Post by Kathy on Aug 22, 2014 16:54:07 GMT -5
noisey.vice.com/blog/josh-freese-interview
A must-read. It seems unlikely at this point that Paul will be giving an interview any time soon so this is a really interesting peek inside the reunited Mats. Lots of other topics covered in the interview too, fascinating guy! a few interesting points below, check out the whole interview for more.
On Josh being in GnR:
I have to say, to Paul Westerberg’s credit, Paul Westerberg’s the one guy who said, “You should do it. Go do it. It sounds totally wrong; go do it. What are you going to do, be in some totally cool alternative band? Are you going to join the Foo Fighters or something obvious? Go play with Guns N’ Roses. Nobody knows what they’re doing. There’s all these weird rumors about him. You should go do that for a minute.”
On getting asked to join the reunion:
They called a little bit over a year ago—May or June of last year—they said, “Hey, we’ve got these three Riot Fest gigs: Toronto, Chicago, Denver.” Paul called and left me a message. I saved it for a long time. He called and said, “You know, we’re doing these shows, and to be honest, I don’t want to do them unless you’re the drummer. You’re the guy.” It was nice to hear, because he’s my favorite dude, bar none—as far as songwriter, lyricist. For me, personally, there’s none better. Westerberg’s lyrics make me cry, man. Time and again, over and over, his shit makes me cry on probably a weekly basis when I listen to his stuff. It’s incredible. No one does it better, to me, than he does. That meant so much—my work with him and getting to play alongside of him. I guess I couldn’t be prouder of working with anybody.
on Coachella:
The Coachella show was tough, man. I’m back there playing drums. I’m not the star of the show; I’m the new guy playing drums. He’s up there singing. I know what it’s like for him to leave his house in Minnesota and go do something that he doesn’t want to do. As much as I think I’m out of the loop, that dude hasn’t even heard of Outkast. He doesn’t know what the fuck’s going on out there. So we’re playing, and I’m going, “Oh my God, this is a crime, because I love this dude so much, and deserves so much more than what he’s getting back from these people, and I don’t want him to get too bummed.” We walk off stage, and we’re getting on a golf cart to go back to our dressing room, because it’s all sprawled out, and I just walked up to him and gave him a big hug. I said, “Man, I love you, and you don’t belong here.”
A must-read. It seems unlikely at this point that Paul will be giving an interview any time soon so this is a really interesting peek inside the reunited Mats. Lots of other topics covered in the interview too, fascinating guy! a few interesting points below, check out the whole interview for more.
On Josh being in GnR:
I have to say, to Paul Westerberg’s credit, Paul Westerberg’s the one guy who said, “You should do it. Go do it. It sounds totally wrong; go do it. What are you going to do, be in some totally cool alternative band? Are you going to join the Foo Fighters or something obvious? Go play with Guns N’ Roses. Nobody knows what they’re doing. There’s all these weird rumors about him. You should go do that for a minute.”
On getting asked to join the reunion:
They called a little bit over a year ago—May or June of last year—they said, “Hey, we’ve got these three Riot Fest gigs: Toronto, Chicago, Denver.” Paul called and left me a message. I saved it for a long time. He called and said, “You know, we’re doing these shows, and to be honest, I don’t want to do them unless you’re the drummer. You’re the guy.” It was nice to hear, because he’s my favorite dude, bar none—as far as songwriter, lyricist. For me, personally, there’s none better. Westerberg’s lyrics make me cry, man. Time and again, over and over, his shit makes me cry on probably a weekly basis when I listen to his stuff. It’s incredible. No one does it better, to me, than he does. That meant so much—my work with him and getting to play alongside of him. I guess I couldn’t be prouder of working with anybody.
on Coachella:
The Coachella show was tough, man. I’m back there playing drums. I’m not the star of the show; I’m the new guy playing drums. He’s up there singing. I know what it’s like for him to leave his house in Minnesota and go do something that he doesn’t want to do. As much as I think I’m out of the loop, that dude hasn’t even heard of Outkast. He doesn’t know what the fuck’s going on out there. So we’re playing, and I’m going, “Oh my God, this is a crime, because I love this dude so much, and deserves so much more than what he’s getting back from these people, and I don’t want him to get too bummed.” We walk off stage, and we’re getting on a golf cart to go back to our dressing room, because it’s all sprawled out, and I just walked up to him and gave him a big hug. I said, “Man, I love you, and you don’t belong here.”
