HardLore - Lars Frederiksen (Rancid)

Starting point is 00:00:21 Hello, welcome. It's Hardlord Time. How are you, Bo? So good. Can you believe this guess? I can't. Who do we got? I literally can't. Where to begin here. Punk legend, rancid, Lars Fredericksena of the bastards, old firm effing casuals, friend of the show, AEW music alumni. This is destiny being fulfilled here, really.

Starting point is 00:00:58 Lars Fredericks. The way you explained me sounded like a Dio song, you know? It was very positive and uplifting. All I needed to be is a dancer on a rainbow. Yeah, you are. Right? Exactly. Yeah, exactly. We're the dark.

Starting point is 00:01:16 You're the rainbow. Okay. Welcome, Lars. How are you? Thank you. I'm great. I'm really excited to be here. And I'm finally excited to see that meme of me properly used.

Starting point is 00:01:31 Thank you. Dude. Because it's good. That's like the third. Not only are you the third American skinhead. No, I wouldn't say that. Not only are you the 18th American skinhead. Probably one validating.

Starting point is 00:01:49 You're definitely the third reaction meme. Well, that's the thing. When I first saw that, it was something about Mexican girls when they yell at you or something. Oh, okay. And it said, like, it scared me, but it gave me a boner at the same of time. And I thought, that's pretty funny. That's pretty close. You know, growing up in a Mexican neighborhood, I couldn't understand it.

Starting point is 00:02:15 But then this proper use of it, I was like, well, this is what this meme was meant for. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because I know I do listen to the show, and I know you guys are very funny, and I'm very engaged when you guys do your thing. And I think that's something that obviously that's why I'm here because I wanted to be part of that, you know, that environment. So I like having fun, you know what I mean? We're going to get so into that.

Starting point is 00:02:41 I don't know. I don't know if we're going to have much fun with Beau and his morose fucking attitude right now. Perfect. Oh, my God. I mean, he's got a little, my man's got light up. He's not a little bit, though. I'm great. I'm dynamite.

Starting point is 00:02:59 Okay. Bo, Bo, you, you, you, I mean, Rancid is like your gateway band, right? Full transparency, I think AIFI would be the one. But, like, that is adjacent. That's like as adjacent as it gets, you know what I mean? But yeah, absolutely. But I didn't, you know, I don't know. Colin, I know you wanted to be

Starting point is 00:03:22 chronological with this. So I do I do have questions and stuff leading kind of into into that. So why don't why don't you take it away? Colin take us back in time. Sure.

Starting point is 00:03:34 So Lars. Yes, sir. Rancid is like the gateway band. You know? When you break it down scientifically, 94, 95, what Ransett was doing around the world,

Starting point is 00:03:51 got this is like not an exaggeration millions of people into hardcore and punk I want to know who pioneers the pioneer what were your gateway bands

Starting point is 00:04:07 well my brother was the one that brought home punk for the first time a guy by the name of Sean Gragonis moved into the neighborhood around 78 79 and he was like, you know, your traditional

Starting point is 00:04:25 kind of like American, you know, skinhead punk rocker. He had like, you know, an X shaved in his head, but his hair was super short for the band, you know, because he was from San Luis Obispo, I think, originally. I remember a scene of walking down

Starting point is 00:04:41 the street with a white T-shirt, rolled up jeans and, and, uh, paratrooper boots. And this is before Doc Martins and all that stuff, you know? Right. And he was holding a boom box and he was blasting like the circle jerks or something like that. I don't know, you know.

Starting point is 00:04:57 But that was like my first introduction to like the punk rock thing. And then my brother, because our neighborhood was very, it was low income housing. So it was a lot of like poor kids. So, you know, you had like the Cholo, you had the blacks, you had the Tongans and the Samoans. You had, there was three white families. There was the Baileys. There was us.

Starting point is 00:05:17 And then there was Gregonis, who was the guy brought the punk in. And he was related. or somehow his dad was friends with these guys, another family called the Mahers. That was the first introduction. My brother then getting into it, and then the English stuff kind of coming in, brought the skinhead thing to it, right? Sure. And so the bands that I first got exposed to were like the Ramones, obviously.

Starting point is 00:05:44 And then it was all the oy stuff, like Cockney Rejects, the business, Blitz, last resort, four skins, Angelica Up Starts. umpariate just like you know you name an english punk band that's kind of what was on the turntable then you had like bands like social distortion and then um kraut and uh yeah shit i'm trying to think who else uh china white and then when the hardcore thing hit that's when it like really kind of like took a turn really for all of us because that's when the music started to really change you know right how many of those bands that you just named have you now worked with directly.

Starting point is 00:06:26 Well, played shows, worked with probably 90%. And that's, dude, that's like, that's what this is for us now, you know? Right. Well, that's much respect. I mean, that is, we're kind of jumping ahead, but one thing I did want to ask you about was one of my favorite series of, or like collections of videos are from the last

Starting point is 00:06:47 Ramon show. We're like, Lemmy comes out kind of last second plays and you guys play a song. was that how full circle how much more full circle could that have been you know well it was going to go on a little bit further which is nobody really knows about this story but um it was it was it was a it was a crazy moment because i remember we went to the sound check to do that show and it was after sort of all of our touring had been done because that was after la la and obviously we both ended up on that tour. And Johnny was the one that said,

Starting point is 00:07:29 hey, we're having a bunch of guests. Would you intend be able to be into playing 53rd and third with us? Because they knew that was like my favorite Ramon's song. And we were like, yeah. And then Johnny would go, do your thing, do your rancid thing. Like get up there and burn the fucking stage down like you guys do. And that's why we're running around like maniacs. because when we initially were sound checking,

Starting point is 00:07:53 we were just kind of standing there because of out of respect. You know, of course. It's like, we're up there with the Ramones and Johnny's like, why are you guys fucking moving around? You guys do your fucking, the ranted thing. You know, we're like, okay. You know, once they let the leash off, you know,

Starting point is 00:08:09 and it was, but it was like, it was a pretty surreal moment. The thing that a lot of people don't know about is that we were going to go do South America with them And they were going to do a South American run after that last show. Wow. And because it wasn't technically the last show at the time. It became the last show, right?

Starting point is 00:08:31 But apparently, you know, I, this is from what I understand. Maybe CJ or somebody who, or Markey might be able to, to, to elaborate. But from what I understand, Johnny called me and said, hey, we're doing, we want to do South America, we want you guys to come with us. And this was in, it would have been in October of 1996, which we would have done this. But I guess something didn't come together or whatever. So I believe that's why that was the last show. So it was retroactively decided that that was the last show?

Starting point is 00:09:06 I think because it wasn't like we knew they're going, we knew going in that this was going to be the last show. Wow. I think we would have been told. And the thing about the Ramones is, would always be in the backstage, Markey, C.J. and Johnny, and they would play three songs before they would step up on the stage. So they'd be in there acoustically and just be playing together. And I got pictures of it actually somewhere. I have to dig up a lot of these pictures.

Starting point is 00:09:37 But here they are here. You'll see them right here. But yeah, I mean, it was a pretty surreal moment, to be quite honest because me and my brother back in the 70s before like cable TV when it was first started to come out and hit our area we had the cable company was called Gill Cable and instead of like the four channels that you normally get now you've got 13 or 12 and 12 and 12 and 13 was the Gill Cable channel they played rock and roll high school

Starting point is 00:10:08 and this is probably 79 so they played rock and roll high school 32 times in one month and me and my brother looked in the TV guide that was how long ago it was and we would we would circle it and we would wake up no matter what time it was on we wake up and watch the movie and because that was I mean that was

Starting point is 00:10:31 you talk about the gateway like that movie was kind of a gateway for me a lot of ways and then Sean and it was like the perfect storm of all the things that came in you know so it's like I was just kind of at the right place at the right time

Starting point is 00:10:45 in a weird way. I like that's that's we talk about how like thanks lists and t-shirts get people into hardcore and punk but like rock and roll high school on the TV guide is that's nobody else is given that one so thank you

Starting point is 00:11:02 wow much respect but you know but that's a lot of the ways that I found out about bands like Rose tattoo and how like people dressed you know because I mean we you know it's not like you had the internet back then so you you sort of like would see people at shows or you would look at the like you know like you were just saying backs of the records yeah but i saw rose tattoo being thanked on the first away record and i was like who's rose tattoo right and then that was a whole other they had

Starting point is 00:11:29 the coolest art so i'm sure you see rose tattoo art and you're like oh i'm fucking this is for me i mean and a lot of the reasons why when you see rancid band photos and we're kind of like you know very close and hugging each other is is straight up like like like hey let's do like rose tattoo of salt and battery you know what i love that that picture is incredible the rose tattoo promo picture is like so perfect and awesome yeah so i mean that's rose tattoo was also like a big influence and a lot not not a lot of people knew about you know so right you know i mean i feel like it was that music was was pretty underground and when back then like you really had to want to be there because

Starting point is 00:12:11 you were going to get shit by everybody. By school, by the cops. I'm an 11-year-old kid. Cops would randomly stop me, search me. And they would always do it like around 5 o'clock when it was prime drive time and I'd be walking home so everybody could see.

Starting point is 00:12:31 Because you look so fucking badass or what? Well, yeah, because I had, you know, I had a shaved head and I got boots. And, you know, it's like that's, and even riding a skateboard, like if you wrote a skateboard, cops would be all over you, get off the sidewalk,

Starting point is 00:12:45 and then you'd get out, and then you'd go, okay, and then you'd be starting to skate in the street, get to the street, that's the car, you know, like they would fuck with you like that.

Starting point is 00:12:53 Yeah. You know? Where do you want me, man? Come on. Yeah, but that's the thing. And then if you, like, talk back, of course,

Starting point is 00:13:01 you knew what was going on. And they didn't care. They didn't care how old you were. You were just a freaking, you know, little f***, you know, to give you that stuff.

Starting point is 00:13:09 stuff. Right? So not that I can don't say that word now, but you know what I mean? It's like Yeah, of course. Back then, you know, you were a Devo fact, first of all, because people were uneducated about it and the jocks would. Devo was the most subversive thing that they could think of? To a jock, you know what I mean? You're probably into the B-52s. You're a fucking Devo f***. You know, that's like that that would be like the thing that they

Starting point is 00:13:37 would say, you know? And you know, but where we were in the neighborhood, it was a pretty rough kind of neighborhood. So where was this? This was in Campbell, California. So it was a pretty rough neighborhood. And like I said, you had like the cholo's on one street, the Tongans up there, you know, everybody was kind of mixed and everybody was, you know, we all got along. I have a question. I have a question. This is a royal question to you guys let me know if you know the answer to this.

Starting point is 00:14:09 Do racist guys hate Samoans too? Do like they'll beat your ass? Do you know, like they should know to make an exception? Nobody's fucking with Samoans, man. Well, look at, you know. To the racist community, if you're listening. You guys got to make an exception for Samoans. There, they'll beat your ass, okay?

Starting point is 00:14:35 Anyway. You know, I got. You know, I would never, my, one of my best friends was this cat. He was from Tongue, he was Tongan. It was Juby Thaili. And we, that's where one of the, one of the way, that was my first wrestling friend. And that's kind of where we connected, you know. But like I said, we were all poor and we were all kind of in that block or, you know,

Starting point is 00:15:00 the, you know, the streets kind of ran parallel to each other. So everybody was kind of cool, you know what I mean? It wasn't, I mean, some of the, like in that early, hip-hop shit, they were kind of looking like us punkers. And I remember they would kind of look at us and being like, well, why are you wearing like studded belts or whatever? We had the, you know, the, the, the, the, uh, the, the, uh, the more cone studs, but they had like the pyramid studs on their belts, you know, much more common now.

Starting point is 00:15:27 Yes. So, but I mean, you know, they like street music, you know, that was the street shit, you know, and we liked street music and we would get together and in, you know, trained 40s and smoke lennios and fucking you know get high and get dusted and just you know overall get crazy together but i will say that like uh you know the whole the race race and stuff i didn't really see that until i kind of later on and like you know i didn't really understand that there was that thing there does that make sense yeah you know so but growing up in the bay area we you know we were sort of the least

Starting point is 00:16:09 leaders of these cultural revolutions, whether it was through our sports teams, the Oakland Raiders, or open days in the 70s. Like we were kind of sort of spearheading these cultural revolutions. So, and my mom, you know, obviously, and I've told this story many times, but she grew up in Nazi occupied Denmark and World War II and saw like her family get killed in front of her in shit. You know what I mean? Like some like real trauma, not just like, you know, I didn't get love from my daddy or

Starting point is 00:16:36 whatever fucking trauma. Yeah. But anyways, like some real shit. And I think when she came to the States and she immigrated in 61, the final time, like, you know, she brought a whole different, I guess, culture, for sure, but a psychology around, like, race, creed, color, religion. Because she wasn't religious at all. And, but, like, she understood, like, I think the moral company. us that she tried to instill in me. My brother was like about accept everybody on their merit, not on, you know, the color

Starting point is 00:17:15 or religion or sex or whatever the fuck. You know, although, and I think that's one of the reasons why me and my brother did find punk because our household was very like European and culture, which means that like what kids, my friend over here were talking about at the dinner table definitely wasn't what we were talking about. So you always felt kind of sort of separated from, you know, just what was. was there. And like all my friends growing up, and since we were such in a multicultural neighborhood and stuff, there wasn't, there wasn't really any kind of race shit because we're

Starting point is 00:17:49 all poor. It's like, it's like it didn't, that didn't really come into play. And I think with my mom being such like an advocate, you know, and had experienced, you know, sort of atrocity of war and of, of, of, um, sectarian. kind of fucking shit, you know, and just, you know, what she experienced, like my, my, her brother was part of the Danish underground, you know, his,

Starting point is 00:18:17 that's where the old from casuals record holder, Dansk comes from because he was part of that unit. So it's like, and they were smuggling, you know, people out of, out of, out of, into Denmark and out into like,

Starting point is 00:18:31 you know, other places, England, mostly Ireland, some, and some Scotland, and some Scotland, but.

Starting point is 00:18:37 But, you know, this is all stuff I got before she died. But at the end of the day, I think just the way that my mom viewed the world was a big, major way that I ended up viewing the world. And I think that's my mom was pretty punk for her time in the sense that, you know, she's, she, she, see, punk rock wasn't about being politically correct. It never was. As a matter of fact, if we were living in, if this, if today's modern society was back in 1970, something we never would have had the Ramones we never would have had the pistols we never would

Starting point is 00:19:09 have had motorhead or Metallica or the Slayer or whatever somebody you know it's like every people just need to grow a fucking set honestly these days but like um you know if you think about like at the time when punk rock was going off and like and i think about what it was trying to get across about being this individual it's like you you wanted your individual and to kind of do your life on your terms. You didn't want to be, you didn't want to cat, you didn't want to, like, I didn't want to be categorized as this. I just wanted to do what the fuck I wanted to do.

Starting point is 00:19:49 Yeah. Yeah, like, I want a fucking you to recognize me or to, to, even though I look like a fucking rodeo clown. My point is, it's like, even though I looked like that, I did not want to be categorized. I didn't want to be, uh, you know, how do I even say it? I didn't, I just wanted to be me, you know, I didn't care if anybody. I mean, punk was the place for outcasts who didn't have a place to be them.

Starting point is 00:20:16 Yeah. And it's really not any crazier than that. And I think in today's world, there's so many attention seekers, you know what I mean? It's like, I'd much rather be laying in the cut. I know I look like a fucking rodeo clown. I get that part, right? So there is some sort of like, you know, dilemma there. But I think at the end of the day, I just kind of wanted to live my life on my own terms and create a life.

Starting point is 00:20:39 And I didn't want to like go get a job in an office or have to go to college or in my case, it would have been joined the military, you know, because there wasn't, you know, I was never going to go to college, you know. But, but I mean, you are a first generation American technically. Yes. Living the American, not technically, literally, living the American dream having used what, you. your mom did to get you guys here to pioneer a genre of music and inspire millions. Well, it's very nice, you know, it's weird, you know, to think of it in that context. Because like, and I think that, Bo, I know you don't know me so well, but Colin, I think you got a better sense of who I am.

Starting point is 00:21:24 You know, I mean, I enjoy your bands, you know what I mean? And I enjoy your music and your music has inspired me, you know? So it's like, it's, it's, that's the give and take of punk rock, hardcore, whatever it is, is that we're in this together, you know, it's not, it was never like, you know, the 80s kind of metal, uh, I won't even call it metal. It was just rock and roll, uh, excessive, you know, like cocaine, strippers and corvettes. Nothing wrong with that. Rock and roll. Nothing wrong with that. But you know what I'm saying? It's like that wasn't where I was coming from. I feel like I was a little bit more. That wasn't really my deal. Now, did that happen in my life? Absolutely. Thank the Lord. But you know what I'm saying? Like, we'll get there. Yeah, we'll get there. But I mean, but you know what I'm saying? It's like that that wasn't where I set out. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's that's this is something that we talk about quite frequently. It's like that is the beauty of punk. in hardcore that you get you get to where you are by being who you were and following this like unwritten kind of code of ethics and that's how we can just kind of talk to you on a show like

Starting point is 00:22:42 this because over time you're going to the guy in the band and the mosher in the crowd are the same person yeah right that's why we're here because like that's what in our minds that's what we're doing on stage is like we're just moshing but while with riffs with a guitar and words what uh what were bands that you were involved in prior to rancid and how did that kind of develop um i started kind of like picking up guitar and just kind of playing to anything i could get my hands on you know and it's like whatever you got all i had you know i had my record collection of course but it was a lot easier to play the cassettes, right? Okay.

Starting point is 00:23:30 You know, because you could fast-board rewind. And I would just try to like make sounds, and I would just try to find life-minded individuals. And I would, I started playing with a few dudes here and there. I remember this one guy, he was getting guitar lessons, so he taught me a lot, you know? And then he just showed me how to do like, I still don't know the names of chords. I really honestly don't, but I just kind of know what sounds like that. I just kind of know what sounds right.

Starting point is 00:23:56 But like Gordy, the unknown bastard, who was also the forgotten. My first real band was kind of with him. So that would have been the 80, shit, 88, 89, somewhere around that, maybe even 87. I don't know. I can't remember when we met, but it was around in the mid to late 80s. But he was a little younger than me. And I just, he was a punk as fuck. he just had a huge Mohawk.

Starting point is 00:24:27 We almost, you know, we almost beat the shit out of each other. There's a funny story about that. Because we almost said, he came to my block when we were kids and him and his buddy, and they were going to go drink at the school. And I saw these two dudes rolling on my neighborhood, and I was with my friend Eric. And Eric actually knew these guys. And I was like, yo, what the fuck you doing on my street?

Starting point is 00:24:52 And so you see punks that you don't know? And you're like, what's up? Yeah. Who fucking told you? Wow. Territorial punk. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But because, you know, I don't know why.

Starting point is 00:25:06 But anyways, long story short, we almost duped it out. Yeah. Right? Sure. It got heavy. Like, it got heavy. And then we were at a frontline show. Joe Sibiano, who's now a stand-up comedian, his punk band was playing at one step beyond

Starting point is 00:25:24 where I saw, you know, but that was, you know, funny. First time I ever went to one step beyond. I was there for a rap show. Ice tea Egyptian lover, Houdini and one other. Oh, African Bambata and the Solsonic Fourth. And I went with my friend Wade Mendoza. And I was the only, obviously, the only little punker there. But we go to this show and I see this punker in the pit and his Mohawks hanging down.

Starting point is 00:25:49 I can't really recognize me because it's kind of dark. And there's these fucking, like, surfer douches that you see. to roll out to these shows from Santa Cruz or wherever the fuck. And this is kind of more my neighborhood, more my manner. So I see them kind of fucking with this guy, right? And I know a few of the heads there. And they know me. They obviously know my brother.

Starting point is 00:26:07 So I was like, all right, you know, this kid's going to come around and they're going to push him and push him. Because he was the only one dancing, right? They're all just being too cool for school. So I go in there and I fucking put my arm around him, right? And my shirt sleeve gets caught on the studs on the top of his jackets, but I can't really let go. You know, so I'm kind of with them. And I remember this kid, he had an exploited, like, patch on his, on the, Gordy did on the back of his jacket and some dude went to go rip it off.

Starting point is 00:26:34 That's what made me grab it, grab Gordy. And then I didn't know it was this guy that I had just, you know, so we kind of were dancing in the pit together because I was like, kind of like, leave this fucker alone. Otherwise, we're going to get, we're going to go down. And I kind of looked up at him because Gordy is, you know, like six, too. And I looked up of him and he looked down at me. We kind of like looked down and we did a double take

Starting point is 00:26:56 and realized that we had just been beefing like fucking four weeks ago. And I was, and he just kind of looked at me and I kind of looked at me and I kind of went like that and he went like that. And then we were best friends. Wow.

Starting point is 00:27:05 And it was like, that's how we kind of came together. In the pit, dude. In the pit, bro. The pit heals all. Forged and foyer. Yeah. I mean,

Starting point is 00:27:15 if everybody could just go to the pit, man. But, yeah, and then we started that band. It was called the Nowher Men. And we named it after. the anti-knower league song. Nowhere Man,

Starting point is 00:27:28 but he misspelled it. So that's why it became the nowhere man. And then what are you going to do? That's probably a minute. It's like a, that's a, that's cosmic, you know,

Starting point is 00:27:37 yeah, but what's even more cosmic is that, you know, we played a show with the, it was Melvin's capital punishment, JFA and blast. And I love blast, right?

Starting point is 00:27:50 Yeah. And it was an all dayer. it's called the Omni in Oakland and the UK subs were supposed to be playing at the Gilman Street their show got canceled to the end up coming to our show

Starting point is 00:28:03 where the Nowheremen did a cover of organized crime by the UK subs and that's pretty much the reason why I got the gig and the subs. Wow what were you doing in Nowhereman I was playing guitar

Starting point is 00:28:17 were you singing too? No it's just background Gordy was the lead singer Pasta was based, we call him pasta because he's Italian, of course. Of course. I know about 35 pastas, but. We got angel hair.

Starting point is 00:28:37 Fusili, you don't fuck with Fusili. He's hard. Fusili and fucking gluten-free. He's a little grumpy. Yeah, I know. But yeah, there was Kenhead, who was from Texas. And he was kind of like a skinhead punk kind of guy. so we just called him Ken Head.

Starting point is 00:28:53 And then there was Brandon was on the other guitar. And he was just this long hair dude. He's like, but Brendan, Brendan, Brendan, Brendan. Yeah,

Starting point is 00:29:04 and Brendan. His name was called him. His name was Brandon, but you nicknamed him Brendan as like a real. No, no, I think his, I think his legit name was Brendan.

Starting point is 00:29:12 Okay. But he was like this long hair frasher dude. Like he loved like Exodus and, like he was not into punk at all. He just liked our fast shit. Yeah. And even had like a Charvel Jackson. But we just wanted guys that fucking played, you know.

Starting point is 00:29:28 And that's, that was. You were crossing over, dude. You were, you were doing it right. Well, I mean, but that was the thing. It's like in around the 80s when DRI and, you know, put out the crossover record, I mean, you would see bands like Death Angel or Exodus playing with broken bones or English dogs or whatever the fuck. And I think the thrash thing and the punk thing were so close. that's when the kind of the beat between metalheads and punks started to kind of go away.

Starting point is 00:29:56 You know what I mean? Because I saw Exodus. It was so funny because I did Zetro, who's the singer for Exodus, his podcast a few years ago. And when I was, I had done it, I was talking to my buddy Derek on the phone. And he's like, what are you up to? And I said, yeah, I just did Exodus as the singer. and he goes, dude, do you remember when we saw Exodus in 86 at the fucking at the, um, Palo Alto bubble in?

Starting point is 00:30:27 I was like, oh my God. I totally faced it, right? But I go, hey, bro, I go, and I hit up and et cetera. I'm like, dude, I was just reminded I saw you guys in 86 in Palo Alto and he goes, bro, that was my first show with the band. Wow. Whoa. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:30:44 Yeah. And it's just like, you don't really realize that you were there at these places. You know what I mean? Like I've forgotten about this. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but then I was witnessing, you know, this dude's first band with X. Wow.

Starting point is 00:30:58 You know, so shit like that happens all the time. Just historical moments you happen to be in the room for, you know. I'm sure. I know you've seen a lot of them. Did, like watching hardcore and punk evolve from when you first found it, how, what, what are your thoughts on kind of where it is now as it's experiencing? Like a third period of commercial boom. I think it's fucking great, man, because for me, this is the stuff that I grew up listening to.

Starting point is 00:31:30 Yes, it might be way different than maybe the, you know, like an agnostic front. Like agnostic front was the first American skinhead band. And hardcore music is the first American skinhead music. It's not O.I. O.G. American skinned music is, is hardcore. straight up. When I see bands like Turned style and these types of bands

Starting point is 00:31:54 getting bigger, I'm like, fuck yes. Because they're fucking badass, first of all. And I want to see this music become the most popular music in the world because that's how much I love it. Everybody steals from it every day.

Starting point is 00:32:11 So it's like, we all might as well get a little piece of the pie. Listen, all ships rise with the That's that's that's historically what happens with our music and when I saw and I know that there's others out there other than turnstile I say them because I feel like they are kind of the king dog shit right now in the world and I love them. We've had a chance to we took them out with us a not too long ago for a few shows fucking incredible dudes and they deserve it. And it's like you know, as a musician, the last thing that you're going to do is apologize for writing. good song. You know what I mean? So it's like, you know, I personally what I've experienced, like I could only imagine if there was a Facebook or an Instagram back in 1995, like fuck.

Starting point is 00:33:02 You know, like, I mean, just the amount of shit that we got just for doing what we were doing. Yeah. It's it's so much more magnified. And, and now to the to this day, but I think that this genre of music in order for it to live, it has to evolve, it has to change, and it has to get bigger. And however, it's presented, those dudes,

Starting point is 00:33:28 and I'm sure maybe, I'm sure you guys know them, are solid dudes. The best. And they deserve fucking, I hope they get, I hope they sell more records than Metallica.

Starting point is 00:33:40 Like, I really do. Yeah. It's another. I hope that they do. I want them to, because honestly, it almost, getting my ass kicked so fucking much when I was a kid by fucking jocks, cops,

Starting point is 00:33:56 whatever it was. When I see that, and I've never really said this before, because I feel like it's not a very humble thing to say, but at the risk of sounding not humble, I'm going to say it. But I feel like my blood and sweat and tears, my ass kickings, you guys now get to do that.

Starting point is 00:34:13 That was worth it. Absolutely. You know, and it's not even me. and but and but I if that sounds arrogant no you could sound double kick stance but yeah right like you could sound bitter

Starting point is 00:34:25 you could take the other path yeah no but you like the the larges of the world you and the you the royal larses you know the guys that that paved the way are the reason that bands like turnstile can like fucking time bomb

Starting point is 00:34:40 dude yeah come on so you know but you know turn style but I will say turnstile owes me nothing You know, they're getting there on their own merit And because they're fucking badass super rad live Great fucking songs. So I'm not looking for like that.

Starting point is 00:34:58 All I'm saying is like guys who are making fucking rad music. You know, I'm going to be a fan of because I like street down and dirty music. I like I want to I want to when I'm listening to your record, I want to feel like I want to punch a wall or whatever. That's what the feeling I'm looking for. I can get that from Skinhead Reggae. I can get that from Aretha Franklin. I can get that from fucking Motorhead and ACDC

Starting point is 00:35:23 and I can get it from turnstile or twitching tongues or I can get it from fucking watching Brody King fucking in a wrestling match. That's what I was going to say is how you're describing it is very similar to wrestling mentality of just wanting to like, yeah, we did this during a scary time and wanting to like put newer younger talents over, blah, blah, blah. And it's often what, how I explain, like when I meet someone who doesn't know anything about wrestling,

Starting point is 00:35:54 they don't, they might know Stone Cold and Hulk Hogan and shit and like know the pageantry and like kind of the stigma, but they don't have any idea of what goes on behind the scenes, obviously, which to me is the most appealing part about wrestling. And it's very similar to music where it's like, yeah, we want to take this band out to show them to the world kind of a thing. you know, it's really, really similar.

Starting point is 00:36:17 And then a month later, they're the biggest fan of the world. Yeah. And you're excited for them. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I feel like with the pro wrestling connection with my life, I mean, I got exposed to that right around the same time I got exposed to punk. And like you said, the pageantry, because I loved Kiss.

Starting point is 00:36:35 Like, Kiss was my first band. And when we were, when my mom and dad got divorced, me, my mom took me and my brother to Denmark. And my cousin. was 16 or so at the time. And I was like, I had my third birthday over there. But we used to go into her room and she would play records. And it was like T-Rex and Sweet and Mabel and Chickory Tip and Slade and all this stuff. And so it's like, it's no wonder, you know, I didn't really, you know, put that together at the time when I was three.

Starting point is 00:37:09 But like, as we've grown and had conversations and I remember sitting on her lap and she's playing records. But no wonder I love Kiss because Kiss wanted to be those bands, right? Yeah. Everybody's doing somebody. Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, I think that with the wrestling thing, reason probably why I caught onto it was the kiss, you know, because I love the pageantry and the kiss of it all.

Starting point is 00:37:36 The kiss of it all, bro. And I remember, like, connecting. And when in the early 80s, when a lot of my friends. And a lot of the punks obviously went on to, you know, get jobs or join the Army or they died or they went to jail or whatever. And for me, my scene started getting smaller. And it wasn't up until I really met Gordy that I actually found some people to hang out with that were still kind of on my same page. Because everybody kind of grew up because all the guys that I were friends with were, you know, five, six, seven years older than me, you know. So they would all have to get, you know, be adults or they would move up to the same.

Starting point is 00:38:15 or Berkeley or whatever the fuck. So there was a period of time where it was me being punk at my house watching wrestling. You know, that was like the only connection I had, you know, because I had no friends because in a lot of ways because, you know, my friends whose parents, you know, I had been to Juvenile Hall now twice at that time. And so a lot of my people, friends that I had that didn't care that I was punk, their parents still wouldn't let me hang out with them because I was a bad kid, right? Because I went to Juvie or whatever, you know, and rightfully so.

Starting point is 00:38:54 Like how many, how many gold records do those kids have? Not many, but unless I sent them one, which I doubt I did. But, yeah, so I mean, for me, like the wrestling gave me an escape, you know, and I think a lot of of times I look at a set list like a wrestling match, right? So you got to come out, you got to get some, you got to tie up. You got, you know, you got to fucking, you know, you got to come out with a little bit of a bang to get people

Starting point is 00:39:25 the entrance. The entrance is important. The entrance is huge. Fuck yeah. The open. So, you know, it's going to be radio roots, you know, those are, you know, and then you know, you know the finish. The finish is time bomb Ruby Soho, right? So you know, you know the finish. You're working your way backwards.

Starting point is 00:39:39 And so the middle of the set is always like, you got to have a few, you know, you know, where the baby fate, you got some shine, you know, whatever. Like you got to work it, you know, but you got to, you got to maybe do like a Hoover Street. You got to bring it down the back, you know what I mean? Yeah. You know, for a minute, catch your breath. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:39:56 And then you come up, you start bringing up, you bring it up with the sky, which is more like, you're reversing the four. You know what I mean? So I always kind of look at it like that. I think, wow. Dude, that was incredible. I love that. People don't get it.

Starting point is 00:40:10 People don't understand the wrestling thing. We're slowly getting the list. listeners. Shipping away at the wrestling thing. So you talked about how nowhere men play with UK subs. Yeah. No. We played a show with the Melvins, but the UK subs were in the audience.

Starting point is 00:40:27 Oh. Because their show at Gilman Street got canceled. Right. So they're just there. They watch you cover them and they go, yo, that bloke just fucking ripped that shit. We got to get it. Well, this is what happened. So like after our set, I went over to the bar. I recognized Charlie Harper. And he said, hey, really great set tonight. And I said, thanks. And he said, can I buy you a drink? And I said, sure. And so he bought me a beer. We just sat talking and whatever. And as the conversation grew, he said, hey, we're actually losing our

Starting point is 00:41:05 guitar player after this tour, which I don't think the guitar player, no. And it was Carl Morris, who was obviously in broken bones and the exploited. And he did horror epics and I think let's start a war with the exploited. And I think he might have done FOAD with broken bones. I don't quote me. But Carl was like, you know, he's still a great, he's a good friend to this day. But he's an amazing guitar player. And basically, Charlie, at the end of the day, we exchanged phone numbers.

Starting point is 00:41:38 and he said that he would like me to join the band. But I thought, honestly, that he was just being very nice to me. Yeah. Because, you know, we had done a cover of one of their songs. So I was, this was on a Saturday. Or, yeah, it's a Saturday. So on the Monday, I was supposed to, he, the plan was me to call him on Sunday. and I didn't do it because I thought he was like just kind of, you know, being nice to me.

Starting point is 00:42:12 Yeah. Monday, 9 a.m. in the morning, the phone rings at my mom's house and I'm sleeping on the living room floor because I was sort of in between places because I was kind of living in Hayward but not really living. It's very convoluted. You're living the lifestyle, brother. Yes. I was going from from I was going from house to house. Yeah. So my mom goes, for whatever reason, she was off of work that day.

Starting point is 00:42:41 And she goes, Lars, there's some guy with an English accent on the phone for you. And I'm like, okay. So I get up and I pick up the phone and he goes, and he goes, lohas, it's Charlie. And I'm like, oh, hey, Charlie, what's going on? He goes, yeah, you were supposed to call me yesterday. I wanted to get together with you. And I was like, oh, well, Charlie, I didn't know like, you know that. you know, that you were that series.

Starting point is 00:43:07 And so we started talking some more. And he goes, where do you live? Because we're in Oakland right now. I said, I live in Campbell. And he goes, oh, I know Campbell. I'm like, you know Campbell? He goes, is that bar the Apple still there? And I'm like, how the fuck does Charlie Harper know about a shitty bar in Campbell?

Starting point is 00:43:24 He goes, yeah, I did some time there in 1975 or whatever. I'm like, what the fuck? So me and Charlie were living in the same fucking town in 1975. Like, what are the odds, right? So basically he said, can you get up to Oakland today so we can talk? I said, sure. I said, but I have to do a few things. And then, you know, I'll get up there.

Starting point is 00:43:44 So I basically took the bus to the BART up there at the time. It was like three or four buses to the BART station in Fremont. And then I would have to train from there. So it would take like three to four hours, right? So I kind of got up, got ready, got up to this address, which was in like the deep, it was the heart buck in Oakland. And they had a Winnebago that they were all staying in. And so we, you know, I got up there.

Starting point is 00:44:13 We started, he goes, hey, bear, bear naked and the buck bottom, or buck naked and the bare bottom boys are playing at the old I beam on H. Street. Do you want to go? I said, yeah, let's go. So we hopped on the train, the bark train to go after we had, you know, had a few drinks or whatever. And we ended up getting lost because we were talking so much. and so I didn't have

Starting point is 00:44:34 I remember because he asked me to bring a demo tape and I couldn't find I didn't have a dual cassette player but I had the demo tape but I only had one and this is the demo tape of the nowhere man so I remember I called that's what took me so long to get up there Those were the few things you had to do Yes

Starting point is 00:44:51 Yeah so anyway So I ended up spending the night on the Winnebego with them in Oakland I got home the next day. They were going, he was married to a woman from Kenosha, Wisconsin at the time. So after the American tours, Charlie would go and he would stay in Kenosha for like a month or two, the summers. And what was her fucking name?

Starting point is 00:45:19 Anyway, it doesn't matter. So this was in July, early July, around July 4. So, or maybe middle. So what I did is I finally found a dual tape deck. And he said, do me a favor, send me the cassette to this address in Kenosha. So here's the best part about them story. So fast forward to August. I had sent them out the demo tape, whatever.

Starting point is 00:45:45 I'm out on the 29th of August. My birthday is the 30th. I'm with a bunch of friends. We're all having a birthday party. That's how we used to do our birthday parties. We started at midnight. And so I'd been up all night, like on speed. And I'd been drinking and I've been doing all this.

Starting point is 00:46:01 stuff. And then when I, yes, when I got home the next day, there was a package on, so this is my legit birthday, August 30th, and there's a package from Charlie Harper.

Starting point is 00:46:12 And inside there's a letter that says, you're in the band. I can't believe you want to leave the band that you're in. You know, please get a plane ticket as soon as you can. Here's my English number, my English address. Get to England.

Starting point is 00:46:23 We have a show, October, blah, blah, blah, with x-ray specs, can you make it? Whoa, Holy shit. So I went and got a job. job at Togo's because now I had some months

Starting point is 00:46:33 to work. Togos was a thing then? Oh yeah, bro. The first Togos was in Campbell, California. Mind you. Or San Jose, excuse me. But anyways, doesn't matter. Close enough. I went, I got this job for a couple weeks, right? Got enough money. I saved up enough to buy the plane ticket, which was like, $500. Which, and then.

Starting point is 00:46:54 Holy shit. Then I quit. Then I quit the job. And because I didn't think I didn't need it anymore. money, boy. You know, I was 19, 18, 19 years old. My mom helped me go get a passport, which was also money I also made because I had to pay for the passport. They weren't free at the time or ever. And I think when I left to England, I had two bags, a $40 check that my aunt gave me for my birthday, I was $20 and like maybe a hundred bucks in my pocket in a cart and a cigarette. And that's kind of what I went over to England with. And that's how pretty much I ended up in that band. Wow. Wow. So where in that does, does Tim Armstrong try to poach you

Starting point is 00:47:42 for Rancid? So I come back from that because it wasn't a good ending to that story. Because I, you know, for me, like drinking, using and all the things. Like, I brought the neighborhood. with me to England, which it wasn't really the best idea. You know, so I was in a lot of trouble over there, too. Like, I got a band from a town. Old town? Yeah, old town. I actually got a picture of us from that town. That's like the one picture I have from the subs with me and the band that actually

Starting point is 00:48:19 Charlie gave to me about 15 years ago. And he's like, do you remember this photo as he's handing it to me? And I said, I said, fuck, where was that? He goes, that's the town that you got a band from. We still haven't been able to go back there. And I was like, oh, shit. So we have a laugh about it. But yeah, because I end up like, there was a, it was bad.

Starting point is 00:48:39 I don't want to get too lost in it. But I came home. I started a band with the guy, Sean Gargonas, who originally introduced us to punk because he was around again. And we did this little band where I was now lead singing playing guitar. and we ended up playing with Rancid at Gilman Street. When Rantz, it was still a three piece. So this is what happened. About two weeks later, I go to a UK subs show that the UK subs don't show up to because it gets canceled.

Starting point is 00:49:16 But who's there? See, the UK subs are playing a role in my life. Brett Reed is there. Brett Reed is there. we start talking and Brett says to me off the cuff, yeah, we're looking for another guitar player. I said, well, I'll do it. And he said, okay, well, I'm going to give Tim your number. So the next day, Tim calls me up because he remembers me when we met and with my band playing with him. And he says, hey, are you serious? And I said, yeah. He said, well, we're going down

Starting point is 00:49:46 to make a record for epitaph. Do you have any problems with epitaph? I'm like, I don't even know fucking epitaph. Bad religion. Like, well, fuck yeah, bro. Go for it. Rad. You know, bad religion, right? They're the biggest punk band in the world at that time. And he says, well, I'm going to send you the demo tape, and I'm going to send you the first seven inch, which is on lookout. So he sends it to me. And so I sit there and I learn it. And my band at the time was supposed to go down and play this place called the Doll Hut in Anaheim.

Starting point is 00:50:18 And the bass player had girl problems. So a day before we were supposed to go down there, he calls them quits, right? Because his girlfriend gave him an ultimatum, the band or her. He chose her. Anyways, he's, anyway, it doesn't matter. No resentment. But then literally after I hung up the phone with that, Tim calls me, and he's like, hey, do you want to join the band or what?

Starting point is 00:50:45 And I was like, yeah, my band just broke up. And he said, okay, well, let's get you going. can you come down to LA? And now it was like a thing, do you want, are we going to take this new guy and put them on the first record? And I said,

Starting point is 00:50:57 hey, Tim, like, I really want to earn this. Like, let me earn it. And thank God that they didn't, you know, go with me sight unseen because, you know, my first,

Starting point is 00:51:08 after my first band practice with them, that's when, you know, my life sort of changed because, and what I was doing, sort of, you know, drinking and using

Starting point is 00:51:19 and all the other, things sort of had to kind of go by the wayside because I don't think it was kind of the hit you like oh this is real this is a real chance of a bigger life well two things that really that I remember about learning that tape is I remember because I wasn't living at home at the time and my brother was still living there because he was between places and I was listening to the cassette in there and I was practicing to it And my brother goes, and it was Matt Freeman was singing, and he goes, hey, pause that for a second. He goes, dude, is that dude like a big black skinhead or something like that singing?

Starting point is 00:52:03 I'm like, what do you mean? He goes, he sounds like a fucking gnarly skinhead. And I go, no, it's Matt Freeman or whatever. And he goes, well, listen, I'll tell you what right now. If you don't join this band, I'm going to kick your ass. And older brother's word is laws. I can tell you firsthand. bro, it's like, there's a story about, my brother was a tough motherfucker, right?

Starting point is 00:52:27 And like, there's, when I got stabbed that one time, like, you know, I can tell that story at a time. But anyways, that's what really, that's the moment that I take, you know, I mean, it's like my brother's saying that, thinking that Freeman was a big black skinhead, which is, you know, Like those are the things that I take from that that place like well because that that statement was said with like hey this is that's the coolest thing in the world. Yeah exactly right you have to join this. This is the coolest thing in the world. Right. Because I mean that that was the thing I feel like that really propelled me into going that route. And then when we had our first band practice and I got shit hammered and embarrassed everybody. and was pulling out my dick in front of the Berkeley Square and telling Joe Sib I was going to fucking beat the shit out of him he didn't buy me a shot of Jack Daniels.

Starting point is 00:53:30 A lot of this stuff I remember, a lot of this stuff I don't. But Tim pulled me aside and said, hey, listen, dude, it's either drinking or the band. And I was like, it's the band. Because I knew that if I came home with my tail between my legs and I had fucked this up, my brother was a man of his word. you know, and he probably would have kicked the shit out of me.

Starting point is 00:53:52 I mean, I'm surprised I survived with him. I mean, he stabbed me twice, you know what I mean? So it's like, he was serious. Minor arteries or? Well, he stabbed me in the back with a pencil one time and broke off the tip in my back, which they still never got out. He didn't know that that would go in, though. That was, that was an honest mistake.

Starting point is 00:54:12 He knew. He fucking knew. He was the one of the most gnarly violent dudes. He was trying to sharp. It he figured your back was fair game. That was the other one I can't I got in the shower. I was in the shower and I was naked as a j-bird obviously as you do in the shower. And I must have been about 15 or 16 and he had a knife and he started making the fucking Uh, it's like trying to, trying to recreate this psycho scene with me in the shower.

Starting point is 00:54:40 And I'm literally like, go on my best. And he got me on the arm. Oh, I mean. And he started laughing this moniker. Michael laugh that he always used to have. I don't think he was high either. That was the thing. That was the scary part, you know?

Starting point is 00:54:54 He was just vibed. He was just like, this is funny. This is good stuff. Violence. Me, violent. Not vibing. Fuck that. You know,

Starting point is 00:55:02 he's dead now. So it's like he's probably laughing about it up there, but or wherever. He did all that so that you'd have shit to talk about, you know? Bro, he toughened me up. He toughened me up. I mean, we didn't have a dad around. And I remember one time I was shaving. I was about, this was after the stabbing, after the, you know, or before the stabbing incident when I got stabbed by these fucking goofballs at a party.

Starting point is 00:55:27 But like I was shaving and I had my shirt off and he came behind me and he grabbed me like as hard as he could by my tits and lifted me up. And I just reacted and just punched him like that. And I caught him right in the chin and he dropped against the wall. And as I'm sitting there, I'm like, oh my God, I'm going to get fucking killed. And he stands up. And he turns me around and he goes, I've been waiting for you to do that for 16 years. Wow. Turn around and walked away.

Starting point is 00:55:54 And I was like, okay. Like, that was a moment. You slayed the fucking dragon. I slayed the dragon, bro. But yeah, I know we got lost off the subject. But that's how I got into the sense. That's how I got into this. That's real, man.

Starting point is 00:56:09 Pardon this interruption. This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. And we're here to talk to you about AG1. AG1. Bo, tell me about your journey with AG1 so far. I'm running low,

Starting point is 00:56:24 so I'm sweating it. This is gold for me right now. Oh, man. We got to get a re-up. We do have to get a re-up, and you know they're going to give it to us because they knew that we needed this, this dietary daily supplement.

Starting point is 00:56:38 I start off every day on an empty stomach with AG1, and I take my little vitamin D drops in there, and I never get, I'm very sensitive. I never get a tummy ache. I'm not saying this will happen for everyone. I'm just saying for me. No tummy ache, no nausea, no nothing.

Starting point is 00:56:54 It's a good way to start my day. I like to fast as it is. And it makes me feel like, okay, I'm getting this in. I'm getting my vitamins in. See, I forget I'm no good with vitamins. So I'll be, it'll be 5, 6 p.m. Yeah. And I'll find myself thinking like,

Starting point is 00:57:09 why do I feel so so poopy all of a sudden? And then I'll see my gorgeous green canister sitting on the counter. And I'll go, oh my God. age you want. I haven't done it. This is not, people think we're like shilling out or whatever like Wainsworth style or something, but like we do not accept ads that we don't agree with or use. That's just really sad. They had to convince us to, like they, it was a mutual thing where they fought for us and

Starting point is 00:57:37 then we were like, okay, we accept because we have found it so physically beneficial to us and our terrible bodies with our terrible diets. You, you truly have the best sum up, which I'll do all your gulping, is you don't necessarily notice when you take it, feeling any one which way. However, when you don't take it, when you forget, it's like, oh, wow, this is how I felt before this, huh? Yeah. This is, my body has just been begging me for this one thing, this whole time. AG1.com, athletic greens.com slash hardler.

Starting point is 00:58:13 Yeah, yeah, yeah. You get five. Five of these. Free travel packs of AG1. That's five days. You go anywhere. You got your daily supplement with you. And it's just a little powder you pour it into this gorgeous bottle,

Starting point is 00:58:26 mix it in any bottle of water. Delicious. And you get a year's supply, which I believe is this whole tincture. Yeah. Of the D3 plus K2. By, 600 servings in this little bottle. That's like two years, right?

Starting point is 00:58:41 Basically. So that's a liberal year. It is also what not time. What not. Oh my God. I'm a believer. I'm obsessed. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:58:52 I didn't get it. I didn't get it, you know, four months ago, five months ago. I didn't get it. The concept was a little lost on it, right? Yes. Kind of got. It's Twitch meets Cameo meets eBay. It really is.

Starting point is 00:59:05 It is the best place to buy and sell any kind of memorabilia realistically. And our guest on this episode, Frederickson is on there. You know who else is on there? Brody King. My favorite person. Dan Housen. All ego, Ethan Page.

Starting point is 00:59:23 Tons of people, you know, tons of different products, toys, cards, games. Now it's the best place to buy and sell hardcore vintage memorabilia. Yeah, of course. Shirts. Vinyl. So be sure to join us.

Starting point is 00:59:39 At the end of every month, I think our policy is pretty much the last Friday of every month is Hardler What Not Day. It's going to be the only place where you can buy certain hardlough shirts. We're going to always have old stuff from our bands and our friends bands, records,

Starting point is 00:59:55 rare stuff. You can come, you can bid, you can hang out, and you basically watch a two hour-ish live hard lore episode that is never seen again. And we have, we typically do around 10 items each, so that's a lot of stuff you can get. We do giveaways, we do

Starting point is 01:00:11 all kinds of stuff. So click the link in the description for 15 bucks off your first purchase and it's also manscape time baby we've been escaping men for months now and we got our packages coming i can't wait oh that body wash body wash coming i'm staying thick as thieves with the crop preserver and you're preserved and i'm revived i'm i'm living deliciously since since manscaped came into my life you know black living life. That's me, man. I smell great.

Starting point is 01:00:46 I smell good. I'm like balls are barely balls. You know? Might as well be my elbow at this point. It's all one thing and that's thanks to Manscaped. So use code hard law for 20% off plus free shipping. Yes. I was just going to say,

Starting point is 01:01:03 we, you know, we kind of have a golden ticket. I've tried a myriad of products. I've yet to even find a thing where I'm like, yeah. Like everything. I'm like, oh, this smells great. Every single Manscape product that we get sent is like, yeah, I can use this forever.

Starting point is 01:01:19 Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I could keep this in stock for the rest of my days on Earth. So we hope that you feel the same. And, you know, we are, our goal is to get you 20% off those things and free shipping. So you use code hard lore. You escape your man. You know, you buy it for your partner. Your ex.

Starting point is 01:01:39 If you want to fuck with them. Dad. your dad. I sent my dad an extra lawnmower that I had gotten from Manscaped. Lord knows Dad's balls be stanking. And this is the only remedy. Okay. Ball,

Starting point is 01:01:53 those dad's balls needed this. And thank God his son has a podcast where he could make that a reality. I love you, dad. Back to the episode. So the gravity of what rancet, would eventually be was something that you were feeling like off the rip

Starting point is 01:02:17 practice number one you know I just wanted to be part of a really fucking good band and I loved everything about that band I loved their hooks I loved their chord progressions I loved everything about it and I remember when I sat down for that first practice and Tim said can you play me

Starting point is 01:02:36 animosity can you play me this can you play me that and I just effortlessly just hitting he said okay you've got this because, you know, I just wanted, I sat and immersed myself into that for days, you know, and really learned it and wanted to be, I learned both parts. Like, whatever I could hear, I just thought I'd learn it, just, you know. And if I got it close or whatever, I didn't necessarily know that it would become what it became, but I did start to see that like every time that we play the show, there would be 50 more people,

Starting point is 01:03:11 100 more people you know and then now we're selling out Gilman Street now we're selling out this place then we're on the road in 1993 and then our video in December of 1993 is being played on MTV hyena this predates Green Day Offspring all those bands you know what I mean

Starting point is 01:03:28 and we learned about it we were in Europe at the time on tour with Rancid and it was like December it went from the end of November to January 1994 that was the first European tour. But we were out on the road with Rancid in August, September, a little bit to October.

Starting point is 01:03:50 And I tribute to the hardcore thing. Because I remember you were saying that, Stormy Shepherd was booking us. And Stormy Shepherd obviously was booked all hardcore bands. We were the first punk band that she booked. And I think the offspring came later. Or the offspring came first, and that's how we found out. I don't remember totally. But when we would play shows on that first U.S. run,

Starting point is 01:04:16 we were playing with all hardcore bands. Right. Which was very unheard of at the time because hardcore played hardcore shows, punk rockers played punk rock shows. Yeah. The streams did not cross the God. But then you have AF shouting out punks and skins and the tracks. And it's like they're begging for it.

Starting point is 01:04:34 But the first time that it really kind of came together in a long time is when we played with sick of it all. at City Gardens in New Jersey. And that was the first time that, like, a punk band like us with Mohawk, Studs, leathers, the whole thing, played with the hardcore band. You know what I mean? And it was a fucking, that became a friendship and a bond because we ended up doing that out on the West Coast, too.

Starting point is 01:04:59 And I think, and then we started playing, because we play with bands like sheer terror and Mad Ball. And, you know, we started playing with a lot of the hardcore bands. which I think was more, for me personally, I will say, more aligned with the kind of people that I grew up with. Sure. Does that make sense? The attitude, the, and the music in that scene. I remember in like 95, 96, when we were, you know, Alcombe the Wolves was doing its thing.

Starting point is 01:05:29 It's like, I would go to mostly Heartforce shows because nobody treated me weird. You know what I mean? Like it was, you know, like I would go see Powerhouse. or um and they're just glad that you're there they're just like oh yeah Lars is Lars of course he's here and those were my homies like me and Chris's powerhouse and singer is the godfather to both of my kids right he's like my brother you know so we we had that bond and then Eddie and Ernie of course from the band but you know it was it was such a different vibe because I would you know I'm trying to remember of all the bands that were going off back then but like all the

Starting point is 01:06:09 hardcore shows, I would be out of. I mean, that's where me and Davey, you know, havoc. Like, we would see each other all the time. And it was like the hardcore thing, you know, when we would go to a show, it was a little bit more akin to, um, what I remembered shows being when I was a young kid, right? So, you know, because now that we were sort of out in the public, we were kind of more of a public band, you know, there were, there were people who didn't like that, you know. And I just, I wanted to, I wanted to go into a place and just enjoy music and dance and do those things. And that's all we got, brother.

Starting point is 01:06:53 Well, but that's the thing. It's like the hardcore community really accepted, you know, rancid just because I think we played with a lot of those bands to begin with. And those became all of our friend, you know. It wasn't, you know, we weren't, you know, we knew Green Day, but we weren't. super tight with them. We knew the offspring, but we weren't super tight with them. Yes, we were on the same way. Well, we knew no effects, but we weren't super tight with. You know, like we weren't paling with these guys every day. We knew them. We loved them. Sure. I love them. Sure. I love you. But like, I'd go to New York and I'd see Paul Bear. I'd see fucking

Starting point is 01:07:25 Pete Kohler. And I'd see Roger. I'd see Freddie. I'd see fucking, you know, whoever it was, you know, Ezek or Toby Morris or, you know, me and Toby and Ezek. And be me, Toby and exact. You know what I mean? And it just, it was like that's, you know, what it was, you know, uh, uh, 25 to life would come into town. And, you know, like we would go see them. They 25 to live stayed here. That's how I met Warren. You know, it's like, it's like a lot of the, it was mostly the hardcore like, you know, if bands needed a place to stay, they, they crashed in my house. You know what I mean? Because I had a, you know, a house and I was like, fuck it. Take the couch, you know, or, you know, whatever.

Starting point is 01:08:07 sleep here. You got sleeping bags. Let's go get you stuff. You know, like that's the way, you know, my mom let social distortion sleep on our fucking floor when I was like 11, dude. Like kept that going. You know, you got it. That's you have to pay it forward, right? Wow. Is that true? That's so cool. Wow. She hated the fact that we were punk, but she, come on in, guys. Let me make you some frozen hamburgers. Not even kidding. Let me ask you something about that time, Lars. Sure. What was going through Mohawk leopard print hair

Starting point is 01:08:41 Lars's mind the first time he sees a spin kick in the pit were you like fuck yeah or were you yeah okay first time

Starting point is 01:08:51 I ever scared boner moment again straight up but it was like a good boner yes you know I mean because I wanted to be in it I remember it was

Starting point is 01:09:00 me and Tim went and saw madball at the limelight and this would have been 1994 and minus was in the pit and he's swinging a bicycle chain This is already perfect. Minus is like my brother from another mother.

Starting point is 01:09:14 Like me and him, when we're together, it's the best thing. It's always, you know, there's a group of us, right? When we get together for the bowl or whatever. And minus is the homie. I love him to death. Like, he's just the best dude. He's the funniest guy. Like, I wish he, I would, I would literally legit let Minus live in my house with me right now.

Starting point is 01:09:36 Like, that's one guy that... Minus, if you're watching. He lives in Florida. He's got a great life. But my point is, he's the one, he's like, there's many, but that dude ever needs anything. It's like, that's my homie. But I remember seeing him swinging that bicycle chain and just doing the fucking picking up change. And I'm just like, this is fucking, ah, you know, like I wanted to get in there.

Starting point is 01:09:59 Yeah. Now, I don't think 155 pound me at the time would have been able to handle myself in that environment. But, you know, that's, that was the limelight 1994 madball. That was art. That couldn't have been a better answer. You just painted a painting for me. You gave me for free. Thank you.

Starting point is 01:10:23 Minus doesn't remember that. One thing that you touched on really briefly was when you were talking about wanting to join like a serious band as in like going like strong, foundation. sound you mentioned like hooks. Rancid has some of the coolest melodies and hooks. Like in in all of alternative like punk music stuff where I hear fucking Ruby Soho comes out and that song is in my goddamn head until the next time. Earworms. Straight up a hive of earworms.

Starting point is 01:11:05 Like right in the beginning of the conversation you mentioned like right in the beginning of the conversation you mentioned like whether it's this that oritha franklin whatever like did you grow up listening to i guess like pop music because like a lot of the hooks and a lot of like the chord resolutions and where you guys end up when it's time the song structures are are are classically pop structures exactly it's got to be a reason why they resonates well well you know i think that um my exposure to music is not i mean I mean, maybe now it's cool, but like when I think back about what my mom used to listen to, it was a lot of like Kenny Rogers and Engelbert Humperdink and Natalie Wood.

Starting point is 01:11:51 She liked her voice. But the thing that I remember- Natalie Wood had songs? I believe she did. I'm 99% sure that I have some of her- What couldn't this woman do before she was murdered? I know. And that's the reason why I know.

Starting point is 01:12:07 know that story is because of my mom. But my, um, so Christmas time was always a special time because my mom never drank, but she would have like a one or two beers on Christmas Christmas Eve, right? And I just remember her, she would break out the Christmas, uh, or excuse me, the Danish music. And this shit sounded like straight up boy. What? Because it's drinking songs.

Starting point is 01:12:36 Oh. And it's like, They're like, you know, fucking big hooky choruses where it's like 50 dudes in a fucking bathroom, you know, with one head phone off so everybody else can hear, like doing the backgrounds. Like, Hooligan vibes. Dude. And it's, but it's so, it's giving me goosebumps just to talk about it because it's this powerful music. And she used to sing along and she'd drink like a hyena can or a Karlsberg or whatever the fuck she was drinking. And she'd get a little tipsy off a half a beer.

Starting point is 01:13:02 And she'd start singing and doing this whole thing. And, you know, she would kind of get into her. faith. And me and my brother would just kind of like giggle and watch her. And again, we would steal the rest of the six pack that she bought. But that was like... That's so cool, mom. Keep singing.

Starting point is 01:13:20 Yeah. So, yeah. But, um, you know, that's the stuff that really made the impression. And thank the Lord that before she died, I had, was able to have the conversation about who these artists were that she was going to do. And I got

Starting point is 01:13:35 all those records and all those CDs down. I just haven't been able to bring them up just yet because it's like it's still, you know, it's only a few years ago. She passed and, you know, I still got my little thing around it. But sure that's the stuff I think really made the impression. But music wasn't like a thing that really was on all the time in the house. My dad, when he was around, you know, I remember we would be in his GTO. He had this gold GTO at the ragtop. And, And it was like two seats and, like, me and my brother would sit both on one of the seats. And my dad would be blasting boogie-woogie bugle boy from Company D or whatever.

Starting point is 01:14:24 Sounds a beautiful of Company B. Yeah. And I remember we were out of stoplight. And we were on Butt Avenue, Santomas, Aquino Road. we're waiting for the stoplight and my dad's drinking cores and there's no seatbelts and my dad turns to my brother and says hey robert hand me that gun underneath the uh the seat my brother reaches out and he's got he's got a little 22 and my dad throws the fucking beer cans out as we're waiting the stoplight and start shooting at it and i was like we thought it was the raddest funnest coolest thing

Starting point is 01:15:06 ever, you know? He hit him, he hit the cans. I don't remember that. I just remember the soundtrack, the soundtrack being the boogie-woogie boo-go-boy company B or whatever that song. Pardon me, boy. Is this the chat? So that's like the hardest song ever in the back of that moment.

Starting point is 01:15:24 Pardon me, those are the first musical impressions I feel like that I remember. Those are huge impressions. Yeah. You know? I mean, I love the idea that one of the, most influential biggest punk bands had hooks inspired by this crazy niche subcultural thing that ties into everything else.

Starting point is 01:15:49 You know, like that's amazing. Well, Tim loved that, you know, so many different things. He had older brothers too. Me and Tim are both younger brothers.

Starting point is 01:15:56 He's the youngest of three. I'm the youngest of two, right? So, and then Freeman, like he learned on French horn, right? So he was a horn player that,

Starting point is 01:16:05 and he's like the musical. genius that can pick up anything and figures it out, right? And then Brett was, you know, obviously younger than me because Freeman and Tim are six years older than me. And then Brett Reed was a year younger than me, but now Brandon is now six years younger than I am. So there's like, I think we bring a wide scope of things to it. And I, and I think at the end of the day, like what Matt and Tim really like, you know, when I, when, when we have conversations about it, we all like that rock music. We all love the Ramones. We all love the ACDC, but Matt loved X. And he also loves Theo and shit like that. And then Tim loved like, you know, Tim like fucking A's, loves ACDC.

Starting point is 01:16:49 You know what I mean? And so it's like we, we had all that rock stuff, right? But then what was that punk shit, too? You know, it's like we loved the circle jerks. We love black flag. I loved a lot of the Oi stuff. Matt loved a lot of the, you know, Southern California stuff. Tim like loves hardcore. Like if there's the hardcore influence on Rance that I would say he would be the one that that brought that originally like you know, I would, you know, we saw you to today. We saw these bands fucking go and shit like that, you know, like we saw a lot of these bands back in the day, you know, and I feel like we saw, we loved the Cadillac tramps. We loved we loved everything that as long as it was

Starting point is 01:17:31 like street music. I think we incorporated it. it somehow and made our own thing. And what we thought, a lot of people used to say we sounded like the clash. They still do. And that's a totally great comparison. It's better than to be compared to Bon Jovi. But like if you listen to like sham or if you listen to the ruts or if you listen to some other bands, I think you might find that.

Starting point is 01:17:56 I think the clash was the obvious, right? Yeah. Yeah. But I think if you listen to rant that there's more than just a clash band, you know what I'm saying? 1,000. You know, and I think that the English influence is just as strong as the American influence, but I also think there's these other things that come with it that maybe- Little dominoes that paint the whole picture.

Starting point is 01:18:19 Exactly. But, I mean, none of us would be here without motorhead. Like, I mean, you know, it's seriously, like, if you think about hard rock music that is today or just whether it's the turnstiles, the rancids, the twitching tongues, the fucking whoever it is, the fucking gods hates, all the bands.

Starting point is 01:18:41 It all starts with one band and it's motorhead. And because if there's no motorhead, there's no, there's no music that we know hard music today. Yeah. If you think about Judas Priest and all these other bands, listen to their 70s records

Starting point is 01:18:58 and then listen to what Motorhead was doing. Right, yeah. And then see what, than they did after that fucking overkill came out. Motorhead was doing this before anybody. Motorhead invented fuck you, which changed everybody's attitude. I mean, do you think about all of that means

Starting point is 01:19:15 of thrash, you know, whether it's Metallica? It's all this. Yeah. You know, and that's what makes it good. Metallica had to move to the Bay Area before they got good. So it's like, sorry, guys. I mean, Metallica and other Lars are very vocal

Starting point is 01:19:29 about Motorhead. the band, you know. Well, a lot of people shit on Lars, you know, and I don't understand that. And because... And justice for Lars, dude, straight up. Yeah. Listen, I asked him one time, I said, hey, listen, I have a feeling that you, your style of drumming is just you trying or is heavily influenced to being filthy animal Taylor.

Starting point is 01:19:59 And he's like, yeah. Because no one's really ever said that to me. And if you listen to Filthy Animal Taylor and you listen to Lars Ulrich, it's like they meet. You get it now. You get it. So, and Lars is a great fucking dude. I love that dude. He's objectively one of the greatest musical minds to ever.

Starting point is 01:20:20 And he was right. Easily. So Lars is so far in my life creatively, guys name Lars, two for two. There's only two on earth. To the best, Scott. Loving both Larses out there. Much respect, much respect. So your first few tours with Rancid

Starting point is 01:20:40 occur around Let's Go. Is that correct? No, 93. It's before the first record. So three, let's go. Here before. Wow. Okay.

Starting point is 01:20:48 Wow. I joined the band prior to them while they were basically making the first record. Wow. And like I said, that was the question. Would I go down and do tracks or what I earn my spot? and I said I'd rather earn my spot.

Starting point is 01:21:02 Yeah. But I was with them through the whole process. I remember Tim going to Kinko's with the album cover, you know. So we made radio, radio, radio, that was the first thing I was ever on. That was 93. So. And that was something that was very important. And Billy Joe co-wrote that song?

Starting point is 01:21:20 Apparently he did. I don't know. I mean, that's, but, I don't know. Okay. I was never, we've never talked about that. That's fucking crazy. Here we are for the, this is breaking news. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:21:37 B. B.R. doesn't know. I remember it being talked about, but I don't think it, I think it's like an afterthought. You know, it's not like one of those,

Starting point is 01:21:44 those things. Maybe he came up with the rip. I don't, like he was jamming and did a thing that happened to make it, but it wasn't like a sat down to write that song type session. I, I just remember walking like over by where the green day house used to be me and Tim and he's like we were talking about here it is here I am

Starting point is 01:22:05 turning it up fucking loud like that part of the song we were kind of having a chat about and what ordered those those lines so you workshopped that out loud together just walking down the street well we wrote we wrote midnight and nihilism we wrote nihilism on the steps at his house. We wrote Midnight or one of the international, I can't remember which one on the backs. And St. Mary was, it's kind of foggy, but I would definitely

Starting point is 01:22:39 tell you that, like, listed or junkie man was written on Stormy Shepherd's steps in the front of her house. Listed MIA was written at the Omni Hotel in Detroit, Michigan. Excuse me, not listed in MIA, lockstep and gone.

Starting point is 01:22:56 Like there's certain, um, um, uh, uh, as Wicked was written in the van before we actually played somewhere in the, in the Midwest somewhere. Like I remember, because we used to write songs. This is back in the days where we would write songs in the van and then practice them at the show. Like, because there's nobody filming, you know, it was all, let's try nihilism. You know, I've been wondering, and that brings us to a very important topic. Like, let's go and outcome the wolves are one year apart. Yeah. And I can't fathom how a band would do that now with infinite ways to demo songs, let alone

Starting point is 01:23:35 you're touring all the time and still manage to put out like your, this breakthrough phenomenon one year later. Well, we, the thing about it is is that we were always had guitars with us. we would you know when we'd be home in between tours we would be together writing songs or hanging out getting burritos or whatever the fuck it was you know

Starting point is 01:24:04 and we were just very prolific we were just always ideas you know ideas were coming you know super fast and I remember when we did Let's Go like we only had this studio for three days and Tim knew Michael Rose

Starting point is 01:24:22 Michael Rosen had like, I'd done some pretty kind of big records at the time. Yeah. And he worked at Fantasy Studios. And Tim knew Michael. Maybe it was the thrash connection because everybody kind of knows each other. Maybe it was Rob Flynn or somebody. You know, I don't, because I think Michael worked with violence at one point.

Starting point is 01:24:43 And then Rob and Tim, I know we're pretty tight. And maybe that's just Bay shit. Bay. Yeah. Yeah. Just base shit. You know? Yeah.

Starting point is 01:24:54 And so we went into the same room that Credence did all of their recordings. And it was, and we just, we had three days and we just banged it out. Smoked. Vocals, too? Three days for vocals. Everything. It was like we, we just, because, but we were also like, it was, there was so much intensity and there was so much, like, drive and passion for what we were doing, you know, and

Starting point is 01:25:22 we would just come up with it, you know, and it would just kind of come in and come out. And we'd just put it down. And like a lot of those songs maybe, you know, took 15 minutes to form, you know, just because it was like, let's put that, da, that. And we, you know, we'd just, the hardest thing sometimes with the lyrics, you know,

Starting point is 01:25:40 just because you had an idea about how things would go or whatever. And, but you just kind of went in there and did it. And then Brett Gerwitz mixed it in three days. and then it came out. And I remember salvation was half as long. Originally, it was a minute and 30, and Brett cut it and made it twice as long. Doubled it?

Starting point is 01:26:02 Just doubled it. Really? Wow. So that's how that song came about, and that came about in the mix. He's like, this song should be twice as long. So, and that was the first song that really got us any attention, you know? And that's a huge hook.

Starting point is 01:26:19 Big time. and that was like that was a mixing audible called yeah that was one of the last songs we did Tim says I got because we always call it when we go into the studio we call we're going to do demo days

Starting point is 01:26:32 which is basically now we're going to now that we think that we have the meat and the potato of the record let's try some new ones and see and a lot of the times like I just think if outcome the wool was put out without Little Sammy's a punk rocker um

Starting point is 01:26:47 uh uh uh 11th hour the way I feel about you daily city train and disorder and disarray like those five songs were done in the last day wow disorder and disarray is like top three for me me too that's like one of my all-time favorite rancet song but I just think about the record what would the record be because there was other track though we had other track um yeah it's so that with the bone the like deluxe version is like 21 songs right i would think it'd be more

Starting point is 01:27:26 like 28 because little little rude girl which ended up on a bastard's record and lady liberty were written in 1994 wow so lady we tried them both and and and lady liberty ended up on life won't wait but it used to go like it was more like a like a like a like that Lady Liberty, come down and blaring me all nothing to do with you're all crazy. Like it was like a more like a rock thing, you know? And then when we took it to life, won't wait. We were we were sort of like, let's just do something completely different because we've tried it all these times that it's never seemed to make it.

Starting point is 01:28:05 So, you know, let's try it like a little more rockability, psychobilly kind of shit because we love the meteors and Mad Sin and all these other bands, all the psycho bands. Let's try it like that. Isn't it crazy how that works when you can try the same. music and like a different font and then somehow that just cracks the code. I mean, when I think about how many songs have either been Scott first and turned into mid tempo punk or fast punk or vice versa, like there's been a few over the years, you know. What was the biggest?

Starting point is 01:28:40 You go ahead, Bo. I was going to say, let's talk about, I want to talk about touring at that time. Yeah. Like the actual When I first started touring We had printed out MapQuests Which would have been a luxury When for like mid-90s

Starting point is 01:28:57 Right like that would have been You would probably love that at that time So yeah Was it Wake up from wherever you are Atlas map to where you got to go Reach a pay phone and call a random number that you got Well I've got to give it up to Matt Freeman

Starting point is 01:29:13 Because Matt Freeman wiped me up an hour earlier before everyone else so I could do my charge my hair. Wow. So I would so and that was part of his schedule because Matt Freeman took the reason why we're all still alive I got to get the coffee.

Starting point is 01:29:28 I got to look at the map. I got a wave of course for the Mohawk and then I got a scheduled lunch and wow. We had the maps, you know, the roadmaps and we had Richard the Brody and him and Matt and Brett, being intimidated and have driver's licenses at the time. So

Starting point is 01:29:43 they did the majority of the driving. So it was all up to Freeman. And this is before like cell phone. So like you would be going, you know, we would have merch sent out and it would be sent to a place. And then maybe it didn't get delivered. So you had to go find the UPS. And then, you know, there was a lot involved in there or whatever. But Matt Freeman was the guy who literally would take a map plan the course of action.

Starting point is 01:30:11 And then we would get there. And, and, I mean, later on, when we had tour buses in 95, like, because we had did like 20, no, it was over 20 tours just in the vans. Yeah. You know? And then when 95, how come the, outcome the wolves kind of happened. That's when everybody's like, well, we can have a bus now. I love kind of happened being the descriptor of like this breakout fucking, like the master killer of punk kind of happened. I really honestly think that like when we were making that record,

Starting point is 01:30:50 we didn't, we didn't really, we didn't know. Like you never knew. And I don't think that because there was, that was around the whole major label stuff when all the major labels came courting, you know, and me didn't have. Did Madonna really send you guys naked? Yeah, you should have told me I would have had the photo with me and I would have shown it to you.

Starting point is 01:31:09 Because it's downstairs. But yet, no, she, what she did is she had, She was making that sex book at the time. So it was like a Polaroid, and she sent us a letter which sealed with a kiss. And then it was like a Polaroid of her bending over her chair. So you can kind of see the silhouette of her stuff. And it's a sign with Maverick. And then she came down to see us when we played the Roseland.

Starting point is 01:31:31 And she bummed a cigarette off me. And I remember our foreheads kind of touched together when we were, because she was lightened the cigarette off. She was super nice. She treated us with respect. you know, she was cool. That's a cool way to chord a band to your label. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:31:49 But I mean, we obviously, obviously we didn't do it. But it's like, but I think that at the end of the day, we wanted to, I don't think the outcome of the wolves that everybody hears now would have been, if we signed with a major then, it wouldn't have been the same record. Because I think we would have came in way harder. You know, it wouldn't have been as personal either. I think we probably would have we probably would have switched gears a little bit.

Starting point is 01:32:17 So epitaph really emphasized letting rancid be rancid? Yes. That was, I mean, Brett knew, like he knew how to get the best out of us. That's why we've only had him as a producer. Wow.

Starting point is 01:32:31 Love that. So it's like he knows what to say to me. We've known the guy 30 fucking years. It's like he knows how to get the best out of us. It's like just him being in the room. It's kind of like he's like your dad and you want to, you want to show dad that you've been, you know, you're doing your homework.

Starting point is 01:32:48 So he takes to Disneyland, you know? So it's like, hell yeah. That's what I think we have this looking up to him because we love him so much. And he's really like, you know, treated us like, in a lot of ways, I think Brett looks at Rancid as he's in the band. And Rancid looks at Brett as he's in the band. He really is that close to us.

Starting point is 01:33:10 because he helps with everything. Like he'll say, you know, do this, do that. And then you go, that's a large part. Let's do this. And then large you go, blah, whatever, you know, like whatever. You know, he'll always bring something to the table. And he listens to us. And he's like an insider who shares, who provides an outside perspective as well.

Starting point is 01:33:33 Yes. That's invaluable. And he will tell you when it sucks, you know. The only time I ever got mad at Brett is when we were doing, um, uh, let the dominoes fall. And I,

Starting point is 01:33:49 the song damnation, um, I'm doing all downstrokes. And that's like 180 beats per minute. And to do all that downstrokes and then get everything right timing wise, Johnny Ramon style. And I mostly do downstrokes just not really that fast, but like,

Starting point is 01:34:09 that's, that's, like I did too perfect because I'm in the studio I'm kind of I'm not bragging but I'm kind of a one taker right like I kind of can play from the start to the finishers not punching I kind of know what I'm doing nowhere to go I just for whatever reason I have a photographic memory when it comes to that stuff but I did two perfect takes and Brett was on a phone call and he came in and he listened to it he said let's do it again I said there's no way I'm fucking doing that again And he goes, what? And I go, Brett, not doing that again. I stormed out of the room. I've never, because it was, it was super hard for me. Sure.

Starting point is 01:34:48 To do it twice in a row. Perfect. Perfect. Dude, listen to that fucking thing. That's perfect. It's on the snare. It's like, it's perfect, man. There's no cutting of that.

Starting point is 01:35:00 That's just me live, you know? Down strong. And, and it's whatever. And he's like, oh, okay, okay. I'll listen to it. No, it's good. It's good. So, like, I think he was just distracted with the phone call and just wanted to be part of it.

Starting point is 01:35:13 But, like, I don't know why I got so hot at him. I don't think he deserved it. But I was just, I was so. Well, Brad, if you're listening, he's Lars feels removed. I'm sorry. But, you know, Brett also, you know, gave me $500 when I was having a really hard time back in the early days. And I couldn't pay my rent. And then when I was able to go pay him back, he didn't even remember that he had loaned me $500.

Starting point is 01:35:37 And I said, here's the $500. He goes, what's this for? He goes, nah, dude, keep it. And I go, no, no, no, I pay back my debt. So, like, Brett's that type of guy, too, you know? Sure. What were, so, speaking of touring. Yes.

Starting point is 01:35:53 You know, let's go. I'll come to wolves. What were the holy shit moments? Yeah. Those, those tours had to, those, like, there were several instant evolutions size-wise. what were the moments where you were like, yo, this is fucking crazy.

Starting point is 01:36:10 Like the tours, the shows, the interactions with people. Well, for a year and a half, we would, I was home for about 23 days total. Okay,

Starting point is 01:36:23 so that's how much we were playing. We would do six shows and one day off, normally like a Monday, and that was normally a drive day. Yeah, sure. Sometimes it would fall on a Sunday, but you'd do six shows in a row,

Starting point is 01:36:37 one day off, the long drive through Texas or whatever. There was a few occasions. I think that we were so caught up in just doing the gig. I don't really recall, you know, you would see things grow. You weren't taking it for granted, nor were you expecting it. Sure. But you were just so caught up in the momentum of it all that there wasn't really a

Starting point is 01:37:08 time to stop. And it wasn't until after that you really, I mean, tour them with the Ramones and Metallica and Lala Palluzza. That was a big fucking thing. You know, getting my mom out of Devo's dressing room

Starting point is 01:37:23 was a whole, you know, that's like some trippy shit. Like, not that she was doing anything inappropriate. No, that's awesome. San Jose, um, Spartan Stadium, Lollapalooza. My mom's first time seeing Rantz

Starting point is 01:37:38 perform. It's us, the Ramones, and Devo's playing on that show. And I had to go do some press. And I was with, I was with the Ramones and their dressing room. It was me, Markey, and Joey and my mom. And they really liked my mom.

Starting point is 01:37:58 My mom really wanted to meet them because of the Rock and Roll High School. She knew that me and my brother, you know, who are these guys? And Markey's and Joey were class, you know, Marky's still classy, but Joe, you even class. It just is classy.

Starting point is 01:38:12 And I said, hey, mom, I got to do some press. Let's get out of here. Marki's like, don't worry about it. Just leave her here. We got her. We'll take care of her. What time do you play? We'll bring her up to the stage.

Starting point is 01:38:21 And I was like, you know, blah, blah, blah, so anyways, I go back. And they used to put the Ramones and Rancid at the, like they would build like a camp. Yeah. And the very furthest the way dressing rooms were always a man. I had said in the remote. Because you guys were fucking pounds.

Starting point is 01:38:40 We were pounds. We were just, they called it punk rock jail, right? Because you had Soundgarden and Metallica and whatever. And we would laugh about it. So I leave my mom with Markey and Joey. And I go and do the press.

Starting point is 01:38:56 I come back to the Ramon's dressing room like in, you know, 45 minutes later. I go, hey, what am I long? Oh, you know what? She dipped out to go to the bathroom. She didn't use that terminology. She'd have to do the, to go to the bathroom and I and I said to come back but she she she's gone and I'm like what the

Starting point is 01:39:12 fuck so I'm going I'm looking around and then finally the last place I look is Dio's dressing room Devo and it was really weird it was a long kind of building and they were all at the very end of the building and I see the I open up the door and I see my mom and she's got the back to the door and she's doing this with her hands and she's explaining she's doing a very good job it's like she's you know got this thing and they're all sticking there because they're in their yellow suits and the hat and shit because they got a full on hats on bro she's cutting a promo on divo in full gimmick in their gimmick she's a good and she's she's and they're very engaged and and and uh and i go hey mom come on now you don't bother divo we're about to play

Starting point is 01:39:58 come on you don't got to bother divo and i swear to god divo stands up and they're all in they're all No, man, you leave. You're leaving her here. You're leaving. You're leaving. Like, oh, my God. I'm getting dissed right now. Sorry, Mr. Mother's ball.

Starting point is 01:40:13 By, Evo. Because they won't rather hang out with my mom. But anyways, that was like one of the things that was kind of crazy, right? Amazing. When you think about it. You know, I remember meeting Lemmy for the first time. And I had a rose tattoo tattoo tattoo. And I said, I got a rose tattoo tattoo over here.

Starting point is 01:40:33 I'm going to get motorhead over here. He just looked me in the face and he goes, then you better get ACDC on your navel. And I was like, okay, that was pretty powerful. Yes, sir. So he told me to get it. But I remember when I first met him, he said, he said, hey, I said, Hey, Lam, I'm a huge fan.

Starting point is 01:40:50 And he goes, name one song other than Ace and Spades. Wow. And I said, Metropolis, bomber, overkill, Chase is better than the cat. He goes, all right, right, right. And then he was super cool. And I think that like, because, you know, a lot of people knew about ACE's spades.

Starting point is 01:41:05 whatever, you know, when they think of A-S and, you know, I mean, what a, not a bad song to be remembered for, but. No. And, uh, but yeah, so meeting Lamb, I met Weird Al Yankovitch, which was pretty cool. Oh, my man. Yeah. You're a Weird Al guy, Lars?

Starting point is 01:41:21 Yeah, fuck yeah, bro. I love Weird Al. Another one for the fucking Weird Al army, brother. There are millions of us. There are 14 of us. Yeah. Saturday Night Live, I think, was the big thing for us. I think that was, because Fear had done it.

Starting point is 01:41:37 The specials had done it. Elvis Costello had done it. You know, I've said this before, but the first thing I ever YouTubeed ever was, like when I found out about YouTube was Fear playing SNL. Because I had read about it and I wanted to see like all the, all the dudes in the group. There's no harder lore than that.

Starting point is 01:41:54 That was done in D.C. Really? That was filmed in D.C. It wasn't in New York. Or if it was, or if I'm correct me, Roger Merritt needs to be here for this one and if you ever have them on you got to talk about it it's either it was filmed up in DC

Starting point is 01:42:11 or it was filmed in New York and they brought a bunch of heads from DC. That's my recollection is that DC rolled deep as fuck that's what it was. That's what was. Ian grabs the mic and says New York sucks before. That's yeah, I feel like that's that's what it was. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:42:27 Okay. So, but yeah, so that was a big fucking moment because you kind of go, now you're on TV, right? Now you're, like, you're on Star Night Live, dude. Yeah, that's, that's like, you know, if you do anything in your life, nobody can take that from you then. And like, you know, not everyone knows what Lollapalooza is. Everyone, especially at the time, everyone knows what Saturday Night Live was. Yeah. And that's, that's, that's, oh, shit moment. I mean, there's been a few. I mean, obviously, I feel like, unfortunately, it's like pro wrestling. I've forgotten more than

Starting point is 01:43:03 remember at this point. But I remember seeing Rob Halford on the side of the stage watching us play or Bruce Springsteen watching us play singing along to one of our songs. Really? Oh my God. Bruce knows words to rats of words. I turned around. Fucking great job, dude.

Starting point is 01:43:23 I turned around and he's singing. I saw him mouth from the lyrics. And then or like Brian, like Brian Setzer and Slim Jim watching us. That was pretty fucking rad. and Brian sets her love Gunshot, that song, Matt Freeman's song, off Let's Go. You know, just little things like people that will come,

Starting point is 01:43:46 you know, out of your wheelhouse. Like you just don't know, it's like whether it's actors or professional athletes or professional wrestlers or, you know, guys that like I kind of maybe looked up to like, you know, it's, It's just trippy when they say, hey, you know, your music affected me or, or, you know, whatever it is. It's, it's still kind of a trip because, you know, the way I, I don't really see myself like that. And at the end of the day, it's like, for me, I'm just like, I'm dad and, and I'm stoked on that.

Starting point is 01:44:23 You know, it's like I really enjoy my life now. Like, you know, I've joined many bands. You know, I've been, I've played so many. goddamn shows. I love that. But it's like, you know, when I think about that the music that I've left behind, I don't sometimes don't realize

Starting point is 01:44:44 how much of it will be left behind, you know? You're in a permanent time capsule buried for the aliens, brother. Ransett will be in the first 35 bands that they hear. Well, that's the thing. It's like with Rancid, like that wasn't never the goal. Like if we, we thought this is what we really honestly thought if we could be like bad religion and be

Starting point is 01:45:10 able to kind of go play 1100 cedars a thousand cedars or whatever for the rest of our lives that's great like that's that's huge yeah yeah that's all that's all we would want you know other than metallica and slip knot that's pretty much metal ceiling now you know right but we're yeah i mean and but we're fortunate that we, you know, we can go out, we can do bigger places. We still have somebody that wants to see it. Yeah. I feel like we've sort of moved past this thing. I mean, we've been a band now.

Starting point is 01:45:41 And let me tell me that. He goes, once you're a band for 25 years and you don't take any breaks, people look at you different. And I think that's really kind of what's happened in a way, you know, for us. Well, a few years ago, you just played Brazil for the first time, right? Correct. And how many people were there? well I think the biggest crowd was one 120,000 or something like that

Starting point is 01:46:07 so it's but that was also playing with Metallica too you know so you got to yeah but 100 the M 120,000 was watching rancid in that moment yeah it's it's pretty trippy I mean the whole thing playing Madison Square Garden with the misfits that was something that was like fuck yeah that's a bucket list because that's the biggest north American punk rock show ever, if you think about it. I would love to talk about the Misfits with you. Okay.

Starting point is 01:46:35 So I'm like a huge Misfits fan. I'm a big dancing fan in general. Yeah. And I know you said your stance on Motorhead and the impact. I would like to know your opinion on the Misfits and Danzig's impact on like American subcultural everything from art to music. too. It's everywhere, bro.

Starting point is 01:47:01 It's fucking everywhere. It's like if you really think about what they've done and they didn't even have to be a band the whole time to do it. Yeah. You know what I mean? Fucking sick logo. Yeah. I mean, the Crimson skull, Crimson Ghost or whatever. Like, I mean, that's iconic.

Starting point is 01:47:22 It's everything about that band is iconic. They were doing that thing. before, I mean, if you think about punk rock what it was back then, how it accepted everybody from G.G. Allen to crass. Yeah. Right? It's two polar opposite ends of the spectrum. One thing and own us, do they owe us the living?

Starting point is 01:47:42 The other one saying, fucking, I'm going to butt fuck you or whatever. Yeah. And everything. Yeah. Yeah, but, but, but, and everything that is in between all that and the misfits being included in that, right? It's like, there, I, I, love them. I can't say that I go through periods with them. They're like one of my period

Starting point is 01:48:04 bands. So it's like period. But they like I'll have like a couple months with them and then I put it down and then I come back and then I put it down. Yeah. And I love Glenn Danzig. I love his voice. I think his solo shit is fucking killer. I love Sam Hayne. There was points where I wouldn't say that I was the biggest fan. But you know, as time has. as sort of kind of come and gone and stuff like that today where we stand like I love Glenn Danzig singing Elvis oh it's insane he picked a crazy tracklist but a couple a couple heaters on there for me that I'm uh I was like to hear it's a crazy tracklist it is yeah but I mean you licensing thing or I feel like it's just like a slumdog millionaire

Starting point is 01:48:57 type thing. These are the songs that hit him in a certain way. Fair enough. Fair enough. So obviously, go ahead. Sorry, no, no, I want to hear what you were going. We know your stance on punk, you know? Yeah. Yeah. We know the impact you've made in the genre.

Starting point is 01:49:16 I know firsthand. You love a hard-ass riff. I do. I want to hear about Lars's take on the hard-ass riff. What some hard shit that people will be like you know Lars

Starting point is 01:49:31 fucks with that that's crazy like do you hear suffocation and you're like damn that rocks you know yeah it's mostly by Gary Holt he's after like Hetfield I think he's my favorite extreme guitar player that's fair because he's got swag

Starting point is 01:49:52 and he's got all the riffs like he's got both of them so sick he's a riff machine See, I love anything that is heavy, weird, out there. It doesn't care. It doesn't matter if it's got corpse paint, long hair, short hair, doesn't matter. Like, it does not matter. As long as it's, I feel like I've listened to music long enough now.

Starting point is 01:50:22 I can kind of tell the authenticity behind it. So there's some stuff out there that I'm kind of like, eh. it might be a good riff, but, nah, you know, the riff is only half the battle. The intention is everything. But you take a guy like Gary Holt or

Starting point is 01:50:41 Carrie King. I mean, I love, see, one of my favorite bands is Cannibal Corpse, right? I love Cannibal Corpse. Now,

Starting point is 01:50:50 can I listen to Cannibal Corpse for three hours during the day? Absolutely not. Can I stay for a whole death metal show? at age of 51 no fucking way it feels like my liver's gonna fall out of my asshole right sure but when i want to go grab that sound i'll go to cannibal i'll go to death i'll go to you know a lot of the shit there's a lot of really new good thrash stuff like i go to ban i'm on band camp a lot trying to discover new bands. You really are, man.

Starting point is 01:51:31 I didn't know this about you, but like, there's, there's torchbearers of modern music in the world. And like, like Trevor from Black Dahlia was one. He, we just, he just sadly passed. Max Cavalera is a big one. Lars, you're, you're kind of the, the number three, like, purveyor of new music. You're out there going, yo, listen to this.

Starting point is 01:51:53 Well, I feel like that's, you know, I might be 51 years old, but I think what's kept me young is being in touch with like what's happening in the modern world of music. Yeah. Because I mean, if you meet me, I don't think you're going to go. That's that 50 year old haggard guy. Like that's just not

Starting point is 01:52:14 who I am, you know? I like young energy. And I like what, like when my kids bring home their rap music and Wolfgang will get into the shower or I'll go upstairs. and blast his shit, whether it's Yeat or fucking Playboy Cardi or whatever the fuck that he's into.

Starting point is 01:52:32 I'm always tuning in, kind of going, what's this dude talking about or the rhythm or whatever? And it's like, my ear is always going to engage with it. You're a musician. How can it not? But I also really loved when somebody loves

Starting point is 01:52:48 something like that. Like, Wolfgang really loves that shit. I mean, I used to take him to go see Creator and fucking shit like that, you know, and Metallica And then he's like, you know what? I want to try this over here. And then he goes here. And I go, hey, do you want to go see fucking Exodus at this fucking bone?

Starting point is 01:53:03 He goes, yeah, let's go. You know, so it's like he's still, you know, we'll dabble in it. Sometimes he's been saying more no than yes recently. But, you know, but that's his age. He's 15. So he's discovering his own thing, you know. And that's his quote. He's going to turn 18, 19 and be like, oh, dude, my dad.

Starting point is 01:53:20 You know, my dad is actually like, well. Here's what I got. It's funny. I have to talk to my little guy about something when he gets home. So I don't want to get to completely loss. But like, so, but creator and mostly like the later, like Millie Petroza is one of the guys as a guitar player,

Starting point is 01:53:42 songwriter, singer. Like, if you see how much that band has advanced from, you know, the very first like EP, you know, I have one of their demos upstairs, cassette. And it's like, when you see, see the progression and how melodic it is now and how it's like this presentation. It's like, you wanted a buffet? Well, here you go. You know, it's like, it's insane. Like when you take a record like Phantom Antichrist or or, you know, Coma, Souls or some of these later

Starting point is 01:54:14 records, and you really listen and tune into them, you know, it's like he, it's just, it's symphonic in the sense that it's like it's something completely it's a reinvention but it yet still creator right so uh bands with a lot of history you know and and and i feel like that's like creators like that band that like i've got like five creator t-shirts i can't say that i have five the only other bands that i have five t-shirts from are like gvh and motorhead like that's it you know what I'm saying so that's how much I really kind of go to them but I do have five candlelit shirts I should say that but like I don't know I don't know if that answers your question no it does that absolutely does and I guess on top of that we we like to talk about our Mount Rushmore's in the genre you know so for educational purposes to those listening what would you say is the Mount Rushmore of punk and then on the other end the Mount Rushmore of straight up hardcore. Mount Rushmore and buy albums.

Starting point is 01:55:27 Blue by albums. Yeah. So four? Yeah. Yeah. GbH. Stitty Baby Attack by Rats. Social distortion, Mommy's little monster.

Starting point is 01:55:45 Wow. I'm going to throw Motorhead in there just because I don't think that we would add this sound. I love that. So Motorhead, I would give up to overkill. that record. And then if I had to pick a fourth, I would probably go with something like,

Starting point is 01:56:06 trying to think like last resort, skin-in anthems. Skinhead anthems. Because, I mean, that was the first skinhead record out of England, you know? I mean, that's what a lot of the hardcore guys got. And that wasn't even supposed to be a record.

Starting point is 01:56:27 That was a demo tape for the record that, and the guy from the last, resort shop out negotiated the record label and ended up putting it out pressing it um without the band knowing wow so because that was just the demo tape that was the demo tape to get them into the studio to do the real record wow but if you think about that sound that was done on a fucking four track yeah that's insane you know and just to get that and it's not even. So another thing I found out that kind of broke my heart, the leads on that on that record

Starting point is 01:57:05 are actually the engineer. Really? Yeah. It's not Charlie Dugan, I think, was the guitar player at the time. So that's a little tidings. And like leads on that, like influenced years and years and years of records. Bro. So on the new last resort record, we did Freedom Part 2.

Starting point is 01:57:25 And my leads on that are just an. extenuation of what I heard on that. And I didn't find out about it was the engineer until we were on tour. Unreal. Wow. You know? So, and as far as hardcore, you got to give it up to

Starting point is 01:57:40 AF. And you got to give it to victim and pain. I agree. Pro Mag's age of quarrel. Madball set it off. And I would probably, you know, I got to, you know, if we're talking about past, right? That's kind of where my

Starting point is 01:57:56 mind is. But, um, What would be that for you? I would, you know, I'm going to be biased. I'd say powerhouse, no regrets, because that's awesome. For West Coast, that was a big deal, you know? Even though Chris is from New Jersey, but it took that like, you know, this kiddie used to smoke dust and lifting the flare. And then Ernie and Eddie from Oakland fucking straight hood Oakland. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:58:26 And those guys coming together. That's what made it so special. It's kind of like me joining Ransom. that I feel like that chemistry happened. I'm from the South Bay. These guys are from Berkeley. It was like a crash, you know, of different kinds of things, you know?

Starting point is 01:58:42 So. Beautiful. We have another question that we like to ask is, who do you do? So when you, even in the beginning, when you were on stage and maybe it's changed, maybe it's changed now, when you're playing and you're singing,

Starting point is 01:59:00 whether whether it's obvious or not who are you like trying to embody who are the three two three four guys where you're like they they subconsciously created what who lars is doing on stage stage lars rick blair straight up that's so good straight up right up rick blair the first wrestler answer we've ever had uh Ace freely. Yeah. Bad ass. And Lemmy. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:59:38 I feel like, you know, that's what I would want to be, you know. If I'm doing that, I don't know. But I really honestly feel like the reason why I'm the one talking to the crowd. But yeah, those are the guys I try to embody now, whether I'm doing that. But I feel like I was always kind of the one to talk to the crowd. I'm literally thinking to myself, dusty promos, player promos,

Starting point is 02:00:03 like how do I engage and bring them in? And I think honestly, I learned so much from watching pro wrestling about how to engage a crowd. I don't know if I've done my job low enough or not, but my, like Brandon Stannaker always goes,

Starting point is 02:00:17 dude, you know, you're not a punk rocker or skinhead, bro. He goes, you're a pro wrestler trapped in a punk rocker skinhead's body. You know what I mean? Like, like,

Starting point is 02:00:28 You know, so it's like that's the way I always want to, want to perform in that sense, because I feel like you have to give people, even though Rancid, we kind of go like seven in a row, talk, you know, we blaze through it because we do like 26, 27 songs in an hour and 15. Exactly. So, you know, you're getting a lot of music in that time frame. That's like when I go play with Stomper, we're playing an hour and 20, but we're only doing 16 songs. I'm like, how the fuck is that? like because there's a lot of breaks in between right so but with rancid it's it there's a flow to

Starting point is 02:01:03 it and we like to keep the energy up so you know what i have when i get a chance to talk or communicate with the crowd if it's not like a a guitar problem or something like that i have to feel i feel like it's i have to engage them bring them in to what we're doing quickly because we're about to get going again you know and i think i got eight more for you real quick so How are you doing? Speaking of, like, you said one of them was Lemmy. Just something I've always wondered and wanted to ask you, actually. Lemmy has Murder One, he's got, or, you know, had Murder One, had, like, the amp, the base and, like, his particular setup.

Starting point is 02:01:46 At what age did you figure out that you could cut the Marshall logo to say Lars? Okay, that wasn't even me. Really? No. We were doing some stuff for Rancid. I want to say it was maybe 2000, Rancid 2000, so the self-titled. And we were in the old rehearsal studio, which is now a recording studio where Michael Rosen has a recording studio. And I think we were there to either film all the videos for the songs, because we did a video for every song on Rancid 5.

Starting point is 02:02:20 And Brett Reed was sitting there. and he used to have a lot of these car parts because Brett, he'd like to build cars. And he was sitting on a case and he was like eating like a cliff bar or something. And then all of a sudden, I'm like sitting there. I'm just kind of tooling around.

Starting point is 02:02:35 We were waiting for something to happen. I can't even remember. He picks up a razor blade and he goes to my amp. I'm like, what the fuck is he doing, right? And he just cuts it out and he cut it out. And he goes, there you go. So Brett Reed actually figured that out. That's awesome.

Starting point is 02:02:51 What did you do in that moment? I thought it was fucking rat. Like I was like, unbelievable, dude. I go, I go, can you do the same thing to the other one? And he goes, you can do it. So I went and did it on the other one. So now, like, it's kind of a thing. Like, when I went over for Stomper to do the videos for the new record,

Starting point is 02:03:11 because there are new records coming out pretty soon. And, like, they knew to get me a marshal and to take tape. Nice. You know what I mean? So it's like, it's kind of now. Now, has Marshall acknowledged that?

Starting point is 02:03:27 Probably not. I don't think Marshall acknowledges anybody, but, um, let me see what I can do. Okay. I just like,

Starting point is 02:03:35 I love, um, artifacts, you know what I mean? Like, I love these like, like, like, do the,

Starting point is 02:03:41 I think Sammy from Godhor has the, love Sammy. He has the, the, the Hanaman, Rain and Blood guitar. Right. I mean,

Starting point is 02:03:48 like, I love these like, oh, it's like Lord of the ring shit. It's like, where it is this item. end up. And where does that helm Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 02:03:56 End up, you know. And Gary Gary Holt knows this story, but one of his Schechter vs, the blood splattered ones, yeah. Got taken and then it ended up and got taken from him and the, but got to me.

Starting point is 02:04:11 But he does know the story. So I have one of those V. Schechter's blood splattered ones. So he's accepted that. He's accepted. I sent him one of my camo and he was using it as a backup. So that was pretty rad.

Starting point is 02:04:26 And I got a video of it and playing it. It was pretty cool. Awesome. All right. I'm sorry to cut you off. Oh, you're perfect. You've never made a mistake in your life. Let's wind this down with the classic hard look question.

Starting point is 02:04:41 Yeah, we got some. Yeah. Because we're big, we're big fast food guys. Fuck yeah. As all touring musicians kind of have to be. So when, like this, let's say you're not, you don't have, there's no catering at the show in this in this scenario you got to eat before you get there

Starting point is 02:04:57 rancid is flying down the five south there's a mystical sign that shows all the like food here exit here now yeah what's you can it's anything it's anything doesn't matter magical exit on the five time nothing matters what's the one thing where lars and rancid as a whole are like you pull this fucking bus off the freeway we're eating here taco bell yeah it was always Taco Bell and the reason why is because Taco Bell had vegetarian options because they're beans were vegetarian right there was no lard in the tortillas

Starting point is 02:05:36 right so you could and I remember vegetarian times which was a magazine back in the day you put out a whole article about Taco Bell and how it was vegetarian friendly and you could even do vegan there because they wouldn't put lard in the I wouldn't put lard in the in the the tortillas and these things. And but Taco Bell was always the place because it's cheap, right? Everybody could eat.

Starting point is 02:06:03 And, yeah, I mean, sometimes you wouldn't, I mean, when Rancid first started, we would, we would, we would go into, since I worked at Togos, we would sometimes stop at a safe way or some sort of pigly-wiggly or whatever the fuck it was. And what I would do, I would go into the shopping center and I would get a brick of cheese, lettuce, tomato, white bread, mayonnaise, mustard, and maybe some pickle relish. Lars, are you telling me that you were the rancid in-house sandwich artist? I was. And so what we would do is I would make sandwiches for everybody on the hood of the van. And that's what we would eat. We'd have cheese sandwiches. and I would I would you know because I was always like mannays it's got to be perfect or who wants mayonnaise who wants mustard but some people don't want to dry okay you to dry whatever so like I would I would and I would always get like a thing of icebergs and tomatoes yeah we always would have like the first

Starting point is 02:07:09 stop we made we bought some of those plastic forks and knives and shit just so we always had in the van and you can one thing that you could count on you could count on plastic silverware and cartons of cigarettes in the rancid van like you knew You were going to get one of those things for sure. And then that's what we would do. I would make them sandwiches because we lived on basically $5 a day. You know, and you were buying a pack of smokes and then sometimes, and then if you pull your money together, then you could, you know, buy a loaf of bread or whatever.

Starting point is 02:07:40 Wow. So, you know. Yeah. Your resume is already extensive. And now you've got, now this accolade that you're telling me, the same little. Are you a soda guy at all? I used to be a Pepsi drinker, but I don't, as I've gotten older, like I don't really fuck with too much shit just because you build up intolerances as you,

Starting point is 02:08:08 you know, progress in life. And I feel like for me, you know, for a lot, for the last, you know, there was a reason why I think I joined 10 bands. I was in a very unhappy marriage for a long time. And I think, you know, part of that was, was like eating terrible too, you know? And I've, over the last couple of years,

Starting point is 02:08:34 I've just removed a lot of things out of my diet. Then I kept in just because I just feel better and I want to feel better because I have to show up and be dad and I have to show up and, you know, you know, I'm engaged to be married again now. And it's like, Congrats. Mazel.

Starting point is 02:08:50 Thank you. And she's also 10 years younger than me and wants to have more kids, which I always wanted. So it's like it's perfect, right? So, you know. Is she drink soda? No. She actually, dude, we got an air fryer and I got to tell you it's a game changer. Oh, it is.

Starting point is 02:09:07 It's a fucking game changer. And she cooks most, most nights, you know, because she loves that's part of her love language, I guess. Her love language. That's cool. That's what a fucking gift you've got then. Bro. Oh, my God. know, the kids love her, and that's important. And, I mean, we've been together about four years now, but she's just, she's really, she's a very loving human being, which I've never really had in my life. And I feel like, uh, at this point, at this stage, like, I'm sincerely at a place where I truly do not care anymore. I don't give a fuck. And I think part of that letting go of a lot of these things has made my life actually that much bigger, you know, and I'm able to be more present.

Starting point is 02:09:50 and I'm able to be more accountable. And I only do things that I really enjoy now. You know, it's like, this was something I knew I was going to have a blast with, right? Did you have a blast? I fucking had one of the best times, and I hope we can do a part two sometime. Because I know that there was probably a lot more that you guys wanted to talk about. And we kind of always goes, yeah. The scratches has merely been, the, what?

Starting point is 02:10:16 What? The scratch has merely been surfaced. We're doing gray. Yeah, I love how you put that. It was interesting playing words. Yes. Yeah, no. Please, please, God, continue as long as you want. Well, you know, I wish I could, but now I got my kids blowing me up.

Starting point is 02:10:35 Yeah, come pick me up from school. Let's get your kids. Wow. I'm blown away. Large is a man. Thank you so much. This was great. My pleasure, guys.

Starting point is 02:10:45 We cannot wait to do this again, which is inevitable. We will. Lars Lord 2 coming soon. Lars, thank you so much. Thank you all for listening. We love you so much. Listen to rancid. Listen to Lars and the bastards. Old firm fucking casuals. We go way back. Ruckus and old firm casuals. That's right. It's whatever. But yeah, thank you, Lars, so much. Thank you all. We will see you next week. Bye.

HardLore - Lars Frederiksen (Rancid)

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