The Tim “Napalm” Stegall Substack Interview: John Doe, Conclusion

The conclusion of our analysis-from-the-inside of X’s final studio LP, Smoke & Fiction, in advance of X playing their final Austin date tonight.

X 2024: (l-r) DJ Bonebreak, Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Billy Zoom. (Pic: Gilbert Trejo)

Tonight, X’s 2024 The End Is Near Tour plays the restored ‘40s Art Deco splendor of The Paramount Theatre here in Austin, where John Doe has lived without fanfare since 2017. X is a consistent live powerhouse, and I am sure they will remain so on what is possibly the last local date they will play. Doe confirmed in Part One of our interview that this is the last extensive tour the L.A. punk standard-bearers will ever do, alongside Smoke & Fiction being their final studio full-length. (Part Two here.)

I will have to miss the show. I have to work that night.

This upsets me. I have not missed a local X gig since I came home in 2012. (Yes, 12 years ago this month.) X has been a constant presence in my life since reading a Rolling Stone review of their debut LP Los Angeles, and then catching their first network TV appearance on a CBS SNL Xerox called No Holds Barred. The camera couldn’t take its eyes off Exene in her antique sweater, clutching a rubber skeleton, or spraddle-legged/perma-grinning Billy Zoom and his whiz-bang punkabilly riffing. The cameras missed that every member of X was – okay, is — important, not just the perceived frontperson and guitar hero. 

But it’s 2024, and work duties will prevent me seeing the last pass through town of a band near and dear to me. Good thing I got this, the latest of many interviews I’ve been lucky enough to conduct with Doe, concerning what’s 2024’s best LP, for my money – Smoke & Mirrors. This is the conclusion, diving into the last two tracks, and John’s estimation of their future plans. But first, why don’t we watch that 1980 TV appearance?

 

TIM:  “Face In The Moon.”

JOHN:  That was a song that went through, I don't know, four or five major rewrites. It was a whole different story about something else. The chorus was a piece of writing that Exene had, but I had some other music with too many chords. It didn't really work. So I found some different music and then started telling a different story, which was inspired by Black Randy and his attachment to poppers, and just that there were some really sleazy characters in Hollywood when we first got there. 

And again, I write most of the music on bass. All the music for this, all the songwriting is done bass and vocal. Exene will have different melodies that come to her, or the melodies will develop as the song's being rehearsed. And on that song, Billy just let it all hang out. He was very instinctive about it. And the bass is sort of bass and rhythm guitar at the same time.

TIM:  Okay, so you're saying that you play chords on this one? 

JOHN: I play chords on at least half of the songs. Not always, but I did on “Flipside,” I do on “Ruby Church.” It's not a big deal. It's something that I developed along the way to fill out the sound, and I still do it, like on “Your Phone's Off The Hook," “Nausea,” and “The Unheard Music.” 

TIM: The final one, we've got a phrase that's borrowed from a very popular lullaby, “Baby & All.”

JOHN: It was inspired when the whole Israel/Gaza tragedy started unfolding. At first I had the line, “We say we believe and watch rockets fall.” Exene said, “Well, that's a little too on the nose. What else could we use for that?” And we replaced it with “fireballs" so it was a little bit more universal. Again, the music was totally different. It was very slow and almost jazz, but it didn't seem to work. So I sped it up. But it's about people who are at a distance from a horrible nightmare. It's a reality they can feel good about themselves because they protested or something. But it is definitely talking about current times. I try to keep the politics to myself and I do whatever I can. I have to respect people's opinions even if I don't agree with them, and I try to do that. But you still have to say what you believe. And we can do that personally. 

TIM:  You know, it just occurred to me we are doing this interview the day before the 4th of July.

JOHN: [laughs] Oh, yes! “Hey, baby!”

TIM: One of your greatest songs, even though, yeah, that's Dave Alvin who wrote that. 

JOHN: Oh yeah. They're starting their tour, I think, the same day that we are. He and Jimmy Dale [Gilmore] and X, I think our first show was on the 6th of July. So isn't it ironic that neither one of us are playing on the 4th of July? I'm sure it will be on several people's playlists. God bless them. It's a great, very sad song. We were really fortunate that he allowed us to record that first. I still sing that song, now and then

TIM: You've talked about what Billy will probably do, but what do you think you're going to do after all of this?

JOHN: Don't know. Probably write songs for myself, or we'll see. We'll just have to see. 

TIM:  What do you think DJ [Bonebreak] will do? 

JOHN:  Everybody is focused on doing the best for this record and getting it out there, and playing hard and taking care of ourselves.

The End. Next Tim “Napalm” Stegall Substack Interview: James Baker (Victims, Hoodoo Gurus, Beasts Of Bourbon)

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