My interview with
Jason

Okay, so my friend Desiree and I got to interview Jason Kendall last Friday night, Jan. 15th at the Green Room in Providence, where he brought a special treat for me--Jack!! Jack was filling in on bass for the band The Pull-Tabs there. So I interviewed both of them before the show. When I figure out how, I'm going to put the audio online for those of you who, like me, just can't get enough of that voice (and Jack's accent?? What accent??) But for now, here it is. Besides being on mine, it will be up on many different websites:

The Amazing Crowns official website
Pollilop's Fanzine
Raskal Zine

Jamie Lynn: Hi I'm Jamie Lynn, and I'm interviewing Jason "King" Kendall of the Providence Rhode Island....and Jack!!! Too! I feel bad now. I'm sorry Jack!
Jack: It's ok.
JL: I didn't know you were going to be here.
Jack: Ok.
JL: Ok. So, introduce yourselves.
Jack: Hi I'm Jack and I play the bass.
Jason: I'm Jason "King" Kendall and I...jump around. A lot.
JL: Yes, you do! Okay. My first question is, I understand where your background in punk rock came from, now where did the background in rockabilly (Jason was looking at me funny...)...ya know what I'm sayin?
Jason: I'll let Jack field that one first and then I'll go for it.
Jack: Wh...where's the origins of rockabilly?
JL: No, for you guys, how did you start getting into it?
Jack: Oh, oh. I think the first band that I ever saw that was definitely rockabilly-influenced was the Flat Duo Jets. But I started playing bass...I started getting interested in bass more like, through Horton Heat, lot of the early stuff. That's definitely my introduction to it.
Jason: My side of it was, I used to live in Germany, there was a big psychobilly group there, in '85, and I think the first band I saw that was mildly connected to rockabilly was the Iguana Bats, and then the Meteors, which were English psychobilly bands. And then I got into it from there. Jack and I both got deeper into rockabilly after seeing all these new, neo-kinda rock, punk rock, rockabilly bands.
JL: Now was it you two that first started the band? Or was it you (pointing to Jason) and...
Jason: Well, Johnny, Jack and I worked together, primarily.
JL: Now your first drummer was....Dana, right?
Jason: No, actually our first drummer was this girl Tina from Virginia who we still see all the time. We saw her last time we went through. Yeah, we've gone through a lot of drummers. It's hard to find someone who wants to tour as much as we do.
JL: So, what made you decide to start a band? Were you just sitting down one day, and said, "Let's start a band!!"
Jason: Always been in bands, you know, on and off. Jack has been in a lot more bands than I have, Jack was always in bands too, ever since...
Jack: Yeah, you know....I wanted to play bass....you know I definitely, it wasn't like I...you know I definitely wanted to play bass in a band, you know? I didn't have an upright at the time but I was in the process of getting one. And when I did get one, I kinda was the only guy who had one, even though I didn't know how to play it, I was the only guy who had one! At that time. Now there's a lot more players. But at that time I was the only one around.
Jason: And then we got together, and it was like, "he's got a stand-up bass! Oh my God!!" But then he's progressed into this...monster.
JL: He is. So how long have you two known each other?
Jason: About six years...
Jack: It's been awhile now.
JL: And you've known everybody else for about the same....
Jason: You mean, in the band? Well, Judd we've only known since we've been in the band...
Jack: Yeah, we met Judd through being in the band, because his old band, the Country Bumpkins, used to open for us in Boston.
Jason: Yeah, and the Speed Devils, too.
JL: They're playing here....
Jason: Yeah, they're playing with us at the Payback.
JL: They are?
Jason: Yup.
JL: YESSSS!!!! (I love the Speed Devils)
Jason: Yeah, there's a lot of good bands....
JL: Good, cuz I can't come see them here (fuck 21+ shows!!!)
Jason: Yeah, it'll be all-ages there.
JL: So....where was your first gig ever as the Royal Crowns?
Jason: First gig ever...was that Dick Dale?
Jack: That was the first show. But the first time we ever played out was actually on the radio.
Jason: Oh that's right!!! WRIU!
Jack: That was our first time out.
Jason: That's when I said, "kneehigh to a grey hopper" (?) I think, or something really stupid...really goofy. We were real nervous.
JL: I bet!
Jason: It was our first time out.
Jack: What was the other thing you said...welcomining??
Jason: Yeah, welcomining! God, I was so tongue-tied.
JL: So when you first started, when you guys first started, you were the 'Royal Crowns'?
Jason: Yeah.
JL: Now what was it that made you guys change it to 'Amazing'? Did it have anything to do with Royal Crown Revue?
Jason: Yeah, it did. It did. We thought that would be enough. They had said something to us about, ya know, getting rid of the name, or changing it, so we agreed. So we thought that would be enough.
JL: Apparantly it wasn't 'enough'.
Jason: No. That's okay, though. We're cool with it.
JL: Do you think you'd be bigger with like, MTV, and the top 40...I mean you'd rather have it this way?
Jason: Yeah...whaddaya mean, the way we're at now?
JL: Yeah. I mean, you guys are huge.
Jason: No, we're not.
JL: Well I mean you gotta figure, you're probably the biggest band that's come out of Providence, in quite awhile.
Jason: We work harder than any other band, I think. But it's hard for us to get perspective because we're gone all the time, ya know what I mean? And as far as like MTV and all that other shit, you're right. I'd rather keep it the way it is. We'd rather keep it the way it is. It's like slow and steady, ya know what I mean? It's like you build up a grass roots following. Like the fans come out to see you rather than a radio show. I'd rather do it that way. We look at like Horton Heat, or actually the Bosstones before they even got big, like the big hits, ya know what I mean? They would go cross country a million times...
Jack: Down to Australia.
Jason: Yeah. Yup. And that's the same thing we're doing, ya know? God, we've probably gone, done about five, six cross country tours already. Maybe even more than that, actually.
Jack: That's not to mention regional tours...East Coast, Midwest....
Jason: Huge amounts.
JL (to Jason): How come you don't play any instruments??
Jason: I play...I'm learning how to play guitar. I'm too much of a spazz. I'm too much of a spazz, I don't have the talent that these guys have. I don't, ya know? A lot of times I'm always like, "God, I'm so lucky to be in a band with like 3 guys that really know what they're doing, ya know? Cuz I...God, I don't. All I can do is, my whole big thing is, not even singing per se, just writing, I read a lot, ya know, and I'm really into writing. So, you know? So we're lucky. These guys are really great musicians.
JL: Well you play the maracas so I guess that counts.
Jason: If you call it playing. Thank you.
JL: The maracas are not instruments, Jason!! Nah, just kidding. So you used to go to Johnson and Wales [University], you graduated, you got a degree...
Jason: 2 degrees.
JL: 2 degrees? Oh wow. So if you weren't doing this, would you be some chef in a cheesy Federal Hill restaurant right now?
Jason: Well I'd be a chef in a...I'd probably have my own catering service. But I don't know....I mean, Jack went to school, Jack stopped school for this. Yeah, Jack's a math major.
Jack: I'm not a math major.
Jason: Well no...
Jack: Studying to be a math major.
Jason: No, I'm sorry. Studying to be a math major. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Jack: Haven't gotten there yet.
Jason: Yeah, we like, put everything on hold, so I don't know what we'd be doing if it wasn't for this. Ya know, we put everything on hold, we never even thought about it. We just kinda...left everything. Left our apartments, left our girlfriends, ya know what I mean, that's how it happened. Ya know? So...I don't know what I'd be doing. I think if I wasn't doing this, I'd be calling Jack begging him to do it.
JL: So you guys have had an abundance of horn players....
Jason: Well, this is the thing. It's like, we've never "had" horn players. We're a band...
JL: Well I mean, you've played with...tons of...like...Tony....
Jason: We've played with....(to Jack) I don't know, what do you think?
Jack: The whole horn thing, it just started because we've played with a lot of ska bands, and we thought it'd be kinda cool to have them come up and join us on a song.
Jason: More bang for your buck.
Jack: Do the Devil was the easiest to have them be on. I thought it was most appropriate, one that seemed like if it needed anything else in it, maybe a little horn to help fill it out, that would be the song. That's my take on it. Is that, it just started like, just for fun, like, "hey, you guys wanna come up and play 'Do the Devil'? Yeah, today, come on, come up and do it with us." "Okay." And then it's kinda like, we recorded it that way, and that's the one that people started gravitating to like to play on the radio, like on the college stations, the radio stations and stuff so...it's kinda like we have to travel with horns so...cuz people knew the song that way, with horns, ya know?
JL: Yeah, cuz you guys were with Tony....
Jason and Jack: Yep. (at this point Jason gives me this wicked smile, because he knows I have this terrible crush on Tony.)
JL (laughing): And Chris [from Big D and the Kids Table]
Jason: Yeah, we've had so many horn players that just play with us, people that we know. Everybody from like, Skavoovie and the Epitones, The Porkers, The Specials, The Pietasters, you name it. The Bosstones, I mean we've had so many, you know? But the thing is, we're not a horn band, so to us it was more like a treat for the audience, ya know? (Here Jason hit my hand that I was holding the recorder in and he says, "I wanna make sure I don't hit it. Hold it up" and grabs it out of my hand, and puts it right between the three of us. And then he notes that the [background] music was getting loud.) So that's our thing. At the same time...like for the next tour, I don't think we're gonna have a horn player. We don't need it. Ya know?
JL: I think it sounds...I mean, you didn't have one on New Year's Eve and I think it sounded really good.
Jason: Thank you! That's cool.
JL: Ya know, with the crowd yelling, ya know, it's great.
Jason: Yup. It's fine. And plus, we have so many songs now that...we don't need it. We only have three songs that we can play horns on, and the only thing you miss it on, I think, is 'Do the Devil'. That's the only thing. 'Greasy' doesn't need horns, 'Hat-Size' doesn't need horns.
Jack: We've kinda incorporated it into playing it both ways. Like if you're playing without horns, you can fill it out but no one's playing, and we know what to do when you didn't have a horn player.
Jason: If we were gonna have a horn player, it would be Tony. We love Tony. (I swear up and down that he said this just to make me smile.)
JL: I do too.
Jason: But he's with Hi-Fi and the Roadburners, ya know? Every song they do has horns in it. So...
JL: Yeah, I have two of their cd's. I have their newest one and...
Jason: Live in Fear City.
JL: Yeah. (to Jack): Are you really a hairdresser?
Jack: What?!
JL: Are you really a hairdresser?
Jason: You know who started that?
JL: You mentioned that on New Year's Eve and the crowd got a rise out of it.
Jason: I think...who started that...the Pietasters started that. And I picked up on it.
Jack: Oh did they? (laughs)
Jason: They were also calling me...something else about me. Something about you and something about me.
Jack: Really.
Jason: But uh...no, no.
Jack: No, I didn't know...
Jason: He should be though.
Jack: No, no I'm not a hairdresser. I do style my own hair though. (laughs)
Jason: Jack's got the best hair in the Crowns.
JL: Is there anywhere you guys haven't played yet that you've just been dying to play? Or a tour that you've been dying to go on?
Jason: Japan.
JL: Japan?!?
Jason: Yeah, we went to Australia this year, but I want to go to Japan.
Jack: I was talking to a friend of mine about that just yesterday.
Jason: Really?
Jack: Touring in Japan. Yeah.
Jason: They're supposed to go nuts for this kinda stuff there.
JL: (laughs) I can see you guys playing in Japan. I think that would be...
Jason: Hawaii.
JL: Hawaii? Never played Hawaii.
Jason: I don't think there's too much...there's some states we haven't played yet, but...North Dakota?? (laughs)
Jack: Yep. South Dakota. Delaware.
Jason: Delaware. But what's in Delaware?
Jack: I don't want to play Delaware.
Jason: We try not to play Delaware.
Jack: I'm just saying, we haven't played there yet.
Jason: (cracks up laughing)
Jack: Just kiddin'.
JL: Is there a band that you guys haven't played with or you haven't toured with yet that you guys have been dying to play with?
Jason: Personally, X. My favorite band.
Jack: Maybe Social Distortion.
Jason: Yeah. We've played with Social Distortion, but we'd like to tour with them.
Jack: That'd be a good tour.
Jason: Yeah, they asked for us they came to town, it's nice, but we want to go out on the road with them. I mean, if you'd asked us this last year, we would have said, The Cramps, Horton Heat.
JL: (laughs) But you've got that all taken care of.
Jack: Yeah, really.
Jason: We've been lucky.
JL (looking at Jason's arms): Did you get all those at Modern Primitives?
Jason: Well, I dunno...this guy...I had these years and years...like seven, eight, well whatever, six, I don't know. I started these in my friend's house, and he later went on to work at Modern Primitives. He's now in Scotland. So, in a roundabout way yeah, all the rest are artists at Modern Primitives. Except for like, this is like...
JL: They're so cool.
Jason: Thanks. They're a little too much.
JL: Cuz I've never seen them up close before....(as he sticks both his arms in my face so I can get a good look at all of them) Interesting. Okay. Well, my next question was what's Dennis Kelley up to right now but he's...thither....
Jason: Dennis is gonna be on our next album. That song 'The Ride', that's his song, and he's gonna record that with us. And also, we're gonna write a song...we're writing songs right now, we're like...we wrote like three songs last week. And we're gonna write a country song with him, he's gonna play steel guitar on it, on the next album. Yeah, so Dennis is workin' real hard with the Pull-Tabs, he's got a two-year-old son, and you know, it's cool. Dennis is great. Dennis Kelley got us all into this. He's the mold. All these little rockabillys you see running around, all the little punk-rockabillys and stuff, Dennis Kelley's the mold. It's not the Crowns, it's Boss Fuel. That's where we got it.

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