Interview with Rick Miller
Words: Shawn Kyle
Photos: Ron Keith

REAX:  I know you're in the studio at the moment… didn't Southern Culture on the Skids just release a live record?
Rick Miller:  Yes, we have a live record out now on Yep Rock Doublewide and Live, it's an official release available in all the stores, we have been on tour behind it for quite a while, and now we are just wrapping things up here in the southeast. We'll have a new studio record coming out on February 20th, it's called Country-politan Favorites, and what we've done is taken some of our favorite songs and rearranged them and made them our own... so if they were country we kind of rocked ‘em up if they were rock we country’d ‘em a little bit.

REAX:  Where was the live album recorded?
RM:  The live record was recorded in a little tiny club called the Local 506 here in Chapel Hill North Carolina.

REAX:  That place is great; it's been there a long time.  How was it recording in front of the hometown crowd in a place like that?
RM:  It's nice going to a place and recording what you're comfortable with, you know? It was small, it was intimate… it was loose and a lot of fun.

REAX:  The band is really well known for utilizing the best parts of old-time music; a time when there was some really great sounding, but simple instruments and techniques being used in the studio.  Have you ever felt that it has been limiting or has it contributed to your own sound?
RM:  I think that it has allowed us to develop a unique sound. I think it's cool to have certain perimeters and kinda work within those.  I think the way that we approach music is organic, and I think that’s what I liked about all the old records and all the old instruments. There is not a lot of computer-generated stuff; it's nothing like that. Instead, it's basically just hands and wire.  I don't think it's held us back at all. We've always been weird and throwin' all kinds of odd things in the mix as well.  A lot of people call us roots rock, and I don't mind that because that's kind of our take-off point. I feel that we've always been revisionists more than revivalists. You know what I mean?

REAX:  I thought so too, some of your songs that were on the radio, like “Walk Like a Camel” off the S.C.O.T.S. record “Dirt Track Date” sounded nothing at all like what was on radio at the time… not even comparable. It was really a breath of fresh air compared to everything else that was going on in the 90's.
RM:  Well, we try to stay away from trends.  I think that if you know what you like and stick with it, you wind up with something that is really different.

REAX:  Rick I have to ask you about the tendency to involve food in your shows and rumor has it that at shows there will literally be banana pudding and fried chicken being thrown around...
RM:  Well, yeah! We are a really lively live band and our crowds are lively and you never know what you're going to get. 

REAX:  Your bassist Mary Huff has an impressive wig collection. How many different hairstyles will she be carrying around with her on tour?
RM:  Well Mary has many, many wigs, but it's all a matter of degree. She has many red wigs, but her idea of red is a spectrum within itself.  And, usually she will have a platinum one as well, but it may be a bit more of a go-go 60's style so you have to keep in mind there's different styles with each color.

REAX:  Is the band ever going to be nice to Dave and let him sit down while he's playing drums for once?
RM:  Listen, we have tried to get him to sit down, but he says he gets his exercise that way, makes him sweat more. And… there are some other reasons, but you'll have to ask him.

REAX:  On your last trip here we met when you were out at your tour van looking over some of your prized vintage guitars. I know you're an avid vintage guitar collector and I hate to put you in this situation, but if you were on a desert island and could only have one guitar… what would it be?
RM:  Well, it would have to be a Danelectro, vintage 60's Danelectro double cut away in copper...or actually if it were a desert island, I would probably prefer to have one of the old kitchen countertop models.  It's Formica with a fake wood grain.  Then I could also eat off of it.

REAX:  This New Year's Eve you have a show at the Skipperdome in Tampa, are there any particular special treats you have planned for the show?
RM:  Well that's the sort of thing you come up with on the way there, people bring the festivities with them too, but maybe we will have some of our famous banana puddin' or some fried chicken...

REAX:  Down here you got to have some fried gator...
RM:  Well, you know if you can wear it, you can fry it too...

REAX:  A couple more quick questions…  favorite drinks for the band?
RM:  Mary really loves an ice cold Jägermeister. Dave is a straight bourbon kind of guy and I'll drink anything brown... if it's brown it'll go down.

REAX:  If an automobile embodied the S.C.O.T.S., what would it be?
RM:  I'd have to say a 69 Chevy El Camino… laughter Super Sport 396 Motor! You know what I mean? It's the mullet of the muscle car.

REAX:  It's perfect! Not only can you blow some doors off, but you can also haul all the dogs off your front porch in the back of it!
RM:  Or your sofa!