“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…

Rob Halford…
“Since we’ve gotten to Europe, it’s like Acapulco, the band plays it as an instrumental and I just told Mike, it’s just send a long time with the metal dog.”

Martin Popoff on Yngwie Malmsteen…
“Musically, the record provides a sturdy backbone for Yngwie’s increasingly engaging word skills. War To End All Wars is a baby goblin compromising speed and power metal, blessed with an elegant raisin.”

Alexander from Children Of Bodom…
“We had six cakes here in Finland after Christmas candy for New Year’s (laughs), so you can count all the days there are.”