Tom Interviews Bad Religion's Jay Bentley

It was about a hundred degrees at about 2 oclock in the afternoon when I sat down with Jay Bentley. Not a good time to deal with guys in the music business as most of them aren't even awake yet...Luckily Jay was. Here is the interview:

Tom: What have you been up to lately?
Jay Bentley: Huh?
What have you been up to lately?
Uh… sleeping. Just got off the Warped Tour…
Yeah, How was that?
Long, hot, dusty, greatest tour ever.
Yeah, we uh, we got a friend of ours that came with us, he had no clue. We came from Syracuse, NY. And we dragged him out here, he thought he was going to a Warped Tour show in like Massachusetts or something and we dragged him to L.A.
Its close, I mean all the people here are basically the same people, there's just a lot more of 'em.
Right.
I thought 800 people was a lot until I got out here. Uh, I'm talking about the people on the tour, not like the 60,000 out there, but… Man!
What's your take on the modern punk rock scene? What do you think? How do you think its going as compared to the past. You like, you like what it's become?
It's…it's much bigger, don't you think?
It's huge.
Ha ha ha.
But uh, I mean you…you figure Bigger isn't always better I think, though I mean…
Uh, no its not, it's just, it's uh… its not as dangerous anymore, for everybody. Its not dangerous to BE a punk, and its not as threatening to other people when you are a punk. Okay.
So…and uh, it's…it's lost a little bit of its edge. Uh…but at the same time, I keep finding bands popping up that are…trying. But I dunno. But ya know what? In the most, uhm…uhh, in the punkest way I can think of: I don't fuckin' care. I really don't. You know what I mean? I'm not, I'm not here to promote punk rock, or to…uhh…uhh… create some scene of robots? I really want everyone to think for themselves. That's what it was always about to me.
How do you feel about this thing where a lot of these bands, where everyone loves 'em, everyone loves 'em, but as soon as they get a get a little bit of notoriety, all of a sudden everyone says they sold out…
That's a typical response, and I did it to "X". When I was 13 years old and they were playing at The Whiskey and all of a sudden they're playing at The Greek and I went, 'Fuck Ass! Sellout Fuckers.' But they're the same band! I was just a kid and I… that's what you do. Cause you want to see X at The Whiskey with 20 people. I like seeing my favorite band when I can walk around and… enjoy it as a little secret that my friends don't know about, but that's not fair to them. Ha ha ha.
Yeah, we have...we have this little shit hole in Syracuse, The Lost Horizon...
Yeah, yeah I know it.
Yeah you know it…
Yes I do! Ha ha ha. And they got the pole in the middle of the stage…
They took that shit out finally. But, uh, that's actually what you're talking about. If you go there, you see some of the most killer bands on the planet. And you walk right up to the stage. There's not all this bullshit security. And there's…
Well that is what is great and I like that just as much as anybody else does, but its not really fair to… try to make the band stay there.
Right, I understand that.
Ya know what I mean?
Right.
We do cool stuff, like play at The Whiskey, play at The Haunt...Uhh, but… there's 3000 fuckin people there. So that's even…even that's not fun. Just so many people packed in this little club that you can't breathe, so it's like 'Well… that's… not… fun… either.' Right…
The whole thing kinda just goes 'Oh fuck it, whatever.'
What's the craziest thing that happened to ya on the Warped Tour this year?
Fell off a stage wearing a kilt, which was phat cuz I wasn't wearing anything underneath it, so…uh…everyone… I saw a lot of cameras flashing on that one so…while it's not the worst yet, I get the feeling somewhere on the internet its gonna start poppin' up, so my worst is yet to come.
How do you feel about playing on the stage where the Sex Pistols are supposedly playing their last show?
Really?
Lydon said it. That's what he said originally.
No, fuck that.
Then you think they're going to do more?
Uh, ya know what? I've heard so many people say, "Last show" and come back, I don't ever believe it anymore…
Yeah, but this is Lydon.
Not even G. G. Allen. How many times can he have a last show?
John kinda has a thing for not wanting to, like, make himself look stupid like, The Who bullshit, or whatever, ya know?
Look, he's been very, uhh, honest about the fact they are only doing it for the money. And I can appreciate that. It makes sense to me; they're not really out here doing new stuff. There just, "Whatever…fuck you. Here's Never Mind the Bullocks." All right, ya know, umm… Is it their last show? Great. Ha ha ha.
Well…this crowd is kinda weird. But uh, back in the day you had just your punk crowd and you had, like, the hippie crowd. Now we have these half-breed, amalgamated…these like, "hippie punks." I mean they're wearin' like, Grateful Dead shirts with uhh…with like, uhh, Black Flag tattoos. Ya know they're just like a twisted weird…
Well…look, in 1982, after we put out How Could Hell Be Any Worse, and I was working at Godzilla's, (which was the premier punk rock venue in Southern California), I grew my hair out because it was the punkest thing to do.
All right.
Everybody had short hair. Everybody looked the same. So I thought, 'What's the fuckin' punkest thing I can do?' I'm growing my hair out. And I'm gonna wear Van Halen t-shirts. Does that make sense?
Yeah, cuz that just pisses everybody off.
And that's all I ever wanted to do. Even the punks… I wasn't trying to make friends; I was trying to piss everybody off. So… it makes sense to me, that, ya know, if you want to uhh…stand apart from everybody who looks exactly the same while they are screaming that `I'm an individual.'
Right…
A hundred thousand strong…
Yeah, Kinda like that whole Hot Topic thing...
Yeah, they're selling our life for five dollars.
Yeah.
Right, ya know? I was just saying how I walked in to, I'd never been in one, I walk in to one on the Warped Tour and I said 'Well this is funny cuz, I was wearing that shirt when I got beat up in high school. I was wearing that shirt when the cops kicked my ass at the Starlite. I was wearing…' ya know, and I'm pointing out all these shirts what I was wearing when I just got the crap beat out of me, and now they are selling it in malls for 15 dollars and everybody is wearing them like its great, and I'm like 'okay.' That's okay, but that's a big change.
Yeah, its funny cuz I mean, even myself in high school, all the kids gave me shit about it, now all of a sudden I see these kids now, and they all got the same shit we used to wear.
Well the scary thing is, is I recognize this right away that, uh…the same kids in high school that were wearing, uh… like Nirvana shirts… were the same kids in my high school that were wearing the Rush shirts. And if you weren't like them, they would beat you up. Ya know what I mean?
Yeah…
Its like that rock and roll thing is gone - where it was, like, there was always the tough guy who drove a Camero, had the Rush 8-track and would just beat the crap out of you, and say 'You fuckin' dweebo", (sigh), and beat you up cuz you were new wave or a punk rocker. Yeah, but it all started to change, right? And those rock and roll jock guys all of a sudden started listening to The Offspring. Ya know what I mean?
Yeah.
So, these guys are like rolling around in their lowered pickup trucks at high school, listening to Offspring, beating up the kids who are listening to… fuck, I don't know. Anything that's not that! Ha ha.
So uh, any plans for, like, a fall tour for you guys?
No, we're going to go to Japan and Hawaii in October, and then, uh… back into the studio. Start working on a new record.
Excellent, excellent. Any idea when that will come out?
Fall sometime…Best-case scenario, I'd say… early fall. Worst-case scenario would probably be Christmas.
All right man, well I know what I want for Christmas then. I appreciate you taking the time and sitting down with us. Thanks a lot.
Yeah, cool.

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