The following is a transcript of a brief telephone conversation with CKY drummer, Jess Margera. He called just before his band took the stage in Detroit.
Maroon: So how did you get the opportunity to open for Guns N’ Roses on this tour?
Jess Margera: We were on the Tony Hawk tour for five days and we finished up in Detroit and we drove straight through to San Diego to finish up a club tour. We had two days to get there. When we got to Flagstaff, Arizona, which is like 400 miles from San Diego, we got a call from our management. They said, “Stop whatever the hell you’re doing and go to Vancouver. We got you the Guns N’ Roses tour.”
Maroon: Wow, so it was really last minute.
JM: Yeah, I guess what happened was that our management gave Axl a copy of our album and he liked it.
Maroon: So one night you were playing clubs and then the next day you’re playing arenas. How did you make that transition? Had you played in arenas before?
JM: We played big shows with Godsmack for two weeks. We’d had some experiences on the Tony Hawk tour, but this is a completely different thing. Frankly, we’re much more at home in a club show, because it’s so much more intimate with our fans. This is a totally different type of show. Instead of us getting into it with our fans on stage, now our job isn’t so much to mesh with the fans as it is to open the show for Axl and Guns N’ Roses.
Maroon: How would you classify your music?
JM: You can’t classify it. We’re doing our own thing. Everyone keeps trying to classify us as nu metal, which we’re definitely not.
Maroon: What was your mindset going into your third album? Was there anything you did differently?
JM: We spent more time working on the music, but it was the same idea, same process. I think this album definitely has more continuity though than the last two. That’s something that was important to us.
Maroon: I know the group takes a lot of pride in the fact that the music is produced without any record company intervention.
JM: Yeah, we don’t want anyone else to have any control over it. It’s totally what we did and what we wanted. We didn’t even allow the [people from the] record label in the studio.
Maroon: So what’s next for CKY? I understand that you’re not staying on for the duration of the G N’ R tour.
JM: Well, actually, that’s up in the air at the moment. We’re waiting on word from Axl and his people, but we should know by Monday.
Maroon: Well, hope that works out for you, and good luck in Detroit tonight.
