Ween Interview – 1998
This article was originally published by INK19 in August 1998. Photo by Danny Clinch.
by Ed Furniture
I don’t know why the publicist put me on the phone with some guy named Aaron, but he was really boring and didn’t have much to say about Ween. I think he might have been a roadie or something, ‘cuz he sure seemed irritated that I was asking him questions. I didn’t see him in the credits on the new double-disc live album, Paintin’ the Town Brown, but I’m not the kind of person to turn down a phone interview with someone claiming to be involved with the legendary Ween.
Q: Hello?
Aaron : Hey.
Q: So what’s goin’ on?
A: Nothing.
Q: How many interviews are you doin’?
A: I don’t know. This is the second one today.
Q: Only the second?
A: Yeah. Not many.
Q: That’s pretty good then.
A: Yeah.
Q: Gettin’ asked stupid questions?
A: Yeah, well, it’s OK.
Q: Anything SCARY?
A: What’s that?
Q: Any SCARY questions?
A: Nah, no…we’ve only done one. That’s fine. Nice bitter interview. It’s the bitter interview day.
Q: OK.
[silence.]
Q: So I had just gotten that live album today, finally.
A: Oh yeah? Cool.
Q: I got most of the way through the first disc.
A: Is there a way to turn up the volume on this thing? Is this up full blast? Oh, excellent. Hello?
Q: YEAH.
A: Are you there?
Q: Yep.
A: OK.
[silence.]
Yeah, say something.
Q: HELLO.
A: OK, you’re a little louder. OK.
Q: So you are you doing a…tour…now? You’re coming down to Florida?
A: We’re gonna come down to Florida. I think we’re playin Orlando or something. We’re not playing Jacksonville, I know that. Cuz our drummer got his shoes stolen last time. We played at the Milk Bar.
Q: Never been there.
A: Yeah, kinda sucked actually. Not to burn bridges or anything. We actually got lactated on.
Q: By who?
A: This girl in the front row, she lactated all over us. It was pretty intense.
Q: Like real stuff?
A: Yeah, man. She’s like, “Yeah, Ween!” We got on stage and she whipped out her tit and started squirting milk all over us.
Q: That’s crazy.
A: Totally. And then Claude, our drummer, had this real nice pair of Australian boots. And somebody stole them off the stage.
[silence]
Q: So look…um…
[silence]
Q: Some guy moved down here in 1992, and said he was in Ween, and stole all our girlfriends.
A: [uninterested] Oh yeah?
Q: Said his name was Drake or Derek. And he was pretty popular, and convinced everybody he was in Ween.
A: [annoyed] Drake or Derek?
Q: He said he sang on The Pod , and I was like…I don’t think this guy is in Ween.
A: I don’t know, those were kind of hazy times.
Q: So you guys are at least getting some promotion from him, driving around to different towns.
A: [bored] That’s nice.
[silence]
Q: OK, boring questions. What are you guys listening to?
A: C.C. Deville.
Q: Oh, yeah? Is he WITH Poison now?
A: I think he went back to Poison, yeah. But he’s also working on his solo project.
Q: Did that album ever come out with Blues Saraceno?
A: I don’t know. I’m not sure. I don’t have any of his records. I’m just listening to him. Pretty into C.C. Deville right now. That guy rules.
Q: Have you heard any of the Kip Winger; his solo stuff?
A: No, I haven’t.
Q: I heard that he’s going pretty heavy orchestral.
A: [sarcastic] That’s great.
[silence]
Q: So where were you guys sleeping on the ’93 tour?
A: Was that the Pod tour?
Q: I think that was Pure Guava .
A: Guava? I think at that point we were in like, cheap motels.
Q: So you were actually affording motels back then?
A: Yeah, actually when we were in Tampa I was sleeping with this girl there. I got a lot of action in Florida.
Q: Really?
A: Yeah, I always managed to hook up in Florida.
Q: It’s probably that guy Drake, setting you up. I took some of the girls he got up to your show, just after he left town, and they were like, “Wow, we get to see his band, finally!”
A: Hahaha!
Q: And then he wasn’t there.
A: Awesome. Well, you’ll have to point him out to me when we come down there. Where are YOU from?
Q: Venice.
A: In VENICE?
Q: Old people town.
A: [snappy, as if he knows a damn thing about Venice] Yeah, right.
Q: My hair is even grey now.
A: So is mine.
Q: So what was the thing with Harrison Ford; was that true?
A: Yes.
Q: Where was that?
A: That was at a restaurant, at home.
Q: That’s interesting.
A: It was, it was very interesting.
Q: He’s got grey hair now.
A: I’m sure he does.
Q: What do you think of college?
A: COLLEGE? [as in, ‘where the hell did that question come from?’]
Q: Yeah.
A: I think it can be a good thing, college.
Q: How about MP3’s?
A: MP3’s are cool, I’ve got a bunch of ’em.
Q: How big is your studio now, what do you have in there?
A: Actually it’s all in storage. We’ve got a little setup. Actually after we did Chocolate & Cheese , we went out and bought a bunch of shit. We got a 16-track tape deck, a board, and some compressors, basic stuff. But we actually don’t have it set up. Last time we had it set up was in Long Beach Island. In the Spring.
Q: What are you guys riding around in on this tour?
A: On this tour coming up, we’ve got a tour bus.
Q: Nice vehicle?
A: Yeah, we got a tour bus.
Q: How many people does that hold?
A: There’s gonna be like…1,2,3,4,5 in the band, the roadie, the tour manager, merchandiser, so there’s gonna be like 8 of us…a friend, Mean Ween’s coming, 9.
Q: I think that kid said he was Mean Ween.
A: No. That kid sounds like a poser.
Q: But he’s working for you though, independently!
A: I have no idea…
Q: He’s helping you out!
A: I have no idea. [sarcastic] That’s great. [silence] It holds about 45 people, this bus.
Q: Yeah?
A: Yeah.
Q: That’s good. Sardines. Are you bringing an opener [you know, a can opener] along?
A: No, we’ve got an opener for the second half of the tour. Called Queens of the Stone Age. [speaking in tongues] Kiasbigias.
Q: So I was washing dishes a while back, and uh… Chocolate & Cheese . Those are the two hardest things to get off dishes.
A: [total silence, bored] Great, man.
Q: It’s true. And actually someone else who washed dishes at the same place with me thought of the same thing. So now you know that.
A: [silence] OK.
Q: And…
[silence]
Q: …that’s about all I can think of.
A: That’s great, dude.
Q: Unless you read any books? Do you read books?
A: [chuckling] Is this the interview?
Q: Yeah!
A: How old are you?
Q: I am 23.
A: 23, OK. Do you listen to Ween?
Q: Oh, yeah.
A: OK. What? Do I read books?
Q: Yeah.
A: Sometimes.
Q: What books?
A: What was the last book I read…[pause]…shit…I don’t remember…[pause]… Island of the Colorblind .
Q: What’s that?
A: I don’t know, some book about these two psychiatrists who go to an island in the South Pacific where everyone is colorblind and do a study on them.
Q: Do a lot of the girls you hook up with read books?
A: I don’t know. I’m getting married in August.
Q: Uh-Oh.
A: Yeah.
[silence]
I never really asked any of the girls that I hooked up with if they read many books.
Q: Hmmm…I’ve run into a lot of girls that read books.
A: [sarcastic] That’s cool, man.
[silence]
Very scary.
[silence]
Q: Alright.
A: Alright dude!
Q: Oh, wait, I have one more big question here. What’s the biggest disaster you ever had on stage?
A: I pooped my pants.
Q: Did you have to stop the show?
A: No.
Q: OK, thanks.
A: See ya, man! [click.]