Spiryt the Tattoo Poet - 2015

I haven't done anything with my site in 7 years so I don't even know if blogging is still a thing, mainly because I hate staring at a computer after having stared at one for hours during the day, but the time feels right to update this now.  The last time I interviewed anyone was on July 25th 2015, I know this because I was also getting a tattoo done at the same time.  And yes it looks just as good now as it does then....all I said with this one was that I wanted an owl with an old timey looking clock.  The rest was all Spirit.

                       (this is an unedited, crappy cell phone pic, from July 25th 2015)

My write up can be found in the Fall 2015 edition of Revamp , which to my knowledge was the last one.  I also took all of the pictures on my real camera and they are all pretty unedited, no Lightroom or anything like that.(I have to note that TATTOO is spelled incorrectly, yes it has always bothered me, and no I was not responsible for that). I also took the photos of Soda City Cirque and shared them with the lovely mind behind that before including them, so I am sure I had intentions on interviewing her for a future article that never happened.

                                        

(OK so yes I just played around with this one in Lightroom and had to put it here because really, is that what the average person thinks of when they think of South Carolina)?

My intro to this article is: "Spiryt first considered becoming a tattoo artist while living in New York City in the early 2000's.  He is originally from South Carolina and has also been active in Columbia's poetry scene since the Bayou, a space the predates the infamous Red Tub.  Many of the artists that used to gather at State Street's old haunt have shaped Columbia's emergence as the South's new hot spot". 

This process and final result is 2nd only the interview I got to do with Piggy D of Rob Zombie 5 years prior, not only in how pleased I am with the result, but in the amount of time I spent researching, developing questions, transcribing, turning and interview into something that reads like an article which I struggled with, and then returning to take pictures.

I will never forget how jumpy this lady getting tattooed was.  She worked in construction so  I was talking to her about how bada** I thought that was and how my job of inspecting fire extinguishers and what not was not something many females did.  I was mainly just trying to distract her hoping the ink would wind up where it was supposed to.

The end of my article mentions The Session Live, which Spiryt hosted and where I saw one of my all time favorite live musicians, Royce Lovett , who went on to be on a very recent season of The Voice. 

                                                   "Write It On The Wall"

Spirit has since won the Best Tattoo Artist in Columbia, SC by readers of The Free Times in 2018.

And can be contacted at Tattoos by Spirit : Custom Tattoo Artist and on Instagram at tattoosbyspirit .

***It has seemed like an eternity since July 2015, when the Confederate Flag was removed from the statehouse grounds in Columbia, SC, on July 10th to be exact.  I feel like I am living in a bad dream, that one day I hope everyone wakes up from.  I still remember some of the other things we talked about while I was getting this tattoo, how I thought someone was smart enough to know that if he said something outlandish it would keep his name in the news cycle and sadly that would be enough for the average person to remember.  However, I truly felt that change was just around the corner, that history would finally be taught differently.  Other states were starting to remove symbols and I just couldn't see how hateful rhetoric would get far after the Charleston Church Shooting.  Now much of what should have never happened, but was starting to be reversed then is happening now.  Maybe like everyone that has been reserving their energy for the past 4 years, just hoping to be get thru these years are finally saying enough is enough. I know I moved home to PA because I could not shake the feeling that things were going to get worse before they got better.  I do fear that the rhetoric is indeed worse this time and the minions are more loyal.***  

My other article for Revamp was on the Music Farm Columbia but it is only partial for some reason.  I did forget about Trae Judy talking about his experience with James Brown and that he has South Carolina roots.  Mr. Judy invited me to show and I selected a solo show by Gill Landry of Old Crow Medicine Show who is probably best known for the single,"Wagon Wheel", which Darius Rucker, also of South Carolina and Hootie and the Blowfish fame, later covered as a country artist.

* My original intent with mentioning this is because Gill Landry has been giving some good lessons on what it should mean to be a white man in America on his Instagram page.  

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.

***********************************************************************************

Press pass courtesy of Brian Cade and Muen Magazine.

Very, very special thanks to Eric13 of Sex Slaves.

Airbourne (Rock on the Range 2010)

This interview is far from earth shattering status and I am very much aware of this.  It was very rushed at this point of time in the media tent and it was also very loud.  I know people that can say this is fact because they were doing interviews with members from Airbourne at the same time.  I will be interested to see if my media tent buddy Luie from  http://www.splattertribe.tv/ even posts his.  He gave me a shout out on the site a while back so this shout out is way past due. 

MsBrandyRock: I just wanted to let you know I am representing Muen Magazine and if you haven’t heard of them, they keep up with a lot of the ‘underground’ bands and help bands network through their street team. Have you ever heard of Taddy Porter? They played the festival yesterday on a smaller stage.

Joel: Okay, cool, nah.

MsBrandyRock: They are from Oklahoma. I don’t know them but, their music, its like old rock, more so 70’s and I think that you would like their music.

Joel: I will check them out.

MsBrandyRock: How old are you, are you allowed to tell me that?

Joel: 26

MsBrandyRock: Ok it says on the site that everyone is between 19 and 23.

Joel: Yeah we haven’t updated it.

MsBrandyRock: When you got signed to Capital and that fell through do you feel like that was a blessing in disguise?

Joel: Yeah…I do….yeah its like things work out, ya know?

MsBrandyRock: All of the bigger tours you have been on, like with the Rolling Stones, did that happen before or after Capital came across Airbourne?

Joel: Before.

MsBrandyRock: What do you think about bands that do not write their own music?

Joel: Each to their own.

MsBrandyRock: Airbourne has a lot of upcoming dates in Europe and you have played a lot there in the past, being an outsider, do you think there is a difference between music fans in the United States and Europe? Do you see a difference in the crowds overseas, are they more involved?

Joel: Well, today for example, there was a circle pit, crowd surfing, same thing going on over there. People come to drink; people come to drink over there. I find it similar.

MsBrandyRock: Now you’re from a small town in Australia that I can’t pronounce, how many kids were in your school?

Joel: ahh about 500.

MsBrandyRock: Really? That’s about as small as my school in Pennsylvania. So being from that small of a town, did you ever expect to be playing shows this size?

Joel: I mean, when you start out you just want to get out there and play. You don’t think too far ahead. You don’t think oh your going to be over here on the other side of the world.

MsBrandyRock: Now, I now you just toured Canada with Motley Crue. What has been your favorite tour so far, the one that was unforgettable?

Joel: A tour we did with Motorhead and Rose Tattoo in Australia.

MsBrandyRock: When you were recording the CD you slept in the studio, why?

Joel: We like to be where the action is. We used to live together in a house.

MsBrandyRock: Were you really on welfare for three years when you were trying to make a go of the band because you would have been playing shows. How did you get away with that?

Joel: Yeah, yeah. A lot of smoke and mirrors.

MsBrandyRock: Have you ever played in the state of Pennsylvania? Have you heard of the football team the Pittsburgh Steelers?

Joel: Yes, Yeah.

MsBrandyRock: Your song, ‘Steel Town’. They need to use that song.

Joel: Yeah they gotta use that song.

MsBrandyRock: You need to make that happen. The city of Pittsburgh, that is what it was founded on.

Joel: We will have to send it over.

MsBrandyRock: Yeah, they would love it. They would probably make it their anthem.

MsBrandyRock: Ok well, I am all about the live show and this was my first time seeing ya’ll live and I was exited about that.

Joel: Aww, well thank you.

MsBrandyRock: Ok originally I was told the interview was going to be with you, then it changed, and now you are sitting here. So I did find out about the book that is coming out in October. What is up with that?

Joel: A good mate of mine Paul Miles, he is releasing a book called ‘Sex Tips from Rock Stars’. He has this big list of big name dudes. It will be a funny book.

Press Pass courtesy Brian Cade Photography at Muen Magazine.

Thanks to Luie too!