sandiegopunk.com

This interview appears courtesy of epunk-zine.com.

The following popup appears on the sstsuperstore.com site: “Black Flag will perform at the Hollywood Palladium on Sept. 12 & 13 ONLY. The reunion is a one-time event. Black Flag will NOT tour or play any additional concerts. ALL proceeds for the concerts will be given to animal-rescue organizations (i.e. performers are not being paid—this is a NON-PROFIT undertaking.) This is a different kind of charity—all band members are volunteering their time. NO MUSICIAN IS BEING PAID IN ANY WAY.

Below is an interview with Greg Ginn (the guy that started Black Flag) to talk about the upcoming shows. Here Greg discusses his new bands, what motivated him to schedule the first official Black Flag shows since 1986, the comeback of the SST Record label, and why he’s much more into catlovers than moneygrubbers. Interview done September 2003 by Sharon Needles.

Sharon: I feel obliged to tell you that you are the guy that inspired me to pick up a guitar twenty years ago. Thanks!

Greg: That’s great!

My understanding has always been that you aren’t a guy that does a lot of interview but that hasn’t been the case lately right?

True, and it’s because we’ve got a lot going on right now. As far as SST records goes, we’ve had a lot of distributor problems in the past and so we haven’t been able to put out anything new. We were with a distributor that went bankrupt a couple of years ago…

Aren’t you now with the same distributor that handles Epitaph?

Right. It wasn’t that we had bad distribution before so much as that when the last one went out of business we lost a lot of money.

Is the SST Superstore and the direct order website a result of the problems you’ve had with distributors?

Not really so much a response, most people still buy their stuff from stores these days. But with the Internet it really helps reach the people who are outside of the cities and may not be able to find some of the more obscure titles in the stores. And now we’re finally putting out some new records and so that’s exciting.

Bands like?

We’re starting with four groups that I’m playing with… I’ve been recording all along and so I have four albums finished. Three of them are by groups that I’ve been playing with that have had groups out before: Mojack, Confront James, and Whore. And then there’s a new group with Scott Reynolds singing called Fast Gato.

Scott Reynolds sang for All right?

Right. And these bands will be playing gigs. I’ve been doing my solo shows as well, and of course there’s the benefit shows that Black Flag are doing.

The benefit's for the L.A. cat shelters. I wanted to ask you if the timing of that had anything to do with the shows Rollins has been putting together on the East Coast.

No. Actually we’ve been planning this for a long time. This will be the real thing.

There should be no confusion. You’re the guy that formed the Black Flag and Henry was the fourth singer. I’m pretty sure that’s how the history books recorded it…

Yeah… there’s been an attempt to rewrite it here and there or imply differently… this show will be better than that.

I hear Dale Nixon is going to playing with you. How is that possible, I thought he WAS you?

Well that’s the rumor anyhow.

So will this be a special guest Dale Nixon or someone dressed up as you?

Dale Nixon will make a live appearance for the first time that’s all I can say. What’s going on with the benefit… It’s a one time thing for charity. I’m not into all of these reunion shows. Like the Sex Pistols, I saw them in the 70’s and I don’t want to see them in the 80’s or the 90’s or the 2000’s or the next millennium. It’s over guys. Go home. Personally I don’t have a problem if people want to go but personally I don’t go. I like to listen to new, vital music.

What kinds of bands?

I like all kinds of music. Not just Rock. I like Electronic, Jazz, all kinds of Techno. Country. I’m not real big on the Eagles.

I know you’ve gone on record as saying that you were a fan of bands like the Greatful Dead and ZZ Top. That’s something that I’ve always admired about you, that you weren’t ashamed or even hesitant to say “hey I like a lot of other music besides this cliché punk stuff.”

Oh yeah… Jerry Garcia Died and…

You were pretty bummed?

Yeah. I was seeing them a lot at that time. I saw some of their last shows. So that was kind of screwed. But as far as Black Flag goes, I chose to end that band in 1986. And every year since someone comes to me and says “you should do a reunion show, and make money” and blah blah blah. Promoters, ex-band members, I just never had any taste for it. Primarily because it would be so out of context. Black Flag used to keep the ticket prices as low as possible and really the band never was a commercial success in any kind of way. When the band broke up we were in debt. It wasn’t that kind of success.

I’d think that the real success of Black Flag is that you were the Johnny Appleseeds of American Hardcore. Every town you visited sprouted a scene after you left.

Yeah I’d consider it a success, and that’s great, it just wasn’t a commercial success. But to come back and do a show for a lot of money… I could use that money but I just never had any taste to do that. Promoters want to see a reunion because of the money but I just see it as kind of disgusting… All of these people just groping for money… When that was what the band wasn’t about.

Why did you choose the animal rescues as the charity for these reunion shows?

I got involved with the cat rescues, you know people that find the cats and get them spayed and neutered and adopted out. I’ve been involved with them probably the last six years or so. So I’ve become aware of some of the organizations, both small ones and bigger one, that do that. In any case, I had the idea that the one way I would do this is if it was a benefit for cats. So I asked the promoter, I didn’t know how they would react, or how the other people in the band would react… You know cats are something that I’m into but I don’t know if other people are as involved in those issues, but as it turns out the promoter Goldenvoice was very into it and some of the people that work there are very into cats and they were actually very excited about working on a benefit like this. So that was encouraging. Then I wanted to talk to some of the key people that, if we were going to do it I’d need to talk to. I’ve had old band members approach me as far as it being a money-making proposition, but taking the money out of it—I didn’t want to make any assumptions. You know to spend all of the rehearsal time and the time necessary to do it right. Not like these phony psuedo-reunion things when they just throw it together. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to put the time in, to rehearse and do as well as possible.

Who did you contact first?

With the first couple of singers our sets were real short, like 20 or 25 minutes. And that was it. We’d play on bills with 8 or 9 other bands, and that was how we played. It wasn’t until Dez was in the band that we really expanded out and started adding different tempos and different kinds of songs to our mix, and started playing up to an hour and a half or whatever. I just felt that I didn’t want to just play a 20 minute set and that if Dez would get involved then we could really get something going good because he sang on so many of the songs even some songs that we recorded later. And he was very into it, he was into putting in the time it would take to rehearse. He lives on the East Coast now, and the logistics of it made it difficult but we got that all organized just to do the two shows. Some people ask, “why don’t you do a tour?” Well, the people involved can't really afford to do that as a benefit. You see these phony rock ‘n’ roll benefits that people are actually making money off of them, but that isn’t the case here. We have to go back to doing what we do once this is over. That was kind of a factor with this, I didn’t want this to be one of those phony benefits where people are paid lots of money and then they give a little to the charity. I wanted to take that element out of it. The ironic thing about it is that a couple of the people that had been pushing me so much to do a reunion; once the money had been taken out of it they were nowhere to be found.

Will Robo be there?

Robo called from Columbia to see what was going on with the shows, and I told him that we were just doing the ones in LA and that it was a benefit and that there wasn’t any money involved. He said, “I have to be there and I’m going to do whatever I can to get a plane ticket. I want to be part of it.” He was into the idea. People like that coming through is what really makes it gratifying. I went into this with a lot of apprehension because it wasn’t something I really wanted to do but the bottom line is that it really could raise a lot of money for these organizations that are all volunteer and nonprofit. They put any money they get into helping cats so this will have an immediate impact. And you know, it is a pretty high ticket price, 27.50, but the whole idea was to raise money. So that’s why it’s happening.

I think that a lot of the people that encourage you to try to put old differences aside and get an original lineup of Black Flag together again are saying so because they’d like to see you get the money. You deserve it.

Yeah and I don’t fault anyone for doing that if they want. But personally I don’t even go to reunions. I’m more likely to go to a Techno club or a go see a new band or something. That’s not what I’m about. I’m not trying to be judgmental on what other people do. That’s just how I see Black Flag. One of the people that was really pushing to do the reunion, I told him it was a benefit and so he said, “how much money will I make?” And I said, “it’s a benefit.” And he said, “yeah but how much money would I get paid?” I’m so glad that the money has been taken out of it. Because now the people that are involved aren’t doing it just to cash in, it’s just to have a really good time and do a positive thing.

Catch Greg Ginn / Black Flag / other SST artists on tour:

http://www.sstsuperstore.com/show_dates.htm