Brief history lesson: (for those who don't know) King Khan (Blacksnake) & BBQ (Creepy/Mark Sultan), first blessed our ears in the sadly defunct Canadian garage teen hoodlum band the Spaceshits. Khan moved to Germany & got married, Mark stayed in Canada and continued in the ultimate frat rock party band Les Sexareenos. Les Sexareenos break up and Mark starts one man band BBQ, Khan starts King Khan & The Sensational Shrines and channels the spirit of (the then yet to be dead) James Brown. Mark tours Germany and plays shows with Khan....any way you can read the rest below. The King Khan & BBQ show have two amazing albums out and put on one of the best live shows I have ever seen. Interview by Mike Fungus, photos Jeff Fungus

Fungus Boy: First of all Khan I want to thank you for fucking my video camera. It will never be the same again…
KK: I didn’t fuck your video camera, I tea bagged your video camera…I didn’t break your video camera did I?


FB: No, no. I interviewed Mark for our website, I thought it was kind of weird because he mentioned Dickie Peterson and then I read an interview where you mentioned Dickie Peterson….
KK: He’s a very good friend of mine, of both of us actually.


FB: Did you ever record with Dickie Peterson?
KK: I’ll tell you a story right now, I love Blue Cheer, the first two albums like when I was a kid, when I first discovered Robitussin DM, the drug and not the cough syrup, man I never understood Blue Cheer but Mark would always try to lay that shit down on me on tour and stuff like, “Listen to this Blue Cheer, it’s great”. I’d be like “I don’t get it, I don’t get it.”, and when we moved to Vancouver together I drank a half a bottle of Robitussin and Mark was so fucked he couldn’t like….
BBQ: I couldn’t get out of the basement.
KK: And like we left ‘em for like an hour and when we came back he was like, (in faint voice) “Help. Help!”.
BBQ: I had trouble walking up the stairs, it seemed like I‘d be going down if I tried to go up…
KK: He couldn’t get up the stairs like…
BBQ: Picture this, look at this here is stairs, watch this is me (whistling and imitating with his fingers his problem with the stairs). I’d be going down the stairs…
KK: Mark is making finger puppets for those who can’t see, for the blind. So like I didn’t understand Blue Cheer and that night like we were so fucked up, with the Deadly Snakes too, they flew and came to see us for a like a little adventure of psychedelia I was so high and like we put on the fuckin’ Blue Cheer and like everything, all the stereo psychedelia made sense. Like left and right was right and left and like I was totally flipping out, I lost my wallet on a see saw and I thought I lost my ego and for like hours I was like (shouting) “I lost my ego, I don’t know”…


FB: It will please you to know that Dickie Peterson was on that very stage not more than four months ago.
BBQ: I saw him a couple of months back with Blue Cheer.
KK: Yeah we’re really close and like you know what’s crazy about Dickie, me and Danny from the Spaceshits, we used to joke about it like before we came on tour in Europe we were like, “We’re gonna find Blue Cheer, we’re gonna stay with them.” ‘Cause we heard a rumor that they were in France like living in some house so we were like, “We’re gonna find ‘em.”. And like ever since that Robitusson trip we were like always listening to Blue Cheer a lot and then like we were doing a lot of acid and then when we got to Germany after a show we woke up in the morning at this fuckin’ club and like we saw this little blonde kid walking around the street and we were joking at this club we were like, “Man that kid looks like Dickie Peterson” The janitor from the bar heard us, he was a British guy living in Germany, he was like, (in British accent) “Did you say Dickie Peterson?” (laughter) And I was like, “Yeah, from Blue Cheer you know”, and he was like (in British accent) “Do you know Blue Cheer?” and we’re like, “Fuck yeah, we love Blue Cheer. We’re lookin' for 'em.", he's like "Wait a minute", and then he goes in the fuckin' back room and he comes back with this phone number. And we're like, "What the fuck is this?", he's like, "He lives in this town, give him a call", and we're like, "Get the fuck outta here"......
BBQ: And the dude shows up, Dickie Peterson shows up and he's like, "Wanna smoke some hash?", and we're like, "Yeah whatever, fuck yeah!" The fuckin' joint goes around like four times, massive joint, and he's like, "Oh by the way I have Hepatitis J" or whatever.
KK: Yeah, but it's the kind that you can't get, but he was totally nice. Actually I've known him for seven years, since I've moved to Germany and like he's come to tons of our shows and he loves us. With my other band the Shrines he's was like, (imitates Dickie's gravel voice) "Khan, you know I got these songs I never recorded with Blue Cheer and I wanted to bust 'em on to you because you know the Shrines is all that. I want to come and give you that shit.". And like it was really funny because the first two years that I knew him he always told me about his girlfriend and I never used to believe him, he was always like, "Yeah I got this girl, her name's Mad Dog, you know she's 26. You know she's crazy, she's a school teacher you know, but I love her.", and like I'd never believe him. I used to call him all the time and just talk to him on the phone you know, and I'd be like, "Dickie man what's up...", and Mad Dog would answer the phone and be like, (screaming) "Mad Dog, yo, it's Blacksnake. What's up?", and she would be totally trippin' and she was German. And man when I saw Mad Dog, you know it was like after like maybe four years of knowing Dickie Peterson, and all the fuckin' images in my head, I thought of her you know as this like this fuckin' monstrous octopus woman, like biker fuckin' crazy girl, when I met her man I was like man she is so beautiful. She's 26 years old, he's like 50, he's like her Grampa or something like that. But she's so hot and so big, like she's 6' 2", massive jugs, so beautiful, I was like, "Oh, my God.". She looked like, seriously if you ever had a picture of a San Francisco beauty, you know, that's her man. Huge jugs, long blonde hair, and when she talks to you it's like wind is blowing in your hair. It is so cool how he hooked up with her, Blue Cheer went on tour and he just saw her at a bar and he just grabbed her and went, "You're mine", and she was like, (in high pitched tone) "What are talkin' about?". And he took her home and...
BBQ: What is she Nell from fuckin' Give Me A Break all of a sudden?
KK: So Dickie Peterson is fuckin' awesome and Blue Cheer's first two albums are like from Heaven.
BBQ: Untouchable.
KK: Untouchable pieces of music.

 

FB: Which one you guys crank called Dee Dee Ramone?
KK: That was I. I got his phone number and we were doing a--Mark had a label called Sultan Records and I was like, "Man I wanna do crank phone calls", and I called up funny people and I got Dickie's number because like man it's so easy to get phone numbers...
BBQ: Dee Dee's number.
KK: I'm sorry, Dee Dee's number. It's so easy to get numbers. No it's so easy to get numbers and I want to tell everyone out there, you know all you kids out there if you think that you can't talk to like who you want to talk to just call their label and pretend to be Guitar Wolf and go, (in Guitar Wolf style Japanese accent) "Hello, I need uh Dickie Peterson number, I need Jon Spencer number, I need number from uh....."
BBQ: Steven Spielberg.
KK: "Steven Spielberg", and they'll be like, (in female voice) "Oh, wait one second.", and then they'll hook you up with the president of the company. Because I called Matador for that shit and got everything I wanted.


FB: What was the funniest one though? You called Dee Dee, you called Gerald from Matador, and you had Greg Lowery (Rip Off Records) which was funny.
BBQ: We had other ones too but we had to cut them out.
KK: Yeah, we had to cut them out. I had Billy Miller (Norton Records) and like I told Billy Miller, (in old black man voice) "Hey my name's Joey and I'm the son of Poo Poo Man and I know that you put out some bootlegs of Chet Poison Ivy. You know he does that song Poo Poo Man, you know I'm the son of Poo Poo Man, I know you put his records out and I want that money motherfucker!!". Billy Miller was like totally freaking out, he was like, "Who is this, who is this??".


FB: Did you see the thing that came out when Screamin' Jay died? It said "Are you one of Screamin' Jay's kids?".
KK: Oh, I signed up for that motherfucking thing. On the internet you could sign up for it, and like I made up a story that he met my mother in 1976 in Montreal and like I'm an Indian and Screamin' Jay's my dad and all that shit. And like they sent me e-mails after that like saying, "Oh, come to the Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles and meet your family", and all that shit. I tired my best but I'm not his kid. (Read this for more)
BBQ: That Greg Lowery crank call we had to cut it short because it got all personal and weird.


FB: Is it hard to collaborate being that you (King Khan) are in Germany and you're (BBQ) in Canada?
KK: It's hard because we don't talk to each other. When we play shows like we make a conscious effort not to talk to each other and like in the tour van I have to stay in the trunk for the first week and then Mark stays in the trunk so it's like...
BBQ: And then I'm in the ashtray for two weeks.
KK: Yeah, and then I'm putting cigarettes out in on his face and I'm like laughing, I'm like, "Fuck you Mark!".
BBQ: But I take it in stride, we're pretty good about that.
KK: We're very business related because me and Mark used to have a software company called Blowme.com...
BBQ: Blow me soft.
KK: (laughing) Blowmesoft.com. And it was all about--we were selling this like toilet paper for homosexuals, it was like extra absorbent and that could like prevent from AIDS and from any--disinfectant toilet paper.


FB: How did it so happen that you and Mark ended up in bands that were very Doo Wop, 50's influenced type?
KK: Well you know what, honestly since I was a child my favorite radio station was always a oldies station, and like--to be honest when I was a kid I used to listen to listen to oldies all the time, my Mom too. And my Dad had like Beatles records and sitar records, and I like listened to a lot of music when I was a kid. Actually when I was in the womb my father used to put headphones on my Mom's belly and like so when I was incubating I would hear like sitar music and shit like that. So being born in Canada you know you get exposed to a lot of great R&B and that was my favorite shit when I was a kid. And then when me and Mark did the Spaceshits we wanted to like revive Rock & Roll and we didn't care about like being fucking mods or hippies or punks.
BBQ: You wanted to be a crod at one point.
KK: I wanted to be a crusty punk and Mark wouldn't let me get dreads because every time I got dreads he would eat them, I'd be like, "Fuck you motherfucker".
BBQ: We were starving on the streets man.
KK: And so what happened was that--ever since the Spaceshits we always loved three types of music, psychedelic music, doo wop, and fuckin' punk rock music and now we can do it all together and like slap people in the face with our fuckin' dicks and fuckin' shove shit up their ass.


FB: I noticed you picked up the duck walk from Chuck Berry.
KK: No, you don’t know how old I am? I’m like 75. When I was babysittin’ Chuck Berry I was like, “Hey Chuck look at this. I’m a duck”. (laughter)
BBQ: You know there’s a movie in Canada that goes around on bootleg called Johnny Be Bad, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it...


FB: No never.
BBQ: Don’t ever see it, a friend of ours actually puked watching it. You think he’s like a very respectable citizen so like he like films girls doing aerobics and then at one point there’s a close up of a girl’s anus going....
KK: It actually looks the Waddlin’ Around video. We captured the anus very well in the Waddlin’ Around video.

 

(This portion has been edited at the request of The King Khan & BBQ Show)

FB: ##### ### #-## ###### ### ## #### ###### ### ### #### ## ### #### ### ###### ## ####?

KK: You know what’s really funny about that is that it’s harder for BBQ to do that but like it’s easier for me, and you know why, I’ll tell you the secret. When we were in Atlanta BBQ ### ###### ## ## ### ## #### ######’ #### ############’ ####### ### ### ### #### ###### too many questions just because ## ### # ### #### ### #### ####’# #### #### ###########, ## was just like socks and underwear and dildos and whatever. And like it was after our tour in Brazil and like I went fuckin’ crazy in Brazil, I bought--‘cause I believe in this religion from Brazil it’s called Candomble, and like I did a lot of research there and I bought these fuckin’ bones and powders and crazy shit that you would never imagine, and I ### #### ### ## ## ######## ### #### # ### ## ### ###### ### # ### ## ### ####### ##### was a guy from the ###### ## ##### ####### in front of me to ##### ## #### and his name was #### ######## ## #######, you know, he had like ######’--#### ##### guy, super muscular, crazy with a #### ##### and I just looked at him and I’m like--and I had blonde hair and I had a fuckin’ black panther pin on my shirt that said “Free Bobby”, that Cole gave to me, from the Black Lips. And I just looked at him and I’m like “######## #######” and he’s like “##### ### ###### ”, he took one look at ## ### and he’s like, “Get out of here”.
BBQ: ******** * *** ******* ****** *********...
KK: ** **** *** ##### ###### ############, ## ### ## ##### ## ###’# ## ####### ##’# **** *****.
BBQ: ## ### ###########, # ### ###### ## #### ### ######.
KK: #### ############ ### ## ####### ## #####--## ### ## ####### ## ##### ## # ######## ########, #### #### ## #--### ###’# ##### ######## ## # ########, ### ### ############ ##### ##### ##### ####### ## ######’ ###’# ########, ### ### ### ## ### ####. ### #### ############, #### #### ##### ## #### ###### BBQ, “##, #### ## #### #-#### ########”, ### ### #### ####, you know. ## ####’# ## that ###, ####’# ####### ########, and here I am you know, waiting in the airport with Jared from the Black Lips and the fuckin’ guys call us on the phone. And like Jared started crying because he was so sad that like #### ### ### #### ## #######, ## ### ####, “Your friend is ### ##### ## #### ## #### #### #### ### #### again, blah, blah blah”. It was crazy, but we worked it out. #### ##### ## through the anus of America.
BBQ: ####, ##’# ## ######, #### ####.
KK: ### ########### ### ## ### #.#.#..


FB: Apparently there is a live CD that came out, I saw it on Ebay? (King Khan & BBQ Show --Live at Izola CD-R)
BBQ: Uh, oh, uh, oh, no.
KK: That was a show from Slovenia...

FB: It’s not an official release then? A bootleg?
KK: Yeah, but we bootlegged that ourselves too. It’s some friends of ours, we know who bootlegged that shit. But you know what is a real unofficial bootleg is like a Spaceshits live on the radio thing.


FB: I’ve got that.
KK: Yeah, that guy gave us five copies of that shit and sold so many. That’s why we said fuck that guy in the first record, like fuck Gualtiero Pagani or whatever his name is.


FB: It’s called Radioshits Rock & Roll.
KK: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That motherfucker didn’t ask us about anything. You know what our guitar player just like sent him a tape and was like, “Yeah, you can do this”, he made all these fuckin’ double headed deals that we never knew about and that’s why we kicked him out of the band. He’s a fucking piece of shit. Like we got--our first single we got 25 extra copies on our first tour in the U.S. with the Dirtys and like that motherfucker sold like behind our backs, just sold it to this guy for fifty bucks then told us like, “Oh I lost them, I don’t know where they are”. And then we met the motherfucker that he sold them to like a year after, after we had already kicked him (guitar player) out of the band, he was like, “Yeah you guitar player sold us all these singles for fifty bucks”, we were like, “Get the fuck outta here”. And you know what’s funny is that guy is making techno music and is a journalist for the L.A. Times now, so you know where the soul goes in that.


FB: You were on a DVD called the Wild Weekend, it was a festival that happened in Spain...
KK: Oh, that was one of the worst shows we’ve ever played because those motherfuckers are mod--you know what I love Spanish people. Like Spanish people are the most Rock & Roll people in Europe that I’ve ever seen, like they’ll do fuckin’ speed until like ten in the morning, until their noses are just like just fuckin’ flakin’.


FB: So you wouldn’t recommend getting the Wild Weekend DVD?
KK: Don’t buy that DVD because you know what, they told us we were gonna play three nights as like the last band and the first night they just fucked us over and they just wanted to have it on their flyer that said that we were gonna play three nights. And everyone was asking us three nights in a row when we were gonna play, and the first night they (promoter) were like, “Oh, you know what you’re only gonna play the first night and blah, blah”. That’s why in that DVD, if you do buy it, like I’m super pissed off at the guy and there’s a scene that you can see--it’s when he’s actually telling me like, “Oh, we only want to play the first night”, like after he raped my fuckin’ name & BBQ’s name. Because Spanish people fuckin’ love us, especially girls there, they go crazy for us. I’ve made so many girls cry in Spain just because of fuckin’ tarot cards.

Interview

continued on page two