Jimmy Allen – Small Town Boy Big Time Rock

BackStage360’s Thorne Schreiber Talks to Legendary Songwriter Jimmy Allen on his show the Thorne Experience on CrimRadio.

THORNE: All right. In Skype with us tonight is Jimmy Allen, and we’re going to talk about his latest release, Setting the Head on Fire. Hi, Jimmy. I’d like to welcome you to the Thorne Experience.

JIMMY: Hey, man. What’s up, Thorne? How are you doing?

THORNE: Man, I am doing great. Dude, I want to thank you first for helping me launch my move over to the Thursday nights.

JIMMY: Killer. Thank you.

THORNE: Tuesdays were boring. I think Thursdays are the pre-weekend, so I’m pumped. I’m going to get some pre-weekend time and maybe rock some people ready for the weekend.

JIMMY: Awesome.

THORNE: I’m sure every one of the rockers in the audience is familiar with some of the great music you’ve made, songs like “Blurry,” ”Drift & Die,” “Drug I Need,” and my personal favorite, “Swept Away,” which we did just a few minutes ago. Tonight, I want to focus on you, actually, your project, Cooker, and this kick-ass album you just dropped, Setting The Head on Fire. I want to start out by asking a little about Jimmy Allen, the person, if that’s okay. Can we get into that just a little bit?

JIMMY: Yeah, fire away.

THORNE: Can you tell us about yourself? Where are you from? Are you married? Do you have kids? What’s going on with you?

JIMMY: I’m from Chanute, Kansas. It’s a Southeast Kansas town. Its a couple hours from Kansas City, so Kansas City was always the big city or whatever. It’s a small town where it’s a good working-class, little town in Southeast Kansas. It was a good time growing up in a small town, being around a lot of people that had similar interests than you. It was small-town values, I guess.

THORNE: The Heartland, as it’s referred to many times.

JIMMY: Yeah.

THORNE: I was in Kansas one time. I flew in and flew out, so I don’t really have an opinion about Kansas, but it looked okay from the air.

JIMMY: It’s flat. Yeah, it’s very flat.

THORNE: Yeah, it is. I saw on your feed that you’re passionate about animals and rescue charities. Can you talk about what you’re into there?

JIMMY: Yeah, the whole animal thing, I’ve always loved animals. I love all kinds of animals. I’ve swam with sharks; I’ve hung out with bears…

THORNE:
Hung out with bears, huh?

JIMMY: Yeah, I hung out with bears. I hung out with bears, yeah. I think they were being shot at, but…

THORNE: You guys in Kansas got some wild hobbies.

JIMMY: Yeah, exactly. That’s what’s cool nowadays with the animal thing, is that we can get the voice of the voiceless out there. Mistreatment of animals is the steppingstone for serial killers. If you’re doing that to an animal, then it isn’t too long before you’re going to be doing something bad to a person. Since the animals don’t have voices, I think it gives us a little bit more power to be a voice for the voiceless.

THORNE: Nice. You posted you were happy that the law has recently had been changed to make it a felony to hurt an animal. Is that right?

JIMMY: Yeah. Yeah, that’s one of the things that I think Trump really ushered that in. Love him or hate him or whatever, but I think that’s a good thing.

THORNE: Yeah. Right. Right.

THORNE: Hey, I have another personal question for you. Tell us which band or who you’re listening to right now at home or in your car.

JIMMY: I still listen to CDs. I still go through the whole record. Nothing More’s new album, the band, Nothing More, I really like what they’re doing.

THORNE: Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s great.

JIMMY: The new Tool record is cool. I like a lot of the Five Finger Death Punch stuff. I like a little bit of everything. If I’m going to go soft and stuff, I’ll go back to some of the unplugged stuff like Nirvana and Alice In Chains when they did those unplugged stuff. I really think that’s genius. I like to focus more on my own music. It’s really when I’m in the car do I turn the stuff on stun and really just blast the music, a CD that I love.

THORNE: You have a bitchin’ car, by the way.

JIMMY: Oh, thanks, man.

THORNE: I saw an interview where you referred to your songs as children. That’s one of my favorite ways that artists refer to songs. Can you tell the fans which of your children you enjoy playing the most?

JIMMY: Oh, God, I love them all. I love playing them all, but I would say the one that means the most to me is “Drift and Die” from Puddle of Mudd, because it was really one of the first songs I ever wrote when I was 19 or 20. “She Hates Me” was the second song. A lot of those songs mean a lot to me, because it’s kind of the nostalgia of my babies that I’ve brought up.

THORNE: Very cool. When I was looking at your career for this interview I saw a couple of big gaps. First there was a break after you left Puddle and formed Against All Will, and now about a six-year gap since Against All Will released your last single, 2013’s “Another Nail in the Coffin.” What’s been keeping you busy these last six years? What have you been up to?

JIMMY: Putting my studio together and working on songs. Within a two-year period, I lost my parents where I focused on just kind of spending time with them, and just kind of burnt out on the whole thing. I mean, the business is tough, and I was trying to stay focused and trying to do my thing, and I just got burned out. The breaks made my music a little bit better, I think. That’s just my personal opinion.

THORNE: Well, I like what you’re doing now, so something’s working!

JIMMY: Thanks, bro.

THORNE: I want to talk about social media. You left Puddle of Mudd around ’97, and Facebook really didn’t come out until around 2004, so you didn’t start your career in the age of social media. I mean, guys our age never do. My question is, as a musician, what are you doing now to interact with the fans on social media, and how has that changed since you started Against All Will?

JIMMY: It’s nice to be able to talk to people, and you can kind of weed out the crazies, I guess. It’s one of those things where you feel like you’re in touch with people a little bit more, and I think that’s a good thing. The social media thing is so, I don’t know how to put it, but I think it’s just kind of one of those things where everything’s forgettable within a week like some sort of amnesia is going on. When I grew up, you really idolized those records from those bands, be it 10 years old, 15 years old, or brand new. You were into the records, you were into the band, and now everything’s discarded quickly.

THORNE: Well, yeah. The world’s moving at such a fast pace. I guess music’s going to be a victim to that to a certain extent. Let’s do a few questions from the chatroom. Magdalena Friese asks, “Do you realize what a huge impact your songs still have on people nowadays over 25 years after you wrote them, and do you realize that your music has saved a lot of people’s lives?” I can’t wait to hear this answer!

JIMMY: Oh, that’s awesome! Yeah. Hi, Mags. How are you doing? I have a lot of people that come up to me and say some of the coolest things, and I get messages from some of the coolest people. It’s nice to be able to have people say that your songs have saved their lives or been there when their family passed. It really makes me smile to think that is something that I’ve done, artistically, that can do that. It’s a blessing from God to be able to do that. It’s one of those things where you wish you had more time for people some of the time just to sit there and talk to them a little bit more about it, but we live in a weird world.

THORNE: Nice, touching thought.

JIMMY: It’s great.

THORNE: She also asks, “What’s the difference between living in LA and living in Kansas City, and which city’s lifestyle do you prefer?”

JIMMY: Oh, God. Living in LA, okay, so it’s a drag. It’s expensive and it’s like people are so phony. I live in Kansas City, and people are really nice people. You do things in Kansas City that people would never even probably think about doing in LA. Not saying that my friends in LA are bad. Most of the people just seem like they’re just out for themselves and just trying to cut throat in this business.

THORNE: Well, how long did you live out on the coast?

JIMMY: Oh, I was out there 10 years, but I’d been out there for 15, but 10 years I lived there. And it’s really one of those places where the air is bad, the people aren’t great and it’s expensive.

THORNE: I tell you, brother, I grew up out here and the air is not nearly as bad as it used to be. At one time you were floating demos under the name Cut Out. Both projects were with Troy McCoy. Is Cooker a name-change or something new?

JIMMY: No, it’s kind of the same thing. When we were out in LA we were trying to do these showcases at the Whisky and the Roxy and stuff. We were just trying to do something. This was in the time when labels were still paying attention to live bands, rock bands basically, that were just coming out.

THORNE: Yeah, yeah.

JIMMY: It soon changed from that though, and that’s where it was like the name changes. And one time, I think we were calling ourselves 5.1. We were just trying to get some attention from labels, and so we were coming up with dumb names all the time.

THORNE: During my research, I ran across a discogs’ reference crediting drummer Steve Nichols on the album. I’m pretty sure it was Insanity, but Yvonne had mentioned to me that you guys use the drum machines, so I’d like to clear that up. Who or what drummed on the album?

JIMMY: Oh, no. It was definitely Nichols. It was all written on drum machines, but we went to tape with a lot of that. So, we don’t know if Steve’s dead or alive, because we haven’t heard from him, because you know how drummers are.

THORNE: Yeah.

JIMMY: Spinal Tap.

THORNE: I don’t want to talk shit. I might want to have a drummer on the show. I had [Dan] Johnson on the show with me a while back, so I want to be kind to drummers. Sloanelynn, my media girl, she’s a huge fan of the guys that pound the skin, so I’m going to pass on that question I think. I love this album, and as I wrote in my review on Backstage360 magazine, I get a definite grunge feel on some of the tracks. Tell us what you were going for when you made Setting the Head on Fire?

JIMMY: Kind of that throwback sound, going to analog tape instead of any computers. That ’90 sound, I still go back to that more than I go back to anything, when I listen to stuff. It’s kind of my vibe and feel. I think I really gravitate towards that kind of grungy stuff. You know what I mean?

THORNE: Mmhmm.

JIMMY: If that’s the word you want to call it. But I think really, I just gravitate towards trying to make something kind of cool. It’s like I think we grew up in a great time in the ’90s with the music scene, awesome bands. There was a lot more female artists back then too that were really good.

THORNE: Tell us about your plans around the Cooker project. Will you and Troy put a band together and go out and support the new album?

JIMMY: I really have no desire to go out and play live right now. I’m working with a lot of different writing projects, and I’ve been two years sober. I think playing shows was maybe one of my nervous twitches that led to my addiction, basically. Right now, I’m not real excited about it, Thorne, but yeah, I’ll play some shows, but it’s going to be something different and unique.

THORNE: Okay, cool. Jimmy, I just want to tell you, this album is really something. I can’t say enough. Could you please tell the rockers listening where they can buy this album right now and if collectors can grab a copy on vinyl?

JIMMY: No vinyl yet, but that’s a great idea, Thorne. No, it’s on Amazon, it’s on iTunes, it’s on Spotify, it’s on Pandora. It’s on all those, all the streaming things for sure. I have seen discs that are signed by Troy McCoy and me on eBay going for like $30 and $40 but I was like…

THORNE: Wow.

JIMMY: “What’s going on here?” Yeah. Cool, right?

THORNE: Well, who would do that? Who would get your signature and then turn around and sell it? I mean, that’s just kind of weak.

JIMMY: Probably my bass player.

THORNE: Oh?!

JIMMY: I’m kidding. It’s cool, he’s good.

THORNE: Well, man, I want to tell you, I am so pumped to have you on the show tonight. I really want to thank you a lot. Please come back sometime and let us know how things are going for you and Troy.

JIMMY:
Okay, cool. Thanks, man. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for all the fans supporting me.

Thorne: Very good. Okay. On Skype tonight, that was award-winning songwriter and uber guitarist, Jimmy Allen, from somewhere in Kansas.

Cooker – Setting the Head on Fire