Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Don Jamieson, Co-host of That Metal Show

That Live Metal Show, with your hosts:

Don Jamieson and Live-Metal.net's Jeff Maki

April 28, 2011

Don Jamieson, co-host of VH1 Classic’s That Metal Show, and LiveMetalNet’s Jeff Maki talk one-on-one about all things metal. What will happen when two of the world’s biggest metalheads get together? Who the hell knows, but God help us all.

Tonight’s topics include the Big Four show in Indio, Ca., Don’s new live standup comedy album, Live and Hilarious, and thoughts on interviewing their heavy metal idols.

We wish we could provide video, or at least audio, but in true metal fashion, our gear was toasted not long after the recording took place.

LiveMetalNet: Hey, Don, how’s it going, man? Are you calling from out on the West Coast?

Don Jamieson: Yeah, I’m out in L.A. right now doing press and stuff for the album. And I went to the the Big Four yesterday (April 23, 2011, Empire Polo Grounds Indio, Ca.), and I’m in the desert just getting the word out.

Oh yeah, I actually read on your website that you had never seen Slayer before, so how was that first experience of seeing them live?

Well, it’s just amazing that I’ve been a fan for so long and I had never gotten a chance to see them. But they didn’t disappoint. But obviously, everybody was incredible yesterday—there wasn’t a bad song the whole day. And Slayer was everything I thought they would be. I wish they were still doing the blood wall from Reign in Blood, but they were still awesome. I think (Dave) Lombardo gets better and better. He’s a freak of nature, completely.

From my personal experience from seeing them on Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem—now, don’t get me wrong because I love Slayer—they weren’t really the most, exciting and energetic band onstage. Do you know what I mean? They sounded great …

Yeah, they’re definitely not jumping up and down and doing all that stuff, but I think they just let the music speak for itself. But it was my first time and they definitely impressed me. And I think, also, yesterday was our metal Woodstock, so I think every band wanted to shine because we don’t really know if they’ll ever do this again in America. So if this was the only time, then everybody represented bigtime. It was really killer.

Yeah, and I think it will. They just have to sort everything out. But the ticket sales were great. There were 60,000 kids there, a few adults, and I think there were even three or four hot chicks.

[laughs] Yeah, that’s always good to hear.

People came from all over, all over the world. I met people from the East Coast who traveled across the country to see it. I met kids from Mexico who came across the border to see it.

Yeah, and it’s always good to hear that there are some ladies at shows. We’ve been to shows where there’s literally not been a single girl in the audience whatsoever, and I’m sure you’ve experienced the same thing.

Yeah, it’s like double the sausage party.

[laughs] Yeah, exactly.

I was waiting until the last minute this morning and was brainstorming up some questions for you and I just got to thinking. I don’t do the LiveMetalNet website for a living. It’s like my hobby and metal certainly is my passion. But you know, I’m fed up with my day job—I work my ass off. Obviously, you need talent, skills and knowledge, but for someone like me, or anyone trying to get into the metal music scene, how do you get in? And could you relate that to how you got into it all?

Well, first of all, your website is awesome, man. And there’s a reason, and it’s exactly what you said, it’s a labor of love. And that’s what makes it great. And you can see that whoever runs this website loves metal. Whether it’s me doing That Metal Show and interviewing Alice Cooper or Lemmy or Bill Ward or any of my heavy metal idols, I want to represent the fans, because I’m just a fan. Don’t tell VH1 Classic, but I’d do the show for free just to meet everybody. And it all comes from a real place, and I think that’s why the TV show has been successful and why your site is so cool. It’s because we love it. We didn’t go to school for it and no one forced us to read a book about metal. We live it, so that’s where it comes from.

You’re exactly right. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the opportunity to interview you today and I’ve interviewed so many bands including my idols growing up, and it’s awesome. It would just be great to get paid for it and do something that I love full-time, you know?

But the good thing is that if you keep doing it and you keep it real, then in time it’ll all pay off. I was just a comic playing beer and shot bars in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, driving around in a Hyundai just trying to scrape together a couple bucks. But I always wanted to make that connection with metal and comedy. And it took a long time. I was doing stand up for 15 years, and this is my first live comedy CD coming out on Metal Blade. And you know what—it was worth the wait man, because I’m on the coolest metal label of all time, I’m the first comic to sign with them and it couldn’t be a better fit. It’s like a dream come true to be on Metal Blade.

So Live and Hilarious; I listened to the whole thing last night, and yes, definitely hilarious. There’s a lot of relatable stuff on there. Not to give anything away, but the part about the pets walking in has definitely happened to me before.

Yeah, it definitely has happened. I think it’s to the point where my dog kind of does it on purpose now.

Yeah, it’s like he can hear a high whistle. He knows when you’re in the bedroom doing naughty things by yourself.

You talked about the hard work leading up to the album and everything, but why now? Was the timing just right from your exposure from That Metal Show, or was this just a culmination of all the hard work paying off?

Yeah, it is really is a culmination of everything, because Jim Florentine, my co-host on That Metal Show—who’s also a fantastic standup comedian, as well—he and I came up to L.A. together and we were always trying to figure out how to mix metal and comedy. And we started doing these prank call CDs called Terrorizing Telemarketers, where we tortured telemarketers. And we have these hidden camera DVDs that we do called Meet the Creeps, that’s like hardcore hidden camera comedy.

And Dimebag and Vinnie used to come see us in Dallas when we played at the Improv down there because they’re big comedy fans. So we started giving them all of our stuff and they started passing it on to people, and it became like this big thing on tour buses on hard rock and metal tours. So that started getting our name into the metal community, and then we met Eddie (Trunk) like 10 years ago, and the rest is history. That Metal Show came along, and then I went on the road with Charred Walls of the Damned, who are another band on Metal Blade. And I opened the show doing my comedy act, and the head of Metal Blade came out to a few shows and he said, “I like what you’re doing. You’re opening for a thrash band in rock clubs and it's working. I don’t know if you have enough material for a whole album, but I like hanging out with you, so I’m going to give you a record deal.”

OK, so let’s talk about That Metal Show, mainly your co-hosts. My brother, in particular, refuses to watch the show because of Eddie. He just gets on his nerves for some reason, I guess. Do you think Eddie has that kind of love/hate persona? What is your relationship like with Eddie off-air?

Well, the truth is that we’re three best friends, so all the ball-breaking and all that stuff, that’s stuff that we’d be doing anyway even without the cameras. We break each other’s balls a hundred times harder when the cameras aren’t rolling. But the chemistry between us is what is important. Eddie is a little misunderstood because he is so good at interviewing and his knowledge of the music scene is so deep. He’s the anchor. Jim and I are the goofballs and we love metal, but I couldn’t sit down and listen to an album and critique it. I either like it or I don’t. Eddie, as someone who’s been in the music business forever, knows all the ins and outs of the business. So it’s a good balance. You can’t just have three clowns up there and you can’t just have three talking heads out there. But believe me, there’s people who go to Eddie and say, “My brother won’t watch the show because of Don Jamieson.” So one of us always rubs somebody the wrong way. For some reason, my sideburns get people upset, so I don’t know.

I was going to ask you about that, too. I actually interviewed Paul Allender, the guitarist from Cradle of Filth not long ago, and I asked him if they would ever lose their makeup. And he just emphatically said, “No, no way. Never.” So in the same way, I was going to ask the same thing about your sideburns. Would you ever lose them or are you just going to go ahead and stay with it?

[laughs] I’m 44 years old and I still have all my hair, so I’m not getting rid of any hair that I don’t have to. I’m happy to have it, so I’m keeping it. And my chick likes everything from the ‘70s, so she digs ‘em.

Do you ever get nervous or intimidated when one of these megastars or one of your idols comes on That Metal Show? If so, could you point one out specifically?

I’ve never been like a starstruck kind of guy, but yeah as a fan, and you know, too, when you interview people who you’ve followed for however many years—10, 20, 30 years in some cases, you have a lot of questions that you’ve built up over that time. I’m more interested now in not only asking the questions I want to know, but what the people watching at home want to know. I was nervous the first time with Alice Cooper because I’m such a crazy Alice Cooper fan, but he’s such a nice guy and he just puts you to ease in a way. And Scott Gorham (the guitarist) from Thin Lizzy. I love Thin Lizzy. His name is not going to impress most people, but to me, meeting him was incredible. And I had like a million questions to ask him, but I didn’t want him to think I was a stalker.

I’m pretty confident in what I’m doing when interviewing and think I’m knowledgeable myself, too. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Eddie Trunk. But do you ever think to yourself, “What is this guy think about me? Who am I to be asking Alice Cooper questions, or Lemmy, or whoever else?

Dude, what you just said is exactly what I think all the time. But it’s amazing. I walk out of my dressing room last season and Bill Ward was standing in the hallway by himself, and he sticks his hand out and says, “It’s nice to see you, Don.” And I’m like, “It’s nice to see you, Don?! What?! How do you know me? There’s no reason you should know who I am!” I had never met Bill Ward before. I know he watches the show, but it’s still unbelievable. Like, Bill Ward sits at home and watches my TV show. That’s insane.

And I asked Slash a question on the air. I said, “If you had to stay with one singer for the rest of your life, would it be Axl or Scott Weiland?” And he’s like, “Oh man, I can’t believe you put me on the spot!” So after the show, I said, “Hey Slash, I’m sorry about putting you on the spot. We could talk to the producer and maybe he could chop that out.” And Slash goes, “No, no, no, no, no. It’s totally cool. I just wanted to do a good job.” What?! You’re Slash! Anything you did would have been a good job! If you had hurdled yourself off the table and suffocated me with your top hat, that would’ve been a good job!

So it’s exactly what you said. I’m just flabbergasted. I hear about people who watch the show who are my idols, but when you meet them and they tell you in person, it’s great.

Obviously, on That Metal Show, you guys talk a lot about some of the older bands and more of the pioneers of metal. Another complaint my brother and other people probably have is that you don’t talk much about newer metal bands. So who do you think are the best new bands out there? The next Big Four maybe?

The thing about the show that a lot of people have to understand is that it’s on a channel called VH1 Classic, so it is a classic audience that we’re catering to. We’re lucky enough to be around for seven seasons, and we just got picked up for an eighth. But something we just talked about was incorporating new artists because we’ve expanded to an hour now. And how cool would it be to see someone from one of the newer bands sitting with one of their idols right next to them and pay tribute to them? And you could spin it and have all that great conversation. So going forward, I think we’re going to incorporate newer artists.

But it’s funny, when you think newer artists, they’re still bands that have been around a long time. Like last night I saw one of the top three greatest shows of my life—Amon Amarth. They’re new in the sense that they’re still rising in terms of popularity, but they’ve been around for 20 years. But in America, they’re considered a new band. For me, Amon Amarth, these Vikings should be taking over the world. They’re just incredible performers.

A band like Machine Head. Are they new? No, not really, but newer. So we all like different stuff, but we have to do as much in the realm of the classic audience as we can. And that’s where our roots are anyway.

That kind of leads into my next question. We’re talking a lot about the Big Four. We have Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer, and Anthrax to a certain degree too. Those are four of the biggest names in metal ever. Is it disturbing to you at all that in the last 25 years or so, over two decades, that we haven’t seen any bands reach this same level and same height? And do you think that there ever will be again?

GREAT question. You should come in and fill in for me one time on That Metal Show. You seem to be tapping into my brain a little bit. Yeah, we talked about it on the TV show, and you know what—I’m interested to hear what you say because none of us could figure out the answer. I mean there are bands that seem like they could potentially be bigger, but there’s not one band that I can point to and go, “Hey, these guys will be the next Metallica. These guys will be the next AC/DC.” It kind of takes some of those bands like Metallica to maybe kind of help introduce newer bands to their fans and say, “Hey, look, we’re not going to be around forever. Check out this band.” Like when they took out Volbeat on the Death Magnetic tour and that band’s blowing up now. But are they going to be a Metallica-type band? I have no idea, but that’s one way to start to pass the torch.

Yeah, I’m interested because of all the bands we talked about we really can’t point to one band and say “Absolutely. This will be the next big metal band.”

Yeah, I don’t have the definitive answer either. They’re not metal in the truest sense, but I thought for awhile it was going to be Korn. Especially when they first came out, they were blowing up. But now with everything that’s gone on with them in going off in different musical directions, I don’t think it’s them. Unless there’s some kind of huge comeback, it’s probably not them.

I thought for awhile, too, that In Flames had a good shot. They started off much more extreme but were following a similar path as Metallica, starting off in the underground but more and more progressively getting into the mainstream.

And you had mentioned Machine Head. I thought they had a shot, to,o but they kind of fell off the map in the middle of their career. They’ve made a good comeback now, but I just don’t know.

Me too. I think about all those same bands. And it’s a shame that a band like Korn really was pretty huge. I think they were a stadium act at one point, but it’s about longevity. You can say what you want about Metallica. Everybody wants to criticize St. Anger and Load and ReLoad. They’re big dogs, so they take all the beating, but you know what—they’ve been around for how long now? And they’ve been consistent and they’re the biggest metal band in the world. And that’s the thing, its longevity. When you get there, can you maintain it?

You’re never going to see Metallica playing in a small club. They’re either going to headline arenas and stadiums or they’re going to go away. Their career path has just been astronomical. So that’s the other problem: Once you get there, how do we stay there? They’ve done it by having a loyal following and experimenting. Again, say what you want about them. Not every move they made was perfect in the eyes of the fans, but they’re still the biggest metal band in the word. And they played for two hours the other night and could’ve played another two as far as I’m concerned.

Either from your own personal experience or own perception, who do you think is the “most fucked up band or artist” in metal? Of course, they’re all Satanic and they’re all evil and I like a lot of that—I think it’s cool and a lot of people do. But who do you think is the real deal? In other words, who would you not want to go and have a cup of coffee with?

Well, the more dangerous, probably the more I would want to go have a cup of coffee with them, but probably something a little stronger.

The one guy we would love to have on the show, and I’m now a labelmate of his because he’s a Metal Blade guy, but we would love to have King Diamond on the show. Because I think King is the real deal, man. He’s had some health problems recently, but apparently he’s doing really, really well now and they’re about to release some new stuff by him. But I would love to get King on the show. We got a million questions for that guy, too, because I got a feeling that guy is the real deal.

And he’s influenced a million bands. There’s a new band out called Ghost that kind of sounds like Mercyful Fate. I just heard it yesterday for the first time and it’s unbelievable. And those guys are heavily Satanic. I don’t think they’re burning churches, but Lucifer is a big theme on their album. But they’re excellent. They sound like Mercyful Fate meets Blue Oyster Cult.

You already mentioned That Metal Show being picked up for another season, but what does the future hold for the show? I guess it will continue as long as there is a good audience and following?

Yeah, just keep expanding, bring in some new blood, and proudly present our opinions on metal. One of the things that we developed last season was the “TMS Top Five.” We whittle our lists down to the best five in metal, in categories. And it’s a great thing because it gets so much reaction from the fans. Everyone’s lists are going to be different and you’re never going to have the same list. And other than metalheads, this stuff we’re talking about is not important to anyone else. But for us, it is. People are very passionate about it, and it starts a lot of conversation and debate. And it’s good for metal because we’re talking about it.

And we just want to do those things and keep it the way it is, like a hang. This is not Inside the Actor’s Studio. We’re not professional interviewers. We’re just people who love music ,and we just sit and we hang. We don’t plan out the interviews, we just start talking and see where it goes and we have fun.

OK, Don, my last question for you is are we going to see future standup comedy albums from you? Is that just dependent on how this one does or is it already planned for the future?

Yeah, I think I’m already starting to work on new material for a second album. So yeah, I think I’m excited. I’ve got a couple of options on my deal with Metal Blade. And I’m happy, and they’re happy, and I appreciate everybody who’s been supporting the CD. It comes out April 26, I’m really proud of it, and it’s a really big day for me. So thanks for being a part of it, dude.