Back to Part I

Jim:  Its really cool.  Its actually not as complex as you would think.  You’ve got main riffs that you go off of, and then everybody just kinda puts their two cents in.  It just kind of all falls together.

RNW:  Who usually starts it out?

Jim:  It depends.  It could be either Paul or Joey or Mick or I or Clown actually started one.  It just depends.  Who ever has got something, we’ll just go from there.  And if the vibe is there and we’re into working on it at that particular time, then it will end up being a whole song.  Like Skin Ticket, the song I was talking about before, that’s how that ended up being a song.  And then, there’s always the cachet of riffs, the surplus I guess you could say, of riffs from years past.  Those will get brought in and used or changed around or whatever and they’ll end up in songs as well. 

RNW:  The title of your new CD is “IOWA.”   Iowa is the band’s home base, right?

Jim:  A-huh.

RNW:  I assume you went back there to work on your material.  Is Iowa any sort of an influence for this next work, or is it just a title?

Jim:  Well, obviously, yeah its an influence in the fact that that’s where we were.  Its where we’re from, so that’s the type of values we have.  That’s the type of nothingness we went through, and that’s the s*** that we had to deal with growing up, you know?  So, in that aspect, I would say yeah, that’s the influence of it.  That’s why the title is that. 

RNW:  Is life different for you now when you go home, now that you’ve attained the level of success of recognition you’ve attained?

Jim:  A little bit, but not really.  Its still pretty . . .

RNW:  I think its kind of cool that you can remain pretty incognito.

Jim:  Yeah, I mean I can go to the grocery store without anyone messing with me.  But it hasn’t really changed at all.  I go home, the only thing that’s changed is that obviously my style of living has improved a little bit.  I actually have a place of my own for the first time in my life, you know?  And that doesn’t suck, but other than that, its just home.  It’s a place where you can go and you can relax and you can just get in focus.  Its not like the rat race.

RNW:  Not like the LA scene?

Jim:  Yeah, its not like a big roller coaster ride.  You can go back there and you can really sink in, you can breathe.  Okay, this is home, I’m comfortable here.  Now I can write, or I can, you know, go drive my car or ride my bike or I can do whatever it is that’s my outlet for that day.

RNW:  So it sounds like Iowa has a very positive influence in that respect.

Jim:  I guess you could say that, yeah.  I think it’s the center of balance, its both.

RNW:  How are your family and friends doing with your success?  I know its kind of hard sometimes on family.

Jim:  My family, it doesn’t really effect them.  My mother has been very supportive, so she’s just tickled to death that I’m doing what I’ve always talked about doing since I was begging her to buy me a guitar when I was 13 years old. 

RNW:  13 huh?

Jim:  Begged her and begged her from the time I was about 12 till the time I was 14 I begged and begged for a guitar and finally they bought me one for Christmas and it was a Memphis.  It was a Memphis Les Paul Jr. copy. 

RNW:  Wow.  You did a lot better than I did . . . I had some old chump dime store acoustic guitar . . .

Jim:  It was a pawn show model, you know?

RNW:  Hey, that’s okay.  You know Slash started out with a guitar with one string!

Jim:  There you go!

RNW:  If you could tell your family what’s meant the most to you about your success, what would that be?

Jim:  What’s meant the most?  I’d have to say it would be all the people that you get to meet doing this.  Cause you know, growing up and doing all this stuff before we got to the level of success that we’ve had, these people are surreal.  They’re just pictures in magazines or images on a television or on a CD cover.  Everybody – Disturbed, Sabbath, (head) p.e., Machine Head, all these bands that we’ve gotten to meet.  Its really cool that they’re actually cool people.  That’s probably the best thing.

RNW:  Actually, I could kind of say the same thing myself.  Just getting to interview a lot of you folks.  I’m in the media tent, just kind of looking around going okay, I’m supposed to interview Jim, or Paul, or Mick.  But I don’t know what the hell they look like!  But coming in here and sitting down with you, its cool. 

Jim:  Its weird cause it like a circus that you are thrown into and some things catch you off guard and some things you just don’t expect.  I mean, I didn’t know what to expect going on tour.  When Shawn called me up in 1999 and he told me, hey we’re going to be on Ozzfest, we made it, Steve got us on the tour.  I screamed and I was freaking out.  And then the bus showed up and I remember the first time the bus showed up at Shawn’s house I was just like – it sunk in right there – like, wow.  We’re really doing this!  I just had that tickled butterfly feeling, jumping up for joy, you know?  It was just an incredible feeling.

RNW:  So how did you get ready for that first Ozzfest?  Did you go out and get a new tat and some new threads?

Jim:  No, no.  I went out some luggage and I kicked drinking pop because everyone was like saying, man you gotta get healthy because touring really tears you up and da-da-da-da-da.  So I tried to eat better and all this crap and  . . .

RNW:  It is rough on ya.

Jim:  Well, basically, it just so surreal, it still hasn’t really sunk in yet, what we’re doing and what’s going on.  Cause everybody, I always thought it would be like me, hanging around with a bunch of famous people.  But everybody is so cool and on the same level.  Its just like, hey, they’re people.

RNW:  News flash – you’re a famous people now too!  (laughing)

Jim:  Yeah, you know, and it doesn’t seem like it.  I don’t think of myself like that. 

RNW:  Do you think it ever really does seem like it?  Even to people that we think are really, really famous?  Do you think it ever feels like, wow, I’m really famous?

Jim:  Well, I’m sure there’s some people who tend to use that as  . . . I’m sure there’s somebody out there who’s like, I’m famous, treat me like it.  You know what I mean?

RNW:  You’re right. I’ve met a few like that.

Jim:  I haven’t met anybody like that yet, but I’m sure there’s that guy out there somewhere. 

RNW:  Yeah, I guess they’re out there.  Definitely out there . . . Thanks for not being one of them, and for taking some time to talk with me today!
 
 
 

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Debbie Seagle is the Special Features Editor for the IconoFAN Network. 
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Posted by obtuse substance abuse:
Holy swiss- you guys have had this up for 2 years?! Cripes. ---Least I added my two freakin' cents.--- SLIPKNOT is the BEST band.