I'm fucking believable, man, we can't get no silence around it, no fucking privacy.
Fucking asshole.
Wow.
Way back when I was 20 years old, I took a list of one to a hundred of what I wanted
to do in life.
At the bottom of the list was a performer, singer, I was too afraid to go on stage.
I swear to God, on the top was mathematician, physicist, there's that, on the bottom I
swear the number of hundred was performer on stage and look what I've done all my life.
That's a life, I was too scared to get up there so I got up there, I was still scared.
Well nervous, at times I stopped being nervous and that's one of the times I thought about
quitting.
Then I read about Elvis, Elvis Presley was my man, he said he always got nervous before
going on stage.
I think it was a period when he stopped getting nervous and he decided to quit.
That's when I thought of quitting because I'm not getting nervous anymore, why do it?
I started in February of 1971 and now it's February of 1971 and now it's February of
2011 so it's 40 years, actually that's so long because we never really stopped, we don't
do things that often but we never said it's the end so it's never when we had to come
back, we never came back or anything.
Actually now we're doing our first album, everybody wants the first album, we did five
suicide albums, everybody wants one and everybody's loving it, the death, coming up thousands
of people, everybody loves it, so who the hell knows, 40 years later, I actually like
doing it though, it's easy so I have the lyrics, if I need them I don't really need
them that much.
And the shows are only 35 minutes long, 35, on course it's over 40, 45, I'll just pick
any song from out there, that's really easy and everybody's loving it and everywhere we
go we're playing all these festivals, we're blowing away every band, that's the first
album, we're blowing away everybody.
Some people think, the kids who weren't even alive when we started, I think it's the latest
brand newest music of all time, the first fucking album we did like 30, 40 years ago.
Yeah!
Alain Vega, don't you think that you are the last rocker on earth?
No.
Why?
Because of the others.
Who?
Coming down, you know, after me.
Who?
Always.
That's what it's about, isn't it?
Tell us, where is Rock and Roll?
I have no idea.
Yes, I'm sure you are.
You know I have no idea, man.
Where do you come from?
New York City.
What were you doing in New York before you did Rock and Roll?
Oh, growing up.
Growing up.
Staying alive.
Ironically, when I think about it now, I probably should have been a rhythm player.
I should have been a drummer.
I look back now and where I am now.
Because I think everything I've been doing has been rhythmic.
Now it's, of course, the hip-hop or rap beat that's taken over.
But it's the hard stuff.
I don't know why.
Rap has got to be a gangster rap, I love, whatever it was.
In music, I guess it was gangster rock.
I think Buri was a gangster at this time.
Jimi Hendry was a gangster.
Iggy was a gangster.
Today I have an interview with some big radio say they called me a criminal artist.
Which is true.
I am an artist.
I don't know whether it comes from a criminal or artist or artist criminal.
So it's been that.
And so with those guys, they represented the outside, the early Elvis and with all those
other guys, you know, Little Richard, all the other, I forget their names right now.
I can't think of them right off hand, but to me, Johnny Cash.
They represented that lonely man on a lonely street in the middle of lonely nowhere.
This thing, they're doing their thing.
It's a gangstership.
It's a loner thing.
I always said that about rock and roll.
You know, I think Robert Criscow killed it.
He wrote for the Village Voice in New York.
He gave A, B, C, like in school, like grades for the music.
I go, what the fuck are you doing?
How could you give a grade to a song?
You know, and people believe in that shit.
Oh, that song's a G, forget about it.
Oh, that's an A.
And it'd be the worst shit in the world would get A's.
And the best shit in the world would get D's and F's.
Suicide was off the map.
It didn't require a letter.
We hate this shit.
When I think about it, I probably couldn't be doing my music now
if I didn't live in New York City.
Because there's always music in New York City.
There always was.
You walk through the streets.
This car's got this banging away.
And this car's got that banging away.
And then you go to your home and you got that banging away.
You got TV.
You're constantly around sound.
The noise from the street, just the noise alone
is with you all the time.
You don't even know it.
You're so used to the noise.
Every now and then, I'll focus on it.
I live nearby the Brooklyn Bridge.
And there's a hum that comes out of the cars, all the cars,
especially at night.
It's quiet out.
You could hear the hum of the cars.
Well, you should focus on it.
It's always there.
You just don't even know about it.
You don't even know you're listening to a hum of cars
buzzing along on the Brooklyn Bridge.
But if you stop and listen, suddenly you hear it.
And then you go, holy shit.
And then you've been to realize that's all the time.
24-7.
And there's other noises around that.
You're with all the time.
You never hear it because you're just with you.
But if you decide, OK, I'm going to listen to this car today.
And you blow out everything out.
And all of a sudden, you hear it.
You start hearing it all.
And you go, holy shit.
That's every day I'm hearing this.
And that makes my record.
Why do you think of rock and roll today?
It's pretty terrible, don't you think?
I don't think there is any rock and roll, actually, anymore.
But it's changing.
It's changing into rap, into other things, which is rock and roll.
Rock and roll is a language for people who have something strong
to say about life or something.
So it's a funny word, rock and roll.
But rock and roll means Beethoven was rock and roll.
And it's time.
You couldn't hear.
He's playing real loud.
Playing on ten, on ten.
Those bands up on ten.
You see, I was lucky.
I grew up before MTV.
Being honest with you.
And so when I heard music, my whole visual thing
in my own mind was created.
You listen to Jimi Hendrix's Velvet Underground or the Stooges.
Your thing, before MTV, was like, wow.
And for some reason, it was only the greatest thing
was you get that image and how you made it into your thing
or part of your thing.
I don't know.
You just did.
Then we got MTV.
And MTV, the image came first.
And then the music came.
So you automatically were given the image.
They knew what to do.
It's like a form of fascism.
It's like they don't shoot you anymore.
They just starve you to death.
It's the same thing.
They give you the image first.
It's just to kill you, to make shit out of you.
They don't even give you that image, that free image.
So anyway, I was lucky, I'd say, before I had it before MTV.
So I was able to have my own thing.
I never knew how old my father was.
He claimed he was born on Olivia.
No one knew.
We figured he was a certain age
because he had to be around a certain age.
But we never knew exactly how old he was.
And I said, how old?
He said, I don't know.
I don't know.
He could have been 100.
He could have been 50.
I don't know.
So I kind of liked that.
I know I'm pretty lucky to be alive at this age
because almost everybody I know is dead.
We all lived a rock and roll life.
I didn't go to extremes.
I didn't have enough money to go way to extremes.
I never did heroin.
I did my coke.
I did my acid.
I did my marijuana.
But I couldn't afford to do very much of any of it.
Thank God.
And like I said, I never touched heroin
because I've seen too many people go really bad on that shit.
I've seen them survive on coke
because it wasn't as bad.
But heroin is like, ugh.
And they all have gone.
And the AIDS, the AIDS, the heroin.
And there's the high style, the drinking, the dopey.
And everybody, I hit Willie DeVille die recently.
This one died recently.
That one died recently.
I'm like, holy shit, why am I still around?
I'm getting older.
I'm getting more aches and pains.
I can't move as much as I used to.
But I can't believe I'm still around.
I shouldn't be.
You know how you are a living legend of rock and roll
but very few people listen to your music.
How do you feel about it?
I don't know.
It's their bad luck, you know.
It's their problem.
It's not mine.
They'll listen someday.
Do you think that a real rock and roller should be a loser?
No.
The winner.
Why a loser?
I mean, what's the idea of a loser?
A drug addict?
No, not at all.
I mean, I don't think any of them are losers.
I think the trip is so hard
that you land up drinking and drugging and everything
just to try and stay alive in a sense.
You seem to be in very good health.
You take care of yourself?
Yeah, I started to eat, you know.
I learned how to eat.
I'm afraid, I'm afraid I'm afraid that the rest of us
just ends, LaHa, LaHa.
Oh, if you want to pursue,
do you want to leave?
Heh...
Say that you recommend me crying?
No, I'm just trying to start with LaHa.
We live differently from every country.
You understand what it means?
Right?
I mean, would you grow it?
OK!
