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Member of the Traveling Circus...
Jimbo from REVEREND HORTON HEAT

"We’re like a traveling circus… yeah… I feel like a trained monkey sometimes. You know, it’s time for me to get on stage and jump around and then get off."This from one of the pioneers of the punk-meets-rockabilly as we sitting in the relative cool of the early afternoon under a tree. REVEREND HORTON HEAT are the godfathers of psychobilly, the forerunners of "new" Texas rock. Texas? Did we say Texas?Texas: a big state with a wild reputation, not unlike REVEREND HORTON HEAT. They are like no other band on the Warped Tour, and that’s the beauty of the tour in general… there’s quite an conglomeration of sounds and styles… no one really sounds like anybody else. With the emergence of swing and "pseudo-billy," it seems a little strange to find the Rev & Co. on the road with skateboard punks and thrash bands.

IPO sat down with Jimbo and filed this report:

IP: How’s the tour treating you all?

J: Oh, it’s been great, man. It’s been pretty hot most of the time. We started out the tour in Phoenix and it was over a hundred degrees, but it’s a really nice day today in NYC. It’s been real good, a young crowd for us. We’re used to playing smoky bars, so it’s neat to see kids in mohawks and REV. HORTON shirts who know the words, it’s good for us.

IP: At a lot of these festivals, the bands start the "festival commune." Have you been interacting a lot with the other bands?

J: Everyday after the show, usually about 10 o’clock, they fire up the pit and have bar-b-ques and stuff, and guitar and drum jams. It’s pretty cool. I started hanging out with Lars from RANCID—he’s a pretty rockin’ dude. I don’t know everybody yet. You know them by face, you don’t always know them by name, but everybody’s friendly.

IP: Is there a band or artist here that you’ve been kind of excited to see live?

J: Man, I’ve seen just about everyone several times on this tour, so… but I always enjoy seeing the VOODOO GLOW SKULLS and of course RANCID… and CHERRY POPPIN’ DADDIES put on a good show. And I see it every day, so… sometimes you just want to chill on the bus.

IP: The novelty wears off after the few week… (laughter all around)

J: Yeah… yeah…

IP: "Oh, THAT song again…" (laughter all around) Are you going to be playing the Austrian Warped Tour?

J: No, we have our own European tour planned around that time. I think we might even go to Australia, so that’s kind of in the works for us. Then in September, we have a new tour and it’s called the New Gang and it’s got SOCIAL DISTORTION, X, THE CRAMPS, SUPERSUCKER… us… We just played

4th of July in Irvine, California and Buck Owens played… it was real cool. 

IP: It was the Hootenanny, wasn’t it?

J: Yeah. They’re going to try to take it all over the country next year. This year in September it’s going to be three weeks on the west coast, so that’s going to be fun. It’s part car show, part rock n roll show, so it’s pretty cool.

IP: How do you feel about the swing revival, with the CHERRY POPPIN’ DADDIES and ROYAL CROWN REVUE… being more closer musically to psychobilly-

J: Right, right… I like it because I’ve always been partial to music with roots to it like that. I don’t know how to swing dance though… I guess I’m gonna have to learn.

IP: It’s really easy.

J: Yeah, it’s real cool. It’s bringing a little style back into music... I like that a lot. Of course, we’re a little more aggressive than that these days, but we still have some of the same elements as that. Who knows? Our next record might be all rockabilly and swing… I don’t know…

IP: You’ve gone through several producers-

J: Oh yeah! (laughter)

IP: Al Jourgensen…

J: Oh yeah…

IP: Gibby Haynes…

J: Oh yeah…

IP: Is there a reason for that? Do they give a different sound or –

J: Well, we always seem to stumble on producers like that. Al Jourgensen was a fan of ours. Gibby Haynes… and I guess by crossing paths and doing shows with them, it comes up in conversation that we’ve got a new record coming out and we need a producer, so… we’ve been pretty lucky that way, to have them offer to do that. You know, we’ve never played it safe with our music anyway, so we’re always willing to put a new twist on our sound. Things kind of happen that way.

Our last record producer was Ed Stasium-he did the RAMONES and he was a lot of fun. Who knows? We might get Rob Zombie to do the next record. We’re doing a record with him right now.

IP: I was just going to ask you about that… different sound, yes, definitely!

J: (laughing) Oh yeah…

IP: How did that come about?

J: We did a tour with Rob and WHITE ZOMBIE, and we were the opening act and got to know all the band members and everything. We hang out with Sean a lot. And Rob’s a fan of ours and, like I said, once again, he wanted us to do this Halloween compilation record that he’s putting out. We have a song called "The Halloween Dance" that’s on there. It’s should be real fun. He’s going to put his twist on the whole thing. Then maybe for the full length issue we’ll get him to do the record.

IPO: Are there any other producers you, collectively, as a group go "Hey! We want to work with that person"?

J: We kind of like musicians as producers. Actually, we like to produce ourselves a lot, but if we can get somebody who’s on our side of the fence… you know, that always helps. They pretty much let us do what we do and then they have helpful suggestions that we play around with. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, but it’s always fun.

IP: How did the Drew Carey Show come about? (laughter all around)

J: Kind of the same way as the producer thing comes about. We have this big comedian following. Bobcat Goldthwaite is a big fan of ours.

IP: Are you going to do his "Big Ass Show"? (laughter all around)

J: Yeah, we did Drew Carey’s HBO "Mr. Vegas" special and the sitcom. We got to meet Wayne Newton on the HBO thing, that was real cool. I guess comedians are passing around our CDs and I guess they’re all kind of incestuous-passing around… "Hey! Listen to this!" Drew called us up and said "Come on! Be on my HBO special." So we got to do that. He wants us to come back for like a return TV show. We’ll probably play the same thing we did last time, a bunch of musicians, which is not too hard for us to play.

IP: I noticed you all did a cyberchat. Is that something you’re getting into?

J: The Rev’s more into that than me. I don’t have a computer. He does. He’s the one who kind of translates for me and he seems to enjoy getting on the net… ranting and raving. That’s fun for him. I just kind of tell him "Ah… you know…"

IP: Here’s your soapbox…

J: Yeah! Yeah… he’s the one who’s into that.

IP: Where do you see REVEREND HORTON HEAT in about 10 years?

J: Ten years?! Man… (laughter) We’ll probably be playing Holiday Inn lounges, you know (laughter all around) Playing a bunch of Dean Martin songs. At least I play upright bass so I can easily cross over to the lounge scene.

IP: I notice that Taz left the band.

J: Yeah. It was one of those things where you’ve been on the road for a long time and you start arguing and sometimes you say things you can’t take back and something like that happened. We were just all kind of burnt out from the road. He lives in my neighborhood, he’s still my friend, he’s still the Rev’s friend, it’s just at that moment in time it wasn’t working out.

IP: Do you notice a difference with Scott now in the band? A different sound he’s given you?

J: Yeah. I think we have a little more versatility with Scott. He’s a little more jazz oriented. Taz is a power drummer. He’s playing with Izzy Stradlin right now, from GUNS AND ROSES. So he fits it perfect with that. Scott has a little more drum finesse that pays off for our experimentation with music right now.

IP: Do you have plans for after the tour?

J: After the tour?! Man, I tell you what… I don’t even unpack when I get home! After the tour I think I only get two weeks and then I’m on tour again. I’ll just leave my bags packed and grab the remote and watch TV for a while… say hi to all my friends I haven’t said hi to in a long time…

Indie Press Online would like to thank Keri Lee, the folks at Nasty Little Man, and of course, Jimbo…