November 7th, 2003 - Valentine's - Albany, NY

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Ron "Rontrose" Heathman talks with Tom.

Tom: The Supersuckers originated in Tucson, AZ and relocated to Seattle, WA. What was the reason behind the move and was it a shock moving from one of the most arid locales in the U.S. to one of the rainiest?
Rontrose: Good question. Yeah it was a bit of a shock. We kinda knew it was coming. It was also kinda the reason for the move. 1 reason for the move was that Tucson, Arizona wasn't at the time, nor is it now, a hot bed of musical ideas. And not that we knew that Seattle was at that point, but a friend of ours moved there from Phoenix the year before and said " hey man you can wear a jacket in the summer time." And that was all we needed… that was all the convincing we needed. Then as a side note he added, " There's more than one bar to play.
Tom: I went to Tucson last year and I walked off the plane all dressed in black I couldn't even breathe, I thought I was gonna be cool and boy I was wrong. (Laughter)
Ron: Yeah, yeah. (Laughter)
Tom: I was like "How the hell do you people live here?"
Ron: There's a lot of air conditioning and a lot of indoors. It's beautiful in the winter. I have a soft spot in my heart for the lower senora desert, as it's called - "LSD". It's a very beautiful area, but it's very extreme.

Tom: Where did the name "The Supersuckers" come from?
Ron: Um... we a had a show and we didn't have a name, and so we were chattin' around the house and at our first show in Tucson… and we had this porn magazine and it had a movie in it called The Black Supersuckers ...it was either that or Monkey Wrench. And we flipped a coin and it was just gonna be that one show and we would pick a real name and we still haven't bothered to change it, and it's been fifteen years. We took the "Black" off cause that was getting a little controversial.
Tom: You call yourselves the "World's Greatest Rock N Roll Band." What makes your band so great?
Ron: Geeze… I could go on and on and on but what makes us so great was that we honestly don't think about being anything but this. There's no pretense to what we are, we just are. And there are few bands like that anymore. Like we started this thing literally on a lark and we really… what makes us the greatest rock and roll band in the world is that we don't think about having to be the greatest rock and roll band in the world… We just are we are!
Tom: That's a great answer! The new album is called Motherfuckers Be Trippin'. (Which in my opinion should be voted the best album title of the year.) How did you come up with that title?
Ron: Um… That's a good story actually… I wanna tell it to you. A long time ago we were on tour with the fabulous Ohio brethren of ours The New Bomb Turks. And they were having a new record coming out and this was 1996 or 95. Every night Eric from The New Bomb Turks was yelling out different titles. "This is from our new album 'Sinners and Saints' and they would change they album titles all the time, and one night he yelled out, "This is from our new record Motherfuckers Be Trippin'." We just were like, aghast at how hilarious that was. And we kept telling them you gotta name your record that, and they didn't. When we to make this record we put it as a working title, ya know… You have a list in the studio of titles, and it was by far the best one.
Tom: We're going through that right now with my band, thinking up a title for our new cd.
Ron: Yeah, it was like one of things like tentatively titled and you know….
Tom: Tell me about the album...
Ron: If you know anything about us at all it's an extension of our last record The Evil Powers of Rock and Roll. Its kind of a part two as it were. It's very similar. To tell you about it is like describing great food. I can't do that. It's a great record, still nothing compared to what we are live.
Tom: You guys are so great live.
Ron: We're a live rock band. At this point making records is like the baseball card that promotes the live show. Ya know, 'cause that's something that can never be taken away.
Tom: You guys did a kick-ass video for the album's opening song "Rock-n-Roll Records (Ain't Selling This Year)" and I understand that the powers-that-be at MTV refused to air it. What was the reasoning behind their decision?
Ron: They didn't give us one. They don't have to being the powers-that-be at MTV. All we got was declined. So I have no idea. I suspect that there's not a record label push behind it… there's not enough nepotism involved. I know how the business works I don't know who to blow at MTV to get it played. That's it. It's a killer video.
Tom: It's a phenomenal video. It's great!
Ron: It's absolutely a 100%… the guy who did it did an Aerosmith video. It's a 100% professional video. Its just one of those things…. It doesn't matter what you do when you're an independent rock band.
Tom: The album was released on your Mid-Fi label? I love the Mid-Fi logo; it looks like it's giving you the finger.
Ron: It's a double ontandra with the bars.
Tom: Now that you run your own record label, is your perspective different on the music business as a business?
Ron: It's actually … I have just more distain for the business side of music than I already did. We're as involved as we can be with every aspect of our product. Ya know, it just shows me that its not… it's just a big bunch of crap. And putting it out ourselves is something we should have done a long time ago. And obviously that said, I can't say that if we were hugely successful on a major label that I would be saying this. So I'm honest about the idea that if we were successful on a major label this wouldn't happen. But I don't… there's a lot of big artists that are successful that are doing that now. We can subsist selling 20,000 records to make the same amount of money on a major label youd have to sell a million. They fuckin'… they suck.
Tom: What are the long-term goals of the label? Is it mainly a vehicle for putting out Supersuckers material or are you looking for other talent as well?
Ron: We definitely are gonna put out other stuff at some point. We wanna become firmly established. We probably wont be like we sign bands, we'll like, help other bands out that we like. Like we'll do a contract with them and that will be great. I'd love to do that. We'd probably give some pretty artist friendly deals.
Tom: The Supersuckers are always touring. You guys must have some great road stories. What's your favorite?
Ron: I just told one today that involves me. We were in Germany, there's so many road stories…this one's off the top of my head. I really had to pee… a slice of life as it were. And, I had to pee so bad I got a piss boner and the guy wouldn't pull over…so we had this German tour driver who was kinda a nut case, really, he was like drinkin' Red Bull before it was invented and stuff. And he was like, "No we must make it to the gig." He was going like 90 miles an hour. It was one of those Mercedes splitter vans that you can stand up in. I was like, "You really don't understand. You need to pull over! It hurts really bad! I gotta pee!!! He wouldn't, so I stood right next to him when he was driving and held him up at dick point. And I put it right in his ear, and he pulled over. (Laughter)
Tom: (Laughter) That's actually one of the best stories I've ever heard.
Ron: Anyways, that's just one obviously.

Tom: Speaking of touring, you guys have toured with bands such as Motorhead, Social Distortion, The Ramones, and many more. Who were your favorites to tour with?
Ron: Wow, one of my favorite tours, one of our most memorable tours was with Mudhoney. It was a time when they were just exploding it was like in '93. Piece of Cake had just come out…all that grunge stuff. And it was just so much fun. They took great care of us and helped us get rooms… we had no money at that point. They were playing for like 1,000 - 2,000 people a night. And in the larger cities even more. And it was really exciting to see that happen… to see them take that ride. And we're all just really great friends to this day. We go snowboarding with them. In my memory that was one the most fun tours we've ever done. There were a lot of pranks on that tour like putting bologna in Matt Lukin's shoes. Goofy really… a lot of innocent boy fun going on the tour.
Tom: That leads to my next question: What do you like to do for entertainment during downtime on the road?
Ron: It's changed over the years, ya know. It used to be drugs and look for girls and those never panned out. But now its changed, down time doesn't even happen that much anymore. Now it's food… get to the gig, maybe do an interview, sound check, eat. If we have a day off I love to go check out a movie. That's a treat on the road to get a day off and do something somewhere new, go see a movie… that's great.

Tom: You've devoted a number of years to bringing the saga of the imprisoned West Memphis Three to the public eye, including putting together a compilation record called "Free the West Memphis Three" which included tracks by Joe Strummer, Tom Waits, and Steve Earle. Do you feel your efforts are making an impact? What new developments are there in the case? (Editor's Note: To learn more about the West Memphis Three, please visit www.wm3.org)
Ron: There are some new updates… I'd like to bring Eddie over here …'cause he just got an update. I was updated not too long ago. There was a development with the DNA stuff going on. They got a court order to get the time… I think its going to be…unfortunately the wheels of justice turn slowly and in their case so painfully slow its surprising to me even. I know they have had some new developments. Hey Eddie…
Eddie: Huh?
Ron: Did you get some updates on the Memphis Three guys? There's something going on.
Eddie: There's nothing good really. But they did get the money to check for the DNA. So that's good. A round of money later… its very slow. Jamie just got put in super max, which is this new kind of maximum security, death penalty, death row thing. That sucks. But the DNA deal is good.

Tom: Ok, cool. Now on to some more personal stuff… Whom do you consider to be your influences and inspirations?
Ron: Obviously, we got to tour with the Ramones and Motorhead. Those are a couple of our big ones. On an individual level we are influenced by the bands we play with. When you travel so much you get to see a lot of bad bands but you get the opportunity to see some really great ones. You get to travel with these people and you become more influenced by…a lot more by the people you're with then the people you grew up listening to. That stuff is certainly still there we grew up listening to 70's pop and radio rock. Were older so those influences are still there. We were all suckers for melody but we want it to kick yer ass too. God, if I had to name tons of bands we could sit here all day, but newer bands like Zen Guerilla, Turbo Negro, those are …you can be influenced by those bands as much as The Rolling Stones. They're all great.
Tom: What's in your CD player right now?
Ron: I threw my cd player out the window going about 85 miles an hour. I don't know what was in it I don't think it was anything… (Laughter) but actually what's going to be in it when I actually buy my new cd player (if I ever get to Target) is the new Dirt Bombs record. That's going to be the first thing I put into it. I can tell you that right now. At home what's in it is probably Humble Pie, The King Biscuit Flour Hour, I think maybe the last Old 97's record.

Tom: If you could put together your "Ultimate Dream Tour" with any bands you wanted (Living or Dead), who would you choose and why?
Ron: Oh man, how many bands?
Tom: I don't know, say three…
Ron: Oh… Like a three band bill?
Tom: You guys and three others.
Ron: Ok… the ultimate three-band bill... Man, that is a wicked question isn't it? You know it would all be different for every member. I would pick AC/DC, Humble Pie, and Motorhead.
Tom: Killer line up. I just got to see AC/DC at the "SARS" fest up in Toronto. And AC/DC stole the show. It was unreal.
Ron: I'm sure.
Tom: What does the future hold for The Supersuckers?
Ron: You're looking at it. The future… this is a cliché… the future is going on right now. You gotta take of what's going on right now. This is the most important thing I could be doing and I'm doing it. I try not to make too many predictions, ya know. Hopefully moving forward, making a few more records… We do have a plan at some point, because you know we do the country thing as well, we'd love to move into an area where we could let people see the whole show. To see all sides of the Supersuckers, the country, the rock… And quit differentiating what we are, let it just be music. Whether its country or rock, just let it be. Quit putting a label on it and just let it be.
Tom: Hank III did something like that. Where he would travel and do a set of country and a set of hard rock/punk.
Ron: We'd actually like to come out rock and break it down into acoustic performance and back into country and then back like a theater production. Eventually we'd just like to do that, always. So people aren't disappointed, because I understand that there are these two different sides, and some people wanna hear the country when were doing the rock set or they wanna hear the rock set when were doing the country set. Eventually I'd just like to do it all. It just takes a little more scratch than we have now.
Tom: I understand that… (Laughter) Before we wrap up are there any last words?
Ron: Yeah. Turn off the TV and the radio and go down to your local independent record store and ask for a recommendation.

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