photo by John Scarpati
by Gelu Sulugiuc/live photos by Christine Natanael
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Over the years, drugs and illness claimed the lives of drummers Billy Murcia and Jerry Nolan, guitarist Johnny Thunders and bassist Arthur Kane. Now remaining original members Sylvain Sylvain (guitar) and David Johansen (vocals) have reunited to release One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This, out on Roadrunner Records as of July 25th.
GELU SULUGIUC: How were the parties in the ‘70s compared to now?
SYLVAIN SYLVAIN: When we went to England in 1972, we became such huge fuckin' big stars. People were sending us Rolls Royces to come to their parties. There was this big fuckin' Lord who was gay, but was married. Liberace was there and all The Who guys and Rod Stewart. We were just out of 14th Street. We would piss in the bidet because we didn't know -- well I knew, but I wasn't about to tell anybody. Now the parties are few and far between. But I still go out.
GS: Before the reunion, how were you doing financially? Could you live off the old records?
SS: I never got shit. We were like an open business where nobody attended the store. Everybody could just walk in and grab t-shirts, records, whatever. So I hope this time I get paid so I can pay my rent. I played with Johnny Thunders in 1984 and it became a bootleg in Sweden that sold 10,000 copies...
SS: Yeah, fuckin' bastards... And then finally after
we make a deal, it sells like 2,000 copies. Which shows you the people
like the stolen stuff better, it's hot.
GS: Do you miss Billy, Johnny, Jerry, Arthur?
SS: All the time. They're always in my heart. Jerry
and I had a band together just before he died in the late 80s. I saw Johnny
before he died; he was homeless and living out of a garbage bag. I couldn't
even say hello to him and he couldn't remember anything. Arthur couldn't
play with many people, but he always played with me. I think it's because
of love. When you surround yourself with people that love you, you play
your ass off.
GS: How did you go about writing this record?
SS: In a typical day, I'd come in, show David a song
and he'd say, “Man, that sucks.” And I'd say, “Okay,
you play me your song,” and I'd say, “That sucks even bigger.”
And he'd say, “Okay, we'll do yours 'cause it's sexier.” It
was stupid like that.
GS: What's your favorite current band?
SS: Babyshambles. (sings) "We'll fuck forever,
baby, fuck forever." I think that's the most romantic thing I heard
a guy say to a girl.
(A jovial David Johansen walks in, takes Sylvain's seat and lights a cigarette.)
GS: What's the stupidest question you got asked today?
DAVID JOHANSEN: "What do you think of Kiss.” (laughs) You know when they ask you that, you think “Man this is gonna be a long interview...” I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, but I kept my mouth shut and answered the question.
DJ: Syl usually comes up with a riff and I go, “Oh,
that's fucking great,” and I write some words for it. We start playing
it and we've got a song.
GS: He says you say it sucks...
DJ: Well I'm not talking about the ones that fell by the wayside. Some are unique and great, and some I've heard before. Out of 25 songs, we put out 13, so only 12 of them were shit--Only half of them. (laughs)
GS: Here's a question you'll be asked a million times...
DJ: Oh good, I'll get used to it then.
DJ: It's from Virgil. You look around and say, “The whole fucking world is going to hell in a hand basket, how can this get any worse.” But ten years later you think, "Those were the good old days."
GS: Looking back, what were some of your most treasured memories?
DJ: Besides meeting the Ronettes? (laughs) I haven't
really sat down and thought about that...
GS: What was Syl's most treasured?
DJ: I don't know, I didn't ask him... I hope it was the day he met me!
GS: What are you doing on a metal label?
DJ: (Laughs
and points to gold and platinum records on the wall) I don't even know
who these bands are, to tell you the truth. I know they sing songs like
"I wanna stick a ballpoint pen in your eye" or something. I
heard of Slipknot, I heard of Nickelback. But I came in to meet Roadrunner,
and they said they'd really like to have some rock'n'roll music, so it
seemed like they had a lot of enthusiasm... So far, so good.
GS: Well that's about it, is there anything else you'd like to talk about?
DJ: What,
like Cheney or something? (laughs) I have this radio show on Sirius and
every week since he shot that guy I do a bit, like, “I was watching
C-SPAN the other day, and Dick Cheney came in with a box of the cutest
little kittens you ever seen, and he was shooting them with a large caliber
handgun.” So we're talking about doing a cartoon for the video for
our song "Dance like a Monkey," and I wanna have Cheney shooting
monkeys in a barrel.
GS: Do you think the label will go along with it?
DJ: (Laughs) Yeah, we'll see how metal they really are! Maybe they're false metal!
(editor’s note: click here
to find out if David Johansen got his way with the video…)
photo by Merri Cyr