Piggy D from Rob Zombie by Andrea Leigh
Things were a bit crazy in the press tent at ROTR so I was only able to talk
to Piggy D for a few short minutes, but it was worth it. I could tell that he
was an old hand at interviews. Piggy D, the current bass player for Rob Zombie,
is very well-spoken and thoughtful about his responses to my questions. I think
I was a bit surprised, but he was fun to talk to. Rob Zombie’s new CD,
Hellbilly Deluxe 2, hit stores in February and they have done a number of tour
dates since. Piggy D was a big part of that new CD.
Cover: How are you enjoying the festival atmosphere at ROTR?
Piggy D: It’s cool…I guess. Not a huge fan of these
types of shows personally from a performance standpoint. I wish we could play
longer, but that’s everybody’s gripe which is not a gripe about
the festival it’s just, you know, what it is. The only band I got to see
today was Anberlin and I really liked them a lot. I was bummed that I missed
Airborne. I really wanted to see them. It’s cool because there are a lot
of different bands in the same place at the same time and that’s the really
cool thing about these shows, they’re just a little nutty though.
Cover: So, you prefer the larger headlining shows…
Piggy D: Even the smaller headlining shows are great. There
are just so many people here at once and there are so many people that you want
to see so you spend your whole day trying to find your friends and say hi and
also talk to people like you and hang out and you’re not really focused
on the show so when it’s show time you’re like “oh my God,
I forgot we’re playing today. I forgot why I was here.”
Cover: As far as the new album you, John 5 and Rob Zombie
all wrote on it. You each came from different backgrounds and joined together
just a couple of years ago so how were you able to take your prior experiences
and bring them together for this album?
Piggy D: It was a cool process and I don’t see it happen
a lot with bands, especially other bands I have been in, it hasn’t happened.
We all went into a room. We all came in at ten o’clock and said “okay,
what do you have? I got this…well what do you have? I got this, okay,
I’ve got this” and we all put it together and then Rob would write
some lyrics and sing over it and we would be like “that’s awesome,”
and it was a song. It was so painless. There was no preconceived notion of “oh,
we have to have a song that sound like this.” We knew what we were going
to do so we just had to get everyone in a room to see what happens and it sounds
like a band because of that. It wasn’t just one guy writing everything
and orchestrating everything with no one else’s input so that it sounds
like all one flavor. It’s a very broad record.
Cover: Is there any particular influence that you draw your
inspiration from when you are writing your music?
Piggy D: For myself, yes. I write a lot with different people
for different projects. Personal experience is always your best weapon. Trying
to write in the voice of someone else or how someone else thinks about something…nine
times out of ten, at least for me, it has failed. So just playing something
honest, whatever feels right to you usually works.
Cover: You have a pretty full summer of touring you’re
about to begin. When you’re out there you get to meet your fans and the
people who really appreciate your music. What is that experience like for you?
Piggy D: It’s really cool. The turnout for the shows
on the Alice Cooper tour that we just did, The Gruesome Twosome tour, was great.
It was great to see people who love Rob Zombie and love Alice Cooper all in
one room at the same time. That was pretty neat. You could literally just…“There’s
a Zombie shirt, There’s a Cooper shirt, There’s a Zombie-Cooper
shirt”. It was just really cool. It was like a big party. Of course, those
two are like Darth Vadar and Luke Skywalker so it made for a cool atmosphere.
I didn’t get to talk to as many people as I would have liked to on this
run, maybe the Mayhem tour will be different. It’s always nice to see
how people interpret things.
Cover: Are you looking forward to the summer and getting everything
started…Do you have to do anything to get motivated and into touring mode?
Piggy D: Yeah, I gotta find some lighter stage clothes. Right
now I’m covered in fur and I have a dead skunk on my arm and a lot of
leather. I gotta figure it out. Maybe I’ll do a onesy or something. I
don’t know something with some airflow.