No deep meaning there, huh?
No, he got a video camera and we thought the obvious application was a video; we thought it'd be fun to just document the tour.

Is that "Mom" tattoo of yours real?
It is.

What were you thinking?
Well, I've always wanted to get one, and I thought it was funny, you know, just kind of the silliest tattoo you could get -- as typical as you could ever get, which is so typical that really no one would have it (laughter). It's like Popeye or something. I got it on our first tour, so it's been about four years now.

Any regrets?
(laughing) No. Actually I was thinking about getting more, I want to get my arms a bit more done, but I can never really think of what I want.

It's a big commitment.
Yeah it is, and if you get something stupid...God that sucks. There's something aesthetically pleasing about people having just one tattoo. I can remember I saw this woman who was a drummer, and she had one big blue star tattoo on her arm, and I thought that was really cool. For me, it would have to be well thought out, and I have things I've been thinking about, but I can never quite get it together to do it. I've often thought about getting a Sicko tattoo; there's actually a few kids out there who have beaten me to the punch.

Yeah, well if kids who aren't even in the band are doing it what's stopping you guys?
I know, well, I don't know...you know "Mom": that's a pretty permanent thing (laughter), but Sicko...I don't know. If the name was a cool name like The Fastbacks, Black Flag. You don't want a stamp on you that says "Sicko", you know? So I've been thinking maybe the characters from the first album, but I don't know.


"They made punk rockers into these kinds of big idiot monsters. Obviously there's tons of big idiot punk rockers, although I'm sure not nearly as many as there are big idiot rednecks."


Have you all been dumped by a significant other, and have any of you been married?
Um, actually Josh IS married, Denny lives with his girlfriend, and I am actually single again as of a week ago (laughs).

Sorry to hear that.
Yeah, it's probably for the best. I would say that both of those guys haven't been dumped for years and years, because they've been in relationships for a really long time, and before that they dumped their girlfriends.

So they've been on the dumping end.
Exactly. But there have been some dateless loser dumping happening with the Sicko boys over the years (laughter).

Do you ever try to have a deep message with your songs or do you just say what you want?
Um (thinks), well...deep message. Not really. If there's a deep message it's something kind of personal, like I feel bad about this, or I like that a lot, or I hate this kind of thing. But it's never like Vote for Senator X for this political rally, it's never specific, and I don't think it's ever been political.

Do you want Sicko fans to analyze your lyrics?
Um, well I guess if there is a big point to it at all mainly it's don't try to take yourself too seriously, have a good time, and I think that's really important. And I think that's a much-overlooked aspect to punk rock music and music in general is that (a) it can be something that's a lot of fun, and (b) it doesn't have to be a threatening, horrifying, terrible thing. I think portrayal of punk in the earlier years, like the late 70s/early 80s, they basically focused on Darby Crash and Sid Vicious, you know?

Putting the fear into everybody.
They made punk rockers into these kinds of big idiot monsters. Obviously there's tons of big idiot punk rockers, although I'm sure not nearly as many as there are big idiot rednecks. But I think that even at that time, and consistently throughout it, there's been a very, very strong contingency of people who are just playing music, having a good time, have normal lives, don't go home and shoot heroin into their face, and don't fuck 14 year old girls; basically nice folks doing something that they think is fun, and sometimes I think also doing it to try to help out or whatever. So I think that if there is a message, it's Hey there's nothing scary about this, it's just another fun thing; it's a cool way to spend your time.