JACKYL’S JESSE JAMES DUPREE: THE METALSUCKS HOEDOWN
I’m going to be completely honest with you: I wanted to interview Jackyl vocalist Jesse James Dupree because I wanted to meet the man whose obituary will lead with the phrase “Was well-known for his chainsaw solos.” Dupree is a really good singer and Jackyl have some totally kick-ass songs, but, really, I just wanted to know what this dude who one day said “Fuck guitar solos, I can do that shit with my motherfuckin’ chainsaw” was like.
Really, really nice, and incredibly funny, as it turns out. He and I could not be from more different worlds, but even when he said a couple of things that I thought were questionable – I’m also wary of anyone who uses the phrase “the real America” – he was just such a incredibly cool dude that I didn’t care. I like to concentrate on what people similar, not different, y’know? And Jesse James Dupree and I are very similar, in that we both think that the idea of a chainsaw solo is completely fucking awesome.
Jackyl have a new album out tomorrow, aptly titled When Moonshine and Dynamite Collide. It includes a single called “My Moonshine Kicks Your Cocaine’s Ass.” If you don’t love that, you need to pull the stick out of your ass. On the eve of the album’s release, I sat down with Dupree to discuss all things Jackyl. Read the full transcript of our chat after the jump.
Where are you from?
I’m from a website called MetalSucks.
I know, but where are you from?
Oh! I’m from here.
From New York?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Do we need to get a translator in here?
[laughs] I can understand you just fine.
Oh, okay. Just stop me if I need to explain something. Probably if I come out with something that makes you scratch your head.
So before we start talking about the new album, we actually just ran a contest where we gave away one of your chainsaws. Are you sick to death of talking about the chainsaw after all these years or can I ask you a couple of chainsaw questions?
You know what? I’m not. I don’t know about talking, but I’m not sick of playing it. I understand it, I guess, in a way, that some of these bands… I think the bands that shy away from what made them attractive to people, I think those bands write their own exit strategy. Whereas, did Angus ever shy away from wearing his schoolboy outfit? No. Does he get sick of wearing it every night? I doubt it. Because it puts him in his mindset, and it puts him in his character – that is who he is. Does Gene Simmons get tired of putting on his makeup if there’s a dollar to be made? Hell no! Does Iron Maiden regret that they have to have Eddie walking out onstage? Do they wish they hadn’t of done that? Did they ever shy away from those things? They didn’t. We never shied away from the chainsaw. It’s part of what makes us who we are. Either somebody gets it, or they can get the fuck out of the way. There’s going to be this guy that’s going to prejudge us or write us off or whatever. They haven’t taken time to come and understand that it’s about just a true spirit of rock n’ roll and having a good time. Is that same guy going to look at Kiss and go, “Why don’t they take that stupid makeup off? Why won’t Angus get rid of wearing that stupid little outfit?” Do they stand up in the middle of a movie and say, “Spider-Man is not real!” I mean do they really do that? I don’t know.
I look back on the archive footage of when rock and roll was first invented. The footage where you see the news people asking the kids, “So what do you young people think about this new rock and roll music?” Have you ever seen any of that footage? Not one single kid back then said, “Oh, it’s going to bring about world peace.” “It’s going to cure cancer.” Nobody said that. If you went back in time and told those people that there’s going to be a guy named Bono, and he’s going to save the world… He’s going to be in a band called U2, and he’s going to save the world. Those kids would have went, “I don’t give a damn. My glands are getting stimulated right now, and I want to hurry up and rock out and jump in the backseat with this girl I’m dancing with and knock out the old dirty-dirty.” That’s what rock and roll was built on. If you forget that, then you’re just missing out.
You actually segued nicely into something that I wanted to ask you about. Your new album is called…
When Moonshine and Dynamite Collide.
Right. You guys, unlike some of your peers, have never really deviated from the Jackyl style. There isn’t a Jackyl rap album or a Jackyl…
Well, there is in our own way. “Dirty Little Mind” is one of the original rap songs. Did you know that? I actually had Lil’ Jon… I actually had him onstage with me in Sturgis, rapping on top of “Dirty Little Mind.”
There you go. I didn’t even know that.
It’s all relative. I have a song on the new record called “Just Like a Negro.” Because I sound like cornbread, and I’ve already seen some write-ups and stuff where people look at the song title, and because I’m from the south, they want to be a prejudgemental asshole and think it’s a negative song. If they truly knew the origin of the song, or when they learn the origin of the song and read the lyrics after learning the origin, and then after that they find out that I wrote it with three black musicians that are incredible… then I want to know if they got the fiber in their body to turn around and kiss my ass. I doubt they will. Nobody will retract the negative shit that they’ll say about it because they want to write Jackyl in this southern thing. Whatever.
I grew up being a fan of a band called Mother’s Finest. They predated the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Chili Peppers were influenced greatly by Mother’s Finest. Flea absolutely took the playbook from [Mother’s Finest bassist] Wyzard. Who is one of the greatest folk rock bass players of all time. Mother’s Finest had a male and female black singers that just killed. They still play. Check them out. They had a song called “Just Like a Negro.” That was their song. I ended up, when I was signed to Sony, recording a record with three of the members of that band. I wanted to play “Just Like a Negro.” The bass player said, “Let’s rewrite the lyrics so that it makes sense for you to sing it.” So that’s the origin of the song. So we rewrote the lyrics, and we were playing it out live. The guys in Jackyl saw me and these three black guys playing the song and loved it. So whenever we kicked Jackyl back into gear and picked up back on our next tour, we started playing the song. I never anticipated putting it on a record. Then people just fell in love with the song, and we would be crucified now if we didn’t put it on the record. Then you go read the lyrics, and the lyrics basically say that music makes all the colors run together and that it was the brothers who invented rock n’ roll – Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino… That’s all the song is – a tribute to that, and the fact that music breaks down the barriers. Because I sound like cornbread when I open my mouth and being from the south… since when did “negro” become a bad word? It’s on the damn United States census form. “Are you a negro? Yes or no.” [Jesses’s not wrong – when asking for your race, the census form has an option for “Balck, African Am., or Negro.” – Ed.] I’m Caucasian or whatever. We never veered from who we are. We do what we do.
Did you have any trepidation about recording that song, being a southerner and knowing that there might be some misconceptions?
I probably would have if I had thought, “Wow, this would be a great gimmick. Let’s record it.” We’ve got a couple of years under our belt of playing it live. First of all, I played it with the three black guys that we wrote it with.So that kind of knocked the edge off of it for me, because I had a license to kill with them. Then it became, “You know what? This is not a big deal. I can sing this song, and it is a positive song. They’re cool with it, and I’m cool with it, so let’s do it.” Then the guys in Jackyl fell in love with it, so we did it. We did it for the right reasons.
Once again, I didn’t really ever know that I would put that on a record or not. By the time we were in the studio, we were so numb to it that we didn’t think about it. It’s not been that big of a deal to us. Y’know? I think when people hear it, they’re going to dig it. It’s a badass song. When somebody listens to that song, and they don’t think it’s a badass song, they ain’t got a pulse. Because it’s a badass song.
Did you ever think about having the Mother’s Finest guys guest on it?
Absolutely. I also wanted to get Lajon [Witherspoon] from Sevendust, but my schedule didn’t work out to be able to reach out to him to get him to do it. I don’t know if he would have done it or not, but I did think about asking him to sing on it with me.
You mentioned that you used to be signed to Sony. The landscape has obviously changed a lot since…
We were signed in 1992, but to Geffen Records. That was the greatest record label ever. That’s where we learned the value of relationships.
Why was that the greatest label ever?
I think the reason why is because of John Kalodner. I think John Kalodner is a phenomenal individual. I think he was working with John Lennon the night he got shot. He’s responsible for everything from Cher’s post-Sonny Bono career to Aerosmith coming back from the dead. The legend of Aerosmith now and what they are is all because of John Kalodner. Sammy Hagar’s solo career, before going to sing with Van Halen – John Kalodner. He put together the Damn Yankees. I can go on and on. He signed AC/DC to Atlantic… Foreigner. I mean the guy’s, résumé speaks for itself. So to be signed to that label at Geffen Records and to be signed by John Kalodner… not to mention that we were label mates with Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, Tesla… Why is that the greatest label ever? The résumé speaks for itself.
Okay. How do you feel about the industry now, in this day and age when the labels are…
It’s very simple. The thing that’s changed the landscape for everyone is that for the first time ever, the audiences are just so fragmented over so many different mediums. When I was growing up, we had a rock station, a country station and a pop station. Now you got a hundred satellite stations, you got all the terrestrial radio stations, you got iTunes and all of the internet, you got iPods, cellphones, texting, TiVo. It’s an on-demand society now, and the audiences are fragmented into so many different directions that it’s hard to reach the masses anymore. Therefore the cost of marketing has become cost prohibitive. That’s why artist development has run away – because they can’t afford to stick with a band. They can’t find a young band anymore and put the money into it that – it takes time to make a band a household name, and that’s cost prohibitive. It’s harder to reach the people. If you’re not fortunate enough, as we’ve been, to get in under the wire and develop a fan base… and if I’m going to think in 2010 terms, we’ve actually developed a brand and been able to tap into events and such where we know that people love straight up rock n’ roll are, whether it be NASCAR events, bike enthusiast events, Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI, or whatever the case may be.
This is actually getting back to what I was trying to say before – you guys have found that there is definitely an audience for good old fashioned rock n’ roll. You guys never fell in line with a trend.
If you look at Pollstar, which is the industry bible for what bands are doing touring wise, Jackyl doesn’t mean half of what it means in real life, because we never became consumed with that side of things. We’ve created equity in annual events, some of which we partner up with and produce directly with radio stations ourselves. So instead of going in and playing for LiveNation in Cincinnati, OH for a thousand people in a thousand seat venue and be stuck in a banner ad that’s got ten other bands that are going to be coming through there… instead of doing that, I have an annual event that I do every September that puts ten-thousand people in front of us, which I do in direct partnership with the radio station. I do the same thing in Kansas City come the first weekend in June, where there will be fifteen-thousand-plus people in front of Jackyl for Jackylstock. It’s going to be off the hook.
It’s called “Jackylstock?”
Every show we play is Jackylstock.
[laughs]
I’m saying that that’s what it is. The same thing in Sturgis, SD. Every year at the Full Throttle Saloon – ten-thousand people in front of us. It’s going to be off the hook. We do that all across the country with these annual events, not to mention the normal festivals that we plug into, like Summerfest and Cadott Rockfest in Cadott, WI and that kind of thing. We’re out there every year in front of great crowds, and we’ve been very fortunate. Just because people that are in cubicles in NY or in a haze in L.A. because they don’t understand what’s going on out there in real America, I can’t say, “Okay, well, we can’t exist.”
There are three cities in this country that have basically been no man’s land for Jackyl: New York, L.A., and Boston. We sell records there, we play there some and everything. I used to take it personal, and then we played there with Aerosmith, and Joe Perry came off-stage and threw his guitar across the backstage area. It’s just the most jaded, uptight crowds for the most part, that are just too worried what the guy next to them is going to say if they clap or raise hell or pick up a chick or whatever. We just never really worried about that. Take us to Chicago. Take us to Dallas, TX. Take us to Kansas City, Cincinnati, Indianapolis. God love real America. They don’t care what cute trends are going on. They just want it loud, proud, hard and honest.
It’s interesting. I hate it because I know there are some real, die hard, sincere, straight up rock n’ roll fans… straight up, good, pure, a-Les-Paul-plugged-into-a-Marshall rock n’ roll. Once again, the rock n’ roll those kids were talking about when rock n’ roll was first invented, the primal instinct of the groove and the Marshalls and stuff. I know that there are fans of that in New York, and there are fans of that in L.A. Obviously there are, but I hate the fact that it hasn’t been that accessible for us. We’re not going to give up. I hope to be playing in New York and L.A. soon.
Let’s talk more about the new album. Besides a semi-cover song, what do you have in store for us on this record?
The one thing that I know for a fact about this record is that it sounds exactly like Jackyl. Probably more than… not probably, absolutely more than any record we’ve done. It sounds as close to this band does live with the attitude, the fun, and the tones and everything. More than any record we’ve done, including the first, as far as the sounds of it.
You mean production-wise?
Just the energy, the production, the sound. The songs are just fun. I do believe that if someone connects with this record, if they like even one song, they’ll love the whole record. I do believe it’s a record that you can listen to from beginning to end if you’re in this frame of mind to rock. I sincerely believe, and I know every band wants to think this, but I don’t think you’ll be skipping around too much on this record. I truly think that like so many records that I grew up loving, it’s got a flow to the album. It’s got a flow to it that’s very natural and feels great. The sounds are cool. It sounds like Jackyl, and I can’t wait to find out if I’m right or wrong. Because I really, really sincerely believe that that’s the case for this record.
Was that a conscious decision? Did you say, “Okay, we’re going to make something that sounds like us playing in a room?”
No, I believe the sound of the record and the attitude of the record… that you could just feel that something cool was happening as far as us having fun. I think that it happened just because we did it ourselves, and we did it when we felt like being creative and having fun.
I’m very fortunate to have a really nice studio at the house. Jeff Tomei is my partner in the studio. He did Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins. He produced Jerry Cantrell’s record. The guy has worked on some great stuff. He mixed the Queen of the Damned soundtrack for Korn. He’s been around. He’s in the studio every day, and we’ve got all this stuff to be dangerous. I think it reflects [in the sound of the record], that we’ve had that luxury.
So you’ve got a home studio now?
It’s a 1,500 square foot building. Cee-Lo Green from Gnarls Barkley won a Grammy for a record that he recorded in the studio. OutKast was up there in the studio. Izzy Straddlin from Guns N’ Roses did guitar overdubs for his record there. It’s a cool facility.
Do you feel very firmly rooted in the digital age?
We have a two-inch analog machine.
Oh, you do? And that’s the way you record?
We did all the basic tracks on the two-inch. I think it just saturated the sound. That’s why it sounds grainy like a great old record. Then we transferred it into ProTools and did the overdubs for vocals and stuff.
So it sounds like you feel that something has been lost in all the modern digital recording processes.
I think people that are great at what they do in recording digitally, I think they’ve got the ability to be able to mimic the warmth of two-inch tape. I think that there’s people who are good at what they do at that, but I think it’s an art unto itself. I don’t know any other way myself other than staying organic with it. There’s just something about watching the meter on the two-inch machine and watching the needle go into the red… [laughs] You know what I’m saying? There’s just something about that saturation, whenever you’re driving that analog sound into the tape and every time you drag it back and forth across that head, it just gets warmer. It really helps with the fatness of the kick drum. I don’t know. There’s a certain warmth that comes with it. It’s the difference between watching your evening news and watching Dances with Wolves. The cinematography – that’s the difference between recording digitally and analog.
So what’s next for you guys? You mentioned some big festivals, but I saw you guys are doing a whole bunch of touring this spring and summer.
We are. We got some great festivals lined up from Montana to Arizona, you name it. We’re going to be all over the place. We’ll play Sturgis again in August. However, the record drops May the fourth. We’re going to shoot a video for the song “She’s Not a Drug.” And we’re going to do ten shows that we’re letting radio stations – we targeted radio stations in Indiana, Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwaukee – and we’re letting them give away tickets… we’re doing CD release parties in strip clubs. It’s called “April Showers Bring May Jackyl Tittie Bar Dates.”
[laughs] Are you going to have t-shirts with that made up?
We should. We have t-shirts that say “PUH-POW!”
That’s awesome, man. Anything you want to add before I let you go?
Just don’t over analyze it. Just enjoy it. Come shake my hand because we always make ourselves accessible. We are doing a pre-order thing on the Jackyl.com. nybody that pre-orders the record…
Gets a phone call.
[nods] We’re calling them and telling them, “Thank you.”
That’s crazy that you’re doing that.
We’re about to cut it off because we’re at a thousand people.
That’s a thousand phone calls.
Yeah.
But you’re splitting the calls up amongst yourselves?
Yeah, between the four of us. I’m not doing them all, but as many as I can.
-AR
