MEANING OF LIFE
(Taken from RAW magazine from sometime in 1992.)
Food -
Drink -
Sex -
Drugs -
Rock -
Music -
Love -
Hate -
Work
FOOD
I actually enjoy airline food! I like sh*t food, really inexpensive cafe stuff. I think it was because I was raised on rissoles, fish fingers and beef burgers. My mother never cooked anything so I was brought up on junk food. My ex-wife liked going to fancy restaurants and I found the entire menu too rich. I preferred junk. I'm a man of Very simple tastes.
Actually the whole band has very strange tastes. If you came to one of our rehearsals you'd find thousands of monkey nut shells and peapods everywhere, it's all Cobalt (Stargazer) will eat! He sits there popping peas in-between guitar solos! And he likes those horrific little meat pies you can get with congealed fat inside 'em. Suzy, the new guy, eats anything, he's like a human dustbin. You always know when he's been round to my flat when I'm not in because
There's nothing left in the fridge, even the moldy old cabbages have gone!
DRINK
Alcohol in any form. Beer, whisky, vodka, anything! I drink to excess and my liver's approximately the size of a sofa bed. I've been drinking since I was 13 and I know it's gonna kill me in the end but I'd rather die of something I enjoy than falling into a canal and getting tangled up in a rusty bedsprings or dying of boredom, which is probably what would happen if I were to abandon the bottle.
Puritanical people look down upon boozing, but they seem to disagree with anything that's pleasurable. Cavemen discovered booze, monkeys do it too, they eat rotten fruit and it affects them. Elephants get pissed too! They congregate around trees and eat fermented fruits. They had to do something about it eventually. Can you imagine a drunken African elephant stumbling around? The nearest thing I've seen to that was when Trash used to get drunk, but that's a long time ago.
SEX
I don't know anybody who doesn't like sex. If it wasn't for sex we wouldn't be here. I think it was Sir John Betjeman, the poet laureate, who was asked on his deathbed if there was anything he regretted about his life. He said in all seriousness he wished he'd had more sex! I think that says it all...
DRUGS
All these big Rock stars tell you drugs are really crap but they've all got a mountain of cocaine on the tour bus, it's all a pose. We do drugs, but only to a point, no hard stuff. We can't afford it! But people aren't stupid, they know if you f*ck around with drugs it'll kill you, just like food, drink or driving or driving your car too fast. The last thing they need is some tinpot idol like Gene Simmons or me telling them the facts.
ROCK 'N' ROLL
You need a strong constitution to live the lifestyle. You don't have to live it, it's possible not to, but if you do you find yourself becoming more isolated from the rest of society. I found when I met people who weren't connected to Rock 'n' Roll I'd sit around talking and have absolutely nothing to say to them! All my anecdotes from the road would appall them so badly I found myself more and more isolated through hanging around with Rock 'n' Rollers. It makes you feel normal being around people who are like yourself.
MUSIC
How important is music? Well, it pays the rent! In my formative years I found that kids usually get into either football or music, the two very rarely got together except in John Peel and Iron Maiden's case! Music was the most important thing in my life when I was young. These days I listen to some strange stuff. I'm currently re-discovering all these '70s Progressive Rock groups. I've just been listening to 'Passionplay' by Jethro Tull. I've only just realised how good the lyrics were!
LOVE
I love the band, really. It sounds terribly corny but if I didn't love them I'd have to hate them and it makes being on tour with them so much easier. That's all I'm saying about love. I'm telling you nothing about my girlfriends!
HATE
Hate and love are similar emotions, just two different sides of the coin. I try to avoid hate as much as possible because it's so negative, but there are a few things I hate I hate U2 because they're so good, and I'm jealous as sh*t. I hate any form of intolerance. Do I hate music journalists? No, they're entitled to their opinion and I'm entitled to put them in hospital!
WORK
My work is what a lot of people would call play, so I'm very lucky. I've spent most of my life trying to avoid work, the nearest I ever came to it was getting a paper round when I was 14. Why do something you don't enjoy? There's always a way of turning something you like into a job, all it takes is a little imagination. If a person really liked drinking they should get a job in a bar. The ideal job for a foot fetishist would be in a shoe shop. You should indulge your pleasures!
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Author: jules