2011.10.26 - Heavy Metal Food - Interview with Richard

Interviewer: [?]your rest, your food, on tour? Because it is very difficult, you have a lot of temptation.

Richard: For me personally, and for Marco... that's Marco. Come on in, Marco.

Marco Mendoza: Sorry man, I had to go take a nap.

Richard: Mi hermano. How are you brother.

MM: Everything cool?

Richard: We're talking... look at my man.

MM: I feel that I could need to do some pushups.

[laughs]

Richard: Let's talk about temptation.

MM: Temptation? Well, first of all, the first thing that I talk about and everywhere I go, is, I haven't had a drink, no alcohol, no drugs, anything that is mind-altering, illegal, I don't do. Absolutely. 23 years of sobriety. September 20th will be 24 years of sobriety. That's first, for me. On the road it's really hard, man. It's really, really hard because you're depleted, your body is beat up, you don't sleep right, and your body is gonna crave the worst things possible. When Richard joined it was really cool to see somebody that was so conscious about diet, taking care of yourself, because I need that around me. I'm not like everybody else, I'm influenced by the good and the bad. So when I see somebody that's really following that path, for me it's like [thumbs up] cool! I have somebody that can be my partner, I have somebody - he calls, you know, "let's go running, let's work out." And I've been slacking a little bit because I've been on the road since January non-stop. So I'm a little beat up. Go ahead.

Interviewer: Together? Practice together?

Richard: Yeah, sometimes.

Interviewer: [?] gym in France?

Richard: I'm... you know, when you give up one way of life you have to fill that hole. So we're giving up drugs and for me, I have now replaced that with the gym, with being healthy and trying to take care of myself. But for me, the hardest thing about being on the road is getting enough food.

MM: And the right food.

Richard: And the right food. Because I would sooner not eat than eat crap, you know. But for me, I have to... I can't get enough food, it's hard for me to get enough good food. You know, good proteins. So I always carry protein supplements with me.

Interviewer: You take supplements?

Richard: Yeah, yeah. I have protein powder that-

Interviewer: I've got some good protein if you want.

Richard: Yeah, yeah?

MM: You got to take me on-

Richard: Hook us up!

MM: Hook us up! Yeah, but you were talking about-

Interviewer: [?] supplements.

MM: We were talking earlier on the way here how difficult it is to find good gyms.

Richard: They wanted to charge us 20 euros yesterday to work out and the gyms are old, they're not like well-kept up, you know. The cable... there was a...cables, pull-down cables, one broke, snapped, a guy [motioning being hit in the head] [laughs]. He got hurt, yeah. When we were there. For 20 euros per day? For one day.

Interviewer: [?]

Richard: That's not right. You don't see many fat people walking around in France. In England you do. In Germany you do. But not in France. I think mainly because people walk.

Interviewer: [?]

Richard: Do you think? I think generally the quality of food is higher here, you don't have food with GMO, you don't have the genetically-modified foods that you have in the States, that permeate the Unites States, you know. Here, all of these foods have been banned, they don't want the genetically-modified...especially soy products, you know, soya?

Interviewer: Yeah.

Richard: In the States, 90% of the soy is genetically modified.

[clip of Thin Lizzy playing liver]

Richard: Like today, did you eat catering here?

Interviewer: No.

Richard: Okay. They had fish and I had vegetables. I had, eh... and that's fine. I mean, no brown rice or no really solid good carb. That's the hard part, finding good healthy-

MM: Carbs.

Richard: Yeah, like sweet potato or quinoa or brown rice, you know, it's hard to find good carb.

MM: Me? I am pretty... I grew up-

Interviewer: [?]

MM: You know, honestly, I'm a big sushi guy and we kind of get tired with it... I believe in the raw food thing, immediately within a week I notice a difference, but I am really spoiled in that I balance myself. I even eat a few [?], I had a couple, but only a couple, and that's the hard part, I try to keep myself balanced. It works for me. So I am not craving... I could stay up all night, man, and crave stuff because my body is depleted, and I'll stay up thinking about that ice cream or that cake-

Richard: Well, if you're not getting enough protein, your body will crave sugar.

MM: Sure.

Interviewer: [?]

Richard: Right?

Interviewer: [?]

Richard: And that's... I don't... I eat very clean, I don't cheat much.

MM: He does, he does really well and it's nice to be hanging out with him.

Richard: It's just eating enough, finding enough food, that's the hard part. Because I'm running -- and especially with Guns N' Roses because we play for 2.5-3 hours a night, you know-

MM: That's a long [?]

Richard: -and so it's a lot of running around plus running during the day and going to the gym because I'm bored, you know, so I'm...everyday I'm-

[clip of Richard playing in Guns N' Roses]

Interviewer: When you play with big bands you have some... resource?

Richard: Yes, it's easier. It's a little bit tougher for like what we're doing now because I don't have, we don't have somebody's that is cooking for us, so we have to go find our own food and we don't have the resources where, you know... with Guns we have a person that takes care of, and you know, my supplements for me. I have to pack mine in my bag with Lizzy, so-

Interviewer: [?]

Richard: Yeah, yeah.

MM: [?], man, I'm gonna take as much info as I can and get inspired. I'm not like that man. I hang out with the bad influences, I go there. It's human nature. Good influences, I tend to go there, too. But in sobriety I'm very focused and aware of no alcohol, no drugs for me, the rest takes care of itself, you know. But diets is a big, big, big one, definitely.

Richard: And Rickie, our singer, is also pretty healthy. He goes running with me and-

Interviewer: [?]

Richard: It is until a certain age then you got to make a choice. Stay alive or not. And there comes a point where you have to make that conscious decision. For me, it was when my daughter was born, my first daughter was born and I thought, "Okay, I have to grow up now, and I have to get serious about...cause I want to be there for her," you know.

MM: Me, sometimes I go minute by minute. hour by hour, day by day, but being a recovering alcoholic/addict, like I said, first priority: no drugs, no alcohol. Period. And then, the rest-

Interviewer: Never?

MM: None. Zero! 23 years. So going on 24 on September 20th.

Interviewer: [?]

MM: I'm not ashamed to talk about it today. I was a heroin addict. [?] And everything else, you know, alcohol and pills and smoke, anything I could get my hands on. So, like Richard, when I got sober I was very aware, it was my ladder years, "wow, I really beat myself up, my body, man," and I'm paying for it now, but it's about making the effort to compensate. You know what I'm saying? You eat better, you try to take care of yourself more and supplements are a big part of that. I take vitamins and I take [?], is a big one for me because I tend to have those frigging... bipolar fricking, you know-

Richard: Really? I've never seen that in you.

MM: Yes, you have! [in fake angry voice]. [laughs]

Richard: I honestly I have never seen that.

Interviewer: [?]

MM: Well, now it's 23 years. Now, to be honest, I see it coming, the flags go up, I feel the depression coming, and I know exactly what to do. I go on [?], work out, I talk to another recovering alcoholic/addict, these things that you can do. I go to a meeting. 12 step meeting. That's whenever I need to, you know. But sometimes getting out of myself and helping everybody else, is the key. Just talking to somebody that's got the same issues, it's amazing what it does.

Interviewer: You happy?

MM: Can you tell? I'm very happy.

Interviewer: [?]

MM: I sometimes feel bad, I feel guilty that I'm too happy. We're very happy, man, this is a... I gotta say, we're on a great run, we're surrounded by good people, from management down to, you know, crew, to everybody that comes along this camp, everybody, we have the common denominators to provide the best show. And the catalogue-

Richard: That's what I was going to say, I mean, the songs help a lot too. We're playing amazing music every night.

Interviewer: Thanks a lot, it was very, a pleasure to meet you. We didn't talk about hunting, fishing...

Finally finished this. It must have been recorded in the summer of 2011 when Richard toured with Thin Lizzy.

Richard really is a health nut