Bob Log III (Part 1) : One man! One band! One mission!

By Jens

True originals are hard to find in the rock'n'roll business, but this Arizona blues maverick more than qualify. Armed with one banged up guitar, a drum kit, an astronaut helmet with a glued-on telephone and dressed in a blue Elvis jumpsuit this madmen took the stage 2 hours later and had the audience by balls once again (see live review elsewhere). You could call his raw take on the old American blues tradition a form of deconstruction, but his awesome Fat Possum albums are probably closer to the kind of stripped blues played in the 30s, 40s and 50s than most modern acts. His latest "Log Bomb" album is better produced (in his basement) than the previous ones so you can hear his vocals better. He also had an underground hit with "Boob Scotch", check out the video on his website, it'll blow yer mind! So I was looking forward to hear what's behind the myth of this unique entity called, who out of his stage costume was a thin cheerful and normal-looking dude around 30.

LC: First time I saw you was like 11 years ago, you were a young kid in band called Doo Rag...

Bob: Fuck man, probably. I remember this, we played a festival, a venue festival, we played like 6 different clubs all around Denmark. We were Doo Rag, me and my drummer Thermos. I'll never forget this; some guy showed up at our hotel and knocked on the door and said "Hello, I'm your tour manager". Doo Rag never had a tour manager. "I'm sent here by the government of Denmark to take care of you", and I was "We don't have room for you in our car, and we can find the gigs by ourselves" and he was like "Please, you have to take me, otherwise I can't see my doctor!" haha. He used to work for the postal office, and he hurt his back and was getting money from the government and he had to take a job. And they said his job was to take care of Doo Rag, haha. So we made room in car, because if he didn't come with us he didn't get his money and couldn't feed his kids I guess. So we put him in the car, and the guy basically couldn't read a map. We were like "Do you like music?" and he said "I hate music!", haha. But we drove him all around Denmark, and that was my first time in Denmark. Thanks for the tour manager, Denmark, haha.

LC: I remember Thermos the drummer insisted on only playing on certain Budweiser cardboard boxes.

Bob: Yeah, they were waxcoated and would last a long time. We actually shipped empty boxes over here from Tucson one time, it cost us 40 dollars to ship empty boxes. We had a huge stack, we took them apart and then we took out all the staples.

LC: Did Thermos left on a tour and you became Bob Log III, one-man band?

Bob: You could say that...actually, he left on quite a few tours. On the last tour I decided I didn't want to go home with him, I wanted to play guitar, goddammit! So I did these shows by myself and started kickin' the guitarcase.

LC: And you went on to drums, percussions?

Bob: It did take a long time, figuring it out....y'know getting the sound I have today, but the first night alone I didn't know what the hell I was doin', I was basically like shittin' my pants. I played my guitar, kicked the guitarcase and a girl took me home and had sex with me all night long in her friend's closet. And I thought "I WANNA DO THAT AGAIN!", and I got better at it. That's pretty much the story, haha.

LC: John Lee Hooker, in his prime, had like tiny microphones on his stompin' shoe with an echo effect. Is he an inspiration to you?

Bob: Sure, John Lee Hooker did it, Hasil Adkins did it.

LC: But Hasil Adkins had a real drum set...

Bob: Yeah, that's pretty much what I use. A real kick drum, because I kept breaking my guitarcase, and everyday I had to get a new guitarcase, and that became kinda expensive. Yeah, John Lee Hooker was one the first guitarplayers I heard growing up, and Hasil Adkins definitely inspired me to be a one-man band. So did Eugene Chadbourne, actually I saw him the day I became a one-man band. There's a million of one-man bands out there, every city had their one-man bands. A one-man band can't just be about playing guitar and sing, you gotta be doing something with your foot, that's the way I see it.

LC: It must be great to avoid all the hassle with other bandmembers...

Bob: Yeah, I mean, if you're in a band and the bassplayer moves to Florida what are you gonna do? Sit there and pick your nose? If you're a one-man band you can do it until die or your muscles don't work no more. Whatever comes first. I like to play music and I don't wanna depend on if someone turns up or not.

LC: The pay is also better, ain't it?

Bob: Yeah, I write all the songs and get all the credit, but I have to carry everything. And drink all the beer, haha. Good sides and bad sides. I do all the driving but I get all the beer! You can also change a song at any given time or point if it suits me, you just do it, you don't have to discuss it with anyone. When I see a video with 4-person band I just picture the van with the dudes' stinky socks all over, in my car in it's only 1 person's stinky socks. That's a good smelling car, haha.

Stay tuned for Part 2 ("Tit Clappin' Boob Scoths From Arizona) in Lowcut # 16, when the interview got REALLY hilarious!

http://www.boblogIII.com