I imagine all life as you know is stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light. Total Protonic Reversal. Protonic Reversal. Protonic Reversal. With your host, Billy Neutron.
Broadcasting from a secret underground lair in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A gigantic middle-finger doing everything that he's got. Not about music, lack of role, and corporate power. The thing is, though, if you don't like it, you're going to go on and carry the screen to shop and nail it. Confidence on a hero or fool doesn't take a certain wish. Could not be more professional. It's all in one. I choose to, or might I do? That's okay. It means it. It means it. And take that away. Yeah.
And that's my take on you with what's yours. Protonic reversal! That's like a science thing, right? Indeed, indeed, indeed. It is a science thing. It is a science place. It's a scientific fact. We are all up in your face. It is time for the one, the only, Protonic Reversal. Welcome to it. Wow, cool. Helios Creed tonight. Helios frickin' Creed of a little band called Chrome, perhaps you've heard of them. Really psyched on this. This is, uh, I've been trying to make this happen for so...
So, so long. And this is episode 213 of ProtonicoVersal. ProtonicoVersal.com, of course. Patreon.com slash ProtonicoVersal for the archives. Dollar a month will get to you all the episodes ahead of time. No ads, no sponsors, no kidding. But yeah, I've been trying to get Helios on the show since before he went in the hospital this last time. And let's put it this way. Bit of a hard guy to get a hold of. But it's finally happening, and I'm so excited. So excited to talk to him, and it's going to be a great time. I haven't really used these intros much lately to thank everyone just for listening and for spreading the show around.
like a pandemic. You know, as stupid as they are, iTunes reviews help. It helps people find the show. Spotify has a lot of share features, things along those lines. However you listen, there's no wrong way to listen. But people have been sharing that around, and that's nice. That makes me feel good. It makes me feel like this is a worthwhile thing. So I just wanted to kind of give a very earnest, very earnest thank you to everyone for doing that. And holy crap, I'm talking to Helios Creed, right? So, yeah. Welcome to new listeners. This show is called Code of New Transport on Coversal. Thank you to all of my loyal listeners.
Let's get to it. Helios Creed. They fixed it. That's good. That's good. That's what we want. We want you healthy. Yeah, I'm really healthy now. There's actually nothing wrong with me. That's great. Except for my back. I have a broken back. That's about it. Nothing, you know, no organ failures or anything like that. No cancer. Yeah, yeah. No anything, you know, like, other than the clumsiness of me. How did you end up breaking your back? Oh, I had an RV, and I was going up the back ladder to see what...
See how to put shit on the... And I fell from the very top onto the trailer hitch on my back. Surprised I lived through it. God dang. That's awful. That's awful. Yeah, it hurts just thinking. I'm getting sympathy pain hearing you talk about it. Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah, man. I don't even like telling people what happened. It hurts just to tell them. But, yeah, you know, that's...
Well, I'm so glad that we're finally getting a chance to talk about wanting to have you on the show for a while. Yeah, yeah. It's been a hit. Yeah, that'd be great. That'd be great. So, you know, I kind of want to start from the beginning. I know that it's kind of ancient history, but I think Alien soundtracks and Half Machine lit moves are sort of timeless, weird, out-of-time records. They sound both of its time and of no time at all.
That was a while ago, but I mean, do you have any interesting memories from making those records with Damon, like way back when? Oh, yeah. We had a very, you know, like-minded relationship with music. It was very cool. And what I liked about music rubbed off on him and what he liked about music rubbed off on me. So we sort of, you know...
fill up each other's void of... You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Fill in the blank spots almost. Yeah. And, you know, we sang all these songs and sort of like that band... What is it? That band Genesis? Oh, sure. How Phil Collins and... What's his name sort of sounded like? You know, they sang Phil Collins and... Peter Gabriel? Yeah, Peter Gabriel. There's different subject matter, but you know what I mean? They developed that style. Well, me and Damon sort of did something like that with the way we sang together.
You know, his vocals rubbed off on me, mine rubbed off on him. And, you know, we really dug how each other sang. I didn't like the way he sang at first. I didn't think he could sing at all. But, you know, later on, you know, really, I started asking him to sing the songs. I thought his vocals were more appropriate for all the songs and mine. Right. Because I was, you know, I was the only guy singing for a while.
Yeah, because that stuff doesn't come out of nowhere. Yeah, right. Because for me, my initial reaction years and years back when I first heard those records was that it was almost like, oh, it's like if Jimi Hendrix had been beamed back around to Neptune and it got warped in transmissions. The whole record has that vibe that it definitely is coming from kind of a rock place. Well, I'm a super huge Hendrix fan, so that might help. But it's like all the weird jump cuts and the sampling, which must have been incredibly difficult at the time. How did that come to pass? You mean back in the day? Yeah.
Damon was a genius with stuff like that. Most of it was splicing, integral splicing that he would do with tape. It was before all that kind of sampling and shit. There was no sampling back then. It was all splicing. Was there a mindset behind it? Was there a mindset towards...
hey, we're going to have this be part of the music? Or was it just like, hey, let's throw it against the wall and see what sticks? How much of it was preconceived and how much of it was a happy accident? Well, we originally started being a punk band and we had this whole straight punk set because punk rock was what was happening. But I said to Damon, and we sort of said it at the same time to each other. We're a pretty good punk band. We always have punk songs on our record and stuff, and we're punk rockers deep inside. But I'm also, and he's also in love with Psychedelia, so we just did what we both love. I go, let's just be honest with ourselves. Psychedelia was the last thing that was popular, if done by a hippie. But because it wasn't done by a hippie and it was done by us, it was punk.
You know, because it wasn't peace, love and flowers stuff. It was peace, love or else. Yeah. Yeah. It hit with more punk rock energy as opposed to like Emerson, Lake and Palmer or whatever it was. Yeah. Scary Garcia, you know. So, yeah, I mean, the whole thing just by nature of how it all came together has very much almost like a sci-fi presentation. Yeah. That was Damon's genius. Yeah.
Yeah, and so it kind of like set the vibes early on. I mean, like Alien Soundtracks, right? Yeah, exactly. It's in the name. And it fit right in. You know, it's exactly what I wanted to do. I couldn't pick a better group of people, you know, if I tried, if I searched for them. And, you know, it just came to me through my violin player, who was at the time Gary Spain. And I was playing, you know, acoustic guitar. Yeah, and that worked out, you know. So was there ever any...
kind of north star to what you wanted this music to to be like or was it just what i wanted to do at all i was all brainwashed by some psychedelic hippie shit and then i started getting into punk rock when i met damon we started getting it in it together i go this is so much ballsier than fucking shit you know let's make music that fucking madness, you know? Yeah, because at first, you know what I mean? Because the Visitation, it's almost like, that's almost like Santana plus Eno or something, right? Yeah, yeah. Had a way different vibe to it, and then suddenly with Alien soundtracks, it was sort of like, oh, found your brand. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it just clicked. What stuff were you using? Were you using, like, Stooges? Or what funk bands were you hyped up? At the time, yeah, Stooges, you know, were big, and Sex Pistols, of course, and it was really cool at that time.
They were not signed yet. And then there was just a lot of cool bands back then. I was really lucky to be in a time where music was so great and accessible. Social scene was great. I was very fortunate to grow up in that time, I think. So you mentioned Hendrix. Yeah, Hendrix. I saw him three months before he died. Oh, wow. That's wild. Yeah, I was on two hits of Orange Sunshine.
Yeah, best show I've ever seen in my life. Yeah, I mean, that's got to be outstanding. I mean, I bet this stuff helped, but, you know, still, man, you know, everybody was walking out with their mouths hanging open, literally couldn't even talk, you know. Yeah, I mean, such a singular talent. Yeah, and he comes out, he goes up to the mic, he goes, hello, it's going to be loud. If you don't like it loud, you better leave. Good advice. And then he starts with, you know, a voodoo child. Oh, man, so cool. I mean, I thought I was going to pass.
Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God, my favorite song right away. Yeah, it's out of the gate. You know, she has fucking floored everybody. Yeah, and I saw straight Japanese people jumping over the railing, falling 20, 30 feet to get down to them. You know, concerted people that you wouldn't see do anything like that at any other concert, you know? Yeah, it was amazing. That's strong of an effect on people, huh? Yeah, that's that. And then, you know, we went back to our high school the next day and we were all talking about it. And people were saying really interesting things because we were all just kids, you know, on acid. And, you know, it was like his guitar was controlling you. I mean, you know, it was like, you know, they're just saying really all this shit that only kids.
say and you know i still remember and the other greatest show i've been to second greatest was black sabbath was that around the same time yeah around the same time and i i did another two hits yeah yeah why mess with the formula oh yeah but i did a little bit too much at black sabbath because i already did my two hits of orange sunshine and i just happened to sit psychedelics are really huge back then i just happened to sit right next to this guy that had a bag of synthetic powdered mescaline. A whole bag. And he was passing it around. Everybody just help yourself. Was it Thomas Thompson? Yeah, and I was just grabbing handfuls of it and sticking it. The next thing I know, I'm looking for John because I'm freaking out.
And I sit down next to this guy. Here's a guy. Maybe I could talk to him. I'm freaking out. I don't know what to do. So I sit down next to this guy. And I go, hey, man. How you doing, man? I'm kind of freaking out. He goes, me too. And then his girlfriend comes, grabs him by the arm, and takes him away. I go, oh, shit. What am I going to do? And then I'm walking around in circles around this great big concert hall, just not knowing. I wanted to see the show, but I'm so fucking.
I don't even know where I'm going, you know. And there was a time I left my body when I was walking around, and I was looking down at me walking. I go, no, no, no, no, this ain't going to be, no, no, this is, nah. So I got back in my body, and then I found John Fackrell, and a pig from Lee Michaels, a man called Sweat Pig. He was about 300 pounds, drummer, buddy. And then Black Sabbath came on, and I was floored with their show, too. Was that around, would that have been around Sabotage? Was like that record? Do you remember exactly when it was, like what era? Oh, I don't, yeah, it was in the early days.
They were doing, you know, all their biggest hit songs that seemed to come out around that time. Yeah, yeah. So that had to be pretty freaking cool as well. I mean, that was probably a good show. Oh, God, yeah, man. It's a controversy about it, you know, because everybody's supposed to be into peace and love.
band, you know, that, you know, pretends to be dark wizards. And people were all, oh, man, they're evil. Oh, man, they're great. You know, it's just really funny, you know, all these hippies trying to, you know, put it into perspective, you know. And I go, man, who cares what it is, man? It's smoking, you know. Exactly. You know what I mean? And actually, Black Sabbath had no religious beliefs. It was just a show. Well, the imagery was cool. Yeah, the imagery was quite effective, you know, especially to an 18-year-old on acid.
Yeah, yeah. But those two shows were really super big influence on Chrome. Chrome, I would always do shows. Because I was just saying, I've got to do something like this with my life. Something like this. This is the only way to live. I've got to do that, you know, as best I can. I mean, yeah, but, you know, there's this other side to it. It's a pipe dream. Hardly anybody ever makes it to a point where they're living out there, you know. And everybody was telling me that, my mom.
That just made me want to try harder. Well, yeah, because you're lucky if you can just keep it sustainable. That's the move. I pulled off the impossible. I made a record almost every year from 22 to 67. You know what I mean? Nobody does that. I was looking at the discography, both the Chrome discography and your solo discography. Pretty huge. Yeah, it's been a consistent work. Yeah, pretty consistent compared to, well, I've always felt it was my calling.
My second love is carpentry, but I wasn't in very much demand for that. But it's also like you've got a gift and you've got a viewpoint to express. That's something that you've got to have these experiences of seeing these incredible, amazing, iconic bands touch you in this way. It's kind of cool to be able to give that back, too. Yeah, yeah. I'm very happy. There's a rumor about Alien soundtracks. I don't know if this is just part of the legend or if it's true, but didn't it begin as a soundtrack for a strip show or something along those lines? Yeah, actually, that's what it did.
by Damon, and yeah, it was supposed to be for a strip show, but for the Mitchell brothers. They said it was too weird and undanceable. Anybody could see that. It's not made for... Damon didn't know anything about rock or dance music when I met him. What you heard is all he really knew, and me knowing quite a bit about rock and drum beats and dance beats, I brought a lot of that to him, and he
just in the closet. And when we started doing that, because Damon was a drummer. He was played with, you know, Damon knew that. I didn't even know he played drums, but it's also... Yeah, he played drums on Alien Soundtrack, Half Machine Lip Moves, and Red Exposure. Those are all very interesting drum parts, too. Yeah, yeah. They're not just, like, keep a beat. Drummers compliment him a lot, saying, wow, you know, the thing I like about Damon is where he throws his rolls. Like, no drummers would ever think of throwing a lot, but he did it, and it worked. You know, and I go, wow, I never thought about that, because I'm not really...
professional drummer. But yeah, these guys would point out what a great drummer Damon was, how amazed they were at his playing. It works good for that time period of Chrome, too, because so much of the cut-up technique. Yeah, we weren't into a bunch of roles, and we weren't into stopping and starting. We were into consistency, hypnoticness. Still am, really. Sort of a hypnoticness. All my favorite bands are like Pink Floyd.
the Rolling Stones, you know, bands that just had a consistent drumbeat. I really found that really great when you're tripping, you know, like that kind of consistency, you know, versus stopping and starting. Here I am trying to make a vehicle for you to ride, you know, like for me, that's how I learned to do it because there seems to be a whole like physical reality to that kind of, you know, like in another area.
you know? Well, and that's sort of like the true actual psych music, you know, I think it gets used as a shorthand for meaning like, you know, certain types of sonic notes and things along those lines, but actual psychedelic music, I mean, that could be something like, you know, Tangerine Dream or something. Yeah, I like them. It's not necessarily, you know, oh, they've got the echo going and like, you know, they're crazy solo. It's more just like, does it transports you somewhere else? And that's something that I feel like, you know, that's been a consistent through line that is like kind of like a, you know, scrap into the roller coaster and away you go. Yeah, it's, me and Damon were both, you know, like,
the fact that music could be 3D, not just a flat picture screen, you know, like, and that's what Chrome is trying to show people, like, hey, this is 3D music, and Damon said it first, and I go, I hear you, Damon, that's exactly what this is, and that's what we're trying to accomplish, and I think that's what psychedelic music is, three-dimensional, four-dimensional, more dimensional, rather than just a flat song with a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, it's done, you know, and we were trying to, we really dug the whole idea, like Pink Floyd with echoes or something, you know, like. A whole experience, even, you know, Iron Butterfly. Oh, sure, yeah, of course. You know, that was epic at the time. And when I listen to it today, it still sounds epic to me because that was when I was a youth, you know. You know, the musicians didn't have to prove anything back then. They were all fucking filthy rich, you know, having a ball, playing whatever kind of music they wanted to play.
Yeah, and that's something where, I mean, did you, at the time when you're, you know, talk about that era, that Alien Soundtracks, Half Machine Lip Moves era, did you think about the fact that that was going to stick? I mean, I'm thinking of, I guess it was Half Machine Lip Moves. No, man, when we were done with the record, Alien Soundtracks, I go, God, this record sounds like shit. Nobody's going to like it. The quality sucks. I mean, you know, everybody's getting into the slick music. How's this going to work out? And I've worked better than all the slick bands, you know? Yeah.
It just hit a nerve, you know, with people. And it's funny that what does and doesn't stick with folks, because you kind of make yourself crazy trying to predict it. No, you can't make it happen. You can't predict anything like that. And then it started sounding like hotcakes, you know, and I, ah, maybe there's something these people are saying that I'm not saying. So then I took some acid and listened to it.
Ah, yeah, yeah, it's making sense now, you know. It had to get out of my head, you know. Right, right, because some of you did it. Sure, it makes sense. Been selling really good, and, you know, Alien soundtracks, so we were all hot to do Half Machine Lip moves in. That's why that record came out so good. It was just, we were making it, we had inspiration, we were young, we didn't do a lot of drugs just yet, you know. Yeah.
And that one's got like, you know, that's got TV as eyes. You've been dedicated. I mean, I did psychedelics and pot pretty much. Damon didn't do anything. He had some old leafy pot that sat in this box for years. I mean, he wouldn't even smoke that. So with that, and that kind of, to me, that sort of brought, you know, the crazy space feedback guitar kind of more to the forefront on that one. Was that just a natural? Just the way I play, you know?
You know, like, Hendrix is my hero, but I did my best not to sound like him. Right. You know, to have my own sound. Like, you know, like Stevie Ray Vaughan, he sounds really good like Hendrix, but we already had Hendrix, you know. You don't want a Hendrix ripoff. Yeah. I just like, you know, for my own sound, you know. And because of that scene and, well, from being, you know, from just, what do you call it, above all my friends and anybody I knew.
you know, at the time. Were you, were other bands around at the time? Like, did you vibe with them at all? I'm thinking of like, I mean, was Flipper around at that point? No, I was way before them. Well, I mean, I'm talking about for Half Machine Lift Moves, though. Oh, yeah, they were around for that. Yeah, they, I think, yeah, yeah. And he admitted it in a, you know, like, he likes my guitar playing, you know. And I love his guitar playing, man. Flipper started emerging, you know, like, whoa, this is great, you know.
Did you feel like there was common cause there? Not the fact that you guys sounded like each other, but both being kind of idiosyncratic. Yeah, it felt like a movement. It felt cool. We had a better scene in England, by far a better punk scene in California. We were really the punk capital of the world. Even the English people admit it.
Yeah, it's interesting how that works as far as documentation and what does and doesn't get into a story. But I'm always interested in hearing about that era. It seems like there's a lot of amazing stuff happening. Yeah, I'm getting a lot of people lately that want to know how it happened back then. And a lot of interviews, and I tell people what I'm telling you. Right, right. And the Dick Kennedys were kind of getting it together? Yeah, they were getting big. Yeah, me and Jello were friends. He was a kid, and I was basically a kid.
Single came out, California, Uber Alice or something, you know? And he was all excited, and Alien soundtracks just came out. We were like, you know, just young kids, kind of, you know? Does it ever trip you out at all that, you know, those especially half-machine lit moves, like it's kind of considered an influential post-punk record, kind of beginning of industrial noise rock? There's all these lists, you know, of these different genres that all kind of listened to that record and took what they took out of it. Yeah, yeah, it's a...
is uh you know if you want to like whatever kind of guitar player you want to be it's all there serious guitar playing fucked up guitar playing you name it you know and i didn't realize that until i look back at it older and stuff you know and it's just like what you said you know like it's all there you know so you know because i i did so much i was a virtuoso and regular i mean you know regular guitar that what damon was teaching me and it was even better you know Because he was into tones, and I always wanted to get into tones, you know, because he's from a rich family. So we were able to buy just about any effect we could. What was around? I mean, I could, but he... The band code, by extension of somebody, if you can afford it. Yeah, yeah. Because there was, like, mode on that. There was, you know, obviously all the tape manipulation and things along those lines. Yeah, all that stuff, you know, it was, like, it was great. It was a great time, because nobody could do any of the stuff he was doing, you know, because he came from L.A. Art School. Yeah. And was doing it before, you know, they were...
It was great, man, because I just had a pure rock background, just rock bands, high school rock bands, party rock bands, and he had this art background. I always liked making weird sounds with my guitar, and I always went for the weirdest. It just fit what we wanted to do. We brought the best out of each other for years until he got into heroin, and it sort of all came to an end there quickly. And I do want to talk about that, but I'm such a big fan of that record. TV as Eyes is such a killer opening track. Yeah. That song was in the trash when we didn't know what to start the record with. Yeah, we threw it away. Maybe we threw away a song we might want to check them out. We had TV as Eyes, and I go, I don't know, man. And David goes, that's great. I still didn't like it.
You know what I mean? It's like the most popular song ever made in my fucking life. You know? All these years later, we're talking about it. I don't know, David. I still don't like it that much, man. That's amazing. Oh, man. Didn't Gary Spain play based on that, right? That was one of the songs. Yeah. It's really crazy, man. Something that I didn't like that much. Didn't even want to pull it out of the trash. And here it is, my most popular song I ever wrote. What songs on that record? What did you think was going to be like, oh, this is the song? I like the song. I liked...
March of the Chrome Police. Yeah, yeah, that was great. You know, that's one of my favorites. You know, me and Damon wrote that song. You know, actually, Damon wrote it in his head, and he was playing guitar, but I knew exactly what he wanted. He knew I knew exactly what he wanted, you know? And it worked out. I still play that song. I still love it today. Yeah, so when you're digging stuff up to play live, like, what's the mindset? Because there's so much material. There's so many records. Do you kind of, like, want to have that? Yeah, we have to sit down and, oh, you know, like, I let the band pick out their favorite songs.
each guy gets to pick out a couple songs and I really don't know. I like the songs they pick out and, you know, as well as the ones I might, you know, I do definitely have about four songs I like to play. Right. You know, but yeah, it's democratic. It's let everybody have a little more power than they do, you know. I would imagine so. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, they're cool with it. You know, they miss playing. I go, I knew that was going to happen when this COVID hit.
You know? Fucking Jones into play. Well, I'm working on that, too. Like a mini tour from Seattle to San Diego. I mean, you want to be safe. Yeah, we're going to be safe. We're going to have the social distancing. Hey, if they're going to do football and shit, why can't we do shit, man? No, I'm not going to push it. But if it works out, and if we don't have a lot of trouble booking shows, and if there's places to book, we'll do it. And I think that's good.
If you're going to get this virus, you're going to get this virus, man. You know, you can't stop life. Yeah, and it's definitely been... It's destroying the world's economy. I mean, what are we going to choose, man? You know, it's like, I could see the problem. Yeah, we could all stay safe and be at home and not take any chances, but we're going to lose everything that way, too, huh? It's tough. I mean, it seems like a lot of bands are doing the, like, playing stuff, playing a show on the Internet. Like, you put on the Internet and people, like, look at it. I couldn't do that. That's not for me. I got plenty of live shows already on the Internet. They're all free. Right.
Yeah, it's not the same, too. It's not the same. I'm not going to charge people to watch a stupid show on the fucking internet. That doesn't seem right to me, man. You could watch this live, and then that's worth it. But anything on the internet, come on, it can't be that good, you know? Come on. What are they charging for that? I mean, it depends. Some people are just doing like, oh, it's like $8 ticket, and some people are just doing it for free. No, it depends. $8 for a ticket to see a band on YouTube? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fucking ridiculous.
Forget it. It's not for me either, man. I'll just go watch a rehearsal somewhere, man. Yeah, it's... See, that separates the men from the boys right there. Can you see it? Can you see it? Why we're still around and so many bands aren't? Yeah. Why Hawkwind's around and so many bands aren't? You know? Well, that's a good point. Like, do you feel like... What gives you the longevity to keep doing? Dave Brock's definitely in his 70s, maybe even 80. Yeah. You know, I really don't know his age, but, you know, he's no spring chicken.
So what do you think the key is towards maintaining a career? Oh, you've got to love it. You've really got to love it. You've got to be made for it by your creator. You can't say, oh, I want to be a rock star and do it for the rest of my life. It's not going to work like that. It doesn't work like that. So in the first iteration of Chrome, where there was that sort of move over to Beggar's Banquet, there was the more synth-y stuff, like red exposure and stuff along those lines. Yeah, we were competing with Gary Newman.
Well, your words, yeah. Yeah. Were you just kind of into the ideas? Oh, I love Gary Neumann, man. I probably like him more than Damon does, but I love that guy, man. Maybe I love him too much. But I could always throw Hendrix in there or something.
Two polar opposites. I love polar opposites. Well, and it still sounded uniquely like you guys. It wasn't like you were, it sounded exactly. No, I wasn't trying to be anybody else. At least I don't think I was. So did you have like, as the technology kind of started to advance, I don't want to say get better, I'm just going to say advance. Like, did you feel like that was something that changed it, the songwriting? Yeah, the best guitar effects I feel were made back then. Really like the jet phase that we used a lot of. I got one of those.
Yeah, a fan sent me one from England. Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah. And actually, I think he sent me two. He said he doesn't use them, and I go, wow, these are impossible to find. So I got one. I could do chrome sounds. You heard on Alien and Half a Seamlet Moose. You'll hear it live now. I did manage to scramble up most of the stuff I used back then with the help of fans and stuff. Do you ever mess around with any newer effects? Oh, yeah. I'm always trying shit. I got some new stuff I like.
I've been very disappointed with a lot of new stuff. You know, for me, how I judge an effects pedal is every knob does amazing things. You can't turn it and it does, you know what I mean? Like, I'm sure you've turned some knobs. What does this do? I don't hear any change at all. Oh, it's tone, what is it? No, I don't know what it is. You know what I mean? I want every knob just to do drastic shit. And that's what I find in Memory Man by MicroSense, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great. Every knob just does amazing shit, you know?
Michael Matthews was a genius, man. He made the microsynth and the memory man. I called him once when he was living in Germany. He laid back, dude, and certain people. If it wasn't for your effects, he didn't know who I was. He didn't care. But I told him to spew. Anyway, and it was true. Well, like Romox was kind of the pioneer of kind of the weirder pedals, you know, the Electric Mysteries, the memory man, the microsynth, all that stuff. I wish somebody would keep it up to that standard, you know.
Have you ever messed around with, when you're talking about every knob doing a different thing, the Earthquaker device's data corruptor? Have you played with that? No, I still got an experience. I'm ready to go out and buy some new stuff. Man, it is absolutely crazy. Hey, where are you at? Where do you live? I lived in Oakland almost my entire life. Maybe you could go to the music store with me and help me find some stuff. Well, I'd love to. I live in Milwaukee now, as I was going to say. Oh, what the fuck are you doing there? I ask myself that a lot, actually, these days. Oh, that's okay, man. I understand. I've been in the middle of the country. How about Manhattan, Kansas? Yeah, wow, Jesus, Manhattan. The lesser known Manhattan, yeah. Yeah.
They call it the little apple. For me, it was just because it was like, oh, it's better for touring, right? It's an easier place to tour out of, and it's cheaper. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's the great part about middle-of-the-country living is everything's cheap. Your rent is cheaper if your band could deal with it, you know. But, you know, they like to live by the coasts, and so do I, really. And now we can afford it a little better, you know. But then the COVID hit, you know, and I thought we were done. But actually, it's helping us a whole lot.
Well, just real quick, I want to mention the data corrupter pedal I was talking about. Yeah. It's kind of like, it's so cool and it does so many different things, but it's almost like... And what's it called? Let me write this down. Data corrupter. You get hit by a Mack truck right after we talk. I won't. What is that thing? It's called that. Oh, no. So the company is Earthquaker Devices. Earthquaker. Now I've heard of that. And then the pedal is called a data corrupter. God, that sounds great. It's crazy. So it's almost like you need a... Earthquake. What is it? Earthquaker Devices is the manufacturer. Earthquaker. Like Quaker.
Or like Earthquake. Yeah, I know. It's cool, though. I like it. Earthquaker. And the name of the pedal is called Data Corrupter. Quaker Data Corrupter? Yeah. Earthquaker Devices is the name of the company. And then Data Corrupter. All right, man. So the Melvins, you've played shows with the Melvins, right? Their first show was opening up.
The Melvins? Yeah. Really? That's awesome. Did you know? It was when the girl was playing bass. Oh, Lori. Yeah. Matter of fact, her show was a disaster. Her bass amp crapped out on the first song, and she didn't want to do the show. We got an amp. We had an amp, very similar to what she was using, big amp.
I mean, all intents and purposes, the same amp. Right. But she didn't want to use it, and so they didn't play. So they like, what, one song? Or did they even get it? Well, that's the last time I ever seen her again. I think they got it somebody else right away. Yeah, that's, Buzz doesn't really, um. No, yeah, nobody can put over that crap. And the place was totally packed. Ah, that's terrible. I know. We were wanting them to play. We're pushing our amp on. Come on, girl. This one will be better than the one you did, you know, you broke. You know, just get into the spirit of the thing. Eh.
So was that the only time you saw the Melvins? I guess you didn't really see the Melvins if they didn't play. No, they didn't play that time. I did see them, and I really dug it. I dig the Melvins. Because usually when they're touring, we're touring. That's the problem with touring season. But if you're lucky, you happen to be in the same area. Yeah, every once in a while it works out, and you can kind of make some of those things happen.
I was, like, it's kind of cool when you're on tour and you have a night off and then, like, you see a friend's band is playing. Oh, yeah. That is the best. You know. I don't want to hear our music anymore. I can't hear it anymore. I'm going crazy. So do you feel like, I mean, are there bands that you feel, like, that you're into that kind of, like, are younger bands that... Yeah, I like the God Bullies from MREP. I like, I really like Hepatitis. Hepatitis, great. I like them guys in Halo Flies and the Cows. Yep.
You know, I love the cows. I just had Shannon on the show not that long ago, actually. Oh, no kidding. Yeah, I love Shannon. Guy brightens my life up. One of the most unique dudes ever. Oh, yeah, yeah, the story. Yeah, Shannon. You know, if you ever want to get out of your funk, just listen to some of the stories this guy went through, man. Like, for example, you know, we're on the road with the cows, right, and they couldn't find Shannon. It was like the next day and we're all supposed to leave.
Well, Shannon went walking off with a bottle of something, you know, hard liquor, of course. And he went to an abandoned house and he fell through the floor and down into the basement and broke his leg. And he was sitting down there yelling for help until somebody heard of him called the police. And yeah, we made it. But I think he had a cast on his leg, arm or something. Do you remember when that little girl fell in the well? Like this was like many years ago. Do you remember this? It was like a big news item. I can't remember.
Baby Jessica. Probably. This was like 86 or something. This was like forever ago. Who was she daughter? It was in Texas, and it was... I don't know why I'm thinking of this, but this kid, this little two-year-old, fell into a well in her aunt's backyard. That's really sad. Yeah, but she lived. She lived? Oh, great. But they had to spend like 56 hours trying to get her out. I don't remember why, but they had to dig into it and stuff. It was this whole... Yeah, you know. Yeah, I think...
I thought it was a little boy. There was something like that, but maybe it was a girl. I do remember it being a real hassle, and it took days. Oh, man, it was hard for me, you know, because I was, oh, man. Yeah, it's tough. You want to hear about it. I'm so glad that she came out all right. Yeah, yeah. It's a bummer sometimes when you hear these stories. Oh, yeah. Nightmare. You've just radical change up here. You've played with a few other people that I've had on as well. Oh, yeah? Ray Washam. Oh, yeah. Ray's my favorite drummer in the whole wide world. What a great freaking guy. What a great guy. Well, he is the greatest drummer in the whole wide world. That's what I'm saying. I believe that. You know? I mean, well, anybody could argue that point.
He's up there, man. He's way up there. Every drummer I ever played with, I just feel incredibly fortunate. Because every drummer I ever played with, I've got to say, has been top-notch. Me. Yeah. You know? So when you got someone like that, someone so thoughtful and interesting. Thoughtful? That doesn't sound like Ray. Thoughtful when he's playing, let's put it that way. Yeah. Ray's a great person. He's just a wonderful guy.
And I hope he's doing well. Yeah. He's done some acting recently. He's actually been doing some acting recently. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. I want to be an actor. Oh, man. I'm even thinking about making my own movie. You want to make a movie? Yeah, sure. Let's do it. Fuck, man. I don't know how to do it, but I didn't know how to play music either. We can make a Helios screen movie. It would be great. Yeah, right. Sure, man. I just know we could do it. We could make it.
I used to have a public access show way back in the day. I'm in a movie called Farm. You've got to pay to watch it, but I hang myself at the end. Oof. Yeah, it's a really... Well, I know why the director had me hang myself, because he was in love with Monet, my girlfriend, who was a star actress in the picture, and so he had me hang myself in that. What? Okay. Oh, I knew it. A power move or something? It was like a power move or something? What was the mindset? Well, that was his way of telling me and her what he felt about us. You know, I want to be your girlfriend.
Fuck him. I'm going to hang him. But he didn't have to do that. She left me anyway at the end of the movie. But we're still great friends. That's good. That's good. Can you tell me a little bit about dealing with Jeff Pincus and Butthole Surfers? I know you did a little guitar on one of them. Oh, Jeff. Yeah, he's the greatest bass player, man. He's just way up there with, you know, my friend. Man, my memory sucks today. I smoked too much pot.
But yeah, he's way up there, man. He's pretty interesting. I've had him on the show as well. Before I met him, I thought he was going to be a completely different type of dude than he was. No, no. Who's that again? Jeff Pincus. Oh, Pincus, yeah. Oh, God, he is. He's just a greatest bass player musician, really. Actually, we made one, but we made so much stuff, I had to make another record just to put it on it. Because there were so many songs. Yeah, just like a couple songs over. So he's on two Helios Creed records.
And someday they might even make money because my solo band is starting to make money. You know, it wasn't making any money when we made those records. Not very much, you know. But now, man, my solo band's bigger than Chrome now for some weird reason. Do you think that's just because you're just doing it? Like you're still putting out records and hitting the road when you can? Yeah, the re-release of Lactating Purple just sold out just like immediately. Yeah, that's the one that Tom did, the special edition one, right? Yeah, yeah. And, you know...
it's not just the music. The cover's outrageous. You know, you have this cartoon drawing of this perfect female body with face with lips on it, you know? Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the alien, the android bitch, you know?
And that's the... That's Tom's artwork. Yeah, that's Tom Hazeliner. He does all those lino cuts. Yeah, he does all those lino cuts. Yeah. Super cool. I've had him on a couple times. It's pretty interesting. Oh, yeah? Yeah, Tom's great, man. That was at 91 is when you originally did that record? Does that sound right? Let me think. 91? Which record? Lactane Purple. Oh, gee. Yeah, I'd say probably. I was thinking, yeah, 91 seemed outright. But, you know, I could find out exactly.
and get back to you on that. That's fine. It's from like that era. Yeah, it's close enough. It's a reissue. I mean, it's sort of like, it comes from that sort of sci-fi vibe, you know, so the android woman is sort of, it fits. Yeah, it fits, and the cover's kind of exciting, you know, and I like the colors, and it's been doing really good. And the songs are already popular because the record's not new. So that's an interesting thing, too, that like with all of this, the internet making everything so available, people are kind of going back and discovering all the old stuff. Yeah, yeah.
There's a lot of good music out there. If you don't like the trend of the new bands, there's no reason you have to stop listening. That's for sure. Yeah, yeah. So much good stuff out there. You know, you get lost in it. Can you tell me a little bit? Oh, what? Oh, no, go ahead. Sorry.
Oh, I was just going to say, there's so much good stuff out there. You really got to kick ass to just be noticed no matter who you are. Yeah, that's true. It's very true. Yeah. Oh, go ahead. What were you going to say? I was going to say, can you tell me a little about the Dark Matter records you did in the late 90s? Oh, yeah, yeah. There was a thing that people were getting into around that time, ambient music. And I guess I got in on the tail end of it. And Brian asked me if I wanted to make one. You know, asked me to make one. So I made, you know, Seeing Strange Lights.
That was my first one. It was at the tail. I mean, it sold okay, but I still like making them whether they're popular or not. I made Dark Matter 2, and I would like to make a Dark Matter 3, you know? Well, it seems like it would be pretty low effort to do it. Yeah, that's why I want to keep doing it. It's really cool, relaxed. You know, our music is so jarring, you know, it just makes sense to have something you can really chill with, you know? Well, yeah, and that's kind of why I wanted to ask about it, because it is like some contrast. Yeah, the contrast is really great, you know, and I want to keep that up.
Yeah, there will be a Dark Matter 3. How long were you living in Hawaii? I lived there 12 years altogether. Maybe a little more. Which island was it? I lived on Oahu most of the time. I lived on Maui for a little over a year. I lived on the big island for three months. I lived on Kauai for years. I lived almost on all the islands for a while. Mostly on Oahu. That's really the...
the best surfing beaches in the world, as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, you know, and it's a great island. I mean, if you want to party, if you want to surf, you know, it's all there on that island. Maui's just the most beautiful island to me for hiking and stuff. And it's got some good surfing, if you're really good at it. You can get it dangerous if you're not, yeah. Yeah, it could be. But, you know, I just enjoy doing it. You know, I've almost died surfing a few times. So, yeah, it is dangerous, you know. But, you know, I got to do it, man.
Did you find that the Hawaii sort of life, did that suit you? Yeah, I really loved it. I felt really healthy and always had girlfriends. I noticed something about the place that worked for me. But culturally, it was kind of empty at that time when I left. It was really cool back in the 70s. I'm not saying it wasn't cool, but San Francisco was there.
And that's when Chrome happened. Yeah, and it kind of seemed like with Hawaii, as awesome as it is, unless you're in a cover band, it's not really super happening musically. No, there's no culture there at that time. You know, culture does come through, but it comes and goes because it's such a transient place, which is sort of sad. But, you know, there were a few bands that tried to adopt Hawaii, but, like, you remember that band, I don't know, Quicksilver Messenger Service? Oh, yeah. Yeah, they tried to adopt Hawaii. They were real popular on the North Shore, and they had a couple hits, I guess.
They had some hit that was kind of like a radio hit. I can't remember what it is. They had a couple hits. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was another hit. I had that record. Then there was one, Happy Trails was at the end. They did their version of Happy Trails to you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. Because it was all about acid trails.
Yeah, it's cool. Full time to grow up in, I gotta say. Moody Blues was one of my favorite bands when I was growing up. I liked Every Good Boy Deserves Favor. Oh, yeah. Yeah, because all the weird changes was very inspiring. They were doing splicing, I could tell.
You know, actually, I don't think I've ever mentioned this on the show, because it never would have probably come up extemporaneously, but I actually have the bass player from the Moody Blues. I own one of his basses. Oh, you have his bass? One of them, yeah. He gave it to his girlfriend at the time, who eventually sold it, and she wanted to sell it to someone who was going to play it. I'm like, yeah, I need a good... It was a P bass, and I had a P bass. And she's like, oh, yeah, it belongs to my exes in the Moody Blues. When I was an alcoholic, I pawned mine for a bottle of booze. Oh, man. I go, it's time to quit drinking when I start doing shit like that.
Yeah, I've been sober now for seven years. Well, congratulations, man. That's awesome. That's great. Yeah, I know. I'm fine, man. I'm happy. That's good. It's a hard time to be sober with this lockdown and everything going on, man. Yeah, the last thing I would want to do is drink. Probably make me... Do you find it yourself... What if I was going on in this lockdown bullshit? Throw away those masks. You know, I'd get all weird on everybody. I'm already weird enough.
I've been asking folks, do you find that you've been able to be creative? Yeah, more creative than ever. It never stops. I think that COVID's helping me, man. I'm getting inspiration. It's making my record sell. It's just incredible. I've never got such a big royalty check like I did a week ago in my life. That's really cool. I was shocked. I was opening up this letter. That's probably going to be a few hundred bucks, maybe 500 at the most.
But, you know, it was way more than that many, many, many times. And I was like, what? And it was a record that I didn't expect it to sell that well. And I'm like, well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. I never got a royalty check from this company before. Now I got the biggest one I ever got.
Well, and you've got a pretty story discography. I mean, not even just with Chrome, but I mean, you have something like 20 solo records too, right? So it must be kind of hard to like... Yeah, I've got a lot of... The solo records are really getting popular. And Chrome is too. Yeah. Well, I think Alien Soundtracks and Half Machine, those are both records that it seems like... Yeah, they won't ever die. Yeah. And that's amazing. That's a bit of history. You know, you get to be a part of like an overall, you know... Something, huh? Yeah, yeah. The collective subconsciousness of music and whatnot. Hey, I know that guy. Cool, yeah.
So what do you got? So I know you're, do you want to speak a little bit about the model railroad stuff? I know you're pretty avid. Oh, yeah. I can talk about that at any time. There's nobody, I'm the only one here that I know that is fanatic about it. Not saying they're not here, it's just I'd have to go to Whistle Stop, my train store. And there's a bunch of old farts like me that love model trains. How did you get into that? Was that something that you've always been into, or was that a recent? Yeah, ever since I could remember, ever since I was three, I loved trains.
And my psychic said that I had two train engineer lives. That's why I like trains. Yeah, that's what she said. And my brother, too. We're a train family, I guess. So she said, I feel kind of like weird because I'm not running trains. I'm playing guitar in this life. She goes, it's a little bit weird for you. I go, it is. I feel like I should be running a train, man.
And I had to go to anger management because of drinking, and I was in anger management with this train engineer, and I'm a rock star, you know. And he goes, what do you do? I go play music, and I got drinking because of, you know, free drinks at the shows, and I'm a real dick when I drink, and I got in trouble, and now I have to quit. And I go, what happened to you? He goes, I'm a train engineer. I go, no, really? And I never met. You know, like, here I got a friend. That's a friend before I even knew he was a train engineer. And I go, man, don't you love that job? He goes, I hate it. I go, what? I'm all disappointed. This guy hates his job. I go, well, why are you doing it, Dan? The money's great. I go, well, what's wrong with it, Dan? He goes, I never get to see my wife. She's going to leave me. And I'm just mad all the time. I can't ever find a girlfriend because of the hours. I go, really?
I never thought about anything like that. I guess the hours would be kind of screwy. Well, and you don't love trains. And I go, wow. And he goes, what do you do? I go, I play rock music, blah, blah, blah. And he goes, wow, fascinating. There's nobody who plays rock in Manhattan, Kansas. I'm like, man, if I could, I would trade places with you. I take it. You could be a rock star and I could be a train engineer. Wow, for a year or something like that. Like the Prince of the Popper. Yeah, you could do my job and I could do your job.
great. Or Freaky Friday? Was that the movie? And if I didn't move from there, I'd probably wind up being his friend and trying to squeeze on his train engine rides and shit. But, you know, I moved back here. I had a few cool things there, man. I was a part of a really cool train club. You know, they really liked me, too. You know, because they were kind of like redneck. They're kind of redneck hippies. I don't know if you know the type. Yeah, I do. Yeah, and when I showed up, but they did have long hair, but you could tell they were hippies because they like trains. Train's kind of a mellow thing to like, you know. Anyway, when I got there, they were calling me hippies.
Yeah, because I had long hair at the time, you know. But after a few months, I was like their favorite person, you know. Right, if they got to know you. Yeah. What a trained freak I was. And, you know, they didn't know anything. I never told them I was in music. They never knew about that part of me. How funny. Like, I think this is all they need to know. You know, I don't want to fucking freak them out. Like, fuck, I freak out my own family. Once they hear my music, they never talk to me again and shit, you know. You know, like, oh, man. I go, I haven't heard from you, man. What happened to you? Oh, man, I played your record.
I go, wait a minute, wait a minute, you don't do drugs. He goes, I still had one. Well, then sometimes it's like people feel like they need to have an opinion on it, too. And it's like, no, it's okay. Yeah, strong opinions. It's all right. Don't mind. My mom would look at me sideways, you know, like. That's funny. But she was very proud that I was able to put records together every year. You know, like, wow, how do you do that? I don't know, Mom. I really don't. Well, that reminds me of.
The Skinnyard dudes. Oh, yeah. Daniel House and Jason Finn. Yeah, I heard that those guys are a little disappointed that I didn't talk about them very much about Last Laugh, but they never got any money. But I did get money from Lactating Purple. Yeah, I know. But if it ever does make money, I'll know it and I will.
Did you just know those dudes from, that's when you lived in Seattle? Well, let's see, I was going to get a sub-pop record deal, but I didn't like those guys, and I don't think they liked me. So I liked Tom Hazelmeyer from AMREP, so I went with him. And I didn't have a band at the time. I had a record deal, but no band. And I went to Pop and said, does anybody want to play with me to make this record? And Daniel and, you know. Jason.
Jason showed up, and God, they're great, you know? Yeah, yeah, great players. Man, just fucking great, man. Just greatness. Just solid greatness, and they should be recognized, and they should make tons of money. Well, I know Jason had a break with the presidents of the United States. That was a pretty popular band for a while, man. Fucking wasn't it, though, man? It was on MTV all the time. Yeah.
you know, and I was really happy for him because I knew, I think I heard he bought a house and stuff. Oh, good for him. That's awesome. Yeah. You know, that's what all musicians just want to get is their house. Yeah. They're played their own place. They get to that level, man. They're fucking, they accomplished something, you know, you know, home. Yeah. I'm going to pay rent for a bunch of people that think you're crazy. What do you do for a living? Do this.
What is that? That's not music. I'm a model train aficionado. I get paid for my opinions. Yeah, they like the train. That's easy to understand. I said that's at least easy to understand. Yeah, it is. It's not like I'm a train engineer. Guitar playing. And there's always a good beat. I guess if you think about some of your records, it has that kind of insistent train sort of energy. Rock supposedly came from the train. That's how rock came around. Black eyes playing blues to the train.
And, I mean, that's how I think it started, you know, and I don't know. Just that rhythm? Yeah. You know, the rhythm of the train and the blues and, you know, the talent back then. So do you have any, like, plans for recording any new music or anything along those lines? Well, I got a new record coming out, a new Chrome record. Oh, that's exciting. It's going to be called, as far as I know, since I'm the one who titled it, it's going to be called Scarapy, you know?
That's some news. That's some breaking news. Yeah, it's breaking. And we finished it like a week ago and sent it off. So it was breaking news. So I figure it'll be out, you know, around spring, you know. That's usually how it goes, yeah. And especially COVID's like slow down. I don't really know exactly when, but that's what I would think, you know. So we got that. And I do have, you know, we have that other, I don't know if you know about Galactic Octopi. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's never really been on it.
record, I don't think. You know, buy it and release it on a record. I think I'm going to have that coming out on a record, too. I got Tidal Forces coming out on an album. Lactating Purple coming out. It's already out, and I'm going to have Galactic Octopus coming out, you know, on an album. Yeah, I'm really kicking ass. That's awesome. Yeah, you got all kinds of stuff happening. That's great. Yeah, just all of a sudden, man. One day I was suicidal, and the next day I get a huge check and all kinds of people calling me, you know.
It was that quick, I swear to God. Right. Forget about the suicidal stuff. It was just a way of, it was really dark days. No, I understand. And that's not uncommon. Yeah, that's just the word I use. But yeah, the next day, and it's been getting better ever since. For me, anyway, it doesn't look like it's getting better for anybody else around me. Everyone else is screwed. Yeah, the world's screwed. They want my music to hear how screwed it's getting. Hey, look at how screwed up everything is. Wow.
Do you find that there's anything, has there been anything recently that's sort of changed how you think about playing guitar or sort of giving you any insights into doing different stuff or anything along those lines? Yeah, I see my guitar as a big, I'm trying to figure out how to make it groan and moan and scream and out of people. That's what Scare P is like. Okay. Like, quit fucking around, man. I'm going to throw my guitar at you. Right, right. Anyway, yeah, there's a lot of anger on this record and deservedly so, you know.
I mean, we're expressing the way we feel, and it seems like punk band or hippie band or whatever, everybody's angry about it. It's an interesting time. It is, and it's almost like that proverb, the proverb that's a curse, may you live in interesting times. Yeah. Yeah, well, you know, we could be living in safe, boring times. I choose interesting, scary times. I mean, what kind of movie would you rather watch, a scary movie or a movie about the sound of music or something? That's not a bad movie, though.
I like that movie. But I can think of something else. You know, like, I don't know. But you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Would you rather see Black Sabbath or James Taylor? Right. Good point. Yeah, I got to remember that one. Would you rather see Black Sabbath or James Taylor? I like them both. You know, that's what I would say. I like all music. There's a time and a place for both, for sure. Yeah, there's a time and place for everything. Yeah. But I think I like Black Sabbath a little bit better than...
than James Taylor. Well, they definitely, it's definitely a different mood. Yeah, polar opposites once again. That's what I like about music. You know, if I was, I probably just, would probably be just go around the world and like find an instrument or a vibe and You know, the thing that I've noticed is they have these shows now where it's basically like someone from a band going around and doing stuff like that. Yeah, it seems to me I've seen stuff like that. Yeah, they have a show that's Brian Johnson from ACDC just kind of like driving around in his classic cars, like talking to like Dolly Parton. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool. I did see that. Yeah, and Rockstars.
successful rock stars hanging around with criminals and, you know. Yeah. I guess, right? Yeah, you know, like rock stars are just one failure away from being a criminal. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. You know, you relate. So the, so, oh, there's a couple things. So we talked briefly about Damon's journeys and tribulations. Did you, I mean, you guys really got in touch for like a long time. I know that you did kind of get back in touch. Well, anti-drug person. When we, he had a weakness.
So is that how he ended up getting involved with that as a woman? Well, yeah. By the way, I'm into this. What is that? Oh, why don't you try it? I don't know. Oh, come on. It's not going to hurt you. It's really good for sex. Okay, I'll try it. That's some magic words. Yeah, exactly. Okay, I'll try it. I'm in. I'm in. Sign me up. Yeah. I mean, did you really talk to him that much near the end, though? I mean, was it ever kind of like any sort of...
Did that friendship last? Did that musical relationship ever have... What, with girls? Well, no, with Damon. With who? With Damon. Wait a minute, I had to beat... No, with Damon, not with... Oh, yeah, we tried to get back together when he was in really bad shape, and I was worried about him. I could tell he wasn't doing good, and he goes, let's make another record. Let's make a Chrome record together. I go, what do you want to do at all? I just thought we'd do it through the mail, work together like the old days. And then he told me how he didn't want me to see him,
overweight. I'm not going to bed with you. I'm going to make a record with you. You know what I mean? I don't care. It just turns out he was like over 300 pounds. So what? You know? That's silly. I was bummed out that I didn't get to... I wanted to help him. My girls aren't going to help him. I'm going to get him off this shit. I have to live with him. I'm going to get him off this shit in square one. But I never had the chance. We were talking on the phone and he OD'd. That's such a bummer.
Yeah. I mean, I guess it was a long time ago at this point, but it's still, I mean, does it stop being alive? 95 or something? See, that's 25 years. Well, I guess you got to see, and the reason why I bring that up is because it's like, you know. I think it's, what would he be doing if he was alive anyway? Get the greatest music in the world again? I doubt it, you know. He died a legend, a living legend, not a loser.
what i mean yeah then people can remember the the good that's the way he wanted to go he wanted to end up like michael jackson did you know i go what dead dead and famous he goes yeah that's the coolest oh god damn it i think it's pretty cool to stick around too you know and be famous and you know what's wrong with that not that cool i guess not you know well i did it so i guess i'm not that cool okay you know i should be dead but i'm sorry i'm not Inconveniently alive. Yeah, I have a feeling I'm needed here, you know. Well, it sounds like you've got, I mean, there's new records coming. It sounds like you've got a lot happening for... Yeah, yeah. It's a good musical time right now. We're not going to, this whole COVID lockdown bullshit, it isn't going to fly much longer. They have five different versions of COVID, you know what I mean? Yeah, mutate. It's a virus. Yeah, they have all the mutations, you know.
Well, I do hope that we'll get some manner of a vaccine for it. Don't worry. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not worried about it. I don't worry about things like that. I already survived hepatitis C, which was supposedly not survivable, and especially as long as I had it. And you can't kill a Lose. That's just all there is. I didn't know it at a time, you know. Maybe after the next album, I'll let him die. Well, I certainly hope not. No, no, I like it here. I really do like it here. You know, I don't know anybody on the other side. I don't know what I'd be doing.
You know, I died once. I really remember everything about it. I was years old and I left my body because I died. Floating and I was floating down the hallway and it was really empty, you know. And then there was this nurse running the other way, you know, just practically running with a worried look on her face. I go, wow, that's interesting. Right to my crib and gave me CPR and I sucked back into my body. My mother was there crying because I was already dead. I sucked back into my body and I've been alive ever since. Yeah, that happened a few times with me. I would always catch pneumonia and almost kick off.
God, that's horrifying. I don't remember. I remember hospitals. I remember being in hospitals a lot and being really lonely for my mom. And I wanted my mommy to take me home. I didn't know what was going on. But here I am. There you are. And you got a new record coming up pretty soon. I perfectly don't have any health problems like that. And we're happy for that, to be sure. Yeah. You know, a lot of people have that story.
these really heavy, you know, like they catch pneumonia all the time or they catch these bad flus as a kid, but then as soon as they get old and an adult, I was one of those kind of kids. Yeah, it's one of those things where you gotta wonder just if it's building up a resistance or if it's, you know, like what's the deal? Yeah, and they also experiment. My mother allowed them to do experiments with me, which kind of, they, at early stages, they'd say they could straighten my eyes. If they would have left my eyes alone, they would have been totally fine. So they tried to straighten my cross eyes.
But my eyes went back to where they should be, and then my eyes were wall-eyed. Oh, man. Then I got that fixed, because it was a cosmetic operation, and those operations are free for a person with my kind of insurance, you know? Well, that's nice. Here I am. Fixed face, fixed teeth. Even my hair is fake. No, I'm kidding. No, it's actually real. Since I quit drinking, it started growing back heavier than ever. I was losing it, you know, my hair. And I didn't know it was all about quit drinking.
I noticed my hair was good. Speaking of the hair, I have a funny story about my dad. His heart failed. The monk when it's like the side zone. Yeah, it was the monk thing, right? And, well, he was one of the first heart transplant patients in the world, like maybe one or two, the second guy or the first guy. I think he was the first as far as I remember. And they gave him the heart of an 18-year-old kid that died in a car accident. Oh, wow, okay. Yeah, 18-year-old kid. And my dad grew the hair of the head he ever had.
Man, just after getting the heart transplant? Yeah, after getting the 18-year-old's heart. Wow, interesting. Yeah, my stepbrother said, Dad's heart was thicker than mine. I go, wow, I didn't know anything about that. You mean attributes back, you know, or whatever. Right. Yeah. Or maybe you could just make your heart a good, and maybe you'll grow your own hair.
But I thought that was a wicked-ass story. Yeah, that's a great story. Obviously, the cure for baldness is somewhere within the heart. I've never heard that. I've never heard anybody talk about that. No, never. But I got it straight from the horse's mouth. My brother. Yeah, that's considering how many...
you know, hair restoral schemes and products. Oh, my dad would have never done any of that shit. I was going to say, maybe they missed the opportunity to... I don't think I would do any of that hair restoration shit either. You know, I know people that's done that and somehow it looks fake to me. I don't want to say any names because you know some of these people. It's okay, we don't need to name names. I don't care talking about my hair issues, but I'm not going to...
It's okay. We can leave people to wonder around that one. I've had rock star friends walk around with hair plugs, and you name it, man, toupees. You didn't even know it. This has nothing to do with toupees or hair, but it's something that occurred to me while we're still talking. You mentioned Hawkwind earlier. Didn't Nick Turner play sax on one of the records, right? How cool is that? It's freaking Nick Turner. Nick Turner played sax. They got another guy?
I didn't hear it. No, no, no. I was just saying because Hawkwind is, you know, when you think of like psychedelic bands, right? It's sort of like almost like the gold standard. Oh, yeah, yeah. With a punk feel to it. Well, totally. You know, every since the beginning, you know. It's almost as if they came up with that beat and the punks took it, you know. So that made them sort of cool. They're not pure.
hippies. Right, exactly. I mean, let me play it in that band for a bit. The last record sounds a little bit like punk rock almost, man. Yeah, yeah. Gay Brock, huh? I said absolutely. If you're listening with an open mind and open ears. That's the only way I hear music, man. Music to me is the universal language, man.
I think you're onto something like that. So it's kind of interesting. And I'm thinking about it. I think it's like a live version of hyperventilation. Oh, yeah, I remember that one with the saxophone and everything. Yeah, yeah. I mean, was that something where, like. We didn't plan it. No, we were just all going out on the road together. Yeah, yeah. You know, it was a circus. It was a circus, too. I'm telling you, man. Oh, boy. You know, talk about Spinal Tap. You know, they base Spinal Tap on Hawkwind and Motorhead.
And I went out on the road with, and I'm telling you, they make Spinal Tap look like a conservative group of people. You know what I mean? These are the real McCoys here, man. Yeah, it's even crazier. It's just, you wouldn't, you just, for example, the sound lady goes, sound lady's driving, and Nick asked for Dale. I just bought Nick this pound of pot. You know, and Nick asked Dale to pound to him so he could, you know, and Dale dropped the pound out the window going,
You know, 60, 70 miles an hour, right? And I'm freaking out because this is like, I don't pull over. You know, I know you got to pull over. The pot fell out the window. She goes, no, we're late for the show. I don't give a fuck about the show. I want that pot. You know, and big old huge argument starts, you know. That's what it was like. Understandable things. Yeah, it just never ended. Let me think of another thing. Oh, yeah. We're all staying in this joint apartment, right? All of a sudden.
You hear, wikey, wikey, and fucking Del Dentmore has the TV turned all the way up on a channel that's going, shh, and wikey, wikey. And my girl, my wife, Z at the time woke up, and I'm going to kill you. She's going after him with, you know, strangle-like hands. And this is going on. Next thing you know, the whole band is fighting amongst each other. And so I sneak out the door. I go down to the coffee shop, you know, and I sat down. I sat down on a chair, was filled with a plate of mustard.
mustard dip and shit. And so I had mustard all over my ass. You know, this is how I woke up one morning before coffee. That's quite the wake up. Yeah, that's just, and it was pretty common. So yeah, it made Spinal Tap look like a conservative outfit. That's awesome. Yeah, and that was one of the good stuff. Right, right. You know, I'm a...
I'm a huge fan of The Residence and Snakefinger and the whole Ralph record. And I realized I was going to start trying to wrap things up, but you were pretty close to Snakefinger at one point. I love Snake. We were going to be best friends, and he died. He liked me, and I like him. That's another dude with a very unique style. Yeah, I love Snakefinger. He was a great guy, too, a great guy. Just the most wonderful personality, loving person. Unlike, you know, I didn't really care for the other guys in the, you know, the guys that he worked for.
loved him. I liked H, too. They had this H guy that played keyboards. Anyway, I love The Residents. I'll end it by saying I love The Residents. There you go. In case he's listening or he's going to catch wind or something. But it's true, I do love The Residents and they're a big influence on me. Yeah, that's another act that just never stopped. Well, King's a really nice guy. King from the Melvins. Oh, yeah. Buzz is great. Buzz is awesome.
I just find him a very strange man, but hey, you know, that's what makes rock guitarists special, right? Well, he has more of his own kind of unique world he's built around himself than almost anyone I've ever met. Yeah, he's definitely... I tried to become friends with him, but he wouldn't let me in. Hey, you remember me? Helios, the guy that helped you open up and like you. He's got a tireless work ethic, but it's funny because he can turn it on and off like a dime as far as... Yeah, I've seen him do that. That's fine, you know, like just keep playing, you know.
You're not in this world to live up to my expectations. You got to do what you do, man. It's great talking to you, man. I think this is great. Yeah, yeah. It's been so great talking to you. Thanks so much for the time. I'm so glad we got to do it. The last thing, it's the only can question I ever ask people. Yeah. And it's just, why do you do what you do? Because I love. The first reason, Bound, and he had a girlfriend, and I couldn't get a girlfriend. I figured if I made a Bound, maybe I could get a girlfriend. And it worked. The foremost reason. I just started liking music. It mattered, you know. Didn't need anybody to be happy. Discovered music is a shit.
Yeah. And we thank you for that and for all the great music, man. It's been great talking to you. Thanks so much, dude. All right, man. Thank you, brother. And call any time. Sounds good, brother. Take it easy. All right. All right. Bye. There he goes. Helios Creed. Wow. Let's listen to some TV has eyes, man. Cool. That was awesome. Lactating Purple by Helios Creed. Before that, TV has eyes by the incredible and timeless badass. Thank you. Yes, yes. That was a great back announce. Thank you. Nobody ever appreciates the back announce, do they? People really should appreciate the back announce. Otherwise, I didn't know what you were listening to.
Yeah, yeah, so before that we had TV Has Eyes by Chrome. That's off of, there's an Alien Soundtrack's Half Machine Lip Moves double record. Really can't, can't recommend that enough. If you are just entering the world of Helios Creed and Chrome and all that, that's the place to start, for sure. Well, there you go. That's another Protonic Reversal, episode 213 with Helios Creed. Thanks for listening, everybody. The show airs Thursdays, usually. 8 Eastern, 7 Central, 6 Mountain, 5 Pacific, on RadioNope, RioNope.com. Say yes to no.
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Stay-at-home pandemic episodes and, well, stay on the show. I'm very thankful. Thank you. Thank you for listening, listener. Appreciate you. Oh, yeah, as I mentioned, you know, like and subscribe, all that stuff. It helps people find it, you know, if you're into it. iTunes reviews, all that malarkey. Malarkey. Stay safe out there, everyone. Take it easy. Take it easy! Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now?
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