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Mojo:
So what's this for? What kind of communist front organization
are you?
Wil:
It's the Moonies. It's for the Moonies.
Mojo:
(Laughs) Ahh, the Moonies!
Wil:
Yeah, we're back in action. People think we're down
for the count but we still got it going on.
Mojo:
Still having those big weddings and whatnot..
Wil:
Actually, this is for acidlogic.com, which is sort of
a popular culture web site.
Mojo:
Have you got Evel Knievel? It's popular culture, so
you gotta have Evel Knievel, right?
Wil:
You know, we haven't touched on that yet.
Mojo:
Well, see, you're not at the most popular end of culture,
unless Evel Knievel is involved!
Wil:
Well, we're moving up to that. You start with Curtis
Armstrong from Revenge of the Nerds who we had recently;
then you go to Mojo Nixon and then to Evel Knievel.
Mojo:
Oh, okay, I'm the link!
Wil:
Exactly. you're bringing those two worlds together.
a unification of love and spiritual harmony.
Mojo:
Right on, baby!
Wil:
It's interesting that you bring that up, because I do
know someone who was friends with Evel Knievel in the
seventies. and said he was kind of a dick, actually.
Mojo:
Oh, everybody says that. I got a painting from him.
Me and Bullethead, my old manager, went to his sister's
restaurant in Butte, Montana and she reluctantly sold
it to us, while she was muttering under her breath that
he's a dick and an asshole and all this stuff. I just
wanted to get one of the paintings. A friend of mine
plays guitar in Johnny Cougar's band and he came to
town the other night. I was talking to him and I said
to him, "Look, I got a Knievel. If I could just get
a Cougar and a Hitler, I'd have the big three of the
art world!"
Wil:
So that's John Cougar whose keyboard player was just
caught for child molestation?
Mojo:
That's one of his old keyboard players. Not the one
I know. (Laughs)
Wil:
Well. I've been listening to your "Sock Ray Blue" album
and really enjoying it.
Mojo:
It's pretty good!
Wil:
That's true. I'm sure you're sort of partial to it.
Mojo:
Yeah, you know, we were talking about it the other day
in the van. Most albums, you're lucky if you've three
good songs that kind of continue on two years after
the album is over. This one's got five or six!
Wil:
One that caught my ear that I wanted to talk about was
the song about Country Dick Montana entitled, "The Ballad
of Country Dick."
Mojo:
Right, it's "The Ballad of Country Dick" and it's to
the tune of "Jesse James" which is an American folk
ballad. So I wanted to make Country Dick into a Paul
Bunyun, Americana, folklore kind of character. I didn't
have to do a lot of work
Wil:
He's a guy you had a lot of history with. He did the
liner notes to your "Frenzy" album, and you were also
in the band "The Pleasure Barons" with him, but how
did the original Mojo/Country Dick relationship begin?
Mojo:
Oh, it started out way early. When I first moved to
San Diego in '80, or whatever year that was, he was
in three of the five good bands in town, and I met him.
And there was a whole bunch of people kind of having
the same idea all across the country. people who liked
Chuck Berry, Hank Williams and Punk Rock. And
they all had flannel shirts!
Wil:
Okay.
Mojo:
And everybody wanted to somehow fuse that together.
I had that idea and Country Dick had that idea, as did
the Blasters and the Del-Lords and the Del Fuegos.
Wil:
All the "Del" bands.
Mojo:
Right, all the Del bands. Lots of people had it, the
Long Ryders had that idea.
Wil:
I remember them. Didn't they do the beer ads in the
eighties?
Mojo:
Yeah, they probably did. So Country Dick was going to
form a band like that. He had a band called "Country
Dick and the Snugglebunnies." I used to go to everyone
of their shows and demand that they play the "Wreck
of the Old 97." The Wreck of the Old 97 took place
in the town I grew up in, Danville, Virginia. So the
fact that these kind of punk rockers pretending to be
cowboys played the "Wreck of the Old 97" was perfect.
Wil:
Okay.
Mojo:
So I was going to all their shows. And then Country
Dick was going to form another band with this guy, Jerry
Raney. (The band was) The Beat Farmers and I was demanding
to be in it. I was claiming I was going to learn how
to play the bass or something. Anyway, I didn't get
in it but it all worked out, you know, in the long run.
I was able to go off and do my thing. Uhhh. hang on
a second, I gotta tell these kids to stop doing something.
Wil:
(Laughs. Line goes silent. In the background a loud
voice is heard.)
Mojo:
(returning) They're tearin' up the porch!
Wil:
That's very appropo, because in a second I do want to
ask you about the "When Did I Become My Dad" song.
But there's one line from "The Ballad of Country Dick"
I wanted to ask about and the line is "But that evil
Rotten turd/ Mr. Mike Perv/ Laid Country Dick in his
Grave."
Mojo:
It's supposed to be Mike Curb. But the chickenhearts
and Shanachie - who are going out of business, 'cuz
every record label I hook up with goes out of business
- the chickenhearts at Shanachie made me change it.
Wil:
And he (Mike Curb) worked for MCA (Records).?
Mojo:
Yeah, he was from Sacramento. He was Lieutenant Governor
of there for a while. He signed the Beat Farmers, and
when Country Dick would get all drunk, he would start
railing against Mike Curb. What had happened is Curb
signed the Beat Farmers, but he had no idea what to
do with them. He thought, "Maybe they're country, maybe
they're rock." They (MCA) didn't know how to promote
them, so they just killed them.
Wil:
You've also got this song called "When Did I Become
My Dad" which is really more of a poignant song than
a humorous song.
Mojo:
Well, I did get a line in there about the old man butt
cream, just so everyone knew it was Mojo Nixon.
Wil:
Yeah, you gotta throw that stuff in.
Mojo:
Back in '85 when Springsteen did Nebraska and Johhny
Cougar was saving all the farmers and stuff.. Wait,
hold on a sec. (Mojo puts down phone to deal with kids
again. In the background he can be heard saying "What'd
I just say? When I say something I mean it!")
Wil:
(to nobody in particular) This really is quite ironic.
Mojo:
(returning to the phone) Awright.
Wil:
So did your dad say "When I say something I mean it?"
Mojo:
Yeah.. Yeah, I just found out that my cholesterol is
328.
Wil:
You. you're not serious?
Mojo:
I'm dead serious.
Wil:
Literally!
Mojo:
I went to the Doctor with a earwax problem.
Wil:
And it turned out to be cholesterol?
Mojo:
.And he said, "Well, let's check your cholesterol,"
and I somehow agreed to do it. So now I have to, you
know, eat more fish, and eat more chicken, I gotta exercise
and take these damn pills. (no form of text markup can
really denote the derision that Mojo applies to the
words "fish," "chicken" and "exercise.")
Wil:
I've got some salmon recipes you might like.?
Mojo:
Well, I like fish.
Wil:
.And that's supposed to lower cholesterol.
Mojo:
.But I really like deep fried pork covered cheese sauce!
Wil:
.That's not quite salmon.
Mojo:
.Washed down with some whole milk and a couple of deviled
eggs! Now that's good eatin'!
Wil:
I'm beginning to see your problem.
Mojo:
Apparently the only thing keeping me alive is the fact
that I don't smoke. I did this whole thing about it
at work, at the radio station. I told the whole story
and was ranting and raving about it. Some guy called
up and he was all mad 'cuz he'd had two hearts attacks
and his cholesterol was only 250!
Wil:
So he figures you're due for a heart attack.
Mojo:
Yeah, he was mad that I hadn't had one yet!
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