Our G-Rap homeboy Angry John Sellers asks Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne some Tough Questions for Spin magazine. Hilarity ensues.
On annoying other bands with gratuitous confetti:
We recently did a festival in Mexico…and fucking Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots were worried about our confetti getting on their little guitar setups. And I’m just like, “Who gives a fuck?”
On the 2002 tour where the Lips were the warm-up and the band for Beck Hansen:
I was purposely doing an Ali/Frazier kind of thing. There was so much work going into playing not just our set, but also his [as Beck’s backing band]. At the end of the day, you’ve got to have some fucking fun. He was not very much fun to be around because he’s all just, you know, overwhelmed with being famous and being cool or whatever. So I started fucking with him. And everybody was in on it! There would be moments where you thought he was in on it, too. And then he’d go talk to someone, and they’d set his mind on some other thing, and he’d be really hurt by it. It would be as though me and you were joking about something. And then five minutes later, suddenly you didn’t realize that it was a joke.
Good old Wayne. You can’t help but want him to babysit your kids.
Bonus: Sellers’ interview with Ice Cube is great, too.
Why does it seem like Coyne has decided to become a dick in his old age? He’s also taken to compare Nirvana to Nickelback, lately…sheesh.
You think he comes off as a dick, Kiko? I think he sounds like the only guy in the business at his level who’s not afraid to ruffle feathers and tell it like it is.
Listen, I wasn’t there and I obviously don’t know what exactly went down with NIN and STP, but personally, I make sure to get all my crap–gear and otherwise–off the stage for the next band, just out of respect. And, trust me, I’m not playing on the same bills as international stars who expect a certain level of professionalism, but it’s a courtesy I extend and welcome in return, so there you go. Coyne, meanwhile, needs to make an issue of it and poke fun at easy targets. (I can imagine Spin readers gushing, “Ooh, he’s so cool, sticking it to the big, bloated, rock star prima donnas.”) Whatever.
As for the Beck deal, he’s been yapping about that tour for years now. “So I started fucking with him” doesn’t really sound like he was trying to make the best of the situation. Why didn’t he just avoid the guy when he wasn’t dealing directly with him–I’m sure they weren’t joined at the hip 24/7 on that tour–and move on. Jeez.
Maybe I’ve got it all wrong, but I never read/hear Coyne say anything positive about ANYONE since the Lips got sorta big, so…maybe he should concentrate on making a decent followup to that crappy At War with the Mystics album and put to rest being the one-man TMZ he’s kinda become lately.
Of course, your mileage may vary.
Wayne is a douche. Rude, smelly douche. Always has been, always will be. His brand would be “Hater-Instant Vinegar Douche”.