What's up, everyone? This week on the pod, we have Brian Walsby, and he is the dude that drew the cover for the Norco Comp. He also did a bunch of classic art, you know, like he drew for Seven Seconds, he drew for the Melvins, drew for a bunch of people. And so we're going to talk about him doing that stuff, and then also he played drums in the band Scared Straight, and he played bands in some late 80s bands, and... Yeah, he's a total interesting dude. And so that is this week on the pod.
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285 miles south a hardcore punk rock podcast
hello hey brian how you doing hey zach how you doing i'm good i got you uh live unless you want to restart
okay well thanks for
uh
Thanks for taking the interest and giving me a call. It'll be nice to talk to a human being during these weird times, so hopefully spinning old stories will take everyone's minds off of the bizarreness of these current times.
Yeah, I know. Everything is so weird out there right now. And I guess with you mentioning that, we should go full disclosure and say that we're recording this on March 18th, because by the time it airs, we might all be dead.
Man, that would be super cool. Our last words ever to the world. Talking about whatever.
It's part of the reason of doing something like this is to get primary source data on people. Yeah,
we all might be dead in two weeks. Who
knows? I'll make sure I upload this thing and set it to auto-air whenever it's scheduled. Make sure
you send it to Doug Moody.
Yeah, I know. He's been the real white whale of who I've been trying to get. Oh, yeah. He turned it down because he said that Mystic has a podcast, and I tried to listen to their podcast, and it was just really a weird thing.
The Doug Moody thing is really strange because it's like, even when... all the people that you probably talked to you that talked about Doug Moody. And now you're talking to me like, I don't know about anybody else, but we all just thought, or I did at least, I just thought, what exactly is this guy? Why is this guy so interested in, you know, hanging out with people half his age and putting out, you know, it just like, what exactly is this guy getting, getting out of it? You know?
And I just remember thinking it was just really weird that we were, meeting some weird older guy but you know back then like if you're like 18 years old and you meet somebody that's like 25 that you know they might as well have been 90 years old
yeah but he was probably okay so if you were what age were you in like 1984
oh gosh I don't even know um like 19 okay
and so and he was he was probably in his 50s
I was like 18 I was like 18 I was like one of the slightly older guys, but I wasn't the oldest.
The oldest guy. And Doug Moody, at that time, he was probably in his 50s?
Maybe late 40s, early 50s or something like that. I just couldn't really figure it out. He seemed nice enough, but the whole thing was just kind of weird. I
think that he would explain it that he thinks that the punk of the 80s was like... a lot of the blues musicians of the 50s. You're kind of getting them in, or the R&B, and you're just getting them into the studio and kind of seeing what hits, right? Yeah. If you give them studio time, you basically have the rights to their records. I mean, that's what it is, right? I don't know if it's total exploitation, because I don't know if any of that stuff really sold. Oh,
it wasn't exploitation.
Anybody that was asked to do a record did so I'm sure willingly I know we did you know like we were I think we all knew what that it was not gonna you know like we all were like yeah this is probably gonna be kind of sketchy but you know we I don't know about anybody else but we didn't have the ability to put out our own record or even learn how to do it I don't think so it was like you know it was like a free record for nothing and uh I don't think any of us really thought too much beyond that
like I think we all knew what the deal was like. And, and, you know, like a lot of the bands on mystic, um, you know, the production of all those records for the most part, just weren't really very good, but it was still exciting. You know, it was like, Oh man, these weird shady people in Hollywood want to have us record in their kind of crappy studio. But, you know, we didn't have anything to compare it to. So every moment of it was exciting, you know?
So, uh, And also, I think that a lot of the bands that ended up being amnestic, I don't think Scared Straight was going to be courted by SST Records or Danger House anytime soon. So it's like, well, we should just do this. At least that's my take on it. I don't know about a lot of the other people, but I remember most of the people were not very pleased about how things were done, and rightfully so. But I don't think any of us had any real high hopes for being treated fairly or whatever.
I think we were just happy that we were going to have somebody put out a 9-song 7-inch with a Steppenwolf cover that half of which has faded away. It was exciting.
Who else was going to put out the Rat Pack 7-inch?
nobody. He's going to put out a manifest destiny 12 inch, you know,
that was pretty good. No, that one was pretty good.
I think, I think the ones that probably I liked the most, I, at the time they were kind of our mentors. So it was the real retreat. What happens next record, which I, you know, I still think it's a pretty good record. Um, the RKL stuff. I think even though that first record sounds God fucking awful, RKL are usually the best band from, that, you know, even though they were from Santa Barbara, you know, they were, to me, live and stuff, they were, like, the best band.
So I think, like, materialized and stuff, they were, like, really good. And that Dr. No Pluggin' Jesus record, obviously, you know, somebody must have been around to make sure that it sounded pretty good. So I would say those, and also the False Confession record, I thought was pretty good, too.
Yeah, the 7-inch.
There was, like, yeah, there was definitely... And all those guys were cool and everything, and we kind of knew them. We mainly knew the only few people. For whatever reason, they were the people that we knew. The Dr. No guys, they were like adults and kind of scared me, actually. They obviously drank and had sex and maybe did drugs and stuff. And I think the bass player, Ismael, was nice. And then the other guys were... I don't know. They were just... They were obviously the adults.
Sure.
Sure. The adults that maybe weren't positive, I guess, you know?
Well, they weren't a positive band. They weren't a positive band, so maybe they lived that angry lifestyle.
Exactly. Exactly. But, yeah, it's kind of funny because, like, I moved away, like, in 1986, and you like the way I'm just, like, talking? Am I even giving you a chance to ask? I should probably let you get a question. No, no, no. I moved away in 1986. And it's like, I just like all the stuff about Oxnard and hardcore and the fact that I drew that cover. There's a funny story behind that.
You know, it's just kind of interesting because like it's been so long and like it's, there's been all this activity that still goes on to this day. And a lot of it features some of those people that I kind of knew from back then. So that's, that's cool. That's just, it's just kind of funny. You know, it's like, That stuff has, you know, those punk rock records have a lot of legs on them, I guess. You know, so that's cool.
Yeah, totally. What year or how old were you when you got into punk and hardcore?
I think, like, I was always into, like, rock music and stuff, and I think toward the end of the 70s and stuff I instead of getting into like hardcore like around 80 I think it was like 81 when I finally started buying those records but before that I was kind of like I was into like rock music and then like I went to high school in Simi Valley and I met these like pretty enlightened new wave of British heavy metal kind of artistic metalhead weirdos that were in my art class in 10th grade And it
was them and also the late photographer, Naomi Peterson, that took all these pictures for SST Records. Sure. You know the name? Well, she lived in the Simi Valley. And she was like the only... And before punk rock, she was like the only punk rock person that was nice to me during that time. So it was sort of like her and these three or four new wave of British heavy metal guys.
And they got me into Motorhead and somebody gave me the first Venom record and Angel Witch and the first two Iron Maiden records. I remember seeing Killers and just looking at it and just going, there's just no way I'm not going to like this. I just have a feeling this is going to be great. And it was. It was the most incredible record of the time.
And then right after that, 81 to 82, that's when, you know, like, I think I bought Damaged by Black Flag in the early months of 1982, and that just completely blew my mind. so much that I listened to the first side for like a month straight before I even got to the second side, which was twice as good. You know, like, oh my God, this is amazing. It didn't matter how it sounded. It was just like, you know, I just couldn't believe it.
And through that, you know, I just started, you know, buying more records and, you know, I think by the end of 82, I was aware, or 82 to 83, I was aware of like... Flipside and Maximum Rock and Roll. Maximum Rock and Roll just came out. And I just started buying Flipside and Maximum Rock and Roll. And that was just like opening up this whole new dimension to this crazy world of just weirdos and all this other stuff. So I just... I didn't drive.
I didn't know how to drive until I was 30, which is pretty fucking hilarious now looking back. I was one of those guys. So when I was young, I would take a bus from SUNY Valley through... Santa Susanna Pass into San Fernando Valley and just take a bus down to there's like a couple record stores in the valley that had punk rock records and occasionally I would even go down to Hollywood and buy records down there like on Alpha Melrose.
Do you remember the name of the stores?
I want to say Vinyl Fetish maybe and I think there's a one called Slip Disc but I'm not sure which was which. Like I'm not sure about the location but And I could actually have some of that wrong, but I think Ronald Fetish was the one on Melrose, and they had everything. So if I read about the big boys in Flipside, I'd go down there, there was Lullabies Make the Brain Grow, an album, and I was like, oh, it's five bucks, I'm going to buy that. There's the SSD Controls Get Out of the Way record.
There's the first Scream album. So I would just buy stuff based on maybe what I saw on Flipside, And Maxim Rockwell early on, but after a while, you couldn't really trust what Maxim Rockwell said because they would give pivotal records really bad reviews because they weren't, you know, one, two, a few kind of, you know, the same thing.
Once they didn't like Gnostic Front, you're like, I can't believe anything they said.
Not Gnostic Front because I never really thought too much. I mean, they're okay, but more like Black Flag when they did the My War record and Tim Yohannan, who was a nice guy. He was always really nice to me. He said something like, this sounds like Iron Maiden impersonating Black Flag on a bad day. And it's like, man, this sounds nothing. Black Flag, My War sounds nothing like Iron Maiden. You know, there's absolutely nothing. They have nothing in common at all.
Unless you think that just because something isn't, you know, one, two, fuck you, hardcore, then it all sounds the same. But, you know... But that was, yeah, that was sort of how I learned about that stuff. And also Rodney Bingenheimer, listening to his radio show. Like, you know, I'm sure plenty of people you talk to said the same thing. I'm going to be another one of those people that says Rodney Bingenheimer was a Pied Piper.
And oddly enough, before discovering Rodney, I used to listen to Dr. Demento. It was on the same night, Sunday night. And Dr. Demento would play, like, weird punk rock stuff because he thought it was funny. Like, you know, I first heard the Ramones on Dr. Demento and things like that. So it was mainly from reading Flipside, Maxim Rock and Roll, and listening to Ronnie Bingenheimer, and just sort of keeping my ears open.
And I did that, and I wasn't even able to go to a punk rock show until the end of 83. Sorry,
go
ahead. Yeah. At that point, I started realizing that you could write to people, and I juiced up, so I was like, well... I'm this weirdo that doesn't have any friends, so I can just write letters to people through the punk rock scene. And the heavy metal, the underground heavy metal scene at the same time also, it was sort of the same thing. It was very grassroots. So I was like, well, I can draw. I can draw stuff. So that's pretty much what I did. I would just write letters to people and stuff.
And I got stuff printed in some of these big fanzines before I actually... went to a show. I just juiced up imagining what I thought these shows must be like. So that's why everybody in those early drawings, everybody's happy and smiling and has the same haircut. There's some long-haired metal guy there and, you know, a couple of really badly drawn young ladies in the crowd that are always wearing hats or whatever.
That's, you know, and then eventually I went to my first show and It was nothing like what I drew, but it was kind of enough like it. And then I met Scott Rudinsky and Dennis and those guys. They have like a pre... Well, you talked to Scott, right? So he told you, I think, the history. But they had a band that played at the local Simi Valley roller rink or something. And I went down there and I drew and I was like, that's how I used... That's what I used to make friends with.
Hey, I can draw stuff, look. And they were there, and I met Scott and Dennis, and I think they just graduated ninth grade or whatever, and they had their little band, Secure Our Future. And then I sort of ended up hitting it off with Scott. I mean, I liked all those guys, you know, and I ended up joining Scared Straight when Scott took over as a singer. Yeah. And I like all of them. But Scott was the guy in particular that I hung out with the most. And I think he liked...
We just kind of got along really well. And he would always come over and I was always getting mail and getting packages and badly mangled demos from all over the world and country. And he was into it. And we would just hang out and answer mail and listen to... you know, whatever, some Italian hardcore band or, you know, some badly mangled demo. We were, you know, we were really into it. It was really exciting.
I, I look back and like, I can't really say that, um, there was anything else I would have rather had been doing. It was a lot of fun, you know, but you know, it wasn't, it wasn't fun. Like, Hey, we're, we're getting fucked up. We're going to do this and do that. But, um, Yeah, it was exciting to be a part of that, you know. And Scott basically drove my ass all over the place.
And we had a few other friends, and we'd hop in his blue pickup truck, and he would drive us all over the place, and we'd see shows. And I owe Scott Radinsky a lot, because, you know, he really sort of had no problem driving my non-driving ass all over the place, and we just... It was cool. We saw all kinds of shows. And then eventually that led to them asking me to play, which was pretty exciting because I looked up to those guys and everything.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll get there. I got it mapped a little bit. So let's talk about any standout shows you remember going to with Scott?
Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, we went and saw Black Flag at Perkins Palace.
Do you remember the lineup at
all? Oh, yeah. It was during the My War period. It was their first big show there, and I wasn't able to see them before that because, like I said, I wasn't able to go to shows. I didn't really know anybody. I would say 1984 in general was the biggest... I was trying to make up for last time. We saw DeCroizen at the Cafe de Grand. We went to the Cafe de Grand a lot. We saw a lot of the same people there. The NoFX guys, we knew them somehow. We always saw those guys.
The Justice League guys, we saw those guys. Ryan and... What's his name? Mark? Mark wasn't in the band. He was a friend first.
Yeah, and in the band
later. Kind of like my role. Yeah, he came in the band later. But we saw Septic Death, Condemned to Death. Condemned to Death from San Francisco, they were really good. That stands out in particular. We saw Seven Seconds at the Cassidy Grand. They were really good. Sam Hain, Jodie Foster's Army, Necros... A lot. We just tried to see Rob Howard. We saw Rob Howard, the Italian band, a few times.
I think we went to see the 1984 Olympic Auditorium International Show in 1984 when the Olympics came to Los Angeles and they people that ran the city, tried to clean it up. And then there was a show at the, you know, we were always at the Cafe de Grand for whatever reason because everybody played there. So we spent a lot of time there. So I would say that we saw BGK, Holland, I believe. I think that's where they're from. We saw a lot of stuff.
And then, of course, we saw like, you know, we would start going to Oxnard and we saw all those bands and stuff. And I think through that and writing letters, that's how we, that's how I remember meeting like some of the people out there. And, uh, and, but mainly it was over a few people.
Yeah. And so, uh, did, is there any punk rock art from you other than in the fanzines before you do the Nardcore comp?
Not really. I mean, I just do, I just do so much stuff for people, but I didn't really hold on to anything and I just dashed everything off. So I, you know, I didn't really save anything, you know? So like, Every once in a while, people will ask if I have any of that stuff and I don't. And what usually happens is people will send it to me now so I can see just how, how much, how much better I've gotten in a 35 year period. I
just bashed all that.
Well, you know, I was just, I was a fan, you know, and, and, you know, like writing letters and drawings.
That was like sort of, the backbone of all that stuff you know I mean like I mean you had like the bands and the shows and stuff but that was important but all the people that networked that was really important and nobody ever really talks about that stuff as much as I think they should you know so a lot of that artwork was just dashed off under those circumstances you know just you know and I didn't really save anything I'm not really sure how much of it was worth saving you know like I I drew
for a long time, and then I relocated to North Carolina, and then I kind of started playing drums more, and I just got tired of drawing punk rock, unite the scene cartoons, and times were changing, and I ended up just not drawing for a few years, and that was actually kind of terrible, because I just, it didn't occur to me that I could try to draw something else, but I was just burned out, I guess.
And then enough history had passed, and a few people that used to see my stuff, there's this guy, Chris Sherry, that you might know about. He's the artist guy that does all the Descendants stuff these
days.
Well, he called me out of the blue one day. This was pre-internet, pre-whatever, and he was like, hey, man, I was a big fan. What happened to you? I was like, I don't know. And it was that phone call, becoming friends with him, that made me decide to try to take things seriously and get back into it. And then that's when I improved, I guess. So to answer the question, I didn't save anything. These days, it's a different story.
Sure. So how did it come about you getting asked to draw the NARCOR cover?
Okay. Well, through Scott, we... think Scott was kind of a little bit tighter with Doug Moody than some of the other people that ended up recording
I think he was too because he mentions that he was actually the one that helped Doug move from Hollywood down to San
Diego that's right he moved him to San Diego like right after I moved away it was I think through him and like I think one day I listened to the interview that you did with him and I think that his story is That's probably what happened. I think they just, Hey, this guy draws, do you want to draw the cover for an art corner mate or whatever? And I went, sure. So I drew something
and
it wasn't a heavy pencil, like a whole cover. It was that idea. But what happened was I gave them the super detailed, better looking thing. And what the cover basically is, is somebody tracing over that with a pen.
Yeah.
Because like the actual original artwork is, I guess, wouldn't reproduce the way it should. So whatever that cover is that ended up coming out was just somebody at Mystic drawing over my artwork, and that was what they used. And I didn't know that. So when the record came out, I was like, here you go, mate. You know, he's British. Here you go, mate. Here's a few non-chloric covers for you, mate.
And I looked at the cover, and I was just mortified, but I was too embarrassed to say anything, because obviously that was not what I gave them. But I was like, well, it's still a cover, you know? Yeah. I was just like, holy, holy shit. These guys really dropped a fucking ball on this, this cover thing. But you know, it was a free record.
Yeah. Well that, I mean, that's sacrilegious, right? If going over your stuff with a heavier pen.
Yeah. I love that story. Cause it's like, you know, not like whatever I drew was so great, you know, initially, but you know, it was better than what, what, uh, what ended up being the cover. And I got to tell you, I've redrawn that cover, not just for Tony Cortez, but for a few, like I've redrawn the Narcord cover. About ten fucking times. Yeah,
well, you just did it again for Fred, for the It's Alive re-release thing.
Yeah. Yeah, for Fred Hammer. Yeah, I was like, will you redraw this again? Sure. And then the seven seconds cover that I drew, I drew a cover for one of their records.
Yeah, but before you do the cover for the seven seconds record, you actually, you do the drawing on the insert for The Crew, also in 84,
right? I did.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
So
that's first. Yeah, The Crew... Yeah, the crew came first. I just gave that to Kevin, and I guess later I drew something that was supposed to be more serious, and I gave that to Kevin, too.
And do you remember meeting him?
I wrote letters to him. Okay. I think I read a few scene reports in Maximum Rock and Roll, and I think I had heard the first record, and also, I think...
The seven-inch,
the first seven-inch? What was that?
The first seven-inch.
Yeah, Skins, Brains, and Guts. But I think it was Committed for Life was the record I liked because it was like, they were like the bands that, you know, there was Minor Threat and then there were the bands that kind of were influenced in some way by Minor Threat, but not completely. And I think that that record in particular was a pretty good, you know, you could tell that they took a few cues from Minor Threat, you know.
It's a solid spin, though. They put enough of their own stuff on it. Those are great.
Oh, yeah. I love Committed for Life. And also, it was kind of, you know, like, it was kind of funny. I mean, like, I've always had kind of a sarcastic sense of humor, I guess. But, I mean, it wasn't like I was making fun of it. But, like, you know, some of the songs are just kind of funny. They're very... They're very scene-centric songs written with concerns for things that are very, you know, punk rock scene-centric. Like, you know, like songs about, like, Bottomless Pit.
You know, in the pit, you can't be yourself. You're an image of what's cool. A lot of it's
talking inward. It's talking inward to the scene, a lot of it. Yeah,
it's very scene-centric, and I thought it was great, you know? You know, So, yeah, I just read them, and I ended up meeting them later. I mean, I didn't really know them super well, you know, but I knew them well enough to where, you know, I hung out with them a few times, and, you know, they were cool guys.
So how did that feel, though, to get, like, so the Nardcore, you do that, and it gets botched, and you feel a little weird about it. Yeah. But how good does it feel to have one of your drawings on the inside of... That's a seminal hardcore record, The Crew.
Yeah, that's what I've been told. I mean, no, it was cool. It was... Yeah, there's nothing wrong with any of that at all. It was pretty exciting. Of course, later... And I think those guys would agree.
Later, there were... you know weird feelings that's the other thing about punk rock you know like everything was done in the spirit of the times and we're all really young so like some stuff and the feelings behind you know some of those things and situations were not handled super great you know and I think I ended up getting resentful you know over the seven seconds artwork but you know that's just as much my my fault, you know, whatever. In
regards to that one or the next one that you
do? Oh, the cover.
The cover. The Walk Together, Rock Together. Yeah, because you do the original art on the Walk Together, Rock Together LP that later, like a year later, then they replace it with like, it's like a photo, like a
new way to... A puss head washed colored thing.
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, you know, it's kind of dumb now. I mean, like, everything's fine now. I, I, you know, but there was this very long period of time where I was, you know, kind of a dick and sort of resentful and thought, you know, I just gave it to him, you know, it's water, it's
water, it's water on the bridge now. So let's talk about it. Cause I don't, I don't know the story and no one does. So you do, you get
asked to do the cover. Well, actually after social media, I made sure people knew the story. Again, like I said, it was, it wasn't, I would say it wasn't handled, particularly well, but you know, it's why I don't have the bridge. You know, I, you know, we ended up talking a little bit through some emails and, you know, I, I just was like, you know, I don't want to be going into my fifties, still giving a shit about, you know, artwork from 40 years ago. And, you know, some people are like that.
So it's just like, you know,
but, but what actually, what actually happened? So you, you drew, you drew
the cover. I just gave him the artwork and I just didn't really, you know, I didn't really specify, well, here's the artwork. If this record becomes super popular and you guys become giants of the punk rock world, I want a cut.
Sure,
sure. And I think the BYO people, you know, I've heard, I've listened to enough interviews with those guys where like they didn't happen. You know, they probably, there was some weird stuff. I think they happened between them too. So I think I was like sent like a couple of extra small t-shirts of one record and that was kind of it. And that's, Oh my gosh. You know, that was just a situation.
I just, you know, I didn't really specify, well, here's the artwork, but I'm going to be business savvy and ask for these things in case, you know, in case you guys become famous or whatever, you know?
Right. But did they, did they change the, did they change the cover art because you were upset or just because they wanted to?
Oh, I never knew. I never knew. And I never asked, you know, maybe, I don't know. Probably not.
I don't know.
I kind of,
I kind of like both covers, but I like yours more, of course.
Thanks. Well, that's some other cover. I've redrawn a million times. So, um, and, and we actually, uh, me and my friend Charles that runs this company called Bifocal Media. We've been friends and work together on these like t-shirts for a long time. And we, we actually redrew, or I redrew, that cover now. And, you know, we did a run of those and those sold out instantly. And, you know, and the band was fine with us doing it and, you know, whatever.
So, yeah, that's, yeah, people like that cover for whatever reason. And, you know, it's still the same idea. You know, it's just, people smiling and having a good time. So for whatever reason, that idea just seems to resonate.
Yeah. The other,
the other,
go ahead. Sorry. No, I'm bad with a phone thing. I like face to face more, but, uh, obviously you're a little far away. So we have to do the phone and inevitably we're going to step on each other a little bit.
Yeah. 3000 miles away.
Yeah. So the other art that you do around the time is you do the second psycho seven inch, uh, Boston band, uh,
That's right.
Yeah. So that's 85 too. And that's pretty cool. Cause again, like you're still living in California at the time. So this is a, a pretty rad Boston band picking up your stuff.
Yeah. I, I was, I had a lot of pen pals, you know, I had probably like a hundred people, probably more people that I wrote to regularly. Hey man, Hey, support your scene, dude. Hey, here's my band. Oh, cool. Here's a demo. Oh, here's a record. Hey, do you want to draw this? Sure.
Yeah.
You know, like that. And those guys, the guys from Psycho were, you know, I think the drummer and the guitar player were 10 pounds. And, you know, one of many. So that's how that happened. They just kind of asked if I would do it.
Yeah. And then the other one I wrote down is for 86, you did the Skeezix. They're the Charlie Brown, the Charlie Brown
sandwich. And that's a German band.
Yeah. Right, and I might, I don't even remember that, but I drew a lot of Peanuts stuff, and the Peanuts people were like big, I was really hugely influenced by Charles Schultz as a kid, and so I always, I really liked Peanuts, and I don't know, all that stuff was a really big influence, that and Mad Magazine, so, and I do remember I used to draw Peanuts characters a lot back then, so I think whoever was in that band that wanted me to do it, liked that stuff that I was doing.
So, you know, that's kind of how that happened.
Cool. I want to go back to Scared Straight a little bit. So they record the Nardcore songs first, and this is when Scott was the drummer and their singer, like, kind of is not around. So Scott, he plays drums and sings on the Nardcore songs. And then after that... No? Okay. Go ahead. Sorry.
I think, well, I could be wrong, but I think the drummer, because I ended up drawing something for the, I had met those guys at that point, knew them, so I ended up drawing them when Scott was the singer. And there was a guy named Gary that was the singer before, and Scott played drums. I forgot Gary's last name.
Right.
Okay, go
on, sorry.
I guess, that's okay. I want to say Gary wrote that, but I'm not sure. But I think he just didn't show up. And then Scott was like, oh, I'll sing. So that was Scott's singing debut. And I think at the time there was this guy named James Harris that replaced Scott on drums. And he didn't last very long. But I think I'm pretty sure he's the guy that played drums on the two Nardcore songs. And there was another song that ended up on one of those We Got Nards.
We
Got
Power, We
Got Party. So I think he was on that song too. They're kind of excited sounding and a little rushed. I think Scott was a little tighter. So I think that was James. I could be wrong, but then James didn't work out and that's when they asked me.
So you
come in and
you do the 7-inch.
Right.
Do you remember anything about recording it? at Mystic?
Sure. Well, I use Scott Williams, Scott Williams, I use Scott, Scott's drums, Scott Radinsky's drums and I remember we made a big deal out of putting new drum heads on it and we just recorded those songs and then the longest song was the Steppenwolf cover and that was the most that sounded like, you know, it wasn't our song so it sounded like, oh, this is like a real song or whatever. I don't really remember too much about it.
It was exciting, but it just seemed like we just went there and did it, and that was it. What came out is what came out.
I'm just trying to understand the timelines and stuff of how things were back then. Do you
record and do
you... Yeah, it's 84. It comes out in 85, I believe. No, yeah, it comes out in 85.
Actually, you know what? You know what? I joined in the end of 84, 85, early, like, I think February of 85 is when we recorded it. And then it came out, like, by the summer.
Okay. Yeah, cool. And how does it feel to, like, it's the first piece of music that you're on? Does that feel rad?
Oh, it was really exciting. You know, in some ways, scared straight, you know. We were okay.
You know, we were... kind of a competent band nothing really to you know I mean I think they got better as time went on you know you know like but I think for the you know for the time I thought it was it was good I mean it was exciting because we were these cool kids and we had a chance to record in the studio and we got a chance to be on a record and it was our record and so no matter what or no matter what history says or the things about that that were kind of, eh, it was still pretty
exciting. So, you know, in some ways that was the most exciting band I've ever been in just because it was the first one. And it was a real short amount of time. I mean, I was only in the band for like two occasions and neither of them were really very long. But, you know, back then it seemed like, you know, it seemed like, you know, time was a lot, it seemed a lot longer. I think when you're younger, time seems to go by a lot. slower so
of
course it seemed like a long time but it was like I would say I was in the band for less than a year then I like did I came back and did like a a tour with them at the end of 1985 that yeah
that's what I have that's what I have lined up next for in 85 so in 85 you go on tour with uh you go on the Ill Repute tour
right well no 85 the summer of the Ill Repute tour and that's That's that went really well for the first two weeks. And then you've heard that story about everything in Pittsburgh and all that's true. But that was a little pivotal moment because, you know, everybody went home and it was like, well,
no, I know your story is great. So let's, let's try to talk a little bit about that too, or just cause I love to have a, I love to have everyone's paintbrush on it. So what do you, what do you remember about going on that tour? Like, first off, is this your first time like leaving home?
yes
okay
yes and our parents all let us go which is which is fucking crazy if you think about it you know things were a lot more lax or just whatever I don't know they were just like hey we're gonna go we're 18 you know some of us are 17 we're 17 19 years old I think the guitar player Steve was 21 and we're just yeah we're gonna go across the country okay
cool
yeah they let us go which is you know pretty fucking crazy if you think about it
yeah and do you remember do you remember any sort of like preparation or like you were just along as a drummer so you're just loading up and going
yeah yeah well we were the tour was booked by the Ill Repute guys so we were just they asked us to play and then it turned out that Carl didn't want to lose his job or something so Scott ended up playing drums
right
and I was doing double duty and you know And it just seemed like it was very sudden. Like, oh, we get to go on tour. Okay, cool. And then we did. We just suddenly did. And it was the three little few guys and us. And then we had a couple of roadies. One of them was a guy from Australia that just showed up one day. Like, hey, Brian Walsby, mate. We read about you in Maximum Rock and Roll. We came out to Simi Valley to see if there's any shows. Well, there's no shows out here, but come on in.
And then one of the guys went home and the other guy stayed and he had a car. We were like, you want to go with us? And he was like, sure. And then the day we left, the car broke down. It was a station wagon. And the adults of the tour, Jim and Tony, I guess, maybe John, I'm not sure who, somebody that had a credit card or at least, you know, had some sort of semblance of adult activities. They rented a rental vehicle and came back. But yeah, yeah, we just left. We just, we just left.
You know, yeah. Well,
sonically, do you remember, do you remember how it sounded with Scott playing? Because this is after what happens next. And Carl plays like such a, a crazy loose style. I can't imagine a straightforward drummer coming in and playing those What Happens Next songs.
He did the best he could. Yeah. I mean, Carl did have kind of a weird style. And I think Scott did the best he could, given the very short amount of time that him or anybody would have had to prepare for doing that. It was fun. I don't know why he didn't go, but I think it was probably a job thing. He was probably the smartest person. He had a real job. Having a real job probably was a big deal. None of us knew that.
I think he still has the job. He works for either the county or the city. He moved up to NorCal now, but he does something for government stuff.
Oh, okay. Yeah, well, he took it pretty seriously, obviously. I know. So now
he can probably retire soon at 55 or
something. The smartest man in
the room. Do you remember any standout shows from that tour?
Yeah. Well, LLP did okay. They weren't as good without Carl, but they were still pretty good. So that was always fun watching them. As far as Skid Street, we played... We played one show in Lincoln, Nebraska that was really good. You know, it was like really the height of that period where like, you know, people read maximum rock and roll on flip side and people were into writing letters and trading stuff and trading tapes and this and that.
And everybody was very connected through all that stuff. So we went to Lincoln, Nebraska and it seemed that it seemed like people came to see the show. You know, they would see anybody. Because everybody was young and excited. And it was pre-internet stuff, which was a different world. It just was. So people were connected, but they weren't that connected. There was still some secrecy. You know what I mean? You could show up and not really know locals.
traditions and things that people in one part of the country would be like or do or dance like or dress like or whatever you know people weren't they didn't know everything
yeah
so we you know and anybody you know if you were holding an instrument chances are somebody would show up and let you play so we had this one show in Lincoln Nebraska and all these people came from like four different states in the Midwest just to see the show and I was a minor punk rock celebrity because I drew stuff. And, you know, we played really good that night. People were really into it. And I'd say that was the highlight of my experience with those guys.
And I think everybody had a good time, you know, in general. So I think that Lincoln, Nebraska was really good. Pittsburgh was good. We played in Oscars, Wisconsin. That was good. Did
you buy a pair of pants?
What was that?
Did you buy a pair of pants? Isn't that Oshkosh? Isn't that a brand?
I think so. I lost my shoes. I bought sandals at some point. I think they
used to make the overalls.
Oh, okay. Right. Well, I didn't have overalls, but... Maybe I should have.
It
was very exciting being away from home for your first time. And, you know, most of the people were nice. It was just kind of crazy that our parents let us go. But we went. And then we had that harrowing experience in Pittsburgh. And that was really weird. But, you know, everything still ended up being okay.
Yeah, so the story goes for the people that haven't listened to all the podcasts is they were being scared straight. They get to... Pittsburgh, play a great show. And then afterwards, you go back to wherever your crash pad is and basically the van gets stolen with all the equipment.
That's right. And I found it. I asked Scott for the keys. I think that's how it went. I think I heard one of those guys say that they went salt first. Maybe that's true. I don't know. But I have this idea that I was the first one to ask for the keys and went up the street. We parked in a really bad neighborhood. The promoter was a guy named Mike Lavella. who is still around, lives in San Francisco, I think. But he was like the hot shot, king of the scene in Pittsburgh at the time.
And yeah, he was a nice guy. And we stayed at his house. And none of us really thought about sleeping in the van. And maybe people slept in the van at other stops, but I don't even remember that. But anyway, the point is, nobody slept in the van that night. And that's the night when somebody just broke into the car and wired it or whatever and just fucking drove off and then the next day I you know were like oh it's gone yeah which is kind of a weird a weird thing a weird reality
you know
for sure so uh yeah so that was a very shattering experience and we like sort of sat around that day or day so then the Pittsburgh Police Department I think called probably Tony, I guess. Like, we found it. We're like, yeah, we went down there and there it was. And we hit the U-Haul trailer and it was very empty sounding. So they like, yeah, they like took everything. They took all the equipment. They took all of our personal clothes and whatever.
All the exciting Doug Moody mystic records that we were selling. And they Right before that happened, though, we did pretty well. We were in the black and the tour was making money. Again, it was that climate where anybody would show up. And then that was it. And I think we tried to play one more show in Baltimore on borrowed equipment. And I do remember this. It'll repeat it horribly. And we actually did okay. But I think they just...
It was the other two guys first, like, well, we're just going to go home. And I just couldn't really see the rest of us touring in Scott's blue pickup truck because, you know, on the tour, a bunch of us were just driving in the back of this pickup truck, which, again, is kind of crazy. Like, I would never do that now.
Very of the time.
And, yeah, people just did it all the time. It's like, that's really dangerous. So I think Scott and Dennis were like, well, we can keep going. We'll just sit in the back of the pickup truck. But I already made plans to stay on the East Coast. And I'd like to think that I thought that it would be dangerous to do that and kind of stupid. And I was friends with the COC people at the time. And I called up the late Reed Mullen, recently deceased Reed Mullen.
And I was like, hey, yeah, that's very strange. And I was like, hey, I'm out here. And they were like, he was like, well, just stay put. In a few days, we're going to come up to Baltimore, and we're going to go see the Bad Brains reunion show in New York. So I was like, hmm, I think I'm just going to go with these guys and see what happens.
And
then I went back and told those guys, and Scott was cool about it. And Dennis was, at the time, he was really upset with me. And, you know, I don't blame that. But I just couldn't really see us. I had to tour unborrowed gear driving in Scott's blue pickup truck with three people sitting in the back. So that's sort of what happened. So everybody went home, and I just stayed there at the promoter in Baltimore. This guy named Bill Stevenson, not Bill Stevenson.
There was two Bill Stevensons, and he was the second one. He was the promoter at the time. So I just stayed in this house for... day or two and wondered what I was fucking doing. I had nothing. I had no clothes, no possessions. I think I had $200 at home, so I had my parents send it to me, which was like a billion dollars back then. I was just sitting there going, I hope I'm doing the right thing. This is pretty weird. That was a very pivotal moment. That was
Of course.
That's how I ended up moving. I could have easily just stayed home and just learned how to drive. But anyway.
I want to get into all that. It's so awesome. Because there's no better excuse than to go see the Bat Brains in 85. Come on.
Yeah.
What did your folks say when you called them?
They were like, okay. Well, they didn't really care what I did. I mean, I don't mean that in a horrible way, but they were just like busy with their own, uh, lives and problems that I was like the middle kid. It was just easy for me to go. Well, I'm just going to do this. Okay. They're like, okay, we'll send you the money. And then I ended up staying on the East coast for a month and a half and took a bus across the country at the end of the summer of 85. And, uh, I want to
talk about the summer. But I have all these questions just about how things function back then because I think it's very interesting. So do they have to send you the $200 in an envelope or do you like Western Union?
I'm going to assume I asked somebody that was an adult how to do that. So I'm sure Western Union must have been how I got the money because I just can't imagine me going. Okay, well, what do you do? Do you just mail that money to me? So I'm sure it had to be Western
Union. And then do you take a bus down to New York to see the Bad Rains?
No, I waited up there, and the CSE van picked me up, and I went with those guys.
Awesome. And you'd been pen pals with them, but you hadn't met them yet.
I hadn't met them. I was pen pals with them since the summer of 1984. I officially met them in January of 85 when they came out and recorded the second side. No, the first side of the animosity album. That was when I officially met them.
You were in the studio with them?
I was in the studio with them, not for that period, but when they did the first version of Technocracy. Okay. I think I'm on both versions, yelling stuff.
Okay.
On the record. Yeah. Back up singing. Yeah. Yeah.
How did you feel about Animosity when it came out? Did you know right
then that it was going to be that influential? It's their best record. It's their best record.
Well, it's one of the best records ever of any genre.
I still think so. The whole thing that happened to Reed is pretty bizarre. But, you know, that was a long time. Fortunately, that was a long time coming. I mean, you know, he was a really nice guy and he helped out a lot of people. And Animosity and The Reed I knew then, that was the person that, a very generous person at the peak of his powers. And, you know, I still think that's a really good record.
And, you know, listening to it a whole bunch in recent times, you know, hasn't really changed my opinion of it.
Totally.
Especially Psy 2, which is the weirdly produced Psy. Yeah.
Yeah. So they pick you up and you go see Bad Brains. Do you remember the
club?
Do they play CBs? No?
Not CBGBs. We ended up going back up there to see the Descendants. That's when they reformed and they went to CBGBs and played with the Stan Social and Rest. And the CSU guys and Descendants really hit it off. That was the first time I met the Descendants people.
Wow.
And that was kind of the big thrill too. And they were really good. And, uh, I think they followed COC to Boston when COC played with the offenders. This was all like this month long period after the scared straight tour, where it was just like, I went back to Raleigh and I would stay with various people and couch surf. And even during that time, you know, like another bank, this is also funny. I, actually left to go on a week-long tour in that period with the band SNFU.
They came through with this other band, the Rhythm Pigs, from El Paso that ended up moving to San Francisco. And they were like, ah, we know who you are, Brian Walsby. Why don't you come with us for like five days? You'll meet up with C.O.C. at the show that we're playing with them in Baltimore. Okay, that sounds good. I have no possessions or money. I'll just go with you guys.
Sure.
In the name of punk rock. So even during that time, I went with those guys. It was just really ridiculous.
And how good were they in 85? What
was that?
How good were they in 85? They had to be raging.
S. Nephew?
Yeah.
They were killer. They were one of the best bands I'd ever seen. That was when they got that guy, Dave Bacon, to play bass. So it's basically the second album version of the band, which is sort of the best version, at least for that second. They were great. They were really nice guys, and they were the first Canadians I met. Canadians are, you know, there's just something that's just slightly different.
For whatever reason, I never was able to put my foot on it or put my finger on it or whatever.
There's something genuine about them.
Yeah. There's not really a lot of pre-taps. There's no pre-taps.
Yeah.
And so they were great guys. And so it was a very exciting, you know, so the tour was exciting. The adventures after the tour were also equally exciting. And when I ended up going back to Simi Valley, The rest of the guys in Scared Straight, they didn't hold it against me. Nobody was mad. They found this guy, Tim Williams, to play drums. And I just went back to hanging out with them. And I just ended up going everywhere with them at their other shows. Nobody was mad at me or anything.
And then Tim couldn't go on that tour, so they were like, oh, do you want to go? And I was like, yes. So... So that happened. And then afterwards, that's when I decided I was going to move to Raleigh.
So you went on the second Scared Straight tour as well?
Yeah.
Okay, let's talk about that. So this is Scared Straight and NoFX?
Scared Straight and The Grimm.
Scared Straight and The Grimm.
Jordan Burns was the drummer. He let me use his nice drum set. The Grimm were terrible. Well, they weren't really terrible. They were just real slow. I mean, I think they're like, they were, you know, Tim was a singer. Bob, that's a guitar player. He traveled separately. You know, he was the smartest guy on that tour. You know, another adult doing adult things. And let's see, what else? Who else was in it? Yeah, and Jordan. And he was the drummer. And so we toured with them.
I think Tim and Scott. kind of worked on that tour together. And then that tour also meant that we'd meet up with Entropy, this band from L.A., and NoFX. And we knew the NoFX guys, and the NoFX guys were nice guys, Mike and Eric, and they were just awful. I mean, you know, not like Skoda Straight was so great, but they were legitimately awful.
No, the first two seven inches are not good.
Yeah, well, I mean, like, this... You know, like, those guys were always nice. And, you know, I just never would have guessed that if anybody back then that could have done what they achieved, I never would have guessed in a million years NoFX would be the band that would do that.
Well, if you watch RKL long enough, you're going to get good. If you want to try to top them.
Yeah. But, like, By the time they became famous, did they still sound like RKL? When Bad Religion did that one record, did everybody like
it? Yeah, they went a little more melodic RKL, but in their transition time, if you listen to them
on... Yeah. I wasn't here for any of that, so it's like all that stuff, to this day, I don't... There's some stuff associated with that world that I really like a lot, but there's only... was years later. Like, I really like that band Propagandy. I think they're like a great band.
Of course.
But I don't like any of that early stuff. I just like the stuff like now going backwards a little bit. I don't, you know, I just wasn't around for that stuff. I don't think I would have liked it, you know. But I do like how they are now and they're really nice people. But for the most part, I don't really know about any of that stuff. Like bad religion or no effects, you know. I liked the first Bad Religion record okay when it came out.
I like all of it, and I especially like the 10-foot pole Rev LP. I love it, love it.
Well, you know, I heard that record, and I was like, you know, a lot of it may not have been my thing, but there's no denying that it's way better in every way than the Scared Straight 7. Well, of
course. It's awesome.
And there's a couple songs I really think are good. I think, like, I think Pauly, I think as they went on, I do legitimately think some of that stuff is good. To me, it sounds kind of a little bit different than some of the other stuff.
It does. It's a little riffier, and also they do barely any distortion on the guitar. for like a very well produced album. So it's a, it's an interesting sound. It sounds like nothing that came before it or after it. And those are kind of the albums that stand out to me is, you know, when it's just like, how could you ever recreate this thing? Like, it's almost like a, a fluke, you know?
Sure.
So
sure.
I love it. Sure.
I, yeah, yeah. Um, but you know, like I'm not as familiar with that world as I was with the world that we all came out of, but you know, I'd say that, pretty much everybody from back then that I remember, you know, it was a pretty nice person, you know, but it's just not something I was, I wasn't around to be a part of it. I don't think I would have been a part of, but you know, you know, whatever. All those people are really nice and good for them.
Because you moved to North Carolina in 86 or 87? 86.
Okay.
And, and what do you do with your life for the next like couple of years?
I grew up in public and didn't draw, and I played music in local bands mainly and worked in a restaurant. Hey, can you hold on one second? Absolutely.
Okay, so in 89, this is kind of pivotal to you, I think, because you do your first artwork for the Melvins.
Yeah.
And you do the oven sandwich.
Yes. Right. Well, I met them. I moved to North Carolina. And I think like literally two months later, the Melvins came through touring with RKL, which is kind of funny. Awesome. This is like 86, summer of 86. And they played. And I think I had read about the Melvins and Maximum Rock Roll, oddly enough. And, you know, they were right up my alley and they were instantly nice people. And I just became friends with them.
and one thing led to another, and that just led to me drawing that cover for whatever reason.
Yeah, and starting a lifelong friendship and partnership, because you tour with them to this day.
Yeah, I've spent the last 10 years working for them. I sell merchandise, you know. Yeah, so I was very fortunate that I met those guys at the time, and yeah, yeah, I've been friends with them ever since. I guess 10 years ago, that's when there was an opportunity to do that, and I've done that ever since. It was pretty fortunate. It's not going to last forever. Every year that goes by, I always think, well, this has to be it. Somehow, it keeps going.
They're a band that you've got to hope never breaks up, because they're timeless.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, people, a lot of, you know, the people that go to see them are pretty loyal, but also, you know, a lot of times the people, you know, when you get to be like 35 years old, a lot of people just sort of stop going to shows and do other things like raise a family or have kids or, you know, just don't want to go to shows anymore.
And I'm certainly, you know, I became one of those people too, but, uh, the weird thing about them is that there's always somebody that shows up and replaces them, some younger people. So, you know, it's not like, it's not like the people that see them are all people my age or the band's age, you know, so.
No, and it's timeless music. It's not necessarily just for young people. So you can, it spans.
Yeah, it's definitely not. It's definitely not youth crew, straight edge, hardcore or whatever. And those guys have had, as much punk rock history as, as anybody, you know, they have as much punk rock history as, uh, you know, Mike from no effects or, or whoever, you know,
so in, in 89, then also you do, you do two bands, you do snake nation and you do, I don't know how to pronounce it. A wax with two W's.
Yeah. Wax. Okay. Uh, wax was with the guy that ended up, performing Merge Records and was in the band Superchunk, Mac, The Con. And then Snake Nation was like Mike Dean and Woody Weatherman playing without Reed and they asked me to play because of whatever reason. And it was half old COC songs that were never recorded and then stuff that everybody made up really quickly.
Yeah, but both those bands are really cool. I think the Snake Nation is very... Like, if people liked the first Blast record... I
loved the first Blast record. Yeah,
they could really get down with that Snake Nation. It was cool.
Well, it's kind of funny you say that, because there's definitely a few moments there where I was trying to rip off Bill. And I know that the C.O.C. guys liked the Blast guys very much. And, yeah, well, that's cool, man. I mean, the Snake Nation record, it's a little... I don't know. It's a little, I don't want to say disappointing.
I just kind of wish it sounded a little bit better, but I've heard that's probably the one thing that I was lucky enough to be a part of that I've heard the most from people over the years because I know some people really like that record. I don't really think that Mike and Woody think too much of it either, but I'm sure they've had to hear people tell them that they like it too. I think I might like it the most out of the three of us.
It
was definitely a thrill to play with those
guys. Circling back to Straight Edge Hardcore, you're on Caroline the year after you threw today.
That's right. They gave us like $6,000 and we pocketed half of it so we each got $1,000 and then we spent $3,000 going to some guy that Woody knew that had no experience recording that music and we I remember me and Mike Dean. I clearly remember this. We were worried about whether or not this guy, who was a nice guy, it's that same story of, hey, we're going to record this stuff with somebody that we don't think understands where we're coming from, man.
I think we made a cassette of Black Flags flipping in, a song from that, and then a song from the first Black Sabbath record. And then maybe a song from the first Melvins record, Blue Ports Treatment. I think we like, we gave it to him. And it was just like, it was totally pointless. Halfway through the recording, he kind of said to us, oh, I think I totally know what you guys are going for now. And we're like, oh yeah, what's that? And he said that he thought we sounded like Foghat.
Not trying to sound like Foghat.
No, you're supposed to say power of expression. Come on.
now we're trying to do man we're trying to sound like you know nightmare and our explanation those prolonged break and breaks yeah but um no but it was fun i just wish it sounded better but you know it's there for history and and people have been very nice to me about that record over the years
are you singing on it as well
i sing on one song you can call it that
okay
and then i think it's called i will never shake you okay it's the It's terrible. You know, like a lot of people in punk rock, since people can't really sing for the most part, that whole thing of, well, I guess I'll do it. Somebody that isn't really a singer that can't sing, somebody has to always do that. But in Snake Nation, there were three people that couldn't do it. And Mike, I think Mike did Mushrooms at the time in the studio. I don't know what happened.
It was just like, It was what it was. Let's just put it that way.
Yeah. All right. So jumping way ahead, in 09, Tony Cortez does another NARCOR comp, and he reaches out to you to draw the cover. So you're able to get some redemption and not have someone trace over your stuff, right?
Yeah. Well, you know, he said, I'll give you $150. That's probably what he said. And I went, okay, sure, I'll do it. Because Tony was always a really nice guy. And I'm sure he still is a nice guy. Tony rules.
The
mayor of Austin. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. He's always been a very nice person. So I had no problem redrawing whatever he wanted for that amount of
money. Yeah, and it's cool.
Although,
the depiction of me is very ugly.
I'm sorry.
But that's okay. I look way better on the... When you do like the Nardfest art, I think I just look, I look more handsome in a hat.
Yeah. Well, I'm glad. Well, I think I also redeem myself now that I know who you are over these years. Like, I think that insert thing I gave you is like probably ended up being the best looking thing that I've drawn in that style. You know, like, Oh, well, I'm glad that happened. You know, like, Oh, this looks pretty good. And, I think you look pretty good. Hopefully.
No, I think it was great. That's we have, we haven't talked about that. The people don't know that, uh, you did a drawing in, in basically the apex of your career is doing a drawing for the, the fourth retaliate LP. That's right. That's what it's all about. So no, I mean, that was so, that was so fun to get you in and just so people know, um, you know, you never know who, how people are going to act when you reach out to them blindly, but, uh, you know, you're, you're so approachable.
And I think it comes from, you know, your lifetime of, of writing letters. Right. And then, and running into people that are either friendly or not friendly. And you decide to be a certain way because you know how people want, you know, you know how you want to be treated.
Sure. Well, it's also like if somebody comes up to you and they like something that you did, regardless of what you think about it, it's like, nobody has to be nice to you. Nobody has to pay you a compliment. Nobody has to, want to pay you money to do something for them, you know, nobody has to give a shit. So the fact that people give a shit, it's a nice thing. So you should, you know, you know, you should always be nice to people because, you know, nobody has to be nice.
Nobody has to do anything for you. So if people like something that you did, how can that be a bad thing?
Absolutely.
You know?
Yeah. So the long, the long, the long and short of it is that if, uh, you want us to reach out to you to do something, just do it. What's the best way for people to get in contact with you, Brian?
Well, my email address for the people that want to spell it out is reluctant king at hotmail.com. I'm also one of those people that, um, I have a website that I don't do a whole lot with, but I sell stuff to it. And that's Brian Walsby.net. And I, um, one of those idiots that's on social media like most of the world. And I just go under my name, Brian Walby, and I'm on Facebook and Instagram. And you can reach me through either of those.
And the Instagram stuff seems to be kind of picking up a little bit since Facebook goes through these periods of just, you know, why am I even doing this anymore? It's depressing. Yeah,
but you're pretty prolific on there. You're posting stuff all the time. It's pretty cool. And then also on the BrianWalsby.net, you do have a store. So for fans of his art, like for instance, my friend Micah got me, like you did a Scared Straight shirt. You put out the art on a shirt and it's like, oh, this is awesome. Like, you know, it's like, man, I really wish I could get a Scared Straight shirt. Well, here's a guy that has it on his website. So you should.
Yeah, that was just like, Charles was like, well, maybe you should do that. And it was like, you know, a chance to redraw something that maybe I wasn't very good at drawing at the time. And that scared straight record is certainly up there with something that, well, yeah, I could, you know, it's kind of not fair in a way. It's like, cause it's not, it doesn't look really the same, but it's like, man,
you can tell
what it is. Yeah. It's what it is. But it's like, man, you know, an artwork over and the walk together, you know, in the scared straight, it's like, man, If I can redraw that and somebody's willing to buy it, I should just do
it. Absolutely.
So thank you for getting that shirt or your friend for buying it for you.
Yeah, shout out Micah. Micah Wolfe, the
man. Thanks,
man. Yeah, dude. And thanks so much for doing this, Brian. I really appreciate it.
Yeah, I'm sorry for kind of rushing you toward the end here, but I definitely appreciate it. I still talk to Scott. You know, we're still in touch. And, you know, I kind of talked to Dennis a little bit. And I saw Steve Karnan on the last Melbourne tour, which is crazy. Haven't seen him in 30 years, you know. And, you know, whatever the older people that remember me from back then have always been nice to me. And, you know, I definitely appreciate that.
So it's kind of cool to talk about some of that stuff with somebody that's interested. So, you know, I definitely appreciate it.
Yeah. Do you feel like you've been well represented?
With this interview?
Yeah.
Yes.
Okay.
I think so.
Okay. I just got to make sure.
I got to tell the Narcord cover story, which is, you know, that's a great story.
Absolutely.
Being handed this horribly recreated, you know, here you go, mate. The thing about Doug Moody was, the joke was that he would pay you in pizza slices. Here you go, mate. Let's look at some nice sliced cheese pizza. We're drawing the North Core cover. Sure, Doug. Sounds great.
Yeah, I got to
get him. The pizza's cold.
I got to get him. He's, you know, because you've talked to him before, so you know. But, like, for all the people that haven't heard him talk, he's just a guy with the gift of gab. Like, he will go and go and go. I
mean, I just remember he had an English accent, and I just thought it was really weird and a little creepy that he hung out with lots of young men. to Hollywood.
Well, everyone's got their thing. No judgment
from me. Well, there's probably nothing more to it than that, but looking back, it's like, that's kind of weird, but maybe it's not.
Hey, he wanted punk rock to make it, dude. Someone had to put out that Rat Pack 7-inch.
The Sound of Young America. We'll put out the Manifest Destiny Rat Pass record. We'll put out that Habeas Corpus box set.
That's the one thing that never came out, is the Habeas Corpus 7-inch.
I don't know why. Everybody else came out. I know. I was waiting.
What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Anyway, thanks so much for your time, Brian.
No problem, Zach. Thank you for calling me. I appreciate
it. Much appreciated. Goodbye.
All right.
Bye.