One of my favorite songs of yours is “Go to Hell.” The lyrics for this particular song are definitely a nightmare scenario for a couple.
Yeah, Blaine is following the great country tradition of writing a song about catching your wife and killing somebody. Luckily this one is completely fiction, and I swear when he wrote that line “guilt runnin’ down her chin” it made my skin crawl. That’s gotta sting.
Blaine: I wanted to write a classic country song based on a song called “Knoxville Girl” and also “Banks From the Ohio.” I actually saw Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash sing that song in a club and it was amazing. “Banks From the Ohio” song is about a man killing this woman because she’s so pretty; it’s so weird. There’s a lot of country songs about some guy having to smash his girlfriend in the face with a rock and throwing her around. I wanted to have a song about some guy killing his wife or lover and I wanted to give him a good reason. So he catches her with his two best friends, and that’s his reason for using his gun. He needed to be really pissed off. It puts you in the mind of the guy.
Almost 20 years later, you and Blaine continue to be the backbone of the band, with drummer Jeremy Thompson. How have you both managed to keep both your personal relationship steady alongside working together?
I think we’re just really lucky. We get along really easily. The band is a bigger priority than anything. It’s our baby since we don’t have any children. The biggest arguments that we ever get in are all creative and about Nashville Pussy. We’ll get into huge arguments about arrangements of songs, but we don’t really argue other than that. We’re excellent parents in taking care of Nashville Pussy. I’m still his biggest fan and he’s still my biggest fan. We like watching each other on stage. There’s no secret to it I think we’re just lucky. We allow each other weird and creative outlets. He let me join that stupid metal band and I let him start that whole new band, it’s kind of cool.
Sounds kind of romantic.
(Laughs) It’s our version of romance. He writes a novel about Jesus and I join a band called Dick Delicious.
I still think it sounds romantic.
Well if you think that’s romantic than you sound pretty f*cking cool. Your boyfriend is pretty lucky.
I read that it wasn’t until after you met Blaine when he convinced you to form a band with him. Did it feel like appropriate timing for you to form a band at that time?
When I met Blaine, I was 23 and the band didn’t really get going until I was 27. I had pretty much given up on my chances to be in a rock n’ roll band by the time I joined a university. It was me throwing in the towel. I will not be a rockstar so I might as well get my degree, which I got in bronze casting. It’s not easy to do either. I don’t know why the more responsible alternative to being a musician was being an artist. Then when I met Blaine, he had come over to my house. We had been together for a little while, but had never heard me play guitar. He saw one sitting in the room, but he didn’t want to ask me to play. I picked it up one day and played circles around him. He said I was a way better guitar player than I was an artist. I was like ‘What the fuck dude. I’m selling my art and making a living out of this and you’re telling me I’m a shitty artist.’ Years later, I was helping him out with Nine Pound Hammer for awhile and we just played around the house. We basically wrote the first Nashville Pussy album sitting around in our kitchen in our spare time. By the time his band fell apart, we were ready to go and didn’t really know we were going to start a band for other reasons. It was kind of a happy accident. At that point, I was like ‘What do I have to lose?’ I was 27, way too old, and it just worked. Everything we do we don’t think about, we just do it.
When you first started, did you have a lot of stage fright?
First show we ever did was in Athens, Ga., and I’m wearing leopard skin shorts and fishnet stockings and a little short pink top. I think I thought I was going to be more like Poison Ivy from The Cramps, she was an icon as far as visually. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I couldn’t move, I was nailed to the floor. I was concentrating on playing everything properly that I was terrified.
When you’ve had to deal with the situation of finding a new bass player, has it been the band’s intention to always hire a female? Keep it the 50/50 balance in the band?
Totally. Nashville Pussy definitely needs the perfect balance between estrogen and testosterone otherwise we’d be a whole different band. We actually toured with Eddie Spaghetti from Supersuckers. It was great and a lot of fun, but the dynamic was just so different on stage. It just changes. There’s something important to have two and two. I think the girls give the band balls, to tell you the truth. Every single woman that has been involved in this band has been a phenomenal representation of the female gender. They have all been outstanding in their own way.
Eighteen years after forming Nashville Pussy, what is most challenging to you as the lead guitarist?
I guess just staying alive. Not drinking myself to death. Still finding it entertaining on the road. Thank God, once you start playing it’s the greatest thing ever what I do. My favorite thing to do in the world is that hour that I spend on stage and there is nothing like that in the world. Other than that it’s just getting through the day. We just came back from Brazil and had so much fucking fun. Before we left to go on tour, I really didn’t want to do this, and as soon as the plane hits the ground I remember how much I love it again.
A friend of mine that has seen you live told me you took a couple dude’s faces while on stage and shoved them up next to your pants, so maybe you were born with pure lust and confidence for the stage.
He might not have been that close and didn’t know how long I was wearing those pants for. If he was, he may have been like “Oh God, girl take a bath.”
Do you get a certain number per show?
(Laughs) It’s not like I’m playing audience bingo or anything. ‘How many guys did you get to lick your pussy tonight Bonnie?’ That’s kind of a fun idea, maybe we’ll have to do that on the next tour. I used to grab their faces and stick them up next to my crotch, like you said, give them the chance of a lifetime and let me see what you can do.Sometimes they wouldn’t know what they were doing and I’d give them the thumbs down in front of the entire audience. Other times they would try and I’d give them the thumbs up, I’m sure they got dates that night. One time a dude bit me right on the pussy. Both Blaine and Jeremy both said “You can’t put that out there anymore; it’s dangerous.”
Did you kick him?!
Yes! I kicked the shit out of him, it was terrible. In retrospect, it was my fault but it was also his. Nobody said bite first; work towards the bite. You have to start gentle and then work up towards the bite; that’s always what I say. Giving people crash courses in pussy eating.
You can read the full interview here. Up the Dosage is out today on Steamhammer/SPV.
