Dash Rip Rock
Interview with Bill Davis
Words: Shawn Kyle

Appearing:
November 20, 2007
Skippers Smokehouse, Tampa

Dash Rip Rock has seen it all. They have been called the "Greatest Bar Band" in the world for years, having begun their cow-punk odyssey in New Orleans in 1984.  Since their humble beginnings, they have been underground heroes, and seen brief top 40 successes in the 90's over a song making fun of hippies they did as a joke.  They have since become one of the longest running groups in country punk, renowned the world over with peers like Mojo Nixon, and the Reverend Horton Heat. Longtime fan Jello Biafra has welcomed them to his notorious Alternative Tentacles record label to release a best of record (Recyclone) and this year's Hee Haw Hell. 

REAX:  “Hee Haw Hell” is being called Dash Rip Rock's first "concept album," a serious description that may be surprising to longtime fans of the group. What's the concept? 
Bill Davis:  My friend, Lou Brutus is the DJ on XM Radio who runs the punk rock channel and he has a show called Hee Haw Hell where he plays country punk or punk with a roots rock flavor. I did the theme song for it, and he wrote the lyrics. He came to me and said that we should do a whole rock opera based on the idea of Hee Haw Hell. A lot of our songs are about the south and drunken idiots in the south, so originally we were going to base it on a journey or and odyssey, but he came up with Dante's Inferno.  So, instead of Dante going to hell, he goes to the south.

We have cantos of "poetry" in between the songs. Originally we were going to have guys like Steven Tyler, and Gene Simmons to read these, but it was a sort of hot potato, they said "What? No way am I gonna read these crazy things about hell and the south!" So we got our punk rock buddies to do it; Mojo Nixon, Jello Biafra, and Supagroup. 

REAX:  Jello Biafra is well known for his work with the Dead Kennedys, and also as the founder of the Alternative Tentacles record label, known for it's variety of fringe music with a punk attitude. How did you wind up on the label?
BD:  Originally we met through Mojo Nixon and became friends.  We're both record lovers and we have the same political views.  We really don't fit on his label and he likes that, getting people to wonder what the fuck is he doing now?  A lot of his punk listeners were surprised that we wound up on the label.

REAX:  Post natural disaster, what is the status of the New Orleans punk and rockabilly rock scene?
BD:  The punk scene in New Orleans is stronger than ever. Most of the people in bands lived in the French Quarter, and it wasn’t really damaged.  A lot of people were from out of town anyway. It seems like all the musicians seem to have come back, it didn't affect the scene that we were a part of.

REAX:  Dash Rip rock has been heralded by the press as the "Greatest Bar Rock Band Ever..." and you are still going strong now over two decades later.
BD:  We really did start as a three-piece rockabilly band and we morphed into a punk group.   But, now it's full circle, we have gone to playing southern rock rockabilly and with playing live it's been a strange metamorphosis. After twenty years we are sort of entering in to the classic rock and roll hero thing, people say, "Those guys are still around? Oh my god!"

REAX:  After so many years on the road, what still drives you to get in the van?
BD:  It's fun and you have to get out of town, it's why other people go on vacation. I like to get out of Louisiana and see friends that we have around the USA and around the world. We have made so many friends all over and it's good to see everyone.

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