Warner Hodges Interview - Part One
October 19, 2002, Nashville, Tennessee
............ continued from pg.1............

James: Yeah, absolutely. [To Chris] Go ahead.
Chris: Okay, we had -
Warner: I like the one - the dude, “My front porch roof leaks like hell - any suggestions?” Yeah, see – fly me and Deb over, and we’ll fix it for you! (Laughter.) Or get off your ass and fix the leak, one of the two.
What’s this one. Were you going to go here? “I’d like to know if his carpenter work is enough of a creative outlet for him? Or does he need to play music to satisfy his artistic urges?”
James: That’s Barbara McDonald, yeah. I’m good friends with her.
Warner: Well, I say yes, but Deb says bulls**t. [To Deborah] Isn’t that what happens? Yes.
I can sum that up real quickly for people that actually want to know about that. That are fans of the band, or whatever. The music business is a weird thing. You do a record. You work your tail off on it, but it’s your little baby until you cut it loose to the world. And you’re holding on to it, and you get to control it, and you get to mold it, and you get to do all you want to do with it. Nobody else can mess with it. And then you turn it over to a record company, or whatever, and they throw it out there, and it’s no longer your child. You don’t get to take care of it, and pamper it, and deal with it any more. (pause.)
The construction thing - it looks like hell, or it wasn’t there. Now it doesn’t look like hell, it looks great, and we built it. Instant gratification. Nobody can take it away from you. You don’t have that in the music business. It just doesn’t work that way. I guess unless you’re Michael Jackson or something, where you throw it out there, and five million units later, four days later, you do have instant gratification. But for the Scorchers, it doesn’t work that way.
The construction thing is kind of cool, because I get instant gratification out of it. I come home at the end of the day, I see what I’ve accomplished. It’s a visible, tangible thing that I know about. The music thing, I just don’t have any control over it. If you record a record – you record the thing, and then it’s gone, and you don’t know. And you believe in it wholeheartedly, but it’s now gone. You don’t have any say in the matter any more.
Live show, little bit different. You got a say in that matter. You can show up, suit up, and put up. Hopefully. But I guess that’s the difference in the two. So, sometimes yes, I feel like it’s more than a great creative deal. Sometimes no, so...

James: Well, we’re going to move into solo projects.
Warner: Aaah, now we’re getting to the gist of it.
James: We’re moving to music!
Warner: Had to go through the things to get me interested-? (Laughter.)
James: Well, we’re going to move into solo projects.
Warner: Aaah, now we’re getting to the gist of it.
James: We’re moving to music!
Warner: Had to go through the things to get me interested? (Laughter.)
James: We have four people who would like to know – this is Tony Fryars of Scotland, Wayne here in Nashville, Kelly Adey of Bungendore, Australia – I really wanted to say that.
Warner:Wow!
James: Daniel Smith of Barrie, Ontario, Canada: “Are you currently working on a Warner Hodges solo project? Or anyone else’s projects?”
Warner: I am working on a Warner Hodges solo project. It’s not going to be called ‘Warner Hodges solo project,’ but I’ve found three guys that are just s**t-hot musicians. (pause.)
When I came off the last Scorchers trip, it was the first time I’d come home in a long time that it just didn’t feel right that we were coming home. I felt like we finally had everything clicking again, and we should be going to New Orleans, or somewhere else. Not flying from Houston back home and shutting down - again. Over and over and over.
And everybody’s been after me for years to do a solo thing, and I just didn’t want to screw with it. But I was fired up, pissed off about it enough that I actually – probably the first two months after that trip, I know I went out more in that first two months than I have in the last ten years, since I sobered up. I found some guys, we’ve been writing songs, and it’s pretty cool. I don’t know when it’s going to see the light of day, but I am working on it. And I’m pretty fired up about it.
I got a guitar player that scares the s**t out of me, which is really cool. He pushes the f**k out of me, and I’m real happy about that. And a really great drummer. Kenny’s involved. And we’ll just see. Jason told me I should do it. Jason’s been trying to get me to do one for a while. So, hell, I don’t know.
But, yes. I’m working on one. I don’t really want to get too ridiculously into it, but I am on it. Pretty fired up about it, too. I don’t know how the roots people are going to feel about it, but...(chuckles.)
Chris: So, we had one - Colin Jamieson, of Scotland -
Warner: Yeees.
Chris: - he wants to know, “I’m very interested to know more about his solo project which I believe he has happening. No doubt you will be asking him about that. Who is helping him out? Roscoe? Has Jason’s successful solo career inspired him to do his own thing? Will he be covering any Haggard songs?”
Warner: I like Colin’s Haggard idea. I’m a big Merle Haggard fan. I hadn’t thought about it at all, because there ain’t going to be a whole lot of country involved in this thing. But it’s actually a real good idea, Colin. Go looking for a Haggard song that we could take, maybe look at it in a different angle. Merle Haggard’s a great writer.
What else? He asked three or four different questions there, dude. Colin trying to slide three or four in, not one. I’ve talked to Roscoe about working on it. He’s agreed. We haven’t really got to that point yet. Still trying to get songs together.
‘Has Jason’s success –‘ No. No, it hasn’t. I just decided I want to do a record.
Chris: We had something else along those lines from Tom Hyslop from Michigan -
Warner: I know that name from somewhere.
Chris: “And most importantly, is he truly consenting to making a solo record or is he merely teasing his millions of fans? (Laughter.) Let him know I buy at least two copies of everything Scorchers-related, if that would help persuade him to finish and release it. ‘We’re not worthy!’”
Warner: Well, he’s probably one of the guys that knows – I recorded a solo record right after I quit the Scorchers in ’90 that, thank God, never saw the light of day, ‘cause it was pitiful. But, yes. I am really going to try to do a record. That is the plan.
James: Okay. Well, Harry Schiltmans of Tiel, the Netherlands has another question along those lines: “Did you ever consider to do your own lead vocals on a solo project?” And then a couple of other questions along those lines. Thomas Faw was wondering if “you would have any guest vocalists?” And Lori Timm says, “If he could put together a short-term side project, who would he call to join him?”
Warner: All right. Let’s bunch all that together. I’m going to sing. God only knows how that’s going to come out, but I’m going to sing. I actually was looking for a keyboard player. I basically wanted to do guitar, bass, drums, and a keyboard player. I found another guitar player, which made sense because I don’t really like keyboards any damn way. I won’t have any guest vocalists on my solo record, because why in hell would you do that? It doesn’t make any goddamned sense. If you’re singing, sing.
I’m hoping it ain’t just a short-term thing. I mean, why can’t I do this and the Scorchers? It just depends, we’ll see. I know I have managed to put together a bad-ass band. I’m extremely excited about that. But we’ll see. Do I have anything to say? That’ll be the biggie. I’m pretty fired up about it. I think I’ve answered all that.
James: Yeah, absolutely.
Warner: I don’t want to look at it as a short-term thing. These guys are all hungry. They’re all playing machines. And if we can get something out there and have a good time with it, I want to do so.
I’m a live guy; I should be out there playing. I want to be out there playing. That’s what I should be doing. The problem is I have to get that vehicle together to get out there and drive. So that’s what I’m trying to do.
Chris: This is a really good one from Pete Saxby in England: “I recently saw Lazy Lester at the Great British R&B festival, playing acoustic, and accompanied by a washboard. His opening song, was called something like “Blues Away From My Door”, and apart from the fact that it was acoustic, he’s in his sixties or seventies, and sitting down, it could have been you playing the guitar (in one of your slower moments) (Laughter.) - and I’ve rarely heard anyone else sound like that. Have you ever been tempted to do either the unplugged or blues things? Any chance we might get to hear this on your solo album?”
Warner: I don’t know. I dig blues stuff, but my problem with the blues thing is – most of the time, it’s regurgitation. I don’t mean that badly; I love a lot of the blues guys, and they’re great. I got into this argument one time with a fan. It was once again Jimi Hendrix versus Stevie Ray Vaughan. Stevie Ray Vaughan was a fabulous guitar player that gave you back basically what you’ve heard before.
Jimi Hendrix gave you s**t that you had never heard before, and thirty years later, still have no clue what the hell he was doing. Jeff Beck - still don’t have a clue what he was doing. There is a difference there. Jimi Hendrix pushed the envelope. (pause.)
I don’t know. I’ve never approached rock music from a blues base for that reason. One of my favorite guitar players in town, Kenny Greenberg, is one of the best blues players I’ve ever seen in my life, and I love seeing him play, and he’s a great player. But the envelope is not going to get pushed. It’s regurgitation of information. I don’t mean that badly.
I’m not an unplugged dude, man. I’m an electric guitar guy. Most of the time when I play acoustic guitar, it’s because we need the second part, or I need to play the part so we can get it over with, not because I feel like playing acoustic guitar. I don’t even own an acoustic guitar. I have to borrow one every time we cut. So, probably not. If I do a solo record, there probably won’t be a whole lot of – well, I can damn well guarantee there won’t be any acoustic guitars on it. Now that I’ve said that, watch me come up with six of these “ohhh, baby…” (laughter.)
James: Well, Barbara McDonald has a question about your past solo efforts: “Did Warner ever tour with Jerry Dale McFadden? The guy with him in Columbia looked just like him, but at that time I’d only seen Warner twice, so I wasn’t sure.”
Warner: No. I love Jerry Dale McFadden, and I played on his record, but I never toured with him. I never got asked to – I would have. Jerry’s a good guy. He’s a piano playin’ fool, too. If I have any piano on my record, that’s who I’ll call. He’s a piano playin’ fool. But no, I never did tour with Jerry Dale.
Chris: I got this one from Jeff Baker. “You appear on the Sluggers album in 1986...how was that recording experience?”
Warner: Oh, God, this is going to be a crappy answer, y’all. First off – God, this is going to be so horrible…I don’t even remember playing on the – I know I did, but I don’t remember doing it. I think we did it in Memphis, and I think Terry Manning did the record. But I don’t remember. I know I played on the record, but I don’t remember. (pause.)
I’m sorry – and it wasn’t a drunken thing, I just don’t remember. I actually sat here – I saw that, and I was trying to think about it. I’m almost positive it was something we did in Memphis, but I don’t remember the track, or anything.
James: Well, Jeff has another question about your work with the Questionnaires.
Warner: I remember that.
James: “For a short while you hooked up with Tom Littlefield and the Questionnaires..what was that like? Doug Lancio is a good guitar player. How did you adapt some of his recorded work to your live show with the Questionnaires?”
Warner: Well, Littlefield – Tom Littlefield is a real old buddy of mine and Jeff Johnson’s. The night I met Tom Littlefield, he was beating Jeff Johnson’s head in the pavement. Years ago – probably 22, 23 years ago, him and Jeff come flying through a window at the door I was getting ready to knock on. (laughter.) And he looked up at me and went, “Hi. Tom Littlefield.” And proceeded to keep going back to beating the hell out of Jeff.
But Tom’s an old buddy for years. Tom’s Woody Herman’s grandson. A talented guy. Do you guys know about the Questionnaires at all? Do you know about their stuff?
James: Very little.
Warner: They were a great band. Anyway, I was buddies with all of them. Doug Lancio, Chris Feinstein played bass, Hunt Waugh was the drummer, and Littlefield. Tom co-wrote a lot of stuff on my original solo record that never came out, which he’s probably quite happy about. The songs were good; the playing was very suspect. Tom’s a great guy.
Long story short – they got their record done, tour set up, and I don’t know why, but Doug and Chris both quit. And he was stuck with a tour that was booked, and it was him and a drummer. So he called me, and asked me if I’d do it. And I’m real good friends with Doug, I was real good friends with Tom. I checked with Doug to make sure that wasn’t going to bother him at all. I didn’t want to get in the middle of their tiff. It was fine with Doug, so I did the tour to help Tom out, and had a great time. But basically, all I did was try to learn the records, and basically tried to do Doug’s parts. Doug’s a real good guitar player. I actually toyed with the idea of trying to get Doug to play with me, but he’s kind of got three or four things going on right now.
But it was a fun thing for me. It was kind of a hard tour, because Tom had watched his band fall apart. I played in that; Keith Christopher, who plays in the Yayhoos with Dan Baird and Roscoe was the bass player on that tour. He covered Feinstein’s part. And it was fun – it was a weird tour. They actually had a song going at radio at the time, and it was a little hard on Tom. Because he had worked real hard to put his band together, to watch it – I mean, they finished a record; it was a great record, it had some airplay, had a tour booked, and half the band quit. So, I was just trying to help out a buddy.
Chris: Okay…we already asked this one, basically…(pause.)
Warner: Didn’t ask about the Gang, man. (pause.) Bill Grant. Marlborough, Connecticut. [Was there ever any material recorded when you were involved with Roscoe’s Gang?]
Chris: Oh, okay.
Warner: See, we got to jump Roscoe, because we did go in the studio, and we recorded a whole bunch of stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day. So Roscoe needs to put that s**t out. I’ve actually talked to him a couple of times recently, and he said that he’s thinking about putting some of the stuff out. We cut that s**t in – ’89, ’90. Something like that. But it was great.
He had a – God, his drummer - Ron Gremp. Oh God, that drummer was good. He used to play – he was a guy in the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. He was the drummer. He called himself a Sparedevil - he was a replacement drummer, or something. But he was a great drummer. But we had a good time, and recorded a bunch of stuff in Springfield, Illinois with Lou Whitney, from the Skeletons. It was fun. Anyway, jump Roscoe about it. Y’all know Roscoe? Do y’all know Eric?
James: I mean, I know his work. I don’t know him personally.
Warner: Y’all would – you would love Eric. Eric’s a good guy, yeah.
James: He was in the Del-Lords.
Warner: He’s been in a whole lot of things, man. He put together Joan Jett’s Blackhearts. I mean, he co-wrote “I Love Rock n’ Roll.” Roscoe’s a seriously talented dude. Seriously good dude. Any playing I did in between quitting the Scorchers and the Scorchers getting back together – any bit of it that I did was because he was kicking me in the butt trying to make me play. Even when I didn’t want to and was arguing with him about it. But he’s a good dude. I’d like to see some of that stuff come out, because it’s fun stuff.
James: So, a guy who really believes in you.
Warner: He’s just a good dude.

James: Well, let’s move on to guitar style – your own personal –
Warner: I’m glad we’re skipping the Iggy Pop question. That’s good. (laughter.) I can answer it, but it’s not a pretty answer. (Warner laughs.)
James: Well, Lee Underwood of Owensboro, Kentucky wants to know “What player or song made him want to initially pick up the guitar?” I think you’ve answered this.
Warner: Many a time.
James: It’s the AC/DC one.
Warner: Many a time. First time I saw AC/DC. It was like – I was a drummer, man – it was like, ‘Who wants to sit in the back? I got to learn how to do THAT.’ (chuckles.) Plainly and simply. But it was AC/DC with Bon Scott. Big diff-er-once.
Chris: Okay, we had this guy [Harry Schiltmans] from the Netherlands again: “By which other guitarists are you influenced?”
Warner: That’s a weird one. I kind of got into it – I’ve kind of backed out of the – what is it…what’s the damn website thing that I’ve been visiting every now and then…the Butternut Saloon thing.
James: Butternut Station, yeah.
Warner: Yeah. They’ve got the guitar thread thing going. I noticed you threw a thing in there – ‘let’s get this thing back going.’ I’ve kind of backed out of it, because I thought I was going to have a real good time in there, and I think all I did was alienate a bunch of people, and they quit going to it. And that wasn’t what I was trying to do at all.
So, I listed in there – I’m influenced by the same s**t that everybody in my generation was. I mean, first off, my early influences were the country stuff that my parents threw at me. Things like Albert Lee, and James Burton. Some of those guys – more rockabilly kind of things. Hell, my biggest influence would be Little Richard. The king of rock n’ roll, period. Period. We just saw Little Richard last week. He’s seventy years old, and he can still throw down. Dude can’t move around much, but he opens his mouth, and it’s like, ‘My God. That’s the real thing there.’ It wasn’t Chuck Berry, who is a shadow of himself now. I love Chuck Berry; don’t get me wrong, and I’m glad Chuck Berry is making the money he can make. But Little Richard opened up his mouth, and sang “Good Golly, Miss Molly,” and it’s like, ‘Whoah! It’s the dude! It’s 1952, and the dude can still throw down.’
But the guitarists - all of that kind of stuff, all the old rockabilly stuff. But then, as I got to listening to rock music, it was Hendrix, Page, Jeff Beck, even Eric Clapton. God, I hate saying that. In Cream, thank God. My older brother liked Cream. The Stones, always the Stones. You can’t go wrong listening to Keith Richards. It’s rock and roll rhythm guitar 101; he’s the one that created it.
[Looks out window.] Wow – deer in the yard. Right on this corner, you probably can’t see him, that’s great. He’s heading up through the treeline. There goes his fawn. That’s great. That’s what’s great about living in Tennessee, now. Y’all are in Kansas, though. Y’all probably have that, don’t you?
Chris: Yeah.
Warner: But, and then I moved on to – I got into the New York Dolls. And then later on – which, the guitar players - that was more really cool s**t to listen to. I mean, the guitar players in the Dolls, it wasn’t like there was any real guitar playing going on, it was just organized racket, which was cool. The Pistols, which was organized racket, but it was cool. It wasn’t like you were going to have to sit home and study for three to four weeks to be able to play that s**t. (laughter.) And then the AC/DC stuff, the Cheap Trick stuff.
Hell, I’ve even - listening to a little bit of new stuff, not a lot. Audiovent, this SR-71 band. I went to Buzzfest a couple, three weeks ago. Took a fourteen-year-old to Buzzfest to go see Nickelback, or whatever their name is. Sounded like Foghat, or something. I find it really funny that all these alternative bands, ‘we’re going to do things different.’ And it was like watching Foghat in 1972, you know. It was just flash pots, smoke bombs. They stood there and played. And it was like, ‘well, this is Foghat, man. I’m glad y’all are alternative. I’m glad y’all have got this brand new thing to say. (laughter.) Les Pauls through Marshalls with smoke bombs and flash pots. You are doing it differently, man. Play ‘Slow Ride.’’
My fourteen-year-old’s sitting by my side. One of the bands breaks into “Heartbreaker” by Led Zeppelin. She goes, “Oooh! I like this song.” I said, “Yes, honey, it’s a Led Zeppelin song.” She slams down in the chair and goes, “It figures.” But I saw a couple of bands that day that I didn’t know about. Audiovent and SR-71 – they were great. They were really good. So, I don’t know…I mean, I listen to all of it; I don’t listen to any of it. You know, I was influenced by all of it.
I guess there’s two kinds of players. ‘Cause I notice there are things in here [the questions], like dudes wondering why all I own is AC/DC records. There’s two types of musicians that I know of: the type that listens to music all the time, and the type that don’t ever listen to music. And I kind of fall into that one. I don’t listen to much music. Whatever I’m listening to, I end up sounding like; playing like. It’s like a human walking tape recorder, because all that s**t does influence me. So I just don’t listen to music a lot any more.
There aren’t a whole lot of things that I listen to that I go, ‘wow, cool.’ If I start listening to it, and I start realizing – if I’m sitting there, going ‘wow, I wonder what kind of mike they used on the hi-hat,’ I’m not listening to music any more. I’m tearing the music apart. The AC/DC thing – when I hear the band, I’m still that fifteen-year-old kid that goes, ‘Damn, I got to go get a guitar.’ And that’s cool that it still does it to me all these years later.
I just found on the internet a couple of weeks ago – there’s a version of “Back in Black” with Bon Scott singing that I didn’t know was out there. And I saw it on the internet, and popped it up because it said ‘very rare, featuring Bon Scott.’ And I’m like, ‘he was dead when they did “Back in Black,” you know, okay.’ And it’s Bon Scott singing “Back in Black.” ‘Cause he died, like, three days into the sessions, so they must have gotten some vocal tracks on it. And the hair stood up on my arms.
Track’s okay; it wasn’t a finished track, but the dude should have sang the song. The song was his song. It was nine million times better than the AC/DC version that everybody knows and loves, which sold 22 million records. But it was like, ‘Wow, there’s the voice that should have been on that song.’ It was pretty incredible stuff. I don’t know - I’m kind of going off on a tangent now, but it made my hair stand on end. I drove everybody here nuts for two days just replaying that one song, over and over and over.

James: Well, Jack Kolmansberger of Newtown Square, Pennsylvania wonders, “When did you first discover that you could defy gravity by spinning and playing at the same time?” (Warner laughs.) This is one I’d really like to know.
Warner: Hell, I don’t know; I don’t know. I think all that comes from, back in the old days – I mean, the Scorchers…every one of us was the front man in their own band at some point. Part of the Scorchers was the fact that all four of us were dying to be on damn stage. Performers, whatever. We’ll juggle for you, whatever.
And I think that just came from the old days, when it was a three-ring circus. I mean, when we first started out, part of the thing with the band was, everybody was: ‘Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!’ You know, ‘how can I out-do you? How can I out-do you?’ I mean, that’s what it was, just four hams, going, ‘Look –‘ What is a live musician, anyway? You want to stand in front of as many people as possible, and go, ‘Look at me!’ That’s all that live music is. It’s what it is. Even introverts want to do it – Jason. He’s a light switch. He walks back into the dressing room, and it’s ‘click,’ it’s over. But when he’s on the stage, it’s ‘Look at me.’ That’s what it is.
I think that came in those days; I don’t remember. I know I did it way back there – the first wireless unit I bought, I bought because it was cheaper than buying the amount of guitar cords I was going through. Because I was shredding guitar cords like crazy, and couldn’t afford fifty dollars a pop twice a week. It was cheaper to buy a wireless unit and not have to buy guitar cords. So, I don’t know. I don’t know about defying gravity. I know that I’m not defying gravity quite as well any more, I know that.
James: Well, Chris has a follow-up to that.
Chris: I’ve been dying to know this one since I first saw the tapes. Where does this – where you spin the guitar around. I always love that, man. I wondered where that originated.
Warner: I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know that one either, I know…(chuckles.) You guys know about this clown Yngwie Malmsteen? (General assent.) Y’all know about him at all? Years ago, I know he used to do it. And I had a run-in with him in Holland. (chuckles.) He was on a PinkPop bill that we were on, and he was giving me a load of s**t because I had supposedly stolen his move, that I’d been doing for three or four f**kin’ years. I didn’t even know who Yngwie Malmsteen was, and could give a shit today, too. (laughter.)
We were playing this PinkPop festival, and you basically got forty minutes. It was one of those two-stage, side-by-side things. As soon as one band stopped, the next band started. And each band played forty minutes. If your gear technicalities or anything got in your way, then however long it took you to get it started, you lost out of your show. Well, he lost 26 minutes trying to get his guitar-twirl thing together so they could play, and then got pissed off when they let him play fourteen minutes, and shut him down. And then we played, and he got all pissed off at me because I stole his move, and all that s**t.
But I don’t know – ’82, ’83, ’84, something like that – I don’t know when I started. It was just a gunslinger thing, or something, I don’t know. I catch a lot of grief for that.

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