Piggy D (Rob Zombie) Rock on the Range 2010

I had a chance to sit down with Rob Zombie's multi-talented bass player, Piggy D at Rock on the Range in Columbus, Ohio May 23rd.  The result is amazing! 

MsBrandyRock: Have you heard of Muen Magazine?

Piggy D: I have seen the name before, yeah!

MsBrandyRock:  You’re my forth live interview I have done.

Piggy D: Wow, Wow!

MsBrandyRock: I have a message to pass along to you from Eric13 of the Sex Slaves.  He said ‘thanks for being put on the list for the Philly show’. 

Piggy D:  oh yeah yeah yeah, of course.  That’s awesome, tell them I said hi. 

MsBrandyRock:  I love those guys!

Piggy D:  Yeah they’re awesome.

MsBrandyRock:  How did you get your stage name?

Piggy D:  The first touring band I was in, in ....Texas...., I was 16 years old.  The band was called Spunk.  All the guys in the band were 8 to 10 years older than me and their slogan that was painted on the side of their kick drum said ‘Burly Pig Rock’.  Since I was the youngest guy in the band they would haze me, kinda like fraternity initiations.  When I would fall asleep in the van, they would write with permanent maker ‘the burly piglet’ on my chest, draw a pig, cut my hair, all kinds of horrible things.  And it just stuck they called me Piglet.  And it stuck through every band I was in.  And I knew a hundred Matt’s so it was just easier, ‘oh this Piglet guy’. 

MsBrandyRock:  So you decided to go with Piggy instead of Piglet? 

Piggy D: Yeah, it would insinuate that not only am I very small but I’m also very young, which I’m not anymore. 

MsBrandyRock:  Have you ever heard of the local band Noise Auction?  They played early today and one of the guys, he’s really short and he goes by Shorty. 

Piggy D: Yeah that wouldn’t make sense if he was tall. 

MsBrandyRock:  They are going on a cruise with the Genitorturers. 

Piggy D:  Oh cool! 

MsBrandyRock:  How did you cross paths with Rob Zombie?

Piggy D:  I met him as a fan years ago, when I was a kid, several times.  But I met him through some mutual friends.  His old bass player and I got to be friends and actually did some writing together for Rob, 3 years prior to me being in the band.  His bass player called me up one day; I’m actually a guitar player.  He was like ‘hey I’m gonna join Ozzy’s band, do you want to take over for me?’  And I’m like well I’m not a bass player. 

MsBrandyRock:  Blasko right? 

Piggy D:  Yeah, and he was like you can do it.  He asked if I could be there tomorrow.  I was in ....Boston.... at the time making a record.  I flew out to LA and two weeks later I did David Letterman with Rob and that was it.  That was 4 and a half years ago. 

MsBrandyRock:  I recognize his name because of the band Hydrovibe, whose guitar player; Mat Dauzat was selected a while back to go on the road with Kelly Osbourne.

Piggy D:  Oh okay.

MsBrandyRock:  Since you were a fan of Rob Zombie, did you ever think that would happen?

Piggy D:  I did actually.  It’s a much longer story than I just made it out to be.  We were talking about me playing in the band before and it didn’t work out.  I always knew I would end up doing something with him.  I have this weird thing that happens to me, with the people that I appreciate the most, it’s happened with Alice Cooper several times, I always end up doing something with them.  The longer I celebrate something in my life, the more it comes back to me.  It’s very strange. 

MsBrandyRock:  That’s kinda like me being here right now.

Piggy D:  Yeah.  So I think that you can actually will things into existence.  And this is one of those things.  So yeah, I knew it was going to happen. 

MsBrandyRock:  Do you prefer to play guitar or bass?

Piggy D:  The more time that goes by, I’m actually considering myself a bass player.  Guitar is always going to be my first instrument and I write on a guitar.  When I’m at home I play guitar.  I don’t know.  I guess I like them both equally now. 

MsBrandyRock:  With your solo work, it’s you playing the guitar right?

Piggy D:  Yeah, it’s me doing everything except the drums. 

MsBrandyRock:  Do you have plans on touring with your solo work?

Piggy D:  Not really, at some point, yeah.  Maybe on the 2^nd or 3^rd record, I’ll go out and play some shows.  I stay so busy with Rob and all the other things we have going on, that I don’t have time to do it the right way.  And I would like to do it the right way.  I don’t want to get an acoustic guitar and go play coffee houses.

MsBrandyRock:  That would be interesting though, to say that you’re playing coffee houses that would be a lot of interesting press to do it like that. 

Piggy D:  Yeah, you never know.  Paul Stanley from Kiss once said ‘if a song doesn’t sound good on an acoustic guitar, it’s a crappy song’. 

MsBrandyRock:  Do you play any other instruments?

Piggy D: I play trumpet, tuba, and a little piano.

MsBrandyRock:  One of your songs, I don’t remember the name off the top of my head, but it sounds like saxophone in the background.

Piggy D:  Yeah, that was a friend of mine, Scott Gillman, he plays saxophone on a song called ‘Chemistry’.  It’s a The Replacements, Paul Westerberg, ‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ type of song.  It’s a very ....Minneapolis.... sound and I wanted some horns on it.

MsBrandyRock:  Yeah, when I was listening to your solo work for the first time, I was thinking there is something for everyone in here.  And I wasn’t expecting that. 

Piggy D:  Thank you.

MsBrandyRock:  Ok so, you directed a 10 minute movie with three of Alice Cooper’s songs tied together.  How did you get into directing?

Piggy D:  It’s something I have kind of always done, on my own time, videos for indie artists and stuff like that.  Alice and I have a cool working relationship.  I’ll call him up and be like ‘hey I want to try this’.  And he’ll go ‘OK’.  I’ve been fortunate that he’s pretty open with everything I bring to the table.  My company did all the art and the promotional material for that record.  And we’ve done the costumes for the show and we do merchandise and everything.  We were just talking about videos and I said I could do it and I did it.   I know Alice Cooper better than I know most anything else.  So anytime I have to do anything for him, I’m like ‘I got it’; I know exactly what to do.  It’s like walking and chewing gum at the same time.  I can do it.   

MsBrandyRock:  How did Slash get involved with that?  Whose idea was that?

Piggy D:  He played on one of the songs, on the record, that we shot the video for and we called him up and we were like ‘hey do you want to be in the video?”  And he was like ‘Yeah!’. 

MsBrandyRock:  Are you looking forward to seeing him today?

Piggy D:  Yeah!

MsBrandyRock:  Have you ever seen him solo with other band members?

Piggy D:  We saw him at the Revolver Golden God Awards a few weeks ago, in LA, and he did a few songs off the new record.  I’m looking forward to seeing a whole show.

MsBrandyRock:  I heard Myles Kennedy from Alterbridge is doing the vocals today. 

Piggy D:  Oh really?

MsBrandyRock:  The video, with Alice Cooper, the ‘Vengeance is Mine’ thing.  I love it because my mother worked in personal care for old people and so many of the other people she worked with treated the older people so poorly and whenever I was listening and watching the video that is what I was thinking about.  What would all the old people, who can’t help themselves, do to all the people that were treating them like crap if they had a chance? 

Piggy D:  That’s really interesting you bring that up, because one of the difficult things about that video was getting them to agree to…

MsBrandyRock:  …allow everything to happen? 

Piggy D:  …well not just allow it but, I wanted ....Alice.... to look frail at certain parts.  I wanted him to look like he’s not capable of doing anything on his own because he’s crazy, not because he’s old but because he’s crazy.  So when he does start killing people, you’re like oh okay don’t underestimate that guy.

MsBrandyRock:  So that’s what it was meant to be, because the stories my mom told me that was the first thing I thought of…

Piggy D:  That is so funny, yeah that’s pretty cool. 

 MsBrandyRock:  not like I’m calling Alice Cooper old……

Piggy D:  Yeah, no no.  People who are handicapped in any way, mentally, physically, or whatever.  Don’t underestimate them because they may strangle you or kick your ass. 

MsBrandyRock:  You look a lot different now than when you are on stage.  How much of yourself is there when you are on stage with Rob Zombie? 

Piggy D:  It’s all me and it’s none of me.  I think every single human being has another side.  It’s the Batman thing.  I’m not calling myself Batman.  Well, actually I am calling myself Batman.  And I feel pretty cool. 

MsBrandyRock:  Maybe you will have another nickname.

Piggy D:  Yeah maybe.  You know you get to express another side of you.  You’re not gonna walk around the mall with a skunk on your arm, war paint, and all of this stuff.  You’re not going to do that to put gas in the car.  So to have that outlet, to be that guy that I think about is pretty cool.  And it saves me from walking around a mall with a skunk on my arm, whatever you know.  It’s my other side.  I’m not gonna walk around the house like that.  I’m passionate about the music, I’m very animated when I play,  I feel every beat when I play, I know every word, every note, that’s me with music.  The artistic side I get to express a little more. 

MsBrandyRock:  I listened to another project you used be involved with called Amen.  There have been a lot of people involved with that, people that I recognize.  I had never heard of it, did it help you make contacts?

Piggy D:  Amen was a punk band from ....Los Angeles.....  Amen was self-proclaimed as the ‘most dangerous band on the planet’ and it was.  An Amen show was a living car accident, for 45 minutes or however long it would last.  Going through the, I like to call it, Amen boot camp, you learn 101 things not to do, not to put in your body, not to stick up your nose, not to drink, and how to survive in probably the worst situation you could ever put yourself into.  So it was a blessing and a curse.  I’ll leave it at that. 

 Piggy D has posted this to official website.

This his since been posted on  Road Runner Records website as well.

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Press pass courtesy of Brian Cade and Muen Magazine.

Very, very special thanks to Eric13 of Sex Slaves.

Theory of a Deadman (Rock on the Range 2010)

MsBrandyRock: Now, I was looking at the band’s website and it’s been a while since I have seen the band live and I’m actually going to miss Theory of A Deadman today because I have other interviews going on. However, I saw beside the band’s logo the definition of heaven, is there significance in that?

Dean Back: I have no idea. I think that was just the artistic guy who put the website together. I’ll have to check it out I haven’t been on our website in a long time.

MsBrandyRock: Well, I think it’s in more than one place and it’s always right beside the logo.

Dean Back: Oh really?

MsBrandyRock: It says ‘a place or state of supreme happiness, she made his life heaven on earth’. So I didn’t know if that was in reference to the band’s name.

Dean Back: I think you are looking into it further than what we did.

MsBrandyRock: Ok, ‘Bad Girlfriend’ it was a big hit. To me it seems like it has been done a lot and I’m sure you may have heard that before. So I just want you to change my mind on that.

Dean Back: Right. Well I don’t know. That song was written 3, 4 years ago, so it’s just Tyler writing about his experience with meeting his wife. I don’t think there was a pre-conceived notion of trying to write something that has already been written. Ya know, it’s something that Tyler wrote from his heart. It’s true to him.

MsBrandyRock: Are you involved with any of the song writing or music writing?

Dean Back: Every song is different. There is collaboration between the three of us. Tyler writes the lyrics. There are ideas sent back and forth via email.

MsBrandyRock: My favorite song from Theory of A Deadman is ‘Nothing Could Come Between Us’ I know that’s an older song, but the reason why I like it is because I live in South Carolina now and I heard that song on the radio and that’s why I looked the band up because it mentions South Carolina.

Dean Back: Right.

MsBrandyRock: Is it based on a true story? Is it based on someone driving back and forth to South Carolina?

Dean Back: No, I think that was more just Tyler writing a song. We are also influenced by southern rock and roll like Lynard Skynard and that kind of stuff and that was just Tyler trying to connect the idea of the south and he was using it as a literary term. But no we didn’t know anyone from South Carolina. We’ve never been to South Carolina.

MsBrandyRock: No you have.

Dean Back: Not when the song was written.

MsBrandyRock: I think you were at Headliners in Columbia, South Carolina before it closed. But like 3 years ago you were supposed to be headlining the St. Patty’s Day Festival. But it got rained out.

Dean Back: Yeah. We were there. That was gonna be the very first show of ‘Scars and Souvenirs’ tour. 2008 or 2007 I don’t know. But, it was a long time ago. 4 Points or something?

MsBrandyRock: 5 Points. And I think you were rescheduled to come back I think with Black Stone Cherry.

Dean Back: Yeah we played a club.

MsBrandyRock: Have you ever heard of the music site Tunelab?

Dean Back. No.

MsBrandyRock: Well, my friend nICK he writes CD reviews for that site and he said “ ‘Bad Girlfriend’ is a guilty pleasure”.

Dean Back: Yep.

MsBrandyRock: He also went on to say you were “modern rock titans” concerning the latest CD because he said a number of “ballads could make waves at crossover radio stations”. Was that what Theory of a Deadman was thinking about?

Dean Back: No, when you write a ballad, when Tyler gets in the mood, he is a great ballad writer and writes beautiful stuff. And I think every band’s goal is to reach as many people as possible. We are still a rock band and will always be. Rock guys have hearts too.

MsBrandyRock: Yeah, even harder bands have slower songs even like Killswitch Engage.

Dean Back: Yeah, it’s like Corey Taylor has created a different thing.

MsBrandyRock: Kinda like the 80’s.

Dean Back: Yeah absolutely. Get the girls to the shows.

MsBrandyRock: What is Theory of a Deadman’s history prior to meeting Chad Kroeger of Nickleback? Were you playing local bars?

Dean Back: No, not at all. We were writing songs, working on our song writing craft. We played in a basement. We never played live. One of the big showcases for record labels was one of our first shows ever. We had records labels fly in from New York and Los Angeles to watch us play in the basement.

MsBrandyRock: Well, I’m sure you have played in other bands before. Was it kind of weird that it happened like that?

Dean Back: I mean, ya know, yeah. As soon as Chad decided that he wanted to start his own record company, it was only going to be a Canadian record company, so we wanted an American label as well. So we had about 5 or 6 record labels come and watch us play. We quit our jobs and things happened pretty quickly. Ya know, it has still been a gradual build to get to the place we are now.

MsBrandyRock: Do you think it would have happened as fast without him hearing your music?

Dean Back: No. We definitely owe him a lot. He gave us our shot.

MsBrandyRock: The Olympics this past year were you nervous about playing that?

Dean Back: Only because it is out of our comfort zone. To be playing in front of a television crowd, they had their own production, so they had a lot of things. We play 6 nights a week and we have everything down the way we like it. But when you put in a different production company, things aren’t how you are used to. And you are relying upon people you don’t know. So it was more about what could go wrong, then actually playing in front of 2 million people at home and 60,000 people in the stadium.

MsBrandyRock: Was it like a big deal though, since it was your home country?

Dean Back: Yeah, absolutely. Very big deal, very big honor.

MsBrandyRock: Was it something you were looking at doing or did someonr contact you?

Dean Back: The Olympic Committee called us. We were like, yes, yes. Just a great honor, a lot of fun. Great memory.

MsBrandyRock: Who was your first tour with?

Dean Back: 3 Doors Down. As soon as we came out in 2002 they were awesome to us, took us over to Europe. They treated us really well.

MsBrandyRock: Who are you most looking forward to seeing play today?

Dean Back: Slash, oh yeah for sure. I grew up listening to Guns N Roses, one of my main influences to playing live music.

MsBrandyRock: Have you ever seen him before?

Dean Back: Oh yeah, I’ve seen him before. Slash’s Snakepit came through Vancover in 1995. Hung outside his tour bus waiting for him, he came out and signed some autographs for me.

MsBrandyRock: Do you know who’s playing with him today?

Dean Back: Yeah, our old drummer is actually his drummer, Brent Fitz, who drummed with us and toured with us for ‘Gasoline’

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Press Pass from Brian Cade Photography at Muen Magazine.

Special thanks to nICK.