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You know what yes is Appetite or Distortion. Welcome to the podcast Appetite for

0:33

Distortion, Episode number four hundred and forty five. My name is Brando.

0:38

Welcome to the podcast. Mister Courtney Taylor. Taylor, how are you,

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sir good man? How are you doing and where are you doing? I

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am doing in Queens, New York. That's where I am currently. Yeah.

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Yeah, so, but you're gonna be close soon because we have talked

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about the tour days you're about to embark. You're gonna be in my neck

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of the woods March ninth at Webster Hall. Then you're embarking on this massive

1:03

Australian New Zealand tour. We have a huge fan base. I don't know.

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I tease them from my off sis and my Kiwi fan base. Yeah,

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so you'll be all over the world. Where are you located right now?

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If you don't mind me asking? My basement of in Portland, Oregon.

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Oh okay, around shure, you're around here. It is all right.

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The basement that is that is exactly the setup of my last apartment I

1:32

ever had. It was set up exactly like this and I just moved it into my basement, preserved in time forever. Oh that's pretty. That's funny

1:40

the area you're on a do you moonlight as like an interior designer? Well,

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I own a lot of I own probably twenty thousand square feet of properties,

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so I've done a lot of designing. Not so much on my home.

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I did. I did some really cool stuff, but I have other

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few will do most of the building if it's really fine work. But like

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my studio, you know, I just get a couple buddies that know how

2:07

to swing a hammer and you know, use a chop saw. And we've

2:12

designed all the rooms there. It's called the Auditorium with the O D D

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I T O R I U M. And it's just you know, it's

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twenty thousand square feet, it's not twelve thousand square feet of Roman columns and

2:27

human sized chessboard cut and died into the concrete and you know, I mean

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it's just really gorgeous and super overdesigned and very rock but you know, stylish

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as fucking elegant. Yeah, so it's cool place. We've been in there

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for like twenty years, so it's it's seen a lot of work, and

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it's we do film there and we do all the recording and we have I

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have a wine bar in there, which is really great. You know,

3:00

it seems like you haven't all made in the shade. So it's kind of

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a question that I often comes up in these interviews when people are going on

3:08

tour. Do you miss leaving all that? Do you miss leaving your your

3:14

home? Is there something still exciting going on out on tour the well later

3:19

day. If you've been traveling like we have, you know, as a

3:23

lifestyle for thirty years, you you can't stop, you know. But what

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we like to do is go out every like the best we think is probably

3:32

every three or four months, go somewhere for a two week tour. And

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we've limited it to Hotttle, Europe, UK, Scandinavia, North America,

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uh in Australia and those are the territories. So that's what we do.

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We wander around and every few months, you know, you get the itch

3:54

to go somewhere and then you go, oh, oh, we're just about

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three and a half weeks away from you know, next tour, so uh

4:02

yeah, And we just manage it as like a like a vacation, like

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you're jonesing for a vacation. Well you can do it. You know,

4:15

sometimes we have our families come out, you know at the end, and

4:20

then stay, you know, like staying go to the Luxembourg Apple Festival or

4:27

you know whatever, just hanging around in Melbourne for a week and well that

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guess that kind of leads into another question, like staying in Melbourne for a

4:36

week. So I'm only I've never been overseas. It's finally happening. I'm

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going to London in a couple of months. But Australia, Like, I

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have two friends who married Australians. It's just something that I've always liked.

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It just look seems like a great place to visit. But what are you

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so? What do you do? Long ass plane rides like that? Can

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you sleep the entire way? Do you watch Netflix? What are you doing?

5:04

Oh dude, I watched movies. You know, the food's good.

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I don't you know if I do long flights, I don't fly economy.

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I can't start out in that kind of a I'm just I'm just not you

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know, physically it's happy, you know, it's just it just it hurts.

5:25

You gotta if you're gonna do it. I had to fly back from

5:30

Hong Kong and fortunately I had a sleeping I don't know xanax or something,

5:38

and well that was crazy, man. I got some good sleep sitting up

5:42

right with my head against the window. But you know, I used to

5:47

play football, which I guess you guys called or no, I'm sorry,

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you're not Australian in Australia. I keep thinking I'm speaking to Australia here,

5:56

which I might be grid Iron down there. And I and I got hit

6:00

really hard and I crushed a disc in our back, so I can't really

6:05

set up for fourteen hours, you know. I mean I've been taken off

6:11

the plane by paramedics before, so I have to I don't make money on

6:18

tour. It costs me too much to get there and back. It has

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to be fun because I I won't do it. Wow yeah, yeah,

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especially the dedication to go that far around the world. I mean it's not

6:30

just again Australia, New Zealand, and people can see all the day Standy

6:32

Warhols and that's the beauty of having a podcast, as any listeners everywhere you're

6:36

going to, Canada, all over. This is all in support of the

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new album rock Maker, which is coming out on March fifteenth, yeah,

6:46

which is too much work, way more work than I like the idea of

6:50

doing. So yeah, we've got the first half of this year. We're

6:55

grinding it out, you know, in the most human possible way, and

7:00

then we'll hopefully lighten back up, you know to just lovely, lovely rock

7:09

and roll vacation rocket rock themed vacations. Absolutely, and but how long?

7:16

I guess it was the whole The most enjoyable process of all of this so

7:19

far was just making the album. How long did it take for you?

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Because it's eleven tracks on the record? Oh god, this one. I

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started it before COVID, Oh wow, yeah, yeah, COVID was new

7:34

when I had your problem pretty close to end the zone and I and I

7:42

played it for Pete and he was like, oh yeah, and then I

7:47

had Then we were I did the Danzig with myself riff, that super sledgy

7:53

drop d thing, and then slowed down I think even more another half step

7:58

but uh yeah, and then it was game on. And then I think

8:01

Pete basically provided every guitar riff for every song after that. He just couldn't

8:11

stop. It was just obsessed, like, you know, because we were

8:15

metal kids and we have never we do like one metal song every other record.

8:20

You know, you've got Wasp in the Lotus, You've got Nietzsche Ride

8:24

was you know, very heavy. You know, we're not doing any kind

8:28

of you know, operatic singing or Cookie Monster or anything. So it's like

8:33

that metal, but it's metal guitars, slow grinded out metal guitars, like

8:39

like we like like Sabbath, you know, like it like Sweet Leaf,

8:46

you know, just right on. But yeah, I'm glad you mentioned Danzig

8:52

with Myself, which is just such a fun title. I mean, yeah,

8:58

that led to that led to you make me feel like Danzig, Danzig

9:03

on the Ceiling, dirty Danzig. Right? Do you ever cross paths with

9:07

with Glenn? I have never met him, We have some mutual friends,

9:13

so I hope I hope to meet that dude someday. Okay, Okay,

9:18

I know he did amazing icon. I mean yeah, I mean I finally

9:22

got to see The Misfits a couple of years ago at Madison Square Garden and

9:26

who is in it? Him and Jerry only basically Okay, so it was

9:33

cool. That is really cool though, that's amazing. I mean some of

9:39

these bands you got to see, will you know, while they're still around.

9:43

So or you know, sometimes people people take for granted because you guys

9:46

have been touring for so long the Dandy Warhol, so you don't want to take it for granted that you're could be doing it forever. Yeah, I

9:52

don't think we are. I mean I don't. I do want to retire,

9:56

but but only from the business side. You know, Zia is the

10:03

one who really keeps her eye on the on the numbers, right, She's

10:09

all over that shit, okay, And I bet she wants to retire bad.

10:15

There's just no other way to do it. If you're gonna, you know, enjoy the rock and roll themed a theme park that is going on

10:24

tour with these friends we've had for twenty five years. Just keep doing it

10:31

and have fun. And now we're in Warsaw dude, and let's go eat.

10:35

And what do you drink here? You drink Bison grass vodka with apple

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juice. It's a national drink of poland just FYI if you ever get there.

10:48

But yeah, there is a lot of bullshit accounting, and you have

10:52

to be involved in marketing and you have to you know, you have to

10:58

put out some effort and you have to it invades your home and your life

11:01

and your other things that you do. But then there is that you know,

11:07

if you keep your tours nice, you can make it an enjoyable experience.

11:11

Then you have this reward at the end of all the grindy emails,

11:16

hundreds and hundreds of emails and just oh my god, and then thousands of

11:22

texts and getting up at six in the morning to have a discussion with a

11:30

you know, with a German PR firm while he's in Slovenia, and yeah,

11:39

it's just yeah, yeah, it is like a busy it's a busy

11:43

grind There's so much business, unfortunately, music business. Yeah, but at

11:50

least through it all we do have the music, and that's what's really exciting.

11:54

I just want to mention the Danzig with myself because you have some featured

11:58

artists on this record. Black Francis is on that one. He's on a

12:03

couple of tracks to believe. Yeah, he's also on Love Thyself, right,

12:09

and we got to have him. We got to have him on two

12:11

tracks because Peter sent him the wrong track. Pete sent him Love Thyself.

12:18

It came back. I got an email from Charles and he's like Okay,

12:22

I did it. Send it to your guy, and Pete sent it to

12:26

me and goes, oh, no, Pete didn't hear it yet. I

12:31

got it too, so I went, Pete, did you send him the

12:35

wrong He goes, oh my god, I did, which is great because

12:39

what he added to that love Thyself is subtle, but it's it's game changing,

12:46

you know. It also just advanced the track to this other level of

12:50

wow. But it's not as blatantly loud, you know. So, and

12:56

that's why we didn't put a feature that in the title on that one,

12:58

because we didn't want to spend the restaurant. Hear that guitar? Right,

13:03

you don't hear that? Okay, in the right it's gone. It'll come

13:09

back though, I'll try to remember that. Okay, it's gonna come in

13:11

the next court, you know, like that kind of ship. You know, don't want to set yourself up for that in your life. So the

13:18

blatantly black Francis surf style, you know, Dwyane Eddie guitar in uh.

13:26

We were like, he can you do another one? And he said sure,

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I love that. Oh my god, so happy. Yeah. I

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have to imagine because there's two other collaborations. I'm sure one you're you're assuming

13:43

I'm gonna ask about, but I'll save the slash one for after the Debbie

13:46

Harry one. How did those? How did those come about? I'm assuming

13:50

it wasn't through an accidental you know, track is center and you got it

13:54

back. It was a better story there, Yeah, just trying to sing

13:58

that part, you know, like I came up with the part, and

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and my managers just said, if you could find anyone to sing that part

14:13

on your record, who would it be? And I'm like, Debbie Harry,

14:16

you know, and he goes, oh, yes, I'll check.

14:20

I'll check. Well, I'll get hold of her manager. Let's see how

14:24

realistic did you think that was going to be? Did you not think that was very? Not very you know? Wow, that'sh It's all a hail

14:33

Mary. You know, I use that word eight times a day because I'm

14:35

talking about this ship and it is you Just do it, give it a

14:39

try. You never know what was the the interaction that did you just send

14:45

her the song? Did you talk on the yeah? Sener of the lyrics

14:48

in the song with me singing that part, But I don't even remember how

14:52

I sang it. Because it came back different, you know, like she

14:56

made it hers, you know, because she is absolutely a super pro singer,

15:03

like amazing vocal chops and she was such a badass stylist and like the

15:09

coolest you know chick ever and the hottest that people don't talk about her as

15:16

like this super accomplished vocalist diva. She is a stick ass singer. And

15:24

if you go back and watch live stuff on YouTube, the people post up,

15:31

you know, she's just co going around and nailing every note of you

15:37

know, big long melody drops and you know in the sun just shocker.

15:45

She's perfect. She is absolutely top notch vocal chops. Like what how did

15:54

that escape everybody's notice, probably except the closest musicians to her. You know.

16:00

Yeah, she's an icon and I agree, one of the most beautiful

16:03

women to ever walk this planet. Just icon. And what about Well,

16:08

that song, by the way, is I Will Never Stop Loving You,

16:11

which I like, which sounds like a very Debbie Harry song. This one

16:17

sounds like a very slash song. I'd like to help you with your problem

16:21

and getting great reviews. The video is out now, can you please talk

16:26

about how the collaboration with Slash came about same thing, you know, like

16:32

me and Pete just trying to do something that we don't have the chops to

16:34

do and going, who is the who, who is the greatest, you

16:40

know, Vietnam vet rock, guitar player, LSD, the Sound of sixty

16:47

nine, nineteen sixty nine, LSD nineteen seventy, biker rock, whatever,

16:51

you know, and my a really great guitar player friend of mine, John

16:56

Fell said, yeah, Slash is like he's like the last of that.

17:03

He's like the last real one. There was no no hipster fiddling about,

17:10

nothing trendy at all. He is just purest, absolute purest, and which

17:17

was thank you, you know. And so our manager called his manager and

17:22

sent him the track and that he got back in like forty minutes, like

17:26

it was less than an hour, and he was like, yeah, I

17:30

want to do it. What do you want, you know, Vietnam vet

17:33

rock, you know, just whatever, just cry baby, but just LSD,

17:37

LSD rock, just you know, you know, do it while Wah

17:41

pedal and it came back and it was just so deep and beautiful. It

17:47

was absolutely stunny. It was so much more than had Peter I had the

17:52

chops to play that kind of thing we would not have even come close to.

17:57

How how the beautiful exotic nature of what it is. It's exotic.

18:03

It's like Arabian nights, you know, it's castles in Spain or some ship.

18:07

And he's also doing you know, real textual stereo trippy stuff, and

18:15

and yeah, he just unleashed on that one. Man, it's really cool.

18:21

And then breakdown section where he's doing those Middle Eastern scales that are just

18:25

these you know, like a wave of butterflies. It's it's absolutely stunning,

18:33

the whole thing. And I can't listen to this record enough. I get

18:37

stoned. I get stoned at least once a day and listen to this record

18:41

right on my man. I love that. Yeah, and I love that

18:44

the Vietnam Rock you better copyright that. That's just like Vietnam vet Vietnam.

18:51

There you go, Vietnam vet Rock. I love it. Yeah. We

18:55

tour with this, We tour at the Black Angels. We toured with them recently and and well we're gonna so now we're booking a tour of Europe and

19:03

the UK together later this year. And that's really fine because they're kind of

19:10

like they're really not letting go of that Vietnam. I think he has lyrics

19:15

about Vietnam. Actually, okay, Black Angels are great, man, They're

19:21

great. I love them. I mean there, they are great. But

19:26

if I can continue on slash, I just have to, of course with

19:29

this, when I use the six degrees of GNR Bacon with this podcast.

19:33

That's why. Yeah, I can see the poster behind you right there.

19:36

Yeah, there's a few of them. I was telling you your buddy Eric

19:40

before we got connected, just explaining my deal. You know, everyone else

19:45

and then their mother is a podcast. I don't want it to be the

19:47

Brando show. Everyone has a rock show. So I kind of just used

19:51

gn R as a nucleus to interview whoever, whether it's a close connection,

19:56

whether it's not. And I've always wanted a reason to interview you, to

20:00

be honest with you, Courtney. And then as soon as I well Richard,

20:03

I took Richard Fordis out to the greatest meal he's ever had in his

20:07

life. That's a great So ye tell us what's what is that? I'm

20:10

assuming he was better than the White Castle or Taco Bell. Where'd you go? There was the top, arguably the top chef of Portland of Itally Paley

20:22

had a place called Piley's and it's four or five blocks from my studio and

20:27

it is the top restaurant of Portland. You know, there's not much I

20:32

could compete with it historically, and uh I am a food and wine guy,

20:37

you know, like the dirty life of cocaine and blowjobs and punk rock

20:42

shitholes and you know, just just that that that h has to go away

20:48

from your life at some point, getting super fucked up and passing out in

20:52

the bathroom of but you know, ship like that. You can't have that.

20:56

So wine and food, Wine and food, It's available everywhere and everyone's

21:02

going for it and making really cool stuff right now and have been for like

21:06

ten or fifteen years. It's just been game Lon. Food is you know,

21:10

the most watched TV and wine magazines and blah blah blah blah blah blah,

21:15

prices quadrup old quintupled. So shit, I forgot where I started with

21:22

this. It's a good connection with me where Richard's That night I said,

21:30

come by the wine bar and or no, I said, let's go to

21:33

dinner. And because he doesn't drink, we get I go, Let's go

21:38

to Battallica, like you eating. He is the outlook, great food,

21:41

let's do it. He's also vegetarian, maybe vegan, maybe even vegan,

21:48

and they had maybe four or five things on the menu that he could eat,

21:52

which never happens at a really high end restaurant mainly French Ish. They

21:57

had vegan castle lay and it was castili is one of my favorite foods and

22:03

that was one of the three four top castiles out of one hundred and twenty

22:08

I've had in my life, including Paris, Leon frand you know, like

22:12

where it lives, Bozool, you know, and uh it was just great.

22:18

I ordered what he ordered, and he, you know, of course, was dude, you know I can watch you eat meat. I don't

22:22

care. And I was like, no, dude, I want, I

22:25

want experience, but you're experiencing here. And it was the restaurant to go

22:27

to, man, because he was you know, I got a great bottle

22:30

of wine, drank it myself. Fuck yes, I didn't have to play

22:33

that night, and uh so, uh yeah, and he as we're walking

22:40

back down to the studio, he said, I think that I think that

22:44

is the single greatest meal of my life. The place has since Closed,

22:48

and Richard was the first one I texted when I heard and he knew exactly

22:53

what I was talking about. I was like, do you remember Pale's It's

22:56

Closed? He was like, yes, of course I remember. It was

23:00

about that meal. That's a great story that Those are the kind of stories

23:04

I look for, just like the human connections. It's never any dirt.

23:07

I just love the fact that you're just going out with this for this awesome

23:11

meal with with Richard Fortis. How long did you, I guess, know

23:15

him for obviously to be able to take him out and to go out for

23:18

a dinner. You guys go up and do you remember when Tommy Stinson played

23:25

on Puffed on a Puff Daddy single. I forgot about that? Do you

23:32

remember that? I forgot about it. I was like, it had it

23:36

had really cool guitar on it, really cool guitar. It was. It

23:41

wasn't the Zeppelin cover? Was it the one they did for the Gods?

23:45

Okay? I don't, I don't. I don't think no. I think

23:48

it was just a song, you know, Okay, just a Puff Daddy

23:51

track. But the guitar was very cool. And I was in New York.

23:56

We were on tour or something. I ran into Stintson am told friends

24:00

like the there was a bar owner that always had the bar that every cool

24:03

you know, Keith Richards would be hanging out there. You know, it

24:10

was it was just great, you know, like Blur or you know, Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, whoever. That's where you go. And Stinton

24:18

was there and and I said, uh, I said, dude, your

24:26

guitar on that track is fucking amazing. And the dude standing next to him

24:32

just laugh really loud. And Stinton, who I think was sober at the

24:37

time, so it was super grumpy. Yeah, real funny. It's not

24:44

me, it's him. And that was forty's That's when I met Forda's and

24:49

we just came friends. And usually what happens is maybe there, you know,

24:56

Guns n' Roses is in a town that I I'm in, and we

25:02

happened to text, and you know, and he's like, oh my god, hey, looks like you're going to be in Inneapolis in three days.

25:08

We're in Minneapolis three days. Let's hang out, right. And then when

25:12

I'm in Saint Louis, which is where he lives, I text him and

25:15

we hang out, you know, if he's in Portland where I live,

25:18

we hang out, you know. So yeah, that's that's why I ended

25:23

up at dinner with Forda's my dinner with FDA's. It sounds like that dinner

25:30

with Florida's. It sounds like a movie. Yeah, well it's worthwhile.

25:34

It could be a movie. He's a very very smart guy, you know,

25:38

he's a very experience and sweet intelligent dude. I'm lucky to have had

25:45

both him and Tommy on the podcast. And this is the last GENA related

25:49

thing before we just so wrap up. Go back to the touring album sinceuse

25:53

you guys started the Dandy Warhol's early nineties, just where Gene r was kind

25:57

of a breaking yeah, peeping out a couple a couple weeks ago, thirty

26:06

years ago, it was January. Here I can show you. I don't

26:11

know if the but can you see a poster in that corner? Yeah?

26:15

I mean I could tell there as a poster, but I can't. It's

26:18

the first Dandy Warhol's concert and it says so classic Portland says bent, and

26:26

then it says jump, and then it says loves Dandy Warhols and it's got

26:33

the red circle with the white letters in the middle, and it's hand screen

26:38

printed. And whenever the Mexican culture of Portland had they would have dances,

26:47

big dances, like like where they have the rodeo and shit and or the

26:55

convention centers so like, and they would put these posts, thousands of them

26:59

up around in old Portland, you know, and old back in the old

27:03

days. And that was the style of poster. So some clever dude in

27:11

chum or bent very Portland nineties names, you know, four letters, that's

27:18

it. Uh yeah, one of them thought that would be clever and they

27:26

made those posters. And I snagged one, and that was our first show,

27:30

and so I snagged one, and just you know, I only kept

27:36

a lot of memorabilia. Pete's kind of probably more of a historian about us

27:41

than anyone else in the band. Okay, man, I got I'm the

27:45

only one with the first poster. Look at that, and then it's right

27:48

in your your basement. That was somewhere else what you brought into this hall.

27:53

Yeah yeah, it was my my, my pad dude, my wondering

28:00

what's what my life's going to? What am I gonna do with my life?

28:03

What am I going to do is anything going to work out for me? All of those thoughts were in exactly this setting, in a different room

28:11

down the street that I can see from my house now. And look how

28:15

it's worked out. I mean, it worked out all right, It worked

28:18

out all right. All these years later, the Dandy Warhols new record coming

28:22

out touring the world. It's it's phenomenal. So again, the Rock Maker

28:27

comes out March fifteenth. You're doing a bunch of dates in the US and

28:32

in Canada in March, but again in April we go into our friends down

28:37

under Australia and New Zealand and you can find everything at Dandy Warhols dot com.

28:42

Right, I believe so Yeah, I mean I said, if you

28:47

have like a favorite do you have like a favorite Instagram or x? Do

28:51

you have a favorite story? I have never been on any social media in my life. Better off? Better off once? Yeah. I like life.

28:59

You know, I'm kind of blood. I I like my life to be what's you know like out there? It smells smells good. Walk around

29:07

It's Oregon, a lot of trees, you know what I mean. It's

29:10

just nice. People are nicer in person than they are on the internet.

29:15

Yeah, yeah. And you know what else is great is that I get

29:19

to go to pizza and my favorite pizza place tonight. Oh yeah, I'm

29:26

getting blown up. Okay, I think I got another another interview, all

29:30

right, so yeah, I'm gonna wrap up now anyway, so cool.

29:33

Wait, let me see who it is. I got it. Yes,

29:36

it's Eric, it is Eric Carlson. Oh no, I don't want to

29:40

piss off Eric. Fuck. He can only be calling because I need to

29:44

do another one. Yeah. Uh's because we were running late, so I

29:49

was playing catch up. So let's uh, let's what's just hope we can

29:52

do this again? Corney. Fuck. Yeah, I really do appreciate your

30:00

time and his congratulations and I appreciate yours a lot. Thanks so much for

30:04

being interested in doing this. You know, absolutely right on. So that

30:07

does it for this episode of Appetite for Distortion. When will you see the

30:11

next one? Well, the words of Axel Rose concerning Chinese democracy, I

30:15

don't know if suit is the word what you'll see it Thanks to the lame

30:26

ass security. I'm going home.