i heard that there may be a ceedee issue of the 'mallard' elpees [the albums by the 1974-76 captain beefheart spin-off - t.t.]?

well, this is a real good one, real current. i'm supposed to be writing the liner notes right now for a two-on-one re-release.

you can use this interview.

well, maybe --

we'll talk.... (laughs)

they are more interested in the mallard stuff. it's been real hard to sit down and do it, because they are going to pay me a couple of hundred bucks to do this - and for the insult and the rip-off of the record deal that happened, it is not even worth taking two-hundred bucks for it....

i got ripped pretty majorly in that deal and i never signed the contract where they wanted me to pay back all the recording costs out of my publishing. i signed a deal that said i would do a fifty/fifty publishing deal with them, we went into the studio; then the contract after the studio when we came back to sign was totally changed....

so now they reissue this stuff i'm never going to see a cent for. it's kind of an interesting thing. on one hand it's okay: good it has my name afloat - it keeps me in touch with the music business.

so forth, i may be trying to reinstate some of that stuff. thinking about playing again with other people - as opposed to my bedroom 'midi' thing. so i'm thinking of doing that, but at the same time it's like a bad taste, if you know what i mean.

sure, sure. so many of the music deals i hear about tend to be like that.

well, now they screw you up front. you know you're getting screwed....

i think the laws have changed: they have to spell it out to you that they are screwing you now.

'you're being screwed - this is the deal - we get all the money...', so you know what's going on. then they said: 'here is what you got', then - wooosh! - when you're not looking it isn't there.

then i heard too, that there is a possibility you are going over to england to do a television thing?

what!

again our mutual friend said something about 'a british teevee thing had contacted you'.

they haven't called me or told me about it, okay. no, i got a phone call i think - when was it?

the bbc may be doing something on beefheart - they did one on zappa. [it eventually became the documentary the artist formerly known as captain beefheart - t.t.]

well, this stuff always comes up. but it's hím. you know, usually these interviews are centered around hím and my complaint was before - over the years of doing this, it has been that - what people want to hear about, is hím.

we were the side-guys and if we say something that doesn't fit the program it either gets deleted or put into a light where we look kind of foolish. yeah, i was foolish to take the abuse i did for so long. i should have quit in the first year - but, umm, it's just a real funny situation we keep doing these interviews....

so this thing in england is going to be about the beefheart band, right. well, hé is the guy and it is just like we were plug-in people supposedly. so it has just been a tiring experience, i'm sure, for john french and for me or whoever has done the interviews - it's probably --

yes, john french says it is very frustrating that he could get european tours but they want him to play captain beefheart stuff.

well: right.

they weren't interested in his own work which he said was quite different.

how could you be a progressing growing musician and it nót be different twenty years later? give me a break and that's the problem about all this. you brought up this british thing - actually somebody called me from germany: they are doing some guitar event for a week of guitarists. it was like their version of 'pbs' [play-back show? - t.t.], and they were going to record it and have it on teevee, or film it - i didn't get all the particulars - but it was a real nice deal: all i have to do, is go over there and do óne show!

i have never done solo guitar work before - i mean, i do it all the time at home, but you know: in a performing sense.... and i'm thinking: 'well, maybe i should do this', but you know what they are going to want to hear out of me? they're going to want to hear a bunch of old slide guitar blues-based beefheartian riffs - you know, i haven't done that in twenty years, and so it's a bit frustrating.

i know you were on a compilation that henry kaiser put together: it was issued in france, called 'slide crazy!'.

right.

what was your cut on that? was it something you were talking about? did you enjoy doing that?

well, it was something a semi-quickie. it was really nice of henry, i felt like he was throwing me a bone up here in oregon, you know: 'country boy, here's something you can do'.

it was a nice christmas pay-check. it was very clean and efficient. it was just something where i did some midi work and put some slide guitar tune together. it was all midi stuff and guitar; i called it 'mid-mashie' and put just one tune on that compilation. i thought it was really nice of him to call me up and ask me to do that.

i'll try to play it [in the radio show] before or after this interview if we can get our hands on it.

i haven't heard it since i did it. so i have no idea. i can sort of remember what i did.

what else was i going to ask? have you kept in touch with any of the other ex-magic band members?

john and i talk a lot - not a real lot: not every week or so. i keep in touch with john because he was trying to get some music thing together [the ceedee 'waiting on the flame' - t.t.]: he had given me charts and stuff, so i would talk to him about it.... another friend of ours, john thomas [member of 'the magic band' (with john french) who joined mallard - t.t.], was going to be involved.

i have seen 'drumbo' a couple of times recently, and i keep in touch with him about that, and he just called me and he's doing something else about now - a book, i believe - and wanted me to give my input because i was there.

is that like a novel or a creative book or --

i don't know: call him and find out - i'm sure.

do you know what happened to, err -

mark boston [rockette morton]?

yeah.

mark boston, last i talked to him - it has been about three years now - was in fresno: he was a working musician down there.

jeff cotton [antennae jimmy semens] was in hawaii and i don't know like he is a minister or something? i haven't seen jeff in a long time, i would really like to see jeff. the last time - i mean, we were very young guys then, but jeff and i hung out a lot before we were both in the beefheart band.

well, actually john french, jeff, mark and i all did - because we were like the local little teenage hotshots who one by one ended up in the magic band. but jeff and i hung around a lot. when he left the band, it was under ugly circumstances - never really spent any time with him after that.

i don't know if i read this or someone told me - so it may be a rumor - there was some sort of falling out and he came into the studio and shot arrows?

no, absolutely not.

shot arrows.... okay, so it's one of those ridiculous stories.

ridiculous stories.... there were some ridiculous stories - things that happened, and violence was not excluded, but not to thát point. we just used to beat the crap out of each other!...

sounds like...: brothers.

it's like a comic-book 'mansonish gestalt therapy' kind of thing, i don't know.

virgin records issued a compilation of beefheart ['a carrot is as close as a rabbit gets to a diamond' - t.t.], which had all these quotes from people, and the ry cooder quote was really striking. it was: 'he's a nazi. it makes you feel like anne frank to be around him.'

.... (laughter) ....