Vice Meets Vice

Just as Entertaining Offstage as On

originally published July 2, 2008

King Khan is one bad, brown dude and a hard one to track down at that. I failed for a full-fledged week in corralling the Berlin-based soulscreecher, and when I finally caught him, he was in some seriously dire straits: limping around rush-hour New York in the rickety Vice Records company car with some bad lunch percolating in his gut. He was amid some schematic scramblings to which I can fully relate: gone to Jersey City to pick up appropriately vintage tuck-and-roll Kustom amps for his upcoming tour, then doing a headachy automotive crabwalk through the boroughs to gather his band of soulful, scruffy internationals: a French organist, a horn section from Hamburg, an ancient American expat who hand-drummed for Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield and other assorted musicians all stand among the roster of his apocalyptically wiggly R&B revue, The Shrines. Herding them through Gotham was all on Khan’s now-stooped shoulders, so we made a date to chat the next day’s noon.

He was chipper when he answered, and I was surprised; having just returned from a tour with my own huge and horny band that ended in The Apple, I know the mindset endemic to the context: it doesn’t make for a shining familiarity with that brutal crack-of-noon. Nevertheless, we talked about all sorts of enlightening stuff, among other things, The Melted Men, his great grandfather, “The Johnny Thunders of Sitar,” his dead idols and the effect that the beautiful, hypnotic music indigenous to his parents’ native India had on the amniotic fluid that fostered his development as a prenatal maniac!

Comb the following conversation for Khan’s handle on how to burn a house down: his deep-set love for the Great Maniacs of History, his appreciation for esoteric noise of all sorts, and his great enthusiasm in extolling anecdotal mayhem should tell you what kind of show he and his Shrines are gonna throw. It’ll be one rowdy wingding.

Flagpole

Khan, tell me how you hooked up with Curtis Mayfield’s percussionist.

King Khan

It was really late, and I was really drunk, and I’d never been to this bar. I walk in, and there’s Ron playing percussion with this Latin DJ. His setup was so amazing - all these spoons and maracas and bongos - and he was really great. He had one of those big, red trucker hats, and he just looked really funny. I was drunk, you know, and I wasn’t sure if he spoke English or what - if he was African or German or whatever; this was in Kassel, the small town I lived in before I moved to Berlin. So, I went up to him and I started talking to him like this: “HELL-O! I-PLAY-RITH-THIM-AND-BLUES-MUSE-SIC!” and he’s looking at me like I’m a total idiot and he goes (gruffly): “Shit, I gotta go to the bathroom.” And he’s in there for like 15 minutes, and I’m drunk so I’m totally impatient. So, I wrote my number on this napkin, and I walk in the bathroom and go,“HELL-O! ARE-YOU-STILL HEE-UR?” and I hear him go, “Got-damn it!” and I say, “HERE- IS-MY-PHONE-NUMBER! PLEASE-DON’T-WIPE-YOUR-ASS-WITH-IT!” and I put my hand under the stall, and he starts laughing. I asked him if he spoke English, and through the stall, he goes, “Motherfucker, I grew up in San Francisco! I play rhythm and blues!” It was like, "God gave me this person!"

Flagpole

I know you’re a huge Bo Diddley fan - y'all cover “Crackin’ Up.” Any memoriums planned?

King Khan

Oh, man, you know what? On the day Bo Diddley died, my sister had a baby. And her husband, we used to play in a band together called The Spaceshits, and he’s the one who got me super-into Bo Diddley, so it’s really beautiful that his son was born on the day Bo Diddley died. I think Bo Diddley is the true king of rock and roll. Little Richard and Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. Jesus! They changed the world.

Flagpole

Yeah, those were the Great Maniacs. Those early rock and roll dudes…

King Khan

Check this out! I met Dickie Peterson of Blue Cheer in Cologne, and I ended up hanging with him a lot. He became a friend of mine, which was amazing. He told me some of the funniest stories I’ve ever heard. Anyway, he told me this story about Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. It was in L.A. in 1968, and they were going to do a festival together, right? So they meet him at the airport, and they’re walking together, and Screaming Jay’s got this white suit on - looking real dashing - and there was this big group of elderly tourists waiting to fly somewhere. Screamin’ Jay walks right up into the middle of the group and goes: "UUGGGGGH! UGGG-UNNNGGGHHH!” and fakes a heart attack, and falls on the floor like he’s dying! And everybody starts flipping out and all the old ladies are going "AAAAIIIIHHHHH!" He lays there dead for a few seconds, and then he opens his eyes, pops up and takes this flashpaper money out of his pocket - they look just like American dollar bills - and he lights them and they burst into flames, and he throws them in the air and strolls away, chuckling to himself!

Flagpole

Amazing! Hey, tell me about your great-grandpop, the sitar player.

King Khan

He lived in Mogasudai, which I’ve heard some people call the “Anus of India.” There’s a saying in India that goes, “it takes 10 men to be one man from Mogasudai,” because there was really tough people there - it was right next to an old train junction that was hundreds of years old. It was really rough. He was this deadbeat guy who played sitar all day and was addicted to opium, which is a pretty vicious combination! So, I have a heavy psychedelic connection to Indian music. My father collected Indian classical music; when he was a kid, he would travel the trains for free because his father was a conductor, and he collected all this amazing music from around the country. Anyway, when I was in my mom’s belly, they would put headphones on the womb and blast Indian classical sitar in there! I always thought that had a heavy effect on my brain. I’ve got special folds; I’ve got paisleys in my brain!

Flagpole

I know the new record on Vice is a comp of older material going back 10 years. How much of that stuff do you still play live?

King Khan

Hmm. Most of the album we play. Well, [lead track] “Torture” we stopped playing years ago because we used to play it all the time. Certain songs have run their course.

Flagpole

Vice reissued our first record, and for some of those songs it’s been two years since we’ve played them at all. So we were touring on the reissue, and people wanted to hear some of those old, obsolete songs. We felt bad, but we just weren’t feeling it. We couldn’t do some particular songs from back then…

King Khan

I know! It feels impossible at times to rehash those feelings. You feel like you’re cheating. It just doesn’t work.

Flagpole

It’s play-acting.

King Khan

But that’s what I love about that music. It has completely everything to do with your guts. It doesn’t matter what the programmers say, or whoever. Like, last night I saw Silver Apples, and man, it was like watching prayer. Whatever he was saying, it felt like it would go right into your body and come out in a holy light. And you know, just being in New York, at the Knitting Factory, like 40 years later, and this guy is up there, alone, and this smile on his face. And the crowd was so funny, so different, so weird: the psychedelic children of New York. It was amazing! That’s what I love about this music! Music to me is immortality, and it's my religion and my career, you know? If I want to pray, I put on Alice Coltrane, and there it is, there’s that feeling! It’s there! It’s just so incredible: the power of music.

Jim McHugh

WHO: The Jacuzzi Boys, King Khan and the Shrines
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Thursday, July 3
HOW MUCH: $10