That's Dishonest:  A Repository of Interviews with and Articles about Meat Puppets
  • Home
  • 2018
    • Catching Up With Derrick Bostrom: The Meat Puppets' Original Drummer Dishes on His Return (2018)
    • Meat Puppets Reunite With Original Drummer (2018)
    • In A Car by Jeff Schroeck (2018)
    • Meat Puppets Come Galloping Out Of The Stable With 'Warranty' (2018)
  • 2017
    • MEAT PUPPETS MAKE NOSTALGIC RETURN TO THE ECHO FOR SOLD OUT LA GIG (2017)
    • REVIEW: The Meat Puppets' sold-out show Monday was a mighty, messy joy (2017)
    • My Meat Puppets Misconception at The Echo (2017)
    • Meat Puppets’ Cris Kirkwood Was Shot in the Back and Imprisoned: Life's Magical (2017)
    • Concert review: Meat Puppets show why they’re alt-rockers for the ages (2017)
    • Meat Puppets Together for First Time in more than 20 Years (2017)
  • 2016
    • Meat Puppet Cris Kirkwood talks pre-Germs Phoenix cult band Exterminators’ 1st-ever LP (interview + song premiere) (2016)
    • The drugs that fueled the Meat Puppets’ first five LPs (2016)
    • Meat Puppets Bassist On What He Would Like For Christmas (2016)
  • 2015
    • Interview: Elmo Kirkwood Talks Meat Puppets, STP 1994 Tour & New Dance Project Supr3yes (2015)
    • Interview: Meat Puppets’ Shandon Sahm Talks Upcoming Tour With Soul Asylum (2015)
    • Gene Simmons ‘Hugely Influenced’ Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic, According To Meat Puppets Drummer (2015)
    • Meat Puppets Drummer Was Told He ‘Most Likely Won’t See Scott Weiland, But The Other Guys Hang Out’ When Touring With STP (2015)
    • EASY ANSWERS: CRIS KIRKWOOD OF THE MEAT PUPPETS TALKS GRATEFUL DEAD (2015)
  • 2014
    • 2 Minutes with Meat Puppets (2014)
    • The AU Interview: Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets (Arizona) (2014)
    • Meat Puppets Bassist Cris Kirkwood Takes Us Through the Evolution of ‘Lake of Fire’ (2014)
    • Interview: Meat Puppets’ Curt Kirkwood Talks Nirvana MTV Unplugged & Band With Krist Novoselic (2014)
    • Meat Puppets Making Most of a Second Chance (2014)
    • Fresh Meat With No Strings Attached: Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets (2014)
    • Cris Kirkwood Remembers Comforting Frances Bean Cobain At Nirvana MTV Unplugged, Talks Art (2014)
    • Nirvana's 'MTV Unplugged' 20 Years Later: Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood Looks Back (2014)
    • The Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood Talks About His Love for Disney and Old Musicals (2014)
    • Elmo Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets Has Pop Ambitions (2014)
    • The Most Influential Arizona Punk Records: #5 - Meat Puppets, Untitled Seven-Inch EP (2014)
  • 2013
    • Meat Puppets Announce New Album Rat Farm SEt for April 2013 Release (2013)
    • Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets (2013)
    • Meat Puppets Announce UK Tour In June 2013 With Mudhoney (2013)
    • Meat Puppets Expand with Rat Farm (2013)
    • Too High To Die: Meet The Meat Puppets by Greg Prato (2013)
    • The Meat Puppets are Still Rockin' (2013)
    • More Meaty Music from the Puppets (2013)
    • Meat Puppets Let Instinct Pull the Strings (2013)
    • Interview: Meat Puppets (2013)
    • 20 Questions: Meat Puppets (2013)
    • Interview: Meat Puppets - The Flesh of It (2013)
    • Meat Puppets (2013)
    • Meat Puppets : Interview (2013)
    • Exclusive Interview: Meat Puppets’ Curt Kirkwood on His Relationship with His Brother, Nirvana, and Touring 30 Years Later (2013)
    • Meat Puppets I: “A Lawn Mower in the Process of Unclogging Itself” (2013)
    • Meat Puppets Now 31 Years Since First Album (2013)
    • Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood: I'm probably not cut out for a regular job (2013)
    • Esquire Live Sessions: The Meat Puppets on Their Nirvana Unplugged Performance (2013)
    • Long-Haul Grunge Gods (2013)
    • The Mystery of Meat (2013)
    • Phoenix Artist Derrick Bostrom Opens Photography Exhibit at Green New American Vegetarian (2013)
    • The Meat Puppets on Unplugged In New York: The Extended Interviews The full Q&As with the Brothers Kirkwood and producer Alex Coletti. (2013)
    • Interview with Curt and Cris Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets: Influences, Live, Playing with Nirvana, 20th Anniversary of In Utero (2013)
    • Meat Puppets Interview: Louder Than War Talk To Curt Kirkwood (2013)
    • Talk: Curt Kirkwood, Meat Puppets | Interview (2013)
    • Meat Puppets [Interview] (2013)
    • My People Call It Weed: Meat Puppets Get Happily Twisted (2013)
    • 2 Minutes with Meat Puppets (2013)
    • Meat Puppets – At The Rat Farm With Curt Kirkwood (2013)
    • Meat Puppets: Just a Band (2013)
  • 2012
    • Peer Inside the Colorful World of the Meat Puppets' Cris Kirkwood at Carly's Bistro (2012)
    • Finding Out What Makes the Meat Puppets Tick with a New Oral History (2012)
    • Curled Up with a Good Book (2012)
    • Los Históricos Meat Puppets Avanzarán en Diciembre Nuevos Temas de su Próximo Disco en su Primera Gira Española (2012)
    • Meat Puppets Announce Release of 14th Studio LP (2012)
    • Curt Kirkwood nos habla de Meat Puppets (2012)
    • La Semilla del "Grunge" (2012)
    • Meat Puppets, Las Raices y el Punk que Marcaron a Kurt Cobain (2012)
    • Mas Raros que un Perro Verde (2012)
    • Meat Puppets (2012)
    • Meat Puppets, Valencia, 18/12/2012 (2012)
    • Meat Puppets, Influx Emocional (2012)
    • Valley’s Elmo Kirkwood and His Dad, Meat Puppet’s Curt Kirkwood, to Team Up For Father’s Day Show (2012)
    • Too High to Die: an Interview With Curt Kirkwood (2012)
  • 2011
    • Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood on Making New Album 'Lollipop' and Their Summer Plans Plus: Band 'completely inebriated' while recording 'Meat Puppets II' (2011)
    • Meat Puppets with Roky Erickson (2011)
    • One Tough Question: Meat Puppets' Cris Kirkwood (2011)
    • Shandon Sahm Meets Meat Puppets (2011)
    • Meat Puppets Relive Gonzo Past, Open Up about Cris Kirkwood's Addiction (2011)
    • eMusic Q&A: The Meat Puppets (2011)
    • Meat Puppets: "We Built 'Lollipop' Like a Lego Toy" (2011)
    • Tonight: The Meat Puppets on the River (2011)
    • Curt Kirkwood's Tinker Toy Still Life with the Meat Puppets (2011)
    • Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets on the Band's Legacy and His Vivid Lyrical Imagery (2011)
    • Fans Hope for a Well-Done Meat Puppets Performance (2011)
    • Headed Back to the Slaughterhouse (2011)
    • The Meat Puppets Kill Chelsea's (2011)
    • Meat Puppets Survivor's Tale (2011)
    • The Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood (2011)
    • Q&A: Meat Puppets' Curt Kirkwood On Arizona Punk, SST Records, His Brother Cris Being Clean, and Not making it into "Our Band Could Be Your Life" (2011)
    • Meat Puppets Interviewed by Most Beautiful Losers (2011)
    • [LP Review] Meat Puppets – Meat Puppets (1982) (2011)
  • 2010
    • Interview: Cris Kirkwood from the Meat Puppets (2010)
    • TS5Q: Derrick Bostrom (2010)
    • Meat Puppets 1982-88: Acid Rock Baked by Desert Grunge (2010)
    • MEAT PUPPETS 1982-88: Acid rock baked by desert grunge (2010)
  • 2009
    • Q&A with the Meat Puppets' Cris Kirkwood (2009)
    • Meat Puppets Sewing it Together (2009)
    • Reunited Meat Puppets Evolved, But Still Intense (2009)
    • Meat Puppets Interview (2009)
    • The Meat Puppets' Name is Cool, and That's the Entire Story Behind It (2009)
    • Meat Puppets on Display (2009)
    • Lost in the Zone [Meat Puppets] (2009)
    • Interview with Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets (2009)
    • The Meat Puppets are still half-assin' it After All These Years (2009)
    • Meat Puppets Still "Sewn Together" After Nearly Three Decades (2009)
    • Rock City: Tourist Stop Helped Get Meat Puppets Frontman's Artistic Juices Flowing (2009)
    • Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets Speaks (2009)
    • Q&A with Shandon Sahm of Meat Puppets (2009)
    • Meat Puppets: "We Got to Do What We Wanted to Do" (2009)
    • The Meat Puppets (2009)
    • From the Chip Midnight Archive: Meat Puppets 1994 Audio Interview (2009)
    • A Testament to the Strength of the Human Gullet (2009)
    • Meat Puppets: Out Of The Weeds (2009)
    • No robots, no Celine Dion for Meat Puppets (2009)
  • 2008
    • Very Human (2008)
  • 2007
    • Meat Puppets Get a Major-Label Education (2007)
    • Meat Puppets Return to Their Trippy Psych-Rock Roots (2007)
    • Meat Puppets: On Your Feet (2007)
    • Lake of Fire: Meat Puppets Rise to Their Knees (2007)
    • Meat Puppets Reviewed (2007)
    • Reunited in Rock (2007)
    • New Day Rising (2007)
    • Reunited Kirkwood Brothers Help Meat Puppets Rise to the Occasion (2007)
    • Meat Puppets (2007)
    • Meat Puppets: O Brother, Where Art Thou (2007)
    • Who's Got My Extra: Curt Kirkwood (2007)
    • Stereogum Q&A: Meat Puppets (2007)
    • Back on the Sun (2007)
    • Interview: Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets (2007)
    • A Lean Night for the Meat Puppets (2007)
  • 2006
    • Meat Puppets Spring 1984 (2006)
  • 2005
    • Curt Kirkwood, "Snow" (2005)
  • 2002
    • Derrick Bostrom - 2002 (2002)
  • 2001
    • Puppet Show (2001)
  • 2000
    • Meat Puppets: Back From the Lake of Fire, the "New" Meat Puppets Feel the Love (2000)
    • Golden Lies (2000)
    • Meat Puppets Desert Desperados (2000)
  • 1999
    • What is This? (1999)
    • Fresh Meat for Rotting Puppets (1999)
    • Meat Puppets’ Cris Kirkwood Jailed On Drug Charges (1999)
  • 1998
    • Shooting Star (1998)
  • 1995
    • Meat Puppets: Swimming in a Lake of Fire (1995)
    • Meat Puppets: The Morning After (There's No Business Like Show Business) (1995)
    • The Meat Puppets (1995)
  • 1994
    • Rockers for Pot '94 (1994)
    • Meat Puppets' Drummer Derrick Bostrom Interview from 1994 (1994)
    • A Vignette from the Early Years by Derrick Bostrom of the Meat Puppets (1994)
  • 1992
    • Meat Puppets: Cris Kirkwood Interview (1992)
  • 1991
    • Music Meat Puppets (1991)
  • 1989
    • Meat Puppets Interviewed (1989): Disney Avant-Metal Rock (1989)
  • 1987
    • Meat Puppets--Mirage (1987)
  • 1984
    • The Meat Puppets (1984)
    • Meat Puppets: The Ultimate Fusion Band (1984)
  • 1983
    • Meat Puppets (1983)
  • 1982
    • I Met the Meat Puppets and Lived to Tell About It (1982)
  • Audio-Video Articles and Interviews
    • 2019 >
      • MEAT PUPPETS Derrick Bostrom talks new material (2019)
    • 2019 >
      • MEAT PUPPETS Derrick Bostrom talks new material (2019)
    • 2018 >
      • 013: Meat Puppets - Forbidden Places (1991) (2018)
    • 2017 >
      • RSR077 – DERRICK BOSTROM – THE MEAT PUPPETS & NIRVANA (2017)
      • Meat Puppets albums worst to best (2017)
      • Meat Puppets - Induction Video Az.Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame (2017)
      • Acoustic Storm on KSLX Radio Promo for the Meat Puppets (2017)
    • 2016 >
      • Episode 12: Meat Puppets and Peter Kuper By Westerino Show (2016)
      • Interview Sneak Peak with Cris Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets (2016)
    • 2015 >
      • Cris Kirkwood Interview (2015)
      • Dad Rock: Cris Kirkwood on life in Meat Puppets (2015)
    • 2014 >
      • Meat Puppets - Cherry Rock 2014 - Part 1 (2014)
      • Meat Puppets - Cherry Rock 2014 - Part 2 (2014)
      • Meat Puppets - Cherry Rock 2014 - Part 3 (2014)
      • The Meat Puppets Q & A @ Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne (27th May 2014) (2014)
      • Meat Puppets Documentary -- Rough Pass (2014)
    • 2013 >
      • Curt Kirkwood Interview w/ Larry Flick (2013)
      • Meat Puppets Concert Review/Album Showing (2013)
      • Meat Puppets - Interview (Bing Lounge) (2013)
      • WTF with Marc Maron, Episode 428 - Curt Kirkwood (2013)
    • 2012 >
      • The Andy Derer Show Ep #51 with Cris Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets (2012)
    • 2011 >
      • Q&A with the Meat Puppets (2011)
      • Meat Puppets Interview Live in the Bing Lounge (2011)
      • Interview with Cris from Meat Puppets (2011)
      • The Meat Puppets interview w/ Across The Board radio show.wmv (2011)
    • 2010 >
      • Meat Puppets - What's In My Bag? (2010)
      • Meat Puppets: Bumbershoot 2010 Interview (2010)
    • 2009 >
      • Serene Dominic Show Episode 11 with Meat Puppets Curt Kirkwood (2009)
      • Amplified from ABC News Now : Meat Puppets (2009)
      • Amplified from ABC News Now : Meat Puppets, Part 2 (2009)
      • MEAT PUPPETS Interview and Soundcheck "Legendary Status.. Should Inspire Massive Guilt" (2009)
      • Meat Puppets Interview (2009)
    • 2008 >
      • Tempe Music Festival TV - Meat Puppets (2008)
    • 2007 >
      • How the Meat Puppets got their Name (2007)
    • 2005 >
      • Curt Kirkwood Interview (2005)
    • 1995 >
      • Meat Puppets Interview (1995)
    • 1994 >
      • Meat Puppets - Conan 1994 (1994)
      • Cris Kirtwood Interview of The Meat Puppets May 26th, 1994 (1994)
    • 1988 >
      • Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets) Interview Segment (1988)
      • 1988 Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets) Full Interview (1988)
    • 1984 >
      • Meat Puppets, 1984, Music View w/ Todd Miller (1984)
Exclusive Interview: Meat Puppets’ Curt Kirkwood on his relationship with his brother, Nirvana, and touring 30 years later

May 30, 2013

Posted by McFly

Meat Puppets
Original One: An Interview with Curt Kirkwood (Vocals, Guitars)
By Angela Kinzie
 


“I kind of enjoy it more, now that I’ve got it down a little bit more and there’s not as much craziness… There’s not the dragging somebody who’s half unconscious into the van or whatever… There’s GPS now!”

Meat Puppets singer Curt Kirkwood explained to me when I asked if he still enjoyed life on the road.

The band – whose core since 1980 has consisted of “The Brothers Meat Puppets” -Curt and Cris Kirkwood – has been touring off and on for over 30 years, and fans know that the ‘Pups’ are their own thing: an original. Their career has been a roller-coaster ride from out of place underground punks to discovery by mainstream grunge audiences through Nirvana’s famous Unplugged to maintaining Top 40 popularity themselves through 1994′s “Backwater” and Too High To Die, which awarded them a gold record. The desert-rooted cowpunk rockers from Phoenix have come through 14 albums, a severe struggle with drugs, diverse styles and sounds and have inspired countless bands over the past three decades.

From his home in Austin, TX, Curt talked to me about their new album, adding, “I’ve been enjoying playing it more than I have an album for quite awhile.” He also spoke to me on his relationship with his brother, his time with Nirvana and what he likes about touring 30 years later.

The Meat Puppets have existed for over 30 years now. Could you imagine it going this far when you started all those years ago?

No. … I wasn’t thinking ahead that far; that’s for sure! I never really thought about it at all. It just happened. [Laughs]

The new album is Rat Farm. How does it fit in with everything else you’ve done, or do you see it as completely new?

I think there’s elements in all our stuff. … Some of the songs are pretty old. The oldest [one] on this one is probably late ’90s. I always have that happening. I’ve got stuff just sitting around. This one, there’s elements of stuff from the late ’80s in it a little bit, kind of an extenuation of the last one a little bit… It’s hard for me to see how they fit together a lot of times because they’re always kind of set apart. I just know that it fits and it works.

Since we passed the anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death not long ago, I wanted to ask you personally how close you all were as friends, as opposed to simply two bands playing together?

Not real… I didn’t know him real well. I was just getting to know him. We toured with them for a couple of weeks, and he kept to himself. We practiced for like a week before the Unplugged thing, and we got along. We were friendly, but he was real quiet too. I think we got each other. The bands were pretty similar, at the core, even though they don’t sound that much alike. It was just real easy to work with them. I just didn’t know them very well.

Between Unplugged and the band becoming well known in its own right with Too High To Die, how did that affect the band for better or worse?

It was both of those things. While popularizing it a little bit, it also created a little bit of a stigma. Which I don’t find unpleasant at all, but it’s one of those things like any other marker in a band that can tend to start to define you in a way that’s not all together an apt description. ‘Well, they did this with Nirvana, and it was ’90s and stuff.’ But there’s a lot of history before then. Although it was a cool one, you know, Unplugged and Too High to Die, that little era. It blew things up outside the band that made it a little bit more difficult for us. Because we’d gone on for so long, just our own little low there, and then it’s like, ‘Here’s your new clothes, whether you like it or not.’ And some of us had a little difficulty handling that attention. That was the downside, really. The upside is that it was great promotion and something that we enjoyed. I know we really enjoyed it a lot, but all that stuff always comes at you from a lot of different angles. It comes with a lot of different baggage, which was heavy. We did another album after Too High to Die, but then it just got difficult to kind of go on in the same way that we were, and we went on a hiatus. But I don’t know if it was exactly all of that stuff either. There was a lot of personal stuff that was going on simultaneously that was not linked to the band at all. But that was the beginning of some big change there, where the original three- piece just went ‘poof’ and the band kind of had to go with the hiatus thing. We never really broke up, but it just got real hazy for a long time.

Around that time, your brother had a severe battle with drugs. Has going through that made your relationship closer?

We were always real close. I think it ironed out a lot of stuff. He tackled a lot of… whatever it was that resulted in the drug use. He just kind of had to face it. I think there’s stuff in people that makes them do that. It’s not just, ‘I want to do a bunch of drugs, or oops I messed up, it was an accident.’ There’s usually something there, [but] coming out on the other end of it, I think there’s definitely a smoother relationship. It’s been good since he’s tackled that stuff. I don’t know if we are closer; we were always pretty close. He’s my only full blood sibling.

Do you think he would have had the same problems if he had chosen a different career?

Oh … hard to say. I don’t know about that. It probably would’ve been something. It’s hard to extract. I figure there’s probably some underlying thing that causes that with anybody, no matter what they’re doing. But there’s definitely a lot of temptation in this career, and that just comes with the territory for some reason. The people are just like, ‘Here’s your drugs and your fun times and your parties and all that come with it.’ There’s always somebody trying to offer you something.

You drive the band around, act as tour manager and you play every night. Do you still enjoy touring as much as you did when you were younger?

Yeah. I do! I kind of enjoy it more, now that I’ve got it down a little bit more, and there’s not as much craziness. There’s not the dragging somebody who’s half unconscious into the van or whatever. [Laughs] There’s GPS now! It’s kind of my choice; I like driving. There’s a lot of time to kill. You can get a bus, you can get a driver, there’s stuff you can do, but it can get kind of boring. I like driving. I did 11 hours yesterday. I drove back from Jackson, Mississippi to Austin. Just get in the grove. It was beautiful; it’s springtime. You know, it’s a challenge to be safe, all that stuff. It just gives you something to do. I’ve done it a lot of different ways. We owned our own motorhome; we had a van with a trailer. These days we’ve just been keeping the gear small. We just have a van, no trailer. It’s a lot easier with no trailer, and if you’re in a bus, any little side trip is a big deal. Just pulling off into the gas station is a big deal, finding parking, all that different stuff – it’s about the bus. The mobility is something I really like. Like, ‘Oh, look, there’s a barbecue place or something that’s off the road a little bit; let’s go get that.’ There’s definitely times I wish I could just kick back and have everything taken care of, but you wind up spending, in our case, just about everything that you’re making to take care of the trip. And these days touring is a lot of the income. Like it was in the ’80s.

Accessed:  5/30/13

http://newnoisemagazine.com/exclusive-interview-meat-puppets-curt-kirkwood-on-his-relationship-with-his-brother-nirvana-and-touring-30-years-later/

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