Love and Rockets
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volved with music , too , right ? KEVIN HASKINS : That ’ s true . Both of my daughters are . But Lolo is the one in the band Automatic , and my other daughter Diva has a band called Diva and the Pearly Gates , and they ’ re both really cool . But during COVID , everybody I knew was baking bread or relaxing and daydrinking cocktails . But I wasn ’ t doing any of that – I was just doing demolition on my house . I was in the middle of renovating my house , and it was my job to cart all the rubbish away and get a drill and rip up Spanish tiles from the floor and all that sort of stuff . So that was half of Covid , and then things had opened up by the time I ’ d finished all that , so mine wasn ’ t very enjoyable , really .
DA : It seems like a long , long time ago , that whole thing because time tended to drag for most people .
KH : And there was a joke going around early on , where it was like being on tour because you lost all sense of what day of the week it was . And I kind of liked that .
IE : What did David stay busy with ? DA : We don ’ t know , really , because we weren ’ t in contact with him then – we weren ’ t actually working as a band at that time . COVID hit , and I weird , very weird . But there were other parts of it where my legs , my knees in particular , were absolutely killing me , with severe aching pain . And I don ’ t really take any pills for anything . But all I had to do was take two aspirin , and because I never take aspirin , they worked . So every five or six hours for about three days , I just took aspirin , and they totally knocked the pain out . And the other thing was , I don ’ t usually get headaches , but I had really bad headaches . And one symptom would kick in , like severe headaches , then that would go away , and severe cold symptoms would kick in , like hot and cold sweats , and I came out in a beautiful rash all over my back of these lumps . So I ’ ll just say this – it was like an illness from another planet , like something that I caught from aliens . It was like nothing else I ’ ve ever experienced , it was so strange . And there were a couple of times , to be quite honest , where I thought , “ I hope Kevin remembers the song I want played at my funeral ,” because I didn ’ t think I was gonna get through . There were a couple of days where it was really severe , and I was like , “ I feel like I ’ m dying .”
IE : But here ’ s the spooky , ironic thing – all of your key songs almost form a perfect post- COVID soundtrack . “ Haunted When the Minutes Drag ,” “ Yin and Yang ,” “ The Light ,” and “ It Could Be Sunshine .” And certainly the escapist “ Kundalini Express ” and your cover of “ Ball of Confusion ,” because that ’ s exactly what the world is today . It ’ s like the times finally caught up to you . DA : And it ’ s funny you should say that , because a lot of those Love and Rockets tracks that we do , they ’ re timeless , as far as the lyrics go , and particularly “ Ball of Confusion ,” which could be at any time . And unfortunately , that ’ s the human condition . I mean , look at the fucking mess that we ’ re in right now in the world . And this thing with Russia and Ukraine ? It ’ s a real concern . And I try to put it in the back of my mind , but it still gets me mad . And what gets me is , why do we still make tanks ? And why are we still making nukes in 2023 ? Why are we so juvenile as a race for those things to still exist ? How many people have died in this war now ? 200,000 ? I can ’ t get my head around it , I can ’ t comprehend why humans are still doing this now . It ’ s so bad , and I can ’ t comprehend how we can do this to each other . Don ’ t even get me started .
22 illinoisentertainer . com may 2023
Daniel Ash photo by Jolene Siana
was sending a little bit of music , sending guitar or vocal tracks to the Ashes and Diamonds guys , but it ’ s all a bit hazy now . I was really ill for 15 days , and I could barely get up to go to the bathroom and back , and my girlfriend was telling me I was sleeping for 16 hours a day , I had a temperature of 103 , and I was completely delirious . And that was Covid . And you were completely out of it , immensely – I couldn ’ t stay awake for more than ten minutes at a time .
KH : But that sounds like your normal state !
DA : Well , it used to be . But these days , I can hardly get any sleep at all . These days , it ’ s the opposite – I ’ m lucky to get three or four hours of sleep . But it just happens when you get older . It ’ s
IE : Early in the pandemic , when we were all wondering if we would survive it , I started going all the swag I ’ d pack-ratted away and found a carefully-preserved promotional Love and Rockets embroidered patch , which accompanied the ultra-rare main item the record company made at the time – an actual Love and Rockets official leather bomber jacket . And I mailed it to a booking-agent friend of mine here in town , Tracey , who loves you guys so much , in all your configurations , that she ’ s flown around the world to see you , over and over again . That was a whole other era of promotional gear . DA : Yeah . We had about 75 leather jackets made , and they were sent out to all the ( radio ) DJs .
KH : In the States – I remember that whole thing quite well . And that patch was originally on the sleeve of all the leather jackets , the one with the rocket , heart , and wings .
IE : Tracey also reminded me of a show you once played at Berkeley ’ s Greek Theatre with Britain ’ s The Godfathers , whose signature anthem summed up life perfectly – “ Birth School Work Death .”