WRIF Virtual Rock Room with Hollywood Undead's Johnny 3 Tears
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00:00Thank you so much for watching Riff TV.
00:02Now, this interview is obviously with video, but I don't interview everybody on Zoom.
00:07That's why I put it on my Talkin' Rock with Meltdown podcast.
00:10We talk to rock artists from all over the genre.
00:13So check out Talkin' Rock with Meltdown wherever you get your podcasts.
00:16And now, to today's video interview.
00:20Three tiers, what's happening, man? How are you?
00:23Good, dude. Just chilling, brother.
00:25Yeah, are you in the West Coast?
00:27No, we're down in South Dakota right now.
00:30Brookings, South Dakota. We got a show tonight.
00:32Now, did you just recently play Sturgis?
00:35Yeah.
00:36Yeah, the Buffalo Chip.
00:38Yeah, that was crazy, man.
00:40Yeah, I saw that.
00:41So how does a band like Hollywood Undead go over in Sturgis?
00:44Was it a biker event?
00:46Yeah, yeah, dude.
00:47I mean, no, yeah, the whole front rows, dudes on Harleys, and they, like, rev if they like stuff.
00:52And, no, that was one of the cooler experiences.
00:55I've always wanted to go, so to be able to go under those circumstances, it was pretty cool, man.
01:00And I think people would be surprised about how nice everybody is and how cool everybody is.
01:05It's not, you know, what it's made out to be, I guess, through perception.
01:11Everybody was super cool.
01:13We enjoyed the hell out of it, dude.
01:14It was a big party.
01:15I mean, everybody's just having the time of their life, so we enjoyed the hell out of it.
01:19Yeah, it's funny because, you know, I've had a Harley, you know, practical all my whole adult life, and I've never been out there yet.
01:25So I've got to get out there.
01:25Oh, dude, go.
01:27Yeah.
01:28You've got to go, man.
01:29I honestly, I thought it was going to be cool, but it was way cooler than I even, like, thought.
01:33You know, everybody's just having, it's like a huge party.
01:35Everybody's camping, but, you know, everybody's camp is everybody else's camp.
01:39Everybody gets to, it really was, I was, it was awesome, man.
01:43Very worth it.
01:43Now, I've got kids, so my kids are, you know, getting to the age now where I can start to jet off, and you've got kids, right?
01:50Yes, sir.
01:50You've got, what, three of them, is that right?
01:53Three, the two of them are really young.
01:55I've got a two-year-old and a six-month-year-old, and then my older one, she's 13, so I've got a long time before I've got to go do anything.
02:02Yeah, what does your 13-year-old think of Dad the Rockstar?
02:07Well, part of her loves it because a lot of our kids that are school like the band, so she probably feels cool.
02:12But then I work extremely hard to embarrass her whenever they're around, so it's a dichotomy for her.
02:19There's both sides to it.
02:21So you're a lot like every other dad out there.
02:24Oh, yeah, dude.
02:24I don't think that changes at any point, no matter what you're doing.
02:28The second she has friends over, you know, I just can't wait to come up with whatever I can to humiliate her.
02:35That's great, man.
02:36We should share some tips later on.
02:37Yeah, I just took, my daughter just turned 21, so I took her to Nashville.
02:41It's always cool that, you know, and she got to meet, like, Kid Rock and Seth Green and a bunch of guys that were out there that I knew and stuff, and that's always fun when I share the experiences with your kids.
02:49Oh, dude, that's awesome.
02:50I love Nashville.
02:52We actually, I took my daughter.
02:53One thing I'm very proud of is her favorite band is the Deftones, and that's my favorite band.
02:58You know, and obviously I showed it to her, but, you know, you never know.
03:01I want to listen to Katy Perry.
03:02But she loves the Deftones and the Beatles and a lot of the stuff I love, so we went and saw the Deftones in downtown Nashville, and that was one of those points, you know, I was kind of like, this is surreal.
03:12I grew up going to Deftones shows my whole young life, and now I'm doing it with my kid, and it's one of those, you know, you kind of have to acknowledge is special, and we loved it, man.
03:21It's cool when you have kids who you could share those moments with.
03:24So you're a Beatles fan.
03:25I wouldn't have gathered that from you.
03:26I love the Beatles.
03:28The Beatles are my second favorite band.
03:30I like Credence is my favorite band.
03:33John Fogarty is my favorite songwriter, but, yeah, the Beatles are right up there.
03:36Yeah, I saw that.
03:37That was kind of surprising as well.
03:39What resonates with you so much that John Fogarty offers?
03:43He's just a fantastic storyteller.
03:45Like, there's something about, you know, music, I think, is 90% subliminal.
03:51You don't really pick what you like.
03:52It's very subjective, you know?
03:53And there's something about his voice, the chords he uses, the way he writes songs, and the story he tells that subliminally, I just, I can't get away from it.
04:04And those guys, especially the earlier dudes, you know, music has changed so much as far as how it's produced and using synth and all these instrumentations, and it's all computerized.
04:16I always look back at those dudes because they just made amazing music with four chords and a guitar and a story, and that's all you needed back then.
04:23And Tom Petty said something great about that.
04:25He said three chords and the truth is what makes a great song.
04:28And I, that is kind of what influences my writing.
04:32If you're overdoing it, over-embellishing a song to make it special, you're already on the wrong track.
04:37So, those guys are, I guess, our anchor point as far as music goes to make sure we got our head in the right place, you know, when we write.
04:46Now, speaking of telling stories, of course, the latest record, Hotel California, tells stories.
04:53And it's pretty much about, you know, your life in Southern California.
04:56Am I correct?
04:57Yeah, certainly a lot of it.
04:59So, it definitely played heavy into the album.
05:02Yeah.
05:03And, you know, like being here in Detroit and stuff, we have some, like, Detroit bands.
05:08Like, of course, you know, you're familiar with Eminem and Ted Nugent and all that kind of stuff.
05:11And it kind of does resonate with the rest of the country.
05:13I was going to ask you, do you think that, you know, some of the songs from California, maybe City of the Dead or something, resonate with the rest of the country?
05:19I think, well, you know, those songs that are typically California-based are usually, you know, glamorized about how good it, great it is.
05:28Yeah.
05:29But we kind of tell, you know, we have massive drug issues and homelessness issues.
05:33And that's kind of where we came from.
05:35And I know a lot of places are having those issues, too.
05:37So, we've always tried to kind of talk about the underbelly of where we grew up as opposed to, you know, you have the movies and the tech industry.
05:46And that's kind of what everybody thinks of when they think of California, the beach, of course, where our take was always kind of the hoods of L.A.
05:54and the underbelly of L.A.
05:56So, we talk more about that.
05:58So, I'm not sure if, in a pop sense, anybody gets it.
06:01But I know Detroit dudes will get it because they have the same fucking problems as we do.
06:07Yeah.
06:08We have a few of the problems.
06:09There's no doubt about that.
06:10So, how much this record was thought of, you know, started, you know, with the pandemic, with the lockdown, anything like that?
06:20Yeah.
06:20I mean, we did a lot.
06:21So, we released a couple albums.
06:23We did a double album that came out literally two weeks before everything shut down.
06:27Yeah.
06:27So, we kind of, you know, that made it tough.
06:29We couldn't really do anything on the album.
06:30We did videos and a live stream and all the other BS that everybody was doing.
06:34And then everybody kind of had to go their separate ways.
06:37So, it was good for us in the sense that when we started writing the record, everybody was, like, you know, pent up.
06:44Everybody was rearing to go.
06:46So, a lot of that energy that had built up.
06:48Because there was a point where I was like, dude, am I even in a band anymore?
06:51Because when it all started, probably a month or two.
06:53And then it's a year.
06:54And then it's a year and a half.
06:55So, you start second guessing everything.
06:57So, to get back in the room with each other and write, I think it really affected us in a positive way.
07:03Because everybody was, I don't know, it reinvigorated us, you know, as far as writing goes.
07:08Because I wasn't sure it was going to even happen again at that point.
07:10No one really knew what the heck was going on.
07:11So, it definitely came into the record in that sense.
07:15Now, you guys started writing this record back in the fall last year?
07:19Or started recording it?
07:20Yeah, yeah.
07:20We recorded it last fall.
07:22Okay.
07:22So, do you guys go into the studio, like, you know, fully locked and loaded?
07:27Or do you guys go in there with an empty slate?
07:30It all depends.
07:32A lot of our records are different.
07:33Some of them will skip me and some of the other guys will skeleton out first.
07:38This one, we didn't.
07:40We had a couple ideas.
07:41But mainly, we just wrote in the studio.
07:42So, normally, we'll kind of write in groups.
07:45But this one, this is another result of the lockdown stuff.
07:48We just went into the studio and went because we all wanted to be there.
07:52Everybody was excited.
07:53You know, because writing music sometimes, unfortunately, becomes like any other job.
07:57Where you just got to go for these hours, work on this.
08:00But it was really a work from a joyous perspective.
08:03So, this one was very group-oriented.
08:06We were all in the same room from start to finish.
08:08And everybody added their thing to everything.
08:11So, it was a little different than why we did it.
08:13But it helped, I think.
08:15And as far as the name of the record is concerned, I don't know, you probably answered this question a billion times.
08:19But do you get any pushback from the Eagles or anything?
08:23We haven't heard anything yet.
08:24They probably don't know we exist.
08:27So, it might be an issue.
08:30That might be a good thing.
08:31Do your legal people say, you know what?
08:32So, you can call it that, but you've got to change the spelling.
08:34Or you guys just throw it out.
08:36No, no.
08:36We did that on purpose because it just is darker.
08:39It sounds like there's a movie called California with a K with Brad Pitt and David Duchovny.
08:45And he's like a serial killer and stuff.
08:47So, it already had that connotation for us.
08:49And obviously, legally, we probably couldn't name it that.
08:51We certainly don't want to go to bat against the Eagles lawyers because we hired ours off the back of a phone book.
08:56So, you know, it wouldn't be good for us.
08:59Off the back of a matchbox.
09:01Yeah, exactly.
09:02Yeah, better call Saul.
09:04There's no doubt about that.
09:05Yeah.
09:05So, being here in Detroit and stuff, is there any Detroit music that influences you?
09:10Well, I mean, it's cliche, but obviously Eminem was a big influence for us.
09:15You know, one of the things that makes Eminem so special that I don't think people understand is he was the first dude to be vulnerable in rap music.
09:22Like, he kind of, where, you know, it was all about money and cars and girls and all this stuff, it opened up that avenue for us to be like, oh, it's okay to do hip-hop, but be vulnerable and, you know, let those things out.
09:37So, that was kind of mold-breaking, especially in the hip-hop world because it was that you don't always have to be tough.
09:42You don't always have to, you know, bang my check and take my money or whatever it is, you know.
09:48So, that was cool.
09:48And then, one thing I want to, Detroit Rock City was one of our favorite movies growing up.
09:53So, that was kind of one of the, this is long before we ever went to Detroit.
09:57Detroit's always been part of our nomenclature and, like, our culture and stuff like that.
10:01So, we were always excited to go there.
10:02I actually have always loved going to Detroit.
10:04I think the venue's called the Fillmore.
10:06Yeah.
10:07That area's awesome.
10:08The shows are always awesome.
10:10Michigan, in general, they put it down.
10:12It shows, you know, they're in, this is the truth.
10:14There's a lot of, there's a lot of places, you know, everywhere where crowds aren't the same as other crowds.
10:19The energy's different.
10:21And Michigan, in general, always puts it down.
10:23And when you've played 2,000 shows, that means a lot because you kind of siphon off their energy.
10:29And we've always loved playing anywhere in Michigan, Detroit in particular, just because they're out there to get down.
10:35And that makes us like, okay, well, let's do this.
10:37So, we always appreciated going there.
10:40Yeah, I think last time, I think, yeah, you guys have played the Fillmore, you've played St. Andrews as well.
10:44But I was just talking about Gavin Rosdell from Bush the other day.
10:46Oh, yeah.
10:47Yeah, and it's like, it's like, I don't want to, like, you know, fish for compliments for Detroit or Michigan.
10:51But he kind of came out of the blue and just, like, interrupted whatever I was saying.
10:54He goes, let me tell you something about Detroit.
10:56And they played last night.
10:58But it's cool because I think that people here, they work hard and they play hard, in the words of Ted Nugent.
11:03No, and it really is true.
11:04It's a working class city.
11:06And, you know, that's where we're from.
11:08I don't like the glamour.
11:10Like, L.A., and I hate saying this, but L.A. is one of the worst places to play shows.
11:14It's just the truth.
11:16No one gets excited when the tour stops in L.A.
11:19You know, and that's for a lot of bands.
11:23And so, you go to a place like Detroit, Cleveland, there's a lot of Midwestern cities in particular, Chicago, that just, they get down.
11:30They work hard.
11:31They play hard in Detroit.
11:32You know, culturally, it's a really interesting city just because the amalgamation of cultures and stuff.
11:40So, I know Detroit gets a lot of flack for a lot of things.
11:44But we got nothing but love for it.
11:46And that's where Tim, the tool man, Taylor, lived also.
11:50That's right.
11:51Yeah, very important part of our culture.
11:53So, I know you guys played, you just played a show in Saginaw, right, just recently?
11:58Yes, Bay City, I guess that's Saginaw, right across the river.
12:01Yeah.
12:02Yeah, so do those, Michigan kids, they get wild, dude.
12:05So, you're out on tour right now with Papa Roach, correct?
12:07Yeah, yeah, Papa Roach, Falling in Reverse, and Bad Wolves.
12:11Now, did you have a chance to ever tour with Deftones?
12:17Did I lose you?
12:18No, no, we played, um, at festivals and stuff.
12:24Yeah.
12:24You got me?
12:25Yeah, yeah, okay, you're back.
12:26You got me?
12:26You got me paused out there for a little bit.
12:27Yeah, you're good.
12:28Sorry.
12:29Um, yeah, no, we've never toured with the Deftones.
12:31We've done plenty of...
12:34Well, now you're starting to fade out again there.
12:37We got the, we got the pause going.
12:39Now I feel like I have to fill the, fill the dead air with something.
12:42The opportunity becomes just kind of like an arts, arty rock band.
12:46They're definitely more alternative than our crowd.
12:48I don't know if it would work.
12:50Yeah.
12:50But I would do it just to be able to tour with them.
12:52But yeah, they're kind of in a different world than we are.
12:56But, um, anytime I can see them, I do.
12:58Now, this is going to be an idiotic question probably, but I just have to ask you, I, I,
13:02I follow you guys a little bit, but when did the masks come off?
13:06After right around the fifth record.
13:08The thing was, you know, we always used them because we were super into graffiti growing
13:12up.
13:13So we thought it was like, we could kind of use this visual art as part of the band's
13:18makeup.
13:19Um, and that was really what we wanted to do.
13:21And it kind of just came down to us running out of creative ideas.
13:24We didn't just want to wear them just to wear them.
13:26And we were kind of out tapped out as far as what you can do with them.
13:30Um, so that was really all it was is we just said, you know, we, we couldn't get anything
13:34going where we were happy with it.
13:36So we just kind of took them off and haven't put them back on.
13:39Yeah.
13:39Cause did, did you ever feel like I'm just thinking out loud here.
13:42I didn't think about this before, but did you ever feel like you got lumped in with some
13:45of the other bands, like the, the mushroom heads or the slip knots or anything like that
13:48or where you guys.
13:49Yeah.
13:49Yeah.
13:49That used to drive me a little crazy.
13:51Cause you know, that was never like our intention or our purpose.
13:55In fact, when we write wrote music in the beginning, we were, we were saying things that we probably
14:00weren't supposed to say.
14:01And we wanted, you know, we didn't necessarily, cause we were just putting that on the internet.
14:05Um, and then as time moved on, we love the visual aspect because you could kind of create
14:11something you can't obviously without them.
14:14Um, and yet the symbol symbolism in it was cool to us, but when we ran out of stuff to
14:18do, we didn't want to just keep them just to keep them or for commercial reasons, cause
14:22the label liked them or whatever the case may be.
14:24So we just dropped them when we creatively weren't into it anymore.
14:28Yeah.
14:28What was it like the first time you went out on stage without them?
14:31Uh, I don't know.
14:34I was pretty drunk.
14:36No, you know, some people were like, Hey, what the hell?
14:39And then now I don't, you don't care much about it.
14:41And we're not even saying we're never going to do it again.
14:44If we have a cool idea or something we want to work, you know, to work in with them, we
14:47would totally would, but it's gotta be authentic for us to want to do it, I guess.
14:52But from like, like, you know, like John five is one of my friends and it's like, he always
14:56has the face paint and stuff.
14:57And did you ever feel like you were kind of another character, like a different person
15:01up there on stage with it on it?
15:02Then maybe when you took it off, it might've been a little bit, I don't know.
15:05Yeah.
15:06Well, okay.
15:06So just for historical aspect, we never wore the mask the whole set.
15:10We would wear it for the first few times and take it off.
15:13That was already expected, but yeah, there's definitely that caricature aspect to it.
15:18And it is cool performing in it because the visual is pretty striking.
15:22Yeah.
15:22You know what I mean?
15:22It's spooky.
15:23And a lot of people have a lot of fear of it.
15:24And so that energy is really palpable when you play.
15:28So I always enjoyed it.
15:30It was never like, oh, we didn't want to do it.
15:32And I love John five stuff and Westmoreland's done great stuff with that too.
15:36It's very, very visually cool.
15:37People underestimate how much visuality affects music and when you're delivering it and stuff.
15:43So I love that.
15:45I love that when people add theatrical aspects to a live show, it's something I really like.
15:50So I always liked John five for that Rob zombie in general for that, uh, West, West for that.
15:55And obviously slipknot.
15:56So it's just cool.
15:58Yeah.
15:58And the kiss guys, you know, and so I always thought it was pretty cool too, that, you know, uh, you know, I know some of these guys off the stage and it's so funny.
16:04Cause they're a different person.
16:05It seems like when they put this mask on, it's almost like they've got, they've got their cape on now.
16:09Yeah, no, totally.
16:10And there's something about the, even though everybody knows who these guys are, you don't feel like it while you got it on.
16:16So it's kind of like, it's a ticket to ride type thing.
16:18Like, Hey, could I go rob a bank in this and get away with it?
16:21Cause it's not really, um, you know, there's something about it that, that is cool psychologically.
16:26Yeah.
16:27So what do you guys have coming up, uh, down the pike here?
16:29You got it.
16:30You got your touring right now with, uh, the P Roach boys.
16:32The record just came out.
16:33You got a tour for the rest of the year.
16:35No.
16:35So yeah, we got this tour.
16:36We're going to do some festivals, blue Ridge rock festival and a couple other ones.
16:40And then we're going to kind of wind down for the year.
16:42We got to go to Europe, uh, in September for press run.
16:47It's unfortunate cause we can't really tour there.
16:49Cause the situation with the Russia and the Ukraine is kind of put the brakes on things for us.
16:54So we're going to wait till next year.
16:55We're going to hit the U S again with the same package.
16:57I believe that we have now and just do other markets.
17:00And then hopefully the rest of the world opens up.
17:02There's a bunch of issues in like Australia with the COVID stuff still.
17:05So it's been kind of, uh, it's kind of, you don't, you can't really plan cause no one
17:09really knows what's going on.
17:11Uh, so we don't have any plans as far as touring, but we got a bunch of stuff.
17:15We're going to do some videos and things like that.
17:18Yeah.
17:18Well, uh, Johnny, thanks so much for the time.
17:21Appreciate it.
17:21Uh, you got the new record out.
17:23Hotel California dropped, uh, last week, the eighth record from you guys.
17:27And, uh, looking forward to seeing you back here in the motor city.
17:29We'll have to, we'll have to drink some beers or some bourbon or something.
17:32Yeah.
17:33Bourbon.
17:33Let's do that.
17:34Skip the beers, bro.
17:35Oh, bourbon.
17:36I was just in, I was just in a Pittsburgh with Metallica.
17:38They're blackened bourbon.
17:39Are you a bourbon guy?
17:41I, some of it, some of it's, it's weird.
17:43Bourbon's the one awful where some of it's like grotesque and then some of it's really
17:46good.
17:47So it just depends.
17:50All right.
17:51My treat I'll buy when you come out here.
17:53All right.
17:53Can't wait to meet you in person, brother.
17:55Thanks so much for the time.
17:56I appreciate it.
17:57Of course, bro.
17:57Take care.
17:58Yeah.
17:59Later, man.
17:59I'll see you next time.