Rick: "I actually need that suit as a sort of power suit.

Ittransforms me into not just Rick Simms, but a Didjit. There's the asshole and the anti-asshole, and that green suit makes me the ass."

With all the originality, power and excitement of any early punk outfit, these three wackos from some cornfield are coming on like there's no tomorrow . After a rave-up performance with all the spunk and style that is missing from most bands these days, Al and Krk caught up with the Didjits outside of Bogarts in Long Beach . Needless to say, all parties concerned were more than happy, so the interview took a lot of twists and turns, but what the hell, we had fun . ..

 (Our talk starts by talking about a gig the Didjits did the night before with ;lawhammer in a garage in East Los Angeles . . .) Rick: You know I like Clawhammer, I was surprised . . . But then again when you see 95 thousand bands a year, and especially if they're opening for you, you start going, man, if a band rocks halfway you can't beleive these guys are so good. You wouldn't believe the bands we play with on the road. ft's nice to be able to stick around in the same room when bands are playing! I like to hear bands, so there are so many times when you just have to run. AI: Were you guys headlining tonight? Oh, I guess not. Krk: Did you have a choice to headline? Rick : I don't give a fuck if we headline! AI: The only reason I'm bringing that up is if you always headline then youll always just play with shitty support bands .. . mostly . .. Rick: But, it's kinda ironic because we played with this band in New Brunswick, New Jersey .. . we had played with all these bands up and down the East Coast and we'd seen band after band try to be clever, and cool, and good . .. and fail . And then we saw this band in New Brunswick get up on stage, and theywere just pathetic, they had the mentality of the Ramones, just a straight 3 chord progression . And you could sit there and say, yeah this is really good, they had the Jewish looking guy with the cordless microphone going around singing in your face 'Yeah yeah yeah' and then there's this lady who pisses her pants and she's up on stage going 'They call me grandma!' . There's this fucking lady with piss all over herself and this Jewish looking used car salesman guy. .. AI: What's their name? We have to do an interview . .. Krk : They're on the next cover! Rick: We've been racking our brains to try to find that out! But they were 10 times better than the . .. 'lemonheads' or whatever other band thinks they're fucking clever. Doug : They were a blast and they were the one fucking address that we lost, that we regret. Rick: It was a two story place and the guy went up stairs with his cordless microphone and he got locked out! He was like 'Yeah la la, Let me in! Yeah yeah la la! Hey, let me in!' (Laughter) AI : That must be the nightmare of cordless mic users. Krk: When I think of the Didjits I think of back stage passes, girls fainting, smoking, doing drugs, loud rock'n'roll . Is that correct, should I think that? Rick: Well, (taking a long hit off a joint), the Didjits are what you see now brother. There is no pretentions here. If that's the image you get, well it's incorrect, but we would like to convey that image! You've got the Didjits partaking of the weed right now during the interview! Krk: You guys live the life of the rock'n'roll heros. Doug : I'm just a rock'n'roll loser. Rick : Actually, we've been given this title and now we feel we have to live up to it. Krk: Is there any specific band that you've followed in their footsteps. Rick: We've followed in the footsteps of all those shitty bands we've had to put up with. We get dwon on our knees and pray 'Dear God, please do not let us suck this bad.' We've used that as inspiration. AI : Where do you guys come from? Rick : Champaign, Illinois. Actually Decatur, Illinois, soy bean capital of the world. AI : There's this big revival thing happening around here where they did up all these has-beens like TSOL or the Gears, and people go see it. Where are those people when vital bands like the Didjits are here now cranking it out. Rick: What we think is that nobody knows who the fuck we are . I mean you guys reviewed our last record but you didn't even listen to it. Krk: I listened to it and tome it sounded like a replica of the last album . Almost track for track, if you Krk: But I gave the other three albums great reviews! Rick : That review just seemed like you didn't listen to it enough - so . . . listen to it enough! Krk : 111 review it again, just because the cover is so good! I noticed that last night you wore your Captain Sensible vest. Rick : Now see, I don't know anything about Captain Sensible . I don't know shit about the Damned. I was a fucking punk rock illeterate . I was living in the middle of fucking nowhere . I had no access to the new Damned album. Not unless I made a trip up to Champaign, but I was too fucking broke or lazy. .. Doug : Where we started was a town of 4000 people in central) Illinois, in a barn. .. Rick: Sullivan, Illinois is where we actually started the band . My mom lived like 10 miles out of town in the woods. We had a couple of barns and we took the chicken shed as our own . The only thing we had ever heard as far as underground music was like the Clash, the Sex Pistols and the Ramones -and we started the band . Then again we were always big Kiss fans. . . the ethic of 'the big show' has always been important . I think you have to have good music, and a show. Ian : Is that where the lime greentuxedo jacket comes in? Rick: I actually need thetas a sort of power suit . It transforms me into not just Rick Simms, but a Didjit. There's the asshole and the anti-asshole, and that green suit makes me the ass, Ian : What was the origin of the green suit? Rick : I don't know . I needed a new suit and I just picked out that one. Krk : For a minute there you scarily reminded me of Bill Bartell! lis Rick : Oh, I don't know him. What was really embarassing ten to them together, you placed the same to me was when that British guy from MTV said 'A lot like basic type of songs int he same places . I just thought it the Damned', and I had never heard the Damned bewas a copy of 'Hornet Pinata' but not as good. fore . Then we kept getting compared to the Dickies-and Rick: First of all there's a lot of people that like us. .. I had never heard of the Dickies! Krk: No, I'm not cutting you down. .. Al : I was thinking more like 999! Rick: What I'm trying to say is we go and we put out a Rick: We heard 999 a long time before we_ heard the record, and it may be a replica like you think it is but we Damned. could never do that if we tried . For the people that like Krk: Or the Toy Dolls ... us, what I try to do, and the reason I do what I do is. . . I Rick: Tim Yohannon said we sound like the Toy Dolls. make an album and ok, 'FiuJob' which was guitar rock Doug : I can think of anyone that we sound like or who basically and after that you don't want to get too far off have heavily influenced our music, I mean it's a collage. the beaten path, but you start making stupid shit . So Kiss, AC/DC with Bonn Scott are our heros, the Mentors, what I want to do is stick to my guns, stay on the same Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis . .. path but vary it each time. Rick: Everything like Jerry Lee, Little Richard, like rock Ian : Would you have slagged it if it was completely and roll is like a pale imitation to that because that was different? it Inthe 50's. When they put on a show . . . they were show Krk: I didn't slag it, I said it was as good an album as men! Don't you think, like now, it's watering out to 'Hornet Pinata'. where one of these days it's gonna be dead? Rick: But you said you didn't listen to it enough, and Krk: Part of it was that those acts got too big, they were when you say that in print . .. on these huge platforms and they were untouchable. Al : Oh ok, we're sorry! They were untouchable by the public and that's the Rick: No, I don't give a fuck, I mean . .. reason why there are bands in t-shirts in small clubs . . . I Krk : I don't think that is going to hurt you one way or don't want to go see a band if I'm S0 feet away! Fuck another. that, I saw AC/DC and !was bared, as much as I like them. Rick : Well, maybe we just look at Flipside as an opinion Rick: I'd like to go see them but I'm not going to pay $25! Krk: You like the 'big' aspect of it, but you're not so we respect and they're gonna have an opinion on it on way or another. Either theyll shit on it or say it 's great . willing to partake in it . . .

Rick: AC/DC were like a huge influence too. AC/DC and Cheap Trick were like, to me, punk rock at that time. Krk : But what good rock bands are out now? Are you gonna go listen to Bon Jovi?!? Rick : You know .. . I think Guns & Roses had a chance but they fucked it up. .. Doug: The only good metal band that has a shot in hell is Alice In Chains, but they only have 3 good songs! Ian : But you guys were on MN for 35 seconds! Doug : We were on twice for 35 seconds! Rick : Well, hey, we deserve it! The 'Captain Ahab' thing, they said they couldn't play it because it has drug references - and what do they do? They play it! They played 30 seconds of it and showed the album and talked about it - and they played the reference! I said 'How did you get me so stoned?' And they played it - they had their foot in their mouth . The would play the entire video, and they said they liked the video, because of that line . And they play that line?! They called it an 'underground outtake'. Doug : We have to do the careful thing - we can't do the drug references now for videos, but then again this song has the word ' fuck' in it, this one has ' shit ' in it . Oh, but this one 'degrades women' and this one 'puts down a homo' . . . it goes on and on . You have to be so fucking politkalty correct to get anything on MN that you may as well shoot yourself in the head! Ian : The same for radio play! Krk: What does Touch & Go say about that? Rick : They say do whatever you want . Then again, they've payed for us to do these videos, they knew it wouldn't get played. AI : Didn't your bass player also have some problem with drugs and the law?

Rick : Well, he's in trouble all the time! He's cleaned up somewhat . He drinks now. . . and that 's alright. As far as that goes, he's had a run in with the law in a few towns. In Champaign its a college town, .theyre more easy going there, they overlook him . Doug is just a big pussy whip, that's all it comes down to. He's the nicest guy in the world. Krk : What do you do for past times? Go cow tipping or dung looking for mushrooms? Rick: Well, !don't know, what do you do out here besides wax your boards? (Doug shows the back of his shirt) . .. Krk : Oh, dart league! Doug : I'm in a dart league when I'm home and I kick ass. Number two player on our league last year . I'm totally unpracticed now that we finally got our ass on the road and made the committment . Every time you put three darts in the bullseye it's called a hat trick and you get a free beer . So I practice at that bullseye -and I can drink for free some nights! Rick : I like how he says 'some nights!' Krk : What's your past time? Rick : Drinking and fucking. I do a lot of that . That 's about it . I used to have a job, I was in a union and all that, I'd work 12 hours a week. Krk : What that song on the first album about California? Rick: 'California Surf Queen . ' Krk: Now see, there you are, have you ever even been to California at that time? Rick : No. See, that's the fucking point of the song! Isn't that the stupidest song in the world? Everybody in the midwest would go 'Oh, I kinda understand that song .' But you people out here go 'Hmmm, what the fuck is that guys problem!' Krk : Here's another thing. After four albums, what do

you have envisioned for the next album? Rick: Try to get crazier . We figure we can do it . We 're gonna have totake advantage of the studioa little more. Krk: I don't think I could think of one band that has managed to maintain a specific level of consistency on four albums . I surprised you haven't strayed too far or say 'Oh we got bored of playing that .' Rick : Bands that don't fucking rock no more say that! Should we like grow mellow with age. AI : Or add another guitar player? Rick : No . Naw . .. AI: Is there the next step after the green suit? Rick : No there's not a next step . I could have put on my fur tonight, it's just a decision before the set . The glasses have to stay though . I have to wear the glasses .. . tell us the deep dark secret of Flipside, what's the driving force? AI: Because bands need to have their pictures printed ._ Rick : Damn right! We're getting cover, right? AI: You're getting cover-age. Rick : Oh, Coffin Break got the cover! Al : Hey, we never know . .. Krk : Are you friends with Coffin Break? Doug : Well, we took them for a shit load of money in a poker game! Krk: What other bands have you dipped into their t-shirt fund? Rick: Actually I think we ended up on the bottom side playing poker with Pegboy . We just did an east coast tour with them - man they are fantastic! Doug: John Haggerty is just a fucking card sharkf And he just just fucking kiss my ass! (Laughter!) Krk: Cards and darts . Cards, darks and beer and fucking and getting high. Rick : I can live with that .

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