Interview: Mickey Avalon @ Studio A
Andre Legacy and Dirt Nasty (aka Simon Rex) opened up for Mickey. When these two Jigga Boos got on stage the first thing I thought was “ DAMN you guys are some major fuckin’ pot heads huh? ” Why? Well for one thing Dirt was wearing a pair of UFO style gray jeans that I’m sure if you got close enough to smelled like stale bong water. Not to mention he was wearing FLIP FLOPS on stage! Dirt and Andre were in good spirits though. Lots of energy, vocals were on point but more importantly they were LIVE.
The show had your typical hip hop set up. The dj in the back and two hot vixens (and they were hot I must say) gyrating on the sides. I like to call it The Cock and Balls set up.
I didn’t see the infamous WMC train wreck performance B.A.C wrote about but this one was definitely on the good side. This time around Avalon was coherent (at least I think he was wink wink). The first thing I noticed when Mickey hit the stage were his new tattoos. One was a depiction of a Mexican girl (just her head) with a flower in her hair and eye’s looking off to he side. The second one was of a sick ass skull with bugged out eyeballs. I thought both were well done ink jobs.
After Mickey closed the show with everyone’s favorite “My Dick” we met up in his tour bus and kicked it with him for about twenty minutes or so.
Mickey gave us some back ground on the tour and said, “This is the last one. We’ve been going for a month straight. We started in Europe actually. Opened up the Chili Peppers for like 60, 000 people. This is the last of the last. I was hoping I wasn’t gonna be too pooped.”
Traveling from country to country an artist has to have a favorite stop right? Well posing the question to Mickey made for a long mental search that I thought produced a funny expression on Mickey's face as he answered, “All of em were pretty awesome. There was this one city that I remembered created a super real loud noise. There's different sounds that hit your body. And there was this one town. I think it was in New Jersey. A lot of em are all ages shows. So there’s a lot of really young kids. Those shows are always crazy. No self-respect. No self control” I laughed at the thought of drunken underage girls going nuts for Mickey and the fact he really couldn't remember the best city he toured through. I guess that puts new perspective on the quote all stars say at the beginning of their show "
Aside from the dancing vixens on stage there weren't any props on stage. Previous photos I had seen on the internets had all kind of extras and props so we were curious as to why Miami didn't get the full treatment? The show originated in LA and had a lot productions parts like working chandeliers but where dropped as the show became more mobile. Mickey said, “That’s where it all started. We've been trying to take this sound abroad. That was the idea of the tour. They did not have it in this show (chandeliers). I don’t know why. But they said it would not look good with all the other stuff. I think their crazy. They said they set 'em up once and it did not look good. That’s what they told me over the phone. Basically back home we used to have real big shows. This is the first tour that we didn’t bring all of our props and dancers.”
Once Mickey brought up dancers we couldn’t help but ask about the chicks on tour and if he had any good stories to share with us. “These girls don’t do anything” he said. “All of my first girls were really fucked up. On the road you want some sort of balances. Getting 'em on the bus the first day is the hardest part. A lot of the girls don’t even show up. And that’s bad. I want them to show up. We don’t want em to die on us. I don’t want to have to call their parents. In the shows we use to do all sort of shit. My first show had a black body builder. One of first dancers was this girl, Mia that I used to hang out with a lot. I mean it wasn’t really dancing. I kinda of just throw her around a lot and slap her. She was on so much painkillers. She didn’t feel much.”
Oh my Ms. Mia. Once we heard those juicy deetz on "domestic abuse" we naturally asked for more on this ex-dancer and got the goods as Mickey explains “Mia was the best. The one that was all doped up. She started dating one of my friends, who’s no longer my friend. Not for this but for a bunch of other reason. He’s just fucking insane. And now she won't dance any more. She used to dance for free. And now I could actually pay her a little bit and their broke. But he won’t let her. And he said she couldn’t do certain things on stage. The both of us were all freaked out and just throw it all in the toilet. I wish I could get her back. I don’t know. If she was on this bus she’d probably would die in the bathroom…on the bus. We would have to leave her in Jersey.”
We all knew what he was referring to when he said they had to "throw it all in the toilet."
We talked a little bit about the new songs he performed that night at Studio A. I felt the new stuff was more dancy. Mickey replied , “All the first songs when I made 'em I never played live so they were made a certain way. A lot of 'em work well live but then these new ones were written after I started playing live. The subject matter is still the same. But now were thinking more about what works well live. And we’re thinking about what works to make people dance. For example 'Friends & Lovers' is a dance song but its about dead people.”
During the entire show I was yelling at Mickey to take off his shirt but he didn’t. So I asked him about it. Why was there less skin on his behalf during this particular performance? He looked at me funny, kind of smiled and said, “its just the end of the tour… last show. I’ve been getting naked. And I’ll be coming back to Miami soon. I was at the ocean all day yesterday. I love this place.”
In between a lot of jokes and laughter we talked a little bit about his 10-year-old daughter. “I’m excited to go home. I was more excited. Cause my daughter is suppose to be home. But she's at Horse Back Riding Camp and she likes it so much that she’s staying longer. I mean that’s the best thing about the business that she can have a much better life. And she digs it. Before we had to share a meal.”
The interview was comfortable and not over top. Mickey’s attitude was laid back and welcoming. It was a fun moment and very informative peek into the mind of a man that I think will end up being the Scott Weiland of this generation, a talent melancholy guy that everyone loves to party with and girls love to throw their panties at!
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