“Dead Mexican in my Headphones”: Halford Has a Job to Do – Column

“Dead Mexican in my Headphones”: Halford Has a Job to Do

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…

by Martin Popoff
illustration by Félix LaFlamme


deadmexican-priest

K.K. Downing on the next Priest album…
“It’s so close to being done, it isn’t funny. We’ve got a few days of guitar overdubs, and Rob’s got maybe one day of locals to do.”


Mike Levine from Triumph on the U.S. Festival…
“Well, to the best to my recollection (laughs), it was Mötley Crüe, Ozzy, Priest, Triumph, Scorpions, and Van Halen. Quiet cab ride opened the show.”


Brian Greenway from April Wine…
“I met Keith Richards and Mick Jagger when we did Buffalo with the Stones. Myself and Ainsley Dunbar, the drummer for Journey, sorta fell into our peanut collages that afternoon.”


BÖC’s Bobby Rondinelli on playing Sturgis…
“I love playing Sturgis. The only thing I don’t like is when they come up to the stage and they start renting their bikes and it’s like the loudest thing you’ve ever heard in your life.”