Written by Søren McGuire
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30 September 2008
Posted in
Interviews -
Interviews | 2008
At one of the recent Jason & The Scorchers re-union shows sweeping across the British isles, we had a chat with Jason Ringenberg, leadsinger with the legendary Nashville country-punk outfit. Unfortunately the interview was cut somewhat short by the roaring sound of guitars being tuned and tested for the show, but for a good ten minutes, Jason Ringenberg told Americana about touring, hating his own voice and being called the Godfather of country punk. Short and to the point.
Interview by Soren McGuire
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How did this re-union tour come about?
We haven’t toured with The Scorchers for well over ten years. And the reason we got back together, well it wasn’t really a thought out process. A few people wanted to put on some shows with us and it sounded interesting. And you know how one thing leads to another and pretty soon we were doing a full tour. We did some shows in England, Scotland and Ireland and we liked how it felt. There’s a lot of young people coming to these shows. They seem to be as in to us as the old fans were. That’s great.
But you’re not touring the States?
No. I know some our fans were a bit pissed about us not doing any of these reunion shows in the States, but a few of them actually flew over to see us when we were in Europe. I think we need to tour back home at some point.
So does all this mean there’s a new album on the way?
We don’t have any new songs yet. We’d like to put out a new album, but that’s hard when you don’t really have any new songs to put on it. So we’ve just been playing a lot of classics. We have a lot of catalogue, a lot of records and a lot of songs we can play.
You recently put out the collection ‘Best Tracks And Sidetracks 1979-2007’. What went through your mind going through all those Scorchers songs and solo songs?
It was really difficult. You have to wade through all that material. I don’t like listening to myself to start with, so it wasn’t easy listening to my own songs while picking out the ones that should go on this album. But I had a couple of guys I really trust helping me sorting it out.
You have three daughters now. How does that fit in with your image as Nashvilles big hellraiser?
I need to be a bit more careful about what I say these days. We still rock as hard as ever, but when I’m playing with The Scorchers, I’m in this kind of alternative reality. It’s a role I play.
You’ve also been called the Godfather of country-punk. Something to put on your buisness-card then?
I think I’m somewhat overrated to be honest. I know myself too well to be freaked out about the tags. But we just found out that the Americana Music Association are going to give us their Lifetime Achievement Award, so that’s cool. I think we’ll just go and get the award, do our speech and look important. Like you’re supposed to do at those things.
‘Jason Ringenberg – Best Tracks And Sidetracks 1979-2007’ is out now on Jerkin' Crocus Records in the UK and Yep Roc in the US |
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