Taz! Of course, his wife deserves more congratulations because she’s the one who had the baby.
SLUG: “He’s not in Tenderloin anymore.”
Jimbo: “No Tenderloin just broke up, that was one of my favorite bands too.”
Is that an understatement? Tenderloin was a fucking great band!
Taz: “I think Ernie’s going to start something else though…the singer.”
SLUG: “The Buddha man?”
Jimbo: “Uh, huh!”
SLUG: “Let’s get started then. I’ve never talked to you before, actually I’ve never met you.”
Jimbo: “Well you’ll have to come up and introduce yourself, where are you calling from?”
SLUG: “Salt Lake City.”
Jimbo: “Salt Lake City, yeah, we played out there a few times.”
At least twice a year I believe.
SLUG: “Are you on the Warped Tour?”
Jimbo: “Yeah, we’re gonna be doing that this summer, the Warped Tour, I’m looking forward to it.”
SLUG: “Do you know what dates?”
Jimbo: “I think we’re doing the whole thing, as far as I know. But I know one thing I’m looking forward to is, we’re hooking up with the Ozzfest in Minneapolis. So it will be the Warped Tour/Ozzfest combined and I can’t wait to try and meet Ozzie.”
SLUG: “You’re doing both Warped and Ozzfest?”
Jimbo: “Well, they join up in one city, in Minneapolis, together for one day. So that’s gonna be kind of cool.”
SLUG: “Wow,that would be really nice. That won’t happen here. We can’t even get the Ozzfest through here. They’re afraid of it in Salt Lake, too much Satan.”
Jimbo: ‘Why can’t you get the Ozzfest through there?”
SLUG: “They’re afraid of Satan.”
Jimbo: “Oh yeah?”
SLUG: “This is a very conservative town.”
Jimbo: “Why do they let us play there?”
SLUG: “They don’t know about you. They haven’t figured that one out yet.”
Jimbo: “Oh, I see.”
SLUG: “Has the Reverend quit smoking?”
Jimbo: “Oh yeah, he’s quit smoking. He hasn’t smoked for about a year now.”
SLUG: “I knew he’d quit smoking Camel studs and the last time you were here he wasn’t smoking at all. That’s good for him, he’s healthier.”
Jimbo: “Much healthier. Now if I could quit we’d be set.”
SLUG: “You’re still smoking?”
Jimbo: “Yep, smoke like a chimney.”
SLUG: “How does that work on the bus, does the drummer smoke…Scott?”
Jimbo: “Well if one person’s smoking we just wait until that guy’s finished and we open the window. We’re talking about all of our bad habits.”
SLUG: “Your song ‘Lie Detector’ is on the radio.”
Jimbo: “Oh it is? I saw that several markets picked it up recently so that’s kinda fun.”
SLUG: “How do you feel about ‘Lie Detector ‘ on the radio with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies?”
Jimbo: “Well, we don’t sound like either one of those bands. Maybe there’s hope for roots music to be on the radio, you know? We’ve always had good college airplay, but as far as major radio, it’s kind of eluded us. But the fans still come out and that’s what’s really important to us anyway.”
As mentioned at the beginning, I was looking for stories and Jimbo gave one up. The Reverend isn’t the only member of the band with a story or two and I hope I didn’t offend Jimbo when I said that the Reverend had all the stories. When I thought up the question I was hoping he (the Reverend) would come up with another one about Johnny Cash or Carl Perkins (R.I.P.) blowing up hotel toilets with firecrackers.
SLUG: “You’ve worked with Gibby Haynes and Al Jourgensen in the past. Do their rock and roll lifestyles match those of Johnny Cash or Jerry Lee Lewis back in the 50s?”
Jimbo: “Well, let’s see. Probably everything you’ve heard about Al Jourgensen is true. Gibby Haynes, we had a lot of fun with him. We were drinking Bloody Marys in the control room and, back when we used to drink when we recorded and we ran out of tomato juice for the Bloody Marys. We had some barbecue sitting there that we’d catered in and a big gallon jar of barbecue sauce so Gibby got this crazy idea to make this barbecue and vodka drink that he called a Bloody Leeroy – Leeroy’s Barbecue and he stuck a rib bone in it for a garnish. The whole trip to that was you had to add enough vodka in there to dilute the barbecue sauce enough to drink it. That was kind of crazy. A new drink was invented that day.”
Nicely done Jimbo, not only does he slap the hell out of a bass, but he has a story or two to tell as well.
SLUG: “You guys do a lot of instrumentals. Every album has instrumentals. Have you ever thought of putting them all together on one CD?”
Jimbo: “That might be real cool. It would have to be two different record companies ‘cause we started out on Sub Pop and we’re on Interscope now so we’d have to get them to work together to do something like that, but that would be cool. You could make a tape at home for yourself like that. I thought putting all the country songs together would be kind of fun too.”
SLUG: “Why not just do a box-set, Reverend Horton Heat Country and Instrumentals? I have some questions about a couple of Space Heater songs. What’s the inspiration for ‘Couch Surfing’?”
Jimbo: “Well, you know, if you live in our neighborhood and we got a lot of friends that are jobless and they want to come and crash on your couch. I guess we’ve all experienced that, you come home and they’ve eaten all of your food and drank all your beer and made a mess of the place. That’s basically what that story’s about..”
SLUG: “What kind of car does the Reverend have at home? Doesn’t he have a vintage car?”
Jimbo: “Oh yeah, let’s see. Jim’s got a 1950 Ford, baby blue, and it’s got all the door handles shaved on the side so it’s got a ‘kick plate’ in it. You walk up and kick underneath the car and the door pops open. He’s working on a ’32, I guess a Ford roadster, a high-boy. I guess he’s basically got the frame going and the engine and that’s his hot rod.”
SLUG: “How about you?”
Jimbo: “I’ve got a 1970 Chevy truck.”
SLUG: “Is it customized?”
Jimbo: “Nope, it’s green and it’s beat up, but it kind of fits with living in Texas.”
I’ll skip some boring stuff about living the rockabilly lifestyle and the whole trad vs. psycho subject and move on to something of more interest to SLUG readers because you poor bastards don’t know what the fuck anyway.
SLUG: “You don’t tape your fingers do you?”
Jimbo: “Nope, I guess I’ve been doing it long enough that I’ve got calluses on my fingers, but there was a time when I used to bleed all over.”
SLUG: “Did you ever tape them?”
Jimbo: “I did at one point after the blisters got so bad that I bought that medical tape, but that falls off after a while if you play really hard and sweat. I just said, ‘fuck it, I’m gonna make calluses”
SLUG: “How many basses do you have?”
Jimbo: “Well, let’s see. I’ve got one with flames and one with hot rod scallops and then I got a natural wood one. I’m working on three right now.”
SLUG: “Which one do you play the most?”
Jimbo: “I’ve been playing the one with flames on it for this tour because it’s beat up, it’s got holes in it from where the Rev’s foot’s gone through it and a bottle hit it, but it has a lot of character, it’s like a war wagon. It’s served me well so I keep playing it.”
SLUG: “What’s the other one painted with?”
Jimbo: “The other one is metal flake green. I got it painted at a hot rod shop and it’s got these white scallops on it. It’s kind of like flames, but they’re not curvy, they’re just straight and pointy.”
SLUG: “I’m curious about one more song on the new CD, ‘Texas Rockabilly Rebel.’ The Reverend is singing about the Chisholm Trail. Do you know the original lyrics to that song?”
Jimbo: “I sure don’t, nope. I think that song is kind of about his car too. That’s what he’s gonna call his car, the one he’s working on right now, the ’32.”
SLUG: “That’s what he’s going to call his car? I was just curious about the song because the ‘Chisholm Trail’ is an old ‘smut’ song with some nasty, dirty lyrics. Something about ‘I fucked her standing and I fucked her lying, if she’d had wings I’d have fucked her flying…she scratched her cunt on a barbed wire fence.”‘
Jimbo: “I’ll have to look that one up.”
Look it up, Jimbo, and ask the Reverend if he knows it. Jimbo did an excellent job, don’t you think? It wouldn’t be the Reverend Horton Heat without Jimbo slappin’ that bass either. For those who believe that the band doesn’t have any roots in country or rockabilly music at this point in their careers, I recommend a listen to “Pride Of San Jacinto” the opening instrumental and “The Prophet Stomp,” the tenth track. It’s still a “Psychobilly Freakout” after all these years and I can’t wait for this year’s Warped Tour so I can see the Reverend Horton Heat once again. Since the gig is outdoors with plenty of space the “swing dancers” can do their thing when the Rev gets busy with the hillbilly and the “punks” can gape in awe. —Whilley
Read more interviews from the archives:
Slayer
Henry Rollins
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