... Needless to say, the band isn't pinching pennies anymore, especially if they were able to blow $3,000 on single malt scotch whiskey during the recording of "INDEPENDENT WORM SALOON". The generous budget of Capitol Records extended further than the band's bottomless glasses. "It's all money," notes Paul. "You know, we spent more on this record than on our last nine records combined times two."

Capitol rolled out their red carpet of unearthly delight including samplers, sequencers, and digital computer recorders for the band members to tinker with, not to mention providing a cornucopia of studio time (seven weeks) in Marin, CA, near the George Lucas ranch. This certainly beat the Butthole's former house-cum-studio method. It also granted them the option to hire John Paul Jones as producer.

It was Capitol who first suggested Jones. "When I heard that, I just cracked up and said, 'Oh, yeah, he's going to want to work on the Butthole Surfer's record. Why not?,'" smirks Paul. "They sent him a tape an he said he'd do it. That really floored me. So we were like 'gosh, do we really want to do this?' We talked to him on the phone for a little while and we all agreed that if his name had been Dick Wipe we would have still wanted him because he had a really cool attitude."

The band invited Jones to Austin for two weeks of preproduction discussion in-between drinking shots of scotch. With the exception of 'Edgar', Jones honed in on the Buttholes' straightforward rock songs as opposed to its more psychedelic "swirly" pieces (songs without a start or ending: "they just sort of go"). "Despite the fact that [Jones] is British, we were able to understand each other's humor and he was very easily entertained," notes Paul. "We got along real well. He was not assertive in trying to change us. He made some suggestions with regard to arrangements here and there, but he was pretty much into what we were into."

Jones' talent for provocative arrangements complemented material that in Jeff's opinion can otherwise be a bit repetitive. Certainly all the songs that comprise "INDEPENDENT WORM SALOON" are quite a distinct marvel for the ears. On each listen, it seems as if a peculiar new creature sound surfaces. 'Ballad of Naked Man', the only song written at the studio, parades Jones on bass and some fancy banjo picking by Jeff. "Not even in my wildest pothead fantasies of high school did I ever figure I'd be playing with John Paul Jones on a song that I had written. It was a stretch for my imagination."