Lemmy once said: “if you don’t like the Supersuckers, then you don’t rock’n’roll”. Obviously, you cannot get a bigger badge of honor than that and that’s something that will stay with the band forever. Of course “forever” is something relative for Eddie Spaghetti who faced cancer but literally escaped from the jaws of death. This wasn’t the only unfair fight he won since the Supersuckers were on the wrong place (Seattle) at the wrong time (‘90s) but managed not only to survive but thrived in the underground circles building their reputation. Eddie is exactly what you expect talking to him on the phone. He is cool relaxed, funny, sarcastic and honest giving you the impression that you are having a chat with an old friend. He promised that they will come to play in Greece… let’s see! Interview: Yiannis Dolas

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Rockpages.gr: It’s great to have a new album from the Supersuckers again. Where does the title, “Suck it” refer to?

Eddie Spaghetti: It’s something that’s been in the table for the band for a long long time. We should have called a record like that by now, and we finally got around to do it. Plus, everybody should just suck it.

Rockpages.gr: Another song title that surely stands out is “Breaking My Balls”… what did you have in mind when you were writing this song?Supersuckers02

Eddie Spaghetti: hehe! I just wanted from everybody to stop breaking them. I just wanted to point out that that’s what you are doing and you need to stop… hehehe!

Rockpages.gr: I think the best song on the album is “All Of The Time”… can you tell us a bit about it?

Eddie Spaghetti: Yeah, that’s what everybody is saying. Ahm, I had that riff for ever. Probably, one of the very first things I ever made up as a kid and it started out like a line on the bass line, and I just finally put it together. It would make a perfect Motorhead sort of vibe. When I had Marty (“Metal” Marty Chandler) playing the bass underneath it I thought “oh, man… that’s good!” It just came out of thin air. I mean the lyrics came out really quickly and yeah, I think it’s a really strong tune for sure.

Rockpages.gr: Another one that’s very nice is “Dead Inside”. Can you tell us a bit about that too?

Eddie Spaghetti: Yeah, I think that this song is a song that back when bands like us used to have hits that song would totally be a hit. Essentially, it’s like a pop song really, but it’s got like dark lyrics and it’s delivered in a tough Supersuckers fashion and I think that’s a gem for sure. Especially, to have a song come out of me that is that good after doing this band for 30 years. It’s almost unheard of for a band to have a song that great so late in the game.  

Rockpages.gr: Why do you say that?

Eddie Spaghetti: Well, I don’t know… you know most bands keep it out after one or two records. All their fire is shut. And I feel like that progressively we make better and better records. And I don’t know why that is, because I used this example as if we were carpenters for 30 years. We would be really good fucking good carpenters right? So, we should be good rock’n’rollers by now. And we actually are. But most bands are. Most bands just completely suck after this song. I don’t know why that is. It shouldn’t be like that, but that’s definitely more normal than being this good this late in the game.

Rockpages.gr: The album kicks off with… is it Will Ferrel from the anchorman?

Eddie Spaghetti: No, it’s some respective American broadcaster… what’s his name? Bill O’Reily. It’s an outtake from some broadcast he was trying to do.

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Rockpages.gr: Also, there is a cover on the album, “Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers”. How did you decide to choose this song to cover?

Eddie Spaghetti: Ah, well we have been playing this song live for a few months before we got into the studio and it was fresh and exciting for us still and we wanted to get our friend Jessie Dayton on the record and it was a perfect chance for him to come in and do some singing and play some slide guitar. And he nailed it!

Rockpages.gr: I remember that Lemmy said once “if you don’t like the Supersuckers, then you don’t like rock’n’roll”. I guess this is a very big badge of honor for the band…

Eddie Spaghetti: For sure! You don’t get a better testimony than that! It’s coming straight from the rock’n’roll mountain.

Rockpages.gr: But, is it also something that might create some expectations and you guys have to satisfy those expectations every time you play live.

Eddie Spaghetti: Yeah, and that’s good to be held up to high regard like that. It’s always a challenge and it should be a challenge. You should always get up there and do your best work every night. That’s what Motorhead did and we did as well.

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Rockpages.gr: How would you say that your country profile came up? Because you also have a country phase…

Eddie Spaghetti: Yes we do! That’s something that I think in the end had to come out. And when we put out our first country record in ’97, I think it was, it was not that well… there was a lot of disdain from our fans. Everybody thought that we were kind of taking the piss out of the record. But, you know over time I think it has become our most popular record. And I am really proud of it and I think it helped to take the expiration date out of the band.

Rockpages.gr: You are one of the bands that started in the ‘90s, that are considered to be the toughest period for our favorite music. How would you say that you survived that decade?

Eddie Spaghetti: Which decade? Oh, the ‘90s! Hahaha! Yeah, well we definitely fell into our share of excess if what not in the ‘90s. I think that the fact that we never really had big success sort of kept us humble and kept us hungry and kept the quality of work up. And, you know, we never really fell into any sort of traps of the ‘90s culture. We didn’t have a hit, we are not one of those one-hit wonder bands like 311… those shitty punk bands. We weren’t really grunge, so we didn’t fit in there. When we put out the country record, then all of the sudden everybody started being alt-country and we instantly turned around and released “The Evil Powers of Rock’n’Roll” so we kind of avoided the spotlights of our financial detriment… to our credibilities. I guess it’s a win part credibility.

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Rockpages.gr: How come would you say that a small place like Seattle produced so many bands and some of them very good and very important?

Eddie Spaghetti: Yes, some of them were very good! We moved there in ’89 thinking we’d be the best band they’d ever seen… ‘cause we didn’t know anyone from Seattle. When we got there we were kind of amazed to see that were all those great bands and amazed to see that a lot of them haven’t even heard of still. But, there were really great bands and they were all really supportive. Encouraging each other instead of being jealous and backstabbing and vindicatory to each other. It was a really cool place to come to and we moved  from Arizona to Seattle, I likened it to be like Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz”. you know when she gets swept up by the tornado and Kansas and everything is all black and white. And then she lands at Oz and she opened the door in bright Technicolor. That’s kind of how it was for us when we moved to Seattle. Supersuckers06

Rockpages.gr: Did you have a plan B if you didn’t succeed in Seattle?

Eddie Spaghetti: No! I never had a plan B. I sort of wish sometime I did. When that debit card starts getting low the bank account is not that full… I start wishing I had a plan B. But, I don’t!

Rockpages.gr: Can you also tell us a bit about Sub-Pop Records? And Bruce Pavitt who run the label?

Eddie Spaghetti: Bruce Pavitt was a great great friend and a great supporter of the band. Basically, I think we owe Sub Pop our career you know… The credibility that we’ve got for being on Sub Pop and especially the support from Bruce Pavitt . I will never forget the time when Kurt Cobain killed himself we were in Spain and Bruce Pavitt flew out to Spain and paid for us to have the night off, we were in Barcelona, and we were at this Park Guell I think it is. Where all of Gaudi stuff is… it was such a meaningful moment for us to have him come and want to spend that crazy awful time with us. Because, he knew he could get away from it with the Supersuckers. I appreciated that from him.

Rockpages.gr: Which one would you say that is you most underrated album?

Eddie Spaghetti: Underrated? Oh boy! Probably, “Moterhfuckers Be Trippin’” maybe? That one came out after “The Evil Powers Of Rock’n’Roll”, although “The Evil Powers Of Rock’n’Roll” is pretty underrated here in the States. It did well for us in Europe, but it never really got any notice here in the States. So, I would say probably around that time, late ‘90s, early ‘00s was a pretty tough time for us.

Rockpages.gr: In my opinion “Motherfuckers To Be Trippin’” is your best album. What do you think?

Eddie Spaghetti: Ahh, I don’t know, it’s hard for me to say. Our new record is one of our best records and I am definitely proud of all the songs on “Motherfuckers To Be Trippin’”, the song writing is really really strong and the same with “Evil Powers…” I feel that the only not 100% album that we put out is “Get It Together”, it came out in 2008 maybe? I can’t remember! But it was a really weird time for the band. A weird lineup, a lot of internal issues. I still think that the song writing was strong, but the spirit of the record is lost.  

Rockpages.gr: During all those 30 years in your career with the band I am sure you had some rough times and recently you had an adventure with your health, but you managed to beat cancer. So, would you say that these hardships made you stronger? Made you think things in a different way? Change your approach to life, or even music?

Eddie Spaghetti: Oh, absolutely there is no doubt about it. I appreciate stuff a bit more and as bitter as I am that the Supersuckers aren’t as popular as the Foo Fighters, or Pearl Jam, or any of these bands that I feel they are inferior to us. I still appreciate what we have. And I love what I get to do.

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Rockpages.gr: Do you think that there will be a time when the Supersuckers will really become “The biggest rock’n’roll band in the world”?

Eddie Spaghetti: Man I Hope so! Hahaha! I hope that one day everyone wakes up and realizes that the Supersuckers are really good all this time. And they are still pretty good, and maybe they are better than they ever were. What a miracle that is? And why don’t go and see them? Why don’t we put them in a bigger venue? Get them some more digits in their bank account.

Rockpages.gr: What would you say were your influences and your role models in music?

Eddie Spaghetti: Ahh, well I look up to that I consider to be the holy trinity of rock’n’roll… that would be Motorhead, AC/DC and the Ramones. Those are the three bands who I think that they portray best what it is to be a rock’n’roll band. Because, all of their records sound kind of the same and they are not trying to re-invent the wheel every time, they are not trying to mature or grow in anyway. Other than we’ve done the country stuff, that’s the way we operate as well. Each record sounds like another Supersuckers record, but all those Ramones records are great, all those Motorhead records are great, all those AC/DC records? Great! You know what I mean? They were models of consistency, which I really appreciate.

Rockpages.gr: What do you think about Axl Rose joining AC/DC? What did you think of that?

Eddie Spaghetti: I think you would make a better AC/DC singer than Axl Rose! Hahahah! I think anybody within an eyeshot of me right now would a better singer for AC/DC than Axl Rose. Although I think he did a fine job. It’s just taints the legacy so much to have that douchebag up there with them!

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Rockpages.gr: What would you say that was your biggest mistake so far?

Eddie Spaghetti: Oh man! There’s been so many! I mean we make more mistakes by noon than most bands make their entire career. But, probably leaving Sub Pop… But, at the time we were signed by this major label, Interscope   Records , which was like the big deal. To get on that label was a big stinking deal for any band back then it just ended up not working out for us. We were dropped before the record even came out. So, that wound up to become a source of great great disappointment and it took a while to get over that. But, out of that experience “The Evil Powers of Rock’n’Roll” was born, which a lot of people consider to be one of our best. Once again, out of tragedy comes triumph.

Rockpages.gr: If you could go back in time, in a time machine of course, and find yourself on a crucial moment of your life, what advice would you give to yourself?

Eddie Spaghetti: Hahaha! I would say “think about what you doing dude” before you just leap into it. But, that goes for anything. You have to really consider what you are doing at all times and make sure that you do something that is good for you and don’t worry about what anybody else is telling you. Just do it. Do it for you!

Rockpages.gr: How come after all those years you have never played in Greece?

Eddie Spaghetti: You know… I don’t know. I thought we were trying to get there on our upcoming tour. And it seems crazy dude! There is a rock audience there and I am sure that people wants to see the band. Why we haven’t put that together yet? I am sure we will make it there soon!

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