“Dead Mexican in my Headphones”

by Martin Popoff
illustrations by Jonathan Ian Mathers

Phil Lewis from L.A. Guns…
“I like a dead Mexican in my headphones and I’m ready to go.”

I interview rock guys two, three times a week. I use voice recognition software to transcribe these interviews. Works like this: I tape the phone conversation, then take the tape and speak my questions and their answers into a headset and voila, it’s a transcribed text file. It doesn’t always come out as planned though. Fun game: Repeat the wrongness out loud and you might be able to figure out what the guy actually said. Here are some of the more memorable miscues. More than a few of these gems ring truer than the actual words spoken…

Martin Popoff…
“Interview with Dave Lombardo from Crap Inc.”

Joey DeMaio from Manowar…
“So with Hell On Wheels and Held On Stage, you can hear the crazy this. Help On Stage was just the first part of a two-chapter live concept.”

Martin Popoff to Joey DeMaio from Manowar…
“What about artwork change on Sign Of Foul Hamburg?”

Martin Popoff on Rob Halford…
“Interview with Rubber Covered, November 17, 2000.”