2014.05.16 - Fanpass TV - Interview with Tommy

Transcript:

Matt Pinfield: It's Matt Pinfield at fanpass.tv hanging out with someone that... I love this guy very much and I've been a fan of really everything he's done, Tommy Stinson. Tommy, it's good to see you, man!

Tommy: Good to see you, man.

MP: Always good to see.

Tommy: Hey, I crossed paths with you at the Philadelphia airport a while back. I was running, I'm like-

MP: We saw each other crossed eye-

Tommy: [?]

MP: And then I came to see the night. it was great, you got up with Jesse Malin and with Billie Joe Armstrong and you all did [?]

Tommy: Yeah, well, I remember that a little bit.

PG: And you remember was weird about that microphone, it was like only one mic, it was like the longest version of it ever which I wouldn't... by the way, I love the song so much it didn't matter to me, I was happy cuz it was like it went, like, the bridge is in between but lower so each of you guys can get up and do a verse but it was fantastic.

Tommy: Yeah.

PG: Tommy, it's great to see you. I mean obviously Guns N' Roses, your solo stuff, Replacements, those reunions that are just [?], we were all praying for [?].

Tommy: All fun and games.

PG: It was amazing, first time I saw you was City Gardens in Trenton, do you remember those shows?

Tommy: Did you see us with the Butthole Surfers?

PG: Yeah!

Tommy: Rough friggin' night. I remember the girl who had "fuck" on her head backwards [?]

PG: Yeah.

Tommy: They were all on fucking something. I don't know what the hell they were on, but that was scary.

PG: That was one of the craziest nights, yeah. Cuz there were great nights about City Gardens and then there were other nights that, you know, were... but I loved the club and remember Jon Stewart-

Tommy: [?] still there?

PG: [?] bartender in the back. Nah. No, no.

Tommy: Jon Stewart?

PG: The Jon Stewart! He was the bartender!

Tommy: Wow!

PG: You know why he's so funny? I'll tell you this, I hadn't seen him in years and I hadn't put two and two together and I'm walking down the hallways at MTV in the 90s and I go, "Hey Jon, nice to meet you," and he goes, "Meet me? I met you fucking [?] for years, it's Jon from City Gardens!" and I went, "Shit! Back bar Jon!" Cuz he was trying to stay in the back bar.

Tommy: "Back bar Jon".

PG: Yeah.

Tommy: Nice [?].

PG: But he's amazing. Love him. And you know, those shows were amazing. How have the show's been since you got back together? When you guys finally decided to do those Replacement shows again, when you got together at rehearse, like, how did you pick the setlist?

Tommy: You know, we just kinda, just whatever felt good, I mean, you know, we put a little thought in the, like, what, you know, would be good, would be fun to play.

PG: Yeah.

Tommy: And what we can remember.

PG: Yeah, right. Did you do Color Me Impressed?

Tommy: Yeah. We got that in there.

PG: It's one of my all-time favorites. I mean, I love all, all the stuff. But it's so cool and people [?] about your shows, I know Billie Joe Armstrong got up with you in Atlanta, you just played Shaking Knees Festival, all right?

Tommy: Fucking great festival. Unbelievable good time there, they run it so well, the guy that puts it on, really good guy, and, you know, it was a blast. It was so fun I stayed the extra day to catch some of the other bands had some friends like, from Deer Tick and-

PG: Oh, those guys are great!

Tommy: - the Hold Steady were playing and I hung around another night.

PG: That's amazing. [?] from not too far from there anyway, right?

Tommy: Yeah, Providence, right.

PG: [?] Dear Hunter [?] from down there. I got it man, I got it. Like, I'll correct [?], I love them both, in fact, now you can meet [?] them on my podcast within like a month of each other [?].

Tommy: Are we live streaming right now?

PG: Yeah, we are, man.

Tommy: Hi mom!

PG: Tell me, I gotta just see, like, playing with Guns for... how many years have you played now with Axl?

Tommy: 17?

PG: It's amazing [?]

Tommy: Yeah, longer than in the Mats or longer than I went to high school.

PG: Yeah, it's incredible. But it's amazing now, you know, one of my other great friends, you know, when I talk to people, you know, obviously I'm a huge fan of Axl's-

Tommy: Yeah, yeah.

PG: - but I was also saying, like, "My friends Tommy and Richard Fortus," so I'll ever been in demand. You guys have been like two of the longest-running guys in there.

Tommy: Well Dizzy's... Dizzy's been the longest.

PG: Yeah.

Tommy: You know. The rest of us been hanging out. It's been a good gig for me, from day one, you know, it's been fun. We travel the world seeing all kinds of fun shit and done lots of fun shit.

PG: And it's cool, And tell me, like, I know, I talked to Paul about it before but I've never actually told you, what were the record you listened to as a kid? Before you guys started making records, what were you into? [?] all different rock, I mean, I'm the same way.

Tommy: Yeah, you know, when I started... once I got out of my brother's record collection I started listening to, like, Clash and a lot of Generation X, I got into that.

PG: I love those records. I put King Rocker on in my hotel room yesterday, no bullshit! No bullshit, I put King Rocker on. Because it was in my head for some reason and I thought first album was the best.

Tommy: Oh yeah. A couple good records in there. [?] was on the punk rock and then I kind of got on the hardcore tip for a while, we got lumped into that stuff kind of inadvertently because we were playing, you know, pop songs really fast and I think that somehow we got kind of looped into that genre a little bit and then it was a quick un-looping once, you know, once [?] think it's run its course.

PG: Yeah, yeah. [?] Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash. Can you remember, I gotta ask you one of my favorite Mat songs is a b-side, If Only You Were Lonely, I've always loved that song.

Tommy: Great fucking song.

PG: It's so genius! Like, do you remember the day you guys recorded it and wrote it? I mean-

Tommy: No, Pauly kind of wrote that and he recorded it very on the down-low because I think he was afraid we wouldn't like it and it'd be a thing and, you know, it was kind of done that way under the radar from us, I think he seems real self conscious of it, I think. But it's a beautiful song.

PG: It's an amazing song. Beautiful. Because it's a gorgeous song, it's a gorgeous kind of love, wanting somebody and it has that humor in it that's funny.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah.

PG: So genius. So any more shows we got? I mean Replacements fans want to know if there's going to be some more shows, because I know a lot of people... my friends travel to Coachella [?]

Tommy: Yeah, we are doing more and they can catch them all on the on the Replacements website. I mean, I don't know them all by heart, we're planning, you know, a handful show throughout the summer.

PG: Yeah, that's great to hear. I will get to one if it's Jersey, Philly, got to be out here.

Tommy: Just talking, maybe, you know, a Philly or a New York show, yeah.

PG: It would genius, it would be rave. After playing with Axl all these years, you have a favorite Guns song or a couple favorite Guns song?

Tommy: I really always get a kick out of playing You Could Be Mine. It is just a bass heavy, great riff song, it's really fun to play.

PG: I love It's So Easy [?]

Tommy: Yeah, that's a good one, too. You know, I'm just trying to think of, you know, off the new record, I think Chinese Democracy is pretty much fun to play. That's just kind of a barn, you know, kind of a double barn burner, real fucking in your face, you know.

PG: Which is great, yeah. You have a great time doing it. And what about [?] record, I've also heard, I think, your Bash & Pop record is going to get rereleased, right? Some of the other things.

Tommy: Well, we'll see about that. There's a lot of weird-

PG: [?] kind of behind the scenes-

Tommy: A lot of weird stuff.

PG: -about wanting to release all your stuff.

Tommy: There's a.... I'm trying to figure out how to get all that back. But, you know, I'd like to, you know, like the idea to put it back out again. It's been out of print for ever and ever-

PG: [?]

Tommy: If people want it, I got to find a way to get it to them.

PG: Yeah. I think that's great, I mean, I've just been hearing talk, you know, about the behind the scenes in music industry about people-

Tommy: There's a lot of weird talk right now about, you know, records that could come out and shit like that.

PG: What about Guns and you guys recording? Have you thought about recording some more stuff?

Tommy: We've been talking about it, we've been working on shit. I tossed a song around to the guys a little while back and we're gonna... we're probably going to get into it a little more when we get to Vegas. We have some time to, you know, [?] and write stuff.

PG: Now, because you could use that studio there, right? There's-

Tommy: No, we got DJ's house. I mean DJ is right there.

PG: DJ lives there!

Tommy: Hang out at this house-

PG: That's even better right, cuz you can hang out with your friends, eat, like, regular food, you know, do your thing-

Tommy: - grill up some weenies and drink some beer and play some songs.

PG: Which is super cool, it's great. That's always a fun feeling especially when you're on the road all the time. [?]

Tommy: We'll make some fun out of it otherwise get we'll go stir crazy.

PG: Oh yeah, absolutely. That sounds great. What about the Mats? Replacements going to be-

Tommy: You know-

PG: - any more songs?

Tommy: You know, I don't know, we'll have to wait and see, I mean, it's a-

PG: [?] being a dad [?]

Tommy: You know, we all got our little cross to bear [laughs].

PG: Yeah.

Tommy: I think, you know, we'll see. It remains to be seen. I don't know. I'd like to say "yeah" but I don't know.

PG: We'll see what happens.

Tommy: I'd like to, I can tell you that.

PG: Well, we are all so excited that you decided to do the shows again. I'm just always glad when I see you live, when I see you walk on stage, ever since I saw, you know, [?] for the first time in the 80s and you and [?] and Bob and Chris and Paul. It's amazing that it's been so damn long, 17 years with Axl, it blows my mind. Richard Fortus been there that long, too?

Tommy: Who?

PG: Richard Fortus.

Tommy: Richard Fortus has been there, I don't know, 11 years maybe, maybe 10. He came and, you know, something like that.

PG: When did you and Axl meet the first time? Cuz, I mean, obviously, he lives-

Tommy: We met 17 years ago at the studio when they, you know, they needed a bass player and I came in. Met him right there.

PG: Did he [?], cuz I know he's a big music [?], too, did he mention any Mats stuff to you?

Tommy: You know, I think we kind of joked around, I think he saw us play at some place with Del James some point, you know. Wasn't his cup of tea or something, I thought it was pretty funny. [?] joke about it.

PG: [?], too. Remember-

Tommy: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a funny one.

PG: It was always, cuz when you do those sheds [?], when [?]. We were there early [?]. Well, Tommy, I really.... and I'm gonna say... any solo stuff [?] right now we can talk about?

Tommy: Not really, I mean, I'm always writing and I always got shit sitting around. I think I'm gonna probably wait to the end of the year to think about any of that. I got a lot of crap on my plate right now to deal with.

PG: I mean, hey man, Mats, Guns N' Roses, two great bands.

Tommy: Kind of busy.

PG: -love. All of us really love and respect.

Tommy: Thank you.

PG: Tommy, it's always great to see you man.

Tommy: Always good to see you.

PG: So happy to see you. We're pumped to see you live. [?] Guns N' Roses.

Tommy: Stick around, it should be fun, hopefully it won't rain.

PG: Yeah, you know, it was supposed to rain all weekend and I woke up this morning I saw the sun out and I went, "Yes! Thank god!"

Tommy: It looks like it's out again.

PG: Tommy, thanks for coming by and saying hello, I love you-

Tommy: Thanks for having me.

PG: -brother. And we'll see you soon. Tommy Stinson everybody Guns N' Roses, The Replacements. It's fanpass.tv.

Here's an interesting article about City Gardens I came across whole transcribing this interview: https://www.vulture.com/2014/02/jon-stewart-on-bartending-at-a-famous-punk-club.html

Finished.