BACK-4-MORE WITH…

Donnie Vie

 

We’ve done 20 Questions, we’ve done Rewinds, and we’ve done 3-Winds. So when it came time to interview somebody for the 4th time with Metal Sludge, we needed a name for it. We originally were calling it “4-Skin” because penis references are always good, but then Donnie Vie gave us the perfect name for it. Back-4-More! If you don’t like that name, blame Donnie because he’s the one who said it and we went with it. It’s almost like Donnie works for the page now! He’s naming our shit for us. Maybe we can get him to do a SludgeWire too.

Metal Sludge and Donnie Vie go way back.

We first did 20 Questions with Donnie on November 30, 1999.

Then we did his Rewind on March 8, 2001.

His 3-Wind went up on May 13, 2002, and now he’s “Back-4-More!” Get it? Now when you hear Ratt sing “Back For More” you’ll know what they’re really singing about!

This interview with Donnie was done over the phone by Jim Bob Dwarf on Saturday, December 13th, 2003. It took us 3 months to put up Chip Z’Nuff’s 3-Wind but only just 4 days to put up Donnie’s interview. That probably has something to do with the fact Donnie is playing our Metal Sludge Extravaganza #7 on December 27th and we can’t wait that long to put it up!

Anyway, Donnie and Jim Bob talked for 90 fucking minutes, and Donnie’s answer to question #1 was almost 27 minutes long! In fact, his answer to his first question answered some of our other questions we had for him. He took out like 4 questions with one answer!

This is a pretty entertaining interview with plenty of shit talking and quality insults that you’ve come to expect from Metal Sludge! If you want to know where Donnie’s frame of mind is right now, this pretty much covers it.

Let’s begin.

Jim Bob dials up Donnie.

Donnie answers after 2 rings.

Hello?

Jim Bob: Is Donnie there?

Speaking.

Jim Bob: Hey, Donnie Vie. This is Jim Bob.

Hey man.

Jim Bob: The Metal Sludge guy. How are you?

Oh pretty good for my age. What are we doing, the back 4 more or something like that?

Jim Bob: Something like that. I don’t think they’ve titled it yet but that’s pretty good.

(See, right there Donnie named this thing! That’s history right there!)

Jim Bob:Ya sure you’re up for this?

Yeah, what difference is it gonna make? They’re just gonna rip me in the ass and I don’t care.

Jim Bob: All right!

What do I care? I’m not in heavy metal anymore.

Jim Bob: That’s the spirit!

I don’t give a rat’s ass.

Jim Bob: Well just have fun with it. It’ll be good. All right, ya all set?

Yeah, I’m just feeding the cat and just getting along here. What’s going on?

Jim Bob: I just got out of the shower! So I’m wearing a towel.

You’re wearing a towel? You want to dry off and shit and put some clothes on first?

Jim Bob: I’m working on it. It’s all good. Makes the interview more exciting for me!

As long as you’re not taking a shit, you know?

Jim Bob: There, I’m dressed now.

1. What are you currently up to?

What am I currently up to? Well, I did that….actually I was getting ready to put together a little combo to go out…seeing how I’m going home for the holidays for the first time in 2 years to Chicago, and my wife lives in Ohio, and her family lives in Ohio, so we’re gonna be headed both places. And just coincidentally, my buddy and drummer Troy Patrick Farrell and Tim Tame, I don’t know what his real last name is, Tim Tame will do I guess, that’s what he calls himself. I’ll have to work on that. But in any case, his family lives in Chicago too so we’re all gonna be there for the holidays. Ohio is just a hop, skip and a jump, and this club Skully’s in Columbus has been calling and uh, you know, asking if I was going to be playing any dates and wanted me to play in there. So I figured since I was going to be in Ohio, I’d ask those guys if they’d be interested in doing a few dates and so, you know….to make a few bucks, you know, this and that, cause I haven’t been back in a while. Plus I just like to show some of the people back home in Chicago that I’m not half dead and I’m not in the bag. Contrary to what people might think or hear – Chip with all his excuses as to why I’m not out there – you know, basically because I wouldn’t be out there and I’m not going! (Laughs) I have no intention of doing that right now. There’s no point in it. It’s ridiculous. He’s driving it into the ground. It’s one thing to let the thing fall off the cliff and when it finally hits the bottom, that’s one thing. But he’s jetting us into the ground! (Laughs)Which is kinda what I think is going on right now. I think he should just give it a rest for a while. But he’s gonna do what he’s gonna do and hopefully he won’t kill it for someday, maybe getting together and doing something maybe that would mean something.

But in any case, these guys said they’d do it and were headed their for the holidays so we said “fuck it.” Instead of going there and playing acoustic guitar by myself….you know, I’m not doing any full blown production. We’re not like a big band or anything like that. But instead of making it acoustic all night and all boring and dragging…which I’m going to do a half hour each night of a storyteller type thing, play some of the more obscure shit that the fans might wanna hear….requests or whatever they wanna here. But we’ll come out of the bag rockin’ a little bit and do some of the cooler uptempo Enuff Z’Nuff shit and some of the stuff we never did. And just about everything I’ll be playin’ I don’t think we’ve ever done live. I’ve never done with Enuff Z’Nuff. So if you wanna here “Fly High Michelle” or “New Thing” and stuff like that, go to the ice arena tonight or wherever they’re playing. I think they’re doing a tribute to the Ice Capades or I don’t know what it was. Go to England and pay 12 pounds to watch Gilligan with Cerebral Palsy walk off stage and go smoke hash!(laughs) Did you hear about that one?

Jim Bob: No.

They’re were playing in England and I guess Johnny, John Monaco – we call him Mini Me – he’s been singing for the those guys and they went to Europe second time around. First time around, Chip’s telling the fans that I’m sick or this and that…I got a problem with warrants, and that shit….First of all, I’m not sick. Second of all, all those issues with legal and all that stuff has all been taken care of. It’s over and done with. I can go anywhere I want now, you know?

So the first time around, he’s just……and like I’ve never been to like Italy, I’ve never played with Enuff Z’Nuff in Italy or Spain or stuff like that…he took that piece of shit band to Spain and Italy and all that stuff for first time around, and there he went without me! And then they came through here and they came through Hollywood here, and we’re doing the Viper Room and I had Vik and Derek and we had just played a gig together. Me, Vik and Derek kinda did a mini-reunion for the first time in like 10 years. Did a bunch of Enuff Z’Nuff shit and it went over great, you know? Place was packed, everybody loved it. It was great. So we showed up to that thing and I was gonna kind of surprise them guys and come up and we would just walk up at the end of their set, maybe do a couple of songs and do a reunion, you know, with Chip. And they had me banned from the club. I got there, I’m standing outside, right about to walk in the door, and Vik and Derek got inside already. I guess it was starting to drizzle and Derek had to get inside because of his hair and stuff. And so, uh, so I hear not to let Donnie Vie in the club. And I hear that out of the corner of my ear. And I’m like, “did I just hear right? Not to let Donnie Vie in the club?” And I go, “come on, are you crazy?’ So I go to the other door and I’m like, “dude.” Chip, none of the guys…I could see them inside the doorway and I sent a couple of guys in there to go get Chip and this and that….none of the guys would come and talk to me. None of the guys would tell me themselves or to my face. They just pulled that fucking bullshit on me. I don’t know what their fucking problem was. And whatever his bullshit stories were….and I talked to Chip an hour before their show too…and said, “Hey man, I’m coming out.” I decided not to make it a surprise and let him know I was coming up with Derek and Vik and lets do one. (Donnie impersonates Chip) “Yeah, all right I’ll see ya up there. Lets do one. Blah blah blah.” He told me to come up there like a half hour past when their show was over. (Laughs) So I showed up at the right time but it was unbelievable. And there are fans watching this and they’re amazed. They’re watching me stand outside and stuff and I wasn’t going to stand outside and look like a fucking loser. I mean I was stunned for a minute there and I felt like a complete fucking…devastated and just fucking betrayed like to death. I mean cause their raps were always, “anytime Donnie wants to come back the seat is his. The job is his. The door is always open for Donnie Vie.” Well the door wasn’t open at the Viper Room. (Laughs)

Jim Bob: Did you talk to Chip about that night at all?

Oh absolutely. Ahhh, it’s just more bullshit and lies. Same old same old. I got the run-around which is basically the reason they’re doing what they’re doing and I’m doing what I’m doing.

In any case, I went down the street and had a piece of pizza and I come back and I’m walking down the street and the big black bouncers from the Viper Room grab me off the street carried me into the club! I guess Enuff Z’Nuff was done and they’re like, “come on, we want you in now and we want you to get up and play some songs” with I guess there’s a band called…..

Jim Bob: Metal Shop?

Metal Shop, yea. And they wanted me to play with them. And so uh….and I didn’t say a word about it on stage or nothing. Vik and Derek and Me got up and we just did “New Thing.” It was pretty cool. It was after the other guys, you know, basically I guess they forgot – a couple people, I heard mixed things – and they were still in the club, and they were just devastated. Chip was devastated. I could see him there in the back with his head pointed straight at the ground, you know? Cause he didn’t think….as soon as their show was over it was no longer their club. And so uh, a bunch of people were telling me they forgot they even played! And we just did one song. And Foxx was blown out too. Because as soon as that shit happened, he got so pissed off he started drinking his ass off. And Derek’s straight. And Derek was really cool. He was smiling and walking around. He really impressed me. I had never known Derek like I knew him that night. He shined like a rose. But Vik, as soon as we got up on stage, Vik kicked in. His count was a little long but he kicked ass and had all the moves. It was like the “New Thing” video minus Big Bird.

In any case, back to what we were doing, I just got tired of all that shit. You’ve been out and seen where it was going. And you’ve seen where my attitude was. I mean, I just really had a bad attitude and getting really sarcastic and really mean and nasty and my whole show had become making fun of them guys and alienating myself from the band. Anything to let people know I was just disgusted with what was going on with the band. Playing the same 15 songs for the last 10 years and just the same old bullshit. I was just getting ripped off and no respect. I’ve never gotten any respect from anybody. I’ve always gotten it in the back from everybody, including you fuckers. No credit, no money, I’ve never gotten anything out of this fucking business except a fucking hard time. But then there is a few handfuls of people that I guess have really affected their lives. Some of the letters, I won’t go into it, a couple people and the people and fans that I’ve met and the things they’ve told me….lets just put it this way, there are 5 in particular that those 5 people alone with what they have said of how it personally affected of the outcome of the rest of their live and the way things go, would be worth it for me to kept doing it. That alone would have been enough to keep going on. What are people’s lives worth? In any case, I never got shit out of it and it’s like “fuck, if I’m going to get ripped off and no respect and basically just embarrassed and humiliated and aggravated,” so I’d just drown my sorrows in anything I could find. Plus I’ve cleaned my act up, got married, got straight, and uh, and the last thing I needed was to go back out there, especially with that lineup of guys. I’m not going to get on a bus with Pretty Boy Floyd either! (Laughs) They’re the stinkiest, smelliest, nasty fucking….Jesus! (Laughs)There was like a fog, a ghost ship following that bus. It was just a trail of tumbleweeds following that bus down the road. Just pieces of wig and makeup and stink and turds and toliet paper and whatever….And I guess everybody just….I guess Ricky really went…I guess everybody just really went downhill. And I don’t want to see that and be apart of that. And there is no way after all the progress I made, let that happen again. Plus when I had specifically said, I had made a few decisions and told Chip and told Obi and told everybody where my head was at and once again Chip just went ahead did whatever the hell. He was going to railroad me again. He waits until it’s two days before the tour and then tells me the tours on and that I knew all about it and was out of my mind and crazy and I’m just fucked up and that’s why I don’t remember and “what are you going to do, you’re just going to blow it off then and let everybody down? You’ll be out of the business and we’ll tell all the promoters and these clubs that you’re not doing it” and that’s how he’s always railroaded me into these bullshit things. So this time I told him, “yeah, basically, that’s what I’m going to do.” (Laughs)I don’t make any money. I never made any money at it. We always owe money. And Chip would always say, “you did all your partying and went through this much money and partying on the road.” Well I was the only guy who made anything out of it cause if I didn’t do that I wouldn’t have gotten anything! So at least I had….well, I don’t know, couldn’t say I had a good time, but I’ve had some interesting experiences. I figured, and with the labels we were working with, I’m just watching what I think to be really good music and really good works of art in my heart and soul, just get wasted and nothingness. Guys, labels, and the people that work at the labels, lying and saying they’re doing this and doing that and they didn’t do anything! You get some shitty little advance and they don’t give you the advance until two months after the record is already out. Hence the word advance! You know it’s just a pile of shit and the fans couldn’t get a hold of the stuff, so I figured well I’m just gonna go to my website and I’m just gonna start putting songs out on my website. Have a little donation to keep it alive and the members of the website….just this month I’ve been really busy trying to put together a little bit of a live show, and trying to make T-Shirt and jewelry, but I’ve been, up until now, I’d say in the last year I would say I put about 60 songs on my website. A lot of them brand new. A lot of old demos that I had written for Enuff Z’Nuff that we never released that I redid myself. Nothing really great production wise because I’m just learning how to engineer and do all that stuff myself now. I came straight out of the box, I put my first stuff right on my website. Here it is, you know? I stink, sounds like a ghetto-blaster but as I get better and better they’ll get better so bare with me. If you’re looking for quality production and stuff then you missed the point and that’s not what I’m all about right now. It’s bringing the music directly from me to the fans. And the fans, they don’t care. There are a handful here and there that bitch and complain about this and that, but what do they want? 60 songs, sometimes they’ll be 3 or 4 a week. I just put another out last week and doing some, it’s called “Vegas Vie,” I don’t know why they call it that but it’s like I’ll just go and grab like 3 or 4 tunes at random off the website and I’ll go cut a version of them with just an acoustic guitar and a little keyboard and a little percussion and vocal, and a new version of a bunch of the old tunes, and then new stuff, and really getting to learn how to use all that recording shit on the computer. I had it for a while but nobody showed me how to do it. I didn’t really have anybody around to show me and then anybody who is around who knows how to do it won’t show me because they’re jealous and know that I’ll be kicking so much ass once I know how to do that. I can just sit there by myself, no more excuses for why this is that or this is that. Everything will be perfect because I’ll be doing it all. But that’s what’s going on.

Plus I released a solo record. Which is not…..I didn’t set out to record a solo record. It was a collection of tunes that within the last 2 or 3 years that I was working with this other guy, Andrew Rollins, out here in LA, that a buddy hooked us up. We originally started out to write some songs for some soundtracks or maybe have some other artists cover, or what have you, and before you knew it, we had a good collection of songs, 12, 13 songs, and although they had drum machines the rest of the quality was pretty damn good. Organic and raw, nothing heavy. Very pop, straight ahead pop. And I was listening to it and I was thinking to myself, I’ll be damned if….it kills me, it breaks my heart….two artists went to cover a couple of the songs and I just listened to them and I’m honored and that might be where the money is at, when you get another artist to do your stuff, but I just thought my voice had a lot to do with selling the tunes. And what do I have to lose? I put it out on my own. I put it out on my website, released it there and I’m selling them there. I’m selling them pretty well. I’ve made more money so far with the solo record than I’ve ever made with Enuff Z’Nuff – in the royalties and stuff like that. All I ever made were advances and whatever little pieces of advances the guys gave me at the end of…when everybody decides that they’ll pay this and they’ll pay that. And I was always the last guy to have say about anything.

Plus in England, there is a label out there, Cargo, and they wanted the record. They originally got the ball rolling. They were like, “we’d like to release that thing” because I was playing some of it on my website. And they liked it so…..I was reluctant because of the drum machine. I hate drum machines and I hate that sound. I didn’t get the whole record cut with live drums, but half of it, the important cuts, Troy Patrick Farrell, he wants me to say Patrick in there too, Sir Lord Troy Patrick Farrell the third!

Jim Bob:I won’t get him confused with the other Troy Farrells out there.

Troy Patricia Farrell. But he’s a good drummer, good guy. As a matter of fact, he’s doing all the advancing and he set up this interview and he did all that shit, you know? It’s not that I couldn’t because I’ve been on top of everything. I’ve been making every decision, I did all the artwork, I’m doing all the…..just everything that goes on….it’s been me. My buddy Keavin from AntiMusic, he’s my partner. He does all the mechanical stuff, the website, program Flash….I don’t know how to work it. If I did the website it just be one big picture of me. But we got videos, we got….well that’s another thing I just got started doing. I got a new video program, Adobe Premiere, and I got all kinds of, well my wife probably has hundreds of Enuff Z’Nuff live shows through bootlegs and trading with fans, and some of these home videos and things the fans have filmed hanging with the band and stuff. I’ve got so much material of just, not just the band playing live, but all kinds of things you wouldn’t believe. Funny, funny, fucking stuff. And hilarious shit. Just hours and hours and hours of it so I’m gonna put together a bunch of little videos and stuff like that.

And with “Favorites,” we’ve got a record the Chip put together called “Favorites,” it’s his favorites I guess, “Favorites” is going to be released in Japan and I don’t know where else the deals been done with yet. But it’s sorta like a greatest hits type thing, as far as he’s concerned. But I got videos from, take for example, I have “Fly High Michelle” from the video to the very first concert playing it live all the way to my last show playing it live then. So I got clips from all that I can make videos, you know? And then throw in other shit, little clips of this and that, and it wouldn’t just be me, but I just think I have a pretty good eye for entertaining people, you know? Making funny, twisted little videos. We’ll see if I get my shit together and start popping a couple of them out. I finished one that I like but it’s not exactly ready yet and so that’s the next step to get that apartment open to where I can download those and MP3 ‘em, email them over to Keavin and he puts them up on the site. Because that’s what we do with the songs, you know? Sometimes I’ll write the song, record it, mix it, and send it to Keavin and release it the same day! (laughs) And if I want to do that, I can. That’s why I like what I’m doing. I can do whatever the hell I want to do, you know? Unless somebody comes along and offers me all kinds of this and that, you know, unless that happens, which I ain’t gonna hold my breath. I’m kinda making a living doing this now. Enough to survive. Which is better than before. And I’m finally enjoying myself and it’s no aggravation and I’m not stressed out….hang on one second.

Jim Bob:Sure.

(Donnie in the background talking to somebody: I’m doing an interview.)

Actually, that was the maintenance guy of the apartment building I’m living in. I do all my own maintenance because they do a half-assed job. Fuck it all up so I do a good job. Plus I break things so I get all new stuff. I just got a brand new kitchen sink and faucet out of ‘em. (Laughs) So I’m installing that now and the guy says, “you wanna use my tools? Come down and get them now.” So right now I’m walking to get his tools.

Did I out-windbag Chip?

Jim Bob: I think you did! 10 points!

I just figured I’d answer all the questions right away without having some asshole…..whoever is in charge over there, because they don’t like me.

(Donnie gets the tools)

Alrighty. Now I got his tools. Yeah, this place is cool. The last place I kinda got half-assed evicted out of. (Laughs) I mean, they made a fucking stink….they were so fucking picky. You still in a bathroom and write songs on an acoustic guitar in 10 in the morning, all of a sudden I get them pounding on the fucking ceiling. I like, “what the fuck,” you know? They made such a stink and they drove me and my old lady at each other’s throats and scared the shit out of her and everything. Finally we got evicted out of there. That’s ok, because I totally and completely trashed that place.

2. Chip says you’re still in Enuff Z’Nuff and your still a band, just a 3-piece right now. Well, are you still in the band and what’s the story?

I don’t know if I’d necessarily say that. I’m, ah, I’m contracted to do, uh…..I signed a deal to do another record. Let’s put it this way. Another record that says ‘Enuff Z’Nuff,’ you know, that’ll be the name of the project, and for Japan. With that ‘Favorites’ record, what they didn’t – nobody ever told me – was that there was another record too. There was another studio record – it was a 2-record deal. Nobody ever told me that, you know. So that’s why, when I said I quit, ’cause that was my intention. My intentions were to quit. That was my intention, there’s nothing else to talk about. You know, maybe someday down the line, you know, water under the bridge and this and that. But then all of a sudden, Japan calls up and they’re retracting their offer and this and that. Here I’m waitin’ for the money, I’ve been waitin’ for the money, you know, I need the cash! You know, here I’m trying to move, trying to rent a truck, and go to pay the Mexicans to move the furniture for me, a hundred and six degrees out. Shit, ’cause they all stand – in L.A., you go by like Builders Square or something like that and they all stand out in the parking lot looking for work in the morning. And so you just go grab a couple of them guys, you know, and give them fifty bucks a piece, you know, and they move the shit out of that stuff. That was great. So I had to pay them guys and this and that, and here I’m waitin’ for the money and then I get a call that, uh, after I’d, you know. ‘Cause the day after that shit happened with the Viper Room, I was like, you know. ‘Cause I hadn’t officially quit. I just left it open, up in the air and shit ’cause I wasn’t – just enough stuff had gone through and, I mean… you call it like you see it, you know. You don’t see me doing anything with them. (Laughs) You can say what… I mean, you want to get technical. But I don’t know who’s gonna be on this record, this other Enuff Z’Nuff record, you know. I don’t know what it’s gonna consist of, or how the writing situation is gonna be, or whatever, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s no big deal. It wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve pretty much written an Enuff Z’Nuff record. (Laughs)You know, I can pretty much bowl it out. There’s a couple that we’ve got laying around that we haven’t released yet. My idea was to get, to take the songs that we had — unreleased tunes – take those and maybe take a couple of cool new live ones, or just some interesting stuff we had, some outtake things, and then go and get Derek and Vik and record like 3 or 4 new songs, and take that, you know, like, call it the last record. But that was my idea – go out like we came in. ‘Cause as far as I’m concerned, I’m not interested in playing with the lineup that I left. I have no interest whatsoever. Especially, you know, you got people griping and bitching and moaning that they don’t think that I’m justified in using the Enuff Z’Nuff name to bill my acoustic dates or my, you know… that I shouldn’t be able to use the Enuff Z’Nuff name. (Laughs) What the fuck? If I can’t use it, who can? I wrote and sang all of that shit, you know. That band without me is basically, you know, like a shit without a turd. (Laughs.)

3. Which do you prefer & why:

Kool & The Gang or The Gap Band = Kool & The Gang or the Gap Band. I don’t know who the Gap Band is, but I love Kool & The Gang. Why? ‘Cause I used to play a couple of them songs in a wedding band I used to be in. Yeah, it was a funny deal ’cause me and my buddy Vic Jones, we put together this wedding band, and we used to sneak in, you know, when we were setting up our stuff earlier when they were bringing in the cakes and stuff, and we used to always stick our dicks in the cake.

Jim Bob: All right!

There’d be nobody around and then we’d see ‘em cutting the cake and stuff, and we’d always play (sings) “Ladies’ Night,” we did that one, and (sings again) “Celebrate” and all those tunes. And there’d always be these 2 big holes in the back of the cake. It’d be hilarious. We’d be laughing our asses off.

The Price is Right or Family Feud = Ummm… the Price is Right. I couldn’t stand that Family Feud. It’d get me into anxiety. Made my neck stiff. And the Price is Right, I’m pretty good with that, except the prices are pretty expensive. I always thought they charged too much on the Price is Right. But I think I had a lot easier time with that than with the goofy Family Feud.(Pause.) What kind of stupid question is that?

Zak Starkey or Julian Lennon = Oh, Julian for sure. I don’t know Zak, I never met Zak. But Julian, I know him, and I’ve hung out with him. He’s great. I even played with Julian.

King Kong or Godzilla = Uh… King Kong. I love monkeys! As a matter of fact, I don’t know why, but I’m obsessed with monkeys. I look them up on the web site and stuff, I watch the Animal Channel. I’m really obsessed with them, I don’t know why. Like, little baby ones? You ever seen ‘em? The programs and stuff. Aren’t they unbelievable? Wouldn’t it be great to have a little Capuchin, a baby Capuchin with a bottle and stuff like that? Up until, I guess, when they reach a certain age, they turn into complete jagoffs for awhile. I’m not into that. But, oh man, I’d love to have a little monkey.

Burbank, California or Crete, Illinois = Burbank, California or Crete, Illinois? Well, Burbank California for sure.

Rikki Rockett or Stevie Rachelle = (Donnie laughs!) That’s pretty hard. I think both of those guys are great guys. Rikki Rockett, I didn’t know him until the Poison tour. I got to meet him, and he was a super guy. He was really nice to me, I thought. And Stevie Rachelle, every time I ran into him – I’ve had a few run-ins with him and he’s always nice to me. Although last time I seen him, my wife had told me that he owned a moving company, and I went up and I was, like, bugging him… I was drunk, and I was bugging him about – ’cause we were moving at the time, and I was like, and it wasn’t too long ago. I was like, ‘Hey man, I need you to help with the moving’ and this and that, and he was like – he didn’t know what the fuck I was talking about, and he was getting pissed off I guess. I didn’t even know – I was just going by what my wife had said. He did the Cheesehead song up in Wisconsin, but he’s always been cool to me too. So either way, with those guys, I like ‘em both. Unless they’re the guys that run Metal Sludge because for some reason Metal Sludge has tried to fuck me in the ass for some reason. I don’t know why. What the fuck have I ever done to either of those two guys – Rikki or Stevie.

The Viper Room or the Cat Club = Which Cat Club?

Jim Bob: Uhh…. The current one?

I like the Cat Club. I don’t think it’s a very good setup for playing. It’s not set up too good for bands. The Viper Room, they’ve always been great. Done some good shows in there, and Johnny Depp, I mean, he’s one of my favorite actors. But I don’t know why they’re asking me that. I guess, uh, bad vibes against good vibes, but I’d have to say it’s a draw on that one. I enjoy ‘em both.

Sixty-Ten or Drama Queen Die = I don’t know much about Sixty-Ten. I know that Chip produced them. And that’s how I found out about what the fuck was going on with my guitar I haven’t been able to get back in ages. I was looking at the Metal Sludge, I was looking at the web site and I seen the fucker playing my guitar. The singer from the band Sixty-Ten was playing my guitar in a picture. And I was like, maybe that’s the reason I can’t get the fucking thing back. Everybody and their brother’s playing the fucking poor thing. But I got it into my best friend’s hands in Chicago right now, and he’s getting it all set up for me and I’m picking it up, and I’ll be using it once again, probably in Chicago. As a backup of course. I built a couple of my own.

Edgar Bergen or Charlie McCarthy = Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Charlie McCarthy, who the hell is that?

Jim Bob: Uh, that ventriloquist and that puppet from like the, uh, forties, early fifties.

Oh yeah. And who’s Edgar Bergen?

Jim Bob: Well, he’s the puppeteer. So, there’s the human, and then the puppet.

Oh. Well, I guess I’d have to go with the puppet.

Rocks or powder = Rocks or powder? Well shit, rocks! It depends on what you’re talking about though. If you’re going to have it thrown at you, I’ll take powder. And if you’re buying it, and it’s drugs? In the old days, back when I used to do drugs, and things that came in rocks or powder form, which would probably be cocaine, usually the rocks were better. (Laughs.) ‘Cause the powder could be dust, or fucking baby powder, or whatever. Corn starch. But then again, the rocks could be fucking toenails and fucking…

Jim Bob: Soap and shit.

Plaster and soap and this and that. I’ve smoked a few toenails here and there and fucking bread crumbs here and there when I used to be a fucking loser crackhead. But I would imagine, judging by Metal Sludge, that they’re out to throw it at me, so I would go with the powder.

4. How’s your current battle with substance abuse going?

I’m not battling anything anymore. I have no battles anymore. Once in awhile I battle my wife. Well, she battles me. No, I battle her. She’s a little princess, you know, and, uh, that’s the only battle. But it’s a marriage and it’s new and, well, she’s married to me. (Laughs) You know?

5. If you could go back in time and change any 3 things, what would they be?

Uh, probably, I wouldn’t have tried any drugs. I never would have gotten hooked on any drugs. And probably I would have had a lot more to do with my daughter. And I wouldn’t have, uh, I wouldn’t have left town to play that Enuff Z’Nuff show in Florida and leave my Grandpa at home to tend to his own – to tend to his own, you know, he had to do the, uh, you know, he had the kidney problems and he had to do the, uh, it escapes me now… but, you know, the thing where they have to, you know, they’d rinse the kidneys… what’s that called?

Jim Bob: Uh, the dialysis?

The dialysis! Well we were doing it by hand. ‘Cause they didn’t have the machine. So what I’d do is I’d come over 3 times a day, and he’d have the hoses going into his… and I’d empty them, and clean everything up, and then, you know, rinse it and fill them up with the fluid, and drain it, you know, and take care of that for him, and I’d come over at 6 in the morning, and at noon, and – actually, 4 times a day – 6 at night, and 12 midnight. Did it 4 times a day, but, uh, then I went to Florida with the band, and I came back, and I didn’t want to go to Florida, and I told the band that ‘I don’t want to do this,’ I said ‘I’m not going, and be by my Grandfather’s side,’ and I told Chip not to go calling them and he did, and he called them and gave them a guilt trip about why I was screwin’ up the band, and nobody could make any money. My Grandma and my Grandpa were like, ‘You go do the gig in Florida, we’ll be fine, we can handle it,’ and I came back, and Grandpa’s bag was completely – you couldn’t see through it, it was so cloudy and infected, and we took him to the hospital that day and he never came home. So I would have to say, I wouldn’t have gone and done that. And I’d probably, uh, well, let’s say four things: I wouldn’t have sold out my musical integrity for whatever easiest thing and most opportune thing that was coming along. I would have to – I had an idea in mind, I always had a direction that I wanted to go in, as far as music, and it’s taken me all this much time, through all the Enuff Z’Nuff shit and this and that, back to now, to get back to where I was before I hooked up with Enuff Z’Nuff. And this is now, back to what I was before then. So I don’t know… maybe I wouldn’t have joined Enuff Z’Nuff. I don’t know.

6. The last of Donnie:

Last time you were in rehab = Last time I was in rehab? Umm, fuck. That was a long time ago. I was only in rehab once. I went to rehab, shit, when was that? Umm… I think it was in ’93, ’94, ’95 maybe? I don’t know. Long fucking time ago. I probably could’ve used a few more rehabs. I probably could’ve had a few more times to go. I didn’t have any insurance, and every time I was thinking about trying to do that, it’s like, all of a sudden, everyone’s all game for me to go to rehab, until next thing you know, we got this Joe Blow tour to do, so forget rehab, you know. So then it’s OK to get a bunch of heroin and this and that and… well, actually, heroin wasn’t my choice of drug. I was never a big heroin addict contrary to what people might think and what people say, because the reason I was on methadone… and heroin, the reason I dabbled with that was just like a lot of cokeheads did, but the only reason I was on methadone was ’cause I got in a couple of bad accidents, a motorcycle accidents and a couple of car accidents, and I got scoliosis in my back and stuff, and I was on so many painkillers that, you know, when you go on a binge and you’re doing blow and shit like that, and the next thing you know, you eat ‘em like candy and you’re passing them out to people and this and that, then you’re scamming to the doctor, going ‘hey man, I lost ‘em’ or ‘the fell in the toilet’ or this and that, and before you know it, the doctor got – he was like, ‘fuck this!’ you know, and that’s when he signed me up on the methadone program. Methadone pills, the tablets, are the next thing after vicadins, and the luarosets, and the percadins and stuff like that, then they give you these little methadone pills, and they’re 10 milligram methadone pills, and so originally I had the prescription, and I wish I had of just stuck with that and not fucked that all up. Just about, I’m down to about 15 milligrams now. I’m drinkin’ it, and I got a million bottles of it sitting around. And, uh, you know, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. Whenever I’m hurtin’ and I don’t feel very good, I’ll take a sip here and there. But I would probably say by the end of January, I’ll see the end of that altogether.

Jim Bob: Cool.

Yeah. I pretty much quit smoking cigarettes too.

Jim Bob: No way!

I haven’t smoked a joint since I been to Chicago. The last joint I smoked I think was probably with Chip. Yeah. No pot, I swear to God. Swear to God I don’t even know where to get any pot out here. I never made a drug connection out here. I don’t go out anywhere. You can ask anybody. I never go anywhere unless I play an acoustic show or something like that. I just sit here in my little world here at my computer with my recording stuff and my web site where they can’t – where too many sticks and stones can’t hit me.

Last time you talked to Chip = Ahh, I think it was, uh, within 3 weeks… a month…

Last time you were arrested = That was fucking Christmas Eve, or Christmas… yeah, Christmas Eve of, what was it, 2 years ago? The last Christmas I was still with the band. Yeah, I think it was 2 years ago. That last time that everybody knows about, you know. That was Christmas Eve. I got popped, and I fell asleep fuckin’ with, uh, when I left my methadone in Joni’s purse, out when we came to play in Ohio, and we got on a bus with some other band, and I left my methadone in Joni’s purse, and I was all fucked up and drunk. And I was fucked, man, ’cause I had – ’cause we were all the way back in Chicago. We had to go all the way through, ’cause it was Christmas Eve, and the methadone clinic wasn’t open again until the day after Christmas. I would’ve had to do the fish, and rock back and forth on the toilet, on the potty for the next 2 1/2 days. Who the fuck wants to do that? So a buddy of mine had gone and scored me a bag of dope to get me through the thing, you know, ’cause that’ll do the job. You know. And that’s better than that. So I hadn’t, wasn’t used to that shit, and I did it in the car right out in front – right in front of Chip’s house, and I fell asleep, right there actually. I guess I fell asleep immediately with the car running and shit right there in my hand or whatever. And the cop’s tapping on the fucking (laughs) tapping on the fucking window of the car and, uh, and that was it. I spent Christmas in jail. But then I got out. Joni came to my rescue, and we’ve been together ever since.

Last time you shit yourself = Shit myself? I’ve never shit myself. Probably, I guess, when I was a baby. Probably the same as the last time one of you… the last time Rikki Rockett or Rikki Rachelle or you shit yourself. Or Bret Michaels or anybody. Or Jon Bon Jovi. We all probably shit ourselves when we were 2 or 1. I think, though, that I had the toilet thing down by 2 months. I was walking around and everything by 2 months. Talking, drinking beer. Smoking, I was smoking cigarettes at 3.

Jim Bob: Excellent.

(Laughing.) When’s the last time I shit myself. You know what, you guys are fucked!!!

Jim Bob: I didn’t make that up.

What a fucking question. That’s where though, I mean, you know, the mentality of… It’s like, these guys, if it IS Rikki Rockett and Stevie Rachelle, these guys – these guys are millionaires! They’re supposed to be classy fucking rock stars. What kind of fucking stupid shit is that to fucking… where, why would they even think of that? And I’ll tell ya, those guys can’t be straight!

Last time you talked to Monaco = Aaaaahhh… I talked to him in a few e-mails. We had a small e-mail war, and it was like, his e-mails were so pathetic. I got… I got nothing to say to him.

Last piece of paraphernalia you bought = What’s that? Paraphernalia? Oh shit, I think… that was back when I must’ve… does that count with alcohol? Or… I bought… I bought a…

Jim Bob: You know, like a hookah or a bong or something.

I bought screens or something like that. The last thing I bought was screens, or… shit, I never bought anything. Papers were like the closest thing. I mean, I always used to make pipes and stuff like that. The last paraphernalia I think I bought were papers or screens or something. That was probably back around the time on the last tour. And the Poison tour.

Last drug you did = The last drug I did? Well, it would be methadone.

Last concert you saw from the crowd = The last concert I fell from the crowd? What do you mean, ‘fell from the crowd?’

Jim Bob: The last concert, you know, that you went and watched from the audience.

Oh, that I SAW from the crowd? Umm… as rule, I don’t go to see too many like that. I went, I think I went and seen, oh who was it?(Long pause) Fuck! I don’t remember the last one I seen. I think I went and seen, uh, Cheap Trick and somebody else, I think it was last year. I met Keavin and my wife and a couple of her girlfriends and we all set out to go see Cheap Trick. My wife’s going to see Nelson tonight.

Jim Bob: Oh no!

Yeah.

Jim Bob: The Mustang!

She actually likes them. I mean, they’re good guys. Which, I mean, they should hail her, ’cause she’s actually a fan.

Last time you went to the dentist = Last time I went to the dentist? Umm… last Tuesday. I’ve been going to the dentist – I’ve got dental now! You know. People are going to be surprised! I’m working on the chops, man! There’s not much I can do with the old ones, you know. Just gotta get caps and stuff like that. Right now, getting all the cavities and shit taken… I don’t have many cavities. But I had a couple of bad root canals that weren’t done right. You know. And, uh, I used to get shit done just to, I’d have ‘em drill shit just to get some fucking pain killers.(Laughs) But, getting the bad root canals and that stuff fixed, and this one tooth that was cracked up and smashed, that I smashed, I busted when I was riding and was in a motorcycle accident, I busted 2 of my teeth out in the back. I got one of those put in. I gotta get one more of them put in. Then next thing I’m doing is I’m going for the 6 front white babies. Nice big white ones like in fucking ‘Something About Mary.’ You know, when Matt Dillon gets the big white teeth. That’s why my wife’s like, she doesn’t want me to do it ’cause of that. I feel like Austin Powers when he goes back into the past. They’re not that bad now, but I don’t know, they’re like, little pieces of corn.

Last time you went to church = Last time I went to church? Umm… last Christmas.

7. Who’s currently playing in your solo band, and how did you hook up with those guys?

I started out playing acoustic in clubs here and there, and Troy, that’s how I met him. He walked up and just sat in with the drums and started tapping along with me, and uh, sorta the same thing with Tim. I walked in one night and Tim was playing with the Happenin’ Harry and those Haptones or whatever…Hammin’ Harry or whatever he’s called. I seen them and they were doing a Hollins set and Tim was just wailing out on the bass and then I saw him playing guitar somewhere…the best vibe, the nicest guy, the most pleasant guy you’ll ever wanna meet. I was like, these are guys that would be nice to hang with, you know, there is no tension, there is no stress. It’s no big deal if I’m not totally polished up or the greatest guitar player or this and that, you know?

8. Do you plan on performing sober at our Metal Sludge Extravaganza #7, December 27th, at the Hi-Fi Club in suburban Cleveland, Ohio?

Yeah! Well I don’t drink anymore. I’m really not… I just don’t drink anymore. I don’t know though, I’m a little nervous about it. I haven’t played in awhile and this is a little bit more… it’s like any of those Happenin’ Harry acoustic things. I’ve not ever mentioned that I was playing, even on my web site. You know? It’s like, I never publicize them or anything. And so they were for what they were. Just play for my wife. And for the 50 bucks Harry would give me. You know, but, this is actually for… I’m actually promoting these, and I hope people aren’t expecting a hell of a lot, ’cause it’s just a 3-piece thing and I’m doing all the guitar, you know. The drums and bass will be really good. You know, Tim and Troy, they’re happening, but… I mean, I’ve been playing a little guitar here and there. But I gotta sing, and I’m going to try to do… it’s like, it’s gonna be weird… tough, ’cause I’m trying to do stuff, you know, harder stuff that… some of the stuff I’ve only played once in my life, and that’s when I recorded it. Wrote it, and recorded it, and never played it again. All my favorite stuff, and I just went back the other day, it was about a week or two ago, and we were getting ready to start figuring out what songs we were gonna do, and it’s time to start listening to the CDs and it’s like, when I finish a CD, I’d be so fed up with the thing that, you know, with playing all the parts, this and that, and arguing, and all the bullshit trying to get shit, shit getting all fucked up and this and that… I won’t say how. But I was so aggravated and fed up with the tunes that by the time I’m done, I don’t listen to it again, and I didn’t even have most of the CDs. And then a fan, a buddy of mine, this guy Neil sent me the whole collection, sent me everything, every demo, every Enuff Z’Nuff bootleg, every… basically, everything I’ve ever recorded since I’d met Chip. And there was 20 CDs. All the Enuff Z’Nuff CDs, all 13 of those. Yeah, there’s 13 of them with the live one and ’85 and all that shit, and then ‘Welcome to Blue Island’, which I like. And then there was 8, yeah, 8 demo and bootleg CDs, and I was going back and listening to them. So the other day, I was listening to ’10,’ and wow! I was really enjoying it. I was really enjoying listening to some of the records. Like ’10’ and ‘Paraphernalia’ and, uh, ‘Welcome To Blue Island,’ and ‘Seven.’ Man! And ‘Peach Fuzz’ even! There’s some really cool tunes. I was like completely enjoying them. I’ve never just sat back and listened to them – I kind of got a little space between writing those songs, and when I wrote ‘em, a lot of times, there wasn’t the best inspiration for why I wrote a lot of the songs, and then, so they weren’t… I just kind of got to listen to them sort of at a fan’s point of view, which is just listening to them for what they were. I really enjoyed listening to these records the other day. And I just sat there… they were trying to tell me, ‘hey, man, what about this song?’ And I was trying as hard as I could not to hear them guys talking. I just wanted to hear the songs and I was really getting off on them. There’s some good music there. So don’t expect a whole hell of a lot. I’m trying more, different stuff, some in higher keys and some things aren’t quite so easy to sing and play at the same time, and as far as rehearsing goes, we’ve only started rehearsing yesterday. And we’re not rehearsing tonight. So I think we’ll probably get 3 more in before we go and do it. And so, aside from the little acoustic thing where I’ll – that shit I’m not rehearsing at all, that’s just gonna be, I’m just gonna take requests and see whatever people want, and I’ll just work it out as I go along. You know? I’m just gonna… I mean, come on. I’ve written so many songs. I’m just gonna do my best at recapping them and remembering them with the crowd, with the fans, with whoever shows up. And it’s been awhile since I’ve been out, and I just hope people will still want to see me play.

9. Do you have any outstanding warrants currently active, and how is your current legal situation?

(Answered in question #1)

All those issues with legal and all that stuff has all been taken care of. It’s over and done with. I can go anywhere I want now, you know?

10. Do you think living in LA is a good idea for somebody who has battled substance abuse problems?

As far as I’m concerned, it’s a great idea. I, for one reason or another, I have had run across nothing. I just don’t… the only person I see is my wife or these guys that I’ve been playing with, and I don’t go anywhere. Can ask anybody. And I mean… for me? Yeah, it’s been amazing. It’s been amazing. My stomach gets sick when I think about Chicago and going back to Chicago and stuff, ’cause I just think about all the… I just know what’s going to be there, and who’s going to be there, and what they’re going to be there with and everything, you know. But luckily I don’t drink anymore because I can’t, ’cause I had a few problems with my liver. And I just don’t like it, the feeling anymore, you know, of drinking. Makes me feel all shitty and nasty and then I get all jonesy and stuff. And if I’m not drinking, I pretty much got no problems with the other shit. You know? Plus the wife will be there to help keep an eye on me. There’s no problem with it. And the guys, and the company. I’m just in a different frame of mind. I was miserable. Used to be miserable and I would do anything I could to not be in my right frame of mind or to not think, to not be able to think. And so I did whatever I could to occupy myself or to, you know, just to drown my sorrow in something or other. But I’m not miserable now. I just want to see everybody. I’m looking forward to seeing all my friends. Looking forward to seeing a lot of the fans. The fans are my friends, you know? I mean, Chip calls ‘em the fans, I call ‘em my friends ’cause I pretty much partied and hung with every single one of ‘em. (Laughs) So I’m pretty much looking forward to seeing everybody again, and I mean there’s not really going to be any time for fucking around. And that’s, the Ohio ones are, that’s the old lady’s family, so we’ll be staying with them, so really, nothing’s… you can’t get too crazy. You can get about as crazy as they get. And as far as Chicago goes, we’re just in and out of there. There’s so much work to do and, you know, I have to keep my wits about me. I got the holidays, I got to see my family, I haven’t seen my family in 2 years. And I’ve also got to try and remember the chords and what I’m doing here.

11. A few months back when Enuff Z’Nuff was playing The Viper Room, you weren’t allowed in the place because the band didn’t want you inside. Ralph from Metal Shop finally let you inside and you performed with Derek Frigo and Vikki Foxx. Did you talk to Chip that night about why they wouldn’t let you in, and what’s the story there?

(Answered in question #1)

12. How’s it been playing with Derek and Vikki, and do you want there to be an Enuff Z’Nuff reunion?

Yeah! I’d love it to go out that way. As far as getting back and playing with Enuff Z’Nuff again, that’s my preference of how I’d want it to be if I were going to play with Enuff Z’Nuff again. Wouldn’t mind getting the original band back together and doing a few like that way, you know. Doing some nice dates, you know. Japan and… you know, some good dates, and maybe just a few so that maybe, uh, maybe split the United States up into like 5 sections and make 5 different gigs and so that people from 7 or 8 states would have to come to one show, you know what I mean? You’ll have to come from miles around if you’re going to see the last shows. You know? And maybe we can go out playing to 5 thousand people a night, you know?

13. What’s the worst thing about cocaine?

What’s the worst thing about cocaine? Uh, everything. Probably, uh, when it’s gone.

14. Yes or no, has Donnie Vie ever:

Been hit on by a transvestite = Oh! Shit yeah.

Done blow with Tom Petersen = Uh, yeah.

Poured a beer over your monitor = Poured a beer over my monitor? I’m sure I have spilled beer on my monitor. I don’t think I intentionally poured beer into my monitor, but I’ve spit in a few, and put a mike stand through a couple of them, and blown a few up. Actually, you can make them resonate, once in awhile, when they’re feeding back, ’cause you hit a weird vocal note, I’ll hit a tone, you know, and all of a sudden this one tone will make it really, really shake, you know,(Donnie makes a noise) wwaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrr, and vibrating and feeding back really bad, and I actually worked one to where the thing caught fire. Just with the singing. I was singing a note, and holding it, wwaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrr, just pound that one note and worked it until the thing caught fire and blew up. But not intentionally, but I’m sure I have. Yeah.

Sang along with a Yoko Ono tune = I don’t think so. No.

Jacked off in an outhouse = No.

Had 3-way sex involving a woman and Ricky Parent = Umm… (long pause) I don’t thinkso! I don’t think I ever tagged with Ricky. Maybe, maybe we… it’s possible, but… I remember once when, one situation on the bus when more, it wasn’t just Ricky, it was Ricky and me and I think Amstey, and somebody else, and there was some goofy chick, and Ricky was really drunk and he was getting really hands on and touchy-feely and scared the shit out of the chick and this and that, and… I don’t know. Back in the time, the last, right up until the time I met my wife, my last chick, just the things I went through with my last girlfriend, I remember it put me through the wringer so bad and fucked me up so bad in the head, that I didn’t have anything to do with chicks for probably like 3 or 4 years.

Stolen a Rolex right off someone’s wrist = No.

Tried on a pair of Joni’s panties = Joni’s panties? I don’t think so. Well, maybe. In the early days, things were a little… I don’t remember a lot of the very first parties… you’ll have to ask Joni if I ever did that. There’s a picture of me wearing one of her dresses.

Worn a meth patch on your ass = Worn a what?

Jim Bob: Worn a meth patch on your posterior.

They don’t make ‘meth patches.’ You mean the morphine patches, you fucking rookie fucking dweebs! You guys don’t know shit! Get your fucking shit together! They’re morphine patches, and no, I never put it on my ass. I couldn’t wait that long for it to hit in. I chewed them. I’d peel it right off your ass and chew it! When I did them. Otherwise, then they hit you immediately and kick your ass. Otherwise, if you put it on your ass they’re supposed to last like 2 days. Who the hell wants to wait for fucking time release and shit like that? Chew the fucking thing til your eyeballs roll back in your head.

Taken the show with you = Taken the show with me? Well I took mine with me. I took my show with me, that’s all I know.

15. Rank the following solo artists on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 being someone who should have never left the band that made them famous, and 10 being someone that made the right move by branching out on their own.

Ozzy Osbourne = I guess he did really well. Well, what do you mean. Rate him on how well he did? I would have rather have seen him stick with Black Sabbath of course. But I guess he did a 10’s worth.

Sammy Hagar = Well he was, originally, he wasn’t with Van Halen.

Jim Bob: Uh, Montrose.

Well I don’t even remember Montrose or any of that shit. I never gave a shit about that band. 1.

Iggy Pop = I wasn’t very familiar with him as well. What was he in?

Jim Bob: Uh, the Stooges.

The Three Stooges? Moe, Larry and Curly? They should’ve stayed together, Moe Larry and Curly, I guess. Then Moe died. I liked Curly.

Rob Halford = I guess he’d, I would give him a low score. I’d give him a – what’s a real gay number?

Jim Bob: Uh… 3?

I guess 3.

Rob Zombie = What, he went on his own? Why would he do that? He was practically a solo artist in his own band. Wasn’t it?

Jim Bob: Uh, seemed like it.

What was it called?

Jim Bob: White Zombie.

White Zombie and Rob Zombie? What’s the fucking difference?

Eric Martin = Oh, he shoulda stuck with Mr. Big I think, but I always thought Eric was a great singer. But from what I understood, his tour, he had his wife playing the drums and stuff, so I’d have to go with a low score for him. I love Paul Gilbert and those guys. That was a great band. He should’ve stuck with them.

Joe Lynn Turner = Uh, I don’t think I can go with the 1 to 10 thing. I think I’ll just have to make comments on it.

Jim Bob: That’s fine.

Joe Lynn Turner, what was he in?

Jim Bob: Uh… Rainbow.

Rainbow? Uh… well, a lot of different guys were in Rainbow though. Wasn’t, uh, fucking…

Jim Bob: Dio, Graham Bonnet…

Yeah! Dio, Graham Bonnet, those guys were, I mean, Joe Lynn Turner would be the last guy you’d think of when you think of Rainbow. But, uh, that probably wouldn’t have been the best move for Joe to leave that band.

Lita Ford = What was she in?

Jim Bob: Uh… the Runaways.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard the Runaways. Wasn’t that Joan Jett?

Jim Bob: Yep. Joan Jett, Lita, Cherie Currie…

I never thought any of them chicks were very fine.

Gerri Halliwell = Who the fuck is that?

Jim Bob: The Spice Girls!

Oh, fuck! She shouldn’t have left the Spice Girls. I love the Spice Girls. I like her too. She was the redhead, right?

Jim Bob: Yep.

The whore? The slutty one? I liked her, man. She liked Enuff Z’Nuff!

Jim Bob: Did she?

Yeah.

DJ Ashba = Who the fuck is that?

Jim Bob: That’s the perfect answer.

Who’s DJ Ashba?

Jim Bob: He was in Beautiful Creatures.

Oh come on! Some of those guys are good guys. I like ‘em, they’re nice guys. I don’t… oh, yeah, I remember DJ. I get along with all them guys. I get along with Joe LeSte better now more than I ever did. They’re all good guys. I think Anthony Focx and them dudes are in there. I mean, musically I don’t really care. But I think they’re all a really nice bunch of guys.

16. The last time we talked to you, you mentioned that you taught Michael Jackson how to dance.

Yeah right.Since you guys obviously go way back, what are your thoughts on his current legal troubles, and do you think he’s going down for good this time?

Michael Jackson? Michael Jackson was a fucking great artist. I don’t know what’s going down with what’s happening these days. I don’t really believe it. I think he’s kinda been set up. You know, maybe he’s a little goofy where he likes to hang with little kids or whatever. I don’t know. I don’t know, I don’t even really give a fuck. A guy’s personal hangups are his personal hangups. As far as all that other shit goes, if the parents are nutty enough, they know what’s going on. If any of that shit did go down, it’d be the parents’ fault. Somebody’s parents’ fault. Michael’s, the kids’…

17. Which of the following would you be willing to place in your mouth for 30 seconds, and you have to pick one:

(Donnie groans.)

a.) A filet mignon that’s been sitting outside in the sun for several days, with a few live maggots living inside;

b.) A severed human finger, covered with live leeches;

c.) A cup’s worth of fresh vomit, with a few half-digested vicadins floating in it;

or

d.) Phil Lewis’ unwashed nutsack.

Which will it be?

Who’s vomit?

Jim Bob: Anybody’s.

Could it be my own vomit?

Jim Bob: Uh, somebody else’s.

‘Cause I took a shot of Jack Daniels and puked up my vicadins? I’ll take that if it were my vomit. I’ll go with the fucking vicadins. Phil Lewis’ nutsack? Yuugghh! And fucking, those others… what kind of fucking… what a choice! I don’t know, I think I’d have to fucking, I’d get in the fucking corner and put my fucking dukes up and kick the fucking shit out of anybody that comes at me with a nutsack, anybody that would make me do something like that. Whether it be, I know that Stevie Raquel’s pretty big, he’s pretty stocky and shit, ’cause he had a moving company and everything. And Rikki’s not that fucking big. Though he knows karate, don’t he?

Jim Bob: I believe he does.

Yeah well nobody knows karate when they’re sound asleep. Or when they’re not looking. And that’s basically how I’d handle that… I’m into the least amount of effort as possible, you know? So I’d basically just wait til somebody’s not expecting it, and just come up and bash their fucking head in with a baseball bat. That’d be the end of that. Then I wouldn’t have to put anybody’s ball sack or fucking pukey vomit or steak or fucking maggots or anything in my mouth.

Jim Bob: All right.

I think some of those guys are personally fucked for some of their questions.

Jim Bob: Oh, I know. I have to physically ask these questions they come up with.

You know what, you should be ashamed of yourself, too, ’cause I think you’re full of shit a lot of times Jimbo.

Jim Bob: No!

You act like you’re so bummed out, you hate to say this and that and then like you quit doing it. I heard you quit ’cause you didn’t want to ask those kind of questions, or you felt bad about it, but here you are. Here you are!

Jim Bob: But you’re my favorite person to interview. How could I turn down that opportunity?

Some of those questions are pretty fucked up, but I guess that’s Metal Sludge.

18. Which band would you say was a bigger influence on you: The Beatles or Cheap Trick?

Oh, the Beatles.

19. Pretend you’re in a psychiatrist’s office and you’re asked to take a Rorschach test, but instead of looking at inkblots, you’re shown a photograph of the top of Chip’s head. What does the pattern remind you of?

The top of Chip’s head? Fuck, I guess a, uh… I would have to say, uh, um, what are those things, um, a… a stealth fighter?

Jim Bob: Oh, OK. LOL! One of those black planes? Those black planes, those triangle ones?

Yeah, one of them triangle ones… (laughing)

20. Time for Metal Sludge’s Word Association. We mention a name, and you give us your thoughts:

Obi Steinman = Bully.

Michael Angelo = Michael Angelo? Oh! Uh, double-neck guitar.

Billy Morris = Sweetheart.

Happenin’ Harry = Fifty bucks.

Jack Russell = Umm… shit, I hate to even say anything, but, um, I think of, uh… Tough break.

Billy Sheehan = Bass guitar.

Jeff Overstreet = Jeff Overstreet? My computer!

Tom Lounges = Indiana!

Mark Bon Jovi = He’s my good buddy. He was one of my best friends. I’d have to say, uh, Jon Bon Jovi. No, I’d say, when I think of him, I think of, uh, let’s see, umm… oh! Produce! No! No, palettes. Put palettes. Those wooden palettes that shit comes on? He used to go steal those and make money with them.

Metal Shop = Metal Shop? Umm… Oh! I’d, um… humor! I think their record’s hilarious. I got their record and thought it was fucking hilarious. We sit and listen to it all the time. Those guys are great. You ever listen to their record?

Jim Bob: Yes.

It’s fucking hilarious, isn’t it?

Jim Bob: ‘Stripper Girl,’ ‘Thar She Blows…’

Oh, man, some of those songs are fucking hilarious. Those guys are great guys. I see Ralph in AA meetings now and then.

Jim Bob: Oh! OK.

Yeah. I don’t know if he wants anyone to know that, but I seen him at a few meetings.

We can always rely on Donnie to give us an entertaining interview and talk some shit! And who says nobody gives him any respect? We named a new Metal Sludge feature thanks to him so we’ll give him props for that. Plus he’s playing our Metal Sludge Extravaganza #7 this month so we wouldn’t let him play the show if we wanted to “fuck him in the ass” as Donnie put it. Not that there is anything wrong with fucking somebody in the ass! And he can also say he’s the first person we’ve ever interviewed 4 times, so he has that going for him!

 

For more info about Donnie, in case you didn’t learn enuff here, you can visit his website at www.DonnieVie.com. Once there, you can listen to the million or so songs he’s put up there as well as videos and this and that.