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Gel - Jim and Johnny Z's interview

This interview was done with these guys on one of their breaks.  They were also a lot of fun to interview.  Thank you Jonny and Jim!

Question:
"Birth date?"

Answer:
Jonny:  "It's on our bios."
Jim:  "Love 'em!  August 29th, 1971.  Virgo."
Jonny:  "February 26th, 1975."

Question:
"City you reside in?"

Answer:
Jonny:  "St. Louis Park."
Jim:  "I live in St. Paul now.  I'm a St. Paulie girl...Guy."
Jonny:  "He's got issues with his sexuality...You saw him on Halloween."

Question:
"Marital status, family?"

Answer:
Jim:  "I'm getting married next month.  Vegas."
Jonny:  "I'm single.  I'm swingin'."
Jim:  "You are swingin'."
Jim (whispers to the tape):  "He's a stud muffin."

Question:
"Pets?"

Answer:
Jim:  "I've got a pussy...cat..."
Jonny:  "I've got a cat.  It's not my own.  It's my roommates.  I don't personally own any cats."

Question:
"Favorite food?"

Answer:
Jim:  "Buffalo chicken sandwich.  They're good."
Me:  "Just please don't say chili dogs."  (laughing)
Jonny:  "I had chili dogs the other day...The real stuff."
Jim (laughing):  "Chili dogs...I'll probably never eat another one now."

Question:
"Favorite drink?"

Answer:
Jim:  "Beer.  I don't care what kind.  I drink beer."
Jonny:  "Captain Morgan.  I like drinks."
Jim:  "I drink lite beer, because if I don't watch my figure, who will?"  (laughs)
Jonny:  "Jagermeister's good too."
Jim:  "Jagermeister's one of my favorite's when we're playing."

Question:
"Favorite movie?"

Answer:
Jim:  "I just saw 'Behind Enemy Lines,' that's good.  With Gene Hackman."

Question:
"Favorite band?"

Answer:
Jim:  "I don't really have a favorite one."
Jonny:  "Yeah, I'm not a die hard fan of any one band like some people are."

Question:
"Day Job?"

Answer:
Jonny:  "Too many to list.  I work at a TV studio in Maple Grove.  I do work for channel six too.  You can put video producer.  I do some freelance stuff too."
Jim:  "I work at a law firm.  I'm a file humper.  I hump files around to people that need them."

Question:
"Hobbies?"

Answer:
Jim:  "Oh, I'm sure Eric and Brett said masturbation."
Jonny:  "I don't have time to do anything."
Jim:  "I don't really do a whole lot either.  Work and play."
Jonny:  "Going out with people and going out to bars."
Jim:  "In the last couple of weeks I've been going to Menard's a lot."
Jonny:  "I like to see bands and I rollerblade when I can.  I'm going to try snowboarding this winter and hopefully not break anything.  I do all kinds of crazy s*** on my computer.  I do our website."
Jim:  "I like messing around on my computer too, but not like that."
Jonny:  "I do web design too."

Question:
"Favorite thing about entertaining?"

Answer:
Jim:  "Getting the clap from people when they applaud.  Knowing that someone's having fun because of what you're doing."
Jonny:  "Yeah.  Providing entertainment.  Making the time more fun for people."
Jim:  "It's always a cool job when you can drink on the job too."

Question:
"Least favorite thing about entertaining?"

Answer:
Jim:  "Tearing down and setting up."
Jonny:  "No s***."
Jim:  "That sucks.  By the end of the night the cords are spaghetti.  They're mangled.  Untangling everything.  Usually we're half in the bag so then it's not half as bad.  It'd probably be worse if we were sober. 

Question:
"Most memorable moment on stage?"

Answer:
Jim:  "Licking Jonny's face yesterday.  What did we do?"
Jonny (singing):  "I can still remember just the way you taste."
Jim:  "Yeah.  Brett and I went on each side of him and licked the side of his face.  Very salty, by the way."
Jonny:  "Probably last weekend when I had to carry that girl off the stage because she f***in' wouldn't leave."
Jim:  "Ugh.  This lady was so drunk, she got up on stage and she was falling over Jonny's seventeen hundred dollar lights.  We were trying to get the attention of the security to come and get her.  Nobody was paying attention, so Jonny picks her up like he's carrying his bride over the threshold, and he just lifted her up and handed her to this guy that was standing out on the dance floor.  The lady was just trashed."

Question:
"Most memorable moment off stage, music related?"

Answer:
Jim:  "Jonny and Brett getting naked and running around.  Several times, of course."
Jonny:  "What at party's?"
Jim:  "I've seen you naked so many times..."
Jonny:  "That's not music related though."
Jonny:  "When I was in St. Thomas we sang Midnight Mass at the Vatican."
Jim:  "Cool.  See I can't top that.  I don't know if I've really had all that many musically related situations off stage."

Brett and Eric come running down and begin doing God-knows-what in the next room, so the interview stopped because of them being too loud.  They came out talking about KY jelly...

Question:
"Musical influences?"

Answer:
Jonny:  "Everything we play I listen to."
Brett (from the next room, flushing the toilet):  "PAT BENETAR!"
Jim:  "My first musical influence was probably the guy that I took lessons with."
Jonny:  "I'm a combo between like a big two or three or four.  Fred Durst, Aaron Lewis from Staind, and Coby Dick from Papa Roach."

Question:
"How long have you guys been performing?  Alone or with a group?"

Answer:
Jim:  "I've been playing for like 15 years."
Jonny:  "I've been playing since I was 15.  In my first band I played the bass."

Question:
"How long have you been with this group?"

Answer:
Jim:  "We started playing in February."
Jonny:  "Yeah, with this group in February."

Question:
"Where's your favorite place to perform?"

Answer:
Jonny:  "Jim told us to say Grandpa Al's.  I told him we had to do an interview, and he's like, 'Make sure to tell them that you're favorite place to play is Grandpa Al's."
Jim:  "Yeah, but he called us the number two band."
Brett (laughing):  "Make sure to put down that our second favorite place to play is Grandpa Al's."
Jonny:  "I was going to say The Main Event."
Jim:  "Yeah.  My best place to play would be the metrodome.  So we'll have to do that soon."
Jonny:  "Mine would be like in a big corn field."
Jim:  "That'd be sweet!  Like a big outdoor jam.  One of the best times I had playing was at the Hilltop.  Because I was almost knocking you" (Eric) "off the stage."
Eric:  "Yeah, that was fun."
Jim:  "It was a big semi trailer with like no suspension.  I think it was just the tires.  And like, we're jumpin' up on the stage."
Jonny:  "It was the leaf springs."
Jim:  "Yeah that's what it was.  The whole semi trailer was bouncin' up and down.  And you almost fell off one time, didn't you?"
Eric:  "Yeah!  I was like, no, stop it, no!"
Jim:  "Everyone was getting their groove on."
Jonny:  "We had someone almost knock over the PA.  The speakers."

Question:
"Is there any one thing that your fans don't know about you that you think they should?"

They couldn't think of an answer to this one and were called back up to go on stage at this point in the interview.
 

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Last updated on:  10/07/2002