joykiller

Krusty: I only have one question prepared, so we'll see what happens.

Jack: That's all right.

K: I want to know what it's like for you to be out in front of an audience again.

J: It's weird. I haven't been on tour since 1983. That's a long time. And it's weird because when I first started making records and doing this, most of these kids weren't even born. Like a lot of kids at shows which is weird. Isn't that weird? You were in diapers and I was out in the middle of the country starving. But, anyway, we had this guy that was with us and we stole him from the neighborhood. This kid that lived in our neighborhood. We said, 'Go with us. C'mon, you're out of school. You're going on a trip.' So we loaded him up and took him. His mom dropped him off at our house. It was hot. She dropped her little baby off. There was like eight guys with skinheads standing in the front yard. And this car pulls up like, 'Take care of my boy,' and she gives him to us. But, he went with us and it was so funny cuz we were in Frisco and we were at the Filmore and I go, 'God man,' and we were figuring out the ages, and it turned out he was two years old the last time I played the Filmore. That's kind weird. Kind of a grandpa gabba gabba hey.

K: Two?

J: Yeah. He was two. He's still crappin' his pants, you know what I'm saying, and I was getting smoked out by the Bad Brains. It's kinda weird, but it's fun. I'm stoked. It's a blast. Cuz emotionally, I'm like "pushing nine, maybe. Most of them are a lot more mature than I am.

K: But, what's maturity, really?

J: Right.

K: I mean, you're in this to have fun.

J: And I've been having a blast for the last sixteen/seventeen years.

K: What do you think of the audiences being so young?

J: It's not as threatening as it used to be. It's kinda weird now, you know. Because before, when I was going to shows before, it was scary. I'd go see the Genus play, and you knew that maybe something's gonna happen here. You know what I mean? It's like that total, tense, almost like a cocaine rush or something. You go to a show and it's like, 'Okay, what's gonna happen?' and there wasn't any security. You know, it's like people talk about all the security problems. Well, back then there wasn't any security. It was 'So and so's got a warehouse. Let's have a show,' or 'Let's go to this guy's house.' There was no security and anything could happen. Fights broke out and they basically just broke out until they stopped, you know. There was no one there to jump in and break it up. But, I like it. I'd much rather hear this on the radio than Warrant. You know what I'm saying?

K: But now what do you think about having all the rules and regulations and security?

J: That is so fucked! Because they're trying to sanitize something that the whole appeal is the fact that it's not to be sanitized. That's the whole deal. It's like... I had the same problem when the condom thing happened. You're taking something that basically it's like, 'We're fucked up, we're frustrated,' and energy flashes and everyone is just goin' nuts. Now they're saying, 'Okay, you be fucked up, you be frustrated, you pay seven bucks and stand in here and be fucked up and frustrated all night long.' And you're not allowed to get anything out. I hate the guy that sued the first club for gettin' injured at a club. I'd like to find him. There's two guys I want to find. I want to find the first guy that slammed at a heavy metal concert, and I want to find the first kid that sued. That's why they got insurance problems. So you can't do anything. At home, they don't do this as much. At home you can basically do whatever you want. If you can get over the barricade, you can dive away. They don't give a shit what you do. I don't know if you heard this story yet. We were gonna get kicked off the tour. It was just a nightmare. Here was all these people that wanna have a good time, and it's like packed and the security won't let 'em do anything. You know, you slam, we're there, you dive, you're out. And not just out, you get your ass kicked. They were beating up kids. So, anyway, we were getting kids on the stage cuz we're not like small guys. There's a lot of us that are pretty big. I'm like, 6'3", 220lbs. And everyone in the band is like, over six foot. And we like to play sports. So, this kid got up on stage, and it was totally hot cuz he pulled his pants down, and he was like doing these naked disco moves. And they tried to get him, and we say, 'No! He's ours. He's up here, so he's ours now.' The manager got up and like choked him. And so Stewart, our road manager, grabbed the manager. And then I grabbed the manager. And the manager goes, 'This is my stage.' And Stewart goes, 'Not when we're fuckin' on it. Get outta here.' And he threw the manager of the club off the stage. So everybody in the show goes nuts. And then the kids turned against the bouncers and they called the cops. And they were trying to arrest me for indecent exposure and inciting a riot, Steward for inciting a riot, Fletcher for inciting a riot, and Jim Lindberg for inciting a riot. And they were trying to get all four of us. Cuz I had flashed some kids, so there was a problem there. They maced and just the whole trip. So the promoter called up all these clubs and said, 'Fuck that band The Joykiller. We don't want them playing. Get them off your show.' And then the clubs called back to the booking agent and said, 'What's the problem? We want those guys off the bill.' So, Fletcher stood up for us and called up and said, 'Fuck, no! The bouncers were beating up the kids. And those guys did the right thing.' It was a big nightmare. I talked to my mom about it. My mom's totally happenin', you know. I talked to my mom, and I told her, 'Yeah, this is what happened.' Cuz she wanted to know what happened, cuz they were calling her house. And like, people are flying out from LA to try to get this sorted out. And my mom's goin', 'Damn right. Stand up for the kids.' She's all for it. See, my mom's seen so much crap. I mean, people used to stay at the house, at my mom's house. Like, when bands came from out of town, everyone would go to my mom's. She's seen it all. She's just stoked I'm not passing out on the lawn anymore. So, anything's good after that, you know. They're not shooting at the house, and he's not passed out on the lawn, so everything's good.

K: What do you think of punk rock becoming all of a sudden just 'the thing'?

J: Actually, I like it. I think it's cool. Cuz I love the music. I love the style of the music, you know. And, it's like, people get so stupid. You talk about, 'oh, it's trendy to like punk rock.' Well, what's trendy is to say, 'I don't like it and I'm not a punk anymore because it's happening.' Well, then you must have never liked it in the first place. I mean, that's like somebody saying, 'I love rhubarb pie,' so now somebody says, 'hey, you get all the rhubarb pie you want,' and I say, 'fuck it, I don't like it anymore.' That's ridiculous, bring on the pie. And it's the same thing with this.

K: What about the kids that don't know where it came from?

J: Oh well. What's it matter. I don't give a fuck. I don't care. I've had people that more defend me more than I defend myself. I've had friends that say, 'Look, this guy was playing in TSOL before you were even born. And he was in Vicious Circle before that. And you should know this.' It's like, I don't... why should they know? I don't give a fuck. I think it's cool. I love it. And like I said before, I'd rather hear this than Poison on the radio.

The Joykiller

This interview was done at First Avenue in Minneapolis, MN in 1995.