4/7/11
Wild At Heart - Eddie Spaghetti interview
Best known as the lead man/bassist of the Supersuckers, Eddie Spaghetti will be supporting his recently released Bloodshot Records solo debut, “Sundowner” as he tears into Detroit to play at Small’s this Saturday night. I talked to Eddie as he was preparing for his show in Pittsburgh and he is ready to rock out here in Detroit.
Eddie cites “My Sharona” by the Knack as the song that first got him thinking about “what I’d like to be doing” and went through a variety of music starting with early New Wave bands like Blondie, the Cars and Cheap Trick before moving on to AC/DC and then the Ramones and Motorhead (who recently played Detroit). He likes a wide variety of music which comes out on his records including his latest “Sundowner”. There are a couple of songs where he is joined by Willie Nelson and Steve Earl of whom Eddie is a big fan and has worked with before.
His new album contains covers by a wide range of performers including Johnny Cash’s “What Do I Care”, the Dwarves “Everybody’s Girl” and Dean Martin’s “Party Dolls And Wine”. This kind of reminds me of my radio playlists though I admit to not being a huge fan of the Dwarves but Eddie thinks they are one of the unheralded bands and that there song should have been a big hit. He picks his songs by what appeals to him and which ones he “can play and have a good time with”. Doing this solo work has been a “happy accident” presented by the bands downtime and he enjoys doing these songs, though there are some originals also.
While the Supersuckers play off a set list, Eddie states that his solo shows allow him to “take requests and mix things up a little bit”. The audience dictates what songs he plays and controls the flow of the show. Asked if he thinks about messing up songs by not having a rehearsed playlist and he isn’t worried about messing up. He admits “the audience wants me to mess up” and he feels you can tell the caliber of the performer by how he recovers from mistakes during a set. Basically, it just sounds like he wants to have fun and create an almost small community of fans that he can just hang with on a Saturday and appreciate music and get drunk.
He admits that the Supersuckers are working on a new album and expect to tour next year. He thinks fans might be a bit surprised as this will be a “more hard-hitting” album that previous ones, but everyone involved feels good about it. He even thinks he might have a new album next year himself.
On a more serious note, Eddie and the band have spent a lot of time involved with helping out the three kids spending time in prison known as the West Memphis 3. Eddie was moved by the documentary “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills” which tells the story of three teenagers accused of killing three younger boys in what the religious community thought might be satanic ritual killings. The three boys are Damien Echols (who was sentenced to death), Jessie Misskelley, Jr, (sentenced to life imprisonment plus 40 years) and Jason Baldwin (sentenced to life imprisonment). These boys remind the band of themselves, being outsiders and rebel rousers, and they feel that it could have “easily have been us in that position”. They have met the boys in prison and Eddie has been impressed by Damien’s courage which has been real inspiring. It is intimidating to visit and see the prison walls and see the conditions they have to live in. The boys are set for retrials due to new evidence in Oct of 2011 and Eddie hopes they are able to show there innocence. Eddie does write often and says that if anyone wants to get involved, they can go to the wm3.org website where they can donate their time or money.
Getting back to the show, Eddie wants the fans to get ready for a rocking time and "make sure you wear your underwear because we’ll rock your pants off”. So get down to Small’s this weekend and become a part of his show.
