Yeah, in 1964, they took the place apart, apparently.
Yeah, that must've been wild. I heard the record, the bootleg record of one of the shows and it was real high quality, it was great.

You had a religious upbringing. Are you still religious?
Yeah, we went to church all our lives and I believed.

You still go to church?
Actually not as much because I'm always working with my projects and stuff. I do go once a week or every other week and go to the movies with my brother after church. My parents have already gone to church tonight on their own. But I've stayed home and I'm just working on my projects.

Are you a spiritual person?
Oh, yeah. I definitely am a spiritual person. I believe in spiritualism more than I'd like to. Whatever it means. But I love spooky movies, monster movies a lot. Universal movies. Monster movies and that. And I love monster movies and stuff like that a lot. Big time.

Like what titles?
I love the Universal monster movies a lot. I've watched them and almost have them memorised already. I'm still buying horror movies that are, like, related to that and I get just about get whatever I can find. And memorise it.

Are you still scared of Metallica?
Oh, ah, see I love Metallica. They did scare me to death. I always buy their albums you know, but I didn't buy S&M for a long time because I thought I don't want to get into that, you know. Scary title, you know. But I got the DVD and it was a great concert, it was excellent music. It was really great and I enjoyed the concert a lot. But their last album - when I got the album they were playing and everything and I like horror movies and everything. But horror movies like the Universal horror movies don't really scare me. It's just cool, you know. But that album was a nightmare you know (laughs). The music and the yelling and everything. It was scary. But I kind of like that. And I love Metallica because it's great art, you know. So what can I say? Metallica is one of my top rated bands that I like for sure. It's real art.

Luna's Dean Wareham told me you didn't sign with Elektra back in the mid-90s because you were scared of Metallica.
Exactly. That's exactly true. I had just got out of a mental hospital. Try to dig this. And they had me drugged to the max and my ex-manager was trying to sign me with Elektra and he was giving me Metallica tapes. And I was thinking, 'man, Metallica will kill me'. That's all I could think, I was out of my mind and really stupid to turn down a contract with Elektra 'cos here I am on small labels right now to this very day. I turn down Elektra. It was really stupid and it was because I was afraid of Metallica. And that's the truth, I was dumb. And even stupider than that, later, Steven Spielberg tried to get me to sign with him and I told whoever it was on the phone that I didn't want to be ET and that was the end of that. And that was another dumb stupid thing that I did and here I am stuck on the underground label that I'm on. And I could've been on Steven Spielberg's label and I was so stupid and they never called back either. But that was my chance and I ruined it. I might have a chance someday maybe a hundred years from now. But that's two chances I've ruined for no good reason.

You ended up on Atlantic Records and released 'Fun'.
Yeah, 'Fun' went pretty well. I was just out of mental hospital and I couldn't play but I had a lot of songs that were pretty good. Paul Leary from the Butthole Surfers was hired to produce me for Atlantic Records. So we had a number of songs but I couldn't play the songs very well because my hands were shaky so I showed him the chords and then he played them on guitar. And then when we had the songs, then he told me to make up songs and they were really kinda goofy attempts at trying to make up songs and there they were on a major label album - some really weird songs that I had just made up with big time production. Really big time production with these weird songs that I had just made up on the spot. But we had one real song that I had worked on a lot that was a minor hit 'Rock & Roll/Ega' and I was real proud of that. Paul Leary really put some great production on it. Great guitars and everything. Great drums. It really turned out great.

What did you make of the documentary - "The Devil & Daniel Johnston"?
Oh, yeah that was quite a thing there. Man, they really talked about every thing that had happened to me. Every tragedy. Every put down they could think about. I couldn't believe it. They didn't leave nothing out, you know. There was just nothing left. Nothing more to know about my life. They talk about everything. It was hilarious. I couldn't believe it. I wish they'd put a laugh track or something because everybody was just sitting there, you know. What next? What more to know? It just went on and on, you know. It is kind of funny though. I think it's funny enough for anybody that has a sense of humour. If there was a laugh track on there it would've helped out.

Was it hard for you to watch?
Yeah, it was. It seemed like it.

What have you been drawing lately?
Basically the same old things but I've changed a few of the ideas around. Re-drawing Jack Kirby (original Captain America illustrator) poses and stuff out of comic books and things. Trying to draw better, you know.

What characters are you drawing?
Let's see. There's my new character Ratzoid (laughs). He's a Nazi against the evil Jews. The evil Jew Party in World War 2. He's a kung fu expert in the Nazi Party. He is a real rat. Muscle bound. His girlfriend is a real rat too. I draw that a lot. It's a fantasy comic book, you know.

What kind of situations does Ratzoid get himself into?
Well, he always has, like, a press conference that always turns into a real big fight. That's what I always imagine. Like he's standing there doing a press conference and then he ends up killing everybody.

Is it based on anyone in particular?
Yeah, it's based on Adolph Hitler. Like Adolph Hitler became Ratzoid somehow in some kind of freaky experiment. The real Adolph Hitler instead of being dead somehow he survived and became Ratzoid (laughs).

Tell us about the tribute album - The Late, Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered - that's just come out. Do you like any of the tributes better than your own versions?
It's a lot more professional what they do. A lot of the versions of songs they do I just did those songs on piano or guitar, you know. To hear them done with a whole band and big time production sounds pretty good. I like 'Impossible Love' (by Gordon Gano). I like 'My Life Starting Over' by Jad Fair. I like several of them a lot. I like 'Dream Scream' too (by Death Cab for Cutie).

What artist would you like to hear have a crack at one of your songs?
I would love to hear Elvis Costello sing 'Man Obsessed'. That would've been so cool. I thought they were going to get some big names when they started doing it but I was a little bit ego-boosted to think that the big names would want to be doing it (laughs). But we got Tom Waits.

How have you been able to handle your fame?
Well, you know, it just ain't. It ain't real. I'm no millionaire. I've been at it enough to make a living from it. But it ain't real. It's enough to have some fans and sell enough records. It's enough to have a book on the shelf or a record on the shelf.

What did you think of 'Speeding Motorcycle' on a Target ad?
That was pretty cool. They paid us $40,000 for it. Not bad. I didn't sing it. It was Mary Lou Lord that sang the version on the ad. I met her one time. She was very kind.

Has there been any other offers for ads or films?
One time we got a song on Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 (laughs). I think we've had some other offers. I can't really recall what they were right now.

Have you ever scared yourself with something you've written?
Yes, yes. I've written some things that just shouldn't be. I've thought about them later and thought I'm going off the deep end. I think that can happen. I think there's a lot of things that people have written and then they feel they have to stand by it, you know. They've had it published and they probably do regret it. I'm very careful with what I publish. You can't just publish everything you say. You have to be careful what you say in the first place. The 1990 record had some scary songs on it.

What about the most beautiful song you've come up with?
'Running Water', maybe, was a good one. 'Running water, what are you running from? You always seem to be on the run'. It's kind of a humourous joke.

¡Tarantula!
the Sand Pebbles' fanzine
'another ghost transmission...'
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©2005 Christopher Hollow