When you were first interviewed at the Harvest Festival in Sydney in 2011, you showed me a photo on your phone of decapitated human heads in a large freezer. The freezer belonged to the guy you bone based on the sources you used to distribute new music. This is more of a comment than a question.
Gosh, that’s a great memory. wow I remember having that picture — and showing it to people. Not to many but to some.
I don’t know if you believed it at the time, but it’s true, I remember. But there are people who have donated their bodies to their knowledge, and then they use all the other bits. And I know this guy who works at the skeleton site [Skulls Unlimited in Oklahoma]he takes heads and then turns heads [using flesh-eating bacteria]. But they come as just heads! This is the most amazing thing I have ever seen.
Maybe at his place, the day the severed heads came in frozen, he pointed it out to me, and he acknowledged that I had taken a picture, but he was like, “Don’t worry about it. You can show it to people on your phone, but not always.” [the photo] anyway.” So it’s our secret. Me and you.
Me, you and the reader. What was the most memorable interaction you ever had with a fan?
A lot of the time we meet people – and I think that’s just the reason we make music – who really want to tell us about sad and sad things in life. I don’t take it lightly. You’re talking to someone and they’re going to reveal that their mother is dead, or their brother has cancer or something – it’s never too much of a shame.
Who is the loudest person on the phone?
Chris Martin and Miley Cyrus? Are they noble enough?
What is the last book you read that you loved?
My favorite books really are the same books they’ve been since I was a child, like; Dr. Seuss books. And now I read them to the kids. The Grinch that Stole Christmas, or The Cat in the Hat. I am very justified: I have loved them all my life, and now I read them to my child.
If you could change the size of any animal to have as a pet, what would it be?
My little boy’s name is Flosculus and he loved crocodiles. Who wants to get one for Christmas? Father Christmas is thinking, he will bring one. I just hope that these things don’t grow up to bite your face off. But he will know at last.
Perhaps we should take one small one, and when it is big we will give it to another. I told him, “Well, we could tape his mouth shut and probably sleep with him.”
The shows of your life are very exciting, but there is always a lot going on. What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you on stage?
We don’t make fires, but we do make torches here and there. We played a series of shows in Texas and we bought a bunch of fireworks and while we were playing they literally blew up the stage. They shoot and hit us, they hit the audience, they hit the ceiling, they hit everywhere. I mean, it was just crazy stupid – you could have shot someone’s eye out, you could have shot your eye out, you could have caught fire, you could have killed us all. Fortunately, none of these things happened and we got to our senses, and it really only happened a couple of times.
We actually tried to make brands [once] when ” no playing to the audience, just being like “How” I wish Shall we do this?” And we couldn’t do this because it’s too scary. But in front of the audience adrenaline kind of gives superhuman strength.
No. No one ever does that. But we did. We came with him. And never again. On purpose.
Have you ever been lucky enough to run into a celebrity?
Everything has its time. Really We would meet first Paul McCartney – He was not there to meet us, it was one of these festivals, and he entered through the stage. No one really knew it was there. He entered with his wife Linda, whom I soon followed on stage. He thought I was part of his entourage – apparently he’s not smart there.
I stood behind him as he watched Neil Young play. I’d see Neil Young play – I was there to see Paul McCartney more than anything else. It was a long time ago – 1993 or something like that – but I remember: his ears were very dark. I mean, you’re just looking at Paul McCartney the man, you know? Not that you do that very often. I also remember looking at his ear and – look, sometimes when you go around a lot, your ears are kind of creepy.
I don’t smoke pot, and he had a big joint, and he handed it to me as if I were part of his service, and I took a big breath, which I shouldn’t have done, but I thought; “Well, how many times do you have to smoke with Paul My Cartney?” It was amazing.
Do you have a nemesis?
To be honest, it’s up to you now. Talking to you makes me feel like I don’t have the answers. Besides that I took some pictures of the cut off heads. You and I, that’s all we know.
Do you have any party tricks?
I did one. A magician showed me this trick where you pretend you can put a big nail through your arm. You can use this glue, and you can [stick] this nail into this hole that you made in that, but no one knows that you have glue in your arm. I would carry around a little bit of fake blood and put this pin through my arm – and it looked very plausible. I’ll tell people like, “You can’t feel it in my wrist here — I can actually put a pin through it! I’ll show you, it’s cool.” And people would be like, “Fuck! That’s an education you’ve got!”
What places do you do this? Like, a party or…?
When you go around – especially like in the late 80s, early 90s – you just end up meeting a lot and doing a lot where you can really feel the place. So you want to have something you can do. It’s like, hey, I don’t know what to talk about – but if I do something like that, the barrier between me and the other crowd is starting to break down.
You want to have something to offer… like I showed you when I cut off the heads! I mean, the trick was a nice party.
Do you believe in ghosts?
After my father died, the fact that you could see people in dreams – if I thought like that, I could think, “That’s really who is talking to me,” you know? He died of cancer, and he was an old man; it was horrible. But I would see that if I were younger, and something was much more bitter, much sadder, you would believe something that happens during such a moment.
Since my wife’s father died, we have been away and will never see him again. Now he goes to senses and materials, he wants to visit him, and when things happen, he says, “I think he is.” I say: “Alas! If you like it, that’s it, that’s it!” I don’t believe anything – if it makes you happy and you believe that the world is great, then, of course, of course!