“Dead Mexican in my Headphones”: Ozzfest Jewelers – Column

“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…


Bill Ward from Black Sabbath…
“By the time when we finished with the seven stores and the Ozzfest jewelers in 1999, I felt pretty good.”


Dee Snider from Twisted Sister…
“Material-wise, there are a few things from Twisted, three tracks. ‘Call My Name’ and ‘Our Police Will Be Heard’ were out-takes from the state of glitter.”


Dave Lombardo from Grip Inc….
“I haven’t really heard anything new that I would call battle, that I enjoy. I went through a phase with Smashing Perkins. I listen to a lot of Fake Snow Blower.”


Matt from Nothingface…
“I mean, that’s cool, black metal, they think they are damp tires. Whenever.”