Cindy: You just returned from Europe. How did that part of the tour go? Is playing Europe any different than playing the U.S.?
Joe Buck: Well, it was exactly the same. It was weird, it is weird. I mean this first show in Rotterdam I was singing “Evil MF from Tennessee” and I usually let the crowd say “Tennessee”, and I’m in Rotterdam and I was like, okay, and just stopped, boom, and sure enough I heard “Tennessee”!
Cindy: So your fan base is strong in Europe?
Joe Buck: Well I’m not trying to be different, it’s just the way it comes out. I mean, obviously they’re looking for something different and you know there’s not too many places for them to get something like that I guess. It was amazing. I’m going back over there in the fall for about two months.
Cindy: I’ve noticed so many bands booking Europe dates on their tour schedules. It seems like a popular thing to do, I guess it always has been.
Joe Buck: Well, I don’t book the shows, I just let people know where I am, so it’s good because I just deal with people. We’re not getting in touch with clubs, it’s not like that. I just want to go where the people want me to come. I’m just excited about having a show. The best shows are when you get your local bands together and there’s people and you have a party. I only care about the people who are there.
Cindy: We may not have had a huge crowd for you last year when you played here, but everyone was there for you. And what I thought was so special was you telling everyone to come stand by you as close as they could, and they did for the whole show, and that was a very different experience. It made me feel like I was part of your performance. It was very memorable for me.
Joe Buck: Well, I mean, it’s all about the people. I mean, I’m playing for them, you know, so yeah, the whole getting up close thing is like it takes all of us to make that show happen. The energy has to come from all of us and yeah, that’s not like most shows.
In most shows the band comes on and the people stare at them, and they go through the show, and they go off stage, you know? That’s not what I’m doing.
Cindy: You are well known in The Legendary Shack Shakers. Were there bands before that? What was the beginning for you as a performer?
Joe Buck: I’ve been in bands my whole life. There have been a zillion other bands. I had success with this band named Gringo back in the early 90’s. I mean, you know, drinkin’ and druggin’ ruined it, but I was doing shit then, in rock bands from late ’79 on and I was in all these punk bands in the beginning. I mean, I was from a farm in Missouri, so when I was a kid growing up there was Bocephus, Van Halen, The Cars, but when I left the farm it was like I immediately found punk. You know, it was like 3 years after the fact, but it was late 1979, it wasn’t 1977, but it was still new enough to where I said, okay, and played in punk bands.
When I was 21, I think I heard Hank Williams on a commercial or something and it was usually someone else doing his songs, really badly. Then I met a great friend of mine, Jerry Bender, who I owe a debt of gratitude to. He was the produce guy at the Piggly Wiggly and lived around the corner from me. I’d have my little punk rock parties and he was my neighbor, just lived right around the corner, and one day he said “your music sucks, I’m bringing my own music”. So he brought over Hank Williams 40 Greatest Hits and you know, it changed my life. Jerry Bender! And that was in the early 80’s. I still played in punk bands until 1994 just because I knew that playing country takes skill and time so I worked on it all those years, but I still played in punk bands to get by.
But my band Gringo got a bunch of great reviews. I thought I was trying to be Hank Williams. I was just so strung out and drunk that I was just kind of lost in that, but those were great records, I was in great bands, but I just ruined it, just played too hard.
Cindy: How do you describe the type of music you play and especially the way you play in your solo act?
Joe Buck: I have to play every song as hard as I can. I mean, that’s the first thing people always come up to me and hug me after a show and say “Oh my God” because I’m soaking wet. Not just a little wet, I mean like somebody just dumped a bunch of water on me. And that’s because, yeah, I play every song as hard as I can. It’s all rooted in old hillbilly music and blues. I’m not doing anything new, I mean, maybe the approach is about something different.
Cindy: Where does all the aggression come from?
Joe Buck: Because I’m pissed off, man. I’m pissed at the way people treat each other, I’m pissed at all the cold blooded greed. I’m so sick of all the bullshit in the world. There’s so much to go around, man. I’m pissed off at mass communication. I’m pissed off at Nashville, you know, as a kid growing up on a farm, instead of having somebody from my area on the radio singing to me, for me, like Hank Williams would’ve been, no, I got fu#@ing Barbara Mandrell. The worst bullshit in the world. So that music didn’t speak to me. I hated that music. I mean, openly as a kid I said I hated country music, so it made me hate where I was from. I had issues and I had to get them out.
I left Nashville and moved to Western Kentucky, just over the border. The people in Nashville were great, it’s the music industry that polluted a whole generation of good country kids. That’s why they’re listening to Fifty Cent right now. They’re adopting a culture that has nothing to do with them. You have to know where you’re from to know where you’re going.
Cindy: I heard you had a show here about a year ago with the infamous Cuz’n Wildweed and the Vapor Rhinos. Something happened at the club, Poes Pub, can you fill us in?
Joe Buck: The Vapor Rhinos had a fog machine that you could’ve put in an arena. So we saw smoke coming out of the club from our RV. Kathy and I looked and there was all this smoke billowing out from the club. You couldn’t see inside the club. The club was completely filled with smoke and it was billowing out the doors. It was like the place was burning down. So we’re running out of the RV to see what’s going on and the Vapor Rhinos were still playing on stage. You couldn’t even see them. It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It ran everybody out of the bar, which was even more genius. I was like, yeah, they’ll remember that show forever.
Cindy: What was it like performing with Cuz’n Wildweed?
Joe Buck: Well, I’m glad that Cuz’n Wildweed is here on this planet. What can I say, you rarely meet somebody that has a giving soul, because the majority of us are cancerous, lecherous thieves. So to find somebody like Cuz’n shows me that good people are out there and it gives me hope, otherwise I’d blow my brains out! We’re in this thing for the long haul, and that’s what we need, are people that give a shit.
I promise I will always show up to play as hard as I possibly can. I don’t care if it’s the 20th show of 20 shows in a row, you’re gonna get the same show. You have to give if you’re an artist. It’s the truest thing. And I only learned that from losing everything and being pummeled by everything. Then I realized I didn’t need anything. The only things I need are the things I can carry inside of me.
Cindy: Have there been any spiritual influences or experiences that have helped guide you to where you are now?
Joe Buck: All I need is to not feel worthless, because I was. So, by working so much and playing, those things make me feel good. If I feel something or smile or rock out, whatever it is, then I did something that made somebody feel something, so being able to give them whatever that is and by them feeling something, then I don’t feel worthless. So it’s really as simple as that.
What changed, I have no idea man. It’s like one day, I just can’t explain it. I was almost dead, so I really don’t know. It’s weird too because the dope, I’m around it all the time. It’s so funny. It’s like, here’s the funniest part about your addiction, here’s your job and you’re gonna be surrounded by it and that’s the best way to have it. Keep your enemies close, man. But I never wanted it, and it’s like I said, twenty years of full on crazy and then one day just like, I can’t explain it. I did think I had a dream kind of thing that was like, I gave up all the drugs and pills, it doesn’t matter what it is, it’s all the same thing, so it’s like, if you give up one thing, all the rest of the things that you need in your life will bear themselves.
I was like, man, I’m not stupid, this sounds like a pretty good deal. And that’s pretty much how it worked out. I don’t judge anybody by what they do or what road they’re going down. Everybody’s got to live their own life. And as awful as it was, because there is no glamour in it, you know, it’s just pathetic. I don’t look back on any of this stuff fondly, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m fighting fire with fire, filth with filth, decease with decease.
Cindy: You played with Hank III for years. To anyone that would seem like a perpetual party. How long did the party last before you had enough?
Joe Buck: Well I never had enough of it. That thing was a pro gig man. Yeah, we had fun but we rocked every night, I mean everybody was f@#ked up, you know, you can’t do that shit, you have to almost be an athlete. Yeah, it’s fun, but I mean….there were several things like, this thing now is steady work, and that gives me peace of mind.
Cindy: Your fans now know about the split with you and Hank III. Do you mind telling us what happened?
Joe Buck: First of all, he (Hank III) is a solo artist. I was just a side guy. I mean, he’s had a zillion guys in his band. I mean, it’s about the songs. I loved every minute of that, but I started working (solo) after we played Nashville on Thanksgiving of 2007 and when I started doing this no tours (with Hank III) were booked, so I kept working. You know, and he went on. So that’s what happened, there was no “split”. There was no big decision made, I just never heard from him. So he got another bass player and I was like, okay, I’ll keep touring.
Cindy: Are you happier as a solo artist?
Joe Buck: I’ve always written and played, besides Hank III, I always wrote and sang the songs, so I mean, because I played with him for so long, sure I miss that, but not for the reasons you think. It’s like, I miss my friend. But this thing that I’m doing, you said it, it’s really important and it’s growing like crazy, and yes, when you’re a side guy, you don’t know what’s going on, you know? This way works for me. It gives me huge peace of mind. And then, I love my girlfriend. We’re getting married as soon as I can pull off the road long enough!
Cindy: What’s next for Joe Buck? Are there any new releases we can get excited about?
Joe Buck: I’m recording and I’ll have a new release out by July. I’ll have it ready for the tour with Wayne (Hancock). Oh yeah, Wayne Hancock and Joe Buck are gonna f@#ck up the West Coast man!!!
Cindy: What more really needs to said?
Joe Buck will be playing The Triple on May 12, 2009
You can visit Joe Buck’s website: www.joebuckyourself.com
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