Music Buzz

Playboy


What would we see in your CD changer these days?
My Morning Jacket. They're the best Sunday-morning hangover, psychedelic-country Neil Young experience - beautiful music with passionate lyrics. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is a band to fuck to. It's the sexiest music. I can say Queens Of The Stone Age because even though I've drummer for them, I'm not in the band. Songs For The Deaf is one of the best rock records in the past 10 years. Cave In is a great up-and-coming rock band.

What current music trend do you hate?
I look at a lot of bands today and see piercings, spiky black hair, tribal tattoos, wife beaters, Doc Martens. In 10 years, those guys will be saying what the hair metal guys say now: "What was I thinking?" I've never been into the image thing - it's irrelevant. If i see a band getting too dressed up, I won't buy their record.

Is that true of the Hives?
That's different, they're more of an homage than an image. That's another great record - the Kinks meet the Buzzcocks meets the Stones meet the Who. Live, they're fucking unreal.

What is it about sex, drugs and rock'n'roll?
Musicians are all about escapism. The best musicians are dreamers. When I was a teenager I was really into weed, and I fucking loved acid. It gave me license to go insane for eight hours.

Are you still into drugs?
I smoked a joint five years ago. Otherwise I haven't done drugs for 14 years. I never saw heroin until I moved to Seattle.

Did you realize that as a rock star you would be able to get a lot of girls?
No, not really. I never believed that I would be in a popular rock band. Growing up with punk rock, I didn't subscribe to rock-and-roll idolatry. You made music with your friends, for your friends. We played for beer or for gas money.

Once you made it big in Nirvana, did you indulge in groupies?
Nirvana represented everything against conventional rock ethics. We thought the groupie scene was degrading. That's not to say I didn't meet girls and get laid, but it wasn't the sport it is on a Motley Crue tour. Fucking some faceless girl on the road isn't a good idea if you're afraid of catching something.

You've described drumming as a sexual experience. Explain?
You're using your whole body to make expressive music. It's like the best night of dancing and fucking ever.