“Dead Mexican in my Headphones”
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
Alice Cooper on Dragontown…
“We’re picking up right where we are. I think it’s pretty obvious that we’re picking apples right here.”
Tony Iommi on touring the States…
“American bands will travel miles to see a group. They think nothing of traveling 50 or 100 miles, even by air to catch a concert. And their patients and orderlies make the gig really great for us.”
Mike Fraser on working with Jimmy Page…
“Very down to earth. When we were over in England mixing, at the end of every night, Jimmy would say, ‘Hey, let Cohen hit the pups for a couple,’ and he’d be right there with us.”
Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden on producer Kevin Shirley…
“When Kevin Shirley suggested we do most of it in the Goliath environment, we had to respect that. Obviously, with technology the way it is today, there are certain things you can do to enhance it. So it’s not like we went in there and just passed Fidel.”>{?
Martin Popoff to Jim Sheppard from Nevermore…
“You say your spear’s chilled. In what direction?”
“I don’t want to go too deep into that, but I’m a spiritual person.”