Bizarre
With the Foos and Queens between albums Dave Grohl finally has time to play strip twister with Jack Black or whatever it is he does with his leisure time. Instead he's released his long-awaited metal super collaboration, Probot. He grudgingly put down his instruments to talk to us.
Why are you releasing Probot on such a small label?
It was really important to me that it wasn't
just dumped with some massive, major
label because it's not so much the size of the label but the ideas and the ethics of it.
At one point there was this major label
that was willing to give me a crazy sum
of money and I honestly told them that
it wasn't worth that much.
Was it Geffen?
I didn't imagine this album to be a money-making project and I can't imagine that there
are masses of people around the world who
are going to become die-hard Mercyful Fate
fans because of this album - although that
would make the world a better place. It is for
a specific audience. My agenda was to please
die-hard fans like myself. I can't imagine it
becoming a big album. It was actually never
intended to be an album. At first it was just me
spending three days sitting in my basement
playing riffs and having fun. The focus was
mainly on lower level dynamics. Then I went
playing with the Foo Fighters on tour for five or
six months and when I got home I thought,
"What am I doing with my life? I love hardcore
and underground metal and here I am playing
music that sounds like the fucking Eagles."
So this was a creative release for you?
I don't know about that but I never imagined
these songs being on any album - it was just
me messing around and playing some heavy
shit. After recording the songs I wrote the word
Probot on the reel just so I remembered what
it was. Then one afternoon I was with some
friends and we were talking about how insane
it would be if we got Cronos from Venom to do
one of the songs. Or how fucking crazy it would be if we got Snake from Voivod - people we had
never met before but we were huge fans of. It
was kind of a wish thing, it was a fantasy for us.
We made this list of people from a specific era:
1983 to 1989 in underground metal, and then
a friend of mine started making some calls. One
by one people agreed to do it. So we'd send out
the tapes and then I'd have Max from fucking
Sepultura on one of my fucking songs. I didn't
set out to make the quintessential death metal
tribute record I just made some heavy jams in
my basement and got some of my favourite
vocalists all on one CD.
And the videos?
We made a video for Shake Your Blood with
Lemmy. Originally I wanted to make a video that
incorporated all the vocalists. I thought as it was
Lemmy's song it would either have to be done
at the Rainbow Barin LA or some titty bar - I'm
not going to put that guy in some fucking hip-hop video, I want him to be in his element. So
I thought let's have Lemmy and I in a cab and
we are driving to a strip club and Eric Wagner
from Trouble is the taxi driver. When we get to
the club Cronos from Venom is the doonman.
And King Diamond from Mercyful Fate is the
bartender. I wanted it to be that kind of video.
How did the Suicide Girls get Involved?
Someone gave me a Suicide Girls sticker after
a gig and I put it on my guitar. Someone saw
it and told me that they wanted to give me
T-shirts and passwords and all that kind of shit.
Then I thought, 'OK, I know what we will do,
we'll have me playing drums, Lemmy playing
bass, Wino from The Obsessed playing guitars
and we will be surrounded by 70 Suicide Girls
making out with each other, whipping each
other, you know, just getting off on each other.'
So you're now a fan?
The great thing about the Suicide Girls is that
finally there is a website with all the girls I had
a crush on when I was a teenage kid. I never really went for the Califonian blondes. I never really went for the fucking Pam Andersons.
I used to go for the tattooed punk chick with
a little spike in her tongue.
Really? I read an interview you did with
Jennifer Aniston and I thought I sensed
some tension...
Jennifer Aniston is an incredibly beautiful
woman; she is smart, she is physically
beautiful, she's funny. Brad Pitt is very, very,
very lucky to have her but at the end of the day
if I had to pick Jennifer Aniston or a Suicide Girl
I would probably pick a Suicide Girl. I can't
imagine Jennifer with a fucking whip.
I can, I have, but more importantly: what
is it with you and dressing up as a woman
in your videos?
To me there is nothing funnier than a man trying
to be a woman. I mean, a funny looking geek
like me dressed up as a woman. And I'm not
really one for making serious videos because
bands that try to sell themselves with their
image before their music miss the point.
Videos are kind of ridiculous if you think about
it. I would rather make fun of making videos
than make a video where I look like a fucking
Adonis. We made a video that we spent a lot
of time and a lot of money on and turned out to
be a piece of shit, it was a fucking crime, it was
ridiculous. With the next video I decided that
I wanted me and Jack Black - when it comes to
making hilarious videos you can't go wrong with Jack Black - dressed up as women on the floor
of a hotel room, doing coke and drinking
whiskey, getting dressed up in lingerie and
beating the shit out of each other. We did it with
a fucking video camera and we didn't spend
more than $40,000. Honestly I thought it was
awesome, I thought it was the video of the year.
I heard somewhere that you wanted to
direct a Celine Dion video.
She is an acquired taste. I am not so sure if
Celine's husband would want her throwing
a dildo around the room with a line of coke on the
table. She does look like she has been in drag
for years, although she has finally blossomed.
Did you really shit in a park in London?
Unfortunately I had a nice curry that evening
- so I had to wind up in one of your beautiful neighbourhood parks where I relieved
myself. It was a long walk home.
That's no excuse.
I got away with it though.
Is Jack Black the special secret vocalist
on the Probot album?
There is speculation that it is Jack but I can tell
you that it is not Jack Black.
Can you tell me off the record?
To me there is no such thing as off the record
if I have a secret then I keep it to myself.
Please.
You seem like a great guy and I love your
magazine - it is fucking insane, it's like a metal,
titty, gore mag - but you'll find out soon enough.
If we said it was Jack Black we'd probably sell
a few records but I can't say who it is right now.
words: James Doorne