Part One: GG Allin On the Live Show

Interviewer's words are in boldface; GG's words are in regular text
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This is GG Allin. I came here to work, and I'm bleedin', stinkin' and drinkin' in Tampa.

GG, welcome to Tampa. Tell me a little bit about the Murder Junkies, your latest band.

Well, it's kind of a band that I put together when I got out of prison, and they're based out of New York. And... I don't know what to tell you about 'em. Actually, I haven't even really met 'em yet. They're rehearsing without me. In thе meantime, I'm just going through all this other shit.

It's likе, when I got out of prison, I had, like, things that I had to take care of before I could do anything. Any tour, or any, uh... y'know, I had to get the album done. I had to get, uh... certain things had to be taken care of before I could even tour.

So actually, the Murder Junkies is my touring band, and the name of the new album is Murder Junkies, and it was done with ANTiSEEN. So it's kind of confusing, because the album is Murder Junkies, the band is Murder Junkies, but the band that played on Murder Junkies isn't the Murder Junkies. So it's kinda fucked up.

You've been, uh... you've got a lot of records, and played around a lot of cities kinda on and off, touring. How do you get folks for your band? You have a lot of different bands. How do you get the band members, the musicians?

Basically, they call me up. It's like, people call me all the time, like, "we'll play with you when you come here", "we'll play with you when you come there". And I've got, like, a book. I just write everybody's name and number, and I... like, well, "when I go to that area I'll call him and see what he can do, and I'll call him and see what he can do", and it's like...

So you've got a band in every state, huh?

Well, at one point I had a band everywhere. And if I didn't, I'd find one, and if I didn't have a band, I'd do the show alone, so it was, uh... I mean, I can do shows without a band, sometimes more intensely than I can with. But, I mean, to me, the... I don't worry about the band. I set up the show... I mean, the band... sometimes we'll have a show two weeks away and I won't even have the band yet. I'll be like, "well, I can get that next week". But I always seem to get it, y'know.

And it's like... and I don't want to be too well rehearsed, and I don't things to be real predictable. It's like, I want to get the set down, and I tell the band, well, "I'm gonna do my thing, and you do your thing... you know, try to... you've got to follow me as best you can, and you gotta do whatever you gotta do." But I, you know... it's just whoever is ready at the time will play. You know, people always say they're "gonna play", "gonna play", it's like, you know... when the time comes to play, you know, "if you're ready, you're playing", "if you're ready, you're playing", "if you're ready"... you know, "let's go and do it". It's like, I mean... I don't... nothing's really for sure with any band.

I noticed in press clippings, there was a show that was like an open mic night at a club, and you guys just walked in.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh... do you have a lot of problems setting up shows? Do you do a lot of impromptu shows like that?

Well, we have a lot of problems setting up shows because clubs don't want to book us. So our tours consist of going from, like, Ohio to Florida, Florida to Texas, Texas to San Francisco, and... Seattle into Chicago. It's not like we'll have... we'll play cities and towns real back-to-back and close, to get to the next place. It's like, when we do a tour, there might be six gigs, but we might hit every part of the country in those six gigs. And we... you know, it's like... fuck it, we don't care. We've got to... I mean, if that's what I've got to do, that's what I've got to do. You know, if I can get the shows, then fine; if I can't... I'll have people calling me, "can you be in Missouri next week?" "I'll be there." You know, "if I can get there, I'll be there."

And I just... you know, I live in a room, and I've got a suitcase, and everything fits in it. And it's like... "well, can you get me a van? If you can't get me a van, you know, I'll try to throw together something, and I'll get out there. We'll take a Greyhound or whatever, you get us some equipment, and we'll be there."

It's very... the tours are so unorganized, but they're so great, because it's so spontaneous. And, you know, whatever we're doing during the day, whatever's happening during the tour reflects on the stage that night. Sometimes things completely fall apart. The main thing is what I do. My interior depths. I go off on the audience on my moods. It's sort of like, uh... therapy for me on the stage. So the band is... I mean, it's important that the band is doing their job, but the main thing is that I'm getting it out. I'm getting, you know... getting everything together inside, and just going out there, and it's like a war to me.

I set the whole room up, and you can feel the tension in the air. It's not like you come to a show, and you sit there, and you like... you know what's gonna happen. Most bands do the same thing every night, and everything's, like, so perfect. When you come to a GG show, you just don't know what to expect. "Is he gonna play five minutes, 15, an hour, fuckin' hour and a half, a minute, or what?" It really all depends on the mood that I'm in. But the tension is real thick, and there's just, like, lots of blood, and people getting fucked up, and just... anything goes. It's like, no limits and no laws. It's like, the main rule to a GG show is there are no limits. Whatever happens happens, and if you get caught in the crossfire, well, tough shit. You know, it's just what you've got... it makes it interesting. I mean, the shows are unforgettable. They're like, they're not... it's not just a show, it's a fucking... it's just... it's sort of... I can't even explain it. It's like, it's sort of like a war or battle. It's, it's... an intense evening of, you know, whatever the moods are in the room, and the confrontation between myself and the audience.